Reunion (6)
What is this feeling?
Myeong was confused.
When she opened her eyes, airships were falling from the sky.
And all the top executives of the Union, who had never shed a tear in their lives, were gathered in front of one man, shedding tears of joy.
Eugene?
The same name kept popping up.
A familiar yet unfamiliar name.
A name she couldn’t forget even if she tried.
Gasp.
Myeong brought her hand to her head and let out a gasp.
Why? Why did I forget?
Gasp, gasp. Myeong’s expression gradually distorted into a frown as she ran her hand through her hair, following the rough touch of that person.
‘Why?’
Why am I running away now?
Did I do something wrong?
That wasn’t me?
‘Why?’
Why did you lie to me?
Why didn’t you tell me who you were from the beginning?
Why did you hide your identity?
‘Why?’
Why did you abandon me?
Without a word, all of a sudden?
‘Why?’
Why did you take me in in the first place?
For what purpose?
Why, why, why······?
Myeong’s head was filled with question marks.
She couldn’t understand.
She couldn’t make sense of it at all.
“Ha, hoo······.”
Running as if she were fleeing, Myeong finally reached a corner deep in the bunker.
In that dark and empty place where everyone had left.
Myeong’s fingertips emitted a faint light.
Myeong’s magic circle began to cover the floor and walls.
The completed magic circle began to reconstruct Myeong’s memories.
It was a magic that Myeong had spent years creating.
“Ugh······!”
Strands of light began to caress Myeong’s head.
The sensation recreated from her hazy memories enveloped Myeong’s head.
Indifferent yet gentle touch.
Rough yet soft touch.
It was the touch of her master, whom Myeong had hated so much but also missed so much.
Myeong had used this magic every single day to remember him and to fuel her hatred for him.
“Ah?”
No.
Only then did Myeong realize that she hadn’t used this magic once in the past three days.
Why? Why did she suddenly stop doing something she had never missed a day of?
The only change in the past three days was······ that man.
Clench.
Myeong’s teeth clenched.
She should have noticed sooner.
The evidence was already out there.
“I was going to ask you······. I wanted to ask you everything, one by one.”
Why did she run away?
In the end, she came back to this question.
She had prepared all the things she wanted to say to him when she met him again.
Now it all seemed like a blank slate.
Her memories of Eugene were now all hazy, leaving only this kind of caressing sensation.
It was also because it was something that happened when she was young.
That’s why Eugene was just a mere object in Myeong’s mind, never recognized as a person.
If we meet again······.
No, in fact, she didn’t think that would happen.
An object of her resentment.
Nothing more, nothing less.
But the man who suddenly appeared in front of Myeong was strange.
He was human, but not like a human.
He was a person of the present world, but not like a person of the present world.
Myeong felt an inexplicable sense of kinship from him.
As if he were someone who was detached from the world, from people.
The difference was that he was literally, in the truest sense of the word, detached from existence.
She didn’t particularly trust him or feel affection for him.Somehow, he was someone whose situation I could understand.
An ordinary person who makes mistakes, feels guilty, and tries to turn things around.
Someone who seeks the extraordinary in the ordinary and strives to be ordinary in the extraordinary.
He was just like me.
That’s what Myeong thought, but in fact, it was the opposite.
Myeong was the one who resembled him.
That person was Eugene.
The man Myeong hated.
The person he missed so much.
“Whyyyyyyyyy······.”
Irritation surged.
The Eugene in Myeong’s imagination was no more.
The image of a cold-blooded, merciless, and incomprehensible man disappeared, and Eugene’s face took its place.
Hatred and resentment had nowhere to go.
Now I don’t know what to say to him.
I don’t know how to treat him.
I don’t know if I should hate him or let him go.
I just don’t know anymore······.
.
.
.
“Eugene. Go after Myeong. That child has been waiting for you so much.”
“But do I deserve it······?”
“What do you mean, deserve?”
Cornelia giggled and grabbed my hand.
Her eyes seemed to say that it was a really cute worry.
Cornelia wrapped her hand around mine as if to give me courage and conveyed a warm warmth.
“Do parents need to deserve to come back to their children?”
“I’m not like Myeong’s parents-“
“That’s right. You may not be, but at least Myeong thinks of you as a parent. Go and comfort him. He may seem like a grown-up, but he’s still a child. No matter what the circumstances, a child who has been separated from his parents for a long time will grow up to be a big one.”
“······.”
It was certainly true.
Wasn’t it already decided when I took Myeong in and raised him?
I already had the responsibility of a parent.
Then, shouldn’t I give up that responsibility until the end?
I almost made a mistake that I couldn’t undo.
I looked up at Cornelia, who was looking up at me, and bumped our foreheads together.
Her eyes were full of trust that I believed I would do well.
“Don’t worry about me and go.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I get back. The situation is so confusing. I’m sorry.”
“My excitement has calmed down a bit, and now it’s bright and there are a lot of people around······. The real reunion will be later tonight, just the two of us.”
From Noble mtl dot com
Cornelia’s whisper seemed to melt my ears.
I felt my mind, which I had barely suppressed when dealing with the three guys, explode as if it were about to burst.
I’m going crazy.
Cornelia, who lightly kissed my palm and fell, couldn’t look so strange.
‘I can see the way.’
