Hello. It's Me
The moment the crimson quest window bloomed into existence, the bus slammed to a halt and the world lurched sideways. Startled cries from the passengers and a string of curses from the driver washed over my ears.
Even after the bus started moving again—even after everyone else had gone back to acting like nothing had happened—I couldn't tear my gaze from the window floating in front of me.
— Visit the abandoned building (0/1)
— Conversation with Yoon Hyeon-min (0/1)
The quest had dropped on me so suddenly that my brain felt like it was short-circuiting. Yoon Hyeon-min? Out of nowhere? After everything that had happened, I'd been certain our paths would never cross again.
Why?
Alright. Let's think this through. To meet Yoon Hyeon-min, I had to go to an abandoned building? I tapped open the quest details, and an address appeared.
Yoon Hyeon-min...
The instant his name surfaced, my thoughts tangled themselves into knots all over again. I thought it was over.
Still, a quest wouldn't have appeared without a reason. I didn't know what that reason was, but it wouldn't have sent me just to say hello.
More than that—why was Yoon Hyeon-min inside an abandoned building?
That was the question that wouldn't let go. Why an abandoned building, of all places? One thing was certain: whatever this was, it wasn't good. None of it made any sense, but for now, the only thing I could do was move.
The instant the bus pulled into the next stop, I scrambled off and climbed into a taxi waiting at the curb. I recited the address from the system window to the driver.
"You're going there?"
The driver glanced back at me, looking puzzled.
"Why would you want to go there, though? It's out in the middle of nowhere. Barely anyone around."
I kept my mouth shut. A silent smile was all the answer I gave.
"Or is it a YouTube thing? Abandoned house exploration, something like that?"
I answered the chatty driver with an awkward laugh. The fact that I was going to meet a person and not a ghost somehow felt even more terrifying.
It'll be fine.
I took a breath and tried to talk myself down. I didn't even know what "fine" was supposed to mean, but it would be fine. I opened and closed my fist, wiping my damp palms on my pants. I kept telling myself I'd be okay, but some part of me already knew. This wasn't going to be ordinary.
"Kid, you look pale. You sure you're alright?"
I waved him off, insisting I was fine. Not long after, the taxi stopped. I handed over some bills from my wallet and stepped out.
"Be careful, kid."
With that, the taxi pulled away. I turned my head and looked up. An abandoned building loomed there, radiating an eerie atmosphere. Anyone could tell it was in bad shape. It looked like it had been left to rot for a long time.
Yoon Hyeon-min is in there?
The only thought in my head was: why?
The moment I stepped inside, a wave of dust hit me in the face. I pinched my nose shut and looked around. Now I had to find Yoon Hyeon-min. The system window only listed the building's address—nothing about where inside.
"Where the hell is he..."
As I searched the building, a thought suddenly occurred to me. Maybe he was on the rooftop. The moment that idea formed, my feet started moving on their own, for reasons I couldn't explain.
"Yoon Hyeon-min!"
When I reached the rooftop, I saw Yoon Hyeon-min's back as he stood at the edge of the building.
The notification chimed. The quest was complete, but I couldn't even begin to guess why Yoon Hyeon-min was standing on this rooftop. Honestly, there weren't many reasons a person would climb onto the roof of a creepy abandoned building. I'd been praying the whole way up that it wasn't that kind of reason.
But looking at him now...
"What are you thinking?"
Yoon Hyeon-min turned around and smiled at me.
"You finally made it. Do Won-woo. Or should I call you Moon Do-hyun?"
He knew my real name. Which meant the system had told him, of course.
Damn system.
At first, I'd believed the system existed to help me. After everything that had happened, I'd long since given up on that idea. To the system, I'm just a chess piece. Same as Won Ji-an. Same as everyone else. Toys for it to play with.
I took a step forward, trying to stop him.
"Don't do this. Let's talk."
Yoon Hyeon-min laughed. A laugh that sounded like he'd lost his mind.
"You ruined my life."
"..."
"If you'd never shown up, the villain of this story never would have changed."
My head throbbed. I'd heard plenty of people say their lives were ruined, but I'd never seen it take a form this extreme, right in front of me. And to have him say it was because of me.
Ah... so I'm the one who did this to Yoon Hyeon-min, too.
I shook my head. No. Feeling guilty right now wouldn't change a thing. And that guilt itself was probably exactly what the system wanted. It pretended to help us while pulling every string from behind, controlling everything, existing only to torment us.
"You don't think you bear any responsibility?"
I clenched my fist and forced the words out.
"What?"
