- Are you gonna tell me? - Narim's voice trembled quietly.
- Have a seat," nodded Taekhyon towards the white leather armchair.
The guy walked up to a carved wooden table and landed on a stool, pulling the handle of the drawer. Having taken a stack of papers from there, the young man raked up a few newspaper pages lying on top and handed them to the girl.
- Look here," he pulled up on a stool closer to Kim's sofa, pointing his index finger at one of the articles on black and white paper. - The article was published about five months ago.
Jeon Jang, forty-two years old, was found dead in his apartment, and the doctors put a cardiac arrest, but further autopsy reveals that the lungs were filled with water. They assumed that it was a murder, like drowning him at first, and then moved to bed later... - looked at Narim Tachyon, but the girl sincerely did not understand the reaction it should have caused this article, and what the guy was trying to do. - Look through the rest of the story," he exhaled disappointedly. Narim obediently moved on to the next page. - Lee Mini, twenty-six, is also found in her apartment, her lungs filled with water, suggesting that the serial killer's handwriting is similar. Look further," the young man suggested again, catching a confused look at himself. - Kim Chuvon, seventeen, was killed in class for the rest of his class. Guess what the lungs were filled with?
- Water? - suggested Narim.
- There was no one here to drown the boy, it is unlikely that the intruder did it. He just drowned," the guy said, "with his lips on fire. - Do you see this water around you?
- I see - the girl was nervously rubbing her neck, looking around.
- They saw the same one, it's not hard to guess why they died, but you almost drowned yourself half an hour ago.
- To die of a hallucination? This is something new..." Narim's voice trembled.
Taekhyon bent down on the girl's face, focusing his attention on the one with the most serious look he could ever make.
- What if I told you this wasn't a hallucination? - his voice was whispering, and he moved a little closer. - It was all for real. Just not everyone can see it, not everyone can feel it," he looked right into Narim's wide-open eyes.
- I don't really understand..." she wrapped her head around her enchanted, captivated by the pools of deep dark brown eyes framed by a number of fluffy eyelashes.
- You could really die from that," Taehyun continued.
- But I'm alive.
- If you breathe air into a sinking man as the water flows, he can breathe under that water. But only someone who is sinking, in the same way, can breathe it in," the young man took a little further away from it and began to gesticulate actively. - So if you see water and I see water, we can save each other, you know? - Narim was given a bright sunny smile by a guy who, it seems, wasn't painted at all by the whole situation. Despite the nightmare around him, his face didn't reflect anything depressing, panicky, worried, unlike the girl's face.
- I think you were starting to tell the wrong story a little bit..." she muttered, looking around, cramping around, looking at everything around her. - You had to start by explaining what was going on around us.
- I'd start with that if I knew what was going on," she smiled. - But, you know, when the tide starts, it's not about philosophies about where the water comes from anymore. When the tide starts, there is a chance to be buried under it. And others will never know what you really died off. They don't see it. They will never believe you. They'll call you crazy and it's over.
- But this water is temporary, will it pass? - ...shaking the girl fine.
- No," the guy wrapped his head in front of him and put his hands together. - It wouldn't go away.
- And then how do you live? And if you want to live? What if I want to live? - Narim's heart panicked, his eyes poured red, his lips trembled.
Taekhyon took a piece of paper off the table and ripped it off, starting to twitch with a black automatic pen and display something not quite flat, wide handwriting.
- Take my number, call me when there's a tide, tell me where you are, and I'll come running," the guy grabbed the frightened girl by the hand and put a "message" in her fingers and squeezed his warm palm.
Narim wanted to say something, but on the inside, everything was squeezed with a simple, banal fear. Fear of possible death was one thing. Fear of you going mad is different. And the fear of water when you're like the last cat to be afraid of it is the third. Three fears that seem to accompany her for the rest of her life, as if her faithful companions were weaving around somewhere, not letting her breathe in peace. And that was the fourth fear. Fear of constant fear. Like a vicious circle.
The girl's eyes were filled with tears, which, according to all the laws of physics, would not roll down her cheeks while she was under this water. Tears hang in the liquid, dissolve in it, disappear without a trace, like Narim, buried under a dense layer of water.
The hissing was barely discernible, and Taekhyon instantly raised his face to the ceiling, looking up somewhere. Narim did the same thing.
- Here comes the tide," the guy smiled.
The water surface line was no longer invisible, unobtainable, but visible at the ceiling level and rapidly descending in bizarre stripes, passing through the blinding rays of the sun. The water around him became less and less, and his face was burnt by the cool air at the same moment. Narim and Taekhyon took a desperate first deep breath, painfully frowning on the approaching throat and light pain. Not accustomed to such a sharp change in the environment, the organs were painfully compressed. It's like newborn babies taking their first breath. Being born, they cry for a reason, they cry with pain. It's too painful to breathe first, and then too much pain to breathe. It hurts too much to breathe oxygen.
It took five breaths before the pain went away and came back. Narim looked down on her legs, and the rapidly disappearing water only reached the level of her feet and finally disappeared. Everything was the same: clothes, hair, skin - all dry, no signs that there was water around. Madness.
- I'm going to go mad..." the girl whispered, looking at everything. - Impossible.
- Perhaps," he fell on Taekhyon's couch, picking up his legs. The guy started to swing back and forth, watching the girl who was unbelieving from the bottom up. Once he didn't believe the same way. - Do you want to talk about it?
- N-no," Narim staggered, throwing a frightened look at the guy. - No," she slowly looked back at the exit.
- Listen," the young man came up off the couch. - Don't throw that paper away," he nodded at the girl's hand, where she was squeezing the cherished scrap. - Promise me you'll call me when the tide starts and give me your location, okay?
- So far," Narim pressed her lips and turned her back on the guy, never answering his request, hastily leaving the room, the spacious corridor, the old house as a whole.
n - all dry, no signs that there was water around. Madness.
- I'm going to go mad..." the girl whispered, looking at everything. - Impossible.
- Perhaps," he fell on Taekhyon's couch, picking up his legs. The guy started to swing back and forth, watching the girl who was unbelieving from the bottom up. Once he didn't believe the same way. - Do you want to talk about it?
- N-no," Narim staggered, throwing a frightened look at the guy. - No," she slowly looked back at the exit.
- Listen," the young man came up off the couch. - Don't throw that paper away," he nodded at the girl's hand, where she was squeezing the cherished scrap. - Promise me you'll call me when the tide starts and give me your location, okay?
- So far," Narim pressed her lips and turned her back on the guy, never answering his request, hastily leaving the room, the spacious corridor, the old house as a whole passing through.
"to be continued in the next part"