A park bench located in Jongno.
If anyone passing by saw the man sitting there, they would have hastened themselves. It was three in the morning, and the young man sitting on the park bench was smiling alone.
“Hahahahaha….”
Yoon-seok looked around, smiling. The night sky was embroidered with stars. From afar, the sound of the engine revving up reached his ears. Everything was the same as before he was dragged into the Tower of the Sky.
Could it be that time didn’t pass there? Yoon-seok paused as he checked the hour hand of the park clock.
‘Even the time is the same.’
Could it have been that the series of events he had experienced were all some long dream?
「Time remaining until return 23:58:41. 」
If it weren’t for that, Yoon-seok would think it was all a dream. He took out his smartphone, which was completely drained.
It had probably been three days since he went to this park bench. Yoon-seok went out to the side of the road and hailed a taxi. He found it almost ironic to be doing so, as, in the past, he would have waited for the first bus to save himself some money.
But as time passed, all values change. The value of time had also changed for Yoon-seok, who had to go back to the Tower after 24 hours. Now, every second spent on Earth was indescribably precious.
“Please go to Sillim-dong,” he asked the driver who stopped for him.
The taxi ran along Seoul Avenue: its destination his shabby apartment. The taxi driver didn’t say anything, and Yoon-seok quietly looked out the window to watch the night view of Seoul. It was an ordinary landscape with nothing special about it, but why did it feel so different today? Yoon-seok grinned.
The taxi driver noticed his smile.
“What’s so funny?”
“Just…it’s a little different from what I imagined.”
‘I thought that if I came back here, I would shed tears.’
Was it because it’s only for one day? Or was it because there was work to be done? The taxi driver, who had been quietly listening, said yes.
“I guess you came back from a long way?”
“Yeah. I came back from a long way away, but Seoul is still the same.”
“Oh, it seems like that, but a lot has changed.”
The driver spoke about the 100-story building built in Jamsil and news of the redevelopment of Guro. By the time he was done, the taxi had arrived at its destination. Just as Yoon-seok was about to close the door, the driver asked him a question.
“So, how long have you been away?”
“Three days.”
“Huh?”
* * *
“Huh! The guy from Room #603!”
As Yoon-seok entered the password for the common front door, the half-asleep guard jumped up in surprise.
“Where have you been all this time? There has been quite a commotion here.”
“Yes?”
“A friend of yours or something came and kept shouting for you to come out. We had to call the police.”
It was obvious to Yoon-seok who that ‘friend’ was.
Kang Hyung-woo. Probably because he didn’t get in touch with Yoon-seok, he came to this place out of anger. Yoon-seok bowed his head and apologized to the guard.
“Sorry. It will never happen again.”
The guard had a slightly puzzled face as he stared at him.
“You…it seems that something changed with you, somehow.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, should I say you look a little more mature? Anyway, that isn’t important. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but I hope it gets resolved.”
“Yes, I hope so too.”
“It’s late, so come in.”
After the brief conversation, Yoon-seok entered his apartment. It was a six sq. ft. studio room that cost him a deposit of five hundred. As he looked into the room, he spoke to himself.
“You are back.”
It was different from a stone chamber with only one stone statue, though few furniture decorated the dull space. Above all, he could feel hunger, thirst, and fatigue. After plugging the charger into his smartphone, Yoon-seok opened his refrigerator.
There was one unopened can of Coke left.
Chii -!
A soothing sound pierced his ears as he opened it without hesitation and gulped it down.
“Wow, was it this delicious?”
Yoon-seok’s tongue exclaimed at the sweet yet tangy taste of cola.
‘Wait, this isn’t enough.’
Yoon-seok hurriedly turned his smartphone on. Then, he called the nearby late-night restaurants one after another.
* * *
Chicken, Tteokbokki, Bossam, and more. When he finally came to his senses, he realized he had just consumed 90,000 won worth of late-night snacks.
‘Why are you like this?’
Yoon-seok was a person who could barely handle even one chicken. But even after eating this much, there was still room in his stomach.
‘Did my stomach expand even though I didn’t eat anything?’
Yoon-seok stroked his stomach and was surprised at the texture he felt. Instead of soft belly fat, he felt something rock-hard with his fingertips. Yoon-seok hurriedly rolled up his clothes, and thick abs were revealed under his shirt.
“What? Hahaha!”
It was ridiculous.
‘Can I use {Weapon Enhancement} or my other skills here…huh?’
「The unique skill {Weapon Enhancement} is activated. 」
The plastic fork that came with the delivery food was covered with a red aura.
