Chapter 684 – The First Wish, Yu Songee (1)
—
– Yu Songee
After reporting to the Management Bureau, I pondered what might happen next.
My opponent specializes in possession, body snatching, and physical manipulation by entire species.
Could they suddenly take over my friends or teachers’ bodies to attack me?
Thinking about this, I kept my eyes wide open, monitoring my friends around me.
Nothing happened until class ended.
The only abnormality was the awkwardness among my peers, who were subtly avoiding my gaze.
Feeling slightly disappointed and considering what to do next, I received a call from the Management Bureau.
— “Miss Songee, we’re reaching out regarding your report.”
“Yeah! Um, what happened?”
As I acted like a scared girl, the voice on the other end gave an absurd response.
“It’s my misunderstanding?”
— “Yes, indeed. We’ve thoroughly investigated your parents and the hospital, but found no signs of chaotic disasters. It seems you may have mistaken something.”
Looking back, I realized I had maintained the tone of a frightened teenager throughout the reporting process.
Maybe that’s why they thought I reported it on a vague hunch rather than with strong certainty.
In other words, they believed that by wielding the authority of the Management Bureau to say “Your misunderstanding!”, they could simply wrap things up.
“…”
Upon reflection, I found their response to be reasonable.
It’s me now who is confident my parents were possessed by the Is species, not my past self.
My past self lacked diverse perspectives or blessings of affinity.
Thus, if I were to borrow the authority of the Bureau to say “Your misunderstanding!” the past me likely would have genuinely thought, “Ah! I must’ve been mistaken.”
It felt like I was justifying myself, but it wasn’t that my past self was foolish.
Wouldn’t anyone believe what the Management Bureau said?
Once I realized all of this, I headed home.
…
When the blue Damien Apartments came into view from a distance, I suddenly felt an unsettling vibe in the surrounding scenery.
I stopped in my tracks and looked around, spotting a gray dog and a crow nearby.
At first, I didn’t even understand why I felt this unease.
It wasn’t like the dog had three heads like Cerberus or that the crow had a steel beak.
It took me a while to realize that the source of the discomfort was their behavior, not their appearance.
“… What is it?”
Their actions seem odd.
If I were to express it, the dog felt like it wasn’t accustomed to four-legged walking, and the bird was reminiscent of when Kain used Perro’s body.
It was as if the animals were possessed by human souls, making me frown in confusion!
Just then!
— Rumble!
I heard thunder rumbling in my heart.
This moment was the trigger for awakening the ‘First Wish’!
My memory of the moment when the hotel chose me – or rather, when I chose the hotel.
The moment I felt the deepest despair in my life.
*
.
..
…
“Hey, hey! What are you doing there?”
I’ve seen many stray cats in Seoul, but it’s been ages since I spotted a stray dog.
Has it not been able to wash properly? Its fur looks utterly dirty.
— Urgh!
“Did you just bark? Did you get hurt? You can’t even bark right.”
Where has the owner of such a pitiful creature gone?
Without a name tag, finding its owner won’t be easy—uh!
“Hey! Where are you going? Stop!”
Just moments ago, it was sticking close as if I were the owner…
Then suddenly, the dog spun around and fled in a panic.
Just as I was trying to process the situation, a familiar voice called from behind.
“Songee.”
“Dad! Huh? You’re off work already?”
Dad looked slightly tired as he replied.
“Today was unavoidable. Out of the blue, Bureau staff barged in, investigating your mom and me while creating a commotion at the hospital. I just got back from being questioned since morning.”
“…”
Inside, I felt a jolt.
The reason my parents were questioned was ultimately my odd misunderstanding!
Could it be the Bureau revealed that I was the one who reported it?
I had heard that the identity of the reporter would usually be kept confidential…
“I don’t know who reported it. One of the patients seems to have held some ill feelings…”
“That’s a terrible person!”
“Hah! Well, I’ve met all sorts of people working at a hospital, but I’ve never encountered someone who falsely reports to the Management Bureau!”
His voice held an uncontainable annoyance.
Feeling considerable guilt, I glanced at Dad.
“….”
A powerful instinct overwhelmed me, hard to express in words.
I felt an intense sense of crisis, as if I stood at the crossroads of life and death!
As strange as it sounds, I felt like Dad would strangle me to death!
My next action felt more like instinct than thought.
