SATURDAY 1

I killed my twin.

We were walking together, sharing an umbrella. The rain poured down as if it would pierce through the ground. A single umbrella was hardly enough to withstand it, and the raindrops were so large they hurt when they hit my body.

And… at some point.

I was standing alone, staggering.

Through the rain, all sorts of sirens flashed chaotically, and urgent shouts flew back and forth, mixed in with the sound of the downpour.

What happened?

I looked at the ground, illuminated by a car’s headlights. The blindingly bright light clearly showed the blood pooling on the ground, being diluted by the falling raindrops and flowing into the sewer. It was the first time in my life I had seen that much blood.

The person lying on the ground was me. It was a face identical to mine. Ah, could it be that I died? But the other person was nowhere to be seen. Inha… where is Inha?

A moment later, I realized my mistake. Paramedics in raincoats came rushing over. “Are you okay?”, “…how”, “…Sir!”, “Here….” I could not hear what they were saying clearly. The fragmented words mixed with the sound of the rain, reaching my ears like a foreign—no, an alien—language.

What are they looking at and asking if I’m okay… I was confused. Just utterly confused. I had a faint thought that I was hurting somewhere in a strange way, but I could not pinpoint where. If I had to say, the raindrops hitting my body hurt the most.

Among them, someone shot up and walked toward me through the rain. As the bright fluorescent clothes came into view, the fog in my head cleared a little.

“Mr. Yoon In… are you Mr. Yoon Inyoung? This way for now, can you walk?”

For the first time, words that sounded like words reached my ears. I snapped to my senses and, as if by reflex, answered, “Yes,” and took a step. The paramedics must have supported me, as I think I staggered.

I got into the ambulance, drenched like a drowned rat. And over there… Inha… It was definitely Inha. The one lying on the ground in an impossible shape was Yoon Inha, my twin brother.

“I-Inha…”

I mumbled without realizing it and jumped out of the ambulance, only to fall with a thud. Still, I sprang back up and ran toward the ambulance where Inha was being loaded.

Someone called me from behind, but I did not hear them. Inha, Inha was, there was a massive loss of blood. An immense fear washed over me. My chest felt as if it had turned to lead and completely hardened.

“In…”

“What is your name? How old are you?”

A paramedic was desperately talking to Inha, who was on the verge of losing consciousness. I had heard about this before. They talk to you like that because if you lose consciousness, you might never wake up again. Inha? Never wake up? But Inha managed to open his mouth, albeit with difficulty.

“Yoon…Inyoung, it’s Yoon Inyoung, twenty-two years old…”

“What? …young? What…”

Ah… What was that?

What did he just say? Standing blankly in front of the ambulance, my eyes met Inha’s. He was frowning deeply. Was it because of the pain, or for another…

“…Inha.”

…for another reason. He called me by his own name. I stood there foolishly, frozen, unable to even utter a single word like, “What are you talking about?” I could not understand this situation. Inha spoke in a hoarse voice.

“Why did you… push me?”

At that moment, every gaze inside the ambulance, and even the eyes of the paramedics who had come to get me, all turned toward me. I was dazed for a moment but soon came to my senses.

“I-I, as his guardian…”

“You cannot. You are badly injured too, sir.”

“No, I’m…”

“I don’t want to go with him.”

It was Inha’s voice that stopped me.

“Inha pushed me, into the car. I don’t want to go with him… I’m s-scared.”

His way of speaking… was just like my usual self. A foolish, faltering, stuttering manner of speaking. Ah. Tinnitus washed over me. I covered both my ears from the sharp and violent ringing that sounded like glass being scratched, and collapsed right there.

It happened on a Saturday, three months before my wedding.

*

Consciousness, which had sunk deep, slowly resurfaced. I feel like I should… open my eyes. But it was not easy, as if they had been closed for a long time, they felt stiff. I wanted to rub my eyes, but I had no strength at all, so I could not do as I pleased. My hands would not move.

Still, I forced one arm—the other seemed to be held down by something and would not budge at all—and managed to lift it to rub my eyes. Then, a stinging sensation washed over me, and both my eyes burned so unbearably that tears streamed down.

I squeezed my eyelids shut and then opened them, then again found it impossible to open them and shut them tightly, and at the moment my vision barely returned, albeit blurry, I saw the ceiling. A white, clean ceiling.

‘…’

I slowly turned my gaze. I was in… a hospital room, decorated like a hotel. Around me, there were a few small machines, and on an IV stand, two IV bags and one round bottle were hanging.

I looked at my arm and flinched. All of that intravenous fluid was flowing into me. That must have been the vague sense of unease in my forearm.

