When Kang Chan woke up the second time around, not only did the back of his head and neck hurt, but his nose hurt ridiculously as well.

“Waaaater.”

“Doctor!”

‘Please. Don't just call for the doctor. Give me some water.’

“Waaater.”

After a brief ruckus, Kang Chan finally felt something moist on his lips. He wasn’t given any actual water; instead, they simply placed a wet gauze over his mouth. He didn’t care about anything else—he just needed a glass of water for his parched throat.

“Maybe it’s because he works out, but his body is definitely recovering quickly.”

While it was true that he did have a relatively good physique, it was his first time hearing someone say that he worked out. But why were they speaking in Korean?

After sucking in some water from the gauze, Kang Chan felt like he was coming back to his senses. He tried his best to force his eyes open, and after a brief struggle, he was finally able to move his half-open eyes and look around.

He was in the hospital.

Intricately connected machines were attached to each bed. Kang Chan knew why his nose hurt—a large tube was going down his nose to his throat.

“Can you see me?”

Kang Chan nodded his head slightly.

One, two, three women: one with short hair, another with a bob cut, and one with her hair tied up. Height, chest, waist, hips. His trained eye instinctively assessed the features of the enemy.

“Water, please.”

One of the women skillfully placed a new gauze on his lips.

“Ptooey! I’m asking for water.”

Do they think I’m some recruit or something?

“You can’t have any water yet.”

She placed the wet gauze on his lips again. Perhaps his act of spitting out the gauze was effective—the gauze was soaked in quite a fair amount of water this time. After ‘replenishing’ himself like that twice, Kang Chan came to his senses. He started looking right and left, as he could finally open his eyes and move them properly.

“Where am I?”

“Have you come to your senses?”

Kang Chan nodded slightly.

“Do you remember what happened?”

Do these people think I’m an idiot?

“Yeah, so loosen this thing around my neck.”

“We can’t do that.” The lady with short hair and a small chest answered with a firm voice.

There weren’t any facilities like that in Africa, so he must have been transported here by plane. If that were the case, then he must have been unconscious for quite some time.

“How many days was I in a coma?”

“Three days.”

“Where is this?”

“Samjeong Hospital.”

“Samjeong, Korea?”

The lady with short hair looked at Kang Chan weirdly. She looked like she was around 27 years old; she had small eyes and a high-bridged nose, making her features look very sharp.

Just then, a doctor decked in an operating gown approached him.

“How do you feel? Do you feel any pain anywhere?”

Droopy eyes wearing high-index lens glasses; he looked as though he hadn't slept in two days. Chubby face, early thirties.

“Get this off me.”

Kang Chan tried to move his neck.

“It’s better to wear the neck brace for the time being.” As the doctor responded, the bell rang.

“Have a good visit with your parents, they must be very happy.”

Parents? What parents?

As soon as the doctor left, a group of people instantly flocked to Kang Chan.

“Chan! Our dear Chan!”

Permed hair, late forties. Big eyes, somewhat high nose, short stature.

“Can you see me? Can you recognize me? It’s mom.”

Kang Chan blinked and tried to identify the lady.

A woman I don’t know is claiming to be my mother. How should I respond to this? 

Kang Chan wondered if it was just a dream.

***

It had been two days since the visitation, but Kang Chan was confused about everything that happened. After asking time and time again, what he had gotten thus far was that it was currently 2010, and his name was indeed Kang Chan, but he was a senior at Shinmuk High School.

He had fallen off the roof of a five-story building in school, but a tree had broken his fall. Nonetheless, he had fallen upside down onto the ground, and was rushed to the hospital. Fortunately, he hadn’t broken any bones, but he had some kind of amnesia, and delusions of grandeur.

His father was Kang Dae-Kyung, and his mother was Yoo Hye-Sook. Kang Chan was their only son. He was neither good nor bad when it came to his academics; he was rather obedient, and he liked working out, so he did it regularly.

***

“Doctor, can my son be cured?”

Yoo Hye-Sook wiped her tears with her handkerchief. The tall and old-fashioned Kang Dae-Kyung was sitting next to her. He also had the same sad look on his face.

“It’s good that the cervical spine injury we were concerned about was so minor that it was truly a miracle but…”

Kang Chan’s doctor, Heo Ji-Hwan, looked up again after glancing at the computer.

“Even the psychiatrist says that there’s no cure right now. It’s understandable for him to have amnesia, but as for how serious his delusions are, I’m sorry, but it’s best for you to just protect and comfort him for the time being.”

Kang Dae-Kyung patted Yoo Hye-Sook on the shoulder as she lowered her head.

