PIA 133

‘Oh dear, poor thing. What did that child ever do to deserve this?’

Standing at the site of a ruined building, Ji-an suddenly recalled a fragment of the past. Whenever his mother saw his older brother’s back, she would mutter something barely audible. As a child, Ji-an didn’t understand what it meant.

‘Mom? What about Ji-an? Don’t you like Ji-an?’

‘Why wouldn’t I like you? You’re my kid.’

The answer was always the same. Without saying she liked or loved him, it was just an excuse. That insecurity led Ji-an to ask two or three times in a row, the last response would always be irritation. As he grew a bit older, he stopped asking questions that sought reassurance.

It was a bitter irony that the store his mother had poured her youth into building now lay in ruins, in the final stages of demolition, with no trace of its original form.

With only the outline barely remaining, at first Ji-an thought he had come to the wrong place. Even if the store had failed, they could have sold the building or rented it out, but it seemed they wanted to erase all traces, as it was completely demolished without any remaining form.

It hadn’t even been a year since he disappeared. How could it fall apart so cleanly?

Ji-an walked around the building site, astonished. A worker clearing debris glanced at Ji-an, who was wandering around with a pale face.

‘I really came back.’

Now he’s not even sure if it’s really been a year. He can’t even be certain if the timelines between this world and that world match. Although he could easily check the date by opening his phone, he wasn’t sure if his own memories were accurate.

The knowledge that he had crossed dimensions during the company’s anniversary party, and that his memories of attending his older brother’s wedding were actually someone else’s, left him disoriented. He couldn’t definitively separate which parts of his memories were real.

It felt like the memories of that ‘Seo Ji-an’s’ countless deaths and his own single life were mixing together. In this world, did Seo Ji-hyuk and Jeong Han-joo actually get married?

Judging by Jeong Hee-seo’s reaction here, it seems they were involved somehow…

Since the top floor of the building had been their home, Ji-an felt a pang of despair looking at the wreckage.

It must have been ‘Seo Ji-an’ who reduced the life lived here to a handful of dust. But why had he summoned Ji-an back here? What did he want?

“Does it feel good to look at it like that?”

As Ji-an was still standing there, lost in thought, he was startled by a voice from behind. It was Yoon Ok-hee.

“What else is there to say that you called me out?”

“…”

“Did you have to ask to meet here? With that personality. I didn’t know the child I bore was like this, I really wasted my life.”

Slowly turning around, Ji-an saw a haggard face staring right at her. Ji-an’s eyes widened.

“Mom…”

It was clearly ‘Seo Ji-an’ who had called her out. This too was a situation he had set up.

Yoon Okhee looked Ji-an up and down with suspicious eyes. Ji-an moistened his dry lips once and threw out the one question he wanted to ask the most. His voice cracked terribly.

“What about Seo Ji-hyuk?”

“…You don’t even call him ‘brother’ anymore?”

“…”

“No, forget it. What would I expect from someone who cut ties and left as soon as his brother’s circumstances went downhill?”

Before, such words from his mother would have only hurt, but now that he knew the whole situation, it was different. Ji-an’s eyes grew cold.

“Where is Seo Ji-hyuk, Mom?”

“What nonsense are you talking about after making sure everything was in ruins! He’s in the hospital!”

“He’s in the hospital?”

Yoon Okhee’s eyes widened as she trembled. Her gaze was like looking at a madman, and Ji-an realized he had asked the wrong question. Ji-an took out his phone. A few names that he had glanced over without much thought in the call log flashed through his mind.

Caregiver, ward…

As Ji-an was lost in thought, Yoon Okhee’s resentful voice poured out.

“You shameless bastard. Do you think everything’s fine if you pretend not to know after destroying the family? How dare you call me out, what else is there to say!”

“Mom, please speak so I can understand…”

“I know you reported Ji-hyuk for tax evasion. You also exposed the assault on the assistant writer, right? Did you think I wouldn’t know?”

Seeing Ji-an’s completely confused expression, she seemed to get more upset and raised her voice.

“You’re the one who went all the way to the countryside to stir up trouble with the person who quit and moved there!”

One person flashed through Ji-an’s mind. The person he had pointed out in front of the photo wall that ‘Seo Ji-an’ had set up.

He clearly remembered him as someone who followed Seo Ji-hyuk around doing errands… He had thought that writers these days even have managers to handle trivial tasks, but it seems he was an assistant writer.

Yoon Ok-hee suddenly lowered her voice, her body trembling as if chilled to the bone. She rubbed her arms vigorously as she stepped closer to Ji-an.

“Ji-an. Turn yourself in, now. The police said they’ve almost tracked down the hit-and-run driver who hit Ji-hyuk. They said it’s just a matter of time, if you confess honestly, you might get a reduced sentence…”

Ji-an laughed bitterly. So, he had failed. He managed to do everything except ‘killing’. Did he try to run him over with a car, just like the deranged Seo Ji-hyuk from the other world?

Ji-an looked into Yoon Okhee’s eyes with slightly clouded eyes.

“Why did you do it, Mom?”

“…Do what?”

“He wasn’t even your real son.”

“…”

“Why did you love him so much? I want to ask, why did you treat me the way you did?”

