Chapter 1

The wind blew.

Feeling the wind wrap around his body, Kim Hyunsung looked up with trembling eyes.

‘…Why, though?’

On the rooftop.

He could see the faces of the boys clinging to the wall, looking down at him.

They weren’t friends. They were the garbage commonly referred to as the Golden Circle in this school—the ones who had tormented him for years. From his first year in high school to the moment he became a senior, Kim Hyunsung had endured their relentless bullying. Every day was a living hell, but he had fought tooth and nail to keep up with his studies.

Graduation was just around the corner.

So then why?

Why was he falling from the rooftop?

He couldn’t understand.

Kim Hyunsung wasn’t a particularly flawed person. He was diligent in both his academics and friendships, fairly athletic, and not weak enough to be underestimated in a fight. That’s why it made even less sense. He had tried so hard to live properly, so how had he ended up in such a miserable state, falling from a building rooftop?

What was certain—

Crunch.

Thud.

—was that he had died.

* * *

To be exact, he hadn’t died.

When he barely regained consciousness, the voices he heard whispered the grim reality into his ears.

“Grandma, it’s already been three months. I know it’s hard to say this as someone helping with the caregiving, but I’ve never once seen a patient in a vegetative state regain consciousness. Please, let go. You still have another grandson who’s alive and well.”

“What are you saying?! Another grandson who’s alive and well? Are you saying this child is already dead?!”

“No, that’s not what I meant…”

It was loud.

Hearing his grandmother argue with someone—likely another caregiver—Kim Hyunsung realized they were talking about his condition as a vegetative patient. For a moment, his mind went blank. He could remember falling from the rooftop, and he had never even been one to get sick often, yet now he was in a vegetative state?

At first, he denied reality.

Wasn’t he conscious?

He believed he would soon regain control of his body and open his eyes, but no matter how much time passed, he remained trapped in complete darkness. He wasn’t brain-dead. He could feel the sensations when someone touched him, hear voices in his ears, and think in his mind—but nothing else was permitted.

It was devastating.

It was hopeless.

It took a long time for him to accept reality, and in the meantime, many voices found their way into his ears.

“…My sweet Hyunsung. It’s time to wake up. How did things end up like this?”

“Sob… Hyunsung, those damn bastards are telling me to give up on you. How could I? I took you in and raised you after you lost your parents. How could I possibly give up on you?”

“Just once… Just once, give me a sign that you’re still alive.”

It was his grandmother’s voice.

After losing his parents in an accident, Kim Hyunsung had only his grandmother to rely on. But now, she came to the hospital room every day and spent her time crying. She had always been a strong woman who rarely shed tears, and yet her sobs were enough to drive Kim Hyunsung to the brink of madness.

And that wasn’t all.

When his grandmother wasn’t around, a young boy’s voice would speak.

“Hyung… I can’t take it anymore. The kids who used to bully you are bullying me now. Grandma got hurt working at a restaurant to pay your hospital bills. What am I supposed to do? If this is how things are going to be, I wish you’d just died. If you were gone, maybe things wouldn’t be this hard.”

“Please wake up. I don’t care if I have to live like this forever, just… please wake up.”

His only sibling.

Kim Hyunjin’s words were a shock.

Even while attending the same school, Kim Hyunsung had made sure never to acknowledge his brother, all to keep him from becoming a target of the bullies. But now, even Hyunjin was being bullied. The realization shattered him. He could barely accept that he was a vegetative patient, yet every day he was forced to listen to his family suffer. Countless times, he chose death in his mind.

But—

He couldn’t die.

That’s what it meant to be a vegetative patient.

He couldn’t do anything of his own will, and Kim Hyunsung’s consciousness slowly sank into despair.

Time passed.

A day, two days.

A week, two weeks.

And then… a year.

Unlike the endless days, time trudged on.

* * *

He denied.

He raged.

He compromised.

Time passed, and though it should’ve been the stage for acceptance, Kim Hyunsung’s mind circled back to rage. He couldn’t accept it. His mind felt more and more worn down as the days went by.

What had he done wrong?

In his first year of high school—

Kim Hyunsung, who believed he was living a good school life, had been targeted by the Golden Circle over a single argument. It was nothing serious. But after that day, they harassed him relentlessly in ways that defied reason. And it continued all the way into his third year.

Transferring schools wasn’t an option.

There weren’t many schools he could transfer to in the area he lived, and more importantly, it was too much of a burden to move with his grandmother. So, he endured. Telling himself he only needed to survive three years of high school, he came home every day hiding the bruises under his clothes.

And the result—

Was this.

Right before reaching the final hurdle of high school, Kim Hyunsung had been called out by the Golden Circle—and had fallen from the rooftop.

He was angry.

He was filled with rage.

And the target of that rage was clear.

Everyone who bullied him.

All the adults who stood by and did nothing.

They were the ones who made him like this.

