Characters
Intro
The scorching sun had subsided by a layer, leaving nothing but humidity that tightened the throat as if to stop one's breath. While the boiling asphalt sizzled under the rubber tires, eating away at their durability, the hunk of junk carrying two people took another heavy step forward. There was no destination. If their lives were the kind that had destinations, they wouldn't have started in the first place.
The radio, which had been responsible for the white noise inside the car for hours by spitting out words no one would hear, suddenly cut off the long-playing current affairs news as if it had caught a frequency and began to play a cliché love song. At that, the hand holding the steering wheel flew out and reduced the volume to zero in an instant.
He turned off the radio with one hand and picked up his smartphone. After tapping the screen irritably a few times, the car's speakers connected via Bluetooth. While he was carefully choosing music, a car racing from the opposite direction honked and passed by, nearly grazing them. Swallowing a curse under his breath, he ended up playing whatever song fell within the radius of his finger, rendering his efforts futile.
Promise me...
That tonight, you can protect me. He scoffed, singing along in his head. Anyone in the world would do the same if they thought about what they were going to do now. The word 'protect' was nothing short of too extravagant to use in this situation.
...Hey.
He opened his mouth lowly and closed it again. Only after sighing once and cracking his neck did he find his voice again.
Did you... hate me a lot? All this time...
He knew himself that it was an absurd thing to say. Because he hated the other person caught in the edge of his vision when looking straight ahead, he jerked his head all the way to the left. He watched the rising heat haze, then tilted his head back toward the ceiling. As he moved his whole body while waiting for an answer, traversing road after road, the cars were disappearing one by one. The sky was blue. Not azure, just blue.
No, sorry. That's an obvious question...
He chuckled slightly, then reflexively gasped as the thought that he looked miserable suddenly hit him. It was always like this. Speak, and then regret. Yet the corners of his mouth, showing something closer to a convulsion, wouldn't come down. As if telling him to keep babbling anything.
Still, I... was grateful... that you were there... really.
He meant it. It was one of the few complete sentences he'd spoken in the last three months. He forced another smile and kept pressing the accelerator, suppressing the urge to slam his head against the steering wheel.
Will we be in the world tomorrow morning? If we reach our destination and really... really succeed, we probably won't be. From now on, the entity known as 'us' will cease to exist.
Release Date 2026.08.17 / Last Updated 2026.09.23