***

Entering Chorok Apartments in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Kang Chan quietly followed Yoo Hye-Sook’s lead. Judging from the luxury car and the area where the apartment block was located, it was evident that he led a fairly comfortable life.

Unit 701.

After getting off the elevator, Kang Dae-Kyung opened the door, and Yoo Hye-Sook led Kang Chan to the room on the left. Kang Chan looked around the room.

“Do you remember this place? It’s your room.”

Yoo Hye-Sook started tearing up again.

“You’re doing it again. He’ll be fine after resting for a bit. Go rest up.”

Kang Dae-Kyung consoled Yoo Hye-Sook and went out of the room.

There was a bed with a headboard by the window, and a bookshelf and a wardrobe leaning against the wall on the other side. And so he could sit immediately, there was a desk right by the entrance with a computer on it. And that was everything he had in the room.

Kang Chan looked at himself in the mirror on the wall.

‘Is this a dream? Am I dead? What exactly is going on?’

Now that he looked at himself, he didn’t like the way he looked either. He sat down at the desk and rested his head on both hands.

‘Could it be that those dead men were so pissed that they put a curse on me?’

A shaman? That was ridiculous. If such black magic existed, who would even die?

Moreover, Kang Chan had seen several shamans die via beheading.

“Whatever. I’ll just stay here for a while and see what happens. I might get an answer as time goes on.”

Kang Chan sat down at the desk and rummaged through the drawers.

“This bastard doesn’t smoke either?”

Right now, he needed cigarettes. While he was searching for them, Kang Chan began scouring through the desk and shelves because he wanted to know what kind of person the original owner of his body was.

He was 179cm tall, and he had quite a bit of muscle, so he wasn’t weak, but Kang Chan didn’t quite like the impression his face gave off. The corners of his eyes made him look kind, and he had a nose with a rounded tip, just like Kang Dae-Kyung’s. It wasn’t his style.

Kang Chan flipped open the books on the bookshelf one by one. Since all he had were just reference books, self-teaching books, and workbooks, Kang Chan was about to sigh when he tilted his head and scrutinized a book. That was because aside from the ten pages at the front and back of the book titled ‘Math Solutions’, the rest of the pages were filled with miscellaneous notes.

[I’ll kill them. I’ll kill all the people that bullied me.]

‘Seriously, this bastard. If you’re going to kill them, just kill them. Why would you leave such evidence behind?’

Kang Chan decided to sit on the bed and slowly read it.

[I brought them money again today. Even though I worked out so much, my heart was racing and I couldn’t breathe, so I couldn’t do it in the end. Why am I like this? Am I really a fool? Why do I feel so anxious and struggle to breathe whenever I’m in front of them?]

‘What the heck? He was actually bullied by them or something?’

[Even though they knew I didn’t take Mi-Young’s photo, the other guys still insulted me. Coward. They did that on purpose. I’ll kill them all.]

“Whew.”

Kang Chan closed the book and threw it next to the bed. Suddenly, his craving for cigarettes became even more intense.

***

It took a week for Kang Chan to get used to living in the apartment. Figuring out how to use the bidet and water purifier was fucking hard, but it was even harder learning how to use his smartphone. Naturally, the appliance that helped him the most was the television.

During this period of time, Kang Chan refrained from speaking as much as possible; after eating his meals, he would sit in the living room and fiddle with the remote control, surfing through the channels and learning the ways of the world.

Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook would watch him. Their faces showed determination, but their eyes betrayed their worries.

Kang Chan finally learned how to properly use a smartphone after a week. Naturally, he had many other questions aside from that.

‘Let’s leave it. I’ll figure it out one by one.’

However, he didn’t ask any more questions, because he couldn’t bring himself to say the words ‘mom’, or ‘mother’.

***

It took two weeks for Kang Chan to get somewhat used to his new life. Unlike the first week, he mainly spent his second week browsing the computer and the internet, which was truly a whole new world for him.

However, while Yoo Hye-Sook was rather tolerant of him watching the television, she was particularly concerned about him using the computer. That didn’t mean Kang Chan felt the same way, so he was able to experience the new world to his heart’s content by sleeping less.

***

After dinner, before going to bed, Kang Dae-Kyung sat across from Yoo Hye-Sook as he drank a cup of tea.

“Is he still on the computer?”

“I’m so worried about him.”

“Just let him be for now. At least he came back to life.”

“I try to think of it that way, but it’s not working. And as the days go by, the look in his eyes is becoming scarier and scarier, so it’s making me really worried as well. What do you think?”

