INM 0

Prologue

With the vibration on the table, a faint light appeared.

Without hesitation, the man’s arm reached out and grabbed the light.

“Hey, it’s been a while, right? No, it’s okay. Go ahead.”

Sighing, I looked away from the man who had started the call with that answer.

In the dim light, all boundaries were vague and equal, but the harsh light shining into his ear made me strangely aware of the boundaries with others. The boundary between the hard wooden table and the thick, long arm stretched across it. The boundary between his arm and the dim but somehow gentle atmosphere of the bar. Even though I was surrounded by this atmosphere, I didn’t quite fit in.

The 3D lines or planes that clearly separate me from the man. In quantum mechanics or Eastern philosophy, it is said that everything in this world is continuously connected and all is one. When my friends instilled this knowledge in me, I felt like I could understand this feeling.

But as I watched the half of the man’s face illuminated by the digital light, that confidence slowly dissipated.

Loud laughter erupted from the bar, enveloping both the man and me. The wave of laughter must have drowned out the voice of the person on the other end. The man’s face became visibly sour.

Anyway, it probably wasn’t an important conversation.

It seemed that my thoughts could be seen even in the dim light. As the man tapped the back of the device with his knuckle, he ended the shallow call, deeming it not worth listening to.

Silence fell.

Although the dim bar was still filled with various sounds, at this seat dominated by the small digital light, there was indeed a silence so profound it made my heart creak.

The man who had been staring at the light from the device finally looked up and turned his eyes to me. The man before me couldn’t be described as having a good personality. He was annoying, twisted, and an immature child who mocked people without hesitation. This pathetic man who didn’t even know what brought him joy, yet when I said I wanted to see him, he came without hesitation and offered his time as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

There were times when I felt a fragment of kindness in the hand that touched me. When did that touch, which felt uncomfortable at first, start to linger on my skin more than rough caresses?

I downed half of my beer to shake off the images flashing through my mind and set it back on the table a bit roughly. The feel of the hard wood through the glass mug made me smile unconsciously. It was only about three months ago that he taught me the name of this wood with a smile, as if sharing a precious secret.

I slowly filled my lungs with air and lifted my head. The man also straightened up slightly from the backrest and looked into my eyes. The color of his eyes, illuminated by the dim light, was strangely vivid in my mind. Although we had exchanged glances many times before, it felt like this was the first time we had truly made eye contact.

Oh, right, his eyes were hazel.

A common color. Surely I will have forgotten it by tomorrow.

I think I want to move on with my life.

Even then, I did not know whether the words I would say to him… would be words of farewell or words of love.