Heeyoung frowned at the out-of-nowhere thanks and looked at Serin. Serin, who'd been smiling brightly, sprang upright and said,
“And then I had this super scary dream too. It made me really depressed, but now I'm totally fine.”
“...”
Come to think of it, the gloom and the drained, listless feeling that had wrapped around Heeyoung's whole body had long since vanished too. Haah... Letting out a deep sigh, Heeyoung plopped back down beside Serin.
“What was it. What scared you.”
“Hmm... So, actually, my matching rate with Chaeyun is only 76 percent.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Huh? Ahahaha! Usually people ask why on earth we even paired up, then!”
“Nah. Figured you paired up 'cause you two liked each other.”
At Heeyoung's indifferent answer, Serin's eyes sparkled all the more.
“Right? Everybody's so mean about it! But actually, there's a big age gap between me and Chaeyun too.”
“How big.”
“I just turned twenty.”
“And her?”
“Twenty-nine.”
“Yeah, she's a cradle-robber, all right.”
At Heeyoung's words Serin laughed again, ahaha. Now that she mentioned it, how many years apart were she and Han Shinyul...? That one was a dizzying gap too. Wasn't it over twenty years? So then, what did that make her, a monster?
“Usually people rip into me for latching onto an S-class with a low matching rate! But in the dream, a guide with a waaaay high matching rate for Chaeyun just, bang, showed up! And he was around Chaeyun's age, totally grown-up and cool...”
“And?”
“So I was bawling and clinging to her, right? But Chaeyun said she was sorry... she said she liked that guy more, and she just left!”
“So go find somebody else and live happily too. That kind of thing.”
“Aw, no way.”
Serin said in a downcast voice.
“I can't do without Chaeyun.”
Can and can't, as if that were even a thing. The human heart was the most fickle thing of all, and if you just kept living, life went on somehow. Heeyoung was about to say something suitably old-fart-ish, but she saw the tears welling up and trickling down Serin's eyes, drop by drop, and shut her mouth.
Heeyoung waited quietly until Serin's sniffling subsided, and when Serin lifted her head again, she snorted a laugh.
“You said the depression got better, though. That was a flat-out lie.”
“No, it really did get better! It's just, when I think about it again, it makes me sad all over again.”
“I really can't understand you.”
Heeyoung shook her head from side to side, then said,
“Well, so? Did you go raise hell or something? In the dream?”
“Ahahaha! Kind of, yeah! I threw a huge fit about never eeeever giving up my pair!”
“Attagirl, good for you.”
“Ehehe! But then, all of a sudden, it hit me. Ah! This is a dream!”
“How'd you figure?”
At Heeyoung's question, Serin drew out the ring that had been hanging around her neck. It was set with a fairly large diamond, and it wasn't a design you'd expect a kid to own. When Heeyoung looked at the ring with a what's that? expression, Serin put on a triumphant look and said,
“When she paired up with me, she gave me this ring. So I got all mad and said if we were breaking up I'd never give the ring back, and, well! In the dream she just handed it over!”
“She could give it back, couldn't she? Is it really expensive, that thing?”
“She can't. This ring is a keepsake from her parents.”
“...Is it?”
Serin fiddled with the ring, then tucked it carefully back against her chest.
“So the moment I thought, this is a dream! I woke up right away, and here I was. What about you, oppa?”
“Well...”
Heeyoung thought it over carefully. Does it show you the scene you least want to see? For that kid it was the fantasy of splitting up with her, and for me it was the memory of the day I got stabbed with a knife... Mulling it over quietly, Heeyoung recalled the memory that had brushed past her at the very end. Was that this body's memory? The man in the memory had called her Yoo Heeyoung, so it made sense, but... well, how? I don't have this guy's memories, let alone any information about him.
“I asked how it was for you, oppa!”
“Ah, right. Mine was similar. Is this a fantasy? Did a monster eat me? Once I started thinking stuff like that, I woke up.”
“What kind of dream did you have?”
“Getting stabbed to death.”
“Eek... Scary.”
At the sight of Serin answering with a shudder, Heeyoung snorted a laugh.
“Yeah, shit. It was fucking terrifying.”
“Did you think it was a fantasy because you got stabbed and didn't die?”
“...Did I not die? Beats me. Anyway, seems like the second you decide it's a dream, or whatever, you wake up.”
At Heeyoung's summing-up, Serin nodded.
“I hope she comes to find us soon. She's probably searching for us like crazy, right?”
