Chapter 2: The Man Who Stepped Out of the Book

I was so overly focused that I missed the stop where I was supposed to get off.

If I had studied with this level of concentration, I probably wouldn’t have ended up at a crappy university.

Because I missed my stop, I had to take the long way back.

Sweat poured down my face, and my irritation shot up through the roof.

I stuffed the book roughly into my bag.

Seriously, why does Grandma keep telling me to come pick up side dishes?

And why does Mom insist I go get them instead of just having them delivered?

Whenever Grandma cooks, she calls Mom and tells her to come take some food.

And since Grandma doesn’t know how to send packages, Mom always sends me to her house.

As the one who has to travel back and forth in this scorching summer heat, it’s impossible not to get annoyed.

I endure it because I’m a good son.

Sweating buckets in the sweltering heat, I was on my way to Grandma’s place.

Thud. Thud.

As I was climbing uphill, I heard the sound of something being beaten up from the corner of an alley.

Crude curses, snickering laughter, and the smell of cigarettes filled the air inside.

I didn’t even need to turn my head to know.

It was a crime scene involving delinquent teenagers.

As an adult, I had absolutely no desire to charge in and guide them onto the right path.

I hated troublesome things.

Ensuring public safety was the police’s job, not mine.

Thinking that, I rummaged through my pocket to find my phone.

“Ah.”

I’d forgotten that my phone had died on the bus.

Meanwhile, the kids’ rough shouting continued.

They sure have strong lungs.

You can hear them clearly even from far away.

Do they really want to waste their energy in this heat?

It takes a lot of energy to beat someone up.

They must be feeling pretty lively.

Since I couldn’t call the police, I wondered if I should go back and stop them.

Just then—

“Argh!!”

“Ugh!”

“W-What the hell?!”

Along with screams came short, clean sounds of impact.

Unable to resist my curiosity, I stepped backward and returned to the alley I had passed.

There stood a figure wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt and black track pants with red stripes.

If he had been acting cocky or showing off, I would’ve just thought, what an annoying jerk, and gone on my way.

But he didn’t say a word.

He simply beat down the teenagers blocking his path, one by one.

Then he left a single indifferent remark.

“Don’t hang around here.”

With a calm face, he finished beating them up and dragged his slippers along as he walked deeper into the alley.

After a few steps, he stopped in front of a door that looked like it belonged to either a house or a storage shed.

He casually inserted a key into the old door that looked like it would open with a single kick.

It creaked open.

Just like that, after conquering the alley, he disappeared inside the dilapidated house.

That’s him.

It felt like I’d been struck on the back of the head.

Jet-black hair.

Long eyelashes casting shadows.

A lean yet solid body.

A straight nose bridge and firm jawline that stood out.

The punks he’d crushed looked like squids in comparison.

The novel I had read on the bus didn’t have a single illustration.

It hadn’t even described his appearance in detail.

Yet something strange happened.

Why was I certain he was Han Jun?

Why couldn’t I take my eyes off him?

Even I couldn’t understand it.

It was a flash in my mind, an inexplicable conviction.

Knock, knock, knock.

After the punks left and the alley grew quiet, I knocked on the door with trembling hands.

The old door creaked open.

A man with the most tired, bored, and irritated expression in the world stuck his head out.

The moment he saw me, his eyebrow twitched.

His face clearly said, who are you to knock on my door?

I’m fairly tall, but our eye levels were almost the same.

Prepared to be mistaken for a lunatic or a religious zealot, I greeted him.

“You have a very kind face. Are you, by any chance, Han Jun?”

“……”

“Are you not?”

“I am. And who are you?”

My breath caught in my throat.

Is this even possible?

Is this real?

Am I possessed or something?

After swallowing hard, I forced a smile.

I hoped a friendly grin would lower his guard.

Of course, it didn’t work.

Han Jun slowly lowered his chin, looking at me like I was some kind of freak.

His gaze turned fierce.

He didn’t seem to have the best personality.

They say you can’t spit on a smiling face, but if I kept smiling ten more seconds, he looked ready to spit—if not punch me.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Do-hoon. I’ll see you again next time.”

Leaving behind words that sounded even more suspicious out of nervousness, I turned around and hurried out of the alley.

“Is he insane?”

I heard Han Jun’s irritated voice from behind me, but I ignored it.

At this point, I couldn’t help but worry.

The book I had stuffed into my bag was gone as if it had evaporated into steam.

I hadn’t imagined it.

There was a small bump on the crown of my head.

And my memory of reading the book was vivid.

“What the hell is this?”

