Spring Advances Again
He had clearly been crying his heart out.
For someone who rarely shed a tear over anything ordinary, this was the first time he had ever wept so hard or for so long.
Yet when he opened his eyes, the tears had already stopped, and his emotions lay perfectly calm. Even his body had returned to that of Bae Do-hyun.
Looking around, he found himself in Jin Gyeo-wool’s room. A strange sense of wrongness hung in the air—everything was a perfect mirror image of itself, as if reflected in glass.
Someone lay on the bed. That striking appearance was unmistakable at a glance.
It was Hon Gyeo-wool.
“Wool-ah!”
“You startled me.”
Hon Gyeo-wool, who had been resting comfortably, shot upright in surprise.
“…? What the—who are you?”
He glanced at the mirror and saw Bae Do-hyun’s face looking back. Whether this was a world inside the mirror or some unconscious realm, he had returned to the form he had worn before dying.
“Ah. Uh… the guy who took over your body. Bae Do-hyun.”
Hon Gyeo-wool frowned for a moment at those words, then asked again.
“What? So you ditched the body and came here?”
“…No… it wasn’t like I wanted to.”
Bae Do-hyun explained everything from the beginning. How the shocking connection from the past he had just learned had made him lose consciousness. How Lee Bom, Jin Gyeo-wool, and Bae Do-hyun were all linked. Only after hearing Jin Gyeo-wool’s account of watching his accident did everything finally click into place.
“So… the place I died was the exact same spot where Bom died?”
“Yeah.”
Last September, Lee Bom had lost her life in a truck accident at the precise location where Bae Do-hyun had died.
Learning that Bae Do-hyun had once been close to Lee Bom, Hon Gyeo-wool scratched the back of her neck with a troubled look.
“So that’s why you ended up in my body…? But something still feels off. Then where did Bom’s soul go?”
“That… I don’t know either.”
After thinking it over, Hon Gyeo-wool offered a possibility.
“Maybe when Bom died, someone was nearby?”
“Like how you lit the incense candle and only your soul slipped out to stay by my side?”
“Yeah.”
Which meant they would have to find the person who sold that incense candle if they ever wanted the truth. But Bae Do-hyun’s expression turned gloomy as he reported everything he had already investigated. No matter what method he tried, he had found nothing about any related product.
“I just couldn’t dig anything up. Where the hell did you even buy that thing?”
“…Honestly, back then I never once imagined it would have a function like this. The seller explained all sorts of stuff, but I couldn’t understand a word of it.”
Bae Do-hyun let out a long groan, then asked,
“Do you remember where you went on that school trip?”
Jin Gyeo-wool closed her eyes, sorting through her thoughts, and finally managed to recall the destination from a few years earlier.
“Kaohsiung. It was Kaohsiung, Taiwan.”
The moment he heard the place name, Bae Do-hyun remembered the host country of this year’s amateur international tournament—the one he had looked up while building the team. The exact city still hadn’t been decided, but the country was definitely Taiwan.
“…Maybe I can go look for it myself. The international stage of this amateur tournament is being held in Taiwan.”
“Really?”
Hon Gyeo-wool seemed excited at the thought of possibly obtaining more incense candles; she pounded Bae Do-hyun’s shoulder enthusiastically. Being inside the unconscious, though, no sensation came through at all.
“Of course the specific region hasn’t been locked in yet… but I can stop by while we’re there for the tournament.”
Bae Do-hyun glanced sideways at Hon Gyeo-wool’s expression, then asked,
“Or should I force myself to go right now?”
Hon Gyeo-wool shot the idea down head-on.
“No. Don’t push yourself that hard.”
This was the same Hon Gyeo-wool who had grieved Lee Bom’s death more than anyone, who had acted as if she had lost the entire world. Yet now she wore a calm expression, as if that past had already been forgotten.
“Calm down. Just my opinion, but… I don’t think rushing over there would let us find anything.”
“…You think so?”
“Yeah. And that’s not the important thing for you right now, is it?”
Even though she wanted to see Lee Bom more than anyone, Hon Gyeo-wool spoke like someone who had killed her own emotions.
“You’re smart, so you already know. What’s more important right now is building the team and preparing for the tournament.”
Maybe this space itself had made her that way. Even Bae Do-hyun, who had been tormented by Lee Bom’s death, had found his emotions settling the moment he entered this place.
“…Yeah. A pro gamer can’t afford to focus on only one thing.”
The fight right in front of you mattered, but so did building your foundation and planning for the late game. Just as Hon Gyeo-wool said, Lee Bom’s death was already an irreversible fact. Just as Bae Do-hyun could never come back to life, Lee Bom could never be revived either. All they had for now was the hypothesis that her soul was wandering somewhere.
