The play was swiftly moving past the early middle part.

Jin Hayoung watched the stage intently, her clasped hands turning pale.

“My name is Henry.”

The boy spoke. At that, the vampire who had been sitting motionless until now rose smoothly from his seat.

“Fine. I will make you dream.”

“…!”

“But only three times. That’s the condition.”

Despite the vampire’s dry words, the boy didn’t flinch but nodded. He even seemed excited.

“And after that…”

“Yes. You can eat me.”

A faint curiosity flickered across the vampire’s cold face. He was intrigued by the boy’s sincerity.

“Think of the dream you want now.”

“Just think about it?”

As the vampire nodded, the boy swallowed hard and closed his eyes. The vampire slowly approached the boy and placed a white hand over his head.

With a snap of his fingers, a crisp sound echoed through the theater, and suddenly, the lights went out.

‘Uh…!’

Jin Hayoung instinctively covered her mouth. The sudden darkness made it impossible to see the audience.

As she blinked and looked around, the backs of a man and a woman standing in the center of the stage became visible. They were holding a baby in a swaddle.

Hayoung recognized that the man and woman were Jung Suho and Han Yooil. In that brief moment, the two actors had donned wigs and clothes to appear as Henry’s parents.

They gently patted the baby’s back and chest, singing a soft lullaby.

‘Really… it’s amazing.’

Jin Hayoung couldn’t take her eyes off the stage. Even though she knew that the two actors were just performing as the vampire and Henry moments ago, they felt like completely different people.

The first dream Henry had asked for ended like that.

“Are you satisfied?”

“…Yes.”

Henry replied, the corners of his mouth lifting. His eyes were moist.

“It’s strange. I keep… feeling weaker. My legs and arms are trembling, I can’t move them…”

“It’s not a dream made for human amusement.”

It’s for hunting.

The vampire’s black pupils stared straight at Henry.

“And, draining the strength of the prey is the most basic of basics.”

At that, Henry clamped his mouth shut. The boy, who had been pondering seriously, spoke again.

“…I want to dream the next one too.”

“We’ll do it a bit later. It’s not possible right away.”

Only then did Henry nod with a weary face.

After that, Henry’s dreams continued.

With the vampire’s help, Henry started sifting through his memories, from the past he couldn’t properly remember to the most recent memories he had created.

In that process, Henry selected the dreams he most wanted to experience.

The vampire carefully examined Henry’s dreams and physically crafted each world.

The vampire became a teacher, the first friend Henry had opened his heart to, and the nameless hero who went back to the day his parents died to save them.

“…Thank you.”

“It’s okay. There’s no need to thank me, I’m doing this because I have time to spare.”

Two, three… and then five dreams passed. The vampire brought all of Henry’s dreams to the stage.

He no longer emphasized the three dreams. In fact, it had already been way more than three.

As time went on, Henry, growing weary, speaks with a tired voice.

“…It’s so, so cold.”

“Is that so?”

The vampire responds in the same dry tone as before, to which Henry replies with difficulty,

“No one will find us. Even if you consume me… no one will know.”

They had been trapped on the ground for a long time. Henry was already dying of hunger and cold.

In truth, Henry knew. The reason he had been able to hold on until now was because of the vampire’s dreams.

The vampire’s dreams, which had started as a means to kill him, were paradoxically keeping him alive.

Coughing, Henry asked in a trembling voice,

“Why… did you allow me to dream more than three times?”

“Just because.”

The vampire’s expression remains inscrutable. Emotions cleanly erased. Dark eyes that seem to feel nothing…

But then, at that moment, a very faint sound is heard. The sound of something dragging, and then breaking. It’s distant but steadily approaching.

“…Huh?”

Henry slightly lifts his body,

“I can hear… a sound.”

Henry frowns, focusing on the sound.

“…!”

His eyes widen,

“This sound is…”

It’s the sound of an excavator approaching.

Despite Henry’s words, the vampire doesn’t respond. He’s been hearing that sound for a very long time.

“Yeah. It’s people.”

“Then…”

The vampire’s cold eyes turn toward the ceiling. He speaks calmly,

“It means you won’t die.”

“Huh?”

Henry blinks, his mind in turmoil trying to understand the vampire’s words.

“Can you… withstand sunlight?”

“No.”

“Then we must flee immediately!”

“…Well.”

Henry, startled, gets up and pushes the vampire’s cold body.

“Hurry, we have to run. What if you die?”

A faint smile appears on the vampire’s face. Henry looks at him with surprised eyes. It was the first ‘expression’ he had ever seen.

A smile, untainted by any impurity, genuinely emerging.

Ignoring the surprised boy’s expression, the vampire continues,

“…This doesn’t seem like a bad ending.”

The vampire murmurs. As Henry gazes blankly at his face, their bodies are enveloped in white light.

The music intensifies.

