SS 8(2) Part 1

Side Story #8. Coma (2)

“…Where am I?”

Bomin stood in a space that was white in every direction, clenching his fists tightly. Looking down at himself, he saw he was only wearing a white shirt.

“I’m not even wearing underwear.”

Whoever’s preference it was, they had dressed him in just a shirt, without even underwear. Bomin started walking straight ahead with no other choice.

“Is this a dream? Then I should wake up if I pinch my cheek.”

In this space that lacked any sense of reality, Bomin pinched his cheek hard, but he felt no pain, nor did the space change.

“I have to see Song Jaeho wake up.”

Then he remembered what had happened before he regained consciousness in this space. The medical staff had told him that Song Jaeho would finally wake up. He had tried to stay awake, but he must have fallen asleep more deeply than he thought.

“Even if a day passes here, it’ll only be a moment in reality, right?”

Bomin continued to mutter to himself, feeling uneasy. If he didn’t, it felt like the pure white space would swallow him whole.

“But where is this place…?”

He felt like he had been walking for a long time, but the space remained white. Bomin thought he would go insane if he stayed in a place like this for even a day.

Because it was so white, all sorts of random thoughts came to mind just by looking around. Since so many incidents and accidents had occurred after he came to this world, this situation was starting to feel ominous.

“I didn’t suddenly die, did I?”

Coming to this world had happened abruptly, against his will. Originally, Bomin should have died after being stabbed by Seok Changmu.

Fortunately, the story seemed to have concluded with a happy ending, but Bomin’s life was still ongoing. It wouldn’t be strange at all if the god governing this world suddenly changed his mind and decided to return Bomin to where he originally belonged.

“…I’m really starting to get scared.”

Bomin stopped walking and turned his head from side to side. He stretched out his arms and waved them around to see if he could grab anything. However, the space remained white and terrifyingly silent.

He kept talking to himself because the silence felt like a gaping maw, ready to swallow him whole.

“Is anyone there? If you are, say something!”

He raised his voice, not because he heard anything, but because he desperately hoped someone was there.

“Huh…?”

Was it effective? At that moment, the space actually changed.

A strange light appeared in the distance. The slightly yellowish light resembled the sunlight shining down on the earth under a clear blue late autumn sky.

At first, he took cautious steps, but then Bomin picked up speed and ran towards the light. He worried for a moment that the light might move further away, but fortunately, it grew closer as he ran.

“What is this place?”

Passing through the light, he found himself in a different space. While the previous place had been entirely white, this place was nothing short of a garbage dump.

The ground was covered in filth, and the sky above the shabby shacks seemed gloomy. Bomin pursed his lips and peeled off a plastic bag stuck to the sole of his foot.

“What are you? Get out of the way!”

“Ugh…”

A man in ragged clothes approached and roughly shoved Bomin’s shoulder as he stood there dumbfounded. Soot stained his white shirt gray.

“The smell…”

That was when he noticed the pungent stench. He hadn’t felt any pain when he pinched his cheek before. But now that the location had changed, his shoulder, where the man had shoved him, hurt, and his sense of smell was vivid.

“Did I really end up in another strange place?”

At this point, it was hard to believe it was a dream. A dream couldn’t be this vivid.

“Why is my life like this?”

He had just been about to live happily.

Song Jaeho had fallen into a coma. He hadn’t even been able to see Song Jaeho, whom he had been desperately waiting to wake up, and now he had opened his eyes in a strange place.

“Hey, you there! Stop!”

“You’re dead if we catch you!”

“You’d be an idiot to stop just because we tell you to!”

As Bomin sighed deeply, he heard a commotion behind him. He naturally turned his head and his eyes widened.

“…Song Jaeho?”

No, to be precise, it wasn’t the Song Jaeho he knew. The Song Jaeho he knew was at least a head taller than him, but the boy reflected in Bomin’s eyes now barely reached his shoulders.

There was still baby fat on his grime-smeared cheeks. His body was skinny as if he hadn’t eaten or slept properly, but his face was full of youthful innocence.

Bomin’s small voice reached the ears of the boy and those chasing him.

“You little shit, are you trying to buy people now?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Song Jaeho frowned at the absurd remark, but he was equally puzzled. The man staring blankly at him didn’t belong here.

He was only wearing a shirt, and his legs, exposed beneath the garment, were excessively white.

