Men Who Fell in Love #1

The body that tap-danced with us in the pouring rain at the mountain cabin belonged to Gu Hye-na, the female student who had gone missing at the start of the semester. The discovery of her headless torso was enough to flip the entire school upside down, especially with final exams right around the corner.

Rumble—rumble—.Shaaaaaaa—.

Maybe an early monsoon had arrived. Rain kept hammering down beyond the classroom windows as finals loomed. It was the perfect gloomy weather for quiet self-study.

Of course, Yeongji High was a school full of idiots, so the students rarely actually studied even when the teachers told them to. I certainly wasn't studying. The only ones in our class who were seriously hitting the books were the honor students Jeong Seok and Jeong Sojin.

I glanced toward the teacher's desk where Hong Miri sat, tapping away at her phone. It had been a while since I'd pulled the English teacher Hong Miri into the Nightmare Corridor. I'd had three English classes with her since then, and I'd watched carefully for any changes in her behavior.

There weren't any major ones. She didn't act like she knew me the way she used to. Still, something felt slightly off.

"Teacher's been making us self-study and just staring at her phone lately."

"She looks happy, though. Think she got a boyfriend?"

High schoolers were sensitive enough to pick up on the shift between childhood and adulthood. The other kids seemed to have noticed the change in Hong Miri too. Lately she'd been in a visibly good mood—humming unfamiliar tunes to herself, answering students with smiles. The others might not know why, but I was certain something had shifted inside her after becoming a player in the Nightmare Corridor.

What about Jeong Sojin, then?

I snuck a glance in her direction. She was another player who'd survived the corridor. You could even call her a survivor.

Bzzz—.

My phone vibrated quietly.

So Jeong Seok wasn't studying during self-study period either. Made sense. He hated Kim Hae-il, the prime suspect in Bong Se-yeon's murder. Jeong Seok was the kind of friend who burned with a sense of justice when it came to punishing criminals.

Having connections in the upper class really was convenient. Information came fast. In any case, it seemed best to wait for the Korean authorities to thoroughly squeeze information out of Kim Hae-il—the man who'd turned Gu Hye-na into a headless ghost.

According to Jeong Seok, though, Kim Hae-il had stayed completely silent after the first day of his arrest.

Drugs? What a scary world. A high school girl on drugs. Was that Kim Hae-il's doing too, as the church's sexton?

On a side note, Yeonggwang Church was also suffering backlash because of Kim Hae-il, the bizarre serial killer. It was inevitable once people learned a murderer had been openly attending services.

The sea of Aion. First time I'd heard of it. Thankfully, Jeong Seok loved explaining things.

Similar to Plato's Theory of Forms.

I was still a high schooler. I knew about Plato's Theory of Forms. Plato claimed there existed perfect "Forms" or "Ideas," and that the world we lived in was merely shadows of those perfect concepts. In other words, the phone I was looking at was just a shadow of the true Phone that existed in some higher dimension.

The photo showed a note Jeong Seok had copied into his notebook.

The Allegory of the Cave was one of Plato's famous metaphors. Humans were like prisoners chained inside a cave, facing the wall, unable to turn their heads. A fire burned behind them, and all they could see were the shadows cast on the wall. Those shadows—whether of animals or people—were the only reality the prisoners knew.

If the chains were suddenly broken and the prisoner discovered that everything he'd seen was merely shadows, that real objects and living beings ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠existed in three dimensions? He would want to seek out that higher truth.

That higher truth was the world of perfect Forms, while the shadows represented our incomplete material world. That was Plato's Theory of Forms.

Whether the "prisoner in the cave" mentioned in the note we found in the corridor was related to this... I couldn't say for sure.

"Hmm."

"So what's the conclusion? Stop with the long lecture and just give me the bottom line."

When he put it that way, it was more than a connection. It was practically taken straight from the concept.

"......"

I closed my eyes and tried to picture it. The massive spiritual water vein flowing beneath Gaeryong City—a sea. I tried to feel its unfathomable depth and eternity. Of course, I felt absolutely nothing.

The whole school was doing nothing but self-study. The vice principal and principal were busy dealing with reporters, and the teachers at Yeongji High had never been particularly passionate about education anyway. The students were just as bad.

"Hey."

Bong Jiyeon, for example, was a proper delinquent leader. After school, she came all the way to Class D and called for someone.

"You. Yeah, you. Yang Ju-hui's lackey. Ha Yeong-won."

"What?"

