ROA 4

Shim Seo-woo hesitated for a moment, then headed toward the science library. It seemed the two people he met earlier were visiting this school for the first time, and he felt uneasy about having guided them to a construction site.

He didn’t know why they tried to go to the science library at night, but perhaps they visited to obtain books said to be stored only there because of its age? Perhaps they wandered through the forest in the middle of the night because it was such an urgent matter.

The more he considered their circumstances, the more Shim Seo-woo’s steps accelerated. He was also worried they might get into danger by entering the library under demolition.

[Aaaaaaaaaaah—!]

But just as he approached the library, he heard a strange sound.

A high-pitched scream like nails scraping down a chalkboard burst from the dark library. Yet even though it seemed to come from one person, the sound echoed in several layers. The tearing sound was unfamiliar, making Shim Seo-woo hesitate.

Then an extremely bizarre sight came into view.

Something crawled out of the library. A jet-black mass moved sluggishly outside the door, but couldn’t get far before being dragged back inside with a swift motion. It looked exactly like ankles being grabbed and pulled.

“……?”

A scream burst from inside again, but much quieter than before. It felt like ‘it’ was deliberately dragged inside so as not to cause a disturbance outside.

But without even a moment to listen carefully, snap, the noise cut off.

In an instant the space fell silent.

Shim Seo-woo approached the library in puzzlement. He wanted to confirm what exactly had happened just before, and just then discovered an existence coming out of the building.

“It’s done.”

A man walking out while sweeping his jet-black hair back.

Hair long enough to slightly pass his chin smoothly scattered down between his straightened fingers. The face fully revealed as he swept back his hair boasted handsome features even though it was unclear in the middle of the night.

Sharp jawline and high nose bridge, and the eyes within the cleanly extended eye shape held a mysterious ash-gray color. Two moles sat below his left eye, and his upturned eye corners gave off a somewhat sharp air. A cool and sensitive atmosphere.

But the man caught attention not only with his face but other elements too. He wore a black T-shirt that fit snugly on his lean body, over which he casually draped a dopo with gray outer fabric and deep red inner lining. A black cord wrapped around his neck like a choker, and earrings dangled abundantly from his ears.

The combination mixing modern piercings with traditional earrings you’d see in a museum was unique. Various shaped rings were stuck on each finger of his hands, and he even had bracelets filling both wrists. Though seeming not to match the neat and elegant hanbok, it surprisingly suited his atmosphere remarkably well.

“Whatever. Getting lost was your fault for being stupid, and I handled it so I’m leaving first.”

The man spoke indifferently, seeming to be talking to someone through the earphone in his ear. He tilted his head briefly as if hearing what the other side was saying, but then pulled out the earphone as if deciding it wasn’t worth listening to.

“……”

Shim Seo-woo stared at him silently. It seemed he was seeing unusually unique people at night today, and among them this person most intensely captured his gaze.

The man standing crookedly in front of the library arranged his disheveled clothing as if he’d just come out from rough combat, then raised his head with a sigh—haa.

His face looking up at the pouring rain sky was quiet.

He’d been listless the whole time after coming out of the building and talking on the phone, but now looked at the rain with an endlessly sunken atmosphere. His eyes seemed to be wetly submerged, soaked by the summer rain.

Following that, the man extended his hand outside. He quietly received the rain as if wanting to gather and catch the rainwater in his palm, then soon smirked.

At the laugh that fell like self-mockery, Shim Seo-woo watching him from beyond the bushes pondered and then moved his steps. Thinking perhaps he was anxious because his feet were stuck due to the pouring rain, he wondered if he should cover him with an umbrella to his destination.

Step—

“There was a bastard hiding—”

Though it was a very small noise buried in the sound of rain, the man reacted immediately. His expression turned fierce in an instant as he sharply turned his head.

Their gazes met precisely in midair.

For a moment Shim Seo-woo thought the man’s shadow had wriggled. Something seemed about to violently surge, then hurriedly calmed down. Did he see wrong? He was uncertain since it overlapped with the hallway’s shadow just then.

“….Why.”

The man spat out with difficulty in a tone as if being strangled.

“Why are you here?”

His ash-gray eyes trembled finely. An emotion that couldn’t be explained as just being flustered at the sudden approach rippled thickly. The man’s gaze briefly went behind him.

At the look seeming to check his shadow, Shim Seo-woo happened to recall the two people who’d acted similarly just before. After all, the reason he came here in the first place was because of them.

