The Nature of Possession

393 – EP.14 The World That Has Passed (★)-1

***

The 24th sky. Cloudy and starless.

“Hey, Private Kang In-ho, it’s work time.”

A woman with a young voice woke him up.

“Fuck.”

Kang In-ho, who checked where he was and what the people were wearing, couldn’t help but curse.

A world where men and women serve in the military equally.

He was briefly excited by the strange setting, but for a while, he frowned as memories of the past came back to him.

It was fortunate that he was a junior officer, otherwise he would have been lynched for forgetting the names of his superiors and officers.

‘Let’s get discharged. Let’s stay safe until we get discharged. Let’s just be a bunch of idiots and not do anything.’

But the karma created by the owner of his body would not leave him alone.

“Hey, Sergeant Kang… Can you meet me when I get discharged?”

After work, a woman who had just become a private asks me.

He nodded, not wanting to provoke her unnecessarily.

“Ah, Inho~ Let’s just be professional. After you’re discharged from the military, we won’t be able to see you anymore except on vacation.”

“Haha… I’ll visit you often.”

The sergeant’s female colleague rubbed his right chest with her hand and said.

Let’s get through it without getting too excited. First, let’s think about it after we’re done.

He was grateful for each day that passed, marking it off on the calendar.

But his efforts were in vain when the incident occurred a few days before his final year’s vacation.

bang!

In the dark of the night, an ear-piercing noise was heard, and he, who was guarding the outpost, woke up his assistant with half-asleep eyes.

“Hey, what were you talking about just now?”

“No, I don’t know.”

“Try to communicate.”

“all right.”

While the deputy was making the call, footsteps were heard.

“Stop, stop. Put your hands up and move, I’ll shoot. Three.”

“This, this is it.”

As he spoke, a voice was heard from the other end.

“Who are you?”

“Hey, this is Kim Minji.”

“Hey, what brings you here? And more importantly, didn’t you hear me?”

He came down from the guard post holding an LED lamp.

“…….”

bang!

There was a loud bang, and as he was coming down the stairs, he fell over and hit the ground.

“…What, what is it?”

He raised his head with an expression on his face that had no idea what was happening.

“Whoa! Sergeant Kang!”

The sub-sniper, who had been on the phone, screamed loudly and hurriedly picked up the rifle he had set down.

However, the safety lever blocked the trigger, giving the opponent who had already fired the gun time to pull the trigger again.

bang!

At the second blast, the head snaps back and falls to the ground.

“Ah… it hurts.”

A feeling of being cheap.

‘What did I do wrong?’

Clap, clap. The approaching boots. He looked up at the face of the private who had shot him with resentment.

“Why…? What did I do wrong?”

“I, I… I know. I know that Corporal and Sergeant Kang are like that.”

“…Fuck.”

He closed his mouth when he had nothing to say.

“Haha… You’re not even denying it. I just shot the leg just in case.”

“Good aim.”

“That was a lie when you said you’d go out with me, right? You just said something vague to try and get me going.”

“…….”

“Please say something!”

“What would I have to say? I don’t even remember.”

As he closed his eyes as if he had become enlightened, the sound of gunfire was heard again.

He was beginning to become accustomed to death.

***

37th sky. Clear, with a cool breeze blowing.

He met a sloppy woman.

She was a black-haired woman with bangs that covered her eyes and a gloomy smile.

“Haha… Oppa, you can live here with me for the rest of your life.”

“This isn’t tied well?”

“Ah, why is that….”

The woman waved her arms frantically as the rope loosened as she applied force.

As he sat there, wanting to see how far he could go, the woman moved her hands clumsily and tied him up again.

It took five attempts to tie him up again. Even that was a knot that could be undone with force, but he felt sorry for her as she struggled, so he passed over it.

“Here, ah~ This is food I made myself.”

“…I don’t have any liver?”

“No, I didn’t put it in for your health. It’s not good to eat salty food.”

“really?”

As he stared at her, the woman averted her eyes.

“Well, actually… I’ve run out of living expenses…”

When I heard it, it was a really sad situation.

Her sorrow did not end there.

“My brother’s favorite chicken~”

“Why half a horse?”

“I, I’m full after eating.”

