"Hey, hey..."
Gyeongwon let out a gasp and reached out his hand toward Hyejin, who had just torn up the envelope right before his eyes without hesitation.
"Th-that, don't open that..."
"Why? Let me see."
Hyejin dodged Gyeongwon's hand,picked up the blue ghost story card, and turned away.
"Hmm... B-rank Ghost Story...? Hmm..."
"G-Give it to me...!"
"No, no.'
"I said give it to me..."
"Nuh-uh."
Hyejin pushed away Gyeongwon, who was reaching out his hand, and slipped the card into the chest pocket of her school uniform.
Then she puffed out her chest as if to show it off and provoked Gyeongwon.
"Do you want it? Hmm?"
"....."
Gyeongwon's cheeks flushed bright red.
At that reaction, Hyejin laughed with a
Kyahahaha, shaking her upper body.
"Why? Can't take it? Huh?"
"...."
"Oh my, oh my."
Hyejin puffed out her chest again as if flaunting, twisted her body and laughed playfully.
"You're the same even after becoming a high schooler. Still a loser who can't even talk to me."
"..."
"Here, go ahead and take it,Take it Please, please take it"
Hyejin leaned her upper body forward and slowly swayed as she approached.
The outline of the card was clearly visible through the bulging bosom of her school uniform, which was stretched so tight it looked like the buttons were about to burst.
However, Gyeongwon couldn't bring himself to reach out his hand; instead, he turned bright red, flinched, and took a step back.
Just like that, Hyejin laughed 'Kyahahaha', thumped Gyeongwon's shoulder with her bulging chest, and Scampered away.
"See you later, Gyeongwon~"
"....."
Gyeongwon watched the departing back of his crush as she scurried away, his own face flushed red as if under a spell.
After she left, the quiet morning hallway returned.
Gyeongwon quickly snapped back to reality, glanced around once, and hurriedly locked the Ghost Story Mailbox again.
***
"That hacker... still no contact, Joon...?"
"Yeah. This is a big problem. I did everything he asked me to do. It's not like I have any way to contact him first. Ah, Gyeongwon. Come on in."
It was lunchtime, and the club members had gathered in the clubroom.
Gyeongwon, who joined the group the last, simply nodded once at the greeting from the Club President, Lee Joon.
Soon, Lee Joon looked at Gyeongwon and asked while shaking his phone.
"You know, about that hacker. He still hasn't contacted me. What should I do?"
"Uh, um, I don't know.....".
Gyeongwon sat down in his seat with an —uneasy look on his face.
He still hadn't told anyone about what had happened that morning.
"....I think we have no choice but to wait and see for now, Prez."
"Really? Why?"
"...Well, that person is the assistant sent by your system. I don't think he would just disappear so absurdly."
"It seems so, right?"
Lee Joon sighed and slipped his phone back in his pocket.
Gyeongwon watched him and pushed his glasses.
'...Prez always asks me things even though he already knows everything.'
It feels like all he ever did was just reaffirm what he was already thinking.
Thinking that, Gyeongwon cautiously stole a glance at the Ghost Story Mailbox outside the door.
Fortunately, it seemed no one was paying attention to it.
In the first place, it wasn't a place they checked every day; they only opened it whenever they felt it was about time to deal with a ghost story, so there was no real risk of getting caught.
"I think it's about time we get rid of a ghost story."
Lee Jinhee, who had been sleeping on the sofa, suddenly murmured.
Gyeongwon's eyes instantly turned fierce as he glared at her.
"Just kidding..."
She shifted her body as if to say she had muttered it in her sleep.
However, Dukhun, who had been watching Anime, suddenly took off his earphones and nodded.
"Oh, I think she's right. There's only one day left until the end-of-semester ceremony, and since there aren't really any classes left anyway, it seems like a waste to just spend the time playing around."
"I think they are right, Joon.. I also feel a bit awkward just sitting around doing nothing...."
Even Sunah chimed in in agreement.
Gyeongwon gradually felt his hand begin to tremble.
