Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 2

People flocked to one side of the beach.

The gathered crowd pointed towards the water, their fingers aimed at a specific spot, and stamped their feet in frustration.

At the end of their pointing fingers, a dark shape was repeatedly swallowed and spat out by the waves.

“Aaaah…!”

The onlookers screamed in unison.

The dark shape vanished beneath the surface.

Just then.

A marine rescue team’s lifeboat sped towards the location where the dark shape had disappeared.

Shortly after.

A member of the rescue team hauled something from the water with both arms.

The dark shape reappeared.

Haa!

Only then did the gathered people exhale the breaths they had been holding, a collective sigh of relief.

The lifeboat carrying the dark shape quickly returned to shore, and the rescue team members moved it onto the sandy beach.

The dark shape was, in fact, a young boy.

A marine rescue team member immediately began administering first aid.

However, despite the continuous efforts, the boy only vomited a few times and showed little sign of regaining consciousness.

“Please…”

The people gathered around could only watch with worried expressions.

Beep beep.

At that moment, an ambulance arrived at the beach entrance, its siren blaring.

Thump!

As soon as the back doors swung open, paramedics rushed towards the beach with their equipment.

The paramedics, upon reaching the boy, observed the marine rescue team’s first aid efforts for a moment.

Then, the eyes of the marine rescue team member and a paramedic met.

The marine rescue team member nodded, and the paramedic returned the nod, shouting urgently.

“Get ready!”

“Yes!”

The paramedics quickly began administering emergency treatment.

Thump, thump.

The paramedic’s hands pressed on the boy’s chest with urgency.

Once, twice…

The paramedic compressed the boy’s chest rhythmically.

However, despite the paramedic’s urgent efforts, the boy showed no signs of waking up.

The faces of the onlookers began to pale.

Some even covered their mouths with their hands in apprehension.

Then the paramedic called out.

“Change!”

“Yes!”

Thump! Thump!

The relieved paramedic put even more strength into the compressions.

As time passed, the paramedic’s expression grew increasingly grim. But the more strained his face became, the more desperation was evident in his compressing hands.

Sweat poured from the paramedic’s brow.

Thump! Thump!

Even though exhausted, the paramedic’s touch remained consistent, unwavering from beginning to end.

If anything, his eyes burned with even greater determination.

Click.

The people watching the scene began to hold each other’s hands, a spontaneous gesture of shared anxiety.

It was a moment where the earnestness of the paramedic performing emergency treatment and the collective hope of the surrounding people became one.

Was it because of everyone’s fervent hope?

Tingle!

A subtle energy pulsed through the boy’s fingertips.

The faint sensation traveled slowly up his fingers.

A woman approached the boy, reaching out her hand.

The boy slowly extended his arm to grasp the woman’s hand.

“Mother?”

The boy’s lips trembled slightly.

He saw her.

It was blurry, but it was undeniably his deceased mother’s face.

Convinced it was his mother, the boy gripped her hand tightly with all his remaining strength.

That was the moment.

Cough!

The boy’s upper body, lying on the beach, shot up like a spring, and the blocked breath burst from his mouth.

He immediately fell back onto the sand.

“Student! Student!”

The paramedic shouted ‘student’ repeatedly and gently slapped the boy’s cheek.

The boy heard the unbelievable word in his ear.

‘Student?’

The boy doubted his hearing.

He assumed he had misheard.

‘A student…’

It couldn’t be.

Sensing the boy’s subtle reaction, the paramedic began to shout more loudly and urgently.

“Student! Student!”

The word ‘student’ echoed clearly in the boy’s ears.

‘Student? What is he talking about?’

The boy opened his eyes slightly.

Everything was blurry.

He vaguely felt something approaching his face.

‘What is it?’

As if in answer to the boy’s question, the paramedic’s palm struck his cheek.

Slap!

The pain registered instantly.

‘Huh? Why does it hurt?’

The boy wondered what was happening.

It didn’t make sense.

Seeing the boy react, the paramedic raised his hand even higher this time.

And that hand moved towards the boy’s face again.

‘No!’

The boy instinctively felt he had to avoid it, even though he didn’t know what it was. He turned his head to the side with all his might.

Whoosh!

Thwack!

The paramedic’s palm, missing its target, landed squarely on the back of the boy’s head. The sound was louder than expected.

The paramedic looked around in surprise, checking the surrounding reactions.

The onlookers were also surprised, their eyes wide.

