Chapter 184 – The World of Purgatory (2)
Purgatory.
Its dictionary meaning can be said to be the Catholic afterlife where people are punished with fire to cleanse their remaining sins before entering heaven.
To borrow a simpler expression, it should be said that it feels like taking off your shoes before getting on the train to heaven. To enter heaven with a clean body, you must wash away your sins.
In that sense, the name Purgatory attached to Jeong Seong-min’s New Testament fits exquisitely well. This medicine is also a space for brain washing to enter heaven (Jeong Seong-min’s slave).
[Baek Ha-yoon…]
A pure white world.
Baek Ha-yoon, who is placed in the center of that world, hears Jung Sung-min’s voice.
I listen to his voice, clear as if in reality, yet vague as if in a dream.
“Jeong Seong-min…”
Yet her cognition hadn’t strayed far from reality.
Therefore, he clearly recognizes that someone’s voice is ringing in his ear as ‘Jung Seong-min’, and he is well aware of what is happening to him.
[Relax. Everything is in my control Calm down.]
A surreal world where you can’t feel any sense of time and space.
Baek Ha-yoon felt fear at the center of this vast space.
However, he was able to quickly find stability in Jung Sung-min’s voice that everything was under his control.
[In a moment, I will enter your deeper consciousness. If you go there, you won’t be able to tell the difference between dreams and reality.]
One fact that I learned through numerous clinical trials.
Subjects injected into ‘purgatory’ gradually fall into a deep sleep.
This is because the tranquilizer is designed to spread slowly.
[I will go to the distant past. Since you were very young What is the first memory that comes to mind?]
Memories from a very young age…
The memory of my mother holding me in her arms and reading me a storybook.
I am a heartless person who abandoned me and left to find happiness with another man, but I hate that person so much, but I still miss my mother’s body temperature…
-Koo-gu-gu-gu-gung…
The pure white world began to crumble.
It cracked like a glass window, and then the window was shattered, recalling the scenery of my childhood.
-Kuuuuu…
A soft light comes on.
It was a lamp next to the bed.
You and your mother are lying in bed.
I’m in her mother’s arm and reading her storybook.
My mother’s calm voice pierces my ears…
“My heart is like this. It’s very simple. Only with the heart can you see clearly…”
Sr-sr-sr- the eyelids getting heavier.
Back at the age of 6, Baek Ha-yoon was ‘experience’ the memories of that time.
The part he remembers in detail is that he experienced that time and memories at 1x speed. The parts I can’t remember well are swiped quickly.
And so, in her deepest dreams, she lived her six-year-old life.
***
I checked Baek Ha-yoon, who was completely asleep, and got up.
By now she should be in her deepest dreams and groping for memories of her past.
So, what I have to do now is to leave her alone so that she can recognize the world in her dreams as ‘reality’. Even if left alone for an hour, years’ worth of time would pass in her dream, so she would perceive her dream as reality.
“If everything works out as planned, it means that you have acquired the technology of a god.”
The ultimate drug I’ve been dreaming of, Purgatory.
The biggest advantage of this drug was that it made you fall into a deep dream, while at the same time being able to recognize sounds coming from outside.
In other words, every single word I say can have a profound effect on the dream world.
‘That means…’
The principle that the content of a dream changes with every single word I say.
And the principle that a person in a dream accepts the dream world as reality.
Using these two principles, it means that people’s memories can be manipulated.
In other words, what you experienced in your dream is accepted as a memory of reality.
Of course, such ‘memory manipulation’ is not easy to do.
First of all, in order to change the dream world, you must have a good understanding of what kind of dream the target person is dreaming about.
If the subject dreams of going to an amusement park when he was 9 years old, and tries to manipulate his memory of going to the amusement park when he was 14 years old, the memory may be misaligned. Also, if you try to change it to an absurd memory without any probability, or if you try to forcefully insert a memory that the subject might dislike, it may cause a rejection reaction.
If done wrong, memories may be confused, personality and values may be distorted, and mental illness may occur.
So touching memories should be approached as delicately and carefully as possible.
-It’s sweet.
So, an hour later, I played the sound of the storm that I had recorded on my phone and approached Baek Ha-yoon. And whispered the following words into her ear as she slept soundly.
“Baek Ha-yoon. It’s time to wake up from the dream.”
***
Baek Ha-yoon, who had fallen into a deep sleep, slowly opened his eyes.
The familiar ceiling I had always seen came into my eyes.
“When did you fall asleep…”
A night of thunderstorms and torrential rain.
She got up and looked around her house.
