As Lucid looked at Dong-in, standing no more than a palm’s width away, he thought that the older boy stank like no other. It was vile. Everything about him was vile, from his actions to his words to his way of thinking. It was all disgusting and repulsive, just like scrofa.

Indeed, Dong-in reminded Lucid of the wild monsters he had faced, full of anger and resentment. When he looked at Dong-in, he could clearly picture the scrofa with their blood-stained teeth, glaring at him with crazed eyes. Though Ki-woong had talked to him about resolving conflict through heartfelt conversation, Lucid knew that such a solution didn’t apply to this situation.

After all, monsters couldn’t hold a proper conversation.

Conversations were held between people, and though some people claimed to be able to talk to animals, monsters were on a whole other level. With monsters, it was purely kill or be killed.

If you can’t kill them, you’ll be killed.

That was the truth of the other world, and it held just as true in this world.

I can’t die, Lucid thought.

I can’t die, so I must kill.

Lucid gripped Dong-in’s wrist harder. For a moment, there was a glint of madness in his eyes.

****

“Ki-woong!”

As soon as Ki-woong had left the office, a voice called him from behind. It was Yun-Jeong, an institute resident one year older than him.

“Hey. What’s up?” he asked as he turned to face her. Looking at her, he could tell she was a mess, her hair completely disheveled, though she didn’t seem to notice. Or perhaps, it was too trivial a thing for her to care. Either way, she sprinted down the stairs, huffing and puffing as she tried to form the right words.

“Hey, hey. Calm down, breathe.” He reassured her patiently. Still, all she did was wave her hand dismissively, looking at him intently.

“Ki-woong, you…” Yun-jeong started, but quickly shook her head. This was hardly the place to talk, what with all the adults being right there in the office. “Never mind. Follow me.”

She grabbed his arm and quickly dragged him away, and Ki-woong did very little to resist her. Once they were out of the building, she whispered to him. “Someone went up the mountain. I don’t know who it is for sure, but I’m certain of it.”

Ki-woong’s complexion faded rapidly. He knew what her words meant, and he understood the severity of the situation. Under any other circumstance, someone breaking the rules and climbing the mountain wouldn’t have been that big of a deal. However, the institute was currently filled with volunteers, and if something were to happen, it would cause much more than the loss of public image. Ki-woong knew this, and he suspected Yun-jeong knew as well, or she wouldn’t have come to find him.

“You don’t know who it is?”

“No. One of the voluteers saw a resident climb the fence and go into the mountain.”

“Damn it.”

“Thankfully, she’s just a middle schooler, so we might be able to convince her to not say anything. The important thing is that we find whoever it is before the teachers do, and I can’t do that alone. That’s why I was looking for you, but you were in the office all along! What were you doing there anyway?”

Indeed, Yun-jeong had spent most of her time and energy looking all around the institute, and she had had to be careful about not appearing too alarmed, in case the adults noticed something was wrong. All in all, Yun-jeong was more than over-stressed.

“They asked me to help out… Paperwork and stuff… Anyway, that doesn’t matter right now! We should go check the fence, maybe we’ll find something.”

The two once again left the grounds and made their way to the fence behind the main building. As they walked, Yun-jeong turned to Ki-woong, perplexed.

“Oh, Ki-woong! Have you seen plaster face?”

“Who? Oh, that kid. No, I haven’t.”

“Huh. Myeong-su was looking for him earlier.”

“He’s probably inside.”

“Did you miss the part where I said I looked everywhere for you? He wasn’t at the library either.”

“Well, maybe Myeong-su already found him.”

“No, he’s…”

As soon as they turned towards the cafeteria, Yun-jeong stopped abruptly, unable to finish her sentence.

“I told him to stay right here…” Yun-jeong told Ki-woong, who had turned to face her in concern. She was pointing straight at the cafeteria, but there was no one there. His anxiety rising through the roof, Ki-woong looked at Yun-jeong’s pointed finger, then to the cafeteria, and again to her finger.

“You don’t mean… You think he went to mountain, too?” He asked incredulously.

