Lee Shin. I'll Put Him In.

Dorm room 701.

I came home with Seoa.

"Hello, Seoa unnie."

"Waaaah! Seoa-nnie!!"

"Hey, kids! Have you been good?"

The two little ones greeted Seoa, and she was mid-bright smile when her eyes suddenly rolled off to the side.

"………Hoh."

Ju Eunseong was wearing a face of extreme interest. He looked back and forth between me and Seoa, then started trying to lure the kids away.

"Yulha. Arin. How about sleeping over at Teacher Eunseong's place tonight?"

"Eunseong-ni Teacher-ni house! Sounds fun!"

"No. Director said even if we're close, we shouldn't just go following people."

As expected of Baek Yulha.

A true daughter of the streets. I really can't wait to see how she grows up.

Ju Eunseong made a disappointed noise.

"Well, whatever. The adults will figure something out. I thought Seoa was the timid type, but I've got a new respect for her."

"Huh!? W-what are you talking about. I really don't know what you meeean…"

I gave Ju Eunseong a light pat on the shoulder.

"Eunseong. You worked hard all day. Next time I'll buy you a drink."

"Just give me cash. By the way, who lives next door? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠It's been quiet all day."

"Tatiana."

"………Hoooooh."

Ju Eunseong stopped even trying to hide it, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Those eyes. Classic dopamine addict.

"What. You interested in Tatiana?"

"Nah. Unfortunately, my wife lives inside a screen."

"That romance fantasy game again, huh. How pretty can she be. Maybe I should try it sometime."

"Freyla is a real angel. My official wife is Freyla…"

Leave it to an otaku to start spouting nonsense only he understands.

"Well, anyway. Opportunity belongs to whoever grabs it."

Ju Eunseong nodded toward Seoa, then brushed past me looking supremely satisfied with himself.

"You little… gihap!"

What gihap. I was literally just going to put her to bed and send her home.

How to put it.

It felt like a middle-aged guy old enough to know better was trying to push along a fresh young romance.

Weirdly like a meddling dad…

Ju Eunseong opened the front door and left.

About ten minutes later, I was putting the kids to bed.

"Uuu… I wanted to play with Seoa-nnie mooore…"

"Jang Arin, enough. Seoa unnie said she's going to come over a lot from now on."

"For realsies?"

Seoa said she'd come over a lot? That was news to me.

When I turned to look, Yu Seoa immediately averted her eyes.

"O-oppa. Can I wash up first?"

"Sure."

Something about that line felt… loaded.

I handed her a towel and pointed toward the bedroom.

"Sleep in there. I'll take the sofa."

"Huh? …O-okay."

Seoa's energy seemed to deflate all of a sudden.

Look, I want to sleep holding someone too. But we're not anything to each other, so we can't. The kids are in the room across the hall.

"Sleep warm. See you in the morning."

"T-that movie we watched earlier was scary though…"

"Leave the light on."

"………Fine."

Thump.

Yu Seoa pouted, gave my shoulder a light shove, and went inside.

……….

For some reason, Magnum was being unusually quiet tonight.

Ugh, what an idiot.

Even Pookjjiki on top of the fridge was muttering to itself.

You look in a mirror lately?

Dorm room 702.

Dim light washed over the living room. With barely any furniture to speak of, the place felt barren and cold.

Tatiana stared down at her cup ramen with dead fish eyes.

What was going on next door right about now.

Not that it was any of her business. She and Lee Shin weren't anything to each other, and Yu Seoa and Lee Shin were childhood friends, after all.

They're both adults. They can handle themselves.

But Tatiana Karstein was not an honest person.

The moment she'd run into Lee Shin by chance at the dorm entrance, her heart had dropped clean out of her chest.

Seeing him with Yu Seoa had made her throat feel tight for no good reason, and the second she learned he lived next door, her mood had lifted for equally no good reason.

………Why?

She asked herself, but no answer came.

She had fallen into this world at thirteen.

With no relatives and no acquaintances, the Management Bureau had taken her in, and for ten years since then she had been alone.

Dating experience? None. Her top priority had always been getting home.

Her body and her sense of responsibility had grown up fine, but on the inside Tatiana was still immature, and the feelings she was having now were like a fog-shrouded sea.

For all I know, Lee Shin and Yu Seoa are already…

Knock knock.

Right in the middle of her gloomy thoughts, someone came calling.

"…Yes. Coming."

Tatiana opened the door with a lifeless face, and standing right in front of her was a man she was not particularly fond of.

"Sorry to bother you so late, Chief Karstein."

Senior Researcher Ju Eunseong?

Tatiana's brow furrowed.

"How did you know I live here?"

"I was next door until just a minute ago. Lee Shin told me."

Her ears perked up.

The moment she heard Lee Shin's name, Tatiana leaned her upper body forward without even realizing it.

"…Ah."

"Whoa. That's a solid reaction. Interested in Lee Shin, are we?"

"…You show up in the middle of the night ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just to mess with me? Get lost."

Right before she could slam the door in his face, Ju Eunseong asked with a sly grin,

"Want some help?"

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing's going to happen between Lee Shin and Seoa tonight. But there's no guarantee it'll stay that way forever."

Tatiana stared at Ju Eunseong for a moment.

This bastard.

Keeps smirking like he knows everything? Fine. She'd hear him out.

"Come in. Fair warning—if you've got any weird ideas about me…"

"No chance of that. I've already given my heart to someone."

"Hmm. So you have a girlfriend."

"Girlfriend, huh. I am pursuing an ideal, yes. Just not a person from reality."

What the hell was that supposed to mean.