He needed to redesign the future with a clear head and approach everything calmly. That was Bae Do-hyun’s style of recon play—Bae Do-hyun’s way of taking control of the game.
“Still… hearing all this, I think I’m starting to understand something.”
“…What?”
What else? How two people who had nothing to do with each other—Hon Gyeo-wool and Bae Do-hyun—had ended up tangled together.
Hon Gyeo-wool snorted a laugh and lightly smacked the back of Bae Do-hyun’s head. Again, no pain registered.
“How the two of us got mixed up like this. That’s what I’m starting to get.”
“…Ah.”
Lee Bom, who had learned top-lane play from Bae Do-hyun and used it to help Jin Gyeo-wool, had served as the bridge. Lee Bom had been Jin Gyeo-wool’s most precious friend, the one who had cheered for her dream more than anyone—and she had also been the nameless girl who had suddenly appeared in Bae Do-hyun’s life and kept cheering him on.
“In the end, Bom’s the one who connected us.”
“Looks that way. Never saw it coming.”
It was a twisted fate, a cosmic prank. Both Bae Do-hyun and Hon Gyeo-wool sighed at how their destinies had been woven together like this.
“Anyway, let’s calmly track down Bom’s traces.”
“Yeah. I was already planning to win the President’s Cup and go all the way to the amateur international tournament.”
“Mm. You can do it, right?”
Hon Gyeo-wool grinned, showing she trusted Bae Do-hyun. She thrust out her small fist. Bae Do-hyun smiled pleasantly and bumped fists with her.
“Of course. I’ll enter the international tournament, go to the place where you bought that incense candle, and look into it.”
“Okay. I’m counting on you.”
“Do you remember where you bought it?”
Hon Gyeo-wool crossed her arms and wiggled her index finger as she spoke.
“For now… I’ll keep thinking about it. The memory’s pretty fuzzy.”
“Alright. I’ll leave that part to you.”
“Okay.”
Perhaps because they had found a lead on Lee Bom’s traces, Hon Gyeo-wool wore a brighter smile than ever before. Sensing the good mood, Bae Do-hyun tossed out another useless joke.
“Looks like I can still talk to you even if I pass out. To save on incense candles, next time I’ll just faint and—”
Of course, what came back was Hon Gyeo-wool’s ice-cold stare. Bae Do-hyun awkwardly averted his eyes and muttered,
“Never mind. Lighting the incense candle is better after all.”
“…Yeah. You planning to wreck my body?”
“No. No. That wouldn’t do.”
Because once every goal was achieved, this body would have to be returned to Hon Gyeo-wool. Bae Do-hyun hid that thought and simply offered a straight smile.
“Anyway, see you next time, Wool-ah.”
His thoughts were sorted, and now he had one more reason to throw himself into this amateur tournament with real sincerity. Becoming a pro gamer together with Hon Gyeo-wool. And heading to Taiwan together with Hon Gyeo-wool to chase Lee Bom’s traces. With the current Jin Gyeo-wool, there was absolutely no reason they couldn’t pull it off.
Hon Gyeo-wool watched Bae Do-hyun standing upright with his eyes closed, then said,
“So how are you planning to get back?”
“….”
Bae Do-hyun groaned, then slowly turned around again.
“Good question.”
In truth, he had no idea how to return either. Watching Bae Do-hyun stand there grinning like an idiot, Hon Gyeo-wool muttered,
“…Are you sure you’re the smart one? Sometimes you really look like a complete—”
But just as he was listening to Hon Gyeo-wool’s snark, Bae Do-hyun’s vision suddenly blacked out with a snap. And only then did he remember the question he had never asked her.
Ah, damn. I should have asked about the past—
“—Wool—”
Damn it.
An unfamiliar ceiling. Unfamiliar cool air—by the feel of it, this was definitely a hospital.
“—Wool-ah!”
“!”
Jin Gyeo-wool sat up with a sharp gasp. When she opened her eyes, the attending physician stood beside her, and Lee Do-jin kept stroking her hand over and over.
“Gyeo-wool, are you okay? Huh?”
Why the hell is this guy kneading my hand like that? Jin Gyeo-wool ruthlessly pulled her hand free and said,
“Uh… I’m fine. Did I… collapse?”
The doctor gently pushed the flustered Lee Do-jin aside and spoke.
“It appears you collapsed from accumulated fatigue. Have you been sleeping very little lately?”
“…Yeah. Yes. I haven’t been sleeping much.”
The elderly doctor furrowed his brow with clear concern.
“You’ll need to get sufficient rest for a while. Hospitalization isn’t necessary, but the blood tests show your body is somewhat deficient in nutrients. Please make sure to eat three healthy meals a day, and sleep at least six hours.”
