Chapter 76: Childhood Friend Jin Seol-hyang
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 76: Childhood Friend Jin Seol-hyang
“Aaah?”
Tilting her head slightly, she made a sound as if shyly urging me on.
The effect was devastating, so to spare her any more embarrassment, I accepted the piece of pork cutlet.
“Heeheehee.”
Seol-hyang covered her mouth and let out a laugh, as if she found the whole thing amusing.
After we finished our meal, Seol-hyang and I began walking through the university grounds again.
Though it was just past noon, the summer sun was still hot, so we stuck to the shade as we walked.
We wandered through various lecture halls and sat in on classes, but the lessons didn't really register.
It was because our hands were still clasped together, ever since I had offered mine at her request.
This felt different from when Ji-eun would playfully grab my hand or wrap her arm around mine.
Is this the difference between an adult and a minor?
“What do you think, after spending a day at the university?”
Before I knew it, the sun was beginning to set, and the time was approaching six o’clock.
The summer days were long, but time still passed quickly.
“Yeah, it was fun. Maybe because I was with you, Ha-chan.”
Hearing my question, Seol-hyang squeezed my hand a little tighter and smiled.
“What was it like when you were in college, Ha-chan?”
When I was in college, huh?
I briefly recalled my university days.
“I think I lived a much harder, more exhausting life than I do now.”
Even though I’ve been incredibly busy lately with Baeksan’s training and my work at the company.
How should I put it? Back then, I had even less breathing room than I do now.
To maintain relationships, you have to grab drinks with friends, go to PC bangs, and do all sorts of things.
But at the time, I was so busy just trying to get through each day that I couldn't build any relationships.
So naturally, everyone drifted away.
That’s just how people are. There has to be some give and take.
Even people who were kind to me at first would grow distant once they realized I was struggling just to meet up with them.
That’s why I was so lonely during my university days.
Maybe that’s why I crumbled so easily when Kwak Sa-yeon made that false sexual harassment accusation.
Kwak Sa-yeon was part of the reason I wasted five years lost in a game, but I had my own problems, too.
“That’s why I like the present more.”
Ahyu, who helped me the most in returning to reality.
Seol-hyang, who is right beside me now.
Orjia, Kkotbi, Ji-eun, Si-ho, and Seo-ho.
And finally, that guy Baeksan.
My life has changed in a way that’s completely different from before.
And I liked this life.
So much so that I wanted to protect it with everything I had.
“Then what about when you were younger?”
When I was younger.
Hearing that, I turned to look at Seol-hyang.
Her face, illuminated by the slightly setting sun, was still as beautiful as a goddess’s.
“Well, honestly, it was tough. After what happened to my sister, there wasn’t really anyone around to help.”
My family was very small, on both my father’s and mother’s sides.
Actually, on my father’s side, there was no one.
My father had told me his parents passed away a long time ago, and he had no other family.
My mother had practically cut ties with her family.
I vaguely remember hearing it was because she wanted to marry my father, but it was a hazy memory from elementary school.
At this point, even my parents’ faces have become a blur.
All I could recall was the faint image of their smiling faces. Those memories were now too distant.
“So for a while, I wanted to blame someone. But the target of that blame would have been my sister. I couldn’t do it. She was swept up in a dimensional shift and disappeared, only to barely reappear a year later. How could I blame her for that?”
When my sister was caught in the dimensional shift, my father was quite calm.
Even in my faint memories, my father was always a bit of a peculiar person.
In any case, he and my mother spent a year traveling all over, trying to resolve my sister’s situation.
Because of that, I often stayed at the neighbor’s house, where there was a kid my age.
That friend’s mother was also busy with work every day, so the two of us often played together.
Thanks to that friend, I was too busy playing to feel lonely, even when my parents were away searching for my sister.
“Were you happy before that happened to your sister, Ha-chan?”
“I was. I was doing pretty well in school back then. Even in elementary school, I have a lot of good memories.”
I chuckled as I said it.
“Come to think of it, I had a friend I was closest to in elementary school. A kid who lived next door. We seriously played together every single day.”
As if reminiscing, I started telling Seol-hyang all sorts of things about my past.
Maybe it was because it had been a long time since I’d told anyone about my past like this.
“We went swimming together, caught insects, and even went to see flowers, not because we knew how to appreciate them, but because we were excited to eat our packed lunches. I think we built a massive snowman in the winter, too.”
As I spoke, I started to search my memory.
“What was that friend’s name again?”
Right before my sister returned.
That friend had definitely transferred to another school.
I remember we hugged and sobbed, promising to keep in touch. But then my sister returned, and my life turned upside down, so I never got to contact her.
Thinking about it now, I felt really sorry.
That friend must have been waiting for me to call.
And here I was, not even able to properly remember her name.
Why is it so hard to remember the names of the kids you played with when you were young?
Then, it suddenly occurred to me that she had two moles on her face.
She hated them because her friends would tease her about them, but I remember telling her they were pretty, like a cartoon heroine I’d seen who had moles on her face.
At that moment, my eyes met Seol-hyang’s.
The two moles under her left eye.
Their position was similar to the moles on the girl in my hazy memory.
Her eyes curved into a smile.
“Seol-hyang…”
“Yes.”
