༺ Homecoming (2) ༻
1.
Siwoo’s sight swayed slightly.
This magic, ‘Gate’, was a magic created by Duchess Keter and something that was closely related to him.
Perhaps that was why he could feel familiarity towards the flow of mana enveloping his body.
Before he could concentrate, wondering if there was anything he could analyze, the world around him had already changed.
His sight turned bright, as if someone just set off a flashbang in front of him.
Accompanied by an intense rumble, he saw a clear bright sky.
Then he saw towering skyscrapers, encased in glass from the top to bottom, stretched out as far as he could see.
-Booong!
The sound of car horns and engines echoed against the building walls. It was so loud to the point that he wondered, ‘Was it always this noisy here?’
Compared to the mostly quiet and peaceful atmosphere of Gehenna, the bustling city street was so overwhelming that the average Gehenna citizen could mistook it as the middle of a battlefield. Just the ringing sound of horns was enough to make them crazy.
“Ah…”
Siwoo, who had been standing there in daze for a while, took a deep breath.
‘Take a deep breath… Deeper…. Deeper…’
He continued what he was doing until his lungs felt as though they might burst.
A tingly, harsh sensation seeped into his lungs.
The smog he inhaled pricked his throat, leaving a stinging sensation in his nostrils.
He looked around.
A certain river1Referring to the Han River that divided the two famed districts2Referring to Gangnam and Gangbuk District came into his sight.
There was a wide bridge, bustling with cars trying to get across, that cut the river into two.
The set of buildings that once held the title of Korea’s tallest structure3Referring to the Samsung Tower Palace, the vast expanse of the Han River stretching into the distance and the nearby pedestrian paths, all of those unfolded before his eyes.
Streetlights that looked familiar to him, buildings with exaggerated heights, asphalt so black that it’d change the color of the raindrops that hit it.
This was the scene that he could only see in his dreams lately. But, at the moment, the scene was undoubtedly real.
“I’m home…”
He was home.
In his modern world. In Korea. In Seoul. In Han River Park. In a place he never thought he’d step on ever again.
He was truly home.
“I’m home… I’m home…”
He felt all his strength left his body.
Then he dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he sobbed.
‘Is this a dream? It isn’t, right?’
‘I have to make sure.’
Siwoo wanted a strong assurance.
He randomly reached out his hands, gathering the weeds and dirt around him before shoving it into his mouth like a madman.
The gritty sand and roots of the weeds scratched his mouth, giving him the taste of rich soil and fresh grass.
A nostalgic taste.
This was the taste of Korean soil he had longed for.
“Mom, look! That man is eating dirt!”
“Shh! Don’t look at him!”
Ignoring the attention he gathered, Siwoo stayed hunched over for a while. Tears streamed down his face as he spit out the mouthful of dirt and weeds.
2.
Siwoo stopped by a convenience store near the walking trail and brought a 1.5 liter Coca-Cola and Afri-Cola.
For some reason, Gehenna didn’t have Coca-Cola. And there were only a limited number of cigarette brands available there (mostly old brands), so this was an opportunity for him to enjoy the domestic cigarettes he used to indulge himself in.
While strolling around and admiring the noticeably transformed convenience store, his attention was captured by a tasty looking chicken, so he grabbed some of those too.
When he went to the counter to pay, the cashier was looking at him like he was a rare animal or something of that sort. But as soon as they saw his drools, they quickly finished the transaction and packed up the chicken for him. They probably thought that he wasn’t right in the head and refused to deal with him for a prolonged amount of time.
“The convenience stores sell fried chicken these days, huh?”
He assumed that the chicken would be frozen at best, but when he saw the crispy coating and smelled the oil’s fragrance, his heart started racing.
Then, he quickly sat down on the bench next to his legs, leaving the jogging path covered by the brightly colored polyurethane that he hadn’t seen in a long time. After he settled on the bench, he started chugging down the cola.
Exhilarating bubbly fizz went down his throat.
The drink, the best one on earth according to his opinion, washed away the lingering taste of dirt within his mouth. Something that regular carbonated drinks couldn’t even dream to do.
Since it had been stored on the display shelf before he bought it, the drink was still chillingly cold, giving him a minor brain freeze.
“Aaaaah!”
