MFS | 001

Chapter 001

“Now, after you sleep a bit and wake up, you’ll be all right.”

Yena muttered in a low voice as she took off her sweat-drenched surgical cap. It was a major surgery that had taken six long hours.

The animal protection association had found this street cat after it was hit by a car, leaving its hind leg crushed. They rescued it and brought it here. Another hospital recommended euthanasia, saying there was no hope for recovery, but they couldn’t bring themselves to do it and came to Yena’s clinic instead.

Yena didn’t give up, and the surgery was a success.

Yena carefully lifted the cat, which had not yet awakened from the anesthesia. Its hind leg was wrapped in layers of compression bandages with precisely inserted pins.

“Let’s recover well and try walking together!”

The cat couldn’t possibly understand human words, but Yena carefully placed its fragile body inside a clean glass cage in the observation room. The space was warm, thanks to the heating pad.

Although she had large hands for a woman, Yena’s touch became gentler than ever whenever she handled a living soul, softly stroking the small cat’s head.

In the past, Yena had been a promising volleyball player. Her skills were so exceptional that she earned a spot on the national team while in her third year of high school, dominating the court with her height that exceeded 180 cm in her freshman year, along with her solid physique.

While running non-stop toward the top amidst praise for being a genius spiker, she suffered a knee injury in an unexpected car accident, putting an involuntary end to her brilliant athletic career.

The effort of her lifetime went up in smoke, but the time Yena spent in despair lasted only a single month.

Because she loved her life and did not know how to give up, she gave serious thought to what she loved after volleyball. She soon remembered that she truly loved animals, and as a result, she became a veterinarian.

For Yena, who had spent her entire life dedicated solely to sports, entering veterinary school was a challenge bordering on impossible. Yet, with terrifying determination, Yena achieved the miracle of admission to veterinary school within three years.

Currently, she was making a name for herself as the finest veterinarian in South Korea in both word and deed. It was not merely due to her outstanding medical skills.

It was because her resume—which included acquiring qualifications as a specialist for large animals and special predators alongside domestic pets—was unmatched. Her recent appearance on an animal-related show had also made a huge impact.

This result was the fruit of tenacity from Yena, who never left a goal unfinished once she set her mind to it.

“My goodness, look how handsome you are.”

It was right after she placed the cat in the cage and closed the door. The feline, which had been relaxing under the anesthesia, suddenly raised its head and stared intently at Yena. It was not yet time for it to wake up.

“Huh? Why is it awake already?”

She was startled for a moment. Then, the cat, which had been staring at Yena, slowly blinked its eyes as if greeting her.

Inside the cat’s blue eyes, the slit pupils lit up with a golden hue like a lamp. And when Yena opened the door of the glass cage, spellbound by the unique color of its pupils…

—Come to Black Dust. You’ll be able to turn everything back then, Yena.

Said the cat, staring deeply at Yena. It was a strange voice that sounded like a child at times, and like an old man over ninety at others.

Does a cat talk?

Without time to be astonished, a sharp pain shot through the middle of Yena’s forehead like lightning, bringing tears to her eyes.

“Agh!”

Something flashed between her eyes. She wondered if this was what it felt like for a spark to go off. Yena clutched her throbbing forehead and collapsed straight onto the floor.

The pain was so intense that it felt as though her forehead were splitting open. She quickly wiped it to see if she was bleeding, but fortunately, that was not the case.

“Miss! Miss! Are you all right?”

The sound of someone calling out urgently was heard from afar, gradually drawing closer step by step.

‘Are they calling me?’

Even though they undoubtedly saw her wearing a doctor’s coat, there were still people who insisted on calling her “Miss.” Yena never turned around for that. And it was the same right now.

Just as she tightly closed her eyes, thinking she would never answer, she opened her eyes and…

Wasn’t she standing outside by herself instead of indoors!

“What is this?”

Furthermore, the clothes she was wearing were strange. Excessively bothersome lace hung like spiderwebs on the sleeves and along the hem of the long skirt that nearly dragged on the ground.

She didn’t recall changing her clothes, so who… She forgot the pain in her forehead out of sheer bewilderment.

Or was it a dream?

“Miss, are you all right?”

Yena turned in dazed surprise toward the anxious voice coming from beside her.

There stood a slender woman wearing glasses, looking at her with a face on the verge of tears. She too was wearing a long skirt, but it did not have lace like hers. Though her hair was tied up tightly, the stray strands flying about gave her overall impression a disheveled look.

Yena didn’t know where to start shouting or asking questions, so she simply stood there with her mouth agape.

“You idiot. Who told you to stand there doing nothing?”