“Why. What if they're stuck inside a dream too.”
Heeyoung looked around as she replied. Nothing was visible, so she'd assumed it was an empty space much like the place they'd been before, but before long the way ahead was blocked off like a wall.
“Aw. Espers don't see hallucinations or fantasies. Oppa, you really don't know any of this stuff, huh? Did you say you hit your head hard? And it made you dumb?”
“Shit, you little brat... Espers are like that?”
“Yeah! There were a few dungeons like that, and the espers all got through without falling for it.”
“Then they'll be here soon, I guess.”
Having looked over the whole area, Heeyoung let out a groan, aigoo, my aching bones... and lay down. Reassured by the presence of the sashimi knife she could feel inside her bag, she thought about when Shinyul might be able to come. Of course, with Shinyul not by her side she was a little uneasy, but her life wasn't in immediate danger, so she had no intention of moving rashly. This place also seemed like it might be a safe zone.
Still, should I be the one to go looking first...? As she pondered and glanced to the side, Serin was just blankly staring into the pitch-dark space. The desperate longing showed plain as day even on that young face, and Heeyoung clicked her tongue.
“...You really love her that much? Your sister?”
At Heeyoung's question, Serin smiled shyly. Her flushed face laid bare a faraway love.
“Yeah.”
“Why? You suddenly became a guide out of nowhere and ended up walking into this terrifying dungeon. You could've lived an ordinary life.”
At Heeyoung's question, Serin blinked slowly, as though such a thing had never even crossed her mind. That face left Heeyoung dumbfounded. Aren't that kid and I about the same? Sure, she probably had it easier than me, dropped abruptly into this insane world in a body I don't even know, but that kid got hauled into this monster den at such a tender young age.
“Hmm... The question's wrong. It's not that I ended up in the dungeon and so I love her. I love her, and that's why I came into the dungeon. Because I want to protect her. Aren't you the same, oppa?”
“What the...! Haah... Forget it, you're all just insane.”
Irritated, Heeyoung flopped over to face the other way. As if anyone would want to walk into a monster den for a reason like that. Anyway, they've all lost their minds, every last one.
Serin, who'd been staring intently at Heeyoung like that, came closer and lay down beside her too. Then she looked at Heeyoung and grinned.
“Hmm... You know, back when I was little.”
“You're still hella little now, what're you on about.”
“Ugh, come on! Enough with the old-fart talk!”
At Serin's exasperation, Heeyoung shut her mouth. Shit, everything's old-fart this, old-fart that. Like they never age.
“Anyway, back when I was a student, a dungeon suddenly opened up at my school. A dungeon forecast came out, but of all times, I didn't have my phone right then and I was alone in the study hall. Couldn't even evacuate.”
“...”
“And then, of all places, it opened with a bang right in the study hall I was in. The instant the dungeon opened, I dropped into it. Apparently if you're really unlucky, that sort of thing happens sometimes? I never thought it'd happen to me.”
“Somehow you're still alive and well, though.”
“Ahaha, right? The one who saved me back then was Yoon.”
“Who's that?”
At Heeyoung's question, Serin smacked Heeyoung on the back. At the sudden blow Heeyoung flailed and tried to rub her stinging back with her hand, but she couldn't reach it and wriggled like a worm.
“My pair esper! Chae, yun!”
“Ow, shit. Your hand stings like hell!”
“She was so... so cool back then, you know? Totally like a hero! I nearly died, but she came right away and saved me.”
“Ugh, that stings...”
Wiping away the tears that had sprung up from the pain, she glared at Serin, but Serin didn't even glance her way and went on talking. Heeyoung grumbled under her breath beside her in a tiny voice.
“But then, maybe because that incident became the trigger, I manifested as a guide, and she said the aftereffects from the sudden dungeon outbreak, plus the shock of suddenly becoming affiliated with a national agency, must've hit me hard, so she became my temporary sponsor. So then I was like, I'll repay the favor! and I chased her around begging to be made her guide. Though honestly, it was love at first sight for me back then.”
“You keep talking after you beat a person half to death... Are you a guide or a thug.”
“But she said no. She turned me down flat-out, completely. Back then she didn't have a pair, she wouldn't really take guiding, and she had a habit of getting by on drugs.”
Getting by on drugs, huh... So even an esper capable of guiding could end up like that. Heeyoung stopped her noisy fussing and thought quietly. The huge body that had rubbed its cheek against her, whining that it hated the drugs, suddenly came to mind.
