4. Abnormally normal (1)

It's been five months since Kang Minwoo dissapeared.

Dongshik, a close friend of his, kept holding on that Minwoo was out there, alive but steuggling. He was there when Minsoo's parents begged the police, called for the Mayor's attention.

Nobody knew what happened, but Minwoo suddenly dissapeared without any traces about what happened. The closest thing they could think of was that Minwoo was a runaway.

An obvious fucking tardy lie.

Dongshik knew Minwoo better than those half-baked officers. He knew Minwoo enough to know that whatever happened back then was something Minwoo had no idea about.

It was like a case of abduction.

But who would believe a 17-year-old highschooler like him?

So all he could do was watch as Minwoo's parents lost the hope in their eyes day by day, and soon left this place with the thought of their son dead forever without even finding a body.

Dongshik could only pass by the playground everyday.

It was another day, Dongshik gazed at the lonely swing remembering some memories from childhood. 

"I wish Minwoo could see this right now. ."

"Let me see what?"

"That. . Eh?"

Dongshik spun his head in surprise and saw–

"K-Kang Minwoo?!"

He yelled in shock and pointed at the guy who was standing not so far away from him.

"Yeah?" Minwoo cocked his head to the side, looking at Dongshik with a questioning glace.

"Y-you. . You came back! It's been 5 months! What the fuck?!" Dongshik could not help but spit out profanities from the exessive shock he just recieved.

'So it's been 5 months. .'

Desforra– or should he go back to being called Minwoo– found this situation not really surprising.

Even on Earth, there is a natural order. When Minwoo sucessfully went back in time before he became a Demon King, he had to be placed in a specific time just after he dissapeared so that everything would flow and smooth as possible.

And now. .

"Yeah I'm back." Minwoo shrugged so casually as if he didn't just witness his friend almost passing out from shock. "It's been what, just how many months? What did I miss?"

Dongshik gaped with his mouth open at Minwoo's indifferent expression.

['Why did Minwoo. . Is it really okay for him to be chill like this?']

Minwoo could heard Dongahik's thoughts and he smiled. 

"Tell me everything that happened so far, okay?"

***

Minwoo looked around the deserted house. It had been so long since he'd last seen his old home.

In fact, while it may have been 5 months since he was gone here on earth, he had stayed in another world for around 50,000 years. In a way, he was older than Dongshik now. Way older.

He looked at the dust attached in the cabinets. His fingers traced the walls where there were marks left from the frames he used to see.

"When you disappeared, your parents looked for you in the whole city."

Donshik had finally stopped his unstable expression and told Minwoo about everything that had happened.

"Well, after a while the police didn't have signs of where you were, so they held off the investigation until it was left unattended."

Minwoo nodded to show he understood and didn't urge Dongshik to tell more. He could grasp what had happened.

"So, your parents moved out of here and back into their relative's area. The last I saw them was 3 months ago…"

Minwoo hummed and looked beyond. He recalled the time when he thought of the possibilities that his parents would have forgotten him. Back then, he was adamant in going back but because of the natural order, he was forced to stay for of thousands of years.

But now he was back.

Dongshik sipped on his iced coffee, watching Minwoo be silent beside him as if thinking about what happened.

He could believe that his friend was back, the shock was still there. But what made him more surprised was that Minwoo seemed to accept everything so calmly.

'His actions looks so abnormal. . no matter how I try to reason with it. .'

Dongshik sipped some more.

'Kang Minwoo. . what happened when you dissapeared?'

.

.

"Are you sure you'll be fine? Sorry I can't contact your parents right now. . They must've changed their numbers. ."

"It's alright." Minwo waved away Dongshik's worry. Instead, he looked into Dongshik's eyes and muttered a small incantation.

Bzzt–

There was a small red zap pass by Dongshik's eyes until it seemed to get clouded by a dark haze.

"You know me, right?" Minwoo smiled yet his eyes were blank as he watched Dongshik nod without reason.

"My name is Choi Minwoo, I'm an orphan and we became bestfriends when we went into highschool. I just got back and now I'm transferring to your school, okay?"

"Yes. .Uh huh. ."

A few more seconds, Minwoo nodded and snapped Dongshik out of his trance.

"U-ugh. . ."

Dongshik felt a soothing sensation enter his mind, like he was being massaged. He looked towards Choi Minwoo who was casually buying an ice cream.

Unlike before, the Minwoo in front of Dongshik donned a casual attire with his red dyed hair. Dongshik couldn't put a word about how Minwoo looked right now, he also couldn't find a reasonable explenation.

"Should we go back?" Minwoo nudge his chin to the side and Dongshik nodded.

Minwoo and Dongshik walked towards Dongshik's dorm. The people that they passed by seem to find Minwoo inside the campus as a normal student.

'I can't believe, even when I self-sealed my powers I could still do something like this.'

The moment Minwoo found Dongshik, he already had the perfect alibi. 

Because now that he had nothing, he decided to start from scratch. Changing his appearance, changing his name, and even altering others' memory of him.

And now this shameless Ex-Demon King dared to freeload off on Dongshik's dorm.

"Ah, but tomorrow is going to be class so we should probably sleep." Dongshik felt tired for some reason, like a part of his emotions went chaotic then suddenly dropped down. It made him sleepy.

Minwoo looked at Dongshik and said, "You can sleep first, I need to do something."

"Okay. Good night."

Turning the lights off, Minwoo walked out of the room and then took a turn. He closed his eyes and used aura to familiarize himself from this building. Then, he went outside.

The school was bigger than what he thought. Dongshik came from a well-off family so it wasn't surprising, but this level of structure reminded him of Terra.

He went outside the school, bypassing all cameras and security guards. With light steps, he went towards a familiar place.

"Just as I thought. ."

Minwoo kneeled down and put his palm on the ground. There was a familiar energy lingering around where he once dissapeared and reappeared. He pursed his lips and tried to suck out the remaining energy.

For a moment, his eyes glowed but then dissapeared just as quickly. He dusted his pants off and deduced that there were no more problems.

As he walked away, there was a slight spark of white light.

If Minwoo could've seen this, he should know better than to yell out this familiar energy.

After that small flicker of light, an unknown black substance fell out of a ripped space. That black thing seemed to be alive as it crawled away without a thought.

That night, at least 10 similair cases of black substances appearing out of nowhere happened without any notice.