Suddenly, my chest tickled and a small cough escaped me. As if that was a signal, a sharp and loud crash, the sound of something breaking, rang out.

Then, the sound of footsteps rushing over in slippers. I blinked my eyes and recognized that it was my mother. She had broken the vase she was holding.

My mother approached with an expression as if the sky had fallen… no, as if a crack had appeared in the fallen sky, and gripped my hand tightly. And with her other hand, she hurriedly pressed the nurse call button.

This is the first time I have seen such an expression on my mother. She was a mother who always had a look of disgust whenever I was sick or hurt, but what could have happened this time? Did I get hurt so badly that my mother would react this way, without me even knowing?

I quietly felt my mother’s touch. It would be a lie to say it did not feel good. It is a childish thought, but what can I do. I do not know where I am hurt, but it is a rare thing for my mother to look at me with such warm eyes…

However, at the words that came out of my mother’s mouth the next moment, I had to stiffen.

“Inha. Inha, are you okay? Look at mom properly. No, why have you been crying so much. Inha?”

“…Pardon?”

“Oh my, look at this face. With such a bruise…”

“…”

Inha…?

“…Mom.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“I’m… Inyoung…”

My mother’s expression turned strange at my words, which I uttered with a voice that could barely come out. And before she could react further, doctors and nurses rushed in. The doctor quickly approached and examined me here and there, then asked.

“Sir, do you know your name, age, your parents’ names, and where you are? Can you tell me?”

“…Yoon Inyoung…. Twenty-two years old, and, my parents’ names are, my father is Yoon Jaekwon, my mother is Hong Sayoung, here… I think it’s a hospital…”

“…Sir, your name, could you please say it again?”

The doctor’s expression also wavered slightly.

“Yoon, Inyoung.”

For some reason, the reactions around me were strange when I said my name. I have no idea what is going on, or what has happened.

“Yoon Inyoung? Is that your name for sure?”

The doctor asked pressingly. I became extremely anxious and nodded my head. Just then, my mother, as if she could not bear it any longer, shouted.

“What are you talking about, Inha? Inyoung is dead!”

For a moment, silence filled the hospital room. I went blank. I’m dead? As I took a sharp breath in, my mother started crying and frantically stroking my body. The doctor soon stopped her.

“Ma’am, please calm down…. It won’t do the patient any good. If you’re okay, perhaps you could step outside for a bit and catch your breath.”

“How can I leave in this situation!”

“Inha’s mother, I saw the doctors go in…”

The hospital room door opened and my father also appeared. Seeing me awake, my father rushed over at once and took my hand.

“Inha!”

“No, father, I’m…”

“He’s acting strange, honey. He keeps saying he’s Inyoung…”

At my mother’s words, my father’s eyes also widened in surprise. He immediately grabbed the doctor and asked.

“What’s going on?”

Leaving me aside, my parents talked with the doctor for a long time with serious faces. But I remained fixated on the words ‘Inyoung is dead’. Dead? Me?

What on earth is this situation? Am I dreaming? I wish it were a dream. In the midst of that, the doctor called me again, Mr. Yoon Inha.

Inha. Inha must be somewhere, so why come to me, why call me Inha, and just as I was thinking that, something came to mind.

Him, lying on the rain-soaked ground, his gasping breaths, his body twisted in a strange direction… the paramedics rushing toward him.

“Is Inha dead?”

I blurted out the words without realizing it. I am not the one who is dead. He was transported by ambulance, but there was no way he could have been revived. If someone died, it should have been Inha, not me…. But at my words, my father’s and mother’s expressions hardened even more.

I felt the atmosphere growing stranger and stranger. I pushed away the doctors and nurses clinging to me and shot up my upper body. I staggered for a moment from a wave of severe dizziness, but I slapped away the hands that approached again and threw off the blanket. My ankle came into view.

The moment I saw the area above my protruding ankle bone, I could not close my mouth. There, tattooed were the three stars of Orion’s belt, the skin around the dots reddish.

It was a small tattoo that Inha had gotten after a trip, saying he loved the stars he saw there and wanted to remember them. It was something that should definitely not be on my ankle…

“Inha, you’re okay, right? Hm?”

My mother, so flustered that tears were welling up in her eyes, grabbed my hand. This is the first time I have seen my mother with such a face toward me. My mother always had this face only for Inha. My father was the same.

“Doctor, what in the world is going on…”

“It appears to be a temporary confusion of memory. The test results showed no problems, so it is not a functional issue. You do not need to worry.”

“But his condition right now…. Inha, look at mom properly. What should we do…”

Perhaps, just maybe.

Maybe I… died,

and ended up in Inha’s body?