Miller woke up, gasping for breath. Lately, he had been waking up startled because of the frequent dreams.
And on top of that...
‘Of all things, why are they all lucid dreams...?’
The more he slept, the more exhausted he felt.
The dream he had just had was a reenactment of the plane crash.
The captain’s voice and the shouts of the crew were vividly clear.
Those voices kept echoing in his ears.
It wasn’t until Miller looked around that his sense of reality started to return.
A small wooden boat.
The intense sunlight beating down.
And over there, Seojin was fishing.
Right. We had escaped from the deserted island.
Sensing movement, Seojin glanced back at him and suddenly handed him a coconut.
Miller shook his head as he watched.
“Water. We need to conserve it.”
“Saving this won’t help you avoid death.”
“You never know. What if I’m just a sip of water short and I end up choking to death?”
“Wow. You know, lately, all you do is spout useless talk? Just drink it. Dehydration will be a bigger headache.”
“.....”
“Ah, my arm’s starting to hurt. Just take it already.”
Seojin casually tossed the coconut water bottle to Miller.
Miller caught it and gave a faint smile. He opened the carved wooden lid and lightly wetted his lips. Haah. It did feel a little bit like he could breathe again.
“So, did you catch any fish?”
“Not at all. I was expecting to catch something like a marlin, just like in a novel, but I haven’t even seen a minnow.”
“Or maybe a shark already ate them all? Pull in the line and see if there’s just bones left.”
“No thanks. Do you think I wouldn’t notice something like that? Just wait a bit. I think we can at least catch a tuna.”
“Tuna? Why not go all the way and say we’ll catch a whale?”
“That works too.”
Seojin chuckled to himself at his own words.
Seojin handed Miller one of the extra fishing rods. Whether it was to relieve boredom or to make sure he didn’t just sit around, Seojin wasn’t sure.
Miller quickly set up his fishing gear. When he lightly cast the line, ripples spread across the calm sea. The hook with the bait slowly sank below the surface.
Miller and Seojin silently watched the hook. Then they kept quiet, saying nothing.
It had been quite a while since they had escaped the deserted island and started drifting at sea. Ten days. Or maybe eleven by now.
Yet, no ships had passed by. Neither had any land appeared.
Day by day, only their precious time kept slipping away.
At night, they would gather kindling and light it with the lighter they had been carefully saving.
The makeshift torches, made without any oil, would quickly go out. But they repeated the act regularly, hoping someone would notice the light.
Miller was sleeping more and more often. The drowsiness was becoming impossible to resist.
Although there wasn’t much to do on the boat, Seojin naturally ended up doing most of the tasks.
Raising the sails, rowing occasionally.
Seojin quietly accomplished what needed to be done.
If someone were to ask who the captain of this ship was, the answer would have to be Seojin.
Meanwhile, Miller had another dream.
A dream of the plane crash.
It was a dream he had been having repeatedly lately.
Miller was seated in the airplane. The surrounding people were minding their own business, barely acknowledging anything. Suddenly, the cabin grew chaotic. At that moment, the captain’s announcement echoed through the cabin.
- “Ladies and gentlemen, this is David Reed, the captain of flight AC 2505. Currently… the aircraft has lost control, and we are attempting an emergency landing… Please brace yourselves as an unexpected situation may occur… This is not a drill.”
But then, a strange thought crossed his mind.
David Reed.
Somehow, the name felt unfamiliar.
Miller realized that he was in a lucid dream.
That meant he could move freely here as he wished.
The plane began shaking violently. The crash was starting. Miller hurriedly began searching through his pockets.
There was no wallet or passport in his pockets. No phone either. But in his shirt pocket, he found a crumpled airplane ticket.
Miller unfolded the ticket and began reading its details.
The first thing he saw was the airline’s name.
Next was the passenger’s name.
The boarding time.
The boarding date.
And finally, his eyes landed on the flight number written at the bottom.
.
.
.
.
AC 162
Miller had a bad feeling. He felt like he was getting airsick. But he stayed focused.
‘This is...’
The flight number the captain had announced over the intercom was clearly different from the one mentioned earlier.
Miller’s ticket said AC 162.
The captain said AC 2505.
Which meant that this plane was...
‘This plane... is not the one I boarded?’
Just then.
A powerful turbulence shook his entire body. He glanced to the side and saw a young man hunched over, trembling.
Next to the young man was an elderly woman, who appeared to have fainted. After several attempts, Miller managed to place a mask over her face.
After the elderly woman, the next person who caught his eye was Seojin.
But Seojin wasn’t the grown and strong person Miller knew him to be now. He looked exactly like his 12-year-old self—innocent and youthful.
Miller tried to call out to Seojin. But no sound came out. Was he really unable to do anything? He felt stifled.
His confusion only lasted a moment. Miller soon realized his breathing was becoming rougher. He was out of breath. It was difficult. He just wanted to take one deep breath... just one...
Whoosh!
Miller finally exhaled a rough breath. He could barely breathe again. His head was spinning.
Even in this state of dizziness, Miller instinctively started searching through his pockets.
‘I need to check...’
A crumpled airplane ticket emerged from the inner pocket. With trembling hands, Miller unfolded the crumpled ticket.
‘AC 162...’