Yena’s head turned toward the voice shouting at the top of its lungs.

Inside the large, ostentatious gate that one might see in an amusement park, stood a boy who looked to be in middle school at the very most. The child was wearing clothes that a prince in a fairy tale might wear.

What is this? What is this situation?

If it were a normal situation, she would have said: ‘What’s your name, and where do you go to school? Bring your parents!’ But she was in no condition to do that right now. When she placed her hand on her culprit of a forehead, she found a prominent bruise.

While Yena staggered for a moment, she took a step backward upon feeling like she had stepped on something, accompanied by a snapping sound.

There was a bag that looked expensive lying on the ground. It seemed this very bag was what made her forehead like this. Yena asked the prince standing inside the gate in bewilderment:

“Hey kid. Did you throw this?”

Yena asked, suppressing her emotions as calmly as possible. No matter how bad the situation was, she couldn’t pick a fight with a child.

“Yeah. And what are you gonna do about it!”

Sassy and provocative; even his strange way of dressing couldn’t cover up his lack of manners.

“Why?”

Yena suddenly approached the tightly closed gate and gritted her teeth. Looking at the wide gap between the iron bars, he must have thrown it through that space.

“And why do I have to tell you that?”

Yena’s temper gradually flared up. The strange situation was one thing, but first, she had to discipline this rude kid.

“Hey! Get over here for a second.”

Yena thrust her arm through the iron bars and beckoned hastily with her hand as she spoke. Her annoyance was enough to kill her, and the fluttering lace only added to her anger.

The boy sneered and raised one side of his lips, then stepped back on purpose so she could see him.

“Hey! I told you to come here!”

However, the boy looked at Yena with strange eyes, then quickly disappeared toward the mansion, while the woman standing beside her approached, dropping to her knees to pick up the bag that had gotten dirty from Yena stepping on it, not knowing what to do.

“Miss, why on earth are you doing this! That is Young Master Noah.”

“Noah? Who is that?”

Her anger was due to the little brat, but her emotions weren’t controlled, so her voice rose at the wrong person.

She saw the woman with glasses in shock, but she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t pretend to know what she didn’t know.

“Young Master Noah who just went inside. He is your younger brother, Miss.”

“Pardon? I don’t have a younger brother.”

At the answer from Yena, who was looking at her in bewilderment, the woman fell to the ground with a hopeless expression.

“Oh, my goodness! It seems you’ve lost your memory from the shock of being kicked out! Heaven is so cruel! Kicking you out barefooted was unjust enough, and now making my miss a fool and an idiot!”

The woman with glasses wept bitterly as she sat on the ground.

“Uh, listen to me. How can you call a perfectly fine person a fool and an idiot! Despite this, I am the director of a successful veterinary hospital in Seoul.”

“Uhhhh! Now you’re spouting nonsense too. What do we do!”

Yena rubbed her still-throbbing forehead as she stepped away from the woman with slow strides. Considering how much the spot where she was hit hurt, this was definitely not a dream. Getting out of here was the top priority.

Yena approached the woman hesitantly and asked her cautiously:

“Excuse me. Do you happen to have a cell phone you could lend me? I need to call my friend to come pick me up… Where are we? Is this the Paju English Village?”

Suddenly, a strange thought crossed Yena’s mind. What she saw before her was clearly a foreigner, and she was using a language she was hearing for the first time, yet she understood everything.

In fact, even the language coming out of her own mouth was no different. It was as if an automatic translation system had been implanted in her mouth and ears.

“Could it be… Did I wake up like the protagonists in novels? Status window?”

When the woman saw Yena muttering while staring into empty space, she began to cry even more bitterly. The flustered Yena, unable to comfort the woman, gave up and looked around the area.

Since she didn’t know where this place was, she had to head out to the city first.

Whooooosh!

The wind blew, causing the long skirt she was wearing to flutter, and long yellow hair blew near her face. Yena grabbed the hair slapping her face in bewilderment.

“What is this fur-like hair!”

The moment she pulled the long hair stuck to her cheek, Yena’s head turned sharply. Even her scalp hurt.

“Is this my hair?”

Her scalp was so sensitive that she had never dyed her hair even once, yet it was blonde! It was enough to drive someone crazy.

The unknown woman was weeping bitterly while looking at her, this place was unknown, and her forehead, hit by that bad boy, hurt as the bruise swelled more and more.

“Let’s pull myself together. I can solve this. There is nothing that cannot be solved.”

It was then that Yena muttered as if commanding herself.

Neiiiigh!

“Get out of the way!”

From afar, a carriage that looked like it had just come out of an amusement park parade was rushing in her direction.

This was truly driving her crazy.