"This is a dream!"
There could be no other explanation. Her logic refused to accept that after that first dream about the past, her mind had hurled her three weeks into the future. Lily pulled her trembling gaze away from the phone screen and turned toward Joe, who was lecturing at the chalkboard.
Only one week had passed in the real world since she last saw him, yet her heart ached with a longing so deep it felt as though they had been apart for years. But as she looked at Joe closely, Lily instinctively took a step back.
Was this person really Joe?
The man standing before her resembled a corpse waiting for its turn in the morgue rather than a living human being. Dark circles had sunken beneath his eyes, and his face had turned into a forest of stubble that hadn't seen a blade in days. His hair was a mess, and those pupils—usually glowing with intelligence—had now completely lost their light.
"This person is definitely not Joe!" Lily thought in horror.
The Joe she knew was a vibrant perfectionist. He was an exemplary teacher who, even on his most exhausted days, radiated light to his students with that gentle smile he never failed to wear. The figure before her, however, was like a ruin on the verge of collapse.
In a lifeless voice, Joe asked:
"In what years did the Imjin War take place, and between which countries?"
The brief, suffocating silence in the classroom was broken by Richard raising his hand. Richard answered with his usual dull but flawless expression:
"It took place between 1592 and 1598, between Japan and Joseon (Korea)."
"And what was the cause of the war?"
"The ambition of the Japanese dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi to invade Korea in order to conquer China."
Joe began writing the devastating effects of the war on Korea on the board. The sound of the chalk was the only thing echoing in the room. The moment he stepped away from the board toward his desk, Joe's body collapsed like a sandcastle. He lost consciousness and crumpled to the floor.
Lily rushed toward Joe with a scream of terror. She knelt beside him, reaching out to check his pulse.
"Joe! Wake up, please wake up! Why are you like this?" she pleaded.
The moment her fingers touched Joe's wrist, her hand passed right through a void. She felt her soul shatter into a thousand pieces like a shard of glass.
"It's a dream..."
Even though she had known from the start that this was a trick of her mind, why did her heart ache with such real pain? Why had she tried so hard to find the pulse of a ghost?
"I'm such a fool!" she sobbed.
The students stood frozen in panic. The silence was broken by Glenn's harsh voice:
"Idiots! Don't just stare, go get the nurse from the infirmary!"
At Glenn's warning, several students bolted from the room. Glenn leaned over Joe and checked his breathing:
"He's not dead!"
A few minutes later, a young woman with black hair and a sharp gaze burst into the classroom. This was the new Korean language teacher, Seo Ji-Min. She checked Joe with professional speed and had him placed on a stretcher. Shortly after Joe was taken out, Ji-Min returned. She held a file and a newspaper.
"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, everyone. I am your new teacher, Seo Ji-Min. Today is my first day, and since I'm in charge of the infirmary, we've met a bit early. Don't worry, your teacher is fine. Now, you can pack your things and go home."
After the students left the room, Ji-Min sat at the desk and opened the newspaper she had brought. When Lily looked at the paper over the woman's shoulder, she saw her own photograph.
MORNING GAZETTE - JUNE 26, 2024
BREAKING NEWS: BELOVED MATH TEACHER STILL MISSING
It has been nearly a month since the kidnapping of Gwangju Science High School teacher Lily Taylor (24). Although Police Officer David Johnson has classified the case as a 'high priority,' no concrete leads have been found yet. School principal Susan Clarke expressed her grief, saying, 'Lily was the heart of this school...'
As Ji-Min closed the newspaper and began erasing the chalkboard, Lily stood frozen in place. Her heart was pounding wildly, like the door of a cellar that had been left in darkness for a long time finally swinging open.
The terrible thought she'd had on the first day of her kidnapping was wrong. "No one will notice I'm gone," she had said. Yet now, she saw that people were fighting for her, that Joe had turned into a shadow in her absence, and that the "heart" of the school had stopped. This realization turned Lily's will to survive into a raging fire.
"I am not alone."
Looking at the empty classroom, Lily realized the dream wasn't over yet. She had to find Richard.
Why was he making her watch these scenes? To find out what Richard was up to, she left the classroom and began searching the school corridors for her own student—her prison guard.