EER Prologue – Part 1
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Earth Alone
The time was April. The university newbie left the room as soon as the lecture ended before everyone else at 2:45. He did not want anyone to recognise him as not an outsider, though no one knew him as such hence he would not have been stopped anyways; he still resolutely walked on to the hill road outside of the plaza.
There, he felt the unexpected change for the first time.
'No one's around...'
There was a huge number of people in lectures that ended at 2:45 Sure, not all of them were like Yoo Il Han Il Han, an outsider returning home, yet the complete absence of people in the plaza as well as in the hill road was strange.
'Carnival is not on today. Was there a school event?
Even so, there was no need to feel strange. Yoo Il Han Il Han exited all invited chat groups ever since he attended his university! It was not as if he left out of pressure, it was solely out of his choice!
Sensing sorrow out of vain, Yoo Il Han walked down the hill valiantly in spite of the dearth of people. He wanted to hitch a ride on a shuttle bus, but there were no vehicles to be seen.
Was there a military exercise in the university? Perhaps a school wide hide-and-seek? All kinds of thoughts came into his head but he dismissed them readily. For twenty-odd years he had never held hands with a girl, and the lack of other presences right now was nothing in comparison.
However, those musings dissipated as soon as he exited the school entrance.
'What?'
There was no one.
'What the hell!'
No one was around!
'What's going on. What's going on!'
In panic, Yoo Il Han repeated the same phrase inanely as he ran around. No-one. To conjure up a crazy idea like a mass picnic was impossible. The situations were too alarming to escape reality.
No one. No human to be seen!
He looked through the windows of the convenience store he often visited. The meal on a table was emitting warm vapour, the chair was pulled slightly back as if someone was sitting on it moments before. Furthermore, spoons and chopsticks were erratically thrown aside, giving them a sense of their users abruptly disappearing out of thin air.
This oddity applied for all shops. Incidentally, how about parked cars? Moving cars that were in traffic had violently collided in such a way that they lost their drivers, with some on the verge of explosions due to leaking, ablaze gasoline.
'Damn it'
His mind may have been in disarray, but Yoo Il Han identified the hazard and escaped to a vehicle-less street. The reverberation of explosions like the ones in films soon tickled his ears.
Wind carrying the hot air blew, and Yoo Il Han fled like he was drifting on the wind. Then he shed pointless tears.
His mind was puzzled back together at a bus station.
'Let's go home'
Maybe after he washed and ate his mother's meals, maybe after he slept, things would be different.
Foolish ideas again sprouted the moment the crises were over. His fantasies were broken quickly this time though .The bus was simply not arriving.
'What the fuck. What's going on.'