Back home, I rubbed my goosebump-covered arms.

I had picked up a strange book.

And I found someone who looked exactly like what was written in it.

Even the name was the same.

And the book I had placed in my bag had vanished.

I definitely put it in there.

“What is this supposed to be?”

Just as I tried to forget it, the first line of the book flashed in my mind.

Strange events that would occur exactly two months from now.

Why did even the year match?

It was unsettling.

I couldn’t ignore it.

The contents of the book wouldn’t leave my head.

63,004 destruction scenarios.

An absurdly excessive number.

And I had met the one and only hope—Han Jun.

I didn’t know if he was truly the savior named in the book.

I didn’t know if the book itself was real.

All I knew was that Han Jun existed, and I had this uneasy feeling.

I just needed to endure two months.

If nothing happened after two months, I could just laugh it off as bad luck.

But if that miserable event truly occurred—

That would be the real problem.

For the salvation scenario to work, 10,000 cosmic disasters would first have to miss Earth.

The planet Resa would need to connect with us.

Earth would have to be exposed to Respia energy.

And that wasn’t all.

People with superpowers would need to emerge.

A first nuclear war would have to break out.

And those superpowered individuals would have to rise to leadership positions.

Could anyone survive that?

Or was survival even statistically possible?

Maybe it was a revelation telling me to live the remaining two months without regret, since I’d die anyway.

Maybe it meant I should just give up.

But.

After tossing and turning all night in discomfort, I finally decided to keep watching him for now.

Ignoring it felt wrong.

Pretending not to know was impossible.

And I couldn’t accept dying in two months and just live recklessly.

At the very least, I should try.

D-Day, 59 days before.

At dawn, as the sky began to brighten.

After making my decision, I recalled the information about Han Jun written in the book.

Han Jun had no family.

No friends.

When alien lifeforms began invading, he suddenly appeared and started making a name for himself.

As otherworldly energy entered Earth, a small portion of humanity gained superpowers from exposure.

But Han Jun’s ability was never clearly revealed.

Unlike others who gained one power, he could freely use multiple abilities.

“Cool…”

He had everything cool all to himself.

But what I knew was only the Han Jun who appeared as a savior after humanity fell into danger.

I didn’t know his age.

His origins.

His personality.

I had to find out from now on.

Within these two months, long or short as they might be.

Having barely slept, I left the house early in the morning.

Even if humanity fell into crisis, maybe sticking close to a capable guy would earn me some scraps of fortune.

With that hopeful thought, I dragged my feet toward his house.

First, I needed to get close to him.

They say first impressions matter.

I worried because mine had been terrible.

As a gesture of apology, I bought various snacks from a nearby supermarket.

Maybe I could win him over with treats.

Though I didn’t have high hopes.

Yesterday, I had knocked on his door impulsively, feeling like I’d been struck by lightning.

But I’m not actually thick-skinned or sociable.

I didn’t have the courage to barge in like that again.

So I wandered around the neighborhood, trying to think of an excuse to visit him.

“Ah.”

I spotted Han Jun jogging.

Looks like he exercises in the morning.

Like a stalker, I followed behind him.

Occasionally, I felt self-loathing at how I looked, but I comforted myself that it was for the greater good.

After finishing his jog, Han Jun entered a gym located in the basement of an old gray building.

[Authentic S&W Boxing Gym]

What an honest name for a boxing gym.

Discovering the place he attended felt like a huge opportunity.

If I joined the same gym, I could build rapport.

It might be my only way to create a connection with him.

At least I wouldn’t be treated like a lunatic for barging into his house again.

“Excuse me—”

With half excitement and half nervousness, I stepped into the boxing gym.

Pushing open the glass door covered in flyers and tape, the smell of rubber rushed toward me.

There was a sparring ring on one side.

A punching bag hung in a corner.

And right there, mopping the floor, was Han Jun.

I thought he was just a member, but seeing him clean made me wonder if he was a coach or a professional fighter.

“What brings you here?”

Perhaps because I was a customer, his expression was looser than yesterday.

But when he looked up and saw my face, his brows immediately furrowed.

“Uh… I came to learn boxing.”

What if he recognizes me as the guy who came to his house yesterday?

His gaze was intense as he stared at me.

I couldn’t meet his eyes and awkwardly shifted my gaze around.

If only I hadn’t gone to his house so recklessly.

I deeply regretted it.

“…The director will be here in twenty minutes. Will you wait?”

After studying my face for a long moment, Han Jun tilted his head and spoke.

His voice was so flat it was hard to tell whether it was a question or a command.