Part No. 0

    The Second Beginning

    Why did you live? 

    Is it all nothing but a huge, frightful joke? 

    These words had lingered in his mind since the first second that he opened his eyes. Was it truly possible for a human’s memories to remain intact even after death like this? No matter how much time passed, there was no way he would forget his own face. Yet, with skin as tight as a child’s and limbs now shorter, this was certainly not a situation he could easily accept. 

    What had happened to his life? Since the moment he regained consciousness, a long time had passed, but the heavy weight in his heart hadn’t lessened. 

    The boy was thin, with pale skin, and his face was full of signs of fatigue and exhaustion. It wasn’t hard to guess that the cause of it was an illness.  Only his light brown eyes were still lively, filled with curiosity. And when those eyes met the reflection of them in the window…  

    This child… Why is this child moving like he’s him? But he’s not this child.

    With his small, pale hand, he tried testing it. He moved his hand in front of the reflection. His parched lips pressed tightly together as he clearly saw the reality before him. He brought his hand up to stroke his own face gently. He didn’t know how old this child was, but this face was certainly that of a child under ten. 

    The light brown hair only made this child’s pale face appear even softer, and it wasn’t hard to imagine how perfect this face might be once he grew up, especially with those sharp eyes, which was so captivating, even though they were on his own face.  

    But was this really him?... Or not him? Before he could examine his condition any longer, the sound of a door opening rang out, and someone rushed inside. She was a young woman, who seemed quite older, but time could not steal her beauty. Her face was beautiful, just like a sculpture that was meticulously crafted, especially her sharp eyes, which were outstanding. They immediately made him realize that the young woman before him might be related to this child in some way. 

    “Gabriel! You’re finally awake, my child.” 

    As soon as our eyes met, she hurried over, stroking his body out of worry. This woman’s voice trembled with joy. 

    “You were so sick and unconscious for nearly a week. The doctor said you stopped breathing for almost five minutes... I… I thought I was going to lose you.” 

    Gabriel… so, this is this child’s name. But it wasn’t his name. His name was... no… What was his name...? 

    He sat still on the bed, allowing the young woman to embrace him as she cried out of joy. Out of compassion, his small hand rose to return the hug, patting the mother’s back softly. 

    “Mother...” 

    He felt warmth well up within his heart. 

    “...!!”

    It seemed that when he spoke, it caused the crying mother to freeze in place. She quickly pulled away, looking at the son in her arms with shock. 

    "Gabriel?" 

    She called her son's name in confusion. 

    "Yes?" 

    He tilted his head as he looked at the other party, puzzled by the quick change in demeanor. 

    "You... you can speak..." 

    "Could I not speak?" 

    He asked the other out of confusion. Everything seemed normal, except for his voice, which was raspy since he hadn't had any water since waking up. 

    "No… no! I must be dreaming... Slap!" 

    The woman, who claimed to be his mother, began to panic. She slapped her face repeatedly, as if she was dreaming. The little boy's eyes widened in shock because of such actions. 

    "Mom! Mom! I'm thirsty." 

    Even though there were only a few sounds of slapping, they were loud enough for him to know it must have hurt, and he didn’t want the benefactor of this body to hurt because of him. 

    "Oh, that's right! You haven't had any water yet." 

    Realizing that, she stopped such an action and hurriedly rushed to get water, flustered. Within a few minutes, she returned with 'water', which no matter how he looked at it, it didn’t look like the water he was familiar with. 

    Gabriel looked at the water the other party handed him in confusion. Why did it have such a strange appearance which he had never saw it before? According to his familiarity, water was a liquid poured from a bottle or a glass? But why was this 'water' in front of him a soft, gelatinous lump? 

    It seemed he had stared at it for too long as the mother understood that her son might not be used to drinking water on his own like this. 

    "You just put it in your mouth like this, ahh..." 