Yoon Okhee’s eyes widened. After seeing the endlessly affectionate face of ‘Mom’ for the past few months, seeing her face transform in an instant made her seem like a stranger. Ji-an found her oddly unfamiliar.

“Don’t say nonsense like he’s also a victim or whatever. If you’re honest, I’ll forgive you too, Mom.”

No, forgiveness wasn’t necessary anymore. He truly felt that his connection with this woman was over. He just wanted to know the reason.

Perhaps sensing the finality in his expression, Yoon Ok-hee’s face changed to one of resignation. Her wide eyes and the tension in her brows drooped as the strength drained out of her.

Finally, she bowed her head deeply and sank to the ground.

“That woman, I did it to take him from that woman. Because Ji-hyuk was what she wanted most. Your father… because she wanted my place beside him.”

“…”

“Your grandmother, she said if I raised Ji-hyuk well, if I raised him to be a proper, superior Omega, she would… she would acknowledge me…”

Ji-an was at a loss for words. He now understood the meaning of being truly speechless. He thought of the title of a drama Seo Ji-hyuk had written and staggered slightly.

<A Well-Raised Omega Son.>

Now, which is the makjang drama? They say reality can outdo fiction in absurdity. Who could dare draw a line between what is drama and what is real in this world?

“And did you get what you wanted? In the end, it seems like you’re the one who lost everything, Mom.”

Ji-an murmured, looking down at the top of Yoon Okhee’s head as she sat on the ground. He didn’t even have the energy to shout and get angry.

Their essence across parallel worlds is quite similar. Seeing how the Yoon Okhee from that world couldn’t escape the confines of that family despite having decent abilities, that position must have been extremely important to her.

Although he couldn’t understand his mother, having lived together for many years, he could guess at that foolish heart. However, the destructive power of hearing it directly was so great that it cracked a corner of Ji-an’s heart.

He should have just never heard this truth and lived on carrying only the memory of that other world’s mother’s voice, always apologizing as if atoning.

He was too exhausted to turn away, his feet wouldn’t move. Ji-an rubbed his dry face roughly.

Was it confirmation of his achievements that the bastard wanted from him? Was he supposed to feel some twisted catharsis while watching his shattered family? If this was an act of goodwill toward him, then it was a kind of thoughtless violence, like a cat bringing the mangled corpse of a mouse.

* * *

From the first moment of crossing worlds, Ji-an had been swayed by what he wanted. Pushed to an extreme situation, what he himself wanted finally became clear.

To return to Jeong Hee-seo and Poggles.

Rubbing his empty stomach, Ji-an stood in front of the hospital where Seo Ji-hyuk was said to be admitted. If he had to take the last step on the board he had laid out, he thought he would follow for now.

He checked the room number at the kiosk in the dark hospital lobby by entering his mother’s name and phone number. Slowly walking up, he found the corridor of the inpatient ward quiet and dark after the end of the day. The only place with light seeping out was the lounge where caregivers rest.

“…”

The room where Seo Ji-hyuk lay was darker than the hallway.Though she had raised him with affection as if he were her own son, his mother ultimately proved to be no different from others. With everything ruined, she had thrown him away like an old shoe. The dark, square space without even a caregiver in sight was so cold it felt like a morgue.

Ji-an walked into the room and stood beside the bed.

Seo Ji-hyuk, lying unconscious with tubes and IVs hanging all over him, looked almost like a dead person. If it weren’t for the low beeping of vital signs moving on the green monitor, Ji-an would have believed he was dead. His skin was dry, his cheeks sunken, perhaps from the accident and surgery.

“Is this why you wrote that drama?”

Ji-an asked through gritted teeth, but there was no response.

“I won’t try to understand you. I won’t forgive you either. Because the malice you harbored was real.”

A drama that mocked fake love, love tainted with impurities, love offered with an ulterior motive. He had written it to ridicule such love. He deeply envied Ji-an who had the real thing. So his desire to kill Ji-an was real.

That malice, that sincerity with which he tried to run him over in that other world, he finally received it back.

Perhaps thanks to that malice, the ‘Seo Ji-an’ of this world succeeded. Why, they say malice returns like a boomerang, don’t they?

Still, the soft-hearted Ji-an couldn’t think it was fair retribution. Seeing Seo Ji-hyuk in such a pitiful, ruined state, Ji-an felt as though his own heart was being weighed down and dragged into the dark.

Ji-an steadied his breath and looked around the room, noticing a bouquet of flowers incongruously bright on the table. Hospitals usually didn’t allow flowers, so Ji-an felt curious and approached it.

A strong scent resembling his own pheromones emanated from the fully bloomed roses. Ji-an pulled out the card stuck in the middle of the bouquet.

[Congratulations.]

“…”

This wasn’t what he wanted.

The congratulatory message was clearly mocking Seo Ji-hyuk, but Ji-an felt upset. His hand that crumpled the card stung. When he opened it, he saw blood seeping out.

“Hyung will be worried if he sees me hurt.”

The band-aid he had put on his palm in that other world seemed to overlap with the wound like an illusion.

‘Ji-an.’

He heard Jeong Hee-seo’s voice again. Ji-an clutched his aching chest and turned his head towards the sound.

‘Ji-an, Seo Ji-an.’

‘Come back.’

The voice was clear and unwavering. He ran out, gasping for breath, following the clear voice calling him.