She had thought she could tough it out with the medium’s innate ability Spring and Winter, but apparently the strain on her body had still been building.
Honestly, learning the truth about Bom was probably the bigger shock…
And of course that shock had hit both Bae Do-hyun’s and Hon Gyeo-wool’s emotions at once, which was why she had collapsed. Jin Gyeo-wool let out a long sigh, then nodded that she understood.
“If you’d like to begin discharge procedures, just speak with the nurse here. Get plenty of rest.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Looking around, she confirmed she was in the hospital emergency room. With a nurse’s help she removed the IV line, all the while barely managing to shove away Lee Do-jin, who kept trying to take her hand again.
“You’re really okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. Just… some memories.”
“…Did your memories of Bom… come back, by any chance?”
If they had come back, then yes, they had come back. Jin Gyeo-wool decided it would be better not to have a deep conversation with him and answered shortly.
“Yeah. They came back.”
Hearing that, Lee Do-jin felt a sudden jolt of fear. Because he had casually brought up Bom, Jin Gyeo-wool’s memories had returned—it was practically the same thing.
This is… going to be a problem.
He had been glad she seemed to have become a little more human.
“Let’s go home.”
He could already see Jin Gyeo-wool about to turn back into a wild beast. The sharp drop in her words. The way her brows were knitted in a foul mood. That was the proof.
…Of course, Jin Gyeo-wool simply wanted to get home quickly so she wouldn’t have to waste time on useless talk. Her head also ached a little after the sudden emotional surge.
“…? What are you doing?”
Jin Gyeo-wool, who had already walked ahead, jerked her chin at Lee Do-jin, telling him to hurry up.
This is my fault…
What would happen from here on was as clear as day. Jin Gyeo-wool, whose skills had improved, would knock on the door of the pros, and a team that took interest would scout her. But the personality of the Jin Gyeo-wool they brought in purely for her skill was pure garbage. Frankly, she might even be worse than Jang Jae-hong, who currently drew both popularity and hate in equal measure.
Once Jin Gyeo-wool debuted, there would definitely be heavyweight factions looking to use her politically. If that got piled on top of everything else, would the male fans who made up most of her fandom really stand on her side?
No way…
Either way, the fact that Jin Gyeo-wool had regained her memories was Lee Do-jin’s responsibility.
“Hey, Gyeo-wool.”
“Yeah?”
Which meant stopping her from going off the rails was also ultimately Lee Do-jin’s job.
“From now on, every Monday night, play games with me.”
He would have to thoroughly monitor her while they duoed—make sure she wasn’t spewing curses, abuse, or toxic behavior. The only answer was to shut it down and correct it the moment he saw even a hint. Otherwise, Jin Gyeo-wool would definitely cause a major problem after debuting. If that filthy personality wasn’t fixed, that was exactly what would happen.
At Lee Do-jin’s sudden duo request, Jin Gyeo-wool was dumbfounded.
Did I tip him off too much that I might be Bom…?
Lee Do-jin was clearly projecting Lee Bom’s image onto Jin Gyeo-wool right now. There was no other reason for him to act this overprotective, like he was looking after a precious little sister.
No. Maybe this is an opportunity.
But he was a pitiful human being. Because of his sister’s death he had tanked even the last World Championship, and he was still haunted by that ghost, somehow trying to overlay Lee Bom onto Jin Gyeo-wool. And that obsession of his wasn’t a bad thing for Jin Gyeo-wool at all. Looking at it positively, it meant a top-tier pro gamer would play with her every week, helping her improve and giving feedback.
Besides, given that Jin Gyeo-wool had originally been a man, it was better for Lee Do-jin to treat her like a little sister than to start seeing her as a romantic interest for no reason. The current situation, in short, was a win-win. Lee Do-jin could shake off the ghost of his dead sister, and Jin Gyeo-wool could grow rapidly through interaction with him.
Having finished sorting her thoughts, Jin Gyeo-wool got down from the hospital bed and said bluntly,
“Fine. No skin off my nose.”
And even though she had collapsed, she still had to play the games she had planned for today. All of this was for Jin Gyeo-wool—and for finding Lee Bom’s traces. There were still three or four hours left before the “Interact with Long-time Friend” objective would be completed, after all.
“Let’s go play.”
“…Huh? Right now? But you’re overworked—ugh.”
Jin Gyeo-wool grabbed the wrist of Lee Do-jin, who had been trying to send her home, and dragged him along.
“As long as I’ve got recon in my hands, I never collapse, so don’t worry.”
Why the Jin Gyeo-wool who said those words looked so cool, Lee Do-jin simply could not understand.