“Ah, I had something to check for a moment—”

“It’s dangerous to come to a place like this alone late at night.”

The man cut off his words and warned stiffly. At the attitude seeming to have no intention of listening to the answer despite asking first, Shim Seo-woo tilted his head slightly. His behavior was absurd, but the content of his warning was even stranger.

Wasn’t he himself alone in a place like this?

Perhaps the question was conveyed through expression alone, as the man raised the corner of his mouth crookedly. It was a smile that suited his slanted posture very well.

“Me? Well, I have a job that requires going to dangerous places.”

…A construction worker?

Though the expression was somewhat unique, given that he confidently entered the building despite a large notice at the library main entrance saying ‘Construction in progress, entry restricted,’ it didn’t seem entirely impossible. Perhaps he came to inspect the site as a construction worker.

Shim Seo-woo blinked slowly and asked.

“Excuse me, we haven’t met before, have we?”

“…So, what about it?”

“Then why are you speaking informally?”

Speaking informally right from the first meeting. He’d deliberately clarified the situation clearly, yet the attitude remained the same, which was absurd. No matter how he looked, the man seemed younger than himself.

The man let out a hollow laugh. His expression suggested ‘is that what’s important in this situation,’ but then he quietly repeated “First time……” and smirked.

“Because no one taught me.”

Shim Seo-woo closed his mouth. Responding like this left nothing to say. Just as he was nodding thinking ‘then that’s understandable,’ the man warned again.

“Anyway, if you’re sane, don’t wander around places like this alone at night.”

It seemed like he was attempting out-of-body rhetoric again.

Just as Shim Seo-woo was wondering whether to raise an objection, the rain stopped. As if it was indeed a shower as predicted, the rain suddenly thinned in an instant and soon became quiet.

Plink, plonk—

When Shim Seo-woo lowered his head after looking up at the sky where the dark clouds were receding, he could already confirm the man had suddenly moved far away to the other side. He hadn’t even felt any sign of him leaving, yet he’d moved in an instant.

“……”

He quietly watched his back as it left, swallowed by the darkness.

It felt like a dream.

Shim Seo-woo generally took the stance of ‘that can happen’ toward all worldly matters. He didn’t readily pay attention to things and tended not to approach others either. As long as they didn’t harm him, he was indifferent to whatever others did.

But just now he’d approached the man first to cover him with an umbrella, and even raised objections to his informal speech.

Did he just want to help because no one would come to a construction site like this? Still, he could have just let the informal speech go, so why did he pick at it…

It must be because of exam period.

Recalling the most plausible reason, Shim Seo-woo pressed firmly on his brow. They say during exam period everything except studying becomes interesting, he must be experiencing those symptoms too.

Let’s not think deeply.

It was Shim Seo-woo’s motto. Don’t worry about incomprehensible things and don’t pay attention to them either. Concluding that he didn’t have mental strength to spare and was rather quite poor in it so he needed to conserve it, he folded up both his umbrella and his thoughts.

*

The next day.

Shim Seo-woo came to the library early in the morning. He moved early wanting to both secure a good seat and finish the studying he couldn’t do at dawn yesterday, but somehow the library was chaotic.

Entering the second day of exam week and getting closer to vacation, had everyone’s minds floated away? Even while buying coffee at the cafe inside the library, he kept hearing murmuring sounds, but Shim Seo-woo didn’t pay attention and just added syrup to his drink.

But just as he was leaving the cafe with his sweet coffee, someone greeted him.

“Hey, Shim Seo-woo!”

“Wow, Meong-seo. You came early in the morning? Spacey but still the top of the department, huh.”

“Hi, Seo-woo.”

It was Park Dong-ju and his girlfriend So Da-hyun. Department classmates, So Da-hyun gave him the nickname ‘Meong Seo-woo’ because she found it funny how he spaced out. And her best friend Yang Ga-young also greeted him waving her hand from beside them.

Shim Seo-woo barely participated in department life, so he only occasionally saw them through Park Dong-ju. As soon as he responded with a light eye greeting, Park Dong-ju asked in a serious voice.

“Hey hey, you said you were at the library until late yesterday, right? Nothing happened?”

“What should have happened? Um, there was a shower around midnight.”

“…From the way you’re saying that, you seem to have no idea at all.”

Shaking his head as if it was his own fault for asking, he said,

“You know that library yesterday. The science library. They said strange sounds were heard from there!”