Liquor bottles scattered on the floor and mold on the wallpaper.
Cigarette butts piled up in the cup ramen container caught my eye.
“…”
A cold reality that contrasts with the dream you just had.
A childhood dream of spending happy days in the arms of a warm mother.
Baek Ha-yoon sighed and stood up.
“Ha…”
The view of her house was always like this.
It’s always a mess when you come home, and the human named Abhi doesn’t even think about cleaning it up because he’s drunk.
It was too harsh an environment for an 18-year-old girl.
– Swish… Swish…
But Baek Ha-yoon was a strong child.
Even if there is no adult to lean on, he does not give up hope by leaving the possibility to the future.
He does not complain about the given reality, but endures the painful life by doing the best he can in silence. I’m not hurt by what these trashy humans leave behind.
“Who-ooh!”
So Baek Ha-yoon cleaned up all the trash in the house.
After doing this every day, it only took 30 minutes to clean up this mess.
“When are you coming…”
However, even though it was quite late, my father did not come.
He is usually a person who drinks at home because he has no money to buy food outside, so why doesn’t he come home after 10 o’clock?
He’s worried that maybe he’s having an accident somewhere.
– Jump!
Then, the front door opened violently.
Soon after, a middle-aged man shouted in a sobbing voice.
“Aaaaa!! Baek Ha-yoon!!”
The father who calls out to himself with a loud voice.
Baek Ha-yoon walked toward the front door with a frightened expression.
There, the father, soaked in the rain, was staggering, smelling like alcohol.
“… Outside of Dad—”
“You!!”
A father who snatches his words.
Sadness and madness swirled in his eyes.
“You will abandon me too! Just like your mother!! You will abandon me!”
Suddenly, his father asks if he will abandon him.
Of course, when I graduate from high school, I plan to move out of this fucking house and become independent.
With that in mind, I secretly saved 3 million won for independence.
But now is not the time to show your true feelings, it’s time to calm down this madman.
“My, why did I abandon my father? There’s no such thing… Now calm down…”
“I know everything! You bitches are secretly saving money to throw me away! Fuck, to stick together with another man like your mother… To abandon me, you must go…”
“…”
Baek Ha-yoon felt his heart sink.
To think that his father already knew about the money he had accumulated without his father’s knowledge.
I hid it as well as possible, so how did you know?
“I… Do you think I will leave it alone?Hee hee… Fuck, you’ll never leave. You never…”
Baek Ha-yoon muttered that to his father and stepped into the house.
Then, after taking out Baek Ha-yoon’s independence money hidden behind a drawer, he said with a mad smile.
“Yes, your mother… She gave birth to another man’s child…Hee hee… Do you understand Dad? Huh?”
Ha-yoon Baek’s shoulder trembled.
Eventually, the father pulls out a lighter from his pocket.
Baek Ha-yun rushed at his father.
And after snatching the independence money from his naked hands, he got up to escape from this fucking house.
-Thud!
But with her father’s hand holding her by the ankles, she fell.
Baek Ha-yoon shouted as he desperately hid his independence gold in his bosom.
“No!! Never give up!! I don’t know anything else, but this is not okay!”
“You fucking bitch!”
Then, his father slapped him on the cheek.
Still, Baek Ha-yoon desperately resisted.
He resisted his father’s assault, embracing the independence gold that was nothing short of hope to achieve his dream of becoming a singer.
“Give it up! Fuck! You want to throw me away too! Fuck you, you want to throw me away too!”
However, he could not overcome the power of an adult man who had lost his reason.
She resisted to the point that her face was bruised, but she eventually lost her independence gold to her father.
“You too will understand Dad! Ruler! Look! Fuck you, feel what it feels like to have hope burning!”
My father said that and lit a wad of 3 million won.
Baek Ha-yoon cried out madly as he saw the roaring money.
With the feeling of a mother watching her child on fire, I saw the independence money that was becoming ashes.
“Ah ah ah ah ah!! Ahhh! Aaaaa!!”
“Keuhehehe… You, you understand Dad’s feelings now, right? Yes, your mother… What that bitch did to me… Do you understand now? Huh?”
Baek Ha-yoon looked at the ashes with eyes like a corpse without a single light.
Then, looking helplessly at the laughing father, he let out a dry voice.
“You just committed a murder. I have no reason to live anymore.”
“Hee hee… Hee hee… Hee…”
The smile on his father’s face begins to fade.
However, regardless, Baek Ha-yoon turned his back and ran out of the house.
He wandered aimlessly through the thundering and stormy streets.