‘Is this real?’
As a test, he tried using Backstep.
「Ready for counterattack. 」
Yoon-seok took a deep breath. In the chatroom, some said that they could use skills they learned in the Tower in their original world. He had dismissed it as a rumor, but it must be true. Yoon-seok had experienced many nonsensical things so far, so it wasn’t difficult for him to accept the current situation.
‘It’s like having superpowers…’
The highest-ranked stat he had was his F+ rank agility. Even so, he was confident that he could knock down some of the world martial arts champions with that alone. The more fights he experienced in the arena, the stronger he would be.
‘The problem is that I’m not the only one in this situation…’
The Tower of Heaven had thousands of challengers, each with their abilities. If they were placed back into society…what was the world going to be like?
‘Now isn’t the time to worry about such things.’
Yoon-seok picked up the smartphone and checked the accumulated messages one by one.
-Kang Hyung-woo: Hey, where are you?
– Kang Hyung-woo: What? Call me right away.
– Kang Hyung-woo: Fuck, are you avoiding me now? Can you afford it?
– Kang Hyung-woo: Let’s see. I’m on my way to your mother and father right now.
It was Kang Hyung-woo who contacted him the most. There were 32 text messages, and 117 missed calls from him.
‘This is why the battery ran out…’
Kang Hyung-woo’s text message that he was visiting his parents did surprise Yoon-seok. It was what he expected him to do. Yoon-seok then checked the contacts from his parents.
-Father: Yoon Seok-ah, Hyung-woo said he couldn’t contact you, is there something wrong?
-Father: Hyung-woo came and went today. He asked me to quickly repay the principal of the debt I borrowed from the last fire. Do you know why Hyung-woo is suddenly like this?
-Father: If the two of you fight, try to solve it through conversation. Aren’t you friends?
When Hyung-woo threatened about coming to his parents’ place, Yoon-seok did not react. However, while reading his father’s text, he found his hands trembling.
‘Aren’t you friends?’
His father wasn’t stupid. He knows that urging someone’s parents to pay off their debts after a fight wasn’t something a friend would do.
‘Did you pretend you didn’t know my situation?’
The feeling of betrayal felt like a cold dagger in Yoon-seok’s heart. As a father, he must be completely aware of the relationship between Yoon-seok and Hyung-woo. It was like Yoon-seok suspecting Hyung-woo for the fire but deciding not to dig deeper into it.
His father must be heartbroken about his situation but chose to ignore it. It was because he couldn’t do anything even if he found out the truth.
‘Nevertheless…’
It was 5:30 am. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but his father, who went to work early, must already be awake. Yoon-seok took a deep breath and pressed the call button.
– Yoonseok-ah…why couldn’t we contact you? Are you okay?
As soon as his father picked up the phone, words of worry and concern immediately poured out. Yoon-seok also heard his mother mutter, ‘Is that Yoon-seok?’ over his father’s voice.
He didn’t answer any of his father’s questions. Instead.
“Father, I have something to tell you. Will you listen?”
When his father replied yes, Yoon-seok began confessing about Kang Hyung-woo’s bullying that had been going on since elementary school. It was a long story that couldn’t be finished in ten or twenty minutes. His father listened quietly, without interrupting, as Yoon-seok told the truth he had been hiding his whole life.
It was the same story that his father was trying to ignore. After Yoon-seok’s confession ended, the line was silent for a while. Then.
-Son…I’m sorry.
There was a tremor in his voice as if he was sobbing.
– You have a worthless father, and you grew up through a lot of hardship. I’ll do something about the debt. You don’t need to meet that bastard anymore.
“No. I want to meet him in person and tie up loose ends.”
-Are you going to be okay?
“Yeah. Now I dare to do that.”
-All…it was my fault, son. I’m sorry.
“No, Father…”
What could his father think about Yoon-seok right now? Was he proud of his son for standing up for himself? Was he resentful? Thankful?
Regardless, Yoon-seok explained that after meeting Hyung-woo, he would take a short vacation to look back on himself and find some peace. His father agreed, as well as his mother.
“Then, I’ll turn off my phone for a while. Please don’t worry if you can’t contact me.”
Thus, the problem with his family was settled.
‘Why couldn’t I do something so easy then?’
‘Why did you try to take responsibility for yourself at such a young age?’
After holding down his emotions for a while, Yoon-seok pressed the call button again. This time…
-Choi Yoon-seok? Choi Yoon-seok, right? Hey, you bastard! Do you want to lose everyth…
“Come out. Let’s meet and talk.”
Comments