Work Text:
Thud.
“I am Yoo Joonghyuk.”
Thwack.
“I am Yoo Joonghyuk!”
“Ha ha! Is this really Kim Dokja? I never thought the son of a murderer would be such a weakling!”
“I am Yoo Joonghyuk…”
Kim Dokja’s pale fingers dug into the dirt on either side of his head, watering eyes squeezed tight, and cracked lips shaping familiar words.
Several sets of shoes scuffed the ground Kim Dokja was curled upon, kicking up dust that clouded the air and choked his lungs.
“I…
am…
Yoo… Joonghyuk …”
<><⁂><>
Eventually, the dust settled and Kim Dokja could breathe again. He let the stale air in his lungs rush out and cracked open his eyes, glancing around cautiously. Seeing that he was once again alone in the park, he swayed up onto his feet, head scanning slowly in search of his missing schoolbag. Spotting it half inside of a nearby trashcan, he took a step towards it and immediately twisted his ankle on something, crashing to the ground again.
“Oof! Ugh…”
Groaning, he sat up and turned around to look at what had tripped him up, focusing his spinning vision on the ground where a pure black, egg-shaped stone sat. He picked it up in his hand, feeling its slight weight, and wondered where it had come from.
Doesn’t look like a normal rock…is this a decoration from one of the play structures? Did one of the guys drop this?
But it’s not like Kim Dokja could ask anyone he knew, and he didn’t recognize it from anywhere he’d seen before. He raised his arm to throw it away, but a weird feeling halted his swing. He slowly lowered his arm and looked down again at the stone clutched in his hand, which seemed to be completely ordinary, with one exception. Kim Dokja thought he might be mistaken, but despite the meager light, the stone almost seemed to glimmer.
Without thinking further, he pocketed it to take with him and hobbled over to the trashcan to retrieve his bag while watching out for any further tripping hazards. Under the flickering of the streetlights, he carefully limped out of the park.
<><⁂><>
Throwing his light schoolbag on the floor by his bed and sliding down next to it, Kim Dokja scarfed down a convenience store kimbap for dinner as pulled his phone out from where he’d tucked it inside his uniform shirt. While he chewed slowly, he caught up on the latest web novel chapters that had updated during schooltime.
When he was done eating, he placed his phone down and retrieved the stone out of his pants pocket. He frowned down at it and, examining it again with clearer eyes, he could see that the glimmer he’d thought he’d imagined earlier was still there.
“What is that…?”
He rubbed his thumb hard over the smooth surface and the pad of his finger came away dirty. The more he rubbed, the clearer he saw it—a pattern emerging from the inky blackness. He kept going eagerly until no more dirt was left on its smooth surface.
“Oh!”
The warm and mostly-clean stone sat comfortably cupped in his hands and despite the sickly yellow shade of his room’s light, the pattern revealed itself to be a delicate golden star. As he tilted his hands, the star caught the light at different angles and almost gave the illusion of there being a real star trapped inside the stone. He blinked, slightly surprised at what a beautiful thing he’d found.
Kim Dokja gave it one last buffing swipe with the bottom of his ragged shirt and set it on his desk.
“Haaah.”
He puttered tiredly around his room, making sure to plug his phone in as he got ready for sleep and school the next day. He grimaced in discomfort when it came to washing his face, but seeing as how he was out of first-aid supplies, he settled with simply cleaning any new cuts.
Returning from the sink, Kim Dokja glanced again at his desk and tilted his head as he considered the black stone. He reached over and arranged it so the narrower end faced toward him and his bed. Then, he moved it closer to the edge, but not so much that it would be in danger falling off. He looked it over again, tapping a finger against his chin in contemplation.
“Ah, I know!”
Quickly opening his desk drawer, he rummaged through some leftover knick-knacks from past school projects and found what he was looking for—a pair of googly eyes and a half-empty bottle of glue. Gleefully, Kim Dokja set about his impromptu arts-and-crafts project and when he lifted his hands in triumph, there sat the black stone with its newly granted pair of eyes.
“Cute!”
He giggled at the sight, his heart lifting for the first time in a while. Last task finally done, he turned back towards his bed.
As he laid down, he imagined that his new stone friend was stoically watching over him, maybe like how he would imagine a certain protagonist would for his companions. The gentle glow of his phone’s screen illuminated his face and pillow, and he continued where he’d left off in his favorite story until he drifted off to sleep.
<><⁂><>
‖‖
Yoo Joonghyuk stared up at the constellations in consternation. Or he would have, had he still had a face or eyes to stare with. What exactly is going on? The last thing he remembered was finding some hidden pieces he needed in the abandoned mall, then returning to eat a quick meal with his companions before retiring to bed, leaving Lee Hyunsung on watch. First thing to do is figure out where I have been transferred and—
[Story, ‘Pebble and I’ has begun its storytelling!]
[Due to the effect of the Story, your detectable presence has become similar to that of a ‘pebble.’ In addition, due to the probability of this worldline, the effects have been modified to affect your physical presence as well!]
What.
