After talking to Min-ah, I returned home feeling different. I no longer carried the weight of my secret completely alone. Knowing there was someone else like me, someone who understood what I was going through, had given me a sense of relief and hope.
I tried to return to my normal routine at school, but it was difficult. Everything seemed mundane and unimportant compared to what I had experienced over the past few days. I looked at my classmates, my teachers, wondering if any of them might also be a Marked, hiding their abilities beneath an exterior. I was now more aware of the small details, the furtive glances, the half-baked comments I would have ignored before.
One day, as I was walking down the hallway, I saw a boy in my class who had always been quite quiet and reserved. He was standing by a window, looking out at the street. For an instant, I thought I saw a slight ripple in the air around him, as if the light were distorting slightly. It was a fleeting glimpse, and when I looked again, he was gone. But the doubt lingered in my mind. Had it been him? Another Marked?
News about the Troubles continued to appear in the media, although with decreasing frequency. It seemed that the authorities were managing to contain the information, or perhaps the incidents had become less frequent. But the rumors persisted, fueled by social media and collective fear. People spoke of "unexplained phenomena" and the need for the government to do something.
One afternoon, while I was in my room practicing with some metal nails, I felt a familiar vibration on my phone. It was a text from an unknown number, different from Min-ah's. The message read: "We know what you are. You are not alone."
My heart leaped. Who was it? How did they know about me? The fear returned, more intense than ever. It couldn't be Min-ah. I already had her number saved. Was this one of those organizations she'd told me about?
I replied to the message with a simple question: "Who are you?"
The answer came almost immediately: "Someone who can help you. Someone who knows the truth."
I hesitated for a moment before answering again. "What truth?" I typed.
Several minutes passed before the reply came: "The truth about the Marked. About the Troubles. And about what's really happening in our city."
This new contact filled me with a deep unease. Who were these people? Could I trust them? Or was it a trap? I told Min-ah the next day when we met for training. She seemed as worried as I was.
"We have to be careful, Ryu Hyuk," he told me. "We don't know who these people are or what they want. It could be dangerous."
"What do you think we should do?" I asked.
Min-ah sighed. "I don't know. But I think we can't ignore them completely. We need to know who they are and what they want."
We decided that for now we wouldn't respond to the message, but we would remain alert. The feeling that we were being watched, that invisible forces were moving around us, intensified. My life had completely disappeared, replaced by a world of secrets, dangers, and hidden powers. And I felt we were about to delve even deeper into darkness.
.