The clock read
10:08 p.m.
One minute left.
There were only
three people on the platform now.
Me.
The boy.
And the station attendant.
Only two lines
remained on the departure board.
SCHEDULED TO DIE: 0
INTRUDERS: 1
The deaths of the five
had already been canceled.
More precisely
from all the versions of “yesterday”
this station had repeated
over and over again
I had chosen
a future where they didn't die.
That was the truth
behind the retries.
This station
hadn't been turning back time.
It had been recreating
the future just before death
again and again.
And every time
one contradiction
remained at the end.
The boy.
A person who had died
one year ago
whom I had brought
to this place.
That was why
no matter how many times
we tried again
the world's calculations
never added up.
“There's still time.”
The station attendant spoke.
“Please return the intruder
to his original time of death.”
The boy looked at me.
“So that means...”
His voice trembled.
“I have to die
again, right?”
I didn't answer.
I couldn't.
The clock kept moving.
10:08:31 p.m.
The boy gave
a faint smile.
“It's okay.”
“What?”
“It's okay.”
The boy stared
across the tracks.
“I died
a year ago, right?”
“Then
I'm just going back.”
No.
It wasn't
that simple.
For an entire year
I had been running
from that day.
If only I'd been
a few seconds faster.
If only I'd noticed sooner.
If only
I had reached out
that day.
I had thought about it
thousands of times.
That was why
I accepted that ticket.
A station
where you could cancel
the death of one person.
If such a place
really existed
I thought
I would do anything.
And so
I summoned the station.
To save the boy.
But now
I understood.
What this station
had given me
wasn't a miracle.
It was a choice.
Erase someone's death
and someone else
had to take on
the contradiction.
That was all.
10:08:44 p.m.
I pulled
the old ticket
from my pocket.
On the back
in my own handwriting
were these words.
NEVER CHOOSE THE SIXTH PERSON.
At last
I understood what they meant.
The person who wrote them
wasn't yesterday's me.
It was
the first me.
The me from before
all the repetitions began.
On the first retry
I chose the boy.
I returned him
to his original death.
The station
returned to normal.
I made it home alive.
But the next morning
I saw the article
about the boy's accident
and remembered everything.
I couldn't bear it.
So I summoned
the station again.
The next time
was the same.
I chose the boy
made it home alive
regretted it
and summoned the station again.
Over and over.
That was why
I had left a message
for my future self.
NEVER CHOOSE THE SIXTH PERSON.
So that this time
I could make
a different choice.
10:08:53 p.m.
I held out the ticket
to the station attendant.
“I choose
the second option.”
The station attendant
didn't move.
“Please confirm.”
“The person who summoned
this station
will inherit
the intruder's death.”
“Yes.”
The boy grabbed my arm.
“Wait.”
“I never asked you
to do that.”
For the first time
I looked
straight at his face.
The face
I had failed to save
one year ago.
The face
I had seen
in my dreams
again and again.
But the boy
standing before me now
wasn't the boy
from my memories.
Even though
he had lost an entire year
he had thought
felt fear
and tried to stop me
right here.
He was alive.
“I'm not doing this
just for you.”
I spoke.
“I want
to end this.”
10:08:58 p.m.
The departure board
changed.
INTRUDERS: 0
SCHEDULED TO DIE: 1
Below that
my name appeared.
TIME OF DEATH:
10:09 P.M.
The boy screamed.
At that instant
the second hand
reached twelve.
But
nothing happened.
I was still standing.
The boy was still there.
The station
hadn't disappeared.
“What does this mean?”
I looked
at the station attendant.
But for the first time
he was smiling.
“The correction
has been completed.”
The departure board
changed once more.
SCHEDULED TO DIE: 0
SERVICE ENDED
I held my breath.
“I'm not going to die?”
The station attendant
shook his head.
“What you inherited
was not his death.”
“Then what was it?”
“The fact
that he died.”
I didn't understand.
From somewhere
in the distance
I heard a train.
A white train
pulled into the platform.
Its destination display
showed only one word.
LIVING WORLD
The doors opened.
The station attendant
looked at the boy.
“Please board.”
The boy looked at me.
“What about him?”
The station attendant
didn't answer.
I understood.
What I had inherited
was the world's record
that the boy had died.
From now on
in this world
the person who died
one year ago
wouldn't be the boy.
It would be me.
The boy could return.
But there was
no world
for me to return to.
My home.
My job.
My name.
The memories
of everyone who knew me.
All of it
would become something
that had never existed
in the first place.
“Go.”
I pushed the boy
gently toward the train.
“But...”
“It's the last train.”
Crying
the boy boarded.
Just before
the doors closed
he shouted.
“Your name!”
“What?”
“Tell me your name!”
I tried to answer.
But
I couldn't remember
my own name.
It was already gone.
The doors closed.
The train began to move.
The boy disappeared
into the darkness.
Only the station attendant
and I
remained on the platform.
“Is it over?”
I asked.
The station attendant
removed his cap
and bowed deeply.
“Yes.”
“You will never
summon this station
again.”
One by one
the lights went out.
The ticket gates disappeared.
The clock disappeared.
The tracks disappeared.
Finally
the station attendant
disappeared too.
I alone
remained
in the darkness.
I don't know
how much time passed.
Suddenly
I heard something
in the distance.
The sound
of a train braking.
I opened my eyes.
I was at
an unfamiliar station.
Morning sunlight
streamed onto the platform.
Crowds of people
walked past.
A boy
who looked about high-school age
ran past me.
For just a moment
our eyes met.
It was him.
But he didn't
know me.
Of course he didn't.
In this world
I had died
one year ago.
His friends called to him
and he ran off
laughing.
I watched him go.
Something made a sound
inside my pocket.
The old ticket.
Words were appearing
on it.
SERVICE ENDED
NUMBER OF RETRIES: 7
PEOPLE SAVED: 6
Then
one final sentence
appeared beneath them.
“YOU ARE ALSO INCLUDED
AMONG THOSE TO BE SAVED.”
I looked up.
Across the platform
a single-car train
was waiting.
There was no destination
displayed.
Only its doors
stood quietly open.
After hesitating
for a moment
I boarded the train.
The doors closed.
There was
no need
to try again anymore.
The train began to move.
Outside the window
the morning city
slowly faded into the distance.
I didn't know
where I was going.
But there was
one thing
I knew for certain.
At that station
where only those
destined to die tomorrow
get off
the last train
would never
stop again.