RTN 40

chapter 40

I blinked. I tried to lower my head, but Kim Do-woon gently held my face, as if to comfort me. His thumbs skillfully wiped away the moisture from the corners of my eyes.

“You’re crying again.”

“I’m sorry.”

I leaned back slightly. Kim Do-woon released my face without resistance. His gaze remained, observing me carefully.

“Don’t cry, okay? Sniff.”

I nodded.

“Especially not in front of others. You look a bit off when you cry.”

“I know. I shouldn’t look weak.”

“That’s not what I mean… Anyway, just don’t cry. Luckily, I’m the only one seeing this.”

I felt embarrassed all over again, realizing he had witnessed something I shouldn’t have. I rubbed my eyes with my sleeve and took a deep breath.

Kim Do-woon stared at me for a moment, then took a round metal patch from his leg pouch and stuck it onto my ankle. It clicked, and a sharp sting followed. The blue liquid inside the patch quickly drained.

“When the medicine kicks in, we’ll move. It’ll take a little time.”

“How long?”

“Five minutes?”

Kim Do-woon seemed to sigh in relief. He ran a hand through his slightly messy hair and pulled out a pack of cigarettes from the front pocket of his jacket. Our eyes met, and he quickly shoved the pack back into his pocket. Instead, he pulled something else from his pants pocket: a small square wrapped in blue foil, about the size of a palm.

“Want some ice cream?”

I was taken aback.

“Ice cream?”

“Yeah. You cried, so you need something sweet. Don’t you like ice cream?”

“It’s not that, but isn’t it melted?”

“It’s fresh.”

Half skeptical, I took it and unwrapped it. As soon as I did, a wave of cold hit me, revealing a pale square of cream.

I carefully took a bite. It was vanilla ice cream. The texture melted smoothly in my mouth, but inside the wrapper, it was perfectly frozen, as if just taken out of the freezer.

“Why isn’t it melted?”

“Because you didn’t unwrap it.”

“Can just this plastic maintain it?”

“Then why wrap it?”

We exchanged such silly words, and Kim Do-woon stared at me. He clicked his tongue.

“Where did you come from, such a backward place?”

“It’s not that primitive.”

“You didn’t come from somewhere that lights fires with wood, right?”

“Not that extreme.”

I added quietly,

“Well… occasionally we do, in special situations. Like a campfire or using charcoal at a barbecue restaurant…”

I trailed off, seeing the incredulous expression on Kim Do-woon’s face.

A brief silence followed, and he muttered,

“You’d pass out on the track.”

It wasn’t exactly passing out, but I was fairly startled. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it.

“Space-time… what did you say?”

“Compression.”

“So, a distance that would normally take over an hour, we can reach in just ten minutes here?”

“Nine minutes and fifty-seven seconds.”

“So it’s like a subway? A subway inside the ship?”

“Not some outdated relic. A subway moves. The track doesn’t. You just stay here.”

Leaving the storage, Kim Do-woon led me to a section called the Fast Track.

It was the very transport method I had never tried without a watch. Following him through the entrance, a corridor stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Long benches lined the walls on both sides, and windows ran along the corridor, looking very much like the inside of a subway—but also entirely different.

Outside the windows, space stretched infinitely. The area was eerily clean.

Moreover, the people who had scanned their watches at the entrance were nowhere to be seen. It was just the two of us.

According to Kim Do-woon, he had set my destination to my lodging, and at this time, we were the only ones going there.

“How is this possible?”

“We implemented the fourth dimension in a hypersphere. Then we fold the space.”

“Fold the space?”

“Yeah. Like folding a piece of paper in half, we distort the space to shorten the path. It requires immense gravity, which we pull from the hypersphere…”

Kim Do-woon made a folding motion with his hands, then saw my face and fell silent. He slumped into a chair and muttered lazily,

“Just think of it as a cutting-edge subway.”

“But you said it’s different from a subway?”

“Just think of it as really good, and use it. Knowing the principle won’t help you.”

I sat right next to him. The pain in my ankle had almost gone, allowing me to move freely.

“So this is why the hypersphere is such a precious resource?”

“Right. It’s the only four-dimensional matter we can stabilize. Also called a hypersphere… Wait, you can do this too.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You’re a coordinator. When will you awaken? All you do is mess with your status screen every day.”

After saying that, he clasped his hands as if praying, then looked back at me.

“I came from the countryside too, but you… How do you save time when moving around where you live?”

“I take the fast one.”

“Like a subway? You can’t manipulate space-time itself?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“It hasn’t been long since we could use the hypersphere like this here. Less than ten years, I think.”

Kim Do-woon glanced at his wristwatch. A message popped up, seemingly work-related.

“Wait here for a bit.”

I had a mountain of questions but simply nodded. Kim Do-woon activated the watch and pulled up a semi-transparent panel. I watched him check the dense numbers for a moment, then turned to look out the window.

The view outside wasn’t much different from what I had seen on the ship. Countless stars streamed like silk across the void, and small meteor fragments floated like fish through space.

Then I frowned.

What is that?

Beyond the window, on a flat wing-like structure extending from the battleship, something moved. A small black mass. Considering the distance, it must be fairly large.

I leaned close to the glass, squinting at it.

The black object moved slightly. It seemed to shake its body, or maybe adjust its posture.

A bird? A crow? Wait… can a bird fly in space? Impossible, right? But it looked like a bird. Wings… beak…

Then the crow opened its eyes.

The moment I faced those empty eyes, I was thrown back in time, as if plummeting into the center of my past.

The scene was ablaze with scarlet flames. Baek Yi-hyun’s firm back and shoulders held me, shielding me from the heat. Fear of imminent death.

It was too vivid, too painful to be a dream or hallucination. Sparks stung across my body, thick smoke blurred my vision. I coughed uncontrollably.

I felt Baek Yi-hyun covering my mouth and nose with a wet handkerchief. I shook my head, trying to take it from him to cover his mouth. But I couldn’t overpower him.

I felt his heartbeat thumping vividly through his chest pressed against me.

Ah.

Tears welled in my eyes as the heat blurred my vision.

I’m going to lose you again.

Just as my consciousness was about to fade, my left cheek burned.

“…Yeon! Seol Ah-yeon!”

I inhaled sharply and opened my eyes. Kim Do-woon’s face was right in front of me. He had raised his hand as if to strike my cheek, then quickly lowered it and asked,

“Are you okay?”

I had collapsed onto the floor somehow. My heart pounded violently, my entire body drenched in cold sweat.

“Do you have panic attacks? You just collapsed. Can’t breathe properly…”

I tried to speak, but no sound came out. Outside, beyond Kim Do-woon’s head, it was moving slowly. Its strange pupils seemed to close again, but its presence alone sent shivers down my spine.

It’s because of that.

The moment I met eyes with that crow-like thing, I was pulled into my most painful memory. It was so vivid, I truly felt I had returned to that time.

“…What are you looking at?”

Kim Do-woon frowned, following my gaze. I instinctively tried to stop him. I had a strong instinct that I shouldn’t meet its eyes.

But Kim Do-woon had already half risen. His shoulder blocked my view, and I couldn’t see it anymore. The veins on his hands, gripping the chair, bulged.

“Uh…”

Then, he shoved the chair and pulled me into a deep embrace. Darkness enveloped me.

Only after a moment did I realize he was tightly covering my eyes. His hands were damp with sweat.

“Don’t look.”

The large hands covering my eyes trembled slightly. I heard Kim Do-woon mutter near my ear:

“It’s a phantom.”