Double Life Busted?!
Surprisingly, I ended up staying at the café quite a while.
More than an hour had already slipped by since I'd walked in.
"Take care."
"See you next Saturday? And if you feel like dropping by before then, you're welcome anytime."
"Yes, thank you~"
I said my polite goodbyes and stepped out of the café.
Or rather, "escaped" might have been the more accurate word.
The boss's gentle, magnetic way of talking had me answering so easily, so comfortably, that I completely lost track of time. I'd originally planned to swing by just long enough to polish off a strawberry smoothie and leave the second things got awkward — but reality had other ideas.
Maybe because I wasn't there on the clock today, the whole vibe felt closer than a simple boss-and-part-timer relationship. I was far more at ease than usual, and the conversation actually turned out to be fun.
I never asked her outright, but the café was clearly a hobby for her. I'd tried dropping subtle hints about how empty the place was, only for her to reply that having it quiet was nice, actually. Hearing the owner herself casually say the very thing I'd always swallowed as a part-timer somehow made everything feel even more relaxed from that point on.
About an hour and twenty minutes in total. Her hand had twitched toward me several times, but thankfully, after that first incident, it never quite made contact with my ass again.
"Hmm…"
When it came to places I'd visited while checking the future, I'd pretty much covered them all. After that it had been the movie theater, a manga café, and then just wandering the streets through the night. None of those were locations where having a body versus not having one would make much difference.
I went to all the trouble of seeing the future and I've got this little to work with?
Investing in crypto wouldn't take long either, which meant that until I met Ajeong the next day, I genuinely had nothing lined up. Of course, I'd already set my sell limit orders, so all that was left was to sit back and wait for the money to multiply itself.
Even so, it felt almost wasteful to have peeked into the future and come back with so little to exploit. I ran back through my movements one more time, turning them over carefully in my mind.
…
"Ah!"
A belated realization hit me, and just like that, my next destination was set.
"Hello~"
"Hello~ Go ahead and put your shoes away, then come on in~"
…
"Yes, make yourself comfortable!"
I'd arrived at a manga café — specifically to read volume six of the series I'd been bingeing yesterday. Or rather, the series I'd been bingeing while checking the future.
There he is.
My good friend from the binge-read. The slightly dim friend who'd skipped volume six was currently reading that very series. I briefly considered telling him about volume six, but then I wouldn't get to read it myself — so I slipped past him and went looking for it.
No way he missed this.
Volumes six through twelve sat neatly in a row. No human being would leave volume six behind and walk off. Or so I thought, right as I pulled it free.
Wait.
A question — or maybe a realization — floated up in my head. What if I was the reason he couldn't find volume six? What if I'd already taken it? That actually made more sense. No real person could walk right past something this obvious.
The volume he'd been reading earlier was definitely three. I decided to finish six as fast as possible and put it back properly.
…
So this is where that guy shows up.
I found the first appearance of a companion character who'd started trailing after the protagonist at some point.
…
Whoa. Skipping this makes the whole thing feel completely random.
A character who'd been the Act One boss had suddenly started helping like some kind of ally — and volume six was where that got explained. The skipped volume turned out to be the most important one for the story.
"Whew…"
Once I finished, I quickly slid volume six back into place and watched.
If I ended up gaining another ability tied to the balance-game choices, this was definitely going to be useful information.
…
A little under thirty minutes later, the guy who'd been sprawled in his cubby finally came over with an armload of volumes. He shelved one through five first. All he had to do now was grab six onward and he'd be set.
"Hmm…"
Amazingly, he hesitated between six and seven — then pulled seven through twelve and walked off.
…He's just an idiot.
He really had just made a mistake. Watching it happen, I could almost see how someone might get confused.
But still — the story doesn't even connect. How do you not notice something's off?
Come to think of it, when I'd checked the future I'd been lying on my studio apartment bed the entire time, so the body-double hypothesis never made sense to begin with. This guy was just bad at following narrative logic.
I felt the tension drain out of me a beat too late. Without realizing it, I'd gotten wound up at the thought that my body might have been wandering around without me knowing.
I sank into a sofa and decided to zone out for a bit.
What time is it?!
I'd dozed off without meaning to. I jolted awake and checked the time — luckily, only about fifteen minutes had passed. Shaking off the fog, I got up and headed toward the exit.
"Welcome~"
"Oh… did the new issue come in today?"
"Yes, I set it aside for you separately."
"Hup — thank you…"
The customer who'd just walked in was clearly a regular. The café owner had pulled the latest volume and held it for her.
Huh?
Curious who it was, I naturally glanced toward her face — and realized I knew her. Not "knew her" exactly, but I'd seen her before. She was the girl student I'd run into on the stairwell of my building not long ago.
Is she even a student?
For the owner to go out of her way like that, she had to be a serious regular. Maybe she wasn't a student after all. Come to think of it, those books stuffed into her bag back then might have been manga.
We were neighbors, but not on greeting terms, so I was about to walk right past her and out of the café.
