Rinve had always felt that the world moved too fast for someone like him.
Amid the restless city that never truly slept, he walked at an ordinary pace neither hurried nor driven by any clear destination. The thin jacket he wore was worn at the elbows, and his black shoes had long since lost their shine. There was nothing remarkable about him, and that wasn't just a feeling. It was a fact.
He had failed at many things.
Failed to graduate on time.
Failed to hold onto a stable job.
Failed to become someone others could be proud of.
If the world were a stage, then Rinve was nothing more than an extra one who didn't even get a single line.
He had tried to be "normal."
Waking up early, sending out job applications, waiting for replies that never came. He had taken odd jobs too working as a waiter, a delivery courier, even a temporary parking attendant. He did everything without complaint, yet also without progress.
Every night, he returned home with an exhausted body and an empty mind.
Not because he was lazy.
Not because he didn't try.
The world simply… never made room for him.
Rinve often wondered whether everyone else was born with a clear direction, while he was left to walk without a compass. He wasn't jealous of successful people. He just wanted to know what it felt like to be useful.
Just once.
The traffic light at a major intersection turned red. Engines roared, horns blared from every direction, blending into a familiar wall of noise. People waited with vacant expressions eyes glued to their phones, minds drifting elsewhere.
Rinve stood among them.
He stared at the asphalt marked with white lines. Last night's rain had left shallow puddles that reflected the city lights. In that reflection, he saw his own silhouette thin, slightly hunched, and tired.
I'm really going nowhere…
His thoughts drifted to a conversation from that morning. His mother's voice over the phone had been gentle, yet filled with worry.
"Rin, when will you get a steady job?"
"Your father's starting to ask."
He had laughed softly, trying to sound relaxed.
"I'm in the process, Mom."
Even though he didn't know what that "process" really was.
The pedestrian signal turned green.
People began to move. Rinve followed the flow, as usual. But midway through his step, something felt wrong.
A sound.
Not an ordinary horn it was long, loud, and filled with panic.
Rinve turned to the right.
A large bus was barreling toward the intersection.
Too fast.
Too close.
And the traffic light on its lane was still red.
"The brakes are gone!" someone screamed.
The crowd erupted into chaos. People ran back, some froze in panic. Screams mixed with the screech of tires scraping against the road.
In the midst of it all, Rinve saw them.
Three small children.
Two siblings and another child, perhaps their friend. Their bodies were small, their steps short. They stood too far out in the middle of the crosswalk, frozen in fear.
The bus was heading straight for them.
Time seemed to slow.
Rinve didn't have time to think.
There was no plan.
No calculation.
Only a single impulse that surged from deep within his chest.
If I don't move… they'll die.
His legs moved before his thoughts could catch up.
"HEY!" he shouted.
He ran.
The noise around him vanished, replaced by the thunderous pounding of his own heartbeat. Wind slammed against his face as he closed the distance. The children's eyes widened, their lips trembling.
"Get back! Now!" Rinve yelled as he grabbed the nearest child.
One child was shoved toward the sidewalk.
The second was pulled along with him.
The third
Too far.
The bus drew closer.
Rinve clenched his teeth.
He leaped.
His hands managed to push the third child out of the bus's path. The small body tumbled to the ground but was safe.
But Rinve
He was one step too late.
The impact came like a collapsing wall of steel.
His body was thrown into the air. His vision spun. Pain struck before he could even scream. The world shattered, sounds broke apart, and then
Darkness.
There was no pain.
No sound.
Rinve felt… light.
He wasn't standing.
He wasn't lying down.
His body felt as though it were floating in a directionless space.
"Am I… dead?"
His own voice sounded strange echoing, yet never returning.
He tried to move his hands. They felt neither heavy nor light. He wasn't even sure he still had a body.
Fragments of memory surfaced.
The bus.
The children.
The impact.
Are they… safe?
That was the first question that crossed his mind.
Not about himself.
The space around him wasn't dark, but it wasn't bright either. Like a colorless mist. No up or down. Only awareness that refused to fade.
"This is strange…" he murmured.
"I'm not scared."
He felt calm. Far too calm for someone who might have just died.
His thoughts returned to his unremarkable life.
No great dreams fulfilled.
No achievements worth remembering.
If this is the end
At least I did one thing right.
He didn't know how long he drifted in that emptiness. Time didn't seem to exist. Then, slowly, something changed.
Not a sound.
Not light.
But… pressure.
As if the space around him was shrinking, pulling his consciousness toward a single point. A gentle warmth began to wrap around him.
"Eh…?"
A blurred scene emerged. Dim light pierced his awareness. There were voices now unclear, distorted, as if heard through water.
"She's… born…"
"Calm down… she's breathing…"
A woman's voice. Soft, trembling.
Rinve wanted to ask questions. Wanted to open his eyes wider. But his body felt heavy unlike before.
So heavy.
Cold, then warmth again. Something wrapped around him.
And suddenly
Air filled his lungs for the first time.
The reflex made his chest rise sharply. His throat burned.
A cry filled the room.
His own cry.
Yet beneath that crying, his consciousness remained intact.
This… isn't a hospital.
He didn't know how he knew. But the scent, the sounds, the air—everything felt unfamiliar. More natural. More primitive.
The light wasn't fluorescent, but soft sunlight.
"Am I… alive?"
Or
Have I been reborn?
Beyond his awareness, in a place he could not see, something stirred.
Something that was not human.
Nor a living being.
A mechanism of the world itself long dormant trembled.
A fate that should have moved in a straight line now deviated slightly.
Just slightly.
But enough to change everything.
And without anyone realizing it
Fate began to move.
But fate does not move with sound.
It moves in silence.
In a nameless place, something that should have remained sealed… trembled. Not by will, nor by mistake, but because of a small choice made by a human who never realized his own worth.
There was no celebration.
No recognition.
Only a faint, nearly imperceptible shift like a thread displaced half a finger's width from its path.
Rinve did not know that his action had surpassed the limits of an ordinary human. He did not know that the world, bound by rigid laws, had just been forced to adjust itself.
He knew only one thing.
His consciousness grew heavier.
His once-clear thoughts began to sink, like a candle slowly melting under unseen heat. Memories of the city, the bus, the children… drifted away.
But before everything faded
I hope… they're really safe.
That was the last thought he managed to hold onto.
Beyond his awareness, something recorded his existence.
Not a name.
Not a face.
But potential.
And for the first time in a very long age, the world made a decision that went against its own instincts.
Not to open.
Not to destroy.
But to wait.
Because sometimes,
the greatest danger is not power unleashed
But power that is born…
without knowing anything about itself.
And at that moment, the world chose silence
For a single small mistake
would be enough to end everything.