Chapter 25: The Weight of Secrets

Unlike the depth of its lingering resentment, the vengeful spirit ascended to heaven with surprising ease after simply showing us a family photo and making a few remarks about its parents.

It had spent over twenty years wandering the playground, watching its father. Back then, it had no thought of ascending—it just roamed in circles. Then, swayed by the words of a stranger, it ascended in an instant. That must be why it had cursed so relentlessly, until its mouth went dry.

But now, I was relieved that the vengeful spirit’s boss fight was easy. As things stood, with no choices appearing, there was nothing more comforting than this.

It was the same with the hungry ghost. It seemed I wouldn’t have to put much effort into clearing boss battles, which put my mind at ease.

“Documents… Hmm.”

This was the last clue to find here. The documents that the chairman had left behind, which his daughter had come to retrieve.

I scanned the dark room, and soon spotted a small safe hidden under the desk. But when I tried to lift it onto the desk, it was surprisingly heavy and not easy to manage.

“Ugh…!”

“I’ll do it.”

Seo Yi-han, seeing me struggle, came over and lifted it effortlessly, which bruised my pride again.

Thud.

As Seo Yi-han placed the safe on the desk, a heavy metallic sound echoed. We examined its surface with our phone lights. The dial was a numeric rotary button, common in movies.

“Do you know the password?”

“Obviously.”

Why would the diary bother to record the daughter’s birthday? Failing to notice such an obvious clue and fumbling for the password would be an insult to the game.

I turned the dial without hesitation.

0, 8, 2, 9. Each time the dial pointed to a number and clicked back into place, a soft click sounded. Soon, with a *clunk*, the lock released and the safe door slid open.

Inside, there was no money or valuables—just a few file folders sitting alone. As I took them all out and opened them, Seo Yi-han looked them over carefully.

After reading for a few minutes, he summarized the contents for us in an easy-to-understand way.

“It’s a record of corruption.”

“What?”

“From double bookkeeping to… quite a lot.”

At that, we all swarmed toward Seo Yi-han—or rather, the documents he was holding—like ants to a crumb of cookie.

“This is the details of the foundation’s initial endowment…”

“Explain it so we can understand!”

Yoon Soo-ah shouted, speaking for all of us. Seo Yi-han let out a small groan, then slowly continued his explanation.

Seo Yi-han went through the documents page by page, but… what nonsense. Not just me, but everyone except Seo Yi-han had question marks written all over their faces.

In the game, it had simply said ‘important documents related to school administration,’ so I figured that was it. But hearing Seo Yi-han, I couldn’t understand it, but they seemed extremely important and damning.

Why would he leave such important documents in an abandoned building along with his diary? Just because they were in a safe? And more than that, how does he know all this? Do chaebol heirs receive special training for this kind of thing?

“Even Han Bo-bae…?”

But Han Bo-bae, who came from a similar background, had the same bewildered look as me. In contrast, Seo Yi-han, flipping through the documents with practiced ease, looked more like a rookie lawyer than a high school student.

Everyone’s eyes were wide, clearly not understanding a thing, nodding and adding ‘Ohh’ and ‘Ahh’ as filler. Seo Yi-han sighed. Then he summarized cleanly.

“The management was dirty, and it seems they used underhanded methods to acquire the necessary assets during the foundation’s establishment. It even went to court.”

“Underhanded methods?”

“Stealing from others, among other things.”

Ah, now I understood. So in the process of establishing the private school foundation, the chairman had committed a crime. Probably stealing someone’s land or something.

He should have explained it that simply from the start. Why use legal jargon and give us headaches?

Seo Yi-han was the weird one—knowing things even I, a college student, didn’t know, and being able to explain them in detail. I’m definitely not stupid. I rationalized like that and blamed the innocent Seo Yi-han.

“So our school is totally corrupt, right?”

Yoon Soo-ah said, having digested his explanation in her own way.

I thought Seo Yi-han might be discouraged by that reaction after going through the trouble of explaining, but he smiled and agreed, looking unbothered.

I’d noticed before, but Seo Yi-han and Yoon Soo-ah seemed quite close. Not as close as Yoon Soo-ah and Han Bo-bae, but there was a subtle camaraderie between them.