At the moment when I was wondering how to find Myeong.
The light of my extreme intention automatically draws a line along the path.
Where I should go.
It was to go to a place where the relationship was connected.
The light was connected to everyone around.
Even the thick lines are connected to Cornelia, Yerina, Julia, and Jill.
But just one.
There is a thin line that is strangely twisted and takes on a strange shape.
Follow that line and go deep inside.
I knew for the first time that there was such a place while wandering around the Union headquarters.
Gradually, the population becomes sparse.
Even the light fades away.
In the pitch-black darkness, something sat still.
Silently, just quietly.
His head was stroked by an invisible hand made of magic power.
The touch was so familiar.
“Ugh, ugh······.”
Myeong, who couldn’t hold back his tears and kept sobbing.
The confused thoughts that filled her overflowed and soaked the surroundings.
I approached Myeong as if possessed and reached out my hand.
“······.”
And then, whoosh, whoosh.
Now I touched the hair that had grown big.Despite her growth, the condition of her hair and skin remained the same.
She was exactly the same as before.
“······?!”
At first, Moomyeong didn’t seem to notice my arrival and didn’t react, but as my hand movements became irregular, she began to tremble and shake.
Swish.
Moomyeong looked back with a look of disbelief.
“You······!”
Smack!
Moomyeong screamed and knocked my hand away.
She seemed surprised by her own scream and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Th, that’s not······. I’m not ready······. Can’t we talk about this later······.”
“Moomyeong.”
“Why, why······. Why are you calling me that all of a sudden······.”
“I’m sorry.”
“······What.”
The atmosphere suddenly turned cold.
Moomyeong, who had been trying to avoid me, saying she wasn’t ready, sat up straight and began to glare at me with hatred.
“What, what are you sorry for! Leaving me and running away? Or hiding your identity and lying to me? Which one are you talking about······!”
“All of them. I’m sorry for hurting you in any way.”
I gave up on the idea of making excuses.
I didn’t want to be a parent who made excuses to their child.
Even if I wasn’t her real parent.
At the very least, I had to stand before Moomyeong with a sense of responsibility equal to that.
“My first priority was to regain my existence, and I didn’t think about the consequences. As a result, everything about you was put on the back burner.”
“From the beginning······ you knew······? That I was Moomyeong······?”
“No. I realized it halfway through. I found out when you talked about your master.”
“From that time······.”
Moomyeong sobbed for a moment and couldn’t continue speaking.
She bit her lip once, took a step closer to me, and burst out.
“Do you know how lonely I was?”
“······.”
“Who I am, where I came from, why I’m different from everyone else······. I don’t know anything, and what’s driving me crazy is that there’s no one to ask······! Why am I alone! Why am I the only one who’s different! And why did that human leave without teaching me anything······!”
Only then did I realize.
Moomyeong didn’t need the right answer.
She didn’t want to know exactly what my identity or origin was.
She needed a ‘person’ who could teach her the answer.
It didn’t matter whether that person knew the answer or not.
What mattered was whether Moomyeong was someone who could crave the answer.
And there was only one such person.
It was me.
I was the one who took Moomyeong in, raised her, and left a mark on her mind that would stay with her.
“Moomyeong.”
“······.”
It was a simple story.
There was no need to beat around the bush or try to unravel it piece by piece.
It was so simple and easy that it was ridiculous······.
“I’m so late. I’m sorry for making you anxious and confused······. I won’t do that anymore.”
“······!”
“I’m not going anywhere from now on. I won’t disappear or leave. So you can rest assured.”
“What······ what are you talking about······. Who’s waiting for someone like you······.”
Everyone has a defense mechanism.
When they judge that someone is going to leave soon, they automatically become distant.
Even though we know in our heads that it’s right to cherish relationships that may end at any moment, our instincts reject it.
What’s more, Moomyeong was still a four-year-old child.
It was natural for her defense mechanism to be strong.
And all I had to do was reassure her.
“Who missed someone like you······. I said I wanted to ask you questions, but I just wanted to complain, not because I really wanted to see you!”
“······.””Because of you, I had such a hard time! I was so lonely! And now you come back… now you come back… sob…”
“…”
“Did you think I’d forgive you like this? Did you think I wouldn’t hate you!”
“…”
Mumyeong’s face contorts and he bursts into tears.
His body trembles and his eyes are downcast.
In front of such a Mumyeong, I slowly kneel on one knee and meet his eye level.
And as I slowly spread my arms, Mumyeong flinches and slowly approaches me.
His head is still turned away.
His will to turn away from me is still strong.
But as if he can’t resist his instincts, he slowly creeps closer, and soon he can’t hold back the tears that come up again and rushes to me.
“Uwaaah! Really! Why are you coming back now! I hate you! I hate you so much! Sob, cough. You’re a bad guy! You’re a bad guy, a bad guy! I really hate you to death…!”
It was a really simple story.
He just needed someone to throw a tantrum at.
Just like when he gets annoyed with his parents who leave without a word and come back.
Mumyeong was the same.
“When you’re done with your work… you promised… to grant me a wish…”
“I did.”
After shedding tears for a long time.
Mumyeong spoke in a slightly calmer voice, occasionally sobbing.
“I’ll write it now… Now, don’t ever abandon me again…”
Wish granted.