ADTDK — Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The alarm wouldn’t stop. Jung Seung-hoon climbed the stairs, regretting he hadn’t drunk less.

“Only the rooftop left now—hah—where the hell—hah!”

He barely made it to the rooftop. The moment he pushed open the unlocked door and stepped outside, he nearly fainted. A man was standing on the other side of the railing.

Without a moment to think, Jung Seung-hoon shouted.

“Hey, calm down!”

“Who are you, mister? Where the hell did you come from all of a sudden…?”

“That doesn’t matter. First, take a deep breath, okay?”

Honestly, Jung Seung-hoon was the one who needed to breathe deeply. Maybe he really was getting old—just climbing the stairs made his thighs feel like they were going to explode.

The man frowned and snapped back.

“You’re the one who needs to breathe. You look like you’re about to die.”

Jung Seung-hoon didn’t even have the energy to respond, but he was dumbfounded. Wasn’t the one actually trying to die the guy over there?

For now, he tried to calm himself with deep breaths. He had to catch his breath if he wanted to have a conversation. But as he inhaled, the lingering effects of alcohol hit him. His head spun, and his hands and feet trembled.

—What’s going on? Please report the situation.

The operator’s voice pressed in through his Bluetooth earpiece, oblivious to how he felt.

Jung Seung-hoon was seriously indignant. Why the hell was he stuck dealing with this? He wasn’t even a field agent to begin with.

He was office staff, and today he’d taken a half-day off. He had drinks with some friends he hadn’t seen in a while. He hadn’t touched alcohol for ages because of herbal medicine, and the liquor slid down like silk.

But of all times, a rampage alert had to go off now. And not just anywhere—right in the same building as the bar.

—Mr. Jung Seung-hoon, please report the situation.

The insistent voice rang out again, but this wasn’t the kind of situation where he could answer at leisure. What if he startled the man hanging on the railing?

Jung Seung-hoon finally came up with a clever idea.

“Hey, what are you doing up here alone? There’s no one around.”

Pretending to talk to the man, he relayed the situation to HQ. Target is on the rooftop, conscious, all other civilians have evacuated.

—Current time: exactly 20:00. Securing perimeter now. On-site response team arriving in seven minutes.

Seven minutes. That would go by in a flash. But HQ didn’t know the specifics of what was happening here.

—Mr. Jung Seung-hoon, you are cleared to evacuate.

“Shit, how the hell am I supposed to evacuate from here…”

Maybe the operator heard his muttered curse, because the voice came through the earpiece.

—Is evacuation difficult?

Jung Seung-hoon hesitated, then turned to speak to the man again.

“Hey, you’re not seriously up there trying to die, right? Huh?”

The earpiece went quiet. Jung Seung-hoon grew increasingly anxious. A glance at his watch showed only a minute had passed.

Friday, 8 p.m., a busy downtown area. If an ability user went berserk here, it would be no different from an act of terrorism.

And this spot—they were on a rooftop. If that man’s ability happened to be the type that could bring down a building…

The very thought made Jung Seung-hoon shake his head. If he got caught up in an incident here, he’d probably be listed as fallen in the line of duty. But he just wanted to work his job and retire peacefully. His rabbit-like wife and fox-like kids would surely prefer his salary over insurance money.

Rationally, it might be safer to let the man die as he wished. He didn’t seem like he was trying to use his ability on purpose. Most likely, he was awakening now. Most ability users experience a risk of going berserk during awakening. If he died before the awakening finished, maybe the rampage wouldn’t happen.

But how could he, as a human being, just let that happen? Jung Seung-hoon tried to talk the man down, to prevent both a rampage and a suicide.

“First, can you tell me why you’re feeling like this? Huh?”

He forced his gaze away from the man’s hands clutching the railing and looked him in the eyes.

“Talking might help, you know? You could start to feel a bit better. Don’t you think?”

—Mr. Jung Seung-hoon, please refrain from doing anything risky. On-site response team will arrive in 5 minutes.

Refrain from risky behavior? Climbing up here was already risky. They were the ones who sent him up, and now they were trying to shift responsibility? What was all that salary for, then?