“I don’t know, but what if he did? What if he thought plaster face went up the mountain and he went to find him?”

“Damn it…”

The two high schoolers’ faces became paler than ever.

****

Near the time Yun-jeong and Ki-woong found each other, Myeong-su had been apprehensive of Jiwon’s emotions. Once again, Myeong-su was no simpleton, and he knew that she would try to stop him if he tried to do anything. That’s why when Jiwon turned to look at the institute, Myeong-su quickly approached the fence.

“Where are you going?”

Of course, he didn’t get very far. No matter how carefully he moved, they were still right next to each other, and it would be impossible to not notice his movements. Myeong-su fidgeted around and reluctantly pointed towards the fence.

“Hmm…” Jiwon muttered, pretending to think it over. “Well then, we’ll only go up to the fence. Maybe we’ll find clues about who went up there.”

Feeling very much like Sherlock Holmes himself, Jiwon took her Watson, or no, Myeong-su, right up to the fence, though perhaps the word “post” was more fitting for it. As far as she could tell, it was nothing more than a short, poorly maintained post fence that could hardly keep out a baby. Shrugging off her disappointment, she looked at the ground in search for footprints, but she couldn’t see anything. Apparently, feeling like Sherlock Holmes wasn’t quite enough to get the job done.

“I guess we shouldn’t go over it…” she murmured to herself, not looking for an answer in particular.

“We can’t!” Myeong-su answered anyway. “We’ll get yelled at.”

Though he had answered very quickly, Jiwon sensed that it was more out of his own hesitation than the need to conform to rules. If she was right, that meant that this boy was also debating whether to go up or not. With this in mind, Jiwon decided that she would, which meant that she needed a witness to testify that she wasn;t doing it out of sheer curiosity. Luckily, she had the perfect witness candidate right next to her.

“Shouldn’t we find your friend, though?” She asked Myeong-su, squatting to meet his eye level. She figured that finding his close friend would be a rational enough endgoal to break down any reluctance that he felt about going up the mountain. Little did she know that this wasn’t just about obeying rules or finding his friend. This was about trauma, trauma that Myeong-su had directly experienced.

“We can’t go up there.” He said adamantly.

Well then, going together was out of the question. Still, all she had lost was a witness. Her bigger plan of going up the mountain still stood, and she would follow it regardless of the little boy’s decision.

“Then, I’ll go up there alone and look for your friend.” she told him. “You have to stay right here and wait for us, okay? I won’t be long.”

She had known all along that convincing the boy to come would be a long shot. Being alone meant that she didn’t have to worry about him keeping up with her or getting tired along the way, and appeasing him meant that he would be more willing to take her side if anyone were to question her.

“Can you really find him?”

“I think so. But you have to promise to be good and stay put.”

“Okay.”

Jiwon patted Myeong-su’s head and hopped over the fence, making her way through the thicket before disappearing into the mountain. Myeong-su watched as she left, but he was struck with a sudden thought.

“What if she gets hurt?”

Even Hyung-geun had had such a hard time. Could she really go up all by herself, with no one to help her? But he couldn’t go with her. The teachers had said, no one can go up there again.

“But there are no teachers here,” he thought.

If no one saw him, no one knew. If he followed her without anyone knowing and came back before anyone realized, then she wouldn’t get hurt, and he would be able to find plaster face! Having reached this optimal conclusion, Myeong-su rushed over the fence. He would have to hurry if he wanted to reach Jiwon in time.

Just moments after Myeong-su’s adventurous decision, Yun-jeong and Ki-woong ran over to the fence. They had checked inside the cafeteria just in case, but they only found the cooks preparing lunch.

“I guess they really went up there, huh?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Ki-woong answered, inspecting the fence. “I don’t think it’s been that long.”

He pointed to the ground where two small footprints had dug up the soil under the fence. They were Myeong-su’s footprints, left there in his hurry.

“I think this is Myeong-su.”

“I think so, too. What do we do?” Yun-jeong asked, exasperated.

“Well, we should hurry.”

