Chorong returned home and leapt back into her room. She looked up in the ceiling, where the glow-in-the-dark greeted her.


    She lowered her head, and the map William had put up came into her line of sight. The word Mi-Ray seemed more bolded than other texts.


    She made her decision.


    She stood on her bed, allowing her to reach the ceiling. She grabbed a glow-in-the-dark star, and detached it from the ceiling. She took another one, then another one. She repeated until all the stars were in her hand. She neatly placed them on her desk in a stacked pile.


    Why did she do that? She didn’t know for sure. She could only assume that her subconscious wanted to convey her decision to Master.


    She pulled out a backpack from the closet and packed it with clothes and a few other items, including a digital compass. Then, she approached the map. She grabbed a corner of it and yanked it, cleanly ripping it off from the wall. She rolled it like a scroll and jammed it into her backpack as well.


    She then grabbed a sticky note. She used a pen to scribble something on it and then slapped it where the map used to be.


    After that, she sneaked into Master’s room. She grabbed a flash drive from a drawer, stuck it into the computer on his desk, and turned it on. She copied certain folders into the flash drive, then turned the computer off and left the room.


    She paused near the stairs. She knew that downstairs, Master would be sitting in the living room. She did not know what he was feeling or thinking right now, but she still knew he was there and would be there as he waited for her return.


    “I will return, Master,” she murmured.


    She went back in her room and closed the door behind her. She turned around, took a deep breath, dashed to the window, and leapt through.


    The wind created by running circulated inside the room, blowing off the sticky note from the wall. The note slowly glided to the floor, with Chorong’s writing facing up. It read:


    I will make you happy, Master.


    James was freezing in the night, still sitting on the bench. He couldn’t even go back to his tent, because he didn’t know when Chorong would return.


    Just when he was about to give up to the coldness, he saw a small silhouette appear around the corner and dash to him. Chorong slid into a stop in front of him, wearing a backpack in front of her. Her facial expression was completely different from when he first met her today. It was as if her eyes were glowing.


    “You said you’ve travelled in between the cities, James, right?” she said.


    “…Yeah,” James answered slowly, wondering why she was asking.


    “I need a guide. I’m going to Mi-Ray.”


    “HUH!?” he shouted. He was so surprised that he wasn’t realizing how loud he was. “Mi-Ray? Do you know how far that city is? It’s going to take weeks, perhaps months! You know how dangerous it is outside civilizations?”


    “That’s why I need a guide with experience being outside civilizations.”


    James and Chorong gazed at each other.


    “…Me?” James asked, pointing his index finger at himself.


    Chorong nodded.


    James shook his head. “Chorong, I’m sorry, but the journey to this city from my hometown was hell by itself, let alone a journey that will be a thousand times longer. I don’t want to go.”Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    Chorong had expected him to say no. Thus, she had come prepared: she reached inside her backpack and tossed a lump of cash at him, a lot thicker than the one she had paid for her lessons.


    “That’s for the journey going there. I will pay the same amount for the returning journey.”


    The busker stared at the cash. He grabbed it with his hand. He then slowly stood up from the bench, and then bowed to her like a butler. “When should we leave, milady?”


    Chorong smiled brightly, like a cute girl. “Today. Now.”


    William blinked his eyes as weak sunlight shined on him through the window. He slowly sat up on his couch, his head aching. The clock indicated that it was dawn.


    Memories snapped into his head. He remembered barging into Chorong’s room and saying things he now regretted. He sighed, pressing down on his forehead with his hand. He cursed under his breath. He licked his dry lips, and then stood up from the couch slowly, being careful not to fall.


    Once he was sure he was awake enough, he walked upstairs to Chorong’s room. The door was closed. He knocked on it.


    “Chorong?” he called softly.


    No reply came.


    He took a deep breath, and then said, “I came to apologize.”


    Still, no reply.


    “…?”


    Slowly, he opened the door. No one was in the room.


    He looked around. The glow-in-the-dark stars were not on the ceiling anymore, but instead was on the desk in a neat stack. There was a sticky note that fell on the floor. He picked it up and read it. In Chorong’s writing style, it read: “I will make you happy, Master.”


    Wind breezed upon him. He turned, realizing that the window was open. Puzzles pieced together inside his head, and he felt like a loud thud echoed in his head. Desperately, he ran outside his house and shouted her name: “CHORONG!!!”


    Chorong and James stood at the border of the city. The city’s edge had…nothing. The only thing that properly indicated that this was the edge of the city was a metal sign, which read: “End of Radiation Barrier.” The asphalt road and the sidewalks and the streets just ended altogether abruptly, as if the city has been cut off there.


    Beyond the edge of the city, there was just plain dry dirt ground that spanned around a few hundred meters until a forest started. The forest looked huge, seemingly surrounding the entire Hyun-Jae. The sun’s orange light was just starting to emerge above the trees, lighting everything with a warm glow.


    Chorong looked around; it was obvious that the buildings near the edge were old and abandoned for a long time, shown by broken windows and doors, and cracks on the walls. The sign also was rusty and old.


    “What does that mean?” Chorong asked, pointing at the sign’s text.


    “Not all people are completely immune to radiation, so Hyun-Jae has an invisible barrier that weakens the radiation from outside. I don’t think most people in Hyun-Jae know that, though,” James said. He adjusted the straps on his shoulders. A huge backpack containing the disassembled tent was on his back, along with a guitar case protecting his red electric guitar.


    “We are going to go to a village called Tomorrow first, which is on the way. I’m going to stock up some food and supplies. It’s my hometown, so I know how to get there. The journey from here to there should be quite safe, and it should take two or three days,” he explained.


    He set a foot forward when a voice called behind them:


    “Hey, you two!”


    James and Chorong turned around, finding an armored SUV strolling toward them with its driver sticking out his head from the window next to the driver’s seat. The driver wore a set of goggles that hid his eyes.


    “Are you guys gonna go outside the city?” he asked.


    “Yes. To Tomorrow,” James answered.


    “With no weapon?”


    James turned to Chorong.


    “I don’t have one,” she said.


    The driver turned around and yelled to the back of the vehicle. “Hey, pass me one of the backup guns.”


    A hand from the back of the SUV passed on a rifle to the driver’s hand, who then tossed it through the window to James. The busker caught it with a grunt. Its shoulder strap slapped his face.


    “We are heading a different direction so we can’t give you guys a ride,” the driver said.


    “This is more than enough, thank you,” James replied, holding the rifle.


    James and Chorong watched the armored vehicle drive away. Soon, it went on a path into the forest and turned around a corner. Trees blocked their line of sights from seeing the vehicle.


    “Do you know how to shoot, Chorong?” James asked.


    Chorong shook her head. She had only seen guns in movies; they weren’t accurate enough for her to copy and shoot a firearm properly.


    “I will take the gun, then,” the busker said. He wore its strap on his shoulder so the gun was behind his back, next to his guitar case. He shifted his upper body, fixing the positions of the things on his back. “Shall we go as well?”


    Chorong nodded. She turned her head forward.


    “…Chorong, you already probably know, but if we leave now, we are actually leaving. Like, you are leaving home.”


    Chorong nodded again. Her eyes were locked on forward. James soon realized that she was just looking forward; she was looking beyond the path directly in front of her. She was looking beyond the forest, and even beyond Tomorrow: she was looking at Mi-Ray.


    Together, the busker and the robot set their feet forward.