Episode 6
Chapter 2: Transition
Yeonghun looked at the dimensional connector in his hand.
After staring at it for a moment, he put it on his head.
He’d rather see his other self in another dimension one last time than die in agony like this.
Yeonghun flipped the switch with trembling hands.
***
Yeonghun frowned at the strange sense of space he felt once again.
The situation was already bad enough; now he felt uneasy too.
Yeonghun had been having a pleasant day off with no overtime, wearing workout clothes on his way to the convenience store near his house.
He’d planned to grab some food and draw for the first time in a while.
But his joy vanished the moment he saw the playground in front of the convenience store.
Some neighborhood delinquents had gathered at the playground and were quarreling with a woman.
The woman, who looked like a college student, was trying to grab the arm of a woman with dyed blonde hair who stood among the delinquents and pull her away, but the woman whose arm was grabbed was resisting.
“Huiyeong, let’s go home. You’ll only get hurt hanging around this trash. I’ll talk to Mom for you.”
The woman shouting at the other blonde woman was someone Yeonghun knew. It was Huisu, the boss’s daughter.
“No! I’m not going back to that suffocating place!”
And the woman refusing to go seemed to be the boss’s second daughter.
He hadn’t recognized her since he’d never seen her at the company, but now that he looked, the two sisters resembled each other.
Yeonghun was at a loss. He couldn’t get involved in a fight with delinquents, nor could he simply ignore it.
In the end, while Yeonghun was hesitating, the situation escalated.
Slap!
Before he knew it, another woman who had approached Huisu’s side had struck Huisu’s cheek.
“Who does this bitch think she is, calling decent people trash.”
Surprised, Huisu raised her hand to her cheek, and other delinquents approached her.
Seeing the delinquents approaching her, Huisu’s eyes went wide.
Only then, gripped by fear, did Huisu look around. She seemed to be thinking of calling for help.
But this was a fairly isolated alley.
It was a place with so few passersby that one couldn’t understand why a convenience store would do business here.
When Huisu couldn’t find anyone to help and her expression worsened, she spotted Yeonghun in front of the convenience store.
A relieved expression appeared on Huisu’s face, reflected in Yeonghun’s eyes.
Yeonghun, shaking off the unpleasant feeling, let out a sigh. There was no other way now.
As he walked toward the delinquents, Yeonghun decided to buy a lottery ticket on the way home. It felt like he was using up a month’s worth of bad luck in this moment.
And from there, things went in the worst possible direction.
Yeonghun had tried to stop the delinquents but ended up being perceived as on Huisu’s side, and the conflict escalated.
It was because she had said he was an employee at her father’s company that things had ignited.
Standing over 180 centimeters tall and weighing nearly 100 kilograms, his presence next to her had been flabby, but it seemed to carry an air of intimidation.
Thanks to that, he ended up looking like a bodyguard escorting the company president’s daughter, which had pissed off the delinquents.
At the sight of the growling delinquents, Yeonghun desperately tried to persuade them, but Huisu added another word and ruined everything.
“I remembered all your faces. I’m going to sue all of you. Prepare to eat bean rice!”
Perhaps relieved by Yeonghun’s appearance after being so frightened, Huisu had poured out her anger without thinking.
At her words, the delinquents’ faces turned red, and Yeonghun’s face turned pale.
Huisu seemed to realize her mistake too, covering her mouth with both hands and opening her eyes wide.
“Looks like we can’t just let you go now.”
A bulky man who seemed to be the leader among the delinquents rose to his feet.
He was a young man with a height in the late 180-centimeter range and a build well over 100 kilograms, but unlike Yeonghun, his outward appearance was packed with muscle.
He had been watching from the back, but it seemed Huisu’s words had forced him to step forward.
As he came forward, the other delinquents also moved toward Yeonghun.
Huisu, who had spoken up, was terrified by the changed demeanor of the delinquents and grabbed Yeonghun’s clothes, trembling, and Yeonghun gave up entirely.
And just as Yeonghun raised both hands in surrender, the first fist flew.
“Keuk!”
When the first fist buried itself in his stomach, Yeonghun immediately lost his breath.
Yeonghun curled up at once, and punches and kicks rained down on top of him. They seemed determined to leave lasting injuries on his body so he couldn’t report them. Yeonghun curled up as much as possible.
He simply hoped this violence would pass quickly.
But at some point, the rain of fists suddenly stopped.
Even through the pain, Yeonghun was bewildered. He slowly raised his head.
In front of him, he saw the leader of the delinquents from earlier. He had stopped the delinquents for a moment.
“So he was all show? What a waste of time.”
He looked at Yeonghun with a deflated expression.
“We’re going to be seeing each other around, so we shouldn’t make things awkward, right?”
He patted Yeonghun’s shoulder. He seemed to recognize Yeonghun from seeing him around the alley.
“Talk some sense into that woman. You probably shouldn’t do anything like reporting this to the police.”
Yeonghun nodded immediately. Unless he was leaving this neighborhood, that was the smart thing to do.
