Chapter 2: A Familiar, Foreign Dawn

The body swayed back and forth. The sensation of waking from a deep sleep weighed heavily on him. His eyelids were unbearably heavy, barely able to open.

A vague light filtered into his vision, bringing with it a feeling both familiar and strange.

“Oppa! Oppa, your friend called.”
Was this still a dream?

He saw a phantom with his eyes.

“......”

Yes, it had to be a dream. Unless it was, the illusion before his eyes made no sense.

A mischievous-looking girl in early teens was shaking him awake.

She was the spitting image of Dahye when she was young, the girl he once knew, now rousing him.

“Dahye... Yoo Dahye?”

Not the pale, lifeless face he remembered, but a sun-kissed, healthy complexion, the face of his younger sister from a past memory buried deep.

The little sister from when she was in elementary school.

“W-what is it? All of a sudden.”

“Dahye!”

He hastily grabbed her hand as she tried to pull away.

Even in a dream, his instinct was not to lose hold of her.

He quickly got up and pulled her into his arms.

“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. I should have protected you. If only I had come to my senses earlier, been more mature, I wouldn’t have let you suffer. I should have. I’m really sorry. Truly......”

Thick tears dropped one by one.

He met the sister he thought he’d never see again, in a dream.

And she was the same as she was in the childhood he longed to return to.

Not knowing when he would get to hold her again, he clutched her tightly and reflected on all the things that happened in this life, apologizing over and over.

A younger sister who suffered because of a failing older brother.

Determined to escape poverty, she diligently saved money by working her main job, running a PC café at night, and taking on weekend part-time work.

When, after struggling, she finally secured a promotion to manager at thirty-five, just as she thought she could bloom, she left, crying in pain.

“Oppa, what’s wrong? Why are you sorry? Are you crying?”

Her movement stopped, her worried voice reaching him.

“I’m sorry.”

Hearing her voice again—something he thought he would never hear—left no other words in his mind. All he could do was repeat “I’m sorry” and “Dahye.”

How many times had he called her name until now?

Probably not nearly enough.

From his mid-twenties to mid-thirties, he cut off all contact with her. The day she returned to the family three years before she passed, he never felt happier or more relieved. He thought only happiness would remain.

But she passed away. Holding her, he reflected on all the past mistakes.

“Oppa, why are you like this? You’re acting weird today. Are you sick?”

“Yeah, a lot... it hurts so much. My heart. Losing you. Sob sob.”

The pain of losing family is a wound no one who hasn’t experienced it can feel. It ripped his heart apart. Every fiber seemed ready to snap, tormenting his lungs.

“Why do you keep saying you lost me? I’m right here!”

Her hand on his forehead.

Then warmth, the kind he’d never felt before, radiated through her hand and his forehead.

“...... Huh?!”

Suddenly overwhelmed by a strange feeling, he wondered if the heavens had acknowledged their mistake and showed mercy by letting him truly feel his sister.

In a dream, one shouldn’t be able to feel another person’s warmth or touch.

‘Is this really a dream?!’

He roughly wiped his tears on his shoulder, steadied his heart, and glanced around. Two long desks lined up by the window came into view first.

“......?!”

He saw the notes taped to the wallpaper and desks, reminders to memorize four-character idioms.

Old memories from the past surfaced.

“This is from my middle school days. Wait, this smell?”

While recalling his middle school memories, a sharp stench of oil pricked his nose. The cutting fluid smell wafted in from the window connected to the veranda.

“Huh, that’s strange!”

It was so strange. Now even smells blurred the line between dream and reality. It was believable enough to be reality rather than a dream.

He dazedly got up and moved to the wall with a mirror.

“...... This appearance.”

Though he’d eaten well, his life had been far from active, and his body didn’t gain weight, only height. The mirror reflected a gaunt, almost skeletal face, and a thin frame.

His middle school self.

He touched his face. Each time his fingers brushed his skin, he felt the undeniable reality of not dreaming.



“Dahye, what year is it now?”

Asking Dahye the year was almost instinctual.

He slowly moved to the window and looked down.