I approached him as a perfectly innocent girl and embraced him tightly.
“Dad!”
“Uh, uh. You surprised me by suddenly hugging me on the street.”
“What’s it to you? It’s nice that you came home early today, right?”
“Uh… shall we go home?”
“Yes.”
The way back no longer felt tense.
Looking back, the odd feeling I sensed earlier seemed to be a construct of my guilt.
There’s no way Dad would try to kill me, right?
I must act as a kind and cute daughter for just the next week!
.
..
…
Time flew by like wind.
Was it last week when I was caught in a strange misunderstanding and reported my parents?
I thought I’d be careful following my incident…
Recently, incomprehensible things started happening.
As I sat stone-faced in class, my middle school friend Sojin approached me.
“What’s wrong?”
“….”
“What is it? Did your parents fight again?”
“No, not that. They’re on good terms lately.”
“Then what is it?”
“… Weird animals.”
“What?”
“Do you think it’s understandable if two strange animals are hovering around me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“For the past three days, a strange dog and crow have been watching me every morning and evening.”
“Songee, I read on the internet that’s a symptom of schizophrenia -”
“Not that!”
“If it’s really odd, you should report it.”
“That’s a bit…”
“Why?”
“Forget it!”
How could I explain that I reported my parents in a strange misunderstanding?
It’s a secret known only to me… no, just me and the Management Bureau.
As evening fell, after all classes had ended, I walked across the schoolyard when that familiar-faced dog reappeared.
“Hey! Have you still not found your home? No name tag, huh? I can register your photo on a pet care app—”
Just as I casually started about finding its owner, a chilling unease gripped me.
“W-What is it?”
Appearing alongside the dog now was another animal keeping watch over me.
The crow was perched gently atop the dog’s BACK!
The arrangement was, at best, mystical and, at worst, bizarre!
T-This is definitely an anomaly!
Knowledge of the chaos disaster response—the three stages of awareness from elementary school flooded my mind.
Instinctively, I pulled out my phone, ready to make a proper report this time!
But then!
A spine-chilling sound made every muscle in my body go tense.
A ‘voice’ resembling a scraping metal sound came from the crow’s beak!
— Son… gee!
“…Ah.”
I never imagined I’d live to hear a crow—one not raised in a home—calling my name!
As I froze in shock, the gray dog nuzzled tightly against my leg.
With a pleading… no, an intensely pleading gaze.
If dogs could talk, it would be saying:
“Please listen to me just once.”
“Please just watch my actions for a moment.”
I looked at the grimy gray dog, my senses half-dazed.
The dog was soon scratching at the sand on the playground, trying to form some letters.
It must be the first dog in history to write in Hangul, right?
“Dad, Mom, house monster.”
The phrasing was concise and simple enough.
It would have been tough for the dog to write long sentences.
“What the…?”
*
— Pow!
With an overwhelming shock, the vision related to the ‘First Wish’ paused for a moment!
“W-What is this?!”
So, that gray dog and the crow were my parents?
Their awkward actions were due to not being accustomed to animal bodies!
Just then, as I dashed towards “Mom and Dad”—
“…Ah.”
An unbearable, soul-crushing despair filled me as the next memory rushed back.
Thoughts that surfaced during my first attempt at Room 301.
“Who would take a dog that speaks human? Of course, they’d take it to the hospital!”
“Of course, anyone would report it to the Bureau.”
“That’s common sense!”
This is the ‘common sense’ I know.
Even the past me acted ‘logically.’
…
The shocking recollections that had been halted resumed once more.
*
“I’m home~!”
As I returned home and greeted my parents, Mom stood smiling brightly in front of me.
“You’re back.”
“Mom?”
“Songee, you reported to the Management Bureau earlier, didn’t you?”
“Yes? Ah, yes. I encountered a truly strange animal at school. You wouldn’t have seen a talking crow or a writing dog, would you? It was fascinating but—”
As I tried to speak with excitement, I felt an odd sensation suddenly.
Wait… how did Mom know I reported to the Bureau?
“Uh?”
“…”
“How did you know? Ah, you were told by the Bureau—oh?”
The principle of keeping the reporter’s identity confidential!
When I reported my parents before, they didn’t even know it was me who reported them!
Before I could fully understand, my body instinctively moved.
My mind still spinning with “What is going on?” but my legs tried to flee towards the front door!