Ever since the wild tap-dancing incident at the Gaeryong Mountain Cabin, Bong Jiyeon had been avoiding us like she was scared. Yet here she was after school, waiting for me.

"...We didn't just dream that, right?" ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she asked quietly.

It seemed the experience of fighting Gu Hye-na's body still didn't feel real to her. The police had concluded we'd suffered hallucinations from carbon monoxide produced by the campfire in the sealed cabin. But what we'd experienced was undeniably real. Bong Jiyeon still seemed to be wavering.

"...They caught the culprit again, so we'll be able to get my sister back this time, right? We'll make him confess where he hid her head. My sister..."

"I... don't really know about that stuff. Wouldn't it be better to ask Jeong Seok? Of course I hope everything works out well."

Bong Jiyeon narrowed her eyes and glared at me slightly. She looked like she had a lot to say but was holding back. Soon Yang Ju-hui, finished with her after-school preparations, burst into the hallway.

"What are you two whispering about? Got something going on?"

"What are you talking about? I like rich guys. Yeong-won's house is dirt poor, isn't it?"

"That's true. My house is pretty poor."

I nodded frantically, terrified that Bong Jiyeon might start liking me. But she grabbed my hand and turned my palm upward.

"Still, your money line is really long and straight. You might become rich later?"

Palm reading. Out of nowhere.

Yang Ju-hui frowned and cut in.

"Hey, Bong Jiyeon. Since when are you into palm reading? And what are you doing here anyway? Waiting for us in the hallway? Are you lonely because you're being ostracized in Class C? Does this big sis need to play with you?"

Yang Ju-hui and Bong Jiyeon bickered like always. They really got along well.

"Hey. Wait just a little longer. Let's go home with Da-hui from Class A too. We promised to look at cosmetics together on the way home. And Da-hui knows a great tarot place! She says it reads love luck amazingly!"

"Tarot my ass. Bong Jiyeon, you've completely lost it with your palm reading and tarot. That's all bullshit. They're just trying to scam empty-headed girls like you out of money!"

"What? Don't you know statistics? Face reading and fortune telling are all based on statistics!"

In the few days since I'd last seen her, Bong Jiyeon seemed to have become a believer in palm reading, tarot, and other superstitions. Then again, most girls went crazy for things like MBTI, Four Pillars of Destiny, and horoscopes.

Anyway, it was a girls' gathering. No room for a guy like me to butt in. Actually, tonight was the day we could enter the Nightmare Corridor. It would be good to discuss it beforehand... but since we had phones, we'd have to talk in the group chat.

Jeong Seok had already gone home quickly to do more independent investigation on Kim Hae-il. I ended up walking home alone for the first time in a while, only to get caught by a scary older girl right at the school gate.

"Hey. You."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You. It's you, right?"

She was the least attractive girl in Kwon Su-ho's crew. Park Eun-jeong. A plain-faced delinquent without any makeup.

"You're the one who found Gu Hye-na. I knew her through my older friend's cousin's friend."

...Wasn't that basically a complete stranger? Still, word must have gotten out somewhere that I was the one who'd discovered Gu Hye-na's torso.

This was going to be incredibly annoying.

"I... don't really know anything about that."

"Don't even think about lying. You know Su-ho oppa, right? Su-ho oppa can detect lies like it's nothing. You. Come with me to see Su-ho oppa."

Park Eun-jeong suddenly grabbed my hand. Her hand was soft and warm, which only made me more flustered.

"Why me?"

What would happen if I went with her? Would I get beaten up? No, the atmosphere didn't seem that bad.

"Gu Hye-na was one of Su-ho's acquaintances. He has a lot of questions for you. By the way, Su-ho oppa has tons of girlfriends and acquaintances. From what I've seen, at least ten. There were even celebrities."

Impressive. So this was what a third-generation chaebol heir was like. And this Park Eun-jeong kept spewing TMI without pause.

It was probably because of that quirk. For me, though, this was actually a good opportunity.

"That Su-ho oppa... or hyung? What do you mean when you say Su-ho hyung can detect every lie?"

"It's true. Hard to believe, right? He can see through every single lie. He's like a real master. Never been wrong. Not even once. He's basically a superhuman."

Was it really possible for a person to detect every lie? If so, that truly was a superpower. If I'd heard this last year, I would've said "Stop bullshitting." But in a world where ghosts actually existed, there was no reason such an ability couldn't be real.

A real-life superhuman... Maybe he was a Watcher. Or even a Hero.

Should I avoid this meeting? Or should I confront it head-on?

I thought about it for a long time and finally reached a conclusion.