Chapter – 01
Have you ever fallen asleep on a bus and ended up riding all the way to the last stop? Or perhaps realized later that you had gotten on the wrong bus?
I’m sure you have.
Even if it hasn’t happened to you personally, it’s probably a familiar situation. It happens often enough.
Then, have you ever experienced something like this?
You’re dozing off on a bus when, at some point, you suddenly feel something strange. Like the sensation of being bounced off after hitting a soft mattress with a thump.
And when you open your eyes amid that peculiar sensation, you see a night sky filled with countless stars.
Not something that merely resembles a night sky.
A real night sky.
The reason I’m asking is because that’s exactly the situation I’m in right now.
“……Huh?”
I jolted upright.
Looking around frantically, I saw walls blocking me on both sides, a ventilation fan spinning around and around, garbage bags piled up like a mountain, and the glow of a streetlamp shining in the distance.
It was an ordinary alleyway, the kind you could see anywhere.
But to me, it wasn’t ordinary at all.
Why am I here?
I sat there blankly for a while.
I didn’t know how I was supposed to make sense of waking up and finding myself lying in an unfamiliar alley.
I…… was definitely on a bus.
Tomorrow was my birthday, so I had met up with my friends. After hanging out with them until dinner, I took the last bus home, and the moment I sat down, I fell asleep…….
Other than that, I couldn’t remember anything.
Of course I couldn’t. That really was all that had happened.
But then why was I outside the bus instead of inside it?
And why the hell was I lying in an alley like this?!
On top of that, I realized only later that my phone and bag, which I had been carrying with me, were nowhere to be seen.
The sweater and coat I had been wearing, along with my sneakers, were the only things left.
In other words, I was completely penniless.
……Could this be a dream? A lucid dream or something?
The thought briefly crossed my mind, but I soon dismissed it.
I had never had a lucid dream before, and besides, this felt far too real to be a dream.
How long had I been sitting there like that?
Before long, I came up with a plan.
First, I would figure out where I was.
Then I would find the police.
I had no idea what had happened, but surely the police would be able to help me somehow.
And then, the moment I slowly walked out of the alley……
The simple plan I had been holding in my head vanished.
“…….”
I couldn’t figure out where I was just by looking around.
The scenery outside the alley looked ordinary.
Restaurants and cafés lined the streets. Cars were illegally parked along the sidewalks. People were chatting noisily or walking past them.
Yes.
It all looked incredibly familiar, but……
For some reason, looking at that scenery gave me a strange sense of unfamiliarity.
The writing on the signs and even the conversations I could hear around me were all in Korean.
So why did everything feel so unfamiliar?
After hesitating for a while, I decided to walk a little farther.
I would keep going until I found somewhere I recognized.
Banks and franchise cafés usually had branch names displayed somewhere, so I figured I could use those to determine where I was.
I walked for quite a while.
About twenty minutes, judging by how it felt.
Honestly, something should have turned up by then……
But I still couldn’t find what I was looking for.
The names of stores, street names, even the words displayed everywhere along the roads.
Everything was unfamiliar.
But my confusion lasted only a moment.
Just as I was leaving the restaurant district, something caught my attention.
It was an electronic information board at the entrance to a road leading onto a four-lane street.
I narrowed my eyes and watched the words scrolling from right to left.
Lachajert Police Station?
Was there really a police station in a place with a name like that?
Unable to believe it, I waited for the message to scroll past once more and looked again.
The result was the same.
Lachajert Police Station.
And, as if conveniently arranged for me, there was a public telephone booth directly underneath the sign.
As though it were saying this was my only option.
I didn’t even consider asking someone else for help.
That strange sense of unfamiliarity I had felt ever since leaving the alley prevented me from doing so.
How should I put it……
I simply had the feeling that I shouldn’t casually speak to anyone or enter just anywhere.
I trudged into the public telephone booth.
After pressing the emergency button, I initially dialed 112.
For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to call the number on the sign right away.
But then……
—The number you have dialed does not exist.
“…….”
That was the first time in my life I had ever heard someone say that 112 was a nonexistent number.
Unable to believe it, I dialed again, but nothing changed.
In the end, my next option was the eight-digit number displayed on the electronic sign.
Click.
—Yes, this is the emergency dispatch center.
Fortunately, this time I heard a human voice instead of an automated message.
For a moment, I felt relieved.
I was so flustered by the situation that I didn’t even have time to think about how strange this number was.
“Um, could you possibly tell me where I am right now?”
—Your location?
“Yes…… I think I’ve gotten lost.”
—……You’ve gotten lost?
“Yes…… I don’t have any of my belongings with me either…… I just woke up and found myself here……”
Unfortunately, that was all I could say at the moment.
What else could I do when that was the truth?
I desperately prayed that they wouldn’t mistake my call for a prank.
—……I understand.
After a brief silence, the police officer spoke.
—Before that, could you tell me your current residential address?
“My residential address?”
Why were they suddenly asking me that?
Still puzzled, I obediently answered.
“XX-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul……”
I hadn’t even finished giving the address when—
—I’ve confirmed your current location.
“What?”
—We’ll arrive within five minutes.
Click.
And just like that, the call ended.
What kind of conversation was that?
I stared blankly at the receiver before slowly hanging it back in its place.
I should have felt relieved after hearing that the police would arrive within five minutes.
Instead, I couldn’t understand why I felt even more uneasy.
Well, what else could I do?
All I could do was wait quietly for five minutes.
I stepped out of the phone booth and stood on the sidewalk.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t explained anything about my clothes or appearance.
What if they couldn’t recognize me right away?
As I worried about that and stared blankly at the cars passing by……
A car appeared in the distance.
The flashing light mounted on its roof.
The police emblem on its front.
There was no doubt about it.
It was a police car.
The moment I saw it, I cheered inwardly.
A police car! It’s really the police!
The police car smoothly approached and stopped in front of me.
Then the window slowly rolled down, and a low male voice came through the half-open gap.
“Get in.”
I hurried over and reached for the door handle.
But just before opening the door, I instinctively shifted my eyes toward the person sitting in the driver’s seat.
It was nighttime, and there wasn’t even the faintest light inside the car.
Even so, there were a few things I could make out.
Leather gloves gripping the steering wheel.
A jumpsuit.
And the features of a skull revealed by faint shadows.
……A skull mask?
Why was a police officer wearing something like that?
I froze with my hand still gripping the handle.
The man wearing the skull mask spoke to me again.
“Get in beside me.”
His voice was low and distant, as though darkness itself had been turned into sound.
The relief I had been feeling began to churn again.
I had thought that most of my problems would be solved once the police arrived.
But instead, an even bigger problem had appeared.
What do I do now?
I was hesitating, unable to bring myself to get in.
Then—
Wooo-oo, wooo-oo, wooo-oo……
Suddenly, sirens rang out from the end of the road.
I raised my head.
Red and blue lights were racing toward us.
Two police cars.
They were identical to the one standing in front of me.
Could that be them?
Just as I instinctively started to release the door handle……
“Don’t want to go back?”
The police officer wearing the skull mask—or rather, the man—asked.
I flinched and met the hollow eyes of the skull.
“If not, get in. I’ll take you home.”
“…….”
“We don’t have much time. Hurry.”
The man continued trying to persuade me.
His tone remained consistent, as though he were saying get in for the first time.
The flashing lights of the sirens were drawing closer and closer.
And when those lights had grown as large as the palm of my hand……
“Ms. Myung Sena.”
“……!”
The man called me by my name.