With a sense of foreboding, Song Jaeho turned his head. The gazes of the men who had been chasing him with murderous intent were now directed at the man.

Witnessing the dark desire rising in their eyes, Song Jaeho cursed under his breath and said,

“Follow me!”

“Uh, uh…?”

While Bomin was lost in thought, wondering what was going on, the boy, who was the spitting image of Song Jaeho, grabbed his hand and pulled him along. Bomin instinctively followed the boy and let out a groan.

“Ah…”

“This is driving me crazy.”

The distance between Song Jaeho and his pursuers hadn’t been that great to begin with. But the man, despite being taller than Song Jaeho, was significantly slower.

Song Jaeho, hearing the groan behind him, turned his head and saw Bomin’s foot, cut by a shard of glass. The man was barefoot.

Walking barefoot in this place, littered with all sorts of dangerous trash, was no different from asking to die from infection.

This neighborhood was full of people who couldn’t even afford one proper meal a day. Ointment for wounds was a luxury that threatened their livelihood.

Perhaps because of that, everyone wore shoes with thick soles, even if they had to scavenge for them in the garbage dump. Getting injured was unacceptable in a neighborhood where their bodies were their assets.

“If we get caught, both you and I will suffer a terrible fate, so bear with it.”

Bomin’s eyes widened at the sudden change in his vision. He was so surprised that he momentarily forgot the stinging pain in his foot.

‘Was he… always this strong?’

He didn’t know what was going on, but Bomin was starting to think that the boy carrying him on his shoulder was Song Jaeho. He looked so much like Song Jaeho that he could be considered his doppelganger.

Song Jaeho had never mentioned having a twin, and the boy had clearly reacted when Bomin had said Song Jaeho’s name earlier.

As if he had called his own name.

‘I feel nauseous…’

His stomach was pressed against the boy’s shoulder, and his body kept swaying. Bomin bit his lower lip until it turned white to suppress the rising nausea. The bones on the back of his hand, gripping Song Jaeho’s waist, stood out whitely.

“Stop right there!”

“…Persistent bastards.”

There were three men chasing Song Jaeho. They were all adults, at least a head taller than Song Jaeho. They were all skinny, but their faces were filled with murderous intent.

Song Jaeho looked around with sharp eyes. He needed time to catch his breath.

A place piled high with all sorts of garbage appeared ahead. It was a mountain of trash, large enough to be called a small hill. The stench was so strong that even rats were crawling on the ground, and its height exceeded the average height of an adult male.

“Don’t breathe for a moment.”

Even in his dazed state, Bomin understood Song Jaeho’s signal and covered his nose with one hand.

Holding his breath, Song Jaeho quickly approached the mountain of garbage. As he stepped on the garbage bags at the edge and climbed up, the trash dislodged by his feet cascaded down.

“Aaack! What is this?!”

“Ah, shit. I just washed this today!”

Even with Bomin on his shoulder, Song Jaeho was as quick as a squirrel. The pursuers tried to follow Song Jaeho up the trash mountain, but they only managed to take a few steps while swatting away the rolling garbage.

While they hesitated, Song Jaeho quickly reached the top of the trash mountain. He then aimed a can the size of his palm and kicked it like a soccer ball.

The can, flying in a parabolic arc, accurately hit the nose of the man in the lead.

“Aaack…!“

“Serves you right.”

The man’s nose started bleeding, showing how strong Song Jaeho’s kick had been. Song Jaeho sneered as the man clutched his nose and collapsed. Then he hurriedly descended the other side of the trash mountain.

“Ugh…”

“What? Are you going to throw up? No! Hold it in!”

The problem was Bomin. He had already been feeling nauseous, and now he had crossed a mountain of garbage teeming with all sorts of filth.

Even though he had only been carried on Song Jaeho’s shoulder, the sights that filled his vision every time he blinked showed no sign of calming his stomach.

Eventually, Bomin’s face turned pale as the things he had been desperately holding back started to rise.

Song Jaeho increased his speed. The men’s shouting gradually faded away. Song Jaeho slipped into a shabby shack only after passing through the maze-like alleyways several times.

“Here…”

The moment Bomin’s bottom touched the floor, he placed his hand on the ground and vomited. Song Jaeho’s hand, which had been reaching out to offer him a bag, froze.