The moment I called her name, my lips began to tremble.
I remembered the back of that little girl as we walked to school, her small hand holding mine.
And I…
「Seol-hyang!」
That’s what I used to call her.
Slowly, my eyes widened.
Jin Seol-hyang.
The name of the girl who lived next door, my friend who was always with me during elementary school.
Her name was definitely Jin Seol-hyang.
The Jin Seol-hyang in my memory.
And the Baek Seol-hyang before my eyes.
Their surnames were different, but once I remembered, I knew.
I knew who the woman standing next to me was.
And I also knew who she was referring to that day, when she told me about the friend she couldn't contact after being caught in a dimensional shift on the day she transferred.
“Ha-chan, you said it just a little while ago. That if I mentioned the company, I could ask you anything.”
Her voice rang out.
There was a slight tremor on Seol-hyang’s face as she looked at me.
Seeing that tremor, I felt like I might tear up for the first time in a long while.
It felt as if a piece of my happy past, one I had lost and thought would never return, was finally taking my hand again.
“Mr. Kang Ha-chan of the Rodri Company.”
Her eyes met mine.
“Is there one thing you’d like to ask me?”
Her voice, filled with a deep tremor, whispered in my ear.
Under the setting sun, Seol-hyang’s silver hair cascaded down, catching the light.
Shaded by the sunset, her hair seemed to turn black for just a moment, reminding me of a girl from long ago.
But even when I realized her hair was silver again, the look in her eyes as she gazed at me was unchanged from back then.
Anxiety, desperation, and longing.
Hearing the question, laden with so many emotions, I slowly opened my mouth.
“…Are you Seol-hyang?”
The moment she heard my question, her silver hair flew.
Throwing her arms around my neck, she buried her face in my shoulder and wept plaintively.
“Yes!”
Her face, which I remembered crying as she promised to contact me, had changed so much over the long years.
But those warm tears were the same.
The friend who had cried so much for me had become an adult.
“It’s me, Jin Seol-hyang.”
And as she said those words, I hugged her tightly.
In my past, where I had lost my mother and father, and even my sister was gone…
The warmth of the one person who had returned to me was so comforting it made me feel like all my hard times hadn't been in vain.
It was the one and only memory in my life I never wanted to forget again.
*
“Since when…”
“It was recent.”
She lowered her gaze to our clasped hands.
“I found out by chance a few months ago.”
A wistful look filled her face.
“You should have told me sooner.”
“To be honest, I was being a little greedy. I was hoping you might recognize me, Ha-chan.”
Hearing her words, I wore an expression of deep apology.
“My hair color is different, my face has changed a lot, and my last name is different now. It’s only natural you wouldn’t recognize me.”
Seeing me, Seol-hyang smiled as if to say it was okay.
But even with her smile, I couldn't hide my guilt.
“When I first returned at twenty-one, I wanted to find you right away. But I couldn’t. I was a complete mess back then, and returnees were ostracized even more harshly than they are now. More than anything, I might have been afraid to see how you had changed, Ha-chan.”
Twenty-one. That was right after the false accusation against me, and just before the Beijing incident caused by a returnee.
It was no exaggeration to say that things were a complete mess for returnees back then.
The government treated them like weapons, and civilians treated them like criminals or disasters.
The only reason the perception and treatment of returnees had improved so much was purely due to the efforts of the World Returnee Association.
“So back then, to distract myself, I got involved in returnee affairs. I traveled the world and gathered every returnee I could find.”
She let out a small laugh, as if it were a past she didn't particularly want to recall.
I couldn't even begin to imagine how much effort she must have poured into establishing the World Returnee Association.
“But then, I saw you by chance.”
I felt a squeeze from Seol-hyang’s hand.
“One day, I saw you working part-time at a convenience store, Ha-chan.”
She smiled as if recalling that moment.
“You could call it fate. The World Returnee Association had stabilized, and I was doing a bit better. Funnily enough, it was while I was trying out the game you liked so much.”
“You mean when you said you play Lord of Academy.”
“Yes. Curious about my username?”
Of course I was curious.
She may be my childhood friend, but the chairperson of the World Returnee Association was playing the same game as me.
It felt like finding out Elon Musk played the same online game.
Seeing my intrigued expression, Seol-hyang’s face broke into a wide smile.
It was a mischievous smile I had never seen from her before.
And it was a smile I had seen long ago, one that brought back the past.
“IKnowit.”
My body froze.
“Huh?”
“That’s me. Ahing.”
And as she repeated the name, she gave our clasped hands a light, cheerful shake.
“I told you, didn’t I? You could call it fate.”
My mind went blank.
I couldn't get any words out.
At the same time, I recalled her reactions whenever Ahyu and I would talk about the game.
The scattered pieces were finally clicking into place.
“No, no way, wow.”
The gaming friend I’d known for years was actually my long-lost childhood friend?
Simultaneously, all the embarrassing things I had done in the game started flashing through my mind.
From complaining about my life to countless other things.
“You, you should have told me!”
“I told you, I only found out recently. That the person I liked most in the game was the person I missed the most. You were cute in the game, Ha-chan.”
She enjoyed it.
This girl definitely, absolutely enjoyed it.