"They're not usually this proactive, so why are they making such a fuss today?"
Just as the members' eyes turned toward him, the Club President, Lee joon, raised one hand as if taking an oath and shook his head.
"No. I think I need to rest a bit."
"...Really?"
"Yeah. We're actually going to get busier once vacation starts."
Lee Joon nodded with a solemn expression.
"We have to go around together as a group to catch ghost stories and do training camps and all that. Anyway, there's only one day left until the closing ceremony, so just rest."
"Well, then.."
"Got it."
"If that's what you say."
The members slowly nodded in agreement.
Gyeongwon broke out in a cold sweat and pushed his glasses again.
'...As expected of Prez.'
The President always helped him, whether knowingly or unknowingly.
Gyeongwon slowly nodded.
"By the way, congratulations on ranking 3rd in the whole school, Gyeongwon. You went up even more than midterms."
"...Thanks, Prez. You did well this time too."
"As for me... well, at least it's a relief that our top three, including In Hayoon, have held onto the top 10 spots in the whole school. But that Ban Janghoon guy was ranked 1st again this time, wasn't he?"
"Oh, that guy's always been first. But I'm more curious about this mysterious character named Lee Hyejin who suddenly appeared and took 2nd place in the whole school.."
"Typical otaku, look at you getting interested in a transfer student setup. Hey, the delinquent girl you admire is right here. Hey, hey."
"D-Don't hit me..."
And so, after lunchtime ended.
As soon as the break between 5th period began, Gyeongwon paced the hallway, looking for the transfer student Lee Hyejin.
'Ive never seen her in the east hallway here. Is she in the west hallway where classes 5 through 10 are....'
He looked into the classrooms one by one with a face as anxious as someone who had severe constipation, but Hyejin was nowhere to be seen.
Was this a dream?
'..Right. Why would the girl I liked back in middle school suddenly come to our school?'
Perhaps everything that happened this morning was just a nightmare.
It had all been far too surreal.
just as he was about to turn back after having used both the break after 6th period and the cleaning time to comb through the first-year classrooms twice.
A boy from the special class happened to be passing by, so Gyeongwon cautiously stopped him and asked.
He seemed to remember that student
occasionally greeted Hyejin in the special class before.
"..Hey, excuse me. Um, that transfer student who just came to our special class... do you happen to know which class she's in?"
"Lee Hyejin? She's in my class."
"Oh, really?"
Gyeongwon spoke cautiously with a stiff expression.
"...I went to look for her because I had
something to give her, but I couldn't find her.."
"She left early. Around lunchtime."
"...Why?"
"I don't know. She suddenly said she saw a ghost, grabbed a pair of scissors, started swinging them in the air, and made a huge fuss."
".....!"
In that instant, Gyeongwon felt a chill run down his spine.
"I thought she was seriously crazy. I heard she came from a special-purpose high school, so maybe she transferred here because she's a bit mentally unstable. There are even kids who got stabbed trying to stop her."
In that instant, a single sentence flashed through Gyeongwon's mind.
'I'm. In. Big. Trouble.'
Did she end up reading it?
That was exactly what he was afraid of, that's why he told her not to tear it open.
"..Ah, I see. Thanks...."
"Yeah. But she already has a lot of guys who like her, so if you want to get close, you might want to hurry. Though who knows what happen after today anyway."
"It-it's not like that...."
Feeling his heart pounding, Gyeongwon turned around for now.
***
He had no idea how much time had passed since then.
When Gyeongwon finally came to his senses, the members were already standing beside him with their bags packed.
"What are you doing? We are going home."
"Ah, uh, yeah...."
Gyeongwon, flustered, pushed his glasses once, then quickly grabbed his bag and stood up.
As he left the classroom with the club members, he asked Lee Joon.
"P-Prez. You know... about your regression ability."
"Yeah. What about that?"
"That ability. by any chance, roughly how many hours ago does it take you back?"
"Why?"