Jung Seung-hoon forced his lips into a smile. One that looked gentle, kind. If the man’s mood lifted and he gave up on dying, maybe the risk of rampage would drop too. Jung Seung-hoon didn’t fully understand how ability-user rampages worked, but he’d seen similar things in comics.

But his efforts didn’t amount to much. The man, with a blunt expression, responded.

“Why is me wanting to die considered a bad thing? It’s not like I’m hurting anyone.”

The man didn’t seem to realize he was on the brink of awakening. Jung Seung-hoon didn’t bother telling him the rampage alert was triggered because of him. If he got ideas and decided to take others with him, it’d be a disaster.

“You’re still young. I mean—young’s not even the word. You’re a kid. Your family would be worried sick. Hurting your family like that, now that’s a bad thing, isn’t it?”

“My family is dead.”

Jung Seung-hoon had stepped on a landmine. He heard a sigh through the earpiece.

—Mr. Jung Seung-hoon, please, do not provoke the target. On-site response team arriving in 4 minutes.

The man’s face slowly contorted. Afraid he might jump on impulse, Jung Seung-hoon hurried to speak.

“Just try to stay calm. Talk to me. I’ll listen to everything.”

“My life’s a mess. I don’t know how to do anything on my own, and I never saw this coming. If I’d known it’d end up like this, I…”

“Try thinking about something else. There might be good things ahead.”

“Good things?”

“You’re unhappy now, right? But you won’t have anything worse than this. So that means only good things are left. You might win the lottery, or—”

“I don’t buy lottery tickets.”

“Not necessarily a lottery. Maybe you’ll end up doing great. Maybe you’ll become someone your dead family would be proud of. That could happen, right?”

“…It could.”

“Maybe you’ll even be a source of hope for others. You went through something hard but kept going. Wouldn’t that be meaningful? Not that life has to be meaningful, I guess.”

The man stared straight at him. Jung Seung-hoon checked that his smile still held before continuing.

“You might fall in love. Think you’d give your life for someone else. But if you die now, that’d be a waste.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“Right?”

“But I still want to die. Right now.”

“What a waste. You’ve still got so much time. If you just think it over—”

“What’s so great about being young? Youth is just potential. It’s not a master key. Maybe I’ll just be unhappy for longer because I’m young. What if nothing good ever happens? Then I’m just living in misery for longer.”

“Well, yeah, that’s true. But even so…”

He almost got swept up in the man’s logic.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen. Tomorrow—something might change tomorrow.”

“What if tomorrow’s just more misery?”

“Then there’s the day after. Just live one day at a time. Or no—just think about living one more day. It’s not like dying a day later makes a difference, right?”

Where the hell was the on-site team? Just as if in response to his rising panic, a voice came through.

—On-site response team has arrived. Entry in one minute.

Relieved, he let out an involuntary chuckle. Meanwhile, the man quietly studied his face. The smile faded from Jung Seung-hoon’s expression.

The guy had such a young face that he’d instinctively called him “student.” But his expression looked worn out, like someone in middle age. What was he thinking? Did any of Jung Seung-hoon’s words get through? Or did he just think it was all nonsense?

Jung Seung-hoon started counting in his head. 54, 53, 52.

The man suddenly smiled.

“You’re right, mister. Dying a day later won’t cause any big trouble.”

“See?”

“But I have nowhere to go. What’s the point of returning to an empty house?”

It wasn’t a question. Jung Seung-hoon felt a headache coming on and pressed his forehead. Why was one minute so long?

He started babbling without thinking. 48, 47, 46, 45.

“If you come to my place, I mean—just for a day. I can put you up for a night. I’ll have to check with my wife, but she’ll probably say it’s okay. So…”

“How do I know who you even are?”

42, 41, 40.

“You were going to die anyway. Who I am doesn’t matter, right?”

“Fair enough.”

“Right? Then…”

35, 34, 33.

“Forget it. What’s the point of living one more day.”

30, 29.

The man’s hands left the railing. Before Jung Seung-hoon could even scream, the man’s body floated into the air.