On the veranda lay a drill his father had brought to earn every penny possible before going into business with a friend.

“’99. Oppa, you’re really weird today.”

Dahye’s questioning voice came repeatedly.

“1999?!”

1999—exactly fifteen years old, second year of middle school.

Outside, the back gate of the middle school fluttered with a banner that read “Congratulations on Graduation.”

“February 1999... My God. Dahye, can I just hit you once?”

His longing for her blurred, replaced by an overwhelming emotion.

He asked her seriously.

“Why are you scaring me, Oppa? You’re really strange today. Are you really sick?”

Instead of hitting him, she stepped forward and laid her hand again on his forehead, looking at him with worried eyes. 

He felt her warmth and touch on his skin. 

It was proof that this wasn’t a dream.

Swoosh!

Putting aside the tangled emotions, he moved to confirm.

He raised his hand and slapped his own face with all his strength.

The sharp sound echoed, and a stinging pain spread across his right cheek.

It really hurt.

“Ha, haha......”

Surprisingly, this was not a dream but reality. 

The pain of losing his sister vanished, and a new bud of hope bloomed in his heart.

The heavens had granted his wish.

“The heavens granted my wish. They really granted it!”

Hahaha.

He embraced his sister tightly, spinning around with joyful laughter.

How could he not be happy?

This life, he vowed, he would protect his sister.

“Eek! What are you doing? Put me down! I’m dizzy!”

Her scream was just a bonus.

Even that sounded joyful.

[Your wish has been granted. You will pay the corresponding price.
If you fail to succeed as a writer, you will lose all memories related to your sister and never be able to meet her again.]

“......”

The voice of a woman echoed in his ear, stopping his spinning body, and he turned his gaze to the direction of the voice.



“...... What is that?”

To his surprise, a system typical of fantasy novels appeared in his sight.

“A system in thin air? No, more than that—if I fail to succeed as a writer, I lose all memories of my sister and part ways with her forever.”

The joy of reunion with his sister vanished in an instant.

The system’s message hovering before him erased his happiness.



[Do you accept? If you refuse, this condition will be removed and you will return to your original time. Note: Once accepted, cancellation is impossible.]

“........”

Why must such hardship befall us?

Can’t we just live an ordinary life like everyone else?

What sin did we commit to deserve this?



“Ah......”

Turning back time to save his sister came with a cruel trial.

‘I can’t back down. I don’t want to return to the old timeline.’

His fist clenched tight.

Back in the original timeline, she wouldn’t be there.

A life without his sister—he hated it now.

Having finally met her, there was no way he would cancel.

More than anything, after sending her off so many times, he promised himself—

If given the chance, he would protect his sister for sure!

‘Nothing’s impossible. I’ll succeed as a writer. Just watch me.’

There was no question about it. Losing his sister was a fate worse than death.

‘I accept.’

He silently declared acceptance.

【Contract signed at 13:10 on Monday, February 8, 1999.

You have no right to refuse this clause and will be forced to comply.】

After reviewing all details, the screen vanished.

“A writer at fifteen.”

In 2023, he’d known someone who started writing from the second year of middle school.

He’d even seen a high school student win the grand prize in a contest.

There was no reason he couldn’t do it.

“I’ll do whatever it takes.”

This life, he vowed, he would become the youngest writer known worldwide.

“And I’ll change history.”

He swore to correct the wrongs of the past and live for his sister.

“Dahye, let’s go eat something delicious.”

Coming back to his senses, he looked at his sister’s face filled with worry.

“Really!?”

Her eyes sparkled with joy, looking so lovely.

“We’ll buy snacks, eat candy—everything.”

“Yay! Oppa, I’ll go get my jacket!”

He watched his sister run toward the bedroom to grab her jumper, the pure look on her face warming his heart.

Tiredness from work was nowhere to be seen.

“Dahye, let’s be happy now. The dream you held onto—I’ll make sure to fulfill it.”

A few months before she passed in his previous life, she often said this.

She had to give up her dreams to survive by compromising with reality.

He promised himself he would make those dreams come true and stepped outside with her.