613 Episode 12 □□ (4)

I now realize what I am looking at.

It is a story after the ending that is not yet known to the world.

The scenery, which was possible only in the readers’ heads, was finally unfolding in front of my eyes.

The first sentence of the story was:

Han Sooyoung blinked blankly.

What the hell happened?

In front of her eyes, the sentence she had just thought of was floating around. Han Sooyoung recalled the events that had happened just a moment ago.

Yoo Joonghyuk had returned from his long space journey, and their stories, which they thought had disappeared, had returned.

The system had been revived.

<Kim Dokja’s Company> had reunited.

They stood in front of Kim Dokja's hospital room, which they had visited every day for the past four years.

Everyone opened the door to the hospital room.

She remembered everything up to that point.

So what the hell is this all about now?

Han Sooyoung was thrown into the middle of the snowfield out of nowhere.

What you can see from the front and back is a far-flung snowfield.

Once, during the 'Group Regression' with Yoo Joonghyuk, she had visited a place similar to this.

The memory came back, but she couldn't tell if this was the place.

"Where are we?"

Jung Heewon’s voice.

When she looked back, she saw the companions who had visited the hospital room with her sprawled on the floor.

"Wow. What? It's snowing all of a sudden."

Surprised, Lee Jihye stood up, rubbing her backside, while Lee Gilyoung looked around, his sharp eyes scanning their surroundings.

Shin Yoosung asked.

"What about Kim Dokja?"

"I don't know. I was suddenly here when I woke up."

"Could it be another scenario?"

Several years had passed since the end of the scenarios.

But was a new scenario beginning?

Yoo Sangah, repeatedly clenching and opening her fists, added.

The scent of lotus flowers came from her white fists.

"My skills are back."

Han Sooyoung also realized it.

Just like in the days when they were actively performing scenarios, her five senses were returning sharp and alive.

After already looking around, Yoo Joonghyuk landed in the air, blowing a blizzard.

"I don't feel anything. There are no enemies around."

Had the power of the Transcendents returned? A faint golden glow radiated from Yoo Joonghyuk’s body.

Han Sooyoung glared at Yoo Joonghyuk secretly.

"How can you look excited?"

"Noona, Biyoo isn’t here."

At Shin Yoosung’s words, the companions looked around. Of all those who had gone to the hospital room together, only Biyoo was missing.

How did it happen?

They were definitely together until they opened the door to the hospital room.

Tsutsutsutsut!

It was then that sparks flew out of the air.

As if a system message was heard.

With the message, two portals appeared swirling in front of their eyes.

Lee Gilyoung asked.

"Huh? A portal?"

"Gilyoung-ah, step back."

Lee Hyunsung, who stepped forward as if protecting the children, took the lead and inspected the entrance to the portal. Beyond the two portals, the landscape swirled and shook.

The flickering landscape resembled the hospital room they knew.

The only difference was that a person's shadow could be seen in only one of the two hospital rooms.

Lee Hyunsung muttered in confusion.

"That shadow..."

"No way."

The moment Lee Gilyoung approached the portal with a bewildered face.

Biyoo, who had disappeared into thin air, reappeared. Biyoo pulled Lee Gilyoung's hair and hurriedly spoke to him.

"Problem?"

Biyoo, who had caught the companions' attention, sighed softly. Looking at the portal with complex eyes, she said something shocking.

…

Hearing Biyoo's explanation, the group stood blankly. The first to react was Han Sooyoung.

"So, to sum up what happened now, it would be something like this."

Han Sooyoung looked up at the snow pouring from the sky and started talking.

"One. Yoo Joonghyuk spread the novel I wrote across the universe."

Han Sooyoung recalled the memory of the day she first wrote 『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』.

Together with the companions, she had remembered and recorded their old stories, writing a story of mourning for Kim Dokja.

Yoo Joonghyuk, who received the story, crossed the worldline and finally succeeded in telling the story to the fragments of Kim Dokja in other worlds.

"Two. The fragments of 'Kim Dokja' scattered throughout the universe began to read our story, and they even imagined an ending that I did not write."

The efforts of the party reached the end of the universe safely. Kim Dokja's fragments have recovered the story she wrote and the memories they had lost.

"Third, the portals in front of us are the 'endings'."

The fragments of Kim Dokja scattered across the worldlines are the 'Oldest Dreams' who imagined the ending of 『Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint』.

Up until this point, there had been no problems, rather, it was as planned.

The problem is this.

"Why are there two endings?"

Biyoo let out a low sigh and replied.

Biyoo pointed to the first portal.

In the hospital room inside the portal, a shadow resembling Kim Dokja was floating.

She said, this time pointing to the other portal.

It was obviously the same hospital room as the first one, but there was no shadow of Kim Dokja on the bed.

The companions did not speak for a long time.

"Why..."

Han Sooyoung muttered.

"How could that be?"

How can you imagine 'two endings' after reading all the stories?

Despite knowing the answer, Han Sooyoung had to ask. Then the answer she expected came back.

Countless readers read the story and imagined the ending.

