Chapter 580 – Memory Journey (4) Fin
—
User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 120
Current Location: 71 Gomurrae-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul
Sage’s Advice: 3
– Han Kain
Early in the morning, I checked the date while walking towards our destination.
“Today marks Day 120.”
Songi replied, “So it’s been four months since we left the hotel?”
“Hmm…”
Wait a minute, four months should be 122 days, right? The first and third months had 31 days after all.
“Oh, do we still have two more days to go?”
“Maybe…”
We started our journey on Day 114, so it had already been close to a week since. We’ve visited plenty of tourist spots, and I think the three of us have become closer than before.
“Yawn…! So is today the last day?”
“Maybe today or tomorrow will be the last? Or maybe not.”
Miro mumbled as if feeling a bit disappointed.
“I want to play a little longer.”
“Go for it. After all, there’s still time before the real start.”
“Oppa, didn’t you just pass by our old house too easily?”
“….”
A few days ago, the eerie Miro advised me to dig deep into my memories from around the age of twenty.
Our first stop was my childhood home in Seocho-dong.
“I didn’t recognize the neighborhood. It changed into some weird apartment complex.”
“Hmm…”
“It’s like there was some random building instead of the elementary school. There was nothing to jog my memories.”
With the Blessing’s power fragmented and weakened, my powers of insight had also fallen to the realm of hazy intuition.
Still, arriving at the ‘right place’ or gathering ‘plausible information’ could still generate a faint feeling.
I had felt something odd in middle school, leading me to the keyword ‘younger sibling.’
This wasn’t the housing area.
I felt nothing at all!
“We’ve arrived.”
“This is the high school you graduated from, right? The one where you went with that girl—”
“Let’s go inside.”
“Wait, didn’t you get confessed to?”
“Pfft!”
“Wow…! Songi, did you see that? Kain just laughed!”
“Seeing you laugh is so surprising! I’ve received way more confessions than that!”
“Pfft!”
“Why do you sound so unpleased by that?”
“That’s just how guys are. Being confessed to is the highlight of their lives!”
No matter what those two say, the truth won’t change!
I’m Han Kain, the winner!
*
I graduated from Shinbanpo High School.
And it’s been a tremendously long time since then.
I returned to my alma mater only after the world’s beginnings and ends repeated multiple times.
“…”
Interestingly enough, the name was the same, but that’s about where the similarities end.
Just like in middle school, Shinbanpo High School wasn’t the school I remembered.
Nevertheless, a school is a school.
Classrooms, playgrounds, students, teachers—these basic commonalities tickled my brain.
“Kain~ have you remembered something?”
“… Let’s enter the building.”
“I think entry is prohibited, but… when have we ever cared about that?”
— Ding! Ding!
I felt as if the ringing of a bell tickled my ears.
Looking around, I started to feel like I was back in my old school.
Naturally, my steps halted.
Suddenly, I looked up and saw “Class 5-3” written on the door.
Was I in Class 5-3?
I can’t say for sure.
Memories from high school feel eons away now.
— Click!
When I opened the classroom door, there were a couple of students inside.
“Uh? Wh-who’s that—Aah!”
The startled students stared at me, but when they saw Songi and Miro walking in behind me, their jaws dropped.
普通的な人であれば、彼女たちが我が家でトラブルを解決するだけだから、私は集中しなきゃ。
I silently sat in the middle of the classroom, and this strange voice slipped into my ears.
“Shortly, we will begin the 21st Graduation Ceremony of Shinbanpo High School. Graduates, please—”
“…”
“Kain! Congratulations!”
Wait, was that my parents’ voices?
How bittersweet.
If my life wasn’t just a singular experience, then the number of my parents wouldn’t just be one or two.
My memories of parents must be muddled together with many other people’s recollections.
I only recognize those with distinctly vivid appearances and names as my parents.
“Oh? This is supposedly a drama shoot? I haven’t heard of that—”
“It’s not a drama; it’s, um, a practice for the film club at xx University! Sorry~!”
“N-no worries.”
