The next morning, he filed the complaint.
At the Hunter Administration's civil litigation filing window, he handed over the documents and received a filing confirmation. The clerk looked at the first page of the complaint, then raised her head.
“Taegang Guild?”
“Yes.”
The clerk looked at Woo-joo. She seemed about to say something, but closed her mouth instead. She held out the filing confirmation.
“It’s been filed.”
Woo-joo took the confirmation and put it in his briefcase. Then he left the building. It was an April morning. The air was cold and clean.
Now it was starting.
Two or three days before Taegang Guild’s legal team contacted him. That was Park Do-hyun’s prediction. In the meantime, Woo-joo had to secure an additional statement from Jung Tae-ho and dig further into Choi Byung-soo’s past party history.
He returned to the office and started working. It was an ordinary day. He read documents, made phone calls, and cross-checked records.
But by afternoon, his concentration began to falter.
His gaze stopped while he was reading a document. It was the page listing the party members in the Administration’s report. Names were listed one after another. As he looked at it, another list suddenly overlapped with it. Different names. A different place. A report he had never read.
For 0.3 seconds. Then it vanished.
Woo-joo blinked. He looked at the report again. The party members in the Jung Tae-ho case: Choi Byung-soo, Kim Do-yoon, Jung Tae-ho, and two unidentified D-rank Awakened. It was the same as before.
What had he just seen?
He ignored it and continued working.
After work, he returned home. He took off his shirt and changed into something comfortable. He took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and drank it. Then he sat on the couch.
The sensation from last night returned.
A stone floor. Damp air. The back of the man walking ahead of him. The moment the man turned his head and opened his mouth.
Woo-joo opened his eyes. He was sitting on the couch. He hadn’t been asleep. He hadn’t even closed his eyes. He had simply been sitting there, and the sensation had risen up.
Yesterday, it had happened when he saw the man in person at the crosswalk. Today, it had come without any trigger.
Woo-joo got up and sat down at his desk. He opened his notebook and picked up a pen.
It was a lawyer’s habit. If something couldn’t be organized in his head, he wrote it down.
First. When he interviewed Jung Tae-ho, he had “seen” his ability. The conclusion that it was a fire type had surfaced without any basis, and it had been correct.
Second. When he looked at the symbol in the Administration’s report, his finger had reacted. He had unconsciously traced the symbol.
Third. Yesterday, at the crosswalk, he had seen a man for the first time. He had immediately recognized that the man was Awakened. He had even reached the conclusion that the man’s ability type was physical enhancement.
Fourth. The moment he saw that man, his vision had gone white. A sensation had brushed through it. Himself walking behind the man. A dark, damp stone floor. The shape of the man’s mouth forming the word “brother.”
Fifth. That afternoon, while reading the report, another list had overlapped with it. A report he had never read.
Sixth. That evening, yesterday’s sensation had returned without any trigger.
Woo-joo set down his pen and looked at the notebook.
Taken individually, each was a different phenomenon. But when he looked at the structure, there was a direction. The first through third were an “ability to see.” The fourth through sixth were “something like memories.” And both lines were growing stronger at the same time.
It wasn’t stress. It wasn’t lack of sleep, either. This was closer to something awakening.
The man’s face came to mind. Rough features. Short hair. Broad shoulders. It was a face he had never seen before, yet somehow it didn’t feel like the first time.
Woo-joo closed the notebook.
Attorney Kang Woo-joo did not draw conclusions without evidence. All he had right now were phenomena. He didn’t know the cause. He could form a hypothesis, but he had no way to verify it.
Not yet.
He took a shower and lay down in bed. Tomorrow, he had another interview with Jung Tae-ho. Taegang Guild’s legal team might contact him, too. He had work to do. For now, he needed to sleep.
He closed his eyes.
Sleep did not come.
He stared at the ceiling, then closed his eyes again. This time, nothing came. No stone floor. No man’s back. It was quiet.
That was what made it strange. The sensation had come right before he fell asleep last night. Today, it wasn’t coming. It was almost as if it wouldn’t come because he was conscious of it.
Something he couldn’t control. That was the kind of thing Kang Woo-joo found most uncomfortable.
At one in the morning, he fell asleep.
He dreamed.
In the dream, Woo-joo was walking. He didn’t know where he was. It was dark and vast, with a high ceiling. Stone lay beneath his feet. Moisture rose from the ground. Someone was walking ahead of him. A broad-backed man. Someone else was beside him. He could see only the outline. And someone was following behind them. The footsteps were light.
Four people were walking.
He didn’t know where they were going. But he wasn’t afraid. Strangely, walking through this darkness felt natural. Walking together with these people felt natural.
The person walking ahead turned his head. He said something. No voice reached Woo-joo.
Woo-joo opened his mouth to answer.
That was when he woke up.
It was six thirty in the morning. His alarm was ringing. Woo-joo lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. His heart wasn’t racing. He wasn’t sweating. It was simply vivid. The dream was vivid.
Four people had been walking. Together, in a dark and spacious place.
Woo-joo got up and turned off the alarm. He washed his face and looked in the mirror. It was the same face as always.
And yet his eyes in the mirror looked different. He couldn’t explain what had changed. They were the same eyes. The same face. But something.
Woo-joo looked away from the mirror and put on his shirt.
As he prepared for work, he thought about the four people walking in the dream. Four, including himself. The back of the person walking ahead had been the same as the man he saw at the crosswalk yesterday.
Who were the other two?
There was no answer. Not yet.