“The stye looks hardened. We may need to lance it. You’re wearing contact lenses right now, correct?”

  “No. I have albinism, so—”

  “Oh, really? Your eye color is beautiful. Though usually with low melanin, the hair is white too. Yours doesn’t seem that light?”

  “It is, originally. I dyed it.”

  As Do-ye answered and shifted her head, her hair swayed softly. Now that the doctor noticed, it was unusually dark—almost too dark. The black hair stood in sharp contrast to her pale skin and light eyes.

  —

  The eye that had been treated throbbed relentlessly. Concentrating in class was impossible. She spent the entire time bent forward, doing nothing but enduring the pulsing pain. Blood came from one side, tears from the other.

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  Even after the academy class ended, she stayed folded over the desk for a long while. The bandage the clinic had wrapped around her eye had soaked through, stained red. When were her parents coming? She placed her phone on the desk and waited for it to ring.

  Why would Mom tell her to go to the academy when it hurt this much?

  She was supposed to go to the World Cup Stadium after class to watch the national team’s friendly match.

  As if things weren’t bad enough, it was rush hour. Traffic crawled, especially toward Mapo. The match had already started. They had planned to watch it live, yet the radio now carried the first half commentary—an oddly cruel irony.

  “It’s fine. I’m hurting anyway. I wouldn’t be able to watch it properly. Let’s just go home.”

  Pain and irritation blended together. She squeezed her eyes shut and furrowed her brow even more.

  “Ah—”

  A sharp pain shot through her head, as if something had pierced straight through it. At the same time, something appeared in her mind.

  An image.

  But what was it?