Kim Ji-ho and Han Bo-bae were classmates with Seo Yi-han, but they maintained a certain boundary. They treated him like ‘a reliable class president you can count on,’ but Yoon Soo-ah was different.

Like when she ran over and slapped his back for acting alone. And Seo Yi-han never showed offense at her frank words and actions; he always accepted them.

Even now,

“Hey, you should’ve just explained it easily from the start. Are you showing off how smart you are?”

“No way. I thought everyone would know this much. Especially you, Soo-ah—your father is a former prosecutor and your mother is a practicing lawyer…”

Teasing each other fondly and casually mentioning each other’s parents’ professions—they were clearly close.

After all, they’d been attending the same school since elementary. And Yoon Soo-ah had a friendly personality.

Maybe the ‘Representative Yoon’ mentioned in my dream was Yoon Soo-ah’s father. This thought made my heart sink—were their families connected?

‘Huh?’

I found it strange even to myself, so I rubbed my chest for no reason. So what if their families were close? Was my heart supposed to sink over that?

With an awkward expression, I curled my hand into a fist and gently pressed my midsection. Then Han Bo-bae next to me spoke.

“Jae-yoon, are you feeling sick?”

“…No. Just a little.”

I couldn’t say that thinking about Seo Yi-han and Yoon Soo-ah’s close family ties made me feel queasy like indigestion, so I just mumbled.

But Han Bo-bae, hearing my answer, covered my hand with her small one.

“What…”

“They say if you have indigestion, pressing the webbing between your thumb and index finger helps it go down.”

I knew that fact, but with Han Bo-bae’s strength, no matter how much she pressed the acupoint, it didn’t seem like the indigestion would go away.

Still, Han Bo-bae pressed firmly between my fingers. The crown of her head, with its little cowlick, moved busily.

It was kind, but… first off, I wasn’t really sick, and her hand lacked strength, so instead of stimulating the acupoint, it just felt ticklish.

Just as I was about to pull my hand away politely.

“Jae-yoon, are you sick?”

Seo Yi-han, who had somehow stopped bickering with Yoon Soo-ah and approached, smiled brightly and smoothly pulled my hand away as naturally as flowing water, as if it were his own.

He said to Han Bo-bae, ‘You must be tired, take a rest,’ very kindly, then pressed firmly between my fingers.

Without warning, he pressed the acupoint with terrifying grip strength, making me swear under my breath and shake. But no matter how much I writhed in pain, Seo Yi-han didn’t let go.

“You need this much pressure to relieve indigestion.”

“Hey, hey! I’m not sick! It hurts!”

“If it hurts when pressed, it means you have indigestion, Jae-yoon.”

Damn it, press anything on the body with that force—see if it hurts or not! Why is this guy acting like this when he usually acts like he’d die at my words?

I struggled to pull my hand away, but Seo Yi-han’s grip was enormous.

He grabbed my wrist with his other hand to prevent escape, forcibly spread my palm, and began a full-on acupressure session.

As I fluttered like a pigeon and made death sounds while trapped by Seo Yi-han, Yoon Soo-ah asked with an interested face.

“Oh, Lee Jae-yoon. Did you understand what Seo Yi-han said earlier?”

“What?”

I was dying from pain, and Yoon Soo-ah didn’t even try to stop him—what the… With tears welling up and eyes slightly bloodshot, I stared at her, and she chuckled.

“Seo Yi-han, looks like Lee Jae-yoon didn’t know about that either.”

“What does it matter? It’s not essential knowledge for living.”

Seo Yi-han replied to Yoon Soo-ah while still pressing my hand mercilessly. Then Yoon Soo-ah wiped her smile and quietly muttered a curse.

Whatever, I just wanted him to let go of my hand. Does this guy really have feelings for me? He must be trying to break my hand bones.

In the end, only after a tear of pain finally rolled down my eye did Seo Yi-han release my hand, saying it seemed done.

Then he gently stroked my back. Disgusted, I kicked his shin. Hard this time.

Seo Yi-han, who didn’t dodge and took the kick straight on, rubbed his leg but still asked if my indigestion had gone down, pretending to worry.

From his gently curved eyes, it seemed more like teasing than concern.

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