[A new hidden scenario has arrived!]
| Scenario – An ordinary rock’s viewpoint
| Category: Hidden
| Difficulty: E
| Clear Conditions: Experience a new viewpoint and watch over a dreaming child from dusk to dawn.
| Time Limit: 15 hours
| Compensation: Acknowledgement from □□ and fragment of □□□
| Failure: ???
Yoo Joonghyuk once again cursed the Star Stream and constellations for their capriciousness, because what was this scenario? Short, vague conditions, and without clear compensation. Were they taking him to be a fool? However, between already being trapped in the scenario with no obvious way out and the failure cost being unspecified, he was wary and left without much choice but to play along for the constellations’ amusement.
<><⁂><>
After an hour spent trying to do anything in this body he’d been cursed with when entering this scenario, his efforts were completely unfruitful. As far as Yoo Joonghyuk could tell, he had transformed into a black stone, perhaps something like obsidian? As a rock, pretty much all of his stats were debuffed down to nothing and all his skills locked.
After taking stock of the situation, he determined that he could see his surroundings as if he were looking out from any point inside his stone body. From his position in the dirt, he could only reasonably guess he was in a normal neighborhood park, complete with equipment like swings, a slide, and concrete play structure.
The sun was dipping towards the horizon now and Yoo Joonghyuk was beginning to consider more extreme, alternative ways out of the scenario when there was a commotion at the entrance of the park and a small boy clutching his schoolbag sprinted just past where he sat. He was being chased by a group of other boys, who caught up easily and pushed him to the ground.
Thud.
Thwack.
Thud thud thud.
Yoo Joonghyuk grimaced, furrowing his nonexistent eyebrows at the needless violence taking place not even his stone’s throw away. The poor child being bullied had already lost his bag to these lowlifes, and one of the lackeys was having fun throwing it like a basketball into the nearest trashcan. He unfortunately got it in on his second throw and jogged back over to rejoin his friends in kicking their victim.
Though he had witnessed many worse things ever since being thrown into the scenarios endlessly, Yoo Joonghyuk had a very sinking feeling that he should be doing something to help this boy. He glanced again at the scenario window hovering at the corner of his vision, and let out a tight breath.
Yoo Joonghyuk concentrated and tried to move his body even just a little bit or to invoke skills like ‘Force Palm’, but with no success.
[Story, ‘Pebble and I’ is cheering for you!]
He growled and focused harder, gritting his teeth and trying to dig up his usual wellspring of strength.
The bullying of the small boy, which had momentarily dropped into the background of his awareness, abruptly filtered back in as he registered unexpected words being gasped into the dirt.
“I am Yoo Joonghyuk.”
His eyes shot open and he stared narrowly at the boy, now curled up on the ground and feebly attempting to right himself after every painful kick by digging his fingers into the dirt.
“I am Yoo Joonghyuk!”
The boy choked these words out desperately as if they were a prayer. His hands had given up on anchoring him to the ground, instead rising to clutch around his head in an attempt to protect himself and mute the jeering of the bullies.
“I am Yoo Joonghyuk…”
The regressor felt like his world had slowed down to a crawl. Who was this child? But Yoo Joonghyuk could do nothing but watch in disbelief as the boy repeated his own name over and over again, unrelenting in his mantra-like repetition.
Finally, after an agonizing amount of time, the other boys did grow tired of their victim’s listless reactions. The largest boy tried to goad one last response from him by grabbing the boy by his hair and shouting straight in his face, spittle flying.
“Ha ha! Is this really Kim Dokja? I never thought the son of a murderer would be such a weakling!”
He sneered and waited for some kind of reaction, to no avail.
With his head lifted, Yoo Joonghyuk could see that Kim Dokja’s face was already swollen in several places where stray shoes had made it past his weak defense, and his worn, ratty school uniform was now thoroughly stained with dirt. But his lips were somehow left unsplit, and thanks to that, Yoo Joonghyuk could just barely read the weak words still passing them, as they inaudibly formed the words, “I am Yoo Joonghyuk.”
[Story, ‘Pebble and I’ is sad that you aren’t able to help, but a pebble must live a pebble’s life!]
Yoo Joonghyuk glared at the message, glared at the looming sky where the constellations were surely having a laugh, and glared at the disgusting human monsters who could somehow derive joy from the suffering of another being.
He glared and glared until they left, cackling like hyenas, and then turned his attention back to the boy who was slowly getting up.
And who was now slowly and unknowingly walking directly towards Yoo Joonghyuk, who still couldn’t move his stone body at all. He ended up tripping the poor kid, adding insult upon injury.
“Oof! Ugh…”
Fighting off embarrassment and an unfamiliar feeling of powerlessness, Yoo Joonghyuk had by now guessed that this was most likely the child that he had to watch over in order to complete the hidden scenario. As the boy raised his arm, poised to toss Yoo Joonghyuk away and doom him to a record-breaking scenario failure—
[Story, ‘Pebble and I’ proclaims that any pebble can make a good pet rock!]
And the boy hesitated, seemingly changing his mind, and decided to take Yoo Joonghyuk (the pet rock) back home with him.