Then, the boy’s voice broke the silence.

“Ah, who the hell…”

The boy instinctively jumped to his feet.

He saw that many people were surrounding him in a circle.

Then, the boy said in an embarrassed voice.

“What? Did you all die together?”

The boy, thinking he was dead, assumed everyone around him was also dead.

For a moment, the sight of the waving sea caught his eye.

“What? This sea again?”

The boy was disoriented by the unbelievable situation.

At that moment, the paramedic shook the boy and shouted again.

“Student, are you conscious?”

“What student…”

“Student, come to your senses.”

“Ah, please stop!”

The boy felt a subtle annoyance and a sense of absurdity at the word ‘student,’ which had been repeated since earlier.

Student?

It wasn’t like he was being mocked, but he didn’t think this was right.

Then, the boy noticed the paramedic’s uniform, which was different from the others.

The boy looked closely at the paramedic and asked.

“What? Why are you the only one wearing different clothes?”

The boy found it strange that only the paramedic was in uniform, unlike the other people around him.

It didn’t even occur to him that he was a paramedic.

Then he turned his gaze and looked down at his legs.

“Huh?”

They were smooth. As he got older, he had an excessive amount of hair on his legs.

The boy tilted his head.

“What is this?”

He sensed something was wrong.

At that moment, the paramedic looked at the boy and held up one finger.

“How many is this?”

The boy realized that the young man in front of him was speaking informally as he regained some awareness. For a moment, he was bothered by the casual speech, but he decided to tolerate it for now because he was wearing a uniform.

“One.”

The boy answered curtly, as if annoyed by the pointless question.

Then the paramedic spread out his palm this time.

“How many is this?”

Instantly, the boy felt a surge of annoyance.

He wondered if it was appropriate for a young man to make fun of an adult like that, even if he was wearing a uniform. But because of the uniform, he held back and tried to express his dissatisfaction as politely as possible.

“Even if a young man is wearing a uniform, you shouldn’t make fun of an elder like that…”

The boy couldn’t finish his sentence.

Because the sight of people riding jet skis caught his eye.

“Jet skis? What is this again?”

The boy had reluctantly accepted the sea a little while ago, but he was dumbfounded by the sight of people riding jet skis.

Dead people on jet skis…

It was too much to accept.

At that moment, the paramedic looked at the boy and said.

“Student, are you okay? Are you feeling a little better now?”

“Please stop!”

The boy was subtly annoyed by the word ‘student’ that he had been called since earlier, not just once or twice.

Even if he was dead, a student?

He was 51 years old this year. But he kept calling him a student, so he was subtly annoyed.

At that time, another paramedic grabbed the boy’s arm and said.

“Student, just a moment. I’ll check your blood pressure.”

“Yes? What? Did you say something just now?”

“Blood pressure. It’ll be over soon, so just a moment.”

The paramedic grabbed the boy’s arm and put on a cuff [a device used to measure blood pressure].

The boy was now convinced that something was wrong.

Even if he was a student, taking blood pressure on a dead person, does that make sense?

There was a limit to how much he could be teased, and he couldn’t take it anymore.

The boy looked at the paramedic and said, annoyed.

“Let’s stop!”

The paramedic was dumbfounded at the boy’s words. Even if he wasn’t in his right mind, it wasn’t right to treat the person who saved him like this.

The paramedic looked straight at the boy and said.

“Student! You can’t even say thank you to the person who saved you with all their might, this isn’t right.”

“What? Saved me? Who… me?”

The boy couldn’t understand this situation at all.

Clearly, his last memory was of himself dying in the car, but suddenly he was at the sea, with people…

And he kept calling him a student, and now he was even saying that he had saved him, so he couldn’t understand it at all.

The boy shook his head violently.

And he quietly asked the young man in front of him.

“Maybe…, am I… alive now?”

“Oh, your informal speech is too natural, yes, elder, you are definitely alive.”

The paramedic answered, teasing the boy’s words.

He’s alive.

It wasn’t a question he asked to get an answer. It was a question he asked just in case because he was dumbfounded.

But the answer only made the boy even more embarrassed.

“Th-that, young man, just a moment…”

The boy pinched his thigh as hard as he could, just in case.

“Ouch!”

It hurt so much.

Then at least it’s not a dream.

If it’s not a dream?

The boy touched his face with both hands.

“Huh?”

It was smooth.

He touched his head.

It was prickly and short hair.

“What on earth is going on?”