“Hmm.” Kang Dae-Kyung pursed his lips and exhaled heavily. “I did feel the same way too. Sometimes my heart sinks when I look into his eyes but… tsk, it’s probably because it was such a major accident that the shock and trauma haven’t gone away. He’s our son who came back to life. Let’s just be grateful for now. Like what you said when he was in the intensive care unit—as long as he’s alive, we won’t worry about his academics or anything else ever again. So let’s just be grateful for now, okay?”

Yoo Hye-Sook nodded with a helpless look on her face.

***

Kang Chan was sitting in front of the computer. The contents of the African War from 2005 to 2007 were displayed on the screen. However, Kang Chan couldn’t find anything particularly informative. There were no records of the French mercenaries, and he couldn’t find anything by running a search on the short list of names.

“Let’s take one step at a time and slowly dig for information.”

In any case, Kang Chan wasn’t expecting to find something right away, so he took a deep breath and slowly typed in the next search term.

Buzzz—.

At that moment, his smartphone vibrated shortly. It was the first time it had rang since he got it, so Kang Chan quickly picked up his phone.

It was a text message from a person named Lee Ho-Jun.

Buzzz— Buzzz— Buzzz—

Just as he was about to check the text, three more consecutive messages came in.

[Dickhead. I heard you went home? But you didn’t bother reporting to me? Do you have a death wish? Call me now.]

[You know what happens when you ignore me, right? Stop fooling around and call me now. Bring the money you owe from the past month too.]

[Hey! Are you not going to call me?]

Kang Chan looked at the text messages and smirked. Whoever wanted to talk on the phone could just call the other party first, so he didn’t get why this guy was kicking a huge fuss, telling him to call. And on the other hand, the content of the messages was hilarious.

‘They call themselves his parents and they don’t even know their son’s being treated like this?’ 

Buzzz—

[You motherfucker! Why the fuck did you delete the messages? Hurry up and download the messages. Call me first.]

“I’m busy.”

Kang Chan decided to call Lee Ho-Jun first. As soon as he tapped on the blue image that looked like a phone, an upbeat tune, similar to the ones played on the TV was heard. However, the tune stopped immediately and curse words started pouring out.

— Hey! Kang Chan! You fucking bastard, you got a death wish?

Kang Chan couldn’t help but laugh. It was the first insult he had heard in seven years. If his unit members had heard about it, they wouldn’t have believed it.

— Did you just laugh? You fucker, did that fall knock your brains out?! Hey! Heeey! Aren’t you gonna say anything?!

“Lee Ho-Jun?”

— Yeah, you bastard. Did you finally get your shit together? Answer me already, you fucker. Hey! You got the money?

“What money?”

— Ha! Little dickhead, you really went cuckoo, huh? Did the doctors transplant you a pair of balls? Did they give you a bunch of courage pills, motherfucker?!

“Heh heh heh heh.”

— Did you really go insane, you bastard? Come out now!

“Kiddo, it’s nighttime now, so I’ll see you tomorrow. Where do you want to meet?”

— Hey, you motherfucker!

“Hahahaha.”

Kang Chan laughed, finding Lee Ho-Jun very cute. He wanted to leave the house right away to see what kind of person he was, but he didn’t want to explain to Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook why he was leaving the house late at night.

As Kang Chan laughed, Lee Ho-Jun went haywire, swearing hard at him.

“Stop cursing and call me tomorrow.”

Kang Chan hung up and switched off the phone immediately.

“Whew… How exactly did you live your life?”

Kang Chan shook his head while staring into the mirror hanging on one side of the room.

***

The next morning.

While having breakfast, Kang Chan saw an opportunity and broke the silence.

“I’ll be going out for a bit today.”

“Oh? Where to?”

Perhaps he was surprised that Kang Chan took the initiative to speak first—Kang Dae-Kyung asked him a question back in response, and Yoo Hye-Sook even stopped chewing and looked at him.

“I’m just going to meet with some friends and walk around.”

“Yeah! That’s a good idea. You should do that. I’ll be going to work, so get some pocket money from your mom and get some fresh air.”

“Yes.”

That was the end of the conversation, but excitement and concern lingered on Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook’s faces the entire time until they were done with their breakfast.

When Kang Chan went back to his room and turned on his phone, more than fifty messages flooded his inbox.

“Huehuehue.”

He was at a loss for words this time around, so he laughed.

After the phone was done vibrating from all the messages received, Kang Chan made a phone call. Strangely, the other party didn’t answer.

“What’s with these people?” He looked at his phone and muttered to himself.

Buzzz—.

[Come to school before class is over.]

A short message popped up on his phone.