As I instinctively tried to dash outside, I felt my body grow inexplicably heavy.
“Ah… Ah!”
Mom was still wearing that bright smile.
“What’s so strange?”
“Ah… Ah…”
“Why can’t you speak? When I reported you before, what felt odd?”
It was as if she naturally knew that I, the one who reported her to the Bureau, was the real problem.
I was deeply flustered. Did she discover it today? Or did she know from the beginning?
If she knew from the beginning, why didn’t she say something then?
“Don’t you want to answer?”
Without realizing, I found myself speaking out.
“Uh, um, well, you both have been acting overly friendly lately…”
“That’s one reason? And?”
“Your attitude towards Happy seems overly awkward…”
“Oh, so those two?”
Soon, Mom—or rather, the “Opponents” nodded and smiled.
“Two major issues were at play. First, instead of prioritizing the couple relationship commonality, you should have prioritized the relationship between your parents. It means you should have at least pretended that your father and I were having a fight.”
“…”
“Secondly, you lacked perspective-taking behavior toward the subject as well as local species.”
“H-Huh?!”
“Thank you. Because of you, I’ve learned a lesson.”
At this moment, I finally grasped the dreadful truth.
All the unease I instinctively felt about my parents had been factual!
I thought it was just a misunderstanding.
Or perhaps I wanted to believe it was just a misunderstanding.
The Bureau also said it was a misunderstanding, and I was secretly hoping my parents didn’t have any problems either!
Since earlier, my body wouldn’t move properly.
A breathless fear enveloped me, an unknown force weighing me down with pain.
… With a trembling voice, I murmured.
“W-Who are you? Who are you!”
“You’re such a rude child. You should call me ‘Mom.’”
When she smiled and raised her hand—
— Creak!
A dark mass flew through the slightly opened window, slicing through the air like lightning!
It had been the crow mimicking human speech.
It was the very creature that claimed to be my ‘Mother.’
Moreover, it was the thing I reported to the Bureau as a monster!
The black mass displayed extreme aggression, relentlessly pecking at the ‘human’ before me, but it was utterly meaningless.
Mom—or the malevolent spirit that had snatched her body—just laughed.
“Haha! I heard the dog was already dealt with, but I see you’re still here?”
Despite the blood flowing from its face under the crow’s fierce assault, the spirit showed no signs of discomfort.
As though pain meant nothing, as if what happened to ‘a human body’ was no big deal.
The spirit found the situation so funny, it effortlessly grasped the crow in its hand.
— Snap!
In an instant, the frail bird’s neck twisted, and its sticky blood dripped onto the ground.
Soon, the demon brought the crow’s corpse before me.
“What do you see this as?”
“…”
“Haha! Don’t you know yet? Your mother came to rescue you, turning into a beast out of concern for you, but you don’t even recognize her!”
“…”
“I find this really funny. You think so too, right?”
As I watched the slowly approaching hand, I thought… I was crumbling.
An overwhelming horror, sadness beyond despair — emotions I couldn’t articulate.
All I wanted was to die.
Rather than become a toy manipulated by the malevolent spirit, I just wanted it to end.
If it weren’t for the footsteps I heard behind me, I would have surely succumbed.
— Thud!
“You’ve come? I handled the situation -”
Again, I acted quicker than I thought.
My reason was in a ‘please-kill-me’ state of surrender, but my instincts felt there was still a way to survive!
“… Ah, Dad!”
“…”
“Please save me… please save me…”
“…”
“Please, please…”
I thought how ridiculous it was—I was begging a malevolent spirit that had repossessed my parents for mercy?
And yet, it worked.
“Stop! That’s enough.”
“What—”
“From the beginning, I said I would handle the situation, so why did you interfere?”
“…”
“The girl is already on the verge of a mistake.”
“…”
“This individual has a keen observational ability. Despite not being an extraordinary being, she managed to see through our disguise.”
“…”
“If we let her live, she might be useful. I’ll take charge from here.”
I survived by relying on the demon’s mercy.
… I prayed, and prayed again.
If there is a God in the sky, please give me a chance.
After all, even a deer could perhaps ram one good time before dying, right?
So, grant me the horns of a deer.
Please give me the clear mind to not be deceived by the malevolent schemes of demons again.
Also, grant me the power to show eternal suffering to the vile creatures resembling worms!
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