Gulp – At the loud noise, she lowered her head.

“Let’s eat together.”

“…yes.”

There was another day like this.

“Why the candle?”

“Hehe, today is my first anniversary since I started living with you. I’m trying to set the mood.”

“Tell me the truth.”

“I couldn’t pay the electricity bill.”

Another day like this.

“Oh, oppa, the gas went out, so can I wash you with cold water today?”

“I don’t care… wouldn’t it be better for me to just work and earn money?”

“No! There are so many vixen kids out there! I can’t let my brother be taken away from me!”

Even on days like this.

“Brother, isn’t it a bit too much to wear a ring?”

“…I guess.”

“That, that’s right haha….”

“Rent… is it a burden?”

“Huh? No. I was just asking. I… I think I’ll have to work another part-time job.”

“Su-rin. I think it would be right for me to work too.”

“Absolutely not. Oppa, you have to stay in this house. Are you feeling suffocated? At least you get to see the sunlight once a day.”

Surin was stubborn.

Kang In-ho didn’t feel love for this clumsy woman.

I just felt compassion.

It was a twisted love, but I tried to maintain that love somehow…

Because it’s like I’m looking for love.

From that day on, he started to sneak out and work on the days she went to work.

There was a CCTV monitoring the room, but it was easy to fool her because she didn’t know how to operate it.

The money she earned from working was either paid to the owner as rent in advance or secretly put into her wallet.

“Haha, I bought a chicken today!”

“Oh, what’s going on?”

“Strangely, I have some money left over these days. The landlady also takes less money. Huh… Is this what they call financial investment?”

“Okay, let’s do that.”

Kang In-ho smiled as he watched her running around.

He thought this life would continue for several years.

The plan was to slowly persuade her and send her out into society.

But the world was three times faster and four times more vicious than planned.

“Cancer?”

“Yes, it’s cancer.”

The man in the white gown spoke in a dry voice.

“No, he’s just in his early twenties.”

“It has nothing to do with age. It is affected by irregular eating habits, stress, and various other factors.”

“that….”

He looked at Surin’s face lying on the sickbed.

“It’s already quite far along… but you didn’t know?”

Instead, it was a voice full of reproach. He closed his eyes tightly and lowered his head.

“…because I didn’t show that I was in pain.”

“You must have endured a lot. To be honest, at this stage, the only thing left is life-prolonging treatment. Let’s talk it over.”

Have a nice conversation.

What does that mean?

He sat in the hospital lounge and looked outside.

The 37th sky was clear. Damn it.

Is there bad energy flowing through the hospital?

Surin’s face, which had previously shown a bright appearance, looked haggard.

“Brother.”

She woke up and called him.

“huh.”

He, who was sleeping next to her, grabbed her hand.

“Ehehe….”

What’s so good about it, she laughed.

“What are you so happy about that makes you laugh so much?”

Kang In-ho’s throat was choked up.

“Thank you.”

“What, what?”

His voice trailed off, as if submerged in water.

“You were with me.”

A weak smile. But a smile filled with all of her might.

Kang In-ho felt his heart being squeezed.

“All I could do was be with you.”

“How… how… big is that?”

Surin says with her eyes wide open.

There were stars in her eyes. They twinkled.

“Me. I was always alone. I was bullied at school for being a fatherless girl, and my mom didn’t pay attention to me because she was out with her lovers. When I left home, she never called to find me.”

Says what she didn’t say.

“But you were there for me. You gave me a piece of bread when I was hungry and told me to cheer up. You said you too had nowhere to go. You tried five times and failed them all.”

She tells the story as if reading a fairy tale.

“I’m so glad that you’re by my side. To you, it’s just ‘you’re by my side,’ but to me, it’s ‘you’re so by my side.'”

He lifts the hand holding the IV tube and wipes away his tears.

“I’m really happy because I have you, oppa. It’s a bit sad to have to part ways so quickly… but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

therefore….

Surin said.

“So don’t cry, oppa.”

Night in the hospital room. Kang In-ho sobbed.

In the empty four-person room, he shed hot tears.

Three months later, after sending Surin away.

He didn’t form any bonds with anyone until he moved to the next dimension.

He began to think about love.