"Ray... Ray!"
The familiar voice pierced through the sticky fog of my thoughts, followed by a sharp sting in my shoulder, as if someone were driving a small nail into my bone.
I jolted in my seat, drawing a sudden, sharp breath as if I had just been drowning. I blinked violently, forcing my eyes to focus. The blurred image slowly faded, replaced by Jin's face—annoyingly close—wearing that same crooked, mocking smirk that hadn't changed since elementary school. In his hand was a wooden pencil, pointed at me like a weapon.
"Welcome back from the land of the dead," Jin said in a teasing tone, skillfully twirling the pencil between his fingers. "The bell rang a full minute ago, and everyone's gone. Were you planning to sleep here until morning?"
I moved my stiff neck, hearing a faint crack in my vertebrae. I looked around slowly. The classroom was drowning in the silence of after-school hours. Chairs were scattered haphazardly, the green chalkboard still bore the white chalk traces of a boring math lesson, and the setting sun dyed the room a deep orange, casting a glow on the old wooden desks that revealed dust particles swimming slowly in the air... so very slowly.
"I'm... with you," my voice came out hoarse, sounding foreign to my own ears. I reached out to gather my books, but my fingers felt heavy, as if the neural signals were taking longer than usual to reach them.
"Just a headache," I muttered, stuffing my physics book into my bag with unnecessary force. "A slight headache."
"A headache?" Jin raised an eyebrow, leaning back against the adjacent desk, watching me with searching eyes. "This is the third day in a row, man. Are those insomnia nightmares back? Or are you secretly staying up to level up in games and surprise me?"
My hand froze for a moment over the bag's zipper.
Nightmares? No... they weren't nightmares. I wish it were that simple.
The problem was with "reality" itself. For the past two days, the world had begun to feel... out of sync. As if there were a slight delay in the live broadcast of life.
Just an hour ago, while the teacher was lecturing, his eraser fell off the table. I swear I saw it fall. I saw it hit the ground, bounce twice, and settle under the first student's chair. But the strange thing... was that I saw it in my mind two seconds before it actually happened. I sat staring at the eraser while it was still on the table, saying to myself: "It will fall now." Two moments later... it fell, in the exact same way, with the same bounce, in the same spot.
It was a nauseating feeling. As if I had read the script of this day before, but forgot where...
"It's none of that," I shook the dark thoughts from my head with force, standing up as I forced a fake smile that I knew always deceived Jin. "Just study fatigue and exam stress. Anyway... do you still stand by your word regarding the challenge?"
At the mention of "the challenge," Jin's concern evaporated, replaced by childish excitement. His eyes widened and gleamed. "Of course! The new cyber café on 4th Street! I heard they brought in augmented reality combat simulators. I'm going to crush you today, Ray, and I won't accept a headache as an excuse when you start crying."
I laughed, but the laughter didn't reach my eyes. "We'll see who cries."
We walked out of the classroom together, the sound of our footsteps echoing in the empty hallway. But that feeling... the feeling that something was watching me from behind the window glass... never left me.
[The Cyber Café - 4:45 PM]
The smell of burnt ozone, cheap energy drinks, and sweat mixed with cold air conditioning. This was the smell of "the arena" for us. Neon blue and red lights reflected off the faces of excited players.
But today... the sound was too loud. Loud to the point of pain.
"Left! Right! Ray, watch your back!" Jin shouted, hitting the controller violently. On the screen, his Samurai warrior was launching a sweeping attack.
Jin was fast. He was random. But I... I felt a strange coldness crawling through my limbs.
The world around me began to slow down. I looked at the screen. I didn't just see an "attack." I saw his index finger twitch over the red button fractions of a second before he pressed it. My mind translated the movement immediately. He will press it... now. My hand moved automatically, faster than my conscious thought. I pressed the parry button. My character leaned smoothly, evading the kick, then delivered a counter-punch to the jaw.
"What?!" Jin screamed, trying to recover by randomly mashing buttons. But it was over. Square button... right punch. Block. Triangle button... jump. Circle button... finishing move.
"K.O!"
"Man! That's impossible!" Jin threw the controller onto the table in despair. "You're cheating! How did you know I was going to use the finisher at that moment? I didn't even know I was going to do it myself!"
I took a long sip of my soda, the carbonation stinging my throat. "You're an open book, my friend," I said calmly. "Your moves... they were very obvious today."
[Home - 7:30 PM]
"I'm back!" I took off my shoes, lining them up neatly. I was greeted by the scent of the meat stew my mother cooked. A warm, heavy, and reassuring scent.
"Welcome home, son," my mother peeked from the kitchen door. Her face bore the fatigue of years, but her smile was enough to light up the house.
I sat at the small circular dinner table. My father sat at the head, his tie loosened, rubbing his temples with exhaustion. But as soon as he saw me, he put his phone aside and sat up straight.
"How was school, champ?" he asked in his deep, calm voice.
"It was good, Dad... I beat Jin five times in a row."
My father gave a light laugh. "Poor Jin... he never gives up." Then he sighed, looking at his plate pensively. "I wish I had half his persistence at work. The new manager... is pressing us. It looks like I'll have to work overtime next week."
My hand stopped with the spoon halfway. I saw the gray hair beginning to invade his black hair, and wrinkles that weren't there years ago. He was withering... for us. "Don't worry, Dad," I said with sudden seriousness. "When I graduate and work, I'll take care of everything. I'll make you retire and rest in a country house."
My mother patted my hand tenderly. "We know that, sweetheart... you are our only hope."
It was a perfect scene. Too perfect. Why then... did I feel a cold shiver run down my spine? Why did I feel that I was looking at a "photograph" that would soon be torn apart?
[The Gym - 10:15 PM]
The sound of the volleyball hitting the polished wooden floor echoed like explosions.
"Ray! Your ball!"
I looked up. The ball was soaring high. I ran. Three rhythmic steps. Then I jumped. I felt my body rise with an unnatural lightness today. "BAM!" I hit the ball with all the strength I possessed.
"My God! What a hit!" my teammate shouted. "Your jump is getting higher every day, you beast!"
I landed, my knees absorbing the shock. I was panting, sweat covering my neck. I picked up the plastic water bottle. I looked at my hand. It was trembling slightly from the adrenaline.
And for one single moment... time stopped.
The lighting in the hall changed—from bright white to a dim, deep crimson. The sound of shouting players vanished, replaced by a dead, heavy silence. I looked at my hand again. It wasn't holding a water bottle. It was holding a black dagger, its blade curved and jagged like a monster's fangs, dripping with a thick red fluid. And the wooden floor beneath me... wasn't wood. It was a pool of warm blood reaching my ankles.
I gasped, and the bottle fell from my hand. "CRASH!" The sound brought me back to reality. The hall was white again. Friends were laughing. The bottle was rolling on the dry wooden floor.
"Ray? Are you alright?" the coach called. "You look pale, as if you've seen a ghost."
I placed my hand on my chest, trying to calm my heart. "I'm... fine," I whispered with a trembling voice. "Just dizziness... maybe I didn't drink enough water."
I sat down, staring at my trembling hand. That wasn't an ordinary "hallucination." I had felt the weight of the dagger. I had smelled the iron in the blood. I had felt its viscosity on my skin. What the hell is happening to me?