Fading from the Dream

“You! What’s wrong?!”

Do Jiwan urgently grabbed my hand.

But my hand, turning transparent, couldn’t be held.

Jiwan’s eyes widened and trembled.

‘I’m waking up from the dream.’

The trap must have failed, and I was waking.

Jiwan would wake soon as well.

But for some reason, I felt anxious.

Looking at Jiwan, who didn’t know what to do, I spoke.

“Hyung. This is a dream.”

“That’s… not what’s important! Your body…!”

“We have to wake up. I’ll see you outside.”

At my words about meeting outside, Jiwan—who had been flustered—suddenly stopped moving.

Instead, he stared straight into my face without blinking.

As if trying to memorize it.

“Outside…”

As my vision blurred like my fading body, Jiwan said something.

But before I could hear what it was, I opened my eyes.

“…A person!”

“Here! There’s someone here!”

When I opened my eyes again, I was inside the dungeon’s cavern.

I was lying next to Jiwan, holding his waist as he lay unconscious.

“Jiho!”

“Guild Master!”

People rushed toward us.

Among them, I saw Jung-ho hyung.

‘We’re back…’

At last, I could relax.

Seeing Jung-ho hyung’s tearful face, I smiled faintly and collapsed.

‘Another dream?’

Jiwan opened his eyes and thought.

He occasionally dreamed of the past.

It wasn’t because he wanted to change it out of regret.

Rather, it was like his subconscious reminding him not to forget what he had once felt.

While dreaming, he didn’t remember who he was.

But he knew this was a past that had already happened.

Since it was like an annual event, he simply waited for it to pass quickly.

Then he noticed a ball.

He kicked it around absentmindedly.

When it flew over the wall and outside, Jiwan clicked his tongue.

He had made unnecessary trouble.

‘What a hassle…’

Should he just leave it?

Balls could be bought anytime.

But then he remembered—it belonged to his younger brother.

Unlike his stepmother, his half-brother had shown him affection.

Long ago, Jiwan had thought that was simply the confidence of the legitimate heir.

In his younger years, when he couldn’t control his emotions, it had provoked his inferiority complex.

In truth, Jiwan had never once desired the Domun Group.

If his biological mother heard that, she would faint.

Whenever his stepmother treated him like his brother’s enemy and kept him under watch, he sometimes thought about saying something provocative just to see her composure break.

But he had never truly wanted it in his heart.

The first time he seriously thought about taking over the Domun Group was in his third year of high school.

‘…Let’s go get it.’

No matter how much he stared at the wall, the ball wouldn’t come back on its own.

He would have to fetch it himself.

When Jiwan went outside, he was startled to see a man holding the ball.

He had never seen him before.

Yet strangely, the man felt familiar.

“Ah!”

The man flinched in surprise upon seeing Jiwan.

Jiwan felt a flicker of fear at how different this dream was.

Guarded, he snatched the ball back and hurried into the house.

The man followed him, calling out.

Jiwan had expected someone inside to chase the stranger away.

But no one reacted.

No one even seemed to see him.

His wariness deepened.

‘Am I going crazy?’

Why is someone who never existed in my past appearing in my dream?

The man who followed him was shameless.

He suddenly stole side dishes from Jiwan’s plate.

He tried to enter while Jiwan was bathing.

‘Is he a pervert?’

The word stirred something faint in his memory.

But he couldn’t quite recall it.

The shameless man clung to Jiwan persistently.

Just as the man seemed to observe Jiwan, Jiwan observed him as well.

The man looked around twenty years old, with a faintly pale complexion.

‘Where have I seen him before?’

Surely he must have seen him somewhere for him to appear in a dream.

But he couldn’t remember at all.

The man had a gloomy expression.

Yet sometimes he would smile foolishly.

He wasn’t strikingly handsome.

But his features were delicate and somewhat cute.

After the first day, he didn’t speak to Jiwan or try anything strange.

‘Though he still steals my side dishes occasionally.’

What exactly was this man?

He didn’t sleep.

He didn’t eat properly.

He didn’t wash or use the bathroom.

He simply stuck to Jiwan twenty-four hours a day.

‘Is he really a ghost?’

Then why steal food?

Jiwan’s questions only grew.

One day, his birthday approached.

He was informed of a birthday party he had never wanted.

Dragged there, he saw his classmates waiting.

Whether as a child or grown, he had never expected much from birthdays.

It was enough that his stepmother didn’t abuse him.

He had no desire to play happy family.

After spending some time at the charity-like party, he slipped away.

No one stopped him.

Only the man—clinging like a shadow—looked anxiously between Jiwan and the party hall.

That night, after lying down as usual, the man—whose expression had been dark since the party—suddenly stood up.

Jiwan thought he was finally leaving.

But after a while, he returned and said,

“Happy birthday.”

Jiwan felt something strange at those words.

He could sense the sincerity in them.

Earlier congratulations had meant,

“Thanks for inviting me to such a party.”

This was the first time someone had congratulated him purely, without expectation.

He looked at the man.

‘Strange person.’

A man whose origin he didn’t know.

Silent all this time, only to speak now.

Jiwan grew more curious.

Time passed quickly.

It had been about two years with the man.

‘Something happened around this time…’ Jiwan thought.

“Your mother is coming to Korea in two weeks.”

Called into the study, he had expected it.

As predicted, his father mentioned his biological mother.

At those words, the man’s eyes widened.

Had he only just realized that the woman outside was Jiwan’s stepmother?

Jiwan almost laughed but held it in.

Since this was only a dream, he didn’t want to alter it.

He didn’t refuse the meeting.

The man looked gloomy, but Jiwan didn’t know why.

It never occurred to him that it might be because of him.

When the man poked him with a finger playfully, Jiwan simply let him.

Whatever troubled him, if that helped, so be it.

Two weeks passed quickly.

The day he met his biological mother arrived.

As always, she looked pitiful in front of his father.

When alone, she changed instantly.

No matter how many times he saw it, it amazed him.

Left alone with Jiwan, she didn’t hide her inferiority toward the stepmother.

She grieved what she had lost.

She had given up her acting career when she became pregnant with Jiwan.

The fate of someone who seduced a married man hoping to become a shining star had not been kind.

She had gotten pregnant against all odds.

Before she could erase it, his father found out.

Unable to have a child with his wife, his father desired Jiwan.

To make Jiwan flawless, his mother had no choice but to withdraw from entertainment.

If Jiwan grew up resembling her, it would cause problems.

Thus, the woman who dreamed of becoming a star fell before reaching it.

Still, perhaps his father’s love wasn’t entirely false.

Even after taking Jiwan away, he continued to support her.

After losing her dream, she squandered the money on vanity and luxury.

When funds ran dry, she would visit Jiwan.

In front of his father, she played the role of a pitiful woman separated from her beloved son for his future.

Then she would take the consolation money and return abroad.

After her dream collapsed, she placed her second dream in Jiwan—

that he would seize the Domun Group.

If she lost her dream, she would at least secure that.

“Jiwan, it’s all yours. You know that, right? You’re the eldest son. Everything your father has—it’s yours.”

Her eyes gleamed wildly.

Her nails dug through his clothes into his arm.

Jiwan had no desire for the Domun Group.

But she wouldn’t release him until he answered as she wished.

So he nodded reluctantly.

Only then did she let go, satisfied.

“We have to at least secure that company. Otherwise… after all I sacrificed…”

Muttering to herself, she slumped onto the sofa.

Jiwan watched briefly.

Then he headed upstairs.