I'll Pass on a World Like This

What the hell is this?

Staring at the message that had just landed out of nowhere, I let out a disbelieving laugh.

It wasn't like someone knocking on a coffin lid in their sleep — where did a high school reunion come from all of a sudden?

The group chat for Class 2 of my senior year, a room that hadn't made a single peep in the entire time since graduation.

More than twenty people sat gathered in it, a room that was, for all intents and purposes, dead. The fact that it had suddenly sprung back to life was strange enough, but calling a reunion for a single class — not even a whole-school event — and demanding everyone attend? Did that make any sense at all?

Normally only the friend groups that actually got along would reach out and meet up separately; convening the entire class like this was almost unheard of.

But the real spectacle was what came after the class president's out-of-nowhere announcement — the ecstatic reactions of my former classmates.

…Are these bastards out of their minds?

The guy planning to make a same-day round trip from Busan was one thing.

But telling his workplace he was attending a reunion and using a vacation day for it?

Think about it for even a second — wasn't that deeply, obviously bizarre?

If my school had been some elite academy churning out the future heirs of politics and industry, maybe. But traveling by train and burning company leave just to attend a class reunion at a perfectly ordinary high school?

What kind of insane company would casually hand out a day of leave just because an employee said he was going to his high school class reunion?

This is an anomaly. It has to be an anomaly, no question.

I quickly screenshotted the group chat, opened the Anomaly Report app, and typed the situation into that chatbot thing.

Naturally, I wanted the explanation.

The moment I told it to get on with it, the chatbot began spewing out lines of text.

Wow. Unbelievable.

Reading the chatbot's explanation, all I could do was laugh hollowly.

So going by this, if I told my department head I had a reunion, he'd stamp my leave through with a smile — "Oh, a reunion! Can't miss that! Hurry back now!"

The same petty small-business owners who dump every imaginable guilt trip on you for missing a busy day for military reserve training would just wave you off, because reunions are sacred?

This was, without a doubt, a world spinning firmly off its hinges.

Still, I can't be bothered to go. What do I do about this?

By the app's own advice, the smart move was to attend no matter what, but I had zero desire to show my face at an event like this.

It wasn't as if I hadn't already identified the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠anomaly, and I'd barely kept in touch with my high school friends since graduation — we were all strangers to each other by now.

Maybe I should just say I was busy and skip it.

But the moment I opened the group chat to send exactly that, I sensed the mood beginning to shift in an unsettling direction.

Now that I was the only one who hadn't responded, a silent pressure began to settle over me — the kind that said if I didn't show up, I'd become the biggest deadbeat in the history of mankind.

Wow. Handle this wrong, and I really would end up public enemy number one.

Ugh, what a pain in the ass.

Left with no choice, I fired back a short reply: [yeah, i'll come].

When the whole room ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was clamoring for me like that, I couldn't exactly refuse.

If it got too annoying later, I could always stockpile points and buy some kind of Anomaly Eraser from the shop to wipe this pointless reunion culture off the face of the earth.

That said — if this was the Class 2 reunion, there was one person who was guaranteed to show.

"Baek Nahee. Is she coming too?"

Back in high school, there had been one particular psycho who ran with the popular delinquent crowd while strutting around like she was the queen of the school herself.

The type who hung around thuggish delinquent boys that looked like they belonged to actual gangs, and who'd summon the boys who seemed suitably weak and use them as her personal errand runts.

Not that I was ever her full-time bread-shuttle, thankfully.

Luckily for me, I'd belonged to a reasonably decent crowd in high school, so Baek Nahee had never dared come at me openly.

But she would single me out, sidle up with that pretty face and that honeyed whine of a voice, and sweet-talk me into doing her work for her.

'Jinwoo-ya, could you pick something up for me on your way back from the school store? You're the only one I can ask, you know.'

That was how it always went, as far as I remembered.

Looking back now, I could have just told her to buzz off. But back then, I couldn't.

She was genuinely gorgeous, and she was a seasoned master in the art of fox-like psychological manipulation.

Thanks to that, I'd spent an entire year as her designated errand boy — an all-time moronic move.

Retrospectively, it was such a pathetic, brainless chapter of my life that I wanted to kick my own covers off in shame.

But the me of now was not that pathetic Kang Jinwoo of the past.

So, Baek Nahee — you're coming too, aren't you?

After all, I possessed an absurdly overpowered passive ability that made every woman in this world harbor blind, unconditional infatuation for me.

And if I got to watch that proud, arrogant Baek Nahee wag her tail at the sight of me and cling to me like a bitch in heat?

That alone would make the reunion worth attending.

Fine. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

I closed my phone and let out a long, deep sigh.

I hadn't been looking forward to tomorrow at all, but now… maybe I was a little curious, actually.

And so came the evening of the long-awaited reunion.

The sizable samgyeopsal restaurant in the heart of downtown was already buzzing with clamorous heat.

When I pushed through the door, familiar faces were visible at the large reserved floor tables.

Maybe it was the power of that altered common sense — the one demanding attendance no matter what — but more than twenty of my old classmates had packed the seats shoulder to shoulder, chattering at full volume.

"So yeah, these days I'm doing business with the district mayor himself…"

"Want to try this out? I'm running a company — I'll pitch you a great idea."

Yep. Flowing exactly the way I predicted.

Sighing, I quietly claimed a spot in the corner.

These were snot-nosed kids barely a decade out of school, yet there they were, already scheming about business ventures and backdoor introductions. Unbelievable.

I poured myself a drink and was glancing around the room when someone sat down beside me.

Seo Minchul — the one friend I'd actually been close with back then, the one I used to talk games with.

