I can't believe it… such a rookie mistake.
I completely forgot my PPT presentation file. I meant to upload it to the cloud, but after saving the final version to my USB, I left it stuck in the computer and walked out.
My wife had already gone out, so I had no one to ask for help.
Fortunately, there was one more train ticket available, so I managed to change mine. It would be tight, but if I hurried home and came back quickly, I should make it in time.
Good thing my conference presentation was scheduled last, I suppose.
I parked in the apartment lot and rushed to press the elevator button. The elevator stuck on the top floor seemed unbearably slow that day.
"Tsk… I don't have time for this."
With no choice, I ran for the stairs. That would be faster.
I unlocked the door in a rush and grabbed my USB from the computer when I heard a strange sound coming from the master bedroom.
"Haah…!"
What? Did my wife leave the TV on?
"She's always so careless…"
Absentmindedly opening the bedroom door, I froze at the sight before me.
"W-What the hell!!!"
Two beasts were panting on top of my bed.
A man I had never seen before—and my wife, her face flushed with heat, a look she had never shown me in her life.
I understood instantly.
This wasn't assault. It was clearly an affair.
"H-Honey—! H-How are you here!"
My wife flinched and wrapped herself in the blanket. Was she so ashamed of letting me see the filthy body that another man had just touched? Who was the real husband here?
A curse burst out of me before I could stop it.
"You… you! You filthy bastards!"
Blood surged to the top of my head.
The sight of my panicked wife and the naked man set my rage ablaze, burning away all rational thought.
A primal urge to kill.
It was the first time in my entire life I had ever wanted to murder someone.
I'll kill you! I'll kill both of you with my own hands!
I ran to the kitchen. All I could think about was stabbing them.
Knife in hand, I stormed back toward the bedroom—when something heavy slammed into my face.
Thud—
What the—? A lamp?
I never expected a counterattack. If that bastard had even a shred of conscience, he wouldn't have dared to harm me.
I was the cuckolded husband, and he was the scumbag who played with my wife. So why was I the one getting hit?
The metal base of the standing lamp struck my face, and I dropped the knife as I fell. The back of my head cracked against the doorframe, and only then did I remember—I had never been in a fight in my life.
Well, of course I hadn't.
I was a nerd who only ever studied.
"You tiny piece of crap, you think you can stab someone?"
Wham, wham—
The naked man stomped on my chest mercilessly.
My breath caught, darkness swam in my vision. Between his legs, the stranger's manhood swung back and forth. Even as I was being beaten like a dog, why did I even notice something like that?
"Die, you bastard!"
"W-Wonjun, stop!"
Squelch—
My chest burned like fire.
I felt a rush of heat seeping through my shirt.
Did… did he stab me?
My wife's scream. The ragged breath of the frantic man.
The sounds echoed around me, then slowly faded.
My consciousness blurred as my eyes drifted shut.
It all felt like a dream.
Age 42.
I, Lee Jung-woo, died on the spot after being stabbed in the heart.
By my wife's affair partner, no less.
"Next."
This was the afterlife.
But unlike the gloomy and eerie image people imagine, it looked nothing like that. Actually… it felt more like a bank lobby.
With a waiting ticket in hand, you sat on a soft couch until a man in a suit—probably a grim reaper—called you in.
"Lee Jung-woo? Is Mr. Lee Jung-woo here?"
"Oh—yes. Sorry."
I had been watching TV without realizing my number was called.
The TV here was fascinating.
Earlier, I asked the person next to me if it was a live broadcast, and he snickered, asking if I'd ever seen a live drama. Then I realized—we were watching different channels on the same screen.
How amazing was that? It was a shame such technology only existed in the afterlife.
"When you go inside, please be as respectful as possible, Mr. Lee."
The grim reaper warned me with a stern look.
"Ah, yes, yes."
When I responded half-heartedly, he glared.
Please. What's he going to do, kill me again?
I'm already dead.
Reluctantly, I nodded.
After dying, the world really did feel a bit more ridiculous.
I wasn't this temperamental when I was alive.
Through the massive doors, red silk carpets lined the floor, and at the far end sat a colossal figure on a jade throne.
A giant. A literal giant.
His foot alone was about as big as my entire height. He had to be a giant.
It felt like staring up at a ten-story building. Yama—the King of the Underworld—stroked his long beard, gazing down at me with absolute authority.
"Show your respect."
The attendant beside him—dressed the same as the grim reaper—ordered. I bowed deeply in a polite fold.
The attendant unfurled a scroll-like document and spoke.
"Name: Lee Jung-woo. Age: 41. Born in Seoul, South Korea. Correct?"
"I'm forty-two this year."
"We count international age here."
"Oh. Then yes."
"Be seated."
"Seated?"
A wooden chair materialized behind me. After dying, things like that stopped surprising me. I plopped down.
"You have suffered a most unjust death."
His voice rumbled through my chest.
Yama's voice was so androgynous and ethereal it was hard to tell whether it belonged to a man or woman. It carried an inhuman weight.
"Yes. It was unjust."
"…You avoided the escort order and wandered the mortal realm for over sixty days before being apprehended."
The attendant whispered to Yama.
What a tattletale.
"That was wrong, but understandable given your circumstances. Still, what is done is done. Fate cannot be changed."
His way of phrasing things irritated me.
Fate.
People love using that word whenever they can't deal with consequences.
Being stabbed to death by the man my wife cheated with—was that fate too? What a joke.
"What happens to me now?"
"You shall receive judgment. Attendant, evaluate the deeds of his life."
Ah, so he was called Attendant, not servant.
At Yama's command, the attendant reached into thin air and pulled out a two-sided scale. Telekinesis? The afterlife truly lacked nothing.
He then took out two bundles—one labeled "Good Deeds," the other "Evil Deeds." What were those supposed to be?
Sensing my confusion, Yama elaborated.
"These weigh the virtue and vice you accumulated in your life. If your good deeds outweigh your evil, you shall ascend to Heaven. If your evil weighs more, you shall descend into Hell."
"So Heaven and Hell were real, then?"
"Fool! For centuries, prophets have been sent to tell mortals, yet disbelief still runs rampant! Hmph!"
He clicked his tongue.
Well, how was I supposed to know? I was an atheist.
Or more precisely, an agnostic.
If I haven't seen it, I can't believe it.
There are too many frauds in the world claiming the supernatural…
Using this chance, I asked something I'd always wondered.
"But are Heaven and Hell that big? Considering how many people have lived and died since the beginning of time…"
"The concept of physical space is irrelevant. Modern physics teaches that an entire universe can fit within a single bead. Do you not know even that?"
Gods shouldn't say things like that dressed in traditional robes!
My brain was going to short-circuit.
"Now then, let us weigh them."