Your Commander-in-Chief – Chapter 1

As soon as I got out of bed, I didn’t feel the shoulder pain that always bothered me.

I didn’t have time to wonder why. I couldn’t be late…

With that thought in mind, I rubbed my sleepy eyes and crawled out of bed.

Through my blurred vision, I saw a small door. I shuffled over to it.

But soon enough, I felt something odd. It was high. The doorknob that usually reached my waist was now positioned much higher.

My hand, carefully reaching for the doorknob, felt strange.

It would be accurate to say it felt unfamiliar. My own hand seemed a bit bigger and rougher. But this hand was incredibly small and delicate.

The pale skin shimmered even in the darkened room.

‘Am I dreaming?’

I chuckled at the thought, which seemed impossible but the sensation I felt through my hand insisted otherwise.

The idea of suddenly regressing seemed like something straight out of a web novel.

Had I not logged off the game I played last night?

Yet, I saw no flashy interface of a game anywhere in sight.

Creak…

I applied some pressure and the door opened.

The dark corridor was also unfamiliar, though it felt strangely familiar.

Reacting instinctively to the familiarity of the house’s layout, I walked out.

Tap, tap, tap…

The sound of my footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, feeling quite odd.

As I walked, I pondered. My body felt light, significantly lighter than the one I used to have.

And where I ended up was in front of the sink in the bathroom.

As I turned on the light, the reflection of a small girl appeared in the mirror.

Her long black hair neatly framed her face, imbuing her with a calm demeanor.

The girl in the mirror’s large eyes reflected her own body.

As the corner of the girl’s mouth whimsically curled upwards, the atmosphere shifted instantly.

“This is… me?”

The words that slipped from her mouth expressed my astonishment perfectly.

Is this me? Really?

It was at that moment.

I heard light footsteps approaching from behind, followed by a boy entering.

He looked quite surprised at seeing my appearance and raised the corners of his mouth in a grin.

“What are you doing?”

The boy’s face was familiar. I was so stunned by his presence that I could only murmur.

After a moment of hesitation, I thought to myself: why was my reflection standing over there?

The boy was my younger self.

So, I was looking at myself.

The mirror was clearly behind me, reflecting the small girl standing there.

“Aren’t you going to get ready?”

“Get ready…?”

“You need to go to school.”

The boy, Harang, said that.

His voice was familiar; it was naturally my voice from my younger days.

I slowly lifted my hand. It was small and delicate.

“Huh, I can’t believe this.”

“What? Did you eat something weird?”

“Come here, come here.”

“Ah, no… Hey. You…”

I approached him, reaching out to touch his face.

The smooth skin, free of wrinkles, wasn’t surprising.

But the undeniable sensation conveyed through my fingertips pulled me back to reality.

Still, a part of my mind considered this a dream rather than reality.

Smack!

Harang smacked my small hand away.

It seemed to carry a surprising amount of strength.

As I blinked in surprise, Harang’s confused gaze met mine before he turned and bolted away.

“Mom!!! Hayun is acting strange!!!”

Hayun.

Hayun?

I caressed my reddened hand as thoughts raced through my mind.

Hayun? Me?

Who’s Hayun?

*

Breakfast time arrived.

In the awkward position I was in, my mother from my younger days gently pushed me into a chair.

Everything felt odd.

I was definitely back in the past. But in the body of another person.

Hayun, a family member who didn’t exist in my memory.

“Mother.”

The moment I called her that, both of their eyes turned towards me.

One belonged to my mother, and the other was Harang’s gaze.

Both looked at me as if they had seen something they shouldn’t have.

“Mom… I told you, she’s weird.”

“Hayun, are you feeling okay? Should we go to the hospital?”

“No, I’m not sick.”

I shook my head in response. There was no pain.

Yet if I had to go to a hospital, it would probably be a psychiatric one.

A small question formed in my mind.

“Mother, why was Hayun, or Seohayun, born?”

I tossed out my small query. To me, it felt like a natural question.

Seohayun, my sister who doesn’t exist in my memory. I had entered her body.

I didn’t have the confidence to explain this situation.

That’s why I asked why she was born.

Thunk-

As soon as I finished my question, Harang dropped his chopsticks.

With shaking hands, he fidgeted with his lips and shouted to his mother.

“She’s definitely sick!”

“Hayun, look at me. Where does it hurt? Hmm? What’s wrong?”

A gentle and warm touch brushed against my cheek.

That familiar feeling that existed only in memory belonged to my mother.

As the sensations I thought I had forgotten came rushing back, my vision blurred.