Turns out that they made up a lame excuse right on the spot!
A film club at the university?
Looking at Miro, it’s obvious that she doesn’t look like a college student!
But seeing the boys’ faces turn beet red while glancing at Songi made it all seem fine.
“Hey, hurry up!”
“…”
I faintly heard a voice from a friend.
Friends laughing and giggling around also popped up.
“What’s up? Did you pull off some event?”
That was my voice.
“Guys, let’s head out.”
“Did something come to mind?”
“… I think it might.”
“Really?”
“If we go to the playground, I think I’ll remember something.”
“What do you—”
“Miro, let’s just go out and let big bro be. She might just be confused herself.”
“Right.”
*
As soon as I stepped onto the playground, my feet started moving on their own.
It was as if I already knew where the destination was.
“Songi.”
“Yes?”
“Could you please walk over from that main gate?”
“Okay…”
While tilting her head in confusion, Songi moved towards the gate.
At that moment, my body froze like stone.
She began walking toward me!
“…!”
A hazy vision created by memories enveloped Songi.
She was my age and slightly taller than her.
Her wavy chestnut hair touched just below her shoulders.
She wasn’t the type to make passerby gasp like Ahri, Miro, or Elena, but she wasn’t lesser than the current Songi either….
Revealing a figure realistic enough to exist!
She was the legendary ‘A’ who easily captivated dozens of middle school boys with a mere wave of her hand!
“Eek!”
“O-Oppa?”
“Ahhh!”
“Kain? Why all of a sudden—”
“Ahhh!”
“What the heck! Why are you being so loud?”
Oh boy….
I realize it now!
The truth I buried deep in my heart has finally surfaced!
At this moment, I sincerely wished for the power of ‘insight’ to not be so damn annoying.
I wouldn’t be facing this hallucination before me if it wasn’t for this intuition that surpassed human limits!
Please! My memory! Just stop here!
I’ll just believe this!
*
– Yu Songi
“Oppa Kain?”
“Kain?”
“…”
What the heck is going on?
I still have no clue what happened back in high school that left Kain in this state of half-consciousness.
If someone saw him like this, they’d think a cosmic demon popped out and started melting his brain!
In utter disbelief, I waved my hand in front of Kain’s face.
“Hey! Oppa! Do you see my hand?”
“…”
“Kain oppa is an idiot!”
Should I push harder?
“Kain is dumb!”
Is that not enough?
“I’m sorry, Songi unnie!”
“Sorry!”
“Wait, what?”
“… My bad.”
“Why are you acting like this?”
“I just realized some shocking truth.”
“What is it? Like you have another sibling or something?”
With an intriguing expression, Miro chimed in.
“Or perhaps you secretly went to school with Ahri?”
Whoa, that’s a rather refreshing hypothesis!
“Eek!”
The moment “went to school with Ahri” was mentioned, Kain flipped the heck out!
“Th-there it is…”
“Oppa?”
“I wondered why Ahri felt out of place in my memory; that was the reason…”
“Eh?”
“It’s impossible for there to be photos of me and Ahri before the hotel!”
What the heck are you talking about?
You mean you took photos with Ahri before coming to the hotel?
“Ugh, what’s wrong?”
“…”
Kain kept his mouth shut.
He often hides info from us, but this doesn’t feel like that at all.
It’s more like he’s trying to hide a dark past.
Finally, he mumbled with his head down.
“… Songi, did you ever have a boyfriend before coming to the hotel?”
“Eek!”
Han Kain, you idiot!
Don’t just throw such a sensitive question out of nowhere!
“I was planning to date in college!”
“Seriously!”
There aren’t exactly any good-looking dudes around!
“… What if a certain guy existed?”
Now that’s gotta be about him.
“If there was a guy who falsely claimed to have a girlfriend for some reason, even though he never had one.”
Whoa, what? Did you do that?
“… Let’s say such a guy exists.”
“But then… the fake girlfriend figures it all out!”
“Eeeek!”
“…”
“Spill the beans.”
