Because life is born from the 'stars' that fill the sky and come down to Caelum.
There are countless human-made creations on Earth.
It could be a story drawn by a child with innocence,
It could be a story made up by a young child with his or her own sensitivity,
It could be a story about adults who want to create new stories.
The moment that story takes shape and you take a step into the world.
The moment when the story comes into the world and receives the attention and love of others.
The 'Cube', which is called a 'star' on Earth, splits as if responding to that love, and falls to Caelum as a meteor covered in beautiful light.
The star that fell into Caelum in this way is born as a person, a living being.
* * *
“Oh my… Mommy….”
As the noisy surroundings became quiet, Ha Min-i peeked his head out from behind the pillar I was hiding behind and looked down at me.
If I were to describe his current state, I would say that he was so confused that he was so scared that he felt like he would cry if I touched him. As if he knew that, he just stood still, one step away, and looked down at me.
“…. Hey, hyung.”
Ha Min-i spoke in a slightly absurd voice, but I couldn't hear it properly. He was hiding behind a pillar, holding the gun Ha Min-i had given him for self-defense, and he was crouching down, shivering.
'Something similar to what we just did might come out.'
But there was no mention of this many coming out!!
I kept my lips tightly shut and slowly turned my head back. Just a moment ago, a group of suspicious masked people suddenly appeared and tried to attack us, making it look like a battlefield.
When I looked back, the inside of the subway was in ruins, but there was no one else there besides us.
Since Ha Min is an alien, those guys must be aliens too. What on earth is their purpose in attacking us?
“No, why are you crying when half of it was knocked down by your brother?”
Perhaps because I had experience playing gun games at arcades, it wasn't as hard as I thought to shoot enemies with this gun. In fact, I boasted a fairly good accuracy, to the point where Ha-min was surprised and asked, "Why are you so good at this, hyung?"
In that way, half of the enemies were split into cubes by Ha Min's kick and the other half by my bullets and disappeared without a trace.
“Sniff…. Being scared and shooting someone are two different things….”
But the fact that they rushed at me as if they were going to kill me was a separate thing from being scary.
Do you think seeing a tiger from afar and seeing a tiger right in front of you without any safety equipment would be the same?
Even if you're a professional hunter, I don't know! Even if I'm holding a gun, I'm scared if there's a tiger right in front of me!!
Even that tiger recognizes me as prey and rushes at me? How can I keep my composure in such a situation!
Rather, it's Yoo Ha-min who maintains his composure, no... . It's Ha-min who's strange, except for Yoo.
“If you’re scared, you can leave it to me and hide….”
“How can you hide and leave everything to your younger sibling when you’re the older one! My pride won’t allow that!”
At those words, I jumped up and shouted confidently, but I couldn't hide my trembling legs. This wasn't because I wanted to tremble. It was a physical phenomenon that occurred without my intention, like a knee reflex.
I, I'm a coward, no! Really!!
After a brief moment of silence where one second felt like ten minutes, Ha Min let out a small laugh, saying, "Pfft." Seeing him laugh so heartily made me relax a little, and my heartbeat, which had been pounding hard, slowly became quieter.
“Hyung, what can I do because you’re so cute? Can’t I just be your hyung?”
“Oh, it’s annoying.”
This guy was being cheeky and pointed at his brother, and he knocked on Ha-min's left shoulder as if he was knocking, but the guy just laughed as if he found it so funny.
Then, there was a truth that I just remembered. The problem that started to make me feel strange.
“…. Now that I think about it.”
Why didn't I think to ask this? I was embarrassed because the problem that had started my discomfort was now coming to mind.
“You… how old are you exactly?”
“How old am I?”
“Yeah. He called me ‘hyung’ when I was a freshman, and he still calls Eunho ‘hyung’ when he entered this year.”
Ha Min made a surprised expression, perhaps because I asked an unexpected question. Today, Ha Min surprised me a lot. If this is an achievement, then is it an achievement?
If it were a game, wouldn't it have said something like, 'Congratulations! You've earned the achievement 'Kkamnyangi is Surprised'!'? Chae Bong-gu, first place in the Yoo Ha-min Surprise Contest. Clap, clap, clap.
“You even noticed that? Wow… You really broke all the cognitive magic you had put in place.”
“What? You put a spell on us? So you didn’t notice anything strange?”
“I just made it so that you wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. I was wondering since the last time you asked me if I had ever seen you properly walking home from school when we were eating meat…”
Somehow…. On my way home, he suddenly approached me and asked me in a gloomy manner.
