Chapter 53: Ex-Girlfriend
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 53: Ex-Girlfriend
It was so obvious he was trying to protect me that it was giving me a headache.
“Gasp, it’s Seo-ho! Ha Seo-ho! This is insane. I must be dreaming.”
“I hit the jackpot! The jackpot!”
Everyone else in my class, except for me, was ecstatic that Seo-ho was their instructor.
Why am I the only one who can’t be happy?
“Your boy Seo-ho is trying to act like a proper little brother. You should cut him some slack.”
Only Baeksan, a third party to all this, was slapping his knee and cackling.
‘Looks like he’s blaming himself for causing me trouble.’
As an S-rank hunter, Seo-ho was a busy man.
For someone like him to go out of his way to come to the Hunter Training Academy for me must mean he thought I had suffered because of him.
He’s always been the responsible type.
He probably wanted to help in any way he could, at least within his means.
‘Well, his intentions are good, at least.’
Scolding him too much wouldn't be very brotherly of me.
“Class C, please gather over here.”
Just then, Seo-ho started calling people over.
Those who had confirmed they were in Class C scurried over to Seo-ho. After looking at everyone, his eyes met mine.
I could clearly picture how much I’d suffer for the next two weeks if Seo-ho acknowledged me, so I put a finger to my lips, asking him to keep quiet.
Seo-ho, taking the hint, nodded and began explaining the academy's schedule to the group.
Perhaps because it was none other than the Snow Mountain Wolf, Ha Seo-ho, speaking, everyone listened intently with sparkling eyes.
Seeing him like this, I was reminded of just how famous he really was.
After all, I knew him not as Ha Seo-ho the Snow Mountain Wolf, but as Si-ho's older brother.
“I-Instructor Seo-ho! C-Can I get a picture?”
“That won’t be possible.”
I’d never seen him be so sharp before.
Would he turn me down if I asked for a picture too?
I was curious, but I held back.
After that, we were immediately guided to the dormitories.
The first day was mostly dedicated to explanations about supply distribution and facility locations, so there wasn't much to do.
“Hello. Looks like we’re in the same class.”
As I was following Seo-ho toward the dorms, a voice from my side made me turn my head.
It was the man who had been sitting next to me a little while ago.
So we were in the same class.
“Ah, yes, it seems so.”
“Nice to meet you. Shall we introduce ourselves? I'm Eunnamu.”
Eunnamu. That was a pretty unusual name.
“Eunnamu? Wait, hey, hey, why is she here?”
The moment I was about to respond and give my name, Baeksan, who had been walking ahead, whipped his head around.
“Damn it, she changed her face, and her gender… Hey! Kang Ha-chan, whatever you do, don't get close to this woman!”
What was with the sudden outburst?
No, more importantly, a woman?
This person is a man.
I was momentarily flustered, but I had to introduce myself first, so I answered.
“I'm Kang Ha-chan.”
“Ha-chan, Ha-chan. That's an interesting name.”
Who was he to talk about interesting names?
“If you combine our names, it becomes 'Ha-chan is a tree.' [Ha-chan + Eunnamu. 'namu' means tree.] Funny.”
Though I couldn't hear any laughter in his voice.
With a somewhat awkward smile, Eunnamu said that and turned away from me.
“And I was right, you do know the Snow Mountain Wolf.”
The moment I heard that, my body stiffened.
For some reason, even before Baeksan's warning, there was something unsettling about Eunnamu's retreating figure.
“Baeksan, what's going on?”
Since I was standing a bit behind in the line, I asked quietly so others wouldn't hear. Baeksan stood with his arms crossed, a displeased look on his face.
“Don't try to find out. It's better if you don't know.”
“Don't you know basic human psychology? Saying it like that just makes me curious enough to approach her without thinking.”
“Damn it.”
Baeksan ground his teeth and let out a long sigh.
“Before I regressed, there was one person, and only one, that you failed to save.”
Someone I failed to save?
As I looked at Baeksan with a puzzled expression, he frowned as if reluctant to speak, but then finally told me.
“Maybe it's because of me, but she has no connection to the current you. But… well.”
Finally, he confessed.
“She's your ex-girlfriend from before my regression.”
Apparently, I had a girlfriend at some point without even knowing it.
*
“So, tell me the details.”
After being assigned a dorm room.
To avoid looking strange to my roommate, I lay on the top bunk with my phone to my ear.
Looking at me, Baeksan clicked his tongue before answering my question.
“This is just what you told me. You said she was a girl you dated when you were around seventeen. You'd known each other since middle school, I think.”
“Was the me from your world some kind of social butterfly?”
“Is that really what's important right now?”
A girlfriend.
I thought they were mythical creatures, but I guess even I had a match back then.
“And she's also the one who gave you your trauma.”
“Trauma?”
“Eunnamu was swept up in a dimensional shift and disappeared. Right in front of you.”
“Huh?”
“And then she came back the next day.”
The flow of time between dimensions is different.
Just like with Orjia, who returned to find the Joseon Dynasty had become the modern era.
Conversely, no matter how much time passed over there, it was possible for only a little time to have passed here.
“And I heard that when you went to see her, she broke up with you on the spot. You said you'd only been dating for a day.”
“What? How did the story suddenly turn out like that?”
I suddenly felt sorry for the me who lived in Baeksan's world.
To be dumped just one day after starting to date a girl you've known since middle school.
