Some events come to us unexpectedly, like a strange wind blowing through our lives.
|Summer, July 28, 2027|
“My head hurts so much.”
Waking up in the room she had lived in as a child, Yoon Jiyoon groggily sat up and looked around. She had the feeling she’d just heard someone’s voice.
“That’s strange.”
Jiyoon was the only one living in the house. She had lived here with her family when she was a child, but after many things happened, she said goodbye to this place for years. Only after enduring her first year of hard work did she manage to buy it back.
“Could it be a burglar?”
Grabbing the baseball bat in the corner of the room, Jiyoon prepared herself to swing. She pushed the door open and moved slowly, her footsteps as light as if her feet were padded like an animal’s.
“Hello, I’m over here.”
Startled, Jiyoon immediately closed her eyes and swung the bat with all her might, sending a small creature flying into the corner of the room.
Jiyoon opened her eyes but still couldn’t see anyone present. Her legs trembled—“Could it be a ghost?”
Suddenly, something moved in the corner, behind a stack of thick books she was halfway through. A tiny creature slowly climbed up and sat on her history books.
“Ouch. It’s been a long time since someone hit me.”
Jiyoon, shaking with fear, took a step closer. The small creature gradually came into view, and she widened her eyes.
The creature was human-like but only the size of a grown person’s hand. It was rubbing a bump on its head.
Seeing the person in front of it with her mouth agape, it flew up to Jiyoon.
“Calm down, and let’s talk, okay? We have something important to discuss.” The tiny creature waved its little hand.
---
“Alright then. Let me introduce myself. I’m Koko from the Life Maintenance Office. I’m here because there’s something important you need to know." It said, sipping tea, and Jiyoon wondered where the tea and the tiny teacup came from.
"Life Maintenance Office? What does that mean? Even ghosts have to work?” Jiyoon felt a pang of sadness; she had once thought that if she ever passed away, she would become a free-spirited ghost.
“I’m not a ghost!” Koko angrily threw the tiny cup at Jiyoon’s head and straightened its tie. “It seems you don’t know anything yet, do you?”
Seeing Jiyoon’s blank expression, it continued, “Listen carefully, Yoon Jiyoon. You only have three days left to live.”
“What?”
Koko snapped its fingers, and Jiyoon woke up. She rubbed her eyes, thinking what had just happened was a dream. But where was she?
“Miss Yoon Jiyoon, it’s your turn for the examination.”
Jiyoon realized she was in a hospital. She felt strange, unable to remember how she had gotten there.
“Do you have a guardian?” the doctor asked, his fingers interlaced as he looked at the computer screen with a serious expression. Jiyoon was sitting across from him.
“I’m alone.”
---
Jiyoon walked slowly under the shade of green trees. She looked up at the sky. The summer sun was radiant and dazzling, pouring down like golden honey over the road. The sky was a deep blue, cloudless, making the sun shine even brighter.
