The walk home was painfully quiet.
Ji-an shoved both hands into the pockets of his school blazer as he stared at the damp sidewalk beneath his feet.
People bustled around him.
Cars passed.
A little girl laughed while chasing her older brother.
Everything looked...
Normal.
Too normal.
How could the world continue as if nothing had happened?
He had seen a monster.
It had spoken his name.
And somehow...
Everyone else acted like it was just another Tuesday.
His phone buzzed.
Minho: Where'd you disappear to? I waited by the gate for almost twenty minutes!
Ji-an blinked.
Twenty minutes?
That couldn't be right.
He looked at the time.
6:42 P.M.
His eyes widened.
The last thing he remembered was talking to Haon outside the hallway.
That had been around...
Five o'clock.
"...Where did an hour go?"
A cold chill crept down his spine.
He couldn't remember.
Not a single second.
He quickly typed a reply.
Ji-an: Sorry. I lost track of time.
Almost instantly...
Minho: You seriously worry me sometimes.
Get some sleep tonight, okay?
Ji-an let out a weak laugh.
"If only it were that easy..."
His apartment was small but cozy.
A bookshelf filled one wall of his bedroom.
Sketchbooks were stacked neatly beside his desk, each one packed with charcoal drawings of places he had never visited.
A cracked moon.
Snow.
A black umbrella.
The same boy.
Every.
Single.
Time.
Ji-an slowly flipped through the pages.
His fingers stopped.
There was a drawing he didn't remember making.
It showed two boys standing together beneath the moon.
One was clearly him.
The other...
Had amber eyes.
Haon.
His breath caught.
"I drew you..."
"...before we met."
A knock at his bedroom door interrupted his thoughts.
Mother: "Ji-an?"
Her gentle voice carried through the wood.
"Have you eaten?"
Ji-an quickly closed the sketchbook.
Ji-an: "Not yet."
His mother peeked inside.
She looked exhausted after another long shift at the hospital, but she still smiled warmly.
She noticed the dark circles beneath his eyes immediately.
Again.
Her smile faded just a little.
Mother: "Another nightmare?"
Ji-an hesitated.
"...Yeah."
She walked over and gently brushed a strand of hair away from his forehead.
It was something she'd done since he was little.
Mother: "You used to tell me all your dreams."
She smiled sadly.
"Then one day..."
"...you stopped."
Ji-an looked away.
"I didn't want you to worry."
She sighed.
"I've always worried."
After dinner...
Rain began tapping softly against the apartment windows.
Ji-an couldn't stop thinking about Haon.
Who was he?
Why did he know his name before introducing himself?
What was the Hollow?
More importantly...
What did Haon mean by...
"I failed to protect you once."
Unable to stop himself...
Ji-an opened the school website.
Student Directory
Seo Haon
He clicked the profile.
Loading...
Loading...
Then...
No records found.
"...What?"
He refreshed the page.
Again.
No records found.
His heart began pounding.
Maybe the system hadn't updated yet.
Right?
He searched social media.
Nothing.
Search engines.
Nothing.
No photos.
No old school records.
No competition results.
No digital footprint.
It was as if...
Seo Haon had never existed before today.
A notification suddenly appeared on his phone.
Unknown Number
«Stop looking.»
Ji-an froze.
His blood ran cold.
His fingers trembled over the screen.
How...
How could they know what he was doing?
Another message arrived.
«You'll only remember things that were meant to stay forgotten.»
Ji-an quickly typed back.
Ji-an: Who are you?
The typing bubble appeared immediately.
Then disappeared.
Appeared again.
Finally...
One sentence arrived.
«Ask Haon why your birthday doesn't exist.»
Ji-an frowned.
"My birthday...?"
What kind of message was that?
His birthday was October—
...
He opened his calendar.
The date was there.
But...
Every photograph from his birthdays before the age of six...
Had disappeared from his gallery.
His family albums.
His cloud backups.
Everything.
Every picture before his sixth birthday showed only empty rooms.
An untouched birthday cake.
Friends smiling beside...
No one.
Someone had been erased.
Or...
Someone had never been there.
A loud THUD echoed from outside his bedroom window.
Ji-an slowly looked up.
Someone was standing on the fire escape.
Tall.
Motionless.
Wearing a black school uniform soaked by the rain.
Amber eyes met his through the glass.
Haon.
He placed one finger against his lips.
Haon (mouthing silently): Don't make a sound.
Behind Haon...
A second shadow slowly rose into view.
Much taller.
With a single white eye opening in the darkness.
To Be Continued...
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