"Your life falling apart—you don't think any of that's on you?"
The moment he heard that, Yoon Hyeon-min's face twisted.
"Fuck, you're saying that right now?"
"And what situation is this, exactly?"
My hand trembled in my pocket, but my voice was strangely calm. Or maybe I was just working desperately to sound that way.
"The one where you pin your entire ruined life on me and try to kill yourself?"
Yoon Hyeon-min burst out laughing.
"Pin it on you? Me?"
Then he glared at me with bloodshot eyes and shouted.
"If you'd never shown up—if you hadn't rewritten this fucking novel—I could have been loved too!"
I bit down hard on my lip.
"No."
"...What?"
"You ruined yourself."
Yoon Hyeon-min let out a disbelieving scoff.
"Are you insane? That's what you say to someone about to jump to their death? What the hell is wrong with you? And you still claim you're not the villain?"
I supposed, from Yoon Hyeon-min's perspective, I was as good as the villain. But it was the same for me.
"If you threaten me with your own life—if you get me to admit that every reason you're unhappy was me—will that make you feel better?"
Yoon Hyeon-min's pupils wavered.
"I'm sorry, but I come first. You dying, you threatening me with death—none of that means I have to take the blame for everything."
The whole time I spoke, the fist clenched in my pocket wouldn't stop shaking.
"What did I do wrong? If my predetermined fate was to be the villain, was I just supposed to die as one? All I did was everything I could to change my fate!"
I found myself shouting, almost screaming.
"When this world's degree of freedom went up, variables became inevitable. Predetermined fates had to change. And in the middle of all that upheaval, you just did whatever the hell you wanted! Don't pin it all on me!"
Silence fell. We stared at each other. Neither of us said a word. Yoon Hyeon-min just glared at me with bloodshot eyes.
"So it's all my fault? That's what you say to someone who's about to die?"
Same refrain. The exact same thing as before. At this point, I was going to lose it too.
"So what if you die?"
"What?"
"Did you think if you said you were going to die, I'd get on my knees, apologize, and take all the blame? Why would I?"
Words I'd never normally let out of my mouth came pouring out.
"What's the big deal about dying in a world like this? I've already died once. And they told me if I don't debut this time, I'll die again. When people are talking about living and dying, so what if you die?"
That wasn't the truth. I was saying all this, but in reality my head was about to explode. Someone dying because of me. There was no way I could bear that. I wanted to tell him not to die. But why couldn't I? Maybe I just couldn't stand having all my effort denied. Was it wrong to try to change a predetermined fate? Did stepping outside the role I'd been given make me a bad person?
"You want me to die, don't you?"
I couldn't answer him. I should have said no. But my mouth wouldn't open, as if it had frozen shut.
"Right. In the end, you'd be fine if I disappeared. That's why you pushed me out of the debut lineup, isn't it?"
"..."
"You believe you're a good person. You think you can escape being the villain. But you're still the villain."
Yoon Hyeon-min added one last thing.
"Because you don't give a shit who suffers as long as you get to climb higher."
With that, he turned his back and looked out over the edge of the building. I should have stopped him then. Run over, drag him back, do something. But my feet wouldn't move. The thought crept in that maybe, just maybe, Yoon Hyeon-min was right. At least to him, I really was the villain.
Just as Yoon Hyeon-min was about to take a step, someone brushed past me.
Won Ji-an...?
Won Ji-an sprinted forward, grabbed Yoon Hyeon-min's arm, and yanked him back.
"How did you even get here..."
"I got one too. A quest."
Yoon Hyeon-min thrashed in Won Ji-an's grip, screaming.
"You're the same! You're all the same! You all wanted to ruin me, you pieces of shit!"
Won Ji-an spun around and shouted at me as I stood there, frozen.
"What are you doing?!"
"Huh?"
"Hurry—erase his memories! If we wipe the memories he got from the system..."
Ah. Right. That existed.
"What?"
Yoon Hyeon-min looked confused at first, then seemed to grasp the situation and recoiled in horror.
"What are you trying to do to me?! You lunatics. Wipe my memories? What?"
"Do Won-woo, hurry!"
My hand trembled as I reached for the system window. Chaos was unfolding right in front of my face, and in the middle of it I had to erase someone's memories. Just as I was about to press the button, Yoon Hyeon-min suddenly stopped screaming.
In the abrupt silence, Won Ji-an looked at him, puzzled.
The bloodshot, unhinged look in Yoon Hyeon-min's eyes had changed. The atmosphere was completely different from a moment ago. Don't tell me...
It had appeared again. That unidentified entity.