"Oh, Kang Jinwoo! You came too?"

"Had to, didn't I, you punk. Minchul, it's been ages."

"Tell me about it. So what have you been up to since you got out of the army?"

"Eh, same old. Waiting to go back to school, working nights at a convenience store."

It felt good to talk with Minchul so easily after so long, and we clinked glasses.

Of course, I kept a tight lid on everything — the part about me being an Anomaly Investigator, the part where women had gone crazy over me and… performed services I won't detail.

After loosely introducing myself as a returning student killing time with part-time work, I kept the conversation going, flipping the meat on the grill.

"Don't you usually hate these gatherings, though? What's got you showing up so willingly?"

At my question, Seo Minchul cast a quick glance around the table, then leaned his head toward me and whispered.

"Hey — just between you and me. Honestly, I couldn't have been less thrilled about coming."

"Then why are you here?"

"Why do you think, damn it? It's a reunion. I know I have no choice but to come, so why even ask? No matter how much of a pain it is, you show up. Period."

The expression on his grumbling face was the face of a man genuinely dragged here against his will.

And the fact that he was confiding this to me alone, behind everyone's backs, mirrored exactly the act of confessing something socially disgraceful to a friend in secret.

Wow. The power of altered common sense really is terrifying.

Attendance at reunions had been rewritten into an absolute social law — a rule that simply had to be followed.

I was clicking my tongue inwardly at this horrifying phenomenon when—

— Chime!

The glass door at the entrance swung open with a bright ring.

The moment my gaze drifted naturally toward it, my tongs paused mid-turn over the grill.

"Oh, Nahee's here!"

"Whoa, Baek Nahee! You've gotten even prettier!"

The woman walking through the entrance had a white bob cut falling to her shoulders and wore clothes that showed off more flesh than fabric.

Baek Nahee, of course.

Even back in high school she'd been objectively striking, and time had done nothing to dim that beauty.

Pulling off a white bob — a hairstyle almost nobody can carry — and still drawing every eye in the room? Say no more.

"Hey, everyone. Really has been forever, huh."

"Baek Nahee, you been doing well? Only ever run into you at things like this."

"Right~? I should've come sooner, but I've just been so busy. Hence, here I am today."

A tiny designer handbag with a luxury logo slung over her shoulder, an imperious stride that savored — as if it were her due — the cascade of stares from her old classmates.

Genuinely unbearable to watch.

I snorted and turned my eyes away.

Minchul beside me apparently shared the sentiment, because he averted his gaze with a sour look.

"Man, she skips reunions and still gets treated like royalty."

"Right? But it didn't matter much before — reunions never really got held, did they?"

"What nonsense. They were always happening. We had one last month — I dragged myself out for that one."

"Last month?"

"Yeah. Come to think of it… I don't think I saw you there?"

"Ah, well… you probably missed me because of a family emergency."

"Ah. If that's what it was… yeah, makes sense."

I laughed it off smoothly and pretended to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠check my phone, quietly drawing a breath.

What is going on? Something's gotten tangled up badly here.

As recently as last month, the world hadn't been this dead serious about reunions — that much was certain.

But why does Minchul treat last month's reunion with the same gravity as this one?

Just what the hell was happening?

Sighing, I clutched my head.

I shouldn't have come to this after all.

Things only seemed to be growing more complicated. Fine. This called for reading the room, getting home fast, and sorting out the situation—

"Oh my, Seo Minchul? And… isn't that Kang Jinwoo? Wow, you two haven't changed a bit."

Just then, someone approached our table.

Baek Nahee — the crazy bitch herself.

She took the seat directly across from us and let out a snide little smirk.

Then she had the audacity to plant her shoe-clad feet right on top of the chair — and not a single soul could say a word to her about it.

Because her outrageous outfit devoured every ounce of objection before it could leave anyone's mouth.

Her fashion was so aggressive it was impossible to tell whether she'd come dressed or undressed; there was nowhere safe to look.

Her pants in particular — had she even put on underwear? You could see everything through them.

Truly, some things never change. Crazy then, crazy now.

That same nasty gleam in her eyes from back when she used me like a sucker.

As I sat there speechless, just staring, she tipped her chin toward the empty seat across from me with perfect, practiced ease.

"Hey, Kang Jinwoo. I'm sitting there, so set out a wet towel for me, would you?"

"What?"

"Oh, and grill the meat for my plate — cook it through and cut it up. You know I hate fatty cuts."

The exact same tone she'd used back in high school whenever she sent me running to the school store.

The brazen confidence of a girl utterly certain that I would grovel and grovel and serve her every whim.

But I set down the tongs, slouched into a deliberately insolent posture, and met her eyes dead-on.

My head was already a mess, and now you show up to pile on? Fine. You walked right into it.

Time for you to take some losses today.

"Why should I? You lose your hands or something? If you want to eat, grill it yourself."

In an instant, the air around our table froze solid.

Seo Minchul stared at me in open horror, and the pretty space between Baek Nahee's brows crumpled without mercy.

"What…? What did you just say to me…?"

It was the exact instant she drew breath to explode at me in that shrill voice.

The moment our eyes locked, both of her pupils began to quake as if an earthquake had struck behind them.

My overpowered passive — the one that made every woman who looked at me fall into blind infatuation — had slammed home, dead center into her brain.

"You… you're actually hilarious… how dare you, to me…"

"What, exactly, is so funny?"

"You… th-that… so, so what if you're good-looking, is that supposed to make everything okay?! Haah…!"

Baek Nahee's eyes went round, and she clamped her mouth shut, apparently startled by her own words.

There we go. So this is how you're going to play it.

I gazed back at her with an easy, unhurried smile.