Pathfinder

Chapter Six

When Garam returned to her room after what had felt like an eternity, nothing had changed. It was as if time had stood still while she was gone, and even the clock's hands seemed frozen in place, just as they were when she had left. The dark of midnight was still present outside.

Garam's stomach rumbled loudly after days of eating only meager slices of dry bread. She decided she needed to find something to eat, even if it meant raiding the refrigerator. As she opened the door to leave, she suddenly remembered the argument with her parents, but she didn't dwell on it. She cautiously opened the door, fully prepared to apologize to her parents. However, to her surprise, there was no one in the living room.

‘Are they already asleep?’

Garam looked at the door of her parents' room for a while, but quickly shifted her gaze to the electric rice cooker and hurriedly started to prepare some rice. After that, as she opened the refrigerator, tears welled up in her eyes. Inside the refrigerator, there was a bountiful spread of food that seemed to have been prepared for Garam's upcoming birthday party. A large and beautiful birthday cake, Garam's favorite fried chicken, pizza, fried shrimp, sweet and sour pork, salad, and seaweed soup filled the refrigerator to the brim. Despite spending two days in the other world, the food appeared as fresh as if it had just been prepared. Hungry as she was, Garam didn't think much about it and quickly took out some basic side dishes to satisfy her hunger, deciding to apologize to her parents in the morning.

After eating, the tension of the past few days melted away, and Garam's body sank into the bed effortlessly. It had been a long time since she’d had a proper night's sleep.

How much time had passed? Garam, who slept so much that she woke up with a pounding headache, curled up under the covers. Since it was her birthday and she had taken the day off, she could afford to sleep in. So, Garam indulged in her dreams of the world of fantasy, occasionally fluttering her eyelids slowly.

However, suddenly, Garam realized that the room was unnaturally dark. It wasn't due to the curtains on her window as they were made of sheer chiffon and had no real blocking effect on the sunlight. At first, she wondered if the weather was cloudy that day, but as she came to her senses, she realized how ridiculous that thought was. The room was completely pitch black as if it were nighttime.

‘It couldn't possibly be night already.’

Considering that her joints were stiff and her head was heavy, it was apparent that she had slept too long—nearly ten hours, but she hadn't had a choice. After the hectic experience, she really needed some rest and had to sleep for at least seven hours. Still, Garam shivered at the creeping sense of unease that was taking hold of her body.

‘What time is it now? Is it still before sunrise?’

Trying to ignore the eerie feeling, Garam looked for a clock. The round wall clock made of wood indicated 12:01.

“It must be broken.”

Garam said to herself, trying to calm her growing unease. However, her cell phone also displayed exactly 12:01. Could both the clock and her phone be broken? She knew it was an absurd thought, but Garam couldn't help but come to that conclusion. Both the clock and the phone broke at the same time—what a strange situation.

Garam came out into the living room, but everything was silent. She immediately opened the door of her parents' room and rushed in. Although she didn't notice, the grandfather clock in the living room that she had just passed by also displayed 12:01.

Garam passed by the thick blanket, approaching the side with the pillows to see her parents' sleeping faces. However, there was nothing there. The blanket seemed slightly puffed up as if someone had been lying there just moments ago, but that was it. There was no one there. With a sense of unease gripping her, Garam took a step back and noticed the alarm clock on her parents' nightstand. It read 12:01. It didn’t change no matter how many times she blinked and looked at it again.

Garam stared at the alarm clock, frozen in place with her eyes wide. When her gaze reached the second hand, it started moving, but the sound abruptly stopped when she tried to look away.

Garam felt a sensation akin to an annoying, prickling noise. As she searched for the source of the noise, she realized it was her own breathing. Garam took a deep breath, wiping away the sweat on her trembling palms with her pants. Then, she quickly left the bedroom and headed towards the bathroom.

"Mom! Dad!"

Her cries echoed through the empty, deserted house. Garam retraced her steps, frantically searching through the rooms again and again.

She picked up her phone, which she had thrown on her bed as if she had tossed it away, and called her parents. The familiar ringtone sounded from her parents’ bedroom. Her father’s phone displayed the text [My Daughter Garam] and her mother's phone read [My Dearest Fool] For a long time, Garam stared at the incoming call display on her parents' phones while making a call she knew would never be answered. Her parents were not in the house. They had disappeared without their phones. Garam hurriedly rushed outside.

She thought about waiting until morning to see if her parents would return, but she couldn't bear the anxiety. Garam put on her worn-out sneakers and ventured out into the night.

"Dad!"

Frantically, she wandered through the neighborhood, calling for her parents. Something was wrong. Although it was too late for a young woman in her mid-twenties to be running around like that, but it was also too early for such silence to be around.

Garam was then running. She sprinted despite her old sneakers making a terrible noise. She didn't stop calling.

"Mom!"

She was so desperate that the thought of how absurd it was for a grown woman to be running through the streets at that hour yelling for her parents didn't even cross Garam's mind.

It was eerie. Sweat streamed down her back, and her stomach churned as if she were about to throw up. Garam was in such a state of confusion that she thought she was bleeding instead of sweating. She cried out, her voice carrying the smell of blood as she screamed.

Eventually, Garam made it to a main road. She hoped someone might have seen her parents and inquired about it, but the streets were empty. She entered a nearby convenience store. She thought that maybe someone working there might have seen her parents if they had passed by. However, there was no one in the convenience store. Garam called out for a moment before rushing out. Her cries were then mixed with sobs.