    She didn’t just say it, but she also put the ‘lump’ in her mouth as an example amidst the panic look of the boy who watched it with his eyes widened. This… What kind of way of drinking water was this?

    "Gabriel, open your mouth. I’ll feed you.”

    Once she saw her son look at her without moving or saying anything, she adored him even more. Even though he was still startled by this new form of drinking water, his throat was parched at this moment. In the end, he reluctantly opened his mouth. 

    The moment the water lump entered his mouth, it burst into the liquid he was familiar with. It was probably because of its odd shape that made him can’t help but think that it tasted a bit strange, but it wasn’t bad enough to be undrinkable. It was probably like when one had been drinking the same brand of water all along, but then one day they switched for another brand, and that was why they weren’t familiar with the taste.

    "Mom, why is water like this?... Isn’t it supposed to be in bottles?" 

    He decided to ask the question that had been troubling him the most. This matter made him keep pondering about it more than the fact that he had woken up in a new body he didn’t familiar with. 

    "Bottled water? That’s far too expensive for us to afford, my child. They don’t sell it on our planet." 

    "What?" 

    What is expensive water? What is the planet? We’re humans. Aren’t we supposed to be living on Earth?

    It seemed that now there were many things he didn’t understand. Being in an unfamiliar body was shocking enough, but the changed surroundings, full of things he didn’t recognize, were equally startling. 

    "But if you want to drink water like that, I’ll ask your father..." 

    "N… No, it’s okay. I was just curious. Isn’t it expensive?" 

    He quickly refused once he saw that determined demeanor. 

    "It’s expensive, yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get some for you to try." 

    "No, really, I was just unfamiliar with it, so I asked.”

    He made an excuse in a low voice. He felt so uneasy upon knowing he caused the people who were close to him, to trouble themselves for a nonsense matter like this.  

    Seeing his face, which drooped like a small creature, the young woman smiled out of affection. She raised her hand and gently stroked the light brown hair, which resembled that of her husband. 

    "When your father comes back, he’ll be so happy to see you appear normal like this.”

    She said as tears started to well up in her eyes out of joy. Originally, her eldest son had been born with abnormalities, something that no one, not even the doctors, could notice. 

    The reason was that during the earlier months of her pregnancy, she and her husband regularly visited doctors to monitor the baby’s health. No matter how many times they checked, every doctor said that the baby was perfectly healthy, which made her and her husband felt reassured.

    It wasn’t until the third years after the birth of their eldest son that she and her husband realized that her son was intellectually abnormal. He often seemed lost in his own world and had no interaction with others, and his physical health was frail, with frequent bouts of illness. 

    She and her husband were anxious. They took their little one to receive treatments from renowned doctors from other planets, but they ended up with no outcome. Every doctor shook their heads, saying they could not cure these conditions. 

    In the end, the couple had to reluctantly give up, deciding to raise their eldest son as best as they could, no matter what happened. She never imagined that, in the end, a miracle would occur and her son would unbelievably become normal!

    "Father?" 

    The more she saw how the doll-like face try to ask so many questions to understand, the more joyful she was, so much so that she wanted to cry. The corner of the young woman’s eyes burned, but she had to hold it back, not wanting to alarm her son any further. 

    "I just sent your father a message that you’ve recovered, but he’s away on business on AB1102 planet about your little sister, so it’ll take him about two hours to get here. But you don’t have to wait long.”

    "Okay."

    The little child decided to nod and go along with it for now, though his mind was filled with many questions. They were mixed, making him unable to choose what to ask first.

    What is AB planet? Is it the name of a new city? In fact, the strange water lumps and the planet name weren’t the only puzzling things. Everything in this room was alien to him—the general items, the furniture, the clothing of the woman who became his mother, including the bed and clothes he was wearing. 

    What world was he in? Or did he died and appeared in heaven? The boy felt an extreme urge in his heart as he had to bear with the curiosity, which increased in number each second, but he couldn’t ask anyone! 

    What exactly was going on...?