LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 26
I had a dream.
It was about the memories of my childhood.
Not long after I recalled that I had suddenly lost everything and come to this world.
At that time, I was extremely confused.
The body of a five-year-old child was too small for me, who had been living as an adult, and there was nothing I could do.
Even if I knew something, I couldn’t say it. I could at least understand that I was in an orphanage, but that was all—I couldn’t remember what had happened.
I didn’t know what kind of world this was. I didn’t even know who the people around me were.
It was torture to be with the little kids. They were still so young. With my adult mindset, it was incredibly difficult to fit in among them.
The children communicated in their own childish language. I had to pretend to be a little kid and spend years keeping up with that.
Years, how many?
I had experienced childhood myself, but hardly any memories from that time remained. At what point was I supposed to think like a regular kid? How could I mix in and live a normal life?
The way the teachers looked at me was frightening. Whenever I accidentally exhibited “my” behavior, the teachers looked at me with strange expressions.
Some even doubted whether I was a genius or not. I was just recalling what I had learned beforehand.
Sometimes, I could feel their expectations mixed with curiosity, and at other times, the gaze of someone not quite normal.
Children gradually started to keep their distance, whether from instinct or because I had somehow grown apart from them.
It was scary.
That’s why I had sneaked out of the orphanage, avoiding the teachers’ gazes.
Who would think a little kid could unlock a fairly high lock and go outside?
I didn’t plan to do anything once I got out. Just like now, I was living without any particular purpose, and at that time, I had no specific goal either.
I couldn’t use the excuse of being young. I couldn’t recognize myself like that.
I walked around, trembling in the cold, with snot running down my face.
It was a familiar world.
It wasn’t much different from the world I remembered.
Perhaps I wanted to confirm that at that time.
In this world where I had been born by chance, whether I could live normally and without issues.
It wasn’t yet the time when there were extraterrestrials.
That’s why the world felt ordinary.
I can’t quite remember whether it was a moment of relief for me or not. Maybe it was half relief, half emptiness.
Even after being reborn, life didn’t seem easy.
I was simply born again in a known country of the world I knew.
I wasn’t old enough to be considered a proper adult yet, but thinking that everything that had happened until then had flown away made me feel empty.
The fear that had not completely faded still stays quite vividly in my mind.
Everything I had was gone. I wasn’t the type of person who could claim to have had everything to begin with.
A late shock hit me. Everything around me went dark.
Passing adults glanced at me with puzzled expressions. I could tell they were wondering why a child like me was alone playing outside.
Somehow, it seemed I hadn’t been strong mentally like other typical possession protagonists.
Maybe it was a reaction to the state of my body.
I found it hard to hold back my tears.
A little kid standing alone on the street, trembling, ready to burst into tears at any moment.
To those passing by, it must have seemed incredibly natural and strange.
“Why are you crying?”
And then there was a kid who spoke to me.
When I turned my gaze, what came into view was a vivid pink hair.
The short bob cut, which looked as if someone had just groomed it, was pristine without a single hair out of place.
The clothes too were similar. The neatly worn coat didn’t seem cheap at all.
The kid herself appeared completely unaware of all that.
I didn’t pay much attention to my own clothes, which were slightly oversized and had a stretched collar. I ignored my shabby sneakers, solely focused on her face.
That kid was alone too.
“I am….”
I opened my mouth to respond, then shut it tightly again.
Relying on a five-year-old was ridiculous. My reason told me that.
But eventually, a single tear fell from my eye.
Was I relieved that someone was showing me interest?
Or did I think there was no reason to worry because she was just a little kid as well?
Once the tears started, they didn’t stop easily.
She didn’t know anything and yet came over to hug me.
“It’s okay.”
Without knowing what was okay, or why it was okay, she whispered that into my ear.
“It’ll be okay.”
I felt a sense of comfort from her childish voice, and I found it pitiful.
Perhaps it was the first time since being born in this world that I had cried so hard.
And even after that, I didn’t cry as much.
That was the end of that day’s memory. I couldn’t remember what happened afterward. Did her parents come and take me to the police station? Or did the police talk to me directly? Whatever the case, we parted ways.
And for years after that, I never knew that her name was ‘Ha-yoon’.