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“You need a reliable companion. You can’t break through the 46th scenario alone. Shouldn’t you be well aware of it? … It doesn’t matter how I know.”
Yoo Joonghyuk nocked an arrow as he looked at the target in front of him: a lone tree with simple rings carved into it. He pulled the stiff string back, the string brushing against his bracer, and closed his left eye to focus on the center of the target.
He was standing in a small clearing, sunlight streaming through the small opening that the trees had made. The skies above were a bright blue, dotted with fluffy white clouds, no sign of destruction anywhere. The clearing echoed with birdsong and a gentle breeze, a few leaves spiraling down from the treetops. It looked as if everything was normal, as if scenarios didn’t exist and he was simply taking a stroll through a forest.
However, that wasn’t the case. His fingers tightened around the arrow as he prepared to let go, his arms held steady. He shifted slightly, making sure that the bow was aimed at the center, and that his arm was parallel to the ground.
“The important thing is that I can help you.”
He flinched slightly and released his grip too early, the arrow hitting far from the center. “Master, what’s wrong?” Lee Jihye asked, leaning against her elbow which was propped up on her leg.
“It is nothing,” he said briskly, pulling another arrow out of the quiver that lay on the ground.
He had left Gumho Station a few days ago, not only to get stronger by training, but also to test out his abilities with other weapons. Today, he chose to practice archery. Most of the arrows hit near or on bullseye, yet the most recent one had gone astray.
Kim Dokja, was it? That bastard... Yoo Joonghyuk aimed the arrow before watching it fly. It hit the wood with a satisfying thunk , splintering another arrow in half, and Yoo Joonghyuk was most definitely not imagining the tree as that cocky prophet.
In his previous regressions, nothing like this had happened before. It was natural for him to be shaken; he was already used to the steady rhythm of scenarios and necessary killings. Yet this man… had come out of nowhere and changed everything; could his appearance change the future?
Yoo Joonghyuk narrowed his eyes as he nocked the next arrow. What was he thinking? That man had already changed the future. However, even though he could not remember if Kim Dokja had appeared in his past regressions, yet something about him felt familiar, something hidden beyond the brightest stars and the darkest nights, in the darkest corner of the universe.
A short distance away, Lee Jihye stood up and stretched, telling him that she was going to look for firewood to start a campfire. He grunted noncommittally before turning back to the tree in front of him. The sound of arrows splintering bark continued into the night.
-
“Master, you haven’t slept yet?” Lee Jihye asked as she sat up sleepily, rubbing her eyes.
The sun was starting to rise, casting reddish hues that dyed the treetops and illuminated the ground. Yoo Joonghyuk lowered the bow in his hand, looking at her. He didn’t feel mentally tired, though his arms felt sore.
He sat down, leaning against a tree. The bow slid out of his fingertips as he closed his eyes, evening his breath. He still preferred the sword after all; it was easier to wield and his thoughts wouldn’t get clouded while doing so. Lee Jihye’s footsteps faded as she left him alone, the crunch of soil beneath her feet slowly becoming silent. Birds chirped from the tree branches, the melody slowly lulling him to sleep.
Low murmuring and the exchange of words reached Yoo Joonghyuk’s ears as he slowly blinked his eyes open. He could hear his own voice, but he wasn’t talking. Someone else’s voice echoed in his head, and he looked around, confused. He was alone. Then whose voice was he hearing?
The words broken, often muted with holes in the sentence. He couldn’t understand the words anyway; it felt as if he were listening to a conversation in another language. He concentrated harder, trying to understand the words exchanged. But almost every other word was muted, and he could only pick up bits and pieces that didn’t fit together and sounded like jumbled puzzle pieces in his hands.
The scenery, a grassy hill with a city in the distance, started to blur. The rosy hues of the sunset merged with the silver of the skyscrapers and the green of the grasses, all of it mixing and slowly fading away. He could no longer see but the words continued; he felt like they were out of reach even though it was right next to him.
“Yoo Joonghyuk.”
His name was called and Yoo Joonghyuk whipped his head around, unable to see and unable to locate from where the voice originated. A few seconds later, the low murmuring and voices in his head continued, and Yoo Joonghyuk brought his hands to his head.
