Chapter 11: A Familiar Name

Yoon Soo-ah’s words echoed in my head—the ones she screamed, calling Lee Jae-yoon a stalker.

What’s worse, it seemed like he had gauged my weight when he touched my waist earlier.

“Lee Jae-yoon, report him.”

Yoon Soo-ah, coming down behind me, whispered.

It’s obvious he’s not quite right in the head, but is it really worth reporting over this?

Still, the thought of standing next to Seo Yi-han made my skin crawl, so I snatched his phone and hurried down the stairs first.

Having his phone taken in an instant, Seo Yi-han stood there for a moment with a dumbfounded expression before trudging along with a somewhat deflated step.

Ignoring him, I set out to find the teachers’ office in the central hall on the second floor.

The creaking wooden door of the teachers’ office was practically rotting away.

The bottom was completely lifted, making it impossible to open properly—only a clattering sound echoed.

In the end, I and Seo Yi-han had to lift the door to force it open.

The noise was quite loud, but fortunately, aside from a few will-o’-the-wisps gathering and humming, nothing strange happened.

Rather, the will-o’-the-wisps brightened the area, making it easier for us to step over the threshold and look around the office.

“Do we really have to dig through all the old attendance records?”

Kim Ji-ho complained, already sounding fed up.

If I weren’t here, that would have been the case. You guys should consider yourselves lucky. Now that I’m here, you’ll breeze through up to the second boss.

Yoon Soo-ah and Han Bo-bae were struggling to pull out all the 2008 attendance records from a large chest in the corner.

I stopped them and pulled out only the one labeled “Class 1-5,” then opened it.

After all, they said they wouldn’t question my actions.

When I flipped through the pages with photos and numbers, a familiar name caught my eye: Kim Joon-soo, and the three bullies.

As I pretended to scrutinize their faces, Han Bo-bae’s surprised voice came from behind.

“Huh? Isn’t this guy the ghost from earlier?”

“I can’t tell. His jaw was dangling…”

Yoon Soo-ah shuddered at the thought of the man’s ghastly appearance.

In the chaotic situation, I had only briefly seen his face—completely ruined lower half.

Moreover, the old photo in the attendance record had faded and smudged, making it hard to identify.

Most people wouldn’t be able to guess it was the same person, no matter how hard they tried.

Han Bo-bae’s keen eyes were impressive to identify him from such a faded photo.

Seo Yi-han, who had been examining the photo carefully at her words, also nodded.

“I think so. The head shape and eyes are similar.”

…That bastard is even sharper than Han Bo-bae. Come to think of it, did Seo Yi-han also figure out the ghost’s identity by analyzing the head shape in the game?

And when he grabbed my waist to estimate my weight, was that also a manifestation of his ridiculous observational skills?

He’d be a huge success if he became a plastic surgeon.

[Quest: Identify which of the four is the ghost you saw earlier!]

Just as the quest appeared, I immediately pointed at the person Han Bo-bae and Seo Yi-han had indicated.

“I think so too. Lee Ji-hoon.”

Unfortunately, it was the same name as my first college friend.

I wonder how he’s doing. If I really died, did he come to the funeral and even bring some beef soup?

He might be blaming himself, thinking he shouldn’t have called me to the orientation.

Lost in a nostalgic daze, I felt Seo Yi-han staring at me with a sly look before he spoke.

“Jae-yoon, what are you thinking?”

“His name is the same as my friend’s.”

Not sure if I’ll ever see him again, but take care, Lee Ji-hoon. If I manage to escape here and go to the afterlife, there’s nothing I can do… But if I somehow wake up just before getting hit by a truck or on a hospital bed, I’ll drink as much as he wanted.

But I had said that without much thought, and Seo Yi-han’s expression turned strange.

He seemed angry, surprised, and curious all at once.

Having only seen his ever-smiling grin and his stiff expression when seeing ghosts, I was startled and stared at him.

Seo Yi-han tilted his head a few times, slowly rolling his eyes as if weighing something.

Then, wearing that familiar eye-smile like a habit, he asked lazily.

“…Does our class have a name like that? Ah, another class?”

It’s not another class, it’s another school. Not even high school, but college. But if I said it was a college friend, things would definitely get more complicated, so I kept my mouth shut.

To make matters worse, the system window flickered in front of my eyes.

