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I met him again three months after our second meeting.
It was another rainy day.
This time I was able to hear his story.
"I'm in danger."
- From the diary entry dated 20XX.09.20-
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After that strange second encounter, I couldn't find him anywhere. I even went to the pavilion on a rainy day, but he wasn't there.
Perhaps intoxicated by his mysterious aura, I kept thinking about him for the first month.
After two months, I gradually began to forget what he looked like.
Three months. I only remember there was someone I wanted to meet when the rain came down.
And just when I was almost done forgetting him, I was able to see him again.
As expected, it was a rainy day.
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This time, instead of looking for someone, he came straight to me.
His mouth opened.
"I'm glad you're still safe."
When I was about to ask what he meant by his questionable words, his mouth opened again.
"I'm so, so glad, Amiya."
Huh? Did I ever tell you my name?
I was momentarily startled by the man who suddenly burst into tears, wondering how he knew my name. I couldn't help but freeze in surprise.
Still, I felt like I needed to know what was going on, so I cautiously opened my mouth.
"Why... why are you crying..? Don't cry."
He cried for a few more minutes, as if he didn't hear me, then stopped crying and spoke to me.
"Honestly, I know this is hard to believe... First of all, my name is Kim Namjoon. Could you please listen to my story for just a little bit? I don't know about you, ARMY, but things are extremely dangerous right now."
To be honest, I was dumbfounded. Isn't that right? A man I'd only seen on rainy days suddenly started crying and saying I was in danger. I hadn't fully grasped the situation yet, but I listened to his story anyway.
To summarize his words:
I said I was that man's girlfriend. We were supposed to meet at the library two years from now. But on our fifth anniversary, seven years from now, I was murdered in this pavilion. As expected, it was a rainy day, and he said he came back to the past to save me. Since he couldn't pinpoint the exact moment of his return, he just kept going back to the rainy day, and that's how he ended up meeting me.
And he says that he continues to experience the future changing as he time warps. He says that his death is getting earlier and earlier.
Is this even possible in common sense?
After finishing speaking, he, no, Kim Namjoon, disappeared again as soon as the rain stopped.
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His words confused me for a moment, but I hadn't seen him in months. Now I'm back to living my daily life. Of course, on rainy days, I get nervous without realizing it.
It was around that time that I met Kim Namjoon again.
Another rainy day.
As usual, I intentionally took a different route than the one I usually took.
And then I felt the presence of a stranger.
"Found it."
And then my vision went dark.
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When I opened my eyes, I was sitting on that pavilion, my hands tied. I think it was cable ties.
Strangely, there was not a single person passing by on the street, and only the person who seemed to be the owner of the last voice was standing in front of me.
He had a knife in his hand, and soon his mouth opened.
"I'm sorry, Miss, but you have to die."
Before I could even answer, he slowly approached me.
I closed my eyes tightly to prepare for the pain that was about to follow.
Phew-
Strangely, it didn't hurt.
Did I just die? So pointlessly?
If you carefully open your eyes, what you see is,
"...I finally found it. I'm glad it's not too late."
It was Kim Namjoon who was stabbed with a knife.
"What is this? Haha, are you lucky, Miss?"Since you only have to lose one person anyway, you should consider yourself lucky."
With the appearance of Kim Nam-joon, the culprit left the scene.
And Kim Namjoon smiled and said to me.
"...I'm glad I survived this time. I'm really glad, Amiya."
This couldn't be happening. It had been years since I'd seen him again, and he was going to die like this? In front of me? In my place?
I could never understand what I was to him that he would give up his life for me.
As I watched Namjoon gently cut the cable tie that was tied around my hand, smiling softly as if he didn't care about being stabbed, all I could do was hope that someone would discover this situation and report it.
As soon as my hands were free, I reached for my phone. Of course, Namjoon stopped me, so I couldn't report it.
"I'll go back when the rain stops anyway. Wouldn't it be stranger if I disappeared while receiving treatment?And, it wasn't my future that changed. It was a completely different world... In our world, you can't come back to life, and so I have no reason to live anymore. Finally, I'm grateful that I could save you from this world. Live happily. Amiya, the you I truly love, even if it's you from another world, please live happily. Whether you meet the me of this world or not, you'll meet a better person, okay?"
By the time Namjoon finished speaking, the rain was slowly stopping.
Soon the rain stopped, and I was left crying on the pavilion, holding onto nothing but a cable tie.
So, my meeting with Kim Namjoon ended there.
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A year had passed since that day, and now the memories of Namjoon were just a corner of my memories, and I was living my daily life.
At that time, the culprit was a serial killer who committed random murders, and it is said that he was caught while on the run that day. Of course, there were no victims on record that day.
And today, the morning was unusually sunny. I heard that a new library had been built, so I headed there to take a look.
I was leaving the library after looking around, thinking that it was beautifully built.
Unlike the sunny morning, rain began to fall one or two drops at a time.
It was a shower.
And then a shadow appeared next to me.
"It's suddenly raining. Would you like to share an umbrella?"
It was a reunion with him.
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END.
-2021.05.23