The Club President Lee Joon, who was walking ahead, turned back to look at Gyeongwon with a nonchalant expression.
Gyeongwon hurriedly pushed his glasses.
"Uh, it's nothing. I was just wondering if I happened to get into an accident, would there be enough time for the news to reach you, Prez, and for you to rewind time..."
"..."
Lee Joon, walking ahead with an expressionless face, looked back at Gyeongwon.
Even though he appeared so nonchalant, he was a club president who was very sharp at critical moments.
Just as GyeongWon was about to break out in a cold sweat while waiting for his answer, Lee Joon swiftly turned his head back to the front and replied in a casual tone.
"Roughly about a day before. I've rarely gone back to the same day itself; it's usually two or three days. The longest I've gone back is several weeks."
"Oh, I see. Then I can rest easy..."
"Yeah, even if the checkpoint gets messed up, I can just use the cliché ability to reset and go back. So don't worry too much about that kind of stuff. I'l take care of it all, so just leave it to me."
"Right.. Thank you, Prez..."
Gyeongwon nodded and thought to himself.
His crush Hyejin had torn up the ghost story card this morning.
No matter what happened, as long as he managed to resolve it well by today, everything would be fine.
Of course, it would be the proper course of action to confess honestly and immediately get Lee Joon's help to resolve it, but Gyeongwon couldn't bring himself to do that.
Because this current matter was Connected to the trauma that Gyeongwon had endured so painfully over the past year, and perhaps it might have been a chance given by god to finally overcome it.
'Please don't act like a loser please don't act like a loser please don't act like a loser-'
It turned out that the two of them were
actually dating.
He was the one who helped her adjust when she first arrived at school.
How can she not even say thank you?
He looked out for her from the very beginning.
'No, but come to think of it, what I did for her back then probably wasn't all that helpful from her perspective anyway, because ultimately, she was destined to do well because of her natural disposition.'
In the end, Hyejin just had a brief moment of bad timing; she'd always had the kind of personality that naturally made her the center of the group.
Gyeongwon was just deluded by the 'nice guy' act that loners typically put on to disguise themselves; the truth is, he hadn't done a single thing for her.
Just because I helped her when things were tough, doesn't mean that she has to date me, right? It's not like I was even that helpful, anyway.
He was the only one who felt sorry
for her, the only one who helped, the
only one who caught feelings, the only
one who was delusional, and in the
end, he was the only one left with this
embarrassing past.
Whenever those thoughts came rushing through Gyeongwon's mind, he felt that such things were unavoidable, yet at the same time, he also felt an unbearable anger along with it.
'Then what on earth am I?'
What on earth am I in this world?
Just because that guy was handsome, he got her number at the leadership retreat and they started dating, even though they had absolutely no connection before that?
He lived right in the next building from Hyejin, so their houses were close. and ever since she transferred, he had been looking after her everyday. They were even in the same class in the third year and served as class president and vice class president together.
That class president from the next class she was dating lived far away, they had never really been close, and he wasn't exactly there for her when she was having a hard time. People said she was dating him just because he was handsome, tall, and good at sports.
And Lee Hyejin actually agreed to date
Someone like that.
Throughout the process, all this talk about whether they broke up, when they actually started dating, and even getting matching rings, receiving all sorts of spotlight like a school celebrity.
In the midst of all that, he just expressed his feelings that he liked her, but she told him not to act like a loser, while he was just praying she would like him back.
Gyeongwon trembled witha sense of
unforgivable fury.
'I want to see it with my own eyes.'
What state Lee Hyejin was in now, and what kind of trouble she had gotten herself into.
Gyeongwon decided to see it with his own eyes no matter what.
Whether he would feel a sense of gratification watching Hyejin get screwed, or help her.
Or whether i would ask Club President to turn back time and make it as if nothing had ever happened.
Whatever it was, Gyeongwon firmly decided that seeing Hyejin again with his own eyes was the priority.
"Aren't you coming...?"
Suddenly coming to his senses at the sound of someone calling him, he saw Yoon Sunah standing in front of the shoe cabinet, looking at him with a blank expression.