Didn't matter. Tatiana was the captain of a Containment Special Task Force either way.

If he tries anything stupid, I can subdue him in an instant.

But Ju Eunseong truly did nothing at all. He didn't even sit down—he went straight to the point.

"Chief. You're a complete beginner, right?"

"Eh? Wait a second."

"Repeat after me. Love is something you seize."

"Why would I…"

"There are two golden rules. First: be honest about your own feelings. Second: use the time you'd spend protecting your pride to take one more step toward the other person instead."

W-what is this guy.

Is he some kind of player? What is he even talking about all of a sudden?

When she stared at him in pure bewilderment, Ju Eunseong spoke with supreme pride.

"Do you have any idea how many thousands of dating sims I've cleared?"

Ah. So he was a shut-in expert.

The lecture that followed was surprisingly useful.

He taught her carefully, one thing at a time, adjusting to her level like he was instructing a small child.

"…Senior Ju Eunseong. This is moving way too fast. What does 'laugh a lot and react well when a man talks' even mean."

"Review that later. We don't have time for this. Next, tip 9987. Inviting a man over when you're home alone. First, clean this entire pigsty of a room from top to bottom."

She flinched.

With her domestic skills in ruins, Tatiana had been hit square in the bullseye.

"…Clean my room? What are you, my dad?"

"If I had a daughter like you, Chief, I think I'd sigh a lot. Worried I couldn't marry her off."

Dad and daughter.

Tatiana fell silent for a moment.

That conversation just now… a weird sense of déjà vu…

The strange feeling scattered and faded almost as soon as it came.

An hour later, when the special lecture on how to seduce Lee Shin was over, Ju Eunseong stood up without any further commentary.

Tatiana watched his back with suspicious eyes.

Heading home, was he.

"…Senior Ju Eunseong. Why did you even come here? Assistant Researcher Yu Seoa is already in the picture, so why help me?"

"Because it's fun. Watching women fight over one man—my dopamine circuits practically melt."

"Is something wrong with your head?"

"Completely broken. That's why I can't be satisfied with reality."

He didn't lose a single round of banter.

Then the sly grin on Ju Eunseong's face gradually grew serious.

"…Having a wide range of experiences as you live is important. Whatever they may be. Romance included."

"You haven't dated either, have you, Senior?"

"I date in my own way."

Meaning meeting a woman who exists as data on a monitor, then.

She couldn't understand it.

…But it wasn't completely impossible, either.

It could be an Objet.

Objects that connect world to world. Anomalous entities the Management Bureau classified as Beta-class at minimum.

There were no restrictions on their form or method of operation.

Some had physical substance, like Line 1; others were phenomena, like the no-clip of the Backrooms.

Or, like what had happened to Lee Shin's older brother, they could be cultural media such as games.

In which case, Ju Eunseong might actually be making contact with another real world.

Tatiana called him back one last time.

"…Senior Ju Eunseong. Just in case, I should say this."

"Ah, you mean an Objet. Don't worry. I'm a senior researcher in the Phenomenology Department, aren't I?"

Ju Eunseong smiled amiably and left room 702.

Left alone, Tatiana sank into thought for a moment.

Well. He's got the seniority. He wouldn't touch an Objet without knowing what he was doing.

An Objet.

A lonely smile crossed her face.

Tatiana still hadn't found an Objet that led back to her own world.

It had already been ten years since she joined the Management Bureau.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

She had greeted winter ten times in this alien world.

Where was the Objet that would take her home.

…Don't rush. I'll find it. I will.

First, solve the things right in front of her, one at a time.

Tatiana skimmed through Ju Eunseong's lecture notes.

This was it.

Tatiana pulled out her Special Task Force mission terminal. Upper command had said a large-scale strike operation was being planned for tomorrow.

Multiple Containment Special Task Forces would simultaneously strike hostile groups in various countries.

How did she know about a mission that hadn't even been delivered yet?

Because the operational planner for the 82nd Wide-Area Containment Zone—the Republic of Korea—was Tatiana herself.

"…I'll need to change the team assignments."

Put Containment Special Task Force Paradise Lost and Yshin-ching-ui in the same group.

Conveniently, Lee Shin was a new Containment Special Task Force member who needed attention and guidance, so the justification was solid.

This was power.

"Good. I've put Lee Shin in our group."

Tatiana glanced toward room 701 and allowed herself a small smile.

Tomorrow, in actual combat, Tatiana would give Lee Shin close personal instruction.

Yu Seoa, a pure office worker, would just be watching from the safety of the command and control room.

At the same time, room 701.

Lee Shin sat up on the sofa.

"Four sleep paralyses in a row…"

He'd managed to escape somehow by praying to the Monkey Wrench of Nazareth.

A chill was seeping out of the wall on the 702 side—something about that felt connected.

"I-is that frost?"

Was Tatiana running some kind of devil-worship ritual over there?

Just my luck that I woke up.

Might as well check his phone for a bit.

Lee Shin opened his DMs with Ju Eunseong.

In the dark living room, Lee Shin studied his phone carefully.

Blue hair that fell to her waist, gentle eyes filled with green irises. A chest of overwhelming size that could humble a man.

She looked exactly like a romance fantasy heroine. Probably written as some noble young lady.

"She is pretty, I'll give her that."

Lee Shin held the phone closer and looked again.

Weirdly looks like Tatiana. Even similar to that gloomy, damp expression Tatiana makes sometimes.

Same eye color, too?

Lee Shin paused for a moment.

The name was… Freyla Karstein.

Karstein.

Tatiana Karstein?

Weird. He'd have to ask her about it tomorrow.