Divergent Memories

“Isn’t this a Shinjindae Hospital patient gown?”

“…Yes, I suspect he might be the Guide transferred to the Center two days ago…”

“Didn’t you say he was a vegetable?”

At the man’s voice, Tae-eon suddenly froze in his actions, stiffening blankly. With his arm held captured, his body slumped like a piece of sagged clothing.

Within his finely trembling field of vision, someone flickered into view. He didn’t even have the luxury to grasp the situation.

The inside of his head, which had been sweeping like tidal waves, turned into a pale world the moment he heard the man’s voice. As if a flash had erupted from somewhere, the space before his eyes blinked white. At the same time, a certain sound brushed past, and something surfaced like an illusion.

Rustle, rustle. Someone was parting through the thicket, searching for a flower.

The small, gaunt back profile looked familiar to his eyes. When he blinked his eyes, the scene changed. Like a single scene from a flashback, someone stood at the tip of a hand holding a flower.

[H-Here, this…]

A gaunt hand offered it to the man in front of him. Looking at that flower, the man let out a small laugh.

Tae-eon’s gaze gradually lifted, heading toward the person holding him.

Pitch-black hair scattered over the forehead. The pitch-black pupils set beneath it captured the man. The man had thick facial lines and was exceptionally tall. An air unique only to high-ranking officials or people of equivalent status exuded from him.

It was different from being overbearing.

He seemed to possess a talent for handling people according to his needs, and in reality, he must have lived his life that way. The downward-cast eyes were tranquil, but the water pooled inside them was as black as a massive abyss. It was deep and turbid to the point that one would hesitate to peer into it.

However, that was…

[This fellow turned out to be a more interesting fellow than I thought.]

“…….”

It was by no means Tae-eon’s memory.

Like dark clouds rushing in, the space before his eyes turned pitch-black. When the blinking, brushing flashback also came to a halt, unorganized emotions fluctuated amidst the entangled memories.

Just who on earth was this man?

His breath rushed up roughly.

Who he was, where this place was, and whose memories were these that kept abruptly rearing their heads—Tae-eon could not understand at all.

His hands trembled painfully. His ears were muffled, and his mind was hazy. From the moment he opened his eyes until now, he had been traveling between dream and reality to a terrible extent. Tae-eon had just… been walking down the street.

But why, for what reason?

The hand resting on the white floor felt excessively unfamiliar. A hand so thin and white it looked pathetic.

Was his hand originally like this?

There was no way.

Thick-boned, heavy, and a rough hand full of scars with plenty of calluses formed on it was Tae-eon’s hand.

Why, even just yesterday…

“…Yesterday….”

Tae-eon repeated those words like a groan.

Then, he suddenly stiffened his body and stared blankly somewhere. Every time he blinked his eyes, his pupils trembled uncontrollably. The memories lingering inside his head floated clearly and settled down.

A faint afterimage appeared.

[Get to your positions! Move, double time!]

Clack—

At the entrance of a shabby alley, an armed group wearing goggles stood.

Wearing holsters and carrying machine guns, rifles, and pistols, they concealed themselves at each section. Far away, at the mouth of the alley, the squad leader who had hidden his body raised his hand to signal a standby.

Tae-eon quickly pulled the barrel of his pistol to chamber a round and disengaged the safety so he could draw his knife from his waist immediately.

Glimpsed through the goggles was a half-destroyed apartment complex in the city center. Beneath it, a pitch-black gate was swirling and writhing like the origin of the universe.

The 19th, 6:00 AM.

The news of a gate occurrence alarm was delivered by the Association. The gate’s rank was C-class, and the thing that crossed over from the gate was a humanoid monster with a bulging stomach. They sensed human presence through their skin and moved at a speed approaching 50 km per hour.

However, due to the government’s swift response, most of the citizens had evacuated, and defensive walls were erected nearby.

Befitting a C-class gate, the durability of the beasts wasn’t that high either, making it fully possible to slaughter them with bullets or knives.

[Commencing deployment! Don’t lose your minds and get done in, keep your wits sharp! Move before the other teams steal our head count!]

Following the squad leader’s orders, Tae-eon quickly darted out of the alley and headed toward the operation zone.

Crossing over the defensive wall, he sniped the monsters crawling through the bushes near the apartment without hesitation.

Bang—! Bang!

And… and then.

[You bastard, what did I tell you? I told you to kill even just one more rather than saving other people’s lives. Are you a civilian hunter or a rescue worker? Did I hire you to save people? Kill the monsters, the monsters!]

[…I am sorry, I will correct my actions.]

The verbal abuse poured onto Tae-eon, who had failed to meet the team’s quota every single time because he prioritized rescuees.

That scene of him silently enduring the verbal abuse with his hands behind his back in front of the shabby alleyway surfaced, riddled with scratches like slashes.

“Haa, gasp….”

Due to an injury from a sprain while saving a rescuee, a few days of vacation had been forced upon him.

Had he limped his leg while holding money that was barely half of his original daily wage?

Because the snow was fluttering, he had pulled his hat down deeply.

