The world hadn't changed.
Classes were the same. The chatter of students filled the corridors. The sound of shoes squeaking against the polished floor echoed like clockwork.
And yet—I wasn't the same person anymore.
It had only been a week since the accident, but every step I took toward school felt unreal. Detached. Like I was watching someone else walk in my shoes. My body lived on autopilot while my mind circled endlessly around that nightmarish memory.
When I reached the intersection—the spot—a shiver ran down my spine. My legs froze. The place where my body had been broken by the steel monster of a truck now looked ordinary, just a patch of road soaked by sunlight.
But no matter how much I told myself it was all in the past, the phantom pain in my chest whispered otherwise.
That's when I heard it.
"Suzi, don't play here! It's dangerous."
A mother's gentle scolding. I turned toward the sound. A little girl, ball in hand, pouted at her mother's warning.
"Just until the light turns green, Mama…"
She didn't listen. The ball bounced once, twice, and then—rolled into the street.
The girl ran after it. Right into the traffic.
My heart stopped. My breath hitched.
No… not again.
The same scene replayed itself with terrifying perfection. A week ago, it had been another girl. My legs trembled, my chest burned as the memory split open and bled inside me.
I had two choices.
Look away. Pretend I didn't see it. She wasn't my responsibility. They all said last time there was no girl—that I had thrown myself into the road for nothing. Maybe this was the same.
Or… intervene. Throw myself into it again. Get hurt again. Perhaps die.
She was a stranger. A brat who ignored her mother's warning. Why should I dirty my hands for someone like her?
The people around us only watched—blank eyes, frozen faces. Not one of them moved. Like shadows, indifferent.
I'll just close my eyes… this isn't my problem.
But just as I forced myself to retreat—
"…So this is your decision? Are you certain? If you are, then fine. But if not, you might regret this later. Think carefully… White."
Her voice.
That same voice. The voice that whispered in the darkness between life and death.
My body shook. My hands clenched. And before I realized it—
"Damn it—!!"
—I sprinted.
Time slowed. My body remembered how it felt to hurl itself against fate. I shoved the girl out of the way, my chest exploding with fear.
I had done it again. Saved her. But what about me? Would the truck take me this time?
"WHY?!" I screamed inside my head. "Why does this keep happening to me?!"
Think about the darkness. I whispered my self in pain - Somebody save me
The headlights flared. I clamped my eyes shut. I was ready for the impact, ready for the endless dark—
But instead…
"Ah, there you are."
The voice was unfamiliar, different. Calm. Almost amused.
When I opened my eyes—I wasn't lying on the asphalt. I was on the other side of the street. The girl I pushed was next to me, unconscious but unharmed. My body was intact. Not a scratch.
And across the road—the truck, stopped dead in its tracks, its front crushed as if it had plowed head-first into an invisible wall.
"What… the hell?" I muttered, trembling.
I hadn't imagined it. The slack-jawed expressions of the crowd confirmed what I saw—this time, it wasn't just in my head.
But before anyone could say more, I slipped away. Away from the stares. Away from the mother clutching her daughter. Away from that miracle—or curse—that refused to leave me.
On the walk to school, I crammed my earphones in. Music blasted in my ears, but it couldn't drown out my thoughts. Couldn't silence the pieces of reality that kept breaking.
By the time I reached the classroom, everything looked as normal as it always did. Desks. Students. Laughter. The same roll call, the same lecture, the same announcement of yet another test.
No one noticed my absence. No one ever did.
Except him—
"Yo. Look who's back. Mr. Loner."
I groaned. "Zen… I told you to stop calling me that."
Zen. The only guy I could almost call a friend. The extroverted basketball star, my mirror opposite.
"Where the hell were you? I kept calling. I thought you died or something."
"…Funny you'd say that," I muttered.
"My phone broke, that's all. Relax."
"Better have. You know you're bad at keeping in touch, right?" he said, shaking his head before heading off to practice.
And just like that, I was alone again.
Later, on my walk home, plastic grocery bags cutting into my fingers, I thought maybe… just maybe life was trying to return to normal.
Until I opened my apartment door.
"…What the…"
My stuff was scattered across the floor. Drawers yanked open. Clothes tossed around. Someone had broken in.
Clutching the closest thing I could find—a bat—I stepped deeper inside. The faint sound of… snoring? led me to the bedroom.
There—on my bed—laid a little girl.
She looked around eight, maybe nine. Pale skin. Soft features. Silver hair spilling across my pillow, shimmering even under the dim light.
And as my heart lurched, realization struck me.
She was the girl I had saved that time. The one from my "hallucination."
Before I could speak, she stirred. Her red crimson eyes fluttered open, and she smiled sweetly.
"Oh! You're home, Papa!"
…Papa?
"Wha—wait, wait, WAIIIT! HOLD ON! WHO ARE YOU?! And why are you in my bed?! And what's with this 'Papa' nonsense?! I am NOT your papa!"
Her lips trembled. Tears welled in her eyes. "B-but… Papa is my Papa…"
"Oi oi, don't start crying! Dammit…" I panicked, shoving a pudding cup into her hands in a desperate attempt to keep her from turning the place into a water park.
She sniffed once, twice, and then—her entire face lit up. "Pudding…! Papa, this is yummy! More, more!"
"Yeah, yeah… you're welcome," I sighed, watching her devour it with sparkling eyes.
When she was satisfied, I finally asked. "…What's your name?"
She puffed her chest proudly. "Bell! Wishing Bell!"
"…Bell, huh. Where are your parents? Why are you here?"
She tilted her head. "Papa is Papa."
"…I give up."
I tried again. "Then—your mother. Do you have one?"
"I don't know."
"…Fine. Then why are you here? Who told you to come?"
Her answer dropped like a stone in my stomach.
"A lady told me. She said if I waited here… Papa would come."
The moment she said that, she appeared.
Silver hair cascading like a waterfall. Violet eyes piercing through me with otherworldly certainty. The very same woman who haunted my dreams, stood before me in the flesh.
Her lips curved softly.
"Welcome back, White."