The world became smaller and smaller. At first, the darkness engulfed everything outside of the city before reaching the city itself.
[The trauma’s recreation level is low.]
[The data cannot be recovered.]
Like tentacles, the darkness slowly ate away at the city, from the outskirts to its main streets. I decided to call that ominous, fog-like darkness the Void.
“I’m going to go to school a little early today,” the Constellation Murderer told me in a quiet voice.
Darkness had taken over so much of the world. I couldn’t see people’s faces, the church spires, or the signs plastered all over the shopping center’s walls as if they were wallpaper. The world was stained by the Void.
“I have to go to the school farm and feed the rabbits.”
But it also allowed me to see what I had been missing.
“School farm?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s behind the school... ” The Constellation Murderer sighed. “Well, I guess there’s no way a kid like you would know. Rabbits and chickens are raised there. I have to feed them.”
There is such a place?
If I recalled correctly, the orphanage had a place like that too, though it had been demolished quickly. It seemed the middle and high schools had things one too.
“Why would you feed them? Aren’t there people who usually take care of those things?”
“There used to be a farming club. You remember last year when a foreign woman broke into the school at night and jumped from the rooftop with her newborn baby? The baby ended up landing on the school farm, so the students stopped applying for the farming club afterward.”
It was my first time ever hearing about this. However, the Constellation Murderer sounded like he was talking about quite an infamous incident. It seemed that various incidents had occurred at this school.
“Why would a foreign woman with a baby do that at a school...?”
“They say it was the child of one of the teachers. He had a fling during a business trip overseas.”
“It happened at the middle school, not the high school,” the Constellation Murderer muttered. “Anyway, that’s why there is no farming club anymore. The middle school class presidents take turns taking care of the farm... Middle school students wouldn’t really take this seriously, you know? The security guard, some kid from middle school, and I feed them for the most part.”
That... was a corner of the world that I knew nothing about. On the school farm, the rabbits and chickens were trapped in cramped cages. This very limited space was their entire world.
It seemed the farm wasn’t managed properly. The smell of chicken manure and rabbit urine reeked in the air. Someone had carelessly poured too much food into a container. It got wet in the rain and then dried, so it reeked.
The Constellation Murderer frowned. “Someone rushed their chores again. If this is how they’re going to do this, it’s better for them to skip the turn. It’s worse than not doing anything.”
“Do you want me to help you?”
“It’s fine. I’ll have to check everything anyway.” The Constellation Murderer rolled up his sleeves. “Just stand there. Or you can go to classes first.”
The Constellation Murderer weeded out old, reeking straws out of the animal bedding before throwing them into a large sack. He brought a broom and rake from the shed to clean up the cages. It seemed he was very used to doing all these tasks. The Constellation Murderer picked up a rubber hose and skillfully sprayed water on the cage floor.
In a world where the Void rusted everything until it became unrecognizable, a high school student was sprinkling water at around 6:40 A.M. in the back of Shinseo Middle and High Schools.
It was quiet. The water resembled the color of dawn.
I was peeking at a scene that seemed severed from the rest of the world.
—You’re really dirty.
—How can you be dirtier than the math teacher?
—I didn’t think that was possible.
The world got narrower little by little.
[The trauma’s recreation level is low.]
I started with the people that were meaningless to the Constellation Murderer—no, ■■. Step by step.
[The data cannot be recovered.]
The Void shrouded the mountains surrounding the city. This world was under siege. As each day passed, it lost more and more ground. More and more roads became cut off from the world.
The specters continued to flicker on the cut-off roads. Where they came from or where they were going wasn’t important in the Constellation Murderer’s world. The humans in this world weren’t characters in his story.
Weeds coiled out of gaps between the sidewalk blocks.
[The trauma’s recreation level is low.]
On one side of the garbage dump, a ginkgo tree that hadn’t been cut down bent over the ground.
[The trauma’s recreation level is low.]
In the evening, sunset fell.
[The trauma’s recreation level is low.]
Finally, the Void surrounded the school.
Raviel was standing at the school gate. Beyond that, there was nothing but pitch black.
Classes were over, so the specters were going home. Raviel stood quietly in front of the Void, where the specters walked and got absorbed into. Even though I called out to her, she didn’t look at me.
She just whispered, “Yes, I did feel like something was wrong. If you think about it, asking to be called by a foreign name is strange when my name is Ban Si-A. Yet for some reason, I was caught up in the obsession that I had to be called Raviel.”
“Aside from everything, I can’t remember how I ended up dating you. No, that’s misleading. You confessed your love to me at the school festival last year, but, even before that, I had feelings for you. Dating you was easy.”
Raviel finally looked at me.
“But I wonder if that’s true. Gong-Ja, our love isn’t like that. Our love is never easy.”
After carefully placing my hand on Raviel’s shoulder, I grabbed her chin with my left hand to lower her head slightly. When I kissed her lips, she smiled.
“I knew it. My heart is pounding.” She touched my earlobe. “There are no lies in my love. There is no way I would love you this much just because you are handsome and eloquent. But, at best, we’re the couple of the century in the history of Shinseo Middle and High Schools... They better rewrite their history. We’re actually the couple of this universe.”
“If my love isn’t fake, then this means my memories were most likely distorted. This is either a hallucination or a dream. Gong-Ja, am I dreaming of you or is it the other way around?”
“I’m the one dreaming of you, Raviel.”
“That’s amazing.” Raviel stroked her chin. “I’m sure I’m your only lover.”
“Even if this is just a dream, I should always be your lover. Only I belong in your heart.”
Raviel laughed. “You have my commendation, my lover. You really love me. Now please close your eyes.”
“Don’t open your eyes no matter what. Just call out my name. Do you understand? You must not open your eyes. If you do, I will scold you.”
I closed my eyes. “Raviel.”