One is the ending in which 'Kim Dokja' returns.

And the other is the ending where 'Kim Dokja' cannot return.

Biyoo was right.

Even though so many people have read and imagined the story, they can only see the endings right in front of them. Even the word miracle is not enough.

Jung Heewon opened her mouth.

"It's been hard getting here."

She said again, shaking her head.

"I wonder if I should have done this much."

Two endings were given to them.

At least one of them had an obvious happy ending.

Jung Heewon looked up.

"I'm going through the first portal."

She looked at her companions as if to confirm her choice.

"No one's having any strange thoughts, right? If I go through the first one, I can meet Dokja-ssi again. Right, Biyoo?"

"Is the Kim Dokja in there the 'Kim Dokja' that we remember?"

"You don't know?"

Biyoo said, then thought for a while and added.

"Good, now that we’re in agreement."

Jung Heewon gestured to others, as if afraid to continue thinking about it.

"What are you all waiting for? We can meet Dokja-ssi again and the Dokja-ssi we remember is on the other side."

Shin Yoosung looked up with tears in her eyes. Lee Gilyoung, Lee Hyunsung and Lee Seolhwa.... Everyone seemed to have made up their minds.

"I'm not going."

Han Sooyoung said.

Jung Heewon narrowed her eyes and looked at Han Sooyoung: "You, what...?"

"The first portal must be a trap, it's too strange."

"It's not a trap..."

"Have you forgotten what happened on the subway?"

Han Sooyoung's words made Jung Heewon stop.

"At that time, it was also like that. We were deceived by a fake Kim Dokja."

Han Sooyoung's words changed the facial expressions of the group.

As she said, they had been tricked by Kim Dokja's avatar once before.

On the subway ride back from the final scenario, he had left his avatar with 49% of his memories in the hands of his companions and set out on his journey as the 'Oldest Dream'.

"What are you going to do if you go through the first portal and it ends up being an incomplete Kim Dokja again? Are you going to believe that this time it is Kim Dokja?"

"Do not talk to me like that, will you?"

Jung Heewon spoke in a voice that sounded as if she was holding back anger.

"I have said it before, no matter how much he remembers, Kim Dokja is still Kim Dokja, and even if it repeats, it's still his choice."

"You're being ridiculous again..."

"What if you are wrong?"

"What?"

"What if you choose the second portal, and you never get to see Dokja-ssi?"

"That's not going to happen."

"Han Sooyoung."

Jung Heewon let out a deep sigh, and then spoke in a determined tone:

"We aren't going to find him. We cannot have '100% Kim Dokja'."

Han Sooyoung's expression hardened.

"No one can have everything from another human being."

Han Sooyoung pursed her lips in a small smile. She had a little tic.

Who doesn't know that? Who doesn't understand such an obvious statement?

"I can't admit it."

Han Sooyoung's clenched fists trembled.

"How dare he read everything I wrote, and not come back?"

"Hey, you..."

Han Sooyoung said, shaking off Jung Heewon's grip on her shoulder.

"If you want to go to the first portal, it is your choice."

Han Sooyoung knew.

The choice she was making, perhaps, was the worst.

But she had always lived like this.

No matter how many dozens or hundreds of times she was asked to choose, she made the same decision over and over again.

Taking a slow step, Han Sooyoung said.

"If he didn't come back, there must be a reason why he didn't. I need to know why."

She stepped forward.

"I'm going to find him and bring him back one way or another. I am sick of playing this game of numbers, whether it's 49% or 51%, I need 100% or nothing."

And she took another step.

"And I'm going to go after each and every one of you, 'Kim Dokja’s fragments,' who imagined that shitty ending, and I'm going to torture you until you write a 'proper ending'."

"Han Sooyoung! What the hell...?"

"What I am saying is."

Han Sooyoung looked back.

The story she had lived, the story that had accompanied her, was there.

From the first scenario to the last, she and her life together with everyone.

Her companions, whom she would not change for anything.

That is why she understands their happiness.

"Take care of yourselves."

She smiled and walked through the portal. The letters swirled in the air and soon she merged with them.

Perhaps her assumptions were wrong.

Maybe readers weren't imagining a tragic ending, maybe something had gone really wrong and Kim Dokja hadn't come back because she hadn't been lucky.

In any case, Han Sooyoung was not worried.

She would write again.

She's a writer and writing is her job.

As long as there is someone who reads it, she can write forever.

Now that she has regained the power of the system, she can write again and convince the 'fragments of Kim Dokja'.

None of the fragments of Kim Dokja scattered across all world lines will imagine an unhappy ending.

When Han Sooyoung woke up, she found herself in front of a hospital room door.

As she blankly lifted her head, she heard a voice beside her.

"How long are you going to be standing there?"

When she turned around, she saw Yoo Joonghyuk standing by the closed door of the hospital room.

"What? When did you arrive?"

"When you were still talking nonsense."

Something moved on Yoo Joonghyuk's shoulder, and Biyoo poked her head out.

Han Sooyoung opened her mouth in a daze.

She wasn't alone.

These two had crossed the portal with her.