Her cries were drowned out by the storm and vanished.
“Aaaaa…”
Baek Ha-yoon did not have a specific destination for her.
She hoped she would die as she was swept away by the storm, she thought.
But nonetheless, her steps were heading toward Park Jong-pil’s house.
She shares the same misfortune, and as much as she unknowingly gave her heart to him, her steps follow as her heart goes.
– Again… Again… Again…
At that time, a figure across from her began to sway.
The figure was approaching me with distinct footsteps, but when I looked closely, it was a young man wearing a black long umbrella.
-Shuaaaaa…
-Quarrrr.
A night of thunder and lightning.
The young man stood tall in front of Baek Ha-yoon.
“Baek Ha-yoon.”
And the young man called Baek Ha-yoon by name.
Baek Ha-yoon looked at his face with his eyes wide open.
His face was so handsome that it seemed unreal.
“Take it.”
The young man said so and handed over the black long umbrella in his hand.
Baek Ha-yoon, who accepted it without hesitation, looked at him again.
Even though he stood with his hands in his pockets, he never got caught in the rain.
“You will make your dreams come true.”
His appearance exudes a subtle and mysterious atmosphere.
Baek Ha-yoon listened to him with his mouth half-open.
“You will get out of this terrible poverty and become the best singer in Korea.”
His voice seemed to comfort him.
He left those words behind and started walking.
Baek Ha-yoon shouted at his back, which was still untouched by the rain.
“Everyone, who are you!”
The steps of a young man standing tall.
He said looking back.
“I am your fan. I am listening to the song.”
…Are you listening to the song?
What does that mean?
Ah! Are you referring to the special performance we had at the boys’ high school the other day?
“Go where your heart takes you. To the place where the person you most want to see is now.”
However, before asking about his identity, he left those words and disappeared.
He disappeared beyond the storm like a mirage.
“…”
He appeared mysteriously enough to think that he might be a ghost, and then suddenly disappeared.
However, the umbrella in his hand was clearly proving that he existed.
Eventually, Baek Ha-yoon remembered the last words he had left for him.
“Go to the place where the person I miss the most is…”
The person I most want to see.
The person who wants to comfort me when I am so miserable.
“Park Jong-pil…”
Baek Ha-yoon muttered his name and moved on.
Arriving in front of his house, she knocked on the front door, met Park Jong-pil, and hugged him.
She goes into his house and she bathes in hot water. She drank hot tea and warmed herself up with a warm blanket. Soon after, feeling naturally in love with him, she kissed her, intermingled with her, and gave her permission for the first time.
Everything about her flowed just as she had her memory of her.
However, after her sex with Park Jong-pil was over, she had one question left.
Before arriving at Park Jong-pil’s house, who was he whom he met in the storm?
Why did he say such a prophecy to himself and then suddenly disappear after handing over the umbrella?
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out the answer.
But the words he left were of great comfort to her.
His words that one day he will be able to escape from this terrible poverty, and that he will be able to become the best singer in Korea. His voice, speaking to herself with her confidence, was a great comfort.
***
Nephrite contains powerful stabilizers.
Because of this, they are always in a deep sleep until the medicine wears off, and if you continue to administer the medicine using this, you can make them wander into the world of dreams infinitely.
-Shyyiik…
However, it is time for Baek Ha-yoon to wake up.
There is no need to make her experience all of her past and give her pain.
So I drained her of the medicine and induced her to wake up from her dream.
“…”
Baek Ha-yoon slowly opens her eyes.
She stared at her ceiling with her blank eyes for a while, then turned her head to look at me.
“… Jeong Seong-min.”
She calls my name
I nodded at her and looked at her at her.
“The first time we met… Was it 15 years ago? On that day when the storm raged…”
As expected, her reaction to confuse dreams with reality.
I shook my head and replied.
“No. It’s a memory I planted randomly. You’ve even put in a special device so you don’t confuse it with real memories.”
A special device arranged by me.
Even though he is not using an umbrella, he is not exposed to rain.
However, Baek Ha-yoon seemed to want to accept that memory as a real memory.
“I feel like I’ve been with you for a long time. Thanks to what you said then, I think my past life feels less difficult.”
Her memories have changed little by little to match her past experienced in her dreams.
I can only smile at her that those memories of her can comfort her.
“Love you”
She said that with tears in her eyes at my smile, but with a bright smile. In response, I lowered my head and kissed her lightly on the mouth, then wiped her tears running down her cheeks. And I thought, looking at the purgatory next to me.
‘Elena. I will heal you now.’