So that means from the girl’s perspective, some weird guy is out there waving around my photo saying, ‘She’s my girlfriend~!’
And he’s aware of it, too!
“What do I do?”
Just imagining this makes my head spin!
I can’t think of any other answer than this one.
“Erase the memories.”
“…”
“Erase that girl’s memories and your own.”
“…”
“Come on! Do it!”
“What if it’s some really strong girl?”
“Like Ahri? OMG! Seriously! Did you really go to the same school as Ahri before the hotel?”
You’re telling me you waved Ahri’s photo around saying, “This is my girlfriend~!”
“That’s not it—”
“Then just go kill yourself! Just go kill yourself!”
“…”
— Slap!
Miro pulled out her phone.
“Sorry, both of you. I can’t take this anymore.”
“…”
“This phone has a mass hypnosis function. It was given to us by the Management Bureau.”
“That had the same feature as the 207th Vatican phone.”
“I don’t know about Ahri, but let’s just erase our memories first. I’m struggling here.”
Miro started operating her phone, and a strange sound waved from it.
None of us stopped her.
One painfully sad fact.
The hypnosis function on the Management Bureau phone only works on regular folks.
For me, it only made me a tad sleepy, and it looked like the others fared similarly.
But I decided to believe from this point on that the conversation we just had didn’t happen.
*
Late at night.
With nothing to show for our school visit except for ‘the memories we all decided to forget,’ we decided to go on a bit more of a journey.
At that moment, I noticed Kain’s expression change as he was writing some advice into the air.
“Oppa? Did you find something?”
“… Oh no! I missed something simple!”
Before Kain could explain, Miro jumped in.
“Hold on!”
“…”
“Kain, think twice before you speak! I don’t want to know about your ex-girlfriend or whatever!”
“W-wait, it’s not that—”
“I don’t want to hear about how your ex cheated on you or anything! Not even if you had two girlfriends!”
“Honestly, it’s not that!”
“What’s it then?”
“My last real memory.”
His last real memory?
“Aren’t you supposed to have gone to Shinbanpo High School?”
“Yeah, I took the college entrance exam after that.”
“Oh, that’s the last place you remember?”
“Nope, there’s more. I missed five questions on the exam—”
He missed five questions on the exam.
Is this some sort of bragging right?
“I got into K University.”
“I heard about that part.”
“We had a big celebration; there was a banner at the school.”
“…”
“My mom was so happy, she cried, and my dad had teary eyes too—”
“Okay, I’m done with your bragging!”
“I went backpacking until school started.”
Backpacking?
“I got some solid funds for traveling, so I toured quite comfortably. In the end, I spent it in a hotel on Jeju Island.”
“…”
“Let’s go. The moment I thought of a hotel on Jeju Island, I knew that was the last keyword.”
“Was that keyword given by the owl? If it had been given earlier, we wouldn’t have had to go to that school, you know?”
“…”
“Maybe Kain couldn’t stand the pressure from his benefactor!”
“… I did get three pieces of advice, at least.”
*
User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 125
Current Location: Geonip-dong, Jeju Special Self-Governning Province
Sage’s Advice: 3
– Han Kain
Ah…
The moment we arrived, I knew.
This is it.
This place holds the final puzzle piece to my memories, the most important secrets hidden away.
If I had thought of this place beforehand, I could have saved time—no, wait.
There was a pure travel aspect, so I wouldn’t call it a waste of time.
Just forget the unexpected events that happened back in high school.
Those high school memories don’t exist in our relationship, much less in my life.
… Does Ahri remember?
“…”
I had a strange dream.
It was the evening of a cool February night.
I had just finished the college entrance exam and enjoyed a brief respite before university started again.
Could this be that rare golden period of life that comes only a few times?
After spending all day sightseeing and collapsing from fatigue on the hotel bed, something odd began unfolding.
…
Actually, it was more back then.
“… Ah.”
Since I hadn’t landed in the right place until now, my insights were unable to perform their role!
Now, images began flowing before me like a panorama.
—
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