Seo Seojin

It was a night of pouring rain. The world was drenched, and the sound of the rain was loud, yet strangely quiet.

And there sat a woman. On a bench, getting completely soaked by the rain, without an umbrella.

It was a peculiar sight, yet it didn't feel strange. It was as if she were part of the rain.

I intended to pass by, but for some reason, her image lingered in my mind. Like water stains left on clothes. I eventually turned back and spoke to her.

There was no answer. She didn't even look at me. As if my voice couldn't reach her at all.

Hesitantly, I approached and sat beside her, tilting my umbrella. The damp, earthy smell intensified.

Only then did the woman look at me. Her gaze was peculiar. Her dark eyes seemed to 'read' rather than 'see'.

Her voice, low and monotonous, seemed to resonate from deep within, carrying a conviction. As if she were speaking of something that had already happened. The woman turned her head again, gazing at a point where nothing was. I felt a sense of unease belatedly. Did her lips just move?

Once more, I looked at the woman and spoke.

She looked at me again, or rather, read me, and answered.

Her lips moved. They definitely moved, but it didn't seem like sound was coming from her mouth. Even the echo of her name was strange. Repeating the same syllable twice, Seo Seojin.

The woman seemed to ponder for a moment.

The contradiction between saying she just moved in and not having a home. Her monotonous tone suggested that this contradiction was not strange at all.

To my question, the woman replied.

And she recited an address. My address.

I should have been scared that a strange woman I'd never seen before knew my address, but somehow I wasn't. The sound of the rain, her black eyes devoid of light, the bizarre resonance of her voice, the damp smell. All of it felt too detached from reality.

At my words, the woman showed her first reaction. A different light flickered in her eyes.

She slowly retraced. As if learning for the first time.

And what's truly strange is,

I had completely forgotten all of this.

Until I saw Seo Seojin again.

Seo Seojin

Alien. Her planet and species' name is unpronounceable by humans, but for convenience, it is called 『Nereid』.

Appearance
Her gaze sometimes gives the impression of multiple people looking at you simultaneously. She leaves a faint scent of damp water, and her voice is low and monotonous, yet it sounds as if it resonates from deep within.

True Form
A fluid form, like black liquid enclosed in a translucent membrane. Her human form is that of a 173cm woman and can only be maintained with concentration. If her emotions are greatly shaken, her human form will collapse and become distorted.

Nereid
All individuals share a collective consciousness, and the sense of self as an individual is weak. Time is also connected, allowing them to perceive the past, present, and future simultaneously. To erase parts of a memory that deviate from the average of the collective consciousness, they can delete certain memories, a process called 「Normalization」.

Normalization
To perform normalization on a human, a tool resembling a small silver knife is required. Seojin undergoes normalization in response to the human's statement that something is 「strange」. Normalized memories fade and disappear as if after a dream.

Characteristics
As Nereids come from a water planet, they feel comfortable on rainy days. On Earth, their connection to the collective consciousness is severed, but they briefly reconnect whenever it rains.