“Hayun? Hayun?”

Hot tears rolled down my cheeks.

I remembered my mother’s last moments. I thought I would never see her again.

But here she was, vividly alive at this moment.

She cradled me while brushing my cheek.

A familiar aroma engulfed me.

It was my mother’s scent.

Tears streamed down endlessly. The tears that wouldn’t stop were wiped away by my mother’s touch.

“Shall we not go to school today?”

After pouring out silent tears in my mother’s embrace for a while, she asked me while looking straight at my face.

School. Should I go?

If this body’s—Hayun’s—destination was school, then I should go.

But right now, I wanted to stay just a little longer with my mother.

I nodded, hugging her tightly.

Cuddled in her warmth, I looked over at Harang.

He was watching me with an uncomfortable expression.

His expression was familiar. Since he was the younger me, I could read his feelings clearly.

Harang didn’t want to go to school. He was envious of me.

But there was nothing that could be done.

He was still a boy, but he was Harang. A boy who was deep in thought since childhood.

Harang stood up and grabbed his bag.

“I’ll be back.”

“Be careful, and don’t fight with your friends.”

My mother never stopped reminding him to do well in his studies.

That was my mother.

Harang wrinkled his brow and let out a sigh, shaking off his feelings.

“Yeah.”

Even after Harang left the house, I remained in my mother’s embrace for a long time.

I feared that the moment I let go, this dream would shatter.

My mother gently patted my back.

“Mom.”

“Are you not going to call me Mother anymore?”

“Do you prefer being called ‘Mother’?”

Mother laughed at my question.

She shook her head.

“Just call me Mom. If you call me ‘Mother’, it makes me feel old.”

I nodded.

Regardless of the address, the fact that she was my mother remained unchanged.

Even if I had become a small girl, from a biological perspective, this woman was still my mother.

My heart felt calm.

I acted younger than my age, my face blushing and ears burning.

“Please put me down.”

I said with a calm voice.

But Mom didn’t let me go.

“Shall we stay like this a bit longer?”

I thought it was not bad.

I nodded.

Carrying the small girl in her arms, Mom moved from the dining table to the living room sofa.

Moving a small girl was not laborious for her at all.

Sitting on the living room sofa with Mom, we watched television.

As I blankly stared at the screen, countless pieces of information flashed by.

Forgotten memories from the past began to resurface one after another.

While Mom fiddled with the remote, she noticed my lack of interest and switched it to the news.

Time flowed slowly, and Mom unconsciously spoke up.

“The world is changing so fast.”

It wasn’t a statement expecting a reply.

In my memories, Mom sometimes talked to herself while watching television, too.

My gaze remained fixed on the news screen, refusing to waver.

Naturally, the quality of the television seemed off.

“Um, Mom…?”

“Hmm?”

“What’s the date today?”

Mom pulled out her smartphone at my question.

It had a familiar shape, making it feel surreal.

In a normal timeframe, this object shouldn’t be there.

I reached out and grabbed Mom’s smartphone.

It was quite rude of me, but Mom didn’t say anything.

I touched the screen and checked the phone’s information.

The date was next.

Star 47

It was the 47th series of the Star smartphone.

Then I checked the date.

June 7, 2020.

“Did you check everything?”

“Ah.”

As I was checking the date, Mom took the smartphone back.

In 2020, the 47th version of the Star series existed.

In my memory, the second smartphone of the Star series came out in early 2020.

There was no way I could forget.

On that day, the boy named Harang had insisted to my mother to buy the second smartphone of the Star series.

I still vividly remembered showing it off to my friends.

“I’ll just be a moment in my room…”

I slightly pulled away from her warm embrace.

Though her touch lingered, I needed to confirm something.

“Am I okay now?”

She didn’t respond. No, she couldn’t.

I wasn’t okay yet.

I hurriedly left the living room and entered the corridor.

The long corridor was filled with chill.

I walked quickly, stopping in front of a familiar room.

Harang’s room.

Not mine now. Opening the door naturally, the distinct scent of a teenage boy flooded my senses.

It felt quite repulsive.

I quickly closed the door. I could check what I needed to from Hayun’s room as well.

Turning around, I headed to Hayun’s room.

It was the room where this body first woke up.

As I stepped in, my body relaxed as if it was accustomed to this room.

My gaze was drawn to the desk located in the room’s corner.

The large computer wasn’t that important.

But next to it, a gigantic capsule caught my eye.

Things that shouldn’t exist were present.

And so I reached a conclusion.

This place wasn’t the world I used to live in.

It was a chaotic world where the timeline was tangled.