Doesn’t seem to be a dream at all“Kuh!”
Tae Hyuk opened his eyes with a death cry.
It was a grimy dream.
Things like this happens sometimes. You can’t differentiate if it was real or not even after waking up from the dream.
“What the f.u.c.k was that dream?”
In the dream, Tae Hyuk was a death condemned criminal due to a false charge.
“f.u.c.k.”
Even thinking about it made him say harsh curses.
Tae Hyuk sank on the bedding and couldn’t move for a while.
“⋯⋯wait. So that means I got jailed for someone I didn’t kill? And then I got executed.”
Definitely Tae Hyuk hadn’t killed anybody. But the proofs were perfect. The CCTV that filmed the scene of crime, the weapon with Tae Hyuk’s fingerprint clearly on it, the witness who has seen him escaping.
“What the f.u.c.k!”
His body trembled.
“Wait. It was just a dream, right? Let’s just say it was a bad dream and⋯⋯.”
But something was wrong. It felt way too real for a dream. He really felt like he was a death condemned criminal jailed in a prison like it was yesterday.
If that was a dream, who is he now?
Tae Hyuk turned his head and looked around.
A room that’s a little more than 3 Pyong (*1 Pyong = 3.3058m2) with a simple composition with only a bunk bed, two desks and a little bookshelf.
The semibas.e.m.e.nt’s particular humid and musty smell remained as it was.
The room he shared until he graduated Highschool with his little brother Tae Min.
“What’s this? It feels like I’m recalling a 10 years old memory. Crazy. It’s all because of that realistic dream.”
The time that pa.s.sed inside the dream was 15 years.
However, in reality, only a single night pa.s.sed. But what is this sense of incongruity?
“Anyway, I’m a high school student, right? I’m not a death condemned criminal, right?”
Tae Hyuk wanted to confirm as to calm his confused mind.
“Right, a mirror!”
Tae Hyuk madly searched for a mirror in the room. He felt he would feel relieved only after he checked his appearance.
But if the appearance reflected on it wasn’t that of a high schooler but that of a 30 years old man⋯⋯. Only thinking about it makes him shiver.
Finally he found a small hand mirror.
“Ugh. What a bad taste.”
An image of a ominous looking devil was engraved on the mirror.
“Did we have such mirror?”
It could have been his little brother’s stuff.
Since where he found it was the bookshelf they both shared.
“⋯⋯Whew. Thank G.o.d, I was a high schooler.”
On the mirror, a man’s appearance who looked to be about in the late 10s reflected on.
“Wait. Then what’s this?”
Tae Hyuk looked around with a troubled expression. But nothing was around.
He looked in the mirror again.
There were plenty of strange words coming up on it.
[Seo Tae Hyuk]
– t.i.tle : G.o.d of Crime
– Rank : Plebeian (Insufficient promoting condition)
– Possessing skills : None
On top of that, things like inventory window or possession or whatever were filling the mirror to the brim.
Tae Hyuk chuckled.
“That’s a well made toy.”
The content was what you would often see in recently popular online games.
The one who likes this kind of stuffs⋯⋯.
There was only Tae Min in the family.
Anyway, it was right he was a high schooler.
Tae Hyuk breathed a sigh of relief.
He wasn’t a falsely charged death condemned criminal. He’s Seo Tae Hyuk in the 2nd grade of High school, living with his older sister and little brother. Then things that didn’t come to mind before started to come to him.
He looks a little like a delinquent, unlike his little brother who’s a model student to the bone.
Moreover, he sometimes cut school and his marks couldn’t be said to be good at all.
That must be why he was treated like a kinky problem child.
But he wasn’t a thug at least.
“Mm. Did Tae Min already go out?”
A savory rice cooking smell came from somewhere. Seems Seo Ha Ran, the older sister, is preparing the breakfast. Thinking so, he started to feel hungry.
“Hey, Tae Hyuk! Come eat!”
Noona’s voice could be heard. (*Noona = older sister for boys, an equivalent to the j.a.panese “onee-san”)
Tae Hyuk, while scratched his back head, went towards the kitchen.
“⋯⋯.”
Tae Hyuk’s eye rims turned red.
So Ha Ran, shocked, asked him.
“What is it? Have you had a frightening dream?”
Tae Min who sat in front of him looked Tae Hyuk as if he was pathetic and turned his eyes back to the English glossary.
The exam was soon and even taking time to eat was too good for him.
“It’s just that some dust got in my eye.”
The breakfast menu was Kimchi Jjigae. You could see only a few tofu in it, not even a piece of meat was there.
Ha Ran said while fidgeting.
“⋯⋯I’m sorry, I’ll cook you one with meat when I’ll get paid.”
“No, it’s really because dust went in my eye. And the Kimchi Jjigae noona is making is the best in the world. So much that I would eat it before dying.”
It was sincere.
He could taste the Kimchi Jjigae her noona made when he took one spoonful and put it in his mouth.
The food he couldn’t eat in the dream to the last.
“Oh my, you. You’ll get late. let’s dig in quickly.”
Ha Ran grinned and moved her spoon. It seems she didn’t dislike the high praise Tae Hyuk gave her.
Ha Ran became Tae Hyuk and Tae Min’s sole guardian when their parents died in an accident. She’s working a double shift in a factory at an early age in the early 20s.
She didn’t put any makeup on her but she was prettier than anyone in this world for Tae Hyuk.