My name in my past life was 'Bambi'. I remembered the sad look on my face when he asked me if I recognized him.
I heard that the place called Caelum is made up of countless dimensions. It was said that the characters from the creative works that serve as the motifs for life forms live in the same dimension.
It seemed like we were quite close friends in my past life… So, were Ha-min and I people who lived in the same dimension?
The title of the creative work that Ha Min mentioned earlier, featuring 'Bambi' as the main character, was... What was it called... .
'Chroma Drift. It was a SF investigative webtoon, and my brother appeared as a detective in it.'
“It looks like you knew me in my past life…. We must have been in the same dimension?”
"no."
“….”
“….”
“…. Won’t you explain?”
“I was just playing a prank.”
Ha Min winked and stuck out his tongue. I thought about pulling out his tongue, but decided against it. He'd be embarrassed, right?
“Actually, I don’t even know when I was born. And no matter how old my brothers become, they will always be my brothers to me. Even if they are born again, that won’t change.”
“…. Wait a minute, ‘hyungs’?”
“Yeah, the members of Playb, Yejun hyung, Noah hyung, and Eunho hyung were all from Caelum in their past lives. Among them, Eunho hyung is from Chroma Drift like Bambi hyung.”
“Oh, what is this? Then we’re an alien band.”
By the way, you and Eunho were stuck together in your past life too? Who would have thought that fate could be this persistent… Wow, this is really annoying.
“We would always see each other and say things that were disgusting, but we couldn’t live without each other.”
… ? Did he just read my mind?
“Yejun hyung and Noah hyung lived alone in another dimension, and Bambi hyung and Eunho hyung lived in the same dimension. The dimension they were in was gradually disappearing, but I took them out of Caelum and brought them to Asterum.”
I smiled as I saw Happy Cat confidently facing me with both hands on his waist as if to say, “I did well.” Thanks to that, my tension was considerably relieved and I was able to move stably without any trembling.
“The reason you rushed in so much earlier is because the exit is close. It’s really close. It’s closer than the distance from the school building to the main gate, so let’s get out quickly.”
"really?"
Ha Min-i followed the direction his index finger was pointing to and saw a staircase over there.
I wanted to escape from this labyrinthine, cheap subway and breathe the fresh air. Now that I knew the truth about what I had been seriously worried about, I would feel doubly relieved.
I hugged the gun I was holding tightly in the aforementioned mood. If I leave here, will it mean parting ways with this person as well?
Because I have to give it back to Ha Min.
By the way, I'm not sure if this is a real gun or not. All I can tell is that when I pulled the trigger, it wasn't a live round that came out.
It was like a magic bullet from a fantasy movie, and thanks to that, I was able to reduce the psychological shock and fear of shooting someone with a gun while shooting it.
First of all, it is quite heavy….
“Hamin, this is really great.”
"is it so?"
“Yeah! It feels somehow familiar, and it feels good on my hand.”
It felt like I was rolling something I had used for a long time in my hands. In reality, I had only used it once or twice in battle while I was locked up here, to support Ha Min.
But, how can I put it, it feels a bit like we're comrades who have been fighting for a long time on the battlefield. Am I just too immersed in this situation?
“Brother Bonggu, take it.”
“…Really? I can have it?”
“Because it was originally my brother’s thing.”
To be exact, it's 'Bambi's' thing, right?
I felt familiar with it because I had used it in my past life. But, I am not Bambi now… .
“After you go out, when you have time, do you want to come over to my house? I’ll pick each one and explain it to you in more detail.”
“Really? I like it!”
Is Ha Min's house on Earth? Or is it in outer space? If it is in outer space, can I ride a spaceship and go into space? Wow, I can become an astronaut? Awesome.
My steps became lighter at the thought that I would be able to go out there soon, and I quickly walked towards the stairs, ahead of Ha-min.
“…? Hyung, just a moment.”
But maybe it was because I let my guard down too much at the thought that I could go out.
“Bambi, get out of here!!”
I was completely unaware of what was going on around me.
Ha Min ran quickly,
He grabbed my wrist. The moment our eyes met, he had a rather anxious expression on his face.
Just throw me over there with all your might,
After being thrown to the ground a long way from where I was standing and rolling around.
“!! Ha Min-ah!!”
It was only then that I realized there was a trap.
The moment I realized that, a red light burst out in front of my eyes, obscuring all my vision.
Very bright red.