Car horns, footsteps, people’s conversations filtering in through the curtains of my semi-basement window.
As always, at this hour—noon, with the sun high in the sky—I wake from sleep.
Then I look at my phone and toss and turn in bed, over and over.
[Kwon Do-hyung, Who Sparked the Luna Collapse… U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to Summon Him for Investigation]
[The Fatal Flaws of Terra and Luna… Did Kwon Do-hyung Know and Cover Them Up?]
[Hacker Group Anonymous: “We Will Bring Terra’s Kwon Do-hyung to Judgment” - Pokul Daily]
A deep sigh escaped me as I read the articles.
Ever since I was little, I’d lacked so much that college was out of the question; the moment I became an adult, I jumped straight into society.
My twenties, in which I never got to enjoy youth, romance, or anything of the sort.
It was one hundred million won I had painstakingly saved by working while others were out having fun.
Then, suddenly looking back, I regretted all that time I hadn’t enjoyed at all.
I couldn’t keep living while doing nothing but work.
So I decided to invest the hundred million won I’d saved.
Part of it was that I got swept up in the coin and stock craze that was in full swing.
I learned about crypto from an older guy I knew through work, and after that, I went all-in on Luna Coin. A common speculator in this day and age—that was me.
“Fucking bastard.”
I muttered a curse along with a sigh.
Was I cursing Kwon Do-hyung, who created Luna Coin, or myself, who’d blown my money like an idiot? Probably both.
After tossing and turning in bed for a long while, hunger finally hit me, so I threw on whatever clothes I could find and headed for the nearby convenience store.
The sunlight was blinding.
The clear weather, with the sun blazing overhead, felt like it belonged to a completely different world from the one I was in, sunk deep in depression.
“Ah, I could really use an isekai right about now.”
Even as I said it, I found it ridiculous.
A tear pricked at my eye along with a hollow laugh.
It must have been because the sun was so bright.
The people walking along the street seemed to fit in with the sunlight.
It felt as if they and I were from different worlds.
A couple in love, office workers living busily, college students heading to an afternoon class, a little child walking hand in hand with his mother.
Their futures looked full of possibilities.
When I opened the convenience store door and stepped inside, the bell rang, and the part-timer greeted me as if it were a chore.
“Welcome.”
I grabbed some ramen and soju and headed out.
For some reason, the sun felt especially sweltering today.
‘Why the hell is it so damn clear today of all days?’
On my way back home, I saw an old woman pulling a handcart piled high with wastepaper.
In the scorching heat, the grandmother dragging the cart looked especially exhausted.
I felt a sense of kinship with the old woman.
I walked over to the cart, pushed it from behind, and said to her,
“Grandma, I’ll help you.”
“Oh my, thank you, young man.”
“How far are you going?”
“You don’t have to do that… But if you insist, could you help me just up that hill over there, young man?”
The old woman and I climbed the hill, sweating buckets in the heat.
“Thank you kindly, young man.”
“It’s nothing. Be careful not to get heatstroke.”
“Thank you.”
As I headed back home, I decided to try thinking positively.
‘Still, I’m in better shape than that old woman. Sure, I wasted my twenties, but I’ll have a drink today and start over tomorrow.’
As I repeated it to myself, as if brainwashing myself, vitality suddenly coursed through my body, and a strange sense of anticipation welled up in me.
‘Tomorrow, I’ll be better than I am today.’
‘I can do this!’
And so on. Before I knew it, I was at the crosswalk in front of my house.
And the moment I stepped onto the crosswalk, a truck ran me over.
‘Ah, fuck my life.’
They say life never goes the way you want it to, but dying the moment I made up my mind?
My vision grew hazy, then went dark.
‘I don’t want to die.’
‘I wanted to live magnificently.’
‘I wanted to become someone’s idol, too...’
.
.
.
.
‘Maybe I should’ve at least auditioned to be an idol trainee when I was thirteen.’
.
.
.
.
‘When I was fifteen, during music class, I should’ve sung a different song...’
.
.
.
‘Ah, shit, why did I do that talent show back then?’
.
.
.
‘When I was eighteen, I should’ve just confessed and asked her out...’
.
.
.
‘...What is this...? Why am I not dead?’
“Wait a sec...!”
I opened my eyes and shouted.
But what came out of my mouth was a baby’s cry.
“Waaah...?”
When I opened my eyes, what I saw in front of me was a woman and a man.
The woman’s face was a mess, smeared with sweat and tears, but even in her haggard state, she was beautiful.
“Honey, you really, really worked so hard...!”
The man—a man who looked like some pretty-boy kept lover—said.
“Our princess is so cute... Really... Dohee, it’s Mommy.”
‘Huh...? Princess?’