Tae Hyuk bit his lip.
‘When I will graduate high school, I’ll get a job right away and help noona.’
But then he was taken aback.
He suddenly remembered the dream where he became a death condemned criminal.
‘I graduated school and as I had nothing but my own body, I got employed in a private security company. Then I worked about two years to death. And then⋯⋯.’
He was falsely charged and went to the prison.
‘No! That was a dream, a dream! s.h.i.t⋯⋯!’
Tae Hyuk turned on the TV to shake off the death condemned prisoner’s memory that came every time then.
– The Prosecution is looking for the serial killer Yoo Cheol Ho who escaped from the Central penitentiary on the last 9th⋯⋯.”
When the news about a terrible criminal was reported, Ha Ran started to make a fuss.
“Oh my. Seems that guy hasn’t been caught yet. It was said he might be around here so when you’re outside, always go to bright places and don’t follow people you met for the first time even if they say to. Okay?”
“Noona. I’m all grown up too. And why do you say nothing to Tae Min then?”
“Because Tae Min is steady.”
“Then you mean I’m delinquent?”
“Uhuhuh!”
Tae Hyuk and Tae Min were already high schoolers. But they were still children for Ha Ran.
To her older sister’s worry, Tae Hyuk giggled and nodded.
“Anyway. That person hasn’t been caught yet? I was sure he was caught⋯⋯.”
Yoo Cheol Ho. It was a familiar name.
There was a time he was in the cell next to his for a while.
In other word, a good neighbor.
‘Although that was in a dream of course.’
Tae Hyuk felt he knew why he had that kind of dream. Because they always talked about that kind of things everyday on the news.
“Hyung. Did you eat something bad? Yoo Cheol Ho got caught after committing 7 cases of murder was 3 month ago. He broke out last week. So what do you mean he was caught?” (*Hyung = older brother for boys, an equivalent to the j.a.panese “onii-san”)
Tae Min who was eating silently got in the middle of the talk.
Tae Hyuk gathered his brows. It was Team who had a lot of interest in this kind of thing but it seems he knew something wrong this time.
Definitely⋯⋯.
“What are you saying? Yoo Cheol Ho definitely was caught after committing 3 more cases of murder across the country during the half year after his escape.”
Tae Min breathed a big sigh and said,
“Ehew. Hyung, don’t only read comic books and watch some news. Yoo Cheol Ho got caught? They said he was nowhere to found. And the bounty on his head was quite an amount. Maybe you dreamt about catching him or something like that.”
Wait.
Yoo Cheol Ho definitely got caught after his escape?
He was a totally crazy psycho and a prattler.
And he didn’t even have night sleep so he gossiped his achievement until dawn.
The nickname ‘Escape King’ he got after succeeding to escape twice in total from the prison. And where he went and how he fled was all clear inside Tae Hyuk’s head.
“Then you mean Yoo Cheol Ho’s nickname isn’t the Escape King?”
Tae Min put his index next to his head and turned round and round.
“Hey. That’s not something to do to his older brother!”
“Ah. It’s already 8. You should also hurry up if you don’t want to be late. The student princ.i.p.al said he was going to break legs who is late again.”
Tae Min stood up and fled to his room.
‘I was sure it was a s.h.i.tty dream.’
What Escape King, a friend of the Pirate King or what.
“Indeed, if it was like inside the dream, Yoo Cheol Ho’s accomplice should have been caught in the S city by now. But it isn’t.”
Tae Hyuk said something that came in his mind before he knew it.
“You must be half-awake.”
Ha Ran laughed.
About a few minutes went.
“⋯⋯H-hey Tae Hyuk.”
Ha Ran who was eating while watching news started to shiver as if she saw a ghost.
“Huh?”
“⋯⋯Just before, you said something about Yoo Cheol Ho’s accomplice, right?”
“Yeah. So what.”
“L-look.”
Ha Ran pointed at the TV with her shivering hand.
– Flash news. The prison-breaker Yoo Cheol Ho’s accomplice was said to be caught in the S city.
Tae Hyuk gaped. He was so astonished he didn’t know the spoon in his mouth fell.
‘Wait. What’s this? What’s that!?’
News’ content was perfectly like in his dream. Things happened as Yoo Cheol Ho’s first prison-break.
‘A dream. That was a dream! But why are the same things happening in reality!’
“⋯Noona. That’s a rebroadcast, right? In real, it happened yesterday or the day before, right?”
“That’s⋯⋯a live broadcast⋯⋯.”
That word stabbed Tae Hyuk’s heart like a dagger.
If that wasn’t a dream, what was it?
A foreknowledge dream? Return to the past? If not even those, just a mere coincidence?
Ha Ran looked Tae Hyuk with anxious eye.
Tae Hyuk tried to look bright.
“Ahaha. I was just saying things like that. It seems I got coincidently got it right. Should I go buy a lottery ticket?”
“Hey~ I got surprised for a while.”
“I should go to school as well. You’ll come late at night, right? Be careful.”
“My prince worries for me so I guess I’ll have to be careful. See ya later.”
“Yeah, see ya.”
Tae Hyuk took his bag and came out of his home.
The smile was no longer on his face.
As the content of the dream is, Yoo Cheol Ho should be somewhere not far from here.
‘Let’s check if Yoo Cheol Ho is really there. Then I’ll know if that was a dream or whatever else.”
Sorry for the sister but it doesn’t seem for him to be able to go to school.