Chapter 1 : Earth, home, vending machine

The door opened onto the surface of an asteroid.

“Ugh.”

Seo-hyun felt a physical abnormality and encased his entire body in crystal, like full body armor.

‘Did I… mess up?’

As anxiety crept into his mind, he quickly turned his head, scanning his surroundings.
Ahead stretched the vast expanse of space; behind, the large, blue planet Earth.
Recognizing the familiar shape of Earth from his memories, Seo-hyun breathed a sigh of relief.

Earth. It had been a while.
This was his first time actually seeing Earth from space, but his residual knowledge assured him it was indeed Earth.

‘But it looks a bit different than I remember…’

He frowned, noticing the dark, blotchy patches clearly visible on Earth’s surface.

‘Did some outer god invade or something? This pollution looks severe.’

‘Well, they’ll probably go back after I give them a proper lesson.’

Having casually dismissed the thought, Seo-hyun began his descent toward Earth.

He wrapped his body in beautiful crystal and threw himself toward the shining, life-bearing star.

His descent, sparkling with brilliant crystal, was strangely undetectable to any who observed the cosmos.

*

A dark, lightless shore.
Dark, inky seawater washed in and out with a rhythmic echo, the sound of waves filling the silent darkness.

Breaking the quiet rhythm of the waves, someone walked out of the water.

Head bowed, Seo-hyun emerged from the sea, squeezing the dripping water from his hair.

*Drip.*

Droplets of saltwater began to soak the sand.
Seo-hyun looked back at the sea from which he had emerged.
The black sea, shimmering like a dark abyss, reminded him of the world he had lived in for years.

Staring at the sea for a long moment while wringing out his hair, Seo-hyun coughed, as if just remembering to do so, spitting out seawater and impurities.

“Cough, cough, cough.”

The sight of seawater endlessly flowing from the mouth of a perfectly fine, pretty girl might have been unsettling to any observer, but Seo-hyun continued unfazed.

Perhaps this was because he considered the act of coughing up seawater after emerging from the ocean incredibly ‘human.’

Having expelled all the seawater from his body, Seo-hyun shifted his gaze from the sea inland.
The artificial lights created by humans filled his eyes warmly, a welcoming sight.

“People, Mom, Hyun-a, home.”

Seo-hyun rolled unfamiliar Korean words around in his mouth, trying to recall how to converse with humans.

“Mom, it’s Seo-hyun.”

“Hyun-a, it’s me, your brother, Seo-hyun.”

After a while, satisfied with his progress, Seo-hyun nodded and started walking.

Toward his home, his family, his friends—toward everything he had left behind. To announce that he was alive, that he had crossed hell and navigated through darkness.

His eyes sparkled with anticipation.
It was an undeniable flicker of humanity, something he had longed for.

*

A girl in a white dress ran barefoot on the asphalt road.
In the intermittent glow of streetlights, the fluttering white fabric around her emphasized her presence.
Her unreal silver hair streamed behind her in the wind, cutting through the darkness.

“Home! Home! I’m going home!!”

Seo-hyun shouted excitedly, jumping and skipping.
Startled passersby moved out of his way, but he didn’t care.
It was the kind of behavior expected from fanatics worshipping outer gods, yet he understood their feelings now.

Because he could no longer contain himself as the familiar scenery around his home came into view.

The faded landscapes and scents of the past gradually filled with color, beautifully painting his heart and making it soar.

Seo-hyun was almost lost in the intoxicating nostalgia of these resurfacing memories.

‘That’s the convenience store where my high school senior worked part-time!’

‘That’s the chicken place our family always ordered from!’

‘That’s my phone carrier’s store!’

‘And that’s…’

Seo-hyun’s joyful steps finally stopped at an apartment complex.

‘And this is… my home.’

As that thought crossed his mind, Seo-hyun’s eyes welled up.
Something indescribable, like a flood, overflowed, making his chest ache.

*Home.*
This small word, created by human tongues, was one of the most special words, even to Seo-hyun, who was once a great being.

If he hadn’t abandoned human emotions, he might have burst into tears.
Of course, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have been able to return to Earth.

Wiping his tears with his arm, Seo-hyun stepped into the apartment complex.

His home was undoubtedly right in front of him now.
His home existed beyond one of these countless windows.

At that thought, Seo-hyun stopped and pressed both hands against his small head.
Countless fragments of memories swirled and replayed in his mind.

After thinking for a long time, Seo-hyun finally clutched his head and collapsed onto the stone floor, as if his legs had given way.

‘There are too many apartments. I don’t know which one is mine. Damn it.’

*

Seo-hyun decided to wait until daybreak.
He had to refrain from using his true power, so he would have to check the faces of everyone coming and going from the apartments.

Enduring the slow passage of time was something Seo-hyun was used to.
Time was infinite, so a day or two of waiting was nothing to him—a mere blink of an eye.

If he was truly bored with nothing to do, he could simply project the complex flow of his mind into the external world and observe it.

But Seo-hyun had no intention of doing so.

Observing the world might interfere with his painstakingly constructed ‘humanity,’ and there were countless things he wanted to do now that he was back on Earth.

Seo-hyun’s eyes suddenly sparkled, fixated on a vending machine in the corner of the apartment complex.
He stood up and walked toward it.

The ordinary vending machine, frequently used by the residents of the apartment complex, appeared to Seo-hyun as a treasure more valuable than all the gold and otherworldly knowledge he possessed.

“Ooh, um…”

Seo-hyun’s eyes darted back and forth in front of the vending machine.
Various colorful drinks seemed to beckon and tempt him.

But those weren’t what he wanted.
His eyes desperately searched for something, finally stopping at a particular drink.

[Cola]
[1000 won]

“Cola… Cola… Cola…”

Seo-hyun muttered the word as if possessed.
The name, the refreshing sensation, which he had seen countless times in his dreams—it was now waving at him.

His mouth started watering again.
His small tongue cried for help amidst the flood of saliva.

Seo-hyun’s slender fingers trembled as they traced the cold plastic surface of the vending machine.
And finally, he pressed the button that lit up in red, indicating 1,000 won.

But the vending machine was resolute.

It was a more ruthless merchant than any inflexible god from the other world.
The heartless devil would not easily relinquish its goods to someone who hadn’t paid.
This held true even for someone who had just endured hellish days in another world.

“Ahh…”

Seo-hyun opened his mouth and stared blankly at the vending machine.

He wanted to smash it right then and there, but doing so would mean breaking the ‘contract’ established among the humans here.
Breaking the contract would mean losing his place here.
He wouldn’t be able to see his family.

‘…But I want to drink cola.’

And so, the girl began her eternal internal struggle.
That utterly wretched war continued for an hour, until daybreak, when someone tapped her on the shoulder.