<><⁂><>
When Kim Dokja finally pulled him out of his pocket in his bedroom, Yoo Joonghyuk’s already low expectations about his living situation were surpassed. A tiny living space outfitted with the bare minimum of furniture. Hardly any suitable provisions or creature comforts scattered about the space, and a single threadbare sheet on the bed.
He was wholly unsurprised when the boy got distracted by cleaning Yoo Joonghyuk’s inert stone body while his own bleeding cuts and bruises remained unattended.
[Story, ‘Pebble and I’ is asking for praise for making you a stunning pet rock!]
Well…Yoo Joonghyuk couldn’t begrudge Kim Dokja his small joys as he gazed up and saw, for the first time, a ghost of a smile on the boy’s small, pale face. If he stared carefully at the reflection in those dark, shining eyes, he could just about make out his current stone body with its googly eyes glued on and a faint, golden star gleaming from within.
With or without the constellations’ interference, this world has already been endlessly cruel to you, Kim Dokja. I cannot save you from this, but I can watch and remember.
And so Yoo Joonghyuk did. He watched as Kim Dokja carefully placed him back down on the corner of his desk, got ready for bed, and tucked in with his single blanket.
He watched as the boy drifted off to sleep in small increments, scrolling on his phone slower and slower, sometimes even nodding back awake and unlocking his phone again to continue reading. But eventually, the phone screen turned black and stayed black.
He watched the small rise-and-fall breathing of this painfully average teenager and mulled over many things in the dark quietly.
Yoo Joonghyuk watched as night inched towards dawn and a hint of light rising over the horizon had him feeling both anticipation and a hint of despair.
[Story, ‘Pebble and I’ has ended its storytelling!]
Suddenly back in his human form, Yoo Joonghyuk reacted quickly to catch himself before he could fall and hit the edge of Kim Dokja’s desk. He checked whether the boy was still sleeping and let out a sigh of relief when it appeared that he was just as dead to the world as he was a minute ago.
[The hidden scenario has ended.]
[You have obtained the gaze of □□ and a fragment of □□□.]
[You have successfully lived the life of a pebble to its fullest and watched over a precious child!]
[Additional compensation for the major contributors has arrived.]
[Major contributors: Yoo Joonghyuk, Kim Dokja]
Yoo Joonghyuk was surprised at these messages, but especially at the mention of Kim Dokja as a scenario contributor. Was this boy even an incarnation? Was this worldline considered as part of the main scenarios or something close to a scenario stage like Peace Land?
[Rewards List]
- Black Star sapphire (A-grade, insentient)
Ah, so Kim Dokja wouldn’t be left without the stone he’d painstakingly polished and decorated. Yoo Joonghyuk examined the stone now that he could see it from an outsider’s perspective. It was actually quite a subtly beautiful stone, with a glossy black color and a startlingly bright golden star caused by what he assumed was light interacting with inclusions within the material. His expression softened as he took in the googly eyes positioned just-so at the “front” of the stone, transforming its potential mysteriousness into a silly personification.
[Rewards have been fully distributed. You will be returned to the main scenario!]
Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes immediately widened and he whirled around, stretching his hand out to the sleeping boy on the bed.
[The constellation ‘???’ has acknowledged your efforts.]
“Kim Dok—"
‖‖
<><⁂><>
Kim Dokja opened his eyes to the morning sun piercing through his window.
“…”
He looked over at his desk and saw his pet rock exactly where he left it. He got out of bed and trudged over to pick it up again. He smiled, admiring the glittering effect as he had moved it this way and that, and smiled even wider as the motions also audibly knocked the googly eyes around.
“…”
Kim Dokja went back to his mattress and grabbed his phone. He popped the charging cord out and unlocked the screen quickly, navigating to a new browser tab and typing into the search bar:
[black smooth stone with golden star?]
His eyes scanned down the search results as his thumb flicked up, up, up, before returning to the Wikipedia entry at the top of the results.
[Black Star sapphire - Wikipedia]
He read through the relatively short article while he brushed his teeth and half-heartedly finger-combed his hair into place with his free hand. Although most of the article was dry, overly scientific, and definitely not his usual read, Kim Dokja couldn’t help but recognize one word in particular.
In his favorite online web novel, “Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World”, colloquially known as “Ways of Survival,” the protagonist Yoo Joonghyuk had recently summoned a rather mediocre weapon called the Four Tiger Evil Cutting Sword after collecting the seven star jewels of the Big Dipper nebula. However, Kim Dokja had learned in science class that the Big Dipper was not a nebula at all, and not even technically one of the astrological constellations, but an asterism—an undefined pattern or group of stars in the sky.
According the wiki article for Black Star sapphires, asterism could also mean a star-shaped concentration of light in a gemstone.
Kim Dokja stared at his phone, lost in thought, until the screen automatically turned off. His face stared back at him from the black screen until a notification lit it up once more.
“…!”
He panicked, only now realizing that he was already running late for school and he dreaded the reprimand he’d get from his teachers as well as the ridicule from his classmates. Hurriedly, he finished getting ready, grabbed his schoolbag from where it was left on his floor last night, and tugged his shoes on haphazardly.
The front door slammed shut behind him, rattling the gem on his desk, and his uneven footfalls disappeared rapidly down the sidewalk.