Make it stop, he thought to himself. He felt a strange sense of foreboding even though he had no idea what was happening. He felt as if he was doing something he might regret in the future, or he had already regretted not doing something, but now it was too late.
A bright flash of white burst across his vision and he winced before opening his eyes and seeing an outstretched hand in front of him. Frowning, he lifted his own arm up but a force pulled him backward, and he was falling. An eternal silence greeted him as he fell, his heart clenching painfully. The light faded, slowly, and Yoo Joonghyuk gritted his teeth before tightening his hand into a fist and closing his eyes. The light disappeared, and he felt a gust of wind before he opened his eyes again.
-
He was sitting on the soft earth, his back propped against a tree trunk. The discarded bow lay next to his fingers, the quiver a short distance away from him. The sun’s position indicated that it was around noon, birdsong ringing from the treetops. Yoo Joonghyuk relaxed his hand, noticing that his nails had carved reddish crescents into his palms.
Ah, a betrayal.
It was most likely that this dream was how he had died in one of his past regressions; he couldn’t even remember anything that happened in the first or second turn. He didn’t know and he couldn’t be sure — he could only speculate. Although it could have been an omen, he dismissed it. Yoo Joonghyuk deliberately picked who he interacted with, and there was a little to no chance that he would make the mistake of befriending someone who would leave him to die like that.
He was the one who knew the most about the world, the regressor with an unseeable goal to reach. He thought about it for a moment; what would he do if he reached the end of all scenarios? It wasn’t a question he could answer. It was something that he would decide on once he made it, for now, the goal was to survive.
Lee Jihye was making her way back to the clearing, holding a cup of water. “You’re awake!” She exclaimed as she hurried to Yoo Joonghyuk, pushing the cup into his hands.
“What should we do now?” She asked as she sat down, patting the grass around her, plucking a few strands from the earth.
“We will go to Chungmuro station for the next scenario.”
“Okay,” Lee Jihye folded her hands in her lap.
“You go on first. I have something to take care of.”
She pushed herself to stand up. “You will meet me there?” She asked, turning around to look at him before leaving.
Yoo Joonghyuk nodded, and she departed without a second word. He leaned against a tree, looking upward at birds flying toward the endless sky. His mind was uncharacteristically clouded, and he took deep breaths in an attempt to clear it. There were more pressing issues to worry about, anyway. Dwelling on something that might not even hinder him this round would only hold him back.
He closed his eyes for a moment, taking in one more breath before turning his head to look in the direction Lee Jihye had left, following the trail that led to Chungmuro.
-
Yoo Joonghyuk made his way into the station a long while later, internally sighing as he stepped onto the familiar ground. Many people huddled in the rooms, and Yoo Joonghyuk saw a little boy watch him with sparkling eyes. He paid no attention as he brushed past the people surrounding the entrance.
“Master!” Lee Jihye ran over from where she was standing, her eyes lighting up as she pushed herself off of the wall. “Come with me, someone was saying that he was your companion!”
He raised an eyebrow, an image popping into his mind, which he quickly pushed away. Jihye led him to an escalator that led downward, pointing toward a room in the distance. “Master, it is that person,” she said, pointing to the man standing on the other side of the room. “He pretended to be your companion.”
The man turned around to meet Yoo Joonghyuk’s glare with a small smirk. “Hi Joonghyuk,” he said, and Yoo Joonghyuk’s mind was filled with confusion.
Kim Dokja kept talking as Yoo Joonghyuk stared at him, his expression stoic. Eventually he pulled out his blade to end the conversation, and the two of them left the room.
They conversed for a short while and Yoo Joonghyuk’s mind drifted to the moment he walked into the room. It was strange; he had felt a slight sense of relief wash over him, even though he internally insisted he disliked him. Kim Dokja was an irregularity in this universe, always barging in with his strange ideas and statements, and Yoo Joonghyuk disliked the existence of that man.
But yet, as he walked through the door, a single thought resounded through his mind and repeated over and over through the rest of the day.
“I got to see you again.”