[You’ve made a friend harbor unnecessary suspicion. Perception –3, Current Perception: 5]

Leaving aside when I filled Perception up to 8, seriously. You said you’d make sure they don’t suspect me for what I do. And I can have one or two friends, can’t I? Why does that bastard have to suspect me over something like this?

[The Recognition Blur effect only applies when you are performing actions related to the story.]

So that meant I could immediately pick out the attendance book or computer to find clues, but I shouldn’t blurt out unrelated things.

The ghost’s name being the same as my friend’s was not related to the story.

Seo Yi-han is fundamentally a very sharp and clever guy.

If the system hadn’t intervened, he would have suspected me long ago for acting like I knew everything.

‘I can’t just rely on Recognition Blur and spout off without thinking—that could get me into trouble.’

I had been trusting the system too much. This bastard, I should be suspicious of him every second.

“Well… it’s… a friend from the neighborhood, I mean, when I lived at home.”

“Then a middle school friend?”

“Yeah, something like that…”

I sweated profusely and made a hasty excuse, but Seo Yi-han didn’t seem convinced.

Instead, he narrowed his eyes and pressed on with an interrogative tone.

“That’s strange… I visited every vacation, and you never told me that. And I haven’t seen you contact him separately here either.”

System! I called out desperately, but of course, it didn’t appear.

How much do I have to be fooled before it’s satisfied?

But a helping hand came from an unexpected place.

Kim Ji-ho pushed up his glasses, which were taped together, and muttered.

“Wouldn’t it be stranger to know all your friend’s friends’ names?”

“Right! Why are you so eager to know? So annoying.”

I quickly latched onto Kim Ji-ho’s words and shot back.

Apart from this incident, Seo Yi-han has been too interested in me.

I intended to cut that off a bit this time, so I deliberately said it in a way that would turn him off.

But I regretted that decision within three seconds.

“Annoying?”

His eyes weren’t the pathetic look he gave me when I brushed his hand away in the bathroom at our first meeting, nor the deflated look from the stairs.

He tilted his head with those cool eyes devoid of any emotion, and I involuntarily stepped back.

I now keenly realized that he didn’t always just smile and laugh for nothing.

It was terrifying. Not just the intimidation from his tall stature, but when his expression was wiped off his handsome, soft face, the only word that came to mind was cold.

As they say, exceptionally good-looking people look cold when expressionless, and that was absolutely right.

Moreover, his gentle amber eyes had some strange glint in them. A bit like someone possessed… simply put, like a madman.

I stepped back another step and my back hit the chest where the attendance records were kept.

Everyone seemed to feel the uneasy atmosphere; even Yoon Soo-ah remained silent.

Kim Ji-ho, chime in with your oblivious comment like before! But Kim Ji-ho squeezed between Han Bo-bae and Yoon Soo-ah, staring off into the distance.

‘That bastard!’

I take back what I said about it being tolerable. I will definitely abandon him one day.

Grinding my teeth, I turned my gaze back to Seo Yi-han.

As if he had never worn that expressionless face, Seo Yi-han slightly curved his eyes.

Then, in a chilling voice, he repeated the question.

“Am I annoying, Jae-yoon?”

If he genuinely asked if I found him annoying, well, I don’t know.

It is annoying, but not annoying.

I know this is contradictory, but that’s exactly how I felt.

Even though Seo Yi-han had done countless things that would have disgusted me if anyone else did them, I didn’t dislike it.

He was kind to me, and everything he did was obviously because he was worried about me, and above all, his face had… a certain magic that made me, even when I was scared and trying to shake him off, unable to do so.

One might think I’m overreacting over a guy’s face, but his face was truly worth it.

In my twenty years of life, this was the first time a male face had stuck in my mind so vividly, and I was flustered.

Besides, to him, I’m his best childhood friend, but to me, he’s not. The gap in that relationship also made me feel sorry, so I couldn’t treat him carelessly.

I stumbled over my words, choosing them carefully.

“It’s not that you’re annoying… It’s just that being too interested in me is… tiresome, no, burdensome.”

“Why?”

f*ck. When he asks “why,” what am I supposed to say? Are you my parent? That retort was on the tip of my tongue, but it was too confrontational, so I swallowed it.

And even my parents didn’t pry into every detail of my life like that.

Finally, I slightly softened the tone of what I wanted to say and used more understandable analogies.

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