He guzzled down nearly half the bottle in one go, causing his throat to grow so cold that tears ended up welling in his eyes.
Without hesitation, he picked out the chicken legs inside the paper box and started tearing a part of it.
As soon as the chicken entered his mouth, he could taste the crispy batter and the oil that burst through from it.
Obviously it wasn’t a high quality fried chicken, since at the end of the day, it was still a convenience store’s fried chicken. But, Siwoo had no way of recognizing that fact at the moment.
Before he realized it, he had already devoured an entire chicken leg. So, he reached out to take out another one.
If he had been slightly more careless, he might have chewed the bone as a whole.
The chicken he used to order as a late-night snack every week couldn’t hold a candle to the incredible taste of chicken he tasted for the first time in five years.
His cheeks were about to burst as he stuffed the chicken into his mouth, trying to force it down. If his throat got too clogged, he’d pour some cola into his mouth and swallow everything at once. This process created a loop.
After doing this for about five minutes, he suddenly found the paperbag that was filled with chicken had been emptied.
“Oh fuck, this is as addicting as sex.”
Even so, he didn’t think that all the sex he had could hold a candle to this.
Sitting on a bench by the riverside park, looking at the flowing river and the scientifically advanced city while eating chicken with cola.
‘Maybe, this is what true sex looks like.’
Tears streamed down his face as he came to realize his previous ignorance regarding the true meaning of sex.
Despite the intense heat of early summer, in the shaded area beneath the bridge, a refreshing breeze blew gently.
Perhaps it was because he had chugged down all the cola he had, but when he grabbed his bulging belly and leaned his back, he was struck with a moment of confusion.
‘Maybe, everything that happened in Gehenna was just a dream? Maybe, I’ve been living this kind of life all along?’
It felt like the day after he got discharged from the military.
Five years was an incredibly long time. But now that all those years had become part of the history, it felt like a fleeting moment.
Using the keen sense of a smoker, Siwoo found a smoking area and swept away all the remaining greasiness in his throat with a puff of hot cigarette smoke.
‘Just one cigarette here…’
“Fuck, sex is the best!”
Nevertheless, he did notice that some things had changed.
First of all, People’s fashion.
Fashion was something that closely followed trends by nature, so this wasn’t a strange thing. Especially so for Koreans, who had a trend change basically every single year.
Everyone strolled around the riverside with similar looking outfits, as if they were trying to match each others’ style.
Men typically styled their hair with pomade or had a baby perm, as if it were the norm.
On the other hand, the women wore tennis skirts as they jogged along the walking path.
“What the hell is that?”
He caught sight of people zooming around on a strange-looking electric scooter.
It wasn’t just one of two people doing that, but dozens of them. All the electric scooters looked the same, as if all those people rented them as a group.
This made him remember the time when he first arrived in Gehenna. When he marveled at the wonder of magic.
As he gazed at the towering buildings, stacked high with dozens of floors, observed the cars that were emitting smoke as they slowly passed by, he found that those things were even more captivating than magic.
Sights like this reminded him of the saying, ‘science is no different than magic.’
Siwoo flicked his cigarette and stepped out of the smoking area.
‘Yeah.’
‘This is what I wanted.’
The ordinary daily life and the familiar scenery.
No one here judged him because he had different skin colors. He could go to a nearby store to grab a cola or whatever else he wanted. There was no ruling class that could torment him with strange magic. Just the ordinary and nostalgic scene that he had longed for.
The paradise he had yearned for.
His homesickness, that once caused his heart to ache, had seemed to heal in the blink of an eye.
“I should go see my parents.”
Siwoo adjusted his crooked eyepatch and climbed up the slope by the riverside to catch a cab.
‘I have some money now anyway.’
He jumped into a decent-looking taxi.
“Where do you want me to take you?”
After informing the driver, who had a friendly smile like a model taxi driver, his destination, Siwoo closed his eyes as he rested his head on the seat.
3.
It had been a while since Siwoo last visited his parents.
Since he didn’t want to go empty-handed, he bought a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of soju with him.
For reference, the former was for his mom and the latter was for his dad.
Compared to Gehenna’s elegant and luxurious buildings, modern buildings had a cheap, yet noticeably refined and welcoming feeling to them.