Garam eventually arrived at the nearby police station. The clock on the wall of the police station, visible from the entrance, was frozen at 12:01. She grabbed the doorknob to steady herself as her legs went weak. There was no one at the police station either. Her teeth were chattering. Garam hadn't seen a single person during her journey to the police station.

Shivering, she reached out for the door and began to leave the police station, only to sit down right there on the ground, unable to go any further. There were no moving cars on the road. While the cars’ headlights were on, indicating that the engines were running, there were no people inside them.

"This... must be a dream."

Garam shivered, hugging herself tightly as if to ward off the cold. She couldn't help but think that she wished she would wake up from this dream. Even though she had been running for over an hour, she wasn't out of breath. Her desperate state of mind was pushing her physical limits.

While heading home, Garam stopped at every convenience store, barbecue restaurant, fried chicken vendor, and all the businesses open late at night as if she were looking for something. But she couldn't find anyone. Even at the twenty-four-hour large supermarket across the street from her house, there was no one. The clock at the supermarket's entrance was also stopped at 12:01. Garam couldn't help but think that all the clocks in the world had stopped at 12:01.

When she finally arrived home, she searched through her house again. Her voice calling out for her parents was mixed with sobs and desperation. After calling for her parents for a long while, Garam turned on the TV and sat on the couch. Exhausted, she hugged her knees and sobbed. The TV screen remained motionless as if someone had pressed the pause button. Garam saw that the clock on the TV read 12:01.

Staring at the motionless TV, Garam sat there for a long time. Her ears were on high alert, listening for any sign of footsteps at the front door, but nothing happened. Garam eventually gave in to exhaustion, fell asleep, woke up again to wait for her parents, and repeated that process five times.

Morning never came.

Garam slowly got up. She thought there was probably no chance her parents would open the door and enter. During the days she had spent waiting for her parents, Garam's appearance had changed significantly.

She pulled out a bag from under her desk that had been covered in dust for a long time. She packed it meticulously with clothes, toiletries, instant noodles, and snacks. Garam's face showed no expression as she busily packed. It seemed as if all her emotions had dried up.

While she had been waiting for her parents, what had occupied Garam's mind were Mordred's sinister laughter and her last words to her parents.

"When Mom and Dad come back, I have to apologize. When the sun rises, they'll come back. Then, I have to sincerely apologize."

However, the sun never rose.

As Garam reached for a bottle of water in the fridge, tears welled up in her eyes. The moisture that rose from her tear ducts painted her dark circles a deep shade of red, and her eyes were bloodshot. Tears fell from her eyes without any warning, staining her socks with round blotches. Garam's previously expressionless face contorted. Sobs flowed from her tightly closed lips.

The refrigerator was filled with the foods Garam had seen when she came back from the other dimension. Tears blurred her vision as she gazed at the food, but she didn't care. Whether it was a dream or not, it didn't matter. Those things had nothing to do with Garam's tears.

“Tomorrow is my birthday. You forgot that, right?”

Garam's last words to her parents.

Garam collapsed in front of the refrigerator, crying uncontrollably. Her cries were long and intense. It was as if she could cry herself to death, as if she would keep crying even after dying. She cried until she couldn't cry anymore, and then, still weeping, she cried some more.

The reality was impossible to accept, but time allowed Garam to slowly come to terms with it. It wasn't a dream. No matter how much time passed, reality didn't change. If she had known that her impulsive action would lead to that result, she never would have done it. However, regrets are just regrets, no matter how early they are.

Exhausted, Garam wiped her swollen eyes with cold water and put on a determined expression as she shouldered her bag. She had been staring at the door of her patents’ room, which she had left open, for a long time. There were no more tears in her eyes.

Opening the door and stepping outside, she found that it was midday. Garam, who had been looking around at the daytime scenery for a long time, realized that that place was where she had opened the dimensional door to return back home. However, she wasn't alone there. Garam found a man standing with his back against a tree. It was someone she knew well.

"Welcome back. I knew you'd come again."

Garam faced Mordred's hearty laugh without any expression.

"Did you know all about this?"

In response to Garam's calm words, Mordred simply shrugged. His nonchalant attitude fueled the fire in Garam's tired eyes. Garam approached Mordred step by step. Despite her smaller physique compared to Mordred, she exuded an undeniable intensity.

"So you knew everything!"

Garam finally exploded. How could he have known and acted so carelessly? Mordred responded with a playful smile and a short “Yes.” To Garam’s bloodshot eyes. Garam couldn't hold back and raised her hand, but Mordred stopped her. He grabbed her hand before she could slap him.

"You shouldn't do this to me. I'm not the one who caused all this, am I?"

For the first time, Mordred scolded her coldly. Garam's anger was somewhat diminished by the pressure he exuded.

Mordred was right. He hadn't done anything wrong. In fact, he had even helped Garam. He had shown her how to return. Of course, his attitude was provocative, but the fact remained that he had helped her. Garam, now calmer, awkwardly apologized.

"I'm sorry. I got too intense."

The only person who could help her was Mordred. There was no use in being distant with him. He was Garam's only lifeline. She regained her composure in an instant.

"It's okay. I understand."

Mordred nodded with an attitude that made Garam wonder if he was the one who had just spoken so coldly. Relieved that he wasn't angry, Garam timidly continued.

"When I got back home, all the clocks were stopped, and my parents weren't there."

"And there was no one else around?"

"No. Some houses had lights on, and some stores were open, but there was no one there. It seemed like people had been there just a moment ago..."

"You must've been very surprised."

"It really was. But where did your parents go? What about the people?"