"This is the time when this station dies." I couldn't immediately understand what the station attendant meant. "The station dies?" "What does that mean?" The attendant was staring at the admission ticket in my hand. "Throw that ticket away." "Answer me first." "What happens at 10:09 p.m.?" The attendant remained silent. Instead, the boy spoke. "I know that time." Everyone looked at him. "From where?" "From a dream." "A dream?" The boy shook his head. "Maybe it wasn't a dream." "I think I'm remembering it." The boy touched my admission ticket. At that moment, a sharp pain shot through my head. The scenery changed. Daytime. A station packed with people. I was standing in front of the ticket gates. In front of me was a boy in a school uniform. It was the same boy who was here now. But he looked a little younger. "Hold on to this." My past self handed the boy a ticket. An admission ticket. The same kind I was holding now. The boy asked, "Will this save me?" My past self didn't answer. The vision cut out. I was back on the platform. "What was that...?" The boy had gone pale too. "I saw it too." "When was that memory from?" The boy thought for a moment. "One year ago." One year ago. The instant I heard those words, another memory flooded into my mind. A rainy day. An ambulance. People gathered outside the station. A student's school bag lying beside the tracks. And a woman crying. "Give him back!" The woman was screaming at me. "Give me back my son!" I couldn't say anything. At my feet was the boy's phone. A breaking news alert was displayed on the screen. "Middle school boy dies inside train station." My breath stopped. I looked at the boy in front of me. "You..." The boy quietly nodded. "I died a year ago." The old man stepped backward. The woman covered her mouth. The man in the suit was speechless. "Then you're..." "Are you a ghost?" The boy didn't answer. More memories returned to me. One year ago. I had known this boy. I was a station attendant. Not at this terminal station. At an ordinary station. I worked there. That day, the boy was on the platform. He was wearing earphones, looking at his phone as he walked. Ahead of him was the yellow line. I noticed. "Watch out!" I ran. But I was too late. The boy's body disappeared from the platform. A train horn. Screams. And then— I closed my eyes. "It was my fault." The boy shook his head. "No, it wasn't." "Yes, it was." "I was the station attendant." As I said the words, even more memories returned. After the accident, I quit my job. Every night, I had the same dream. The moment the boy fell. If only I'd been one second faster. If only I'd been one step closer. If only I could turn back time. If only there were a station where scheduled deaths could be canceled. Those were the only things I could think about. One night, an unfamiliar envelope arrived. Inside was a single ticket. "TERMINAL STATION" On the back, it said: "You may cancel the scheduled death of one person." I gripped the ticket tightly. And I wished. "Please save that boy." The next memory. I was standing in a station at night. An empty platform. In front of me stood that boy. The boy who was supposed to be dead. Crying, I handed him an admission ticket. "This time, I'll save you." The memory cut out. I collapsed to the ground. "I... brought you here." The boy said nothing. "That's why you were the intruder." He wasn't originally scheduled to die. Because he had already died a year ago. I had used this station's system to try to bring a dead person back. That's why the number of people was wrong. That's why the station kept retrying. I looked at the station attendant. "That's what happened, isn't it?" The attendant slowly nodded. "This station handles the scheduled deaths of people who are about to die." "It is not a place for bringing back those who have already died." I looked at the boy. "Then what happens to him?" The attendant didn't answer. "Does it have something to do with the station dying at 10:09 p.m.?" A long silence. Eventually, the attendant spoke. "This station is attempting to correct a contradiction." "The contradiction of a dead person being alive." "What happens if it can't?" "The station itself will be erased." A cold wind blew across the platform. "If the station disappears, what happens to us?" the old man asked. The attendant answered calmly. "Every person who exists here will disappear." No one moved. In other words, if we didn't correct the contradiction by 10:09 p.m., we would all disappear. I looked at the boy. I already knew the answer. We had to return the boy to his original death. To the moment a year ago when I had failed to save him. The boy seemed to realize the same thing. "If I disappear, will everyone else be saved?" "I won't let that happen." I answered without thinking. The boy smiled faintly. "Did you say that a year ago too?" My chest hurt. Just then, the departure board changed. "PLEASE SELECT A CORRECTION METHOD." Two options appeared. "RETURN THE INTRUDER TO THEIR ORIGINAL TIME OF DEATH." And then there was another option. I read it and stopped breathing. "THE PERSON WHO SUMMONED THE STATION WILL ASSUME THE INTRUDER'S DEATH." The boy looked at me. At last, I understood. Why yesterday's version of me had tried to kill the boy. Why I had bought time even if it meant letting all five of them die. I hadn't been trying to kill the boy. I had been trying to stop him from dying in my place. And from the very beginning, I had never had a time of death. Of course I hadn't. Because I hadn't chosen yet. The departure board began flashing violently. Then, for the first time, a time appeared beside my name. "22:09" The boy spoke in a trembling voice. "No." "If you choose that, you'll die." I stared at the display. New words appeared beneath it. "FINAL CHOICE: 1 REMAINING"