It might not have been just one day for Eunnamu, but for the me in that world, it was, so the shock must have been immense.
“That's not the real problem. Eunnamu disappeared after that, and when she reappeared at the age of twenty, she started hunting down and killing returnees.”
“What?”
I stared at Baeksan, my expression stunned.
“Your sister, Kang Ma-ri, was one of her targets. The result was Ma-ri's victory, but Eunnamu died. That also happened right in front of you.”
I gaped.
My expression must have been a mixture of confusion.
“…Baeksan, why did you say Eunnamu's face and gender had changed?”
“Because I saw you carrying her picture in your wallet and asked about it. After that, you never dated anyone again. No, it's more like you couldn't.”
So that was the trauma.
But there was something strange.
“I don't think I've ever heard about a returnee hunting and killing other returnees. Besides, I've never heard the name Eunnamu before.”
“I don't know about that part. The future has changed. Maybe because Ma-ri disappeared, you went to a different middle school and never met her.”
To think that just my sister's disappearance could change things that much.
The butterfly effect really must be real.
“And it's possible the story only circulated among returnees. It's not like ordinary people would know about their affairs.”
“So, does that mean she might still be hunting and killing returnees now?”
“She might be. That's why I told you not to get close to her. You've got more than a few returnees around you.”
Now Baeksan's warning was starting to make sense.
“I'm telling you again, don't even think about approaching her. Stay away, no matter what. She was already dead by the time I returned, but she had murdered six returnees.”
Six people.
That was a staggering number.
“And the fact that she's changed her face is suspicious too.”
“Couldn't that be her real face? Or maybe it's just someone else with the same name.”
“No, that's definitely not her real face. I could feel a faint aura flowing over it. And do you really think there's another person with a name as unusual as Eunnamu? Especially one who's also changed their face?”
That had a point.
Baeksan boasted that no one less skilled than him would ever be able to tell.
In any case, to summarize Baeksan's story, Eunnamu was actually a woman who had changed her face and come to the Hunter Training Academy.
“Just how much has changed?”
As he said this, Baeksan's expression darkened, as if he was bothered by how much the future had changed because of him.
“It's fine. Who knows? Maybe something else changed and she's not going around assassinating people anymore.”
“Still, be on your guard.”
“I will.”
I had no intention of getting close to danger either.
And so, the first day at the Hunter Academy came to a close.
But as some people know, there are fates you get entangled in no matter how hard you try to avoid them.
“Ugh!”
The next day, Oh Cheol-gi, the trainee sharing my room, started complaining of a stomachache.
When I rushed him to the nurse's office, the nurse said something absurd.
“I think it's appendicitis. Let's get him to a hospital for a proper examination.”
Hunters can get appendicitis?
It seemed he wasn't a very high-rank hunter, as he was immediately transferred to the hospital.
Suddenly finding myself alone in the room, I flopped down on the top bunk.
Well, having the room to myself is nice.
Knock, knock—
Just as I was enjoying the comfortable room, a sudden knock forced me to sit up.
“Yes?”
The moment I opened the door, I saw a dorm supervisor and…
‘Eunnamu.’
Eunnamu, who was supposedly a woman but was disguised as a man, was standing there.
I could already hear Baeksan screaming beside me, but I did my best to ignore him and asked.
“How can I help you?”
“Ah, trainee Oh Cheol-gi was just taken away for appendicitis, wasn't he?”
I had a bad feeling about this.
“The number of male students is odd, so trainee Eunnamu has been using a room alone. We were hoping to combine the rooms, would that be alright with you?”
Why do things always turn out like this?
Though it was a coincidence, I felt a slight throb in my head, but I couldn't find a reason to refuse.
From the Hunter Training Academy's perspective, it was obviously easier to manage students if they shared rooms, so of course they'd want to put them together.
Besides, my room was originally a double, so if I had a reason to object, I wouldn't have taken a double room in the first place.
“Refuse! Tell them you caused the appendicitis, that your ability is to cause inflammation in everyone within a one-meter radius!”
What kind of ability is that?
Ignoring the utterly unhelpful Baeksan, I could only give a bitter smile.
“Yes, come on in.”
“Haha, thank you. Well then, trainee Eunnamu, please go in.”
As the dorm supervisor spoke kindly, Eunnamu gave me a slight bow and came inside.
Carrying his luggage in his arms, Eunnamu entered and gave me a languid smile.
“Nice to see you again.”
“You too.”
“It seems this has become the 'Ha-chan is a tree' room after all.”
Eunnamu was still smiling at things I couldn't understand.
What exactly did the other me see in this person?
Morning was almost over and we had to get to class soon, so Eunnamu seemed to put off unpacking, simply tossing his clothes into the personal locker next to the bed.
As I was staring blankly at him, Eunnamu closed the locker door and turned to face me.
“Come to think of it, we don't know each other's ages. Ha-chan-ssi, how old are you?”
“I'm twenty-six. What about you, Eunnamu-ssi?”
“We're the same age. How about we drop the formalities? We'll be sharing a room for two weeks, after all.”
Damn it. At this rate, I have a feeling we're going to get tangled up with no way out.
I felt troubled for a moment, but once again, I had no reason to refuse.
It would be weird to refuse when someone the same age asks to speak casually.
“Alright. Let's get along, Eunnamu.”
And Baeksan started getting even louder.