The delicate sounds of an oboe and violin, tenderly accompanied by the cello, gradually swell.

With the music, the faces of the two on the stage glow white…

…and fade to black.

“…!”

Everyone watching the stage held their breath.

In the silent theater where not even a small cough could be heard,

at that moment when everyone was just looking at the darkened stage, a lonely yet distant music started to flow.

Slowly, the lights began to brighten.

On the stage that was revealed once more, only the boy was lying down.

The boy’s face shimmered with tears. It was a mysterious expression, as if he had lost everything, or perhaps he was dreaming a happy dream.

“Ah…”

Jin Hayoung opened her mouth, gazing at Henry on the stage.

It was a feeling she had never experienced before.

Applause resounded through the theater.

Jin Hayoung, forgetting even to clap, kept her gaze on the stage. She sat quietly until the actors returned to the stage for the curtain call.

Vampire and Henry.

The actors Han Yooil and Jung Suho who had portrayed them appeared on the stage.

Jin Hayoung looked at Han Yooil’s face for a long time.

The person standing on the stage under the lights was no longer her nephew.

He was an actor.

And a very talented one at that.

It was only after the lights came on that Hayoung realized she had been crying.

*

“…”

“Aunt.”

“…”

“…Aunt?”

“Huh, what?!”

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“…Me? No, no.”

After the show, Yooil met with Jin Hayoung separately. They were going home together.

Han Yooil was driving home in place of Jin Hayoung. She was unusually quieter than usual.

It was only when they were nearing their neighborhood that Jin Hayoung, who had been quietly listening to classical music, spoke.

“…Yooil.”

“Yes?”

“When did you want to become an actor?”

It was an unexpected question. Yooil paused for a moment, lost in thought.

“…I’m not sure.”

“Is that so?”

“It was originally… a dream I hadn’t even thought about.”

Recalling the beginning is always difficult. Jin Hayoung gently smiled and nodded.

“That’s right. You always said that stability was the best.”

“…”

“That’s why you were going to prepare for the civil service exam.”

“…Yes.”

Jin Hayoung knew. Just a few months ago, Yooil was the kid looking into study rooms for preparing for the civil servant exam.

Jin Hayoung silently gazed at Yooil’s profile and then spoke.

“The civil service exam preparation, the preference for stability… they weren’t really what you wanted, were they?”

“…That’s not true.”

Regular working hours and a steady monthly salary. A safe job, far from uncertainty.

Yooil hadn’t completely escaped the ‘temptation of stability’ yet.

However, no matter how stable the job, it couldn’t be more enjoyable than standing on a stage or in front of a camera to act.

Though he had initially dived into acting due to the coercion of a mad AI nanorobot, his current life didn’t feel particularly alien to him.

【Of course, Mr. Yooil. Acting is your true calling, Han Yooil.】

‘…’

…He almost got lost in his thoughts.

Snapping back to reality upon Brion’s words, Han Yooil focused on driving, when Jin Hayoung spoke,

“After watching the play, it reminded me of the old days.”

Jin Hayoung started with a warm smile,

“Yooil, you might not remember. When you were little, you used to mimic the lines from the dramas we watched.”

“Eh? I did?”

“Yes. I bet there’s a video of it somewhere.”

She continued playfully,

“Whether it was an affair or a murderer’s role, you’d mimic anything that came your way… After that, we couldn’t watch dramas in front of you anymore… You were so cute back then. A little kid, barely able to pronounce words, mumbling the lines with that tiny mouth.”

“…”

This was a story Yooil had never heard before.

“…Maybe you were always different… I was too numb to notice. I wonder if I should’ve guided you to this path earlier. And about entering Wolmyung University…”

Jin Hayoung’s voice trailed off as she gazed into the distance.

Yooil shook his head,

“No. I wanted to come to Wolmyung University. It’s a good school.”

“And it’s a national university with affordable tuition.”

Yooil, unable to completely refute her statement, fixed his gaze on the road.

“…Yooil. You are a really good kid. And a good actor too.”

“…”

“Thank you. For growing up so well.”

Jin Hayoung’s voice slightly quivered as she spoke her last words. Han Yooil swallowed instead of replying.

He always found this kind of atmosphere hard to adjust to. Just as Han Yooil was about to cough awkwardly and avert his gaze,

Brion’s voice echoed in his head.

【Drive safely, Mr. Yooil. Sit up straight and keep your eyes on the road.】

He let out a snicker and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

‘Thank you.’

Before long, their house came into view.

* * *

At the same time Han Yooil and Jin Hayoung were heading home,

a man was driving on the road, having also just come from the same play.

The man, with a large build and strong facial features, furrowed his brow in a serious expression.

After a long deliberation, he pulled over and made a call to someone.

It was a brief and straightforward conversation, but enough to potentially change Han Yooil’s future.