After he opened the revolving door in front of him, he stepped inside and made his way to the second floor to sign the visitor’s log.
“Mom, Dad… I’m home.”
No matter how busy he was, he’d always visit them once every six months. At the very least, once a year. This was the first time that he had gone without visiting them for a long time.
“Did you miss me? Are you surprised that I suddenly showed up without saying a word? This is your favorite baby’s breath bouquet, Mom. And this red soju is for you, Dad.”
He plopped down in his seat.
Now, his gaze finally met with his parents.
To be exact, the picture of his parents, beaming with a wide smile, wearing cheap hiking clothes while standing shoulder to shoulder.
“Don’t you dare complain about me not visiting you more often. It’s been five— no, almost six years. I’ve been putting in a lot of effort to see your face, Mom.”
He stared intently at the picture.
Even the faces of his long-missed parents seemed a bit faded.
Perhaps because they’ve been exposed to too much sunlight.
“You want to know what happened? It’s not even funny. Honestly, even if I tell you, you probably won’t believe it. You see, I was kidnapped to a fantasy world and became a witch.”
Siwoo covered his face, letting out a wry smile as if he found himself utterly ridiculous.
A witch. A fantasy world.
He used those words naturally, but the mere fact that he was currently in the modern world made him feel out of place.
“There, I ended up meeting with a crazy chick. She tried to bully me and failed… Well, later on, I realized that she wasn’t all bad… I also had some fun with a pair of cute twins— Oh yeah, Dad, there were good people among the Japanese. I got to make some Japanese friends, you know? Of course, I also taught them that Dokdo4 Referring to Dokdo Island, the disputed island located between Japan and South Korea. Japan, North Korea and South Korea, all claimed to be owning the island. The dispute is still unresolved to this day. is a Korean territory. What do you think? I did a good job, right?”
Siwoo opened the cabinet in the enshrinement hall and took out a certain picture.
It was supposed to be a family picture.
He was supposed to be there, standing just between his parents. But, that part of the picture seemed to have vanished, as if it was edited out with Photoshop.
“Can I take this? I swear I’d forget your faces without it.”
Suddenly, he felt something welled up in his chest.
It was quite an odd sensation.
“Mom… Dad… You still remember me, right…? You didn’t forget about me, right…?”
Even he himself found what he was doing ridiculous.
He had never believed in the afterlife, but as his ties with the world became severed, and all the memories about him were erased before his very eyes, the concept of afterlife suddenly crossed his mind.
“Oh, right, I should explain about everything in more detail.”
Holding onto the picture, he started to ramble about various things.
He avoided talking too much about the hardships he endured, as he knew that would just make them worry. Instead, he focused on telling them about his good experiences.
For example, the beautiful scenery in the Border Town, the magnificence of the Trinity Academy, the various natural landscapes in Gehenna that changed every season and the renowned Latifundium.
“We don’t need to travel anywhere in the future. I mean, any ordinary tourist spot would pale in comparison to that place. Even all those tourist spots in Europe felt dull in comparison, not to mention that we’d have to deal with the crowds and pickpockets there…”
Then, he recounted his adventures. The time when he defeated a monstrous creature using magic and the time when he rescued the twins from a terrifying exile.
“They really should turn those events into a badass action movie and play it at my funeral, don’t you think so?”
He kept on talking, oblivious to the passing time, to the point that his throat grew sore.
“…In any case, I’m just telling you not to worry too much about me. I’ve been doing well. Now I don’t even need to worry about money for the rest of my life…”
At that moment, he stood up and slapped his butt.
With a loving gesture, he cradled the small frame that held his parents’ picture.
He wiped away the tears that threatened to trickle down his cheeks.
“Anyway, it’s good to see you after a long time. It’s time for me to go now.”
Siwoo glanced back one last time.
“I’ll come back often from now on. I swear, you’ll get sick of me quickly.”
It had been 2025 days since he left his hometown.
He had finally returned to Korea.
Footnotes:
1Referring to the Han River2Referring to Gangnam and Gangbuk District3Referring to the Samsung Tower Palace4 Referring to Dokdo Island, the disputed island located between Japan and South Korea. Japan, North Korea and South Korea, all claimed to be owning the island. The dispute is still unresolved to this day.