His mind was breaking down.

Kim Hyunsung, who had always been respectful and often told he was kind, now could think of nothing but hatred. If—if by any chance he were given the opportunity to turn back time, how would he live?

If he had known this would happen, he would have run away

If he couldn’t run away, then he would just kill them first.

One year.

Two years.

Three years.

Time passed like light.

His younger brother stopped visiting, and after his grandmother collapsed, the caregivers’ laughter and chatter filled the air.

Amid it all, the sound of the TV, turned up loudly as if no one cared about the patients, pierced his ears.

[Top star A involved in a scandal…]

[Assemblyman Kim Panho has…]

[Breaking news. The truth behind the group leading school violence has been revealed. They were…]

It was his only joy in life.

Hearing news of the world.

And when he heard one particular story, Kim Hyunsung thought:

‘If a miracle were ever to happen to me, I’d destroy every last one of the bastards who made me like this.’

He was consumed by evil.

The kind-hearted boy was no longer there.

But the miracle never came.

Of course it didn’t.

Kim Hyunsung replayed the past in his head countless times.

He regretted what had happened so deeply that he meticulously planned every move he would make if he could return to that day. It was nothing more than a delusion. A hollow dream that could never come true. And even though he knew that, as someone living on as a vegetative patient, if he didn’t do that much, he felt like he would go insane.

His grandmother was an incredible woman.

Even ten years later, she refused to let go of Kim Hyunsung, who remained in a vegetative state.

And when he heard that she had passed away—

His mind completely collapsed.

More precisely, he let go of the last thread of sanity he had been clinging to.

Now—

He couldn’t survive without going mad.

* * *

How much time had passed?

He had even forgotten the concept of time.

From the moment his consciousness awakened until it was once again engulfed in darkness, Kim Hyunsung endlessly beat the people who had made him like this—in his mind. He didn’t care about the blood spraying on their faces or the screams begging for mercy. No matter how much they claimed to hurt, it was nothing compared to what he had suffered as a vegetative patient. Compared to his grandmother, who endured ten years of pain before passing away, they had lived blessed lives.

He lived in madness.

He found himself wishing someone would just end this life, so he could no longer continue.

And then, one day—

Kim Hyunsung had a strange dream.

He met someone there and had a conversation.

It was satisfying.

Even if it was just a dream, the fact that he could talk to someone brought a smile to his face.

And when he came to—

Kim Hyunsung was met with a reality he couldn’t possibly accept.

* * *

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

He heard birdsong.

When he turned his head toward the window, he saw a tree. And when he looked forward again, there was a chalkboard. It was all too familiar. Anyone who had received basic education in Korea would have encountered this scene countless times.

“…What is this.”

“Ahahahaha!”

“Get back here, you crazy bastard!”

The surroundings were noisy.

When he looked to the side, two boys in high school uniforms were shouting as they chased each other. The classroom was a mess. Chairs were knocked over, desks flipped. The girls sitting in their seats screamed for them to stop, but the boys didn’t care at all.

That’s when it started.

Thump-thump-thump-thump.

His heart began to race like crazy.

It felt like he could hear his heartbeat echoing in his ears. Kim Hyunsung couldn’t believe the sensations his body was giving him.

‘…Did I really come back to the past?’

Yesterday.

Kim Hyunsung had a dream.

He thought it was just another fantasy.

The words spoken in that dream were impossible, and he’d had countless dreams like that before. Without thinking, he pinched his cheek. It hurt a little, but not enough to believe it was real—so he picked up a mechanical pencil and stabbed it straight into his thigh.

Thunk.

It hurt.

When he lifted the pencil, a drop of blood dripped from the tip, making his eyes shake.

More than the pain in his thigh, he couldn’t look away from the blood—blood that seemed to declare this was reality.

‘This really is a regression.’

Return.

It was certain.

The pain in his thigh.

The scene around him.

There was no other explanation.

And just when he thought his long-cherished wish had come true, a noise shattered the peaceful reality.

Crash!

“You fucking bastard!”

A violent voice.

Something rolled across the floor.

Swearing hurled toward it.

The classroom suddenly fell silent.

Even the boys who had ignored the girls’ pleas to stop their chase glanced toward the back of the classroom and quietly slipped out into the hallway. But they didn’t go far. Like students gathering to watch a commotion, they lingered with curious eyes, waiting to see something interesting.

“You son of a bitch, what? Take care of it yourself now? You fucking loser, if I could handle it myself, why the hell would I have asked you?”

Wham! Wham! Wham!

The sound of violence.

Familiar.

Groans of pain, curses loud enough to shake the classroom.

Thump-thump-thump-thump.

Kim Hyunsung’s heart pounded like it would burst.

This situation—

Was all too familiar.

First year of high school.

The starting point of his suffering.

That’s right.

In the moment he had desperately wished for, Kim Hyunsung now existed as his high school freshman self.