Yeonghun breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, thinking it seemed to be over now.
“Well, since I stepped in like this, I should at least say hello, shouldn’t I?”
Saying that, the bulky man swung his fist at the bewildered Yeonghun.
He struck Yeonghun like he was hitting a punching machine, and Yeonghun was sent flying backward.
“Whoa~”
As he flew backward, Yeonghun heard the delinquents’ exclamations. And he felt pathetic at having become a punching bag.
Just before he hit the ground, he thought it might be good to enroll in a martial arts gym.
Bang!
Sparks flew in Yeonghun’s head.
Startled screams came from all around. Feeling a sudden great impact, Yeonghun lost consciousness.
***
Yeonghun slowly lifted his eyelids. He had no strength in his entire body. He could barely feel any pain now.
Fortunately, he couldn’t tell if the morphine was still working or if he had become a body incapable of even feeling pain.
Yeonghun let out a bitter smile inwardly.
The Yeonghun of that world had been in a situation not much different from his own. If he had been sent flying, the Yeonghun of that world couldn’t have been fine either.
He had probably suffered extreme mental shock.
He could see a moving object through his blurry vision.
Yeonghun blinked. A young soldier in military uniform appeared before his eyes.
But seeing that the soldier’s eyes were covered by a gray film, he seemed to be a contaminated human.
Yeonghun was grateful to the young soldier before him, thinking it seemed he would end quickly after all. He had really hated the idea of dying alone, bleeding out.
The soldier who had been observing Yeonghun for a moment pointed the gun he was holding at Yeonghun’s head when Yeonghun opened his eyes.
Yeonghun looked at the approaching muzzle and recalled Seonhui’s last appearance.
Imagining her moving her lips with a doll-like expressionless face, he apologized to her.
‘Sorry. I think I’ll be very late.’
Bang!
The fired bullet destroyed both the dimensional connector, which had been flickering with a red light, and Yeonghun’s head.
The light went out in the broken dimensional connector, and blood flowed from Yeonghun’s pierced head.
The soldier who had been looking at Yeonghun’s corpse for a moment turned and moved away from the body.
***
“Kyaaack!”
Huisu screamed at the sight of Yeonghun hitting his head on an iron bar.
Yeonghun had been struck by a fist and sent flying, crashing hard into an iron bar behind him.
The sound of the impact was so loud that even the bulky man who had hit him and the other delinquents flinched.
Yeonghun lost consciousness on the spot, and the delinquents looked at each other. It seemed something had gone wrong.
“Kyaaack! He’s bleeding!”
Huisu’s scream was heard again.
The delinquents turned their heads to look at Huisu and saw her screaming as she looked at the fallen Yeonghun.
Blood was flowing from Yeonghun’s head.
Everyone approached Yeonghun slowly, worried that he might have died.
Some of the delinquents stepped back, ready to run if necessary.
But Yeonghun showed no signs of movement as he lay there in everyone’s worry. Yeonghun showed no movement at all, as if he wasn’t even breathing.
More delinquents stepped back.
But a moment later, Yeonghun’s fingertips moved, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
And Yeonghun, who had had his eyes closed, opened them, and lying down, he placed one hand on the ground and slowly raised his body.
Everyone was relieved once more. He seemed to be able to move.
Yeonghun raised his head and looked around. And he put on a bewildered expression.
He raised his hand and brought it before his eyes to check, then checked his entire body. Finally, he raised his hand to his head and frowned when blood stained his hand.
He carefully raised himself. Whether the aftereffects of the impact remained, he swayed as he stood up.
He stood and moved his body little by little. Whether his body hurt from being beaten by the delinquents, he occasionally frowned as he moved, but he loosened up his entire body.
To others, it looked like they were watching ROK military bare-hand calisthenics.
Everyone tensed up and watched Yeonghun’s movements. His actions after opening his eyes were not ordinary. Worried that something might be wrong with his head, everyone watched him carefully.
Yeonghun finally clenched his fist and frowned. He still felt considerable pain.
But he raised his head and looked at the leader of the delinquents who had thrown the last punch at him.
“I don’t know what happened, but debts should be repaid, right?”
Saying so, Yeonghun charged at the delinquent.
Yeonghun quickly approached the bulky man, and surprised by Yeonghun’s sudden movement, the bulky man unconsciously swung his fist.
Yeonghun saw the fist flying at him and ducked his body.
The fist passed over Yeonghun’s head, and as it passed, he straightened his ducked body and threw a fist at the bulky man.
Yeonghun’s fist flew from outside the bulky man’s field of vision and struck his temple precisely.
Thwack!
This time, the bulky man fell backward.
The bulky man’s head shook greatly, and he passed out on the spot.
It wasn’t as flashy as when Yeonghun had been sent flying, but everyone opened their mouths wide at the sudden attack that took down the bulky man.
Yeonghun shook his hand as if his fist hurt and clenched his fist again.
And looking around at the delinquents, he said:
“Next!”