When he stood there, habitually rubbing the bills that touched the tips of his fingers tucked inside his pocket.

Along with an inexplicable chill, he heard a sound like an explosion.

It was a sight of a massive form approaching like a legless monster.

He tried to leave the spot.

Did he scream?

He didn’t know.

The things Tae-eon remembered were that he staggered, unable to properly step with his ankle whose joints were misaligned.

And that the sound of tires spinning vainly against the frozen ground echoed goosebumpingly.

It was just those two things.

And then.

Beep—!

Light flooded in.

From afar, the sound of a horn continued long.

He tried to pull his body back, but his sprained leg seemed frozen and wouldn’t move.

Back when he was running while carrying civilians on the field, he didn’t even know his sprained ankle hurt.

Was that why it happened?

[Someone please call 119!!]

When he regained his consciousness, which he had lost briefly while being hit by the car, bloody snow was fluttering across his blurred vision.

Beyond that, the mountain ridge looming in the distance looked exceptionally pitch-black.

People swarmed like a pack of ants sensing prey.

Weewoo— Weewoo—

An alarm sound echoed in his ears.

The hazard lights illuminating the rear spun around the surroundings frantically.

The cars parked on the shoulder were disorganized and chaotic, and people shoved their phones forward without hesitation.

Nearby, a car that had scraped across the asphalt stopped after hitting a utility pole.

Above it, Tae-eon’s blood spread quickly, crawling along the ground.

[A person is dying right now, are you all crazy?! Move out of the way, please!]

All sorts of sounds entangled, causing indiscriminate noise.

One side of his vision was dyed with blood to the point that shape identification wasn’t even possible, and his mind was hazy, so he didn’t even recognize whether the panting breath was his own.

The last words Tae-eon spat out were merely,

“…Tae-hoon.”

It was merely the name of his one and only flesh and blood, his younger sibling.

“Tae-hoon…. Tae-hoon-ah.”

Breaking out of his thoughts, Tae-eon rose with a blank face and tried to pry away the hand holding his arm once again.

Only now did he recall the reason why he had searched for Tae-hoon as soon as he opened his eyes.

That was right.

When he opened his eyes, it was a hospital room where a white ceiling could be seen.

Next to the bed was a machine entangled with complex lines, and beyond that was a window where a pale light leaked in.

Through it, a cold sky could be seen.

The white walls enclosing all sides.

The surroundings were extremely quiet, and only the regular machine sounds occasionally broke the sunken air.

Tae-eon had mindlessly torn off the IV and left the unfamiliar hospital room.

Because he was worried about his younger sibling, who might be searching for him after he disappeared.

While walking along the long corridor, he discovered an emergency exit and came down.

But why, for what reason?

“Tae, gasp… cough!”

A sharp cough was spat out.

His throat was sore as if gouging out tightly stuck flesh.

Tae-eon, who was panting while twisting his body, felt a belated sense of incompatibility.

Upon realizing, sensations that did not belong to him surged from his entire body.

To the point that he wondered why he hadn’t known until now.

“The wrist….”

Flesh so white it was goosebumpy caught his eyes.

Above the back of his hand and arm, countless IV holes existed, and his limbs, even the tops of his feet, were gaunt with prominent bones.

Tae-eon caressed his body with trembling hands.

His shoulders, arms, waist, and every part his hands could touch.

An unpleasant metallic sound heard every time he exhaled.

While frantically fumbling over his body, Tae-eon froze his entire body like a stone statue at a certain moment.

It was because a dark shadow tilted above his head.

At first, Tae-eon couldn’t even recognize what it was.

Because the massive body cast in the backlight was excessively large.

But that thing was.

“…….”

Above the head of the man holding Tae-eon’s arm, and at an absurdly high place at that, something was looking down at him quietly.

Not a human, yet not an animal either.

Large enough to make this space look cramped, it stood behind the man, tilting its head and moving its neck slowly and bizarrely.

It was a monster.

Inexpressibly large and ferocious.

But why… was no one paying attention to that thing?

It was entirely a bizarre situation.

Simply because this situation felt like a dream, Tae-eon panted with hollow eyes.

Around the time that breathing sound deepened, urgent footsteps were heard from the end of the corridor.

Soon, the emergency door opened, and the people dressed in white gowns who poured out turned pale upon seeing Tae-eon and Lee Do-han collapsed on the floor.

As Tae-eon panted as if his breathing hole was blocked, the complexion of the people changed from moment to moment.

As someone regained their senses and moved first, pale hands reached out and began to restrain Tae-eon.

“Patient, it’s alright! Breathe slowly! It’s just because you’re startled, it’s alright! Yes, like that, slowly…!”

“Wa… gasp, wait… to Tae-hoon… I must go to my younger sibling….”

Tae-eon’s shoulders heaved as he was held by hands that felt like spiders.

At the same time, he had to feel an inexplicable rage and sense of loss.

At the end of it, numerous questions followed.

Whether this place could even be called a hospital.

Why was he, who had met with an accident, was in a place like this.

Why were his limbs so perfectly intact?

And why the appearance of these people was so familiar and not strange at all.

And whose memories were those that were invading his head.