Then a scent hit my nose like a hook — that strange, familiar strawberry fragrance I knew so well.
Before I could stop myself, I turned back for another look. A few strands of yellow hair poked out from under her cap. Even the height seemed about right.
"Heading out, sir?"
"No… where's the restroom?"
"It's in the back! Just keep going that way~"
"Thanks."
I'd changed my mind. I headed back into the café. If I was right, the friendly bag-girl and the alley delinquent were the same person. I had nothing better to do with the rest of the day anyway. I doubted I'd find anything more entertaining than this.
There she is.
She'd headed for the curtain room in the farthest corner. Aside from a curtain instead of a door, it was a proper private room — spacious enough to have a TV for watching movies inside. I'd assumed those were only for couples or groups of two or more, but apparently solo use was fine too.
I moved in fast and caught the curtain before she could close it.
"Hi?"
"Eep…?"
"You know me, right? Mind if I come in?"
"Why…"
She recognized me. Naturally, she didn't just say yes.
"Well… you were so nice last time, and it's my first time here. Want to hang out together today?"
Getting in was the priority, so I didn't tip my hand about having figured her out. Best-case scenario was getting permission without any of that coming up.
"W-what?"
"I'd love some manga recommendations, too. I've gotten into comics lately, but I have no idea what to read next."
Anyone who was enough of a regular for the owner to set books aside clearly loved manga. And wasn't it an ironclad rule that veterans welcomed newbies on sight? Not my most confident approach, but it seemed worth a shot.
…
To my surprise, after a brief hesitation, she opened the curtain for me. She didn't say a word, but the meaning was obvious — so I ducked my head and stepped inside.
"Oh…"
Definitely cozy. There was even a blanket and a pillow in the corner, which I immediately put to use as a backrest.
"What's your name?"
"Jin Hayun…"
"Ah. I'm Jung Woohyun."
…
Once the introductions were done, silence settled back in.
"You picked up a book at the counter earlier — what are you reading?"
Curious, I reached toward the volume sitting beside her hand.
Whoosh—
"Th-this one's off-limits…"
"Hmm. I can't even just see what it is?"
"No…"
She was a lot more guarded than I'd expected. Better to back off for now. I'd sneak a look later when the chance came. For the moment, I decided to ask her more about herself.
"How old are you?"
"Twen…"
"Hmm~ Student?"
"No."
"Do you just not want to talk to me?"
"No…"
Twenty years old and not a student — so either she'd gone straight into a job, or she was a re-taker prepping for the college entrance exam again. She answered every question, but without much enthusiasm. It reminded me of our conversation in the alley.
Was it like this back then, too?
Her look had been so tough that I'd assumed she was being cold on purpose. Looking at her now, maybe she'd just been shy.
"Um… how old are you, Oppa-nim?"
"Pfft. What did you just call me?"
"I asked how old you are…"
"Before that."
"…"
She didn't know my age, but I must have looked older than her. Come to think of it, until recently I'd been the unmistakable discharged-military type, so it made sense. Even now, that probably hadn't changed much.
"Just call me whatever feels natural."
"Okay…"
"I'm twenty-two. Going back to Hongpyeong University next year."
"Whoa…"
Only then did she turn her head to look at me.
"What?"
"Hongpyeong is my goal, too. It's close to home and everything…"
"Oh, really? So you're a re-taker. More importantly — is it okay if I drop the formal speech?"
"Yes."
"Thanks. You can relax with me, too. But you're a re-taker and you're in here reading manga?"
"…I only come sometimes."
The owner recognized her and set books aside, and she called that "sometimes." Apparently "sometimes" meant something different to her.
Still, she seemed more at ease than before. She still couldn't quite look me in the face, but at some point her body had angled toward mine.
"Alright then — any recommendations for what I should read?"
I'd followed her in here, but I couldn't just sit around staring blankly. I needed something of my own to read.
"Heh. Follow me."
Hayun's expression brightened noticeably as she stepped out of the room. The chance to recommend something she'd enjoyed herself seemed to put her in a genuinely good mood.
"You said you got into it recently…? What have you read?"
"Attack on Giant."
"Ah~ yeah, that one's blown up lately. In that case…"
She'd read it too, of course. Once she had a sense of my taste, she launched straight into a string of recommendations.
…
"Pick one of these three."
Three carefully curated titles. Of the three, I chose The Promised Foreverland.
The moment I picked it, she launched into an explanation like she was proud of herself — lining up similar works, laying out how this one was like that and that one was like this, talking a mile a minute. Just listening to her, you could tell she'd burned through an absurd number of manga.
We headed back into the room, drew the curtain, and I asked her one more time.
"So it's not really 'sometimes,' is it?"
"…It is sometimes. I only come when studying gets really hard."
She wilted in an instant.
"And that's why you smoke a Vita-stick too? To blow off stress?"
"Yeah…"
…
"Eh."
Hayun's face looked like she'd just watched the world collapse.