The other club members had already gone on ahead, chattering noisily among themselves.
"...Ah, yeah. Sorry."
Gyeongwon hurriedly put on his shoes and followed after them with Sunah.
Yoon Sunah.
She was an original member who had been with the club since it was first formed.
She was bad at studying, had a clumsy personality, and always looked melancholy; her personality clashed so much with the meticulous Gyeongwon that they still weren't particularly close.
Still, Gyeongwon thought that among the club members, Sunah was the kindest.
If he were to give a heads-up to someone just in case, the kind Sunah would be the most suitable person for that.
Having made up his mind like that, Gyeongwon looked at the club members walking ahead across the playground and cautiously opened his mouth.
"...Hey, Yoon Sunah. You know, I think I've gotten caught up in some kind of ghost story right now."
"Gasp..."
Still keeping her eyes down as she walked, Sunah let out a gasp.
Gyeongwon calmly made a request to her.
"...But it's a very personal matter,Something I can't tell anyone."
"Oh..."
"I plan to try and handle it on my own for now. If you don't hear from me by tomorrow morning, please tell Club Prez about it and ask him to turn back time."
Yoon Sunah slightly lifted her head and glanced at Lee Joon up ahead.
Fortunately, the Club President, who was laughing and chatting with the other —members, didn't look their way at all.
Gyeongwon pleaded with Sunah strongly again.
"You absolutely must not tell it to Prez or the others. Please keep it a secret."
"...."
"It's a request."
Sunah walked with a blank expression, looking at the ground.
Then she adjusted her bag strap once and nodded.
"I understand..."
"Thank you."
Gyeongwon adjusted his glasses and
walked awkwardly alongside Yoon Sunah as they joined the other club members.
**
As soon as he arrived home, Gyeongwon put down his bag and changed out of his school uniform. It was now 5 PM.
Soon, his father, who worked at a financial subsidiary of Clover, would be returning home from work, and his mother, who had gone to attend a liberal arts lecture, would also be coming home to prepare dinner.
'I don't have enough time.
And of all days, today was the day he even had private tutoring lessons scheduled for the evening.
There were too many things tying him
down for him to take any kind of action to save his crush.
Gyeongwon paced back and forth in the large living room, only fiddling with his glasses.
"...What should I do. How should I...."
After agonizing like that for a long while, Gyeongwon picked up his phone and pulled up the number of the Club President, Lee Joon.
And dialed it.
If it were the President, he would have Come up with an excuse and found a way out in any situation no matter what.
'Maybe I should ask Prez for some advice..."
Gyeongwon shook his head.
This was, after all, his own business, It was a chance to face the core trauma that had remained his deepest wound throughout his adolescence.
He did not want to seek advice or help from others.
Even though he didn't know how things would turn out, he wanted to face everything himself, with his own hands.
And he had already given Yoon Sunah a heads-up just in case everything went wrong.
'...And after this is over, I'll tell Club Prez about myself for my remaining understanding.'
The heart-pounding thrill of watching the arrogant and successful fall.
Even now, that emotion was throbbing in a corner of Gyeongwon's heart.
'What is this, what the hell.'
That girl who once made him feel so
humiliated just suddenly appeared on her own and was destroying herself like this.
'What on earth happened? I really want to see with my own eyes what state she is in right now.'
Feeling his heart pounding, Gyeongwon picked up his phone again.
This was probably exactly what his Prez, Lee Joon, would have done in this situation.
"..Hello? Yes, sister. It's Gyeongwon. About the tutoring lesson this evening, would it be possible to do it at a café or study lounge outside instead of at my house...? Yes, something came up.....Yes, thank you. Oh, and I'm sorry, but would it be okay if I tell my parents that you were the one who suggested this arrangement...? Yes, yes, I know this isn't like me, but there are some
circumstances... Yes, thank you. See you later."
[T/N: Not his actual sister. In Korea, it's common for younger males to call girls older than them Sister.]