Miller immediately opened the guitar case next to Seojin. Seojin appeared to be fast asleep, as it was the middle of the night.
‘I think I saw something like this in here before.’
As expected, Seojin’s airplane ticket was found in the inner pocket of the case.
The flight number on Seojin’s ticket was...
AC 2505.
Miller stared at both tickets for a long time.
As he did, many memories naturally came flooding back.
He realized what he had been misunderstanding all this time.
Why they needed to leave this place quickly.
And everything else, too.
Mark Miller, looking at Seojin’s ticket, dated ten years later than his own, fell into deep thought.
* * *
Time, cruel as ever, continued to pass.
The food was running out, and there wasn’t much water left either.
Even the typical storms featured in deserted island disaster movies hadn’t appeared on this sea.
In the middle of the ocean, under the scorching sun with not a drop of rain, they were slowly withering away.
Seojin lay listlessly under the shade of the sail. Next to him was Miller.
Miller, leaning against the boat’s wall, was fiddling with an acoustic guitar. After carefully tuning the five-string guitar, he quickly composed a beautiful melody.
Seojin didn’t even glance at Miller. Instead, he stared at the sunlight shining beside the sail and spoke to him.
“Music, even in a situation like this? Impressive.”
“It gives off a good vibe, don’t you think?”
“What does?”
“I kept playing music until the day I died. I’ll be able to say that later.”
“That’s really…”
“Cool, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll say it’s cool. Though I was actually going to call it crazy.”
“Well, thanks for that.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Seojin chuckled to himself as if finding the whole situation absurd, then forced himself to stand up.
“I’d like to play too.”
“Why? You want to look cool too?”
“No, I’m just bored. At the very least, we can’t die of boredom, right?”
This time, it was Miller’s turn to let out a chuckle.
After taking the guitar from Miller, Seojin took a deep breath. Then he began to play.
Even though the guitar was in terrible condition, the sound that flowed out was surprisingly decent.
Seojin’s hands, which were long accustomed to playing, automatically crafted a melody.
Miller quietly watched him.
As if vowing never to forget this moment.
He didn’t even blink.
Seojin continued to create a sentimental melody.
A simple, wordless tune.
Nevertheless, the song, laden with sorrow, felt like a silent melody.
Seojin didn’t stop playing.
He played cautiously, fearing the worn-out guitar strings might snap at any moment, but also afraid that everything would shatter if the song came to an end.
This fear was vaguely transmitted to Miller.
In the sweltering heat of a hot summer day, the trembling melody filled the space.
Then Seojin opened his mouth.
He began to sing quietly.
Before long, the faint guitar playing was drowned out by Seojin’s voice.
Miller took in the song and lyrics Seojin sang.
A song expressing gratitude to an eternal friend, thanking a teacher who helped him easily get through hard times.
His song, pledging never to stop sailing even on an empty sea, resonated around them.
A harsh world.
If you need a companion,
I won’t look for anyone else, I’ll think of you first.
Those lyrics.
Mark Miller felt they would never leave his mind.
Seojin played the guitar endlessly. The performance, which seemed like it would never stop, eventually came to a halt.
Seojin must have fallen asleep from exhaustion due to the heat.
Miller gently patted Seojin’s head and took the guitar from him.
Miller continued to sing. He created a song.
As if today would never end.
Until dawn broke.
He played Seojin his reply.
* * *
A massive container ship entering Myanmar waters after passing through the Strait of Malacca.
A man stood at the bow of the ship, a cigarette hanging from his mouth.
It was late at night, so visibility wasn’t great, but the man often gazed out at the sea like this. Sometimes, he even preferred the night for this.
Click- Click
A flame effortlessly flickered from the Zippo lighter in his hand. He lit his cigarette with a deep inhale.
Whoosh
“When will I be going back...”
He knew there was still a long way to go on this voyage, which made him feel like complaining for no reason.
But then.
“Hm?”
In the far distance, a light flickered briefly over the ocean.
Thinking he might have seen wrong, the man rubbed his eyes a few times.
The light blinked again.
The man hurriedly got up. He ran to the ship’s railing and pressed his body close, staring in the direction of the flashing light.
If there was one more signal from that direction?
It was an SOS signal.
The intervals might have been a bit long, but that didn’t matter.
‘What’s more important is that it was an intentional signal.’
And after a short while.
Blink.
The man, cigarette in his mouth, ran straight towards the radio. He had to check, just in case.
After all, there are always those “what if” moments in life, right? Especially with everything that’s been causing such a stir in the area lately.
After reporting to the captain, the man looked again in the direction where the light had blinked.
As he stood there, lost in thought for quite a while, he couldn’t help but tilt his head in confusion.
It was clearly an incredibly far distance.
But he thought he could faintly hear the sound of a guitar.
* * *
Republic of Korea Embassy in Singapore.
Even though it was quite late in the early morning hours, people were bustling around.
One of them was speaking loudly on the phone.
“They’ve found the last survivor of Flight AC 2505! After 15 days, no less! And yes, of course, it’s Han Seojin!”
T/N: This is the end of the story's 'prologue'. From now on, the story will now revolve around Seojin. ^^
PS. If you want to read 12 advanced chapters, just click the button below. ^^