With that, Ki-woong jumped right over the fence. Turning around, he saw Yun-jeong still standing on the other side, her hand outstretched towards him. With a chuckle, he helped her get over the fence. Making sure no one had seen them, the two rushed towards the mountain.

****

Taken aback by the light in Lucid’s eyes, Dong-in quickly let go of his collar and took a step back before even realizing it.

“W-What the hell?” He shouted as Lucid took a step towards him.

Dong-in felt strange, almost as if this kid, this insignificant little bug, was about to make something huge happen. Something inside him told him that whatever happened, he would be the one to get hurt. However, right here in the mountain, there was nowhere for him to run.

“A-Are you out of your mind?! Y-You asshole!” He shouted again, desperately hoping to scare Lucid off enough to stop advancing. Though he hadn’t really counted on it to work, Lucid did indeed stop.

But before Dong-in could fully revel in his brief moment of safety, Lucid spoke.

“Die.”

It was only one word, a word that Dong-in himself had used on the kid many times before. However, they hit differently. Lucid’s word carried much more weight, and Dong-in truly felt that he was going to die. All the pent up emotions he had until now vanished into nothing. His head cleared, and he saw white.

“Hey, you two!!” A voice rang from behind, and Dong-in knew he was saved.

He didn’t quite know how he knew, but he just knew that if it hadn’t been for that voice, he would have died right then and there, without a thought in his head. He didn’t know what kind of death, but he knew he would have. He just knew.

Saved from imminent death, Dong-in fell to the ground, all his strength leaving him. He simply sat there, shaking uncontrollably, as the voice approached them.

“What are you doing here?”

When Lucid turned around to face the voice, he recognized the silly volunteer girl who had spoken to him earlier today, out in the courtyard, and he couldn’t help but sigh.

“I was so close. It would have been so simple.” He thought.

Still, he hadn’t run out of options. Turning around again, he faced Dong-in, who was looking at him with fear in his eyes. His whole face had turned white. However, Lucid knew better this time. He knew that something like this could happen again, and he needed to make sure that he would never again be insulted or hurt without reason. Honestly speaking, he was tired of having to deal with such things. It was a complete waste of time, and that was why Lucid made up his mind.

Huffing and puffing from the climb, Jiwon had called out without really thinking about it. She had noticed the tense atmosphere and only thought to clear the air. Only after seeing the middle schooler on the ground did she let out a sigh of relief. The little boy, probably the one she had spoken to in the courtyard, had his back turned to her, so she couldn’t see his face, but she figured that nothing serious had happened.

“Geez!” She said, sighing again. “And here I was, worried out of my wits that you were bullying this little boy!”

And with that, she had laid out the perfect excuse for her trip to the mountain. She had rushed up here to look for Myeong-su’s friend, and when she saw the two boys, she had come over to prevent a potential bullying incident. Moreover, now the two boys in front of her had heard her say all this aloud. It was perfect! She didn’t even need to ask them to cooperate. All according to plan.

“Plaster face!!”

Lucid turned around to face the voice almost instinctively, and he saw Myeong-su, sweaty and out of breath, smiling widely at him.

“What are you doing here?” Lucid asked, smiling in return.

“Looking for you, of course! I looked all over for you. This noona said we should check up here, so here I am.”

“When did I say that?!” Jiwon shouted out in surprise. “I told you to stay put!”

However, neither Myeong-su nor Lucid paid much attention to her.

“Plaster face, we need to go back. What if the teachers find out?” Myeong-su said, looking around. Then, noticing Dong-in, he tilted his head. “Hey, it’s that middle school hyung.” He didn’t know his name, since Dong-in rarely ever played with the younger kids.

“Why’s he shaking so much?” he asked again. “Is he cold?”

At this, Jiwon turned around to look at Dong-in. Surely enough, he was visibly shaking. He was deathly pale, and even his lips seemed to have turned a weird shade of purple.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked, getting closer to Dong-in.

“I… I’m so cold… H-Help me…” he said. Then, he promptly collapsed, unconscious.

<Lucid Dream (4)> End.