Nayomi was still standing in the middle of her room, staring at her phone screen. The last message kept replaying in her mind.
You’re starting to remember everything.
The sentence felt like more than just a threat. There was something deeper behind those words. As if whoever sent the message really knew about her—about something even Nayomi herself didn’t know.
She tightened her grip on her phone.
“Who are you, really?”
There was no answer.
Outside the room, the voice that had sounded like Raka’s was gone. The hallway was quiet again. But that silence only made Nayomi more uncomfortable.
She walked slowly toward the door.
Her hand was almost on the doorknob when she stopped.
The words from the phone call came back to her.
Your younger sibling isn’t home.
Nayomi slowly shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
She knew Raka’s voice. She knew the way Raka called her. They had lived together for years.
But why did a small part of her feel that the voice she’d heard really hadn’t been Raka’s?
Nayomi stepped away from the door.
She took the jacket hanging on the chair, then walked toward the window. She opened the curtain slightly and looked out at the yard.
Empty.
The porch light was still on, but no one was there.
“There’s no one…”
Suddenly, something caught her attention.
Near the front fence, a small object lay on the ground.
Nayomi narrowed her eyes.
She couldn’t see it clearly from that distance.
Curious, she picked up a small flashlight from the table.
She had just reached for the bedroom door when the sound of another incoming message rang out.
This time, it was from a different number.
Don’t look for that object.
Nayomi froze.
She looked at the screen.
A new number.
She typed quickly.
Are you in my house?
A few seconds later, a reply appeared.
No.
Nayomi felt a little relieved, but even more confused.
If that person wasn’t in the house, how could they know what she was doing?
She typed again.
Then who are you?
A long time passed.
A very long time.
Finally, a reply appeared.
The person who once failed to protect you.
Nayomi read the sentence over and over.
Once?
Protect me?
Her thoughts returned to the fragments of memory that had surfaced earlier.
Rain.
The sound of someone crying.
Someone standing in front of a door.
And herself, still a child.
Nayomi closed her eyes.
Her head throbbed.
Something wanted to emerge from her memory, but it felt as though something was holding it back.
“Nayomi?”
Her eyes flew open.
The voice had come from behind her.
Nayomi spun around.
Raka was standing in the bedroom doorway.
He looked confused.
“Sis, what’s wrong?”
Nayomi stared at him without blinking.
“Raka?”
“Yeah?”
“Where were you?”
Raka frowned.
“What do you mean, where? I was in my room.”
Nayomi looked toward Raka’s bedroom, a few feet from hers.
“I called you earlier.”
“You did? I didn’t hear you.”
Nayomi fell silent.
“But I heard your voice outside my door.”
Raka’s expression immediately turned serious.
“At this hour?”
Nayomi nodded.
Raka stepped into the room and closed the door.
“Sis, don’t joke around.”
“I’m not joking.”
Raka saw how genuinely frightened his sister looked.
“What’s really going on?”
Nayomi wanted to explain everything, but she hesitated.
The mysterious messages.
The phone call.
The voice that sounded like Raka.
It all sounded too unbelievable.
“I got a weird message.”
Raka moved closer.
“From who?”
“I don’t know.”
Nayomi showed him her phone.
Raka read all the incoming messages.
The longer he read, the more serious his expression became.
“This isn’t funny.”
“I know.”
“Who knows about your past?”
The question made Nayomi go quiet.
“My past?”
Raka looked at her.
“Sis… have you ever told me about what happened when you were little?”
Nayomi shook her head.
“Why?”
Raka sat on the edge of the bed.
“Because I once heard Dad and Mom talking about something.”
“What?”
Raka looked hesitant.
“They said something happened before we moved into this house.”
Nayomi stared at him.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. I was still little then. But I remember Dad said one thing.”
“What?”
Raka took a breath.
“Never talk about that night in front of Nayomi.”
The room immediately fell silent.
Nayomi went rigid.
“That night…”
She whispered the words.
Raka nodded.
“Yeah.”
Nayomi paced back and forth.
“Why don’t I remember?”
“That’s what I don’t know either.”
Nayomi looked at her phone again.
The unknown number was still there.
Suddenly, her phone vibrated.
A message came in.
This time, it contained only one photo.
Nayomi opened it.
Her entire body instantly went stiff.
It was a photo of her when she was little.
She was standing in front of an old house.
Someone stood beside her.
But that person’s face had been blacked out.
Beneath the photo was a message.
You’ve forgotten who was standing beside you.
Raka looked at the screen too.
“Sis…”
Nayomi didn’t answer.
Because for the first time, she felt that the message was true.
There was someone in her life who had vanished from her memory.
Someone who had once been very close to her.
Someone who might be the reason all of this had started happening again.
Nayomi enlarged the photo.
In the background, she could make out small writing on the wall of the house.
An address.
The same address as the old house she had visited before.
“That’s impossible…”
Raka stared at her.
“What?”
Nayomi lifted her face.
“I’ve been here before.”
“Where?”
“The house in the photo.”
Raka immediately stood up.
“Sis, are you serious?”
Nayomi nodded slowly.
“There’s someone there who knows everything.”
That night, for the first time, Nayomi realized that her fear wasn’t because of something that was going to happen.
It was because of something that had happened a long time ago.
And all this time, she had simply forgotten.