“Raviel... Ivansia is the name of the person I love.”
The hand stroking my chin disappeared.
I opened my eyes. Raviel wasn’t there anymore. She didn’t show me the moment she collapsed into a shadow.
Until the last moment, she followed the way of Ivansia.
[The trauma’s recreation level is low.]
[The data cannot be recovered.]
Raviel was no longer alive in this world, which became a little narrower.
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
The speaker installed on campus rang. A member of the broadcasting club whose name I didn’t know and who had lost its shape spoke.
—■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■ ■■■■.
This is an announcement from the broadcasting club to all students on campus.
—■■ ■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■■ ■■■■ ■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■■■.
Those who have not signed up for the night self-study session should return home.
At that moment, the Void lurking beyond the school gate overflowed like a river that swelled due to a deluge.
I took a step back. Rays of fog stretched out from the Void like tentacles, instantly entangling the school gate and eating away the nameplate that said Shinseo High School. Soon, the entire school gate was engulfed in darkness.
It’s finally falling apart.
The world of this trauma was collapsing.
“What are you doing there?” a voice called out from behind me.
The Constellation Murderer carried a tattered bag. He gave me a strange look. “Are we not going back to your home? Well, we don’t have to if you don’t want to anymore. I was already getting uncomfortable with the way your parents were looking at me. I get that you really want to make it up to me, so let’s put an end to this charade now. It just makes both of us feel weird.”
The Constellation Murderer walked toward where the school gate had been. As he was about to pass by me, I grabbed his wrist and yanked it.
“Ouch. Hey, what is it?” he groaned.
He almost stepped into the Void. Even now, it was constantly enveloping the school gate and the fence, creeping into the schoolyard. Once it swallowed us, everything would end.
“Follow me for a moment.”
“Again? Where are we going this time?”
“A place where you can breathe and live a little longer.”
“This place is too dangerous. Let’s go.”
I dragged the Constellation Murderer across the campus. The Void encroached on the school, chasing us.
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Kim Gong-Ja. Do you know that you became really weird about a month ago? Why are you so scared? Why in the world are you trying so hard? You didn’t use to be like that.”
“I promised to keep living no matter what happens. My teacher swung her sword even when her world was destroyed. My lover protected her country even when her world was stuck in a time loop. There are people like that in the world. I try my best because I want to be with people like them,” I said.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the Constellation Murderer mumbled.
“There is also a person who devotes himself to what he thinks is right, even to the point of abandoning himself over and over again.”
We went inside the campus. The Void still surged inside without stopping. Specters were walking around in the hallway. However, only one of them, the class president, looking like the Black Witch, was standing blankly in front of the women’s bathroom. I hadn’t taken care of her yet.
When the Constellation Murderer jumped to his death before, she had been the only student who lowered her head.
“It’s strange. Why do I feel guilty when I go into the women’s bathroom?”
The Black Witch seemed to be suddenly worried about her sexual identity. Teenagers generally had a lot to worry about.
Still holding onto the Constellation Murderer’s wrist, I walked up to the Black Witch and grabbed her wrist with my free hand.
“You follow me too. You shouldn’t be here right now,” I warned her.
“Huh? Wait, what? Kim Gong-Ja? Oh, what are you—!”
Flustered, the Black Witch resisted, but then she saw the Constellation Murderer. Her surprised expression immediately stiffened. She frowned, lowered her head, and let me drag her along.
[The trauma’s recreation level is low.]
[The data cannot be recovered.]
[The recreated trauma cannot be sustained.]
The Void sank the first floor of the school. I dragged my hostages up the stairs quickly and quickly went up to the second floor, passed the third floor, crossed the fourth floor, and ran up the fifth floor.
The Constellation Murderer and the Black Witch were panting behind me, but there was nothing I could do about it. The Void was filling the school grounds at a terrifying speed.
The slogans on the stairs had been swallowed by the Void. The dark surface of the fog rose to the fifth floor. Only one place remained untouched in this world.
“U-ugh, I’m feeling nauseous...”
I stood in front of the metal door leading to the rooftop. Four layers of locks surrounded the doorknob. The area was probably off-limits except for teachers.
However, I drew up my aura and enveloped it around my fingers, cutting the chain with ease.
“Uh...?” The Constellation Murderer looked blankly at the metal door, panting. “It’s open...?”
“Hey, wait a minute. We can’t go on the rooftop! It’s against the rules!” the Black Witch shouted, panicked.
If it wasn’t for the Void looming over her shoulder, I would have respected the school rules a little more. I forced the Constellation Murderer and the Black Witch to follow me onto the rooftop.
I stared at the closed metal door. It was quiet. Fortunately, the Void didn’t invade the rooftop. Perhaps it was only a brief moment of peace, but we had escaped the flood of the Void for now.
“Good. We’ll be okay for a while.”
“What is supposed to be okay?” The Black Witch ran wild. “Don’t you know how sensitive our school is about students wandering on the rooftop? Don’t tell me you forgot about the disaster from last year! Oh my god!”
“Ah, if the teachers find out I’m here... My grades... You bastard! I’m going to blame you if you’re the reason I go to a worse university![1]”
I looked down through the rooftop fence. The schoolyard and the main middle school building on the other side of the yad...The world had been completely enveloped by the Void, and only darkness spread out. Only three people were left in this trauma.
“Class president,” I called.
“You know what has been going on in our class.”
The three survivors stood here. The perpetrator. The victim. And lastly, the bystander.
The class president, who looked like the Black Witch, glared at me. “So? Do you have something to say to me about it?”
1. Korea has a system of grades called 내신 (naesin). How well the student follows the rules and behaves at school influences this system. While it isn’t always crucial in the university application process, it reflects a person’s character, so it can be a deciding factor if students have the same grades. ☜