Ordinary Guy

To put it plainly, something it was a stretch to even call human—something that blew straight past science and common sense—was watching this school.

And watching it with real fervor, as if it wanted people to fall in love.

The people at the school, for their part, had no idea.

…I couldn't be certain yet, but the odds were high. If they'd known, there was no way the place would still have been running this ordinarily.

Then there were the students who stood out in their eyes. The popular ones, the handsome ones, the pretty ones—anyone worth taking an interest in kept receiving that attention even after graduation.

The way fans give gifts to idols, they offered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the students they'd favored something called Tribute. And Tribute wasn't bouquets or luxury goods. From what I could tell, it was the exercise of some invisible, transcendent power.

A job hunt that resolved with uncanny perfection. A dreamed-of career landing in someone's lap through a chance encounter. A string of events that could only be explained as luck.

The cost of all that was paid by the watchers who took it upon themselves to offer Tribute. Whether the cost was money, or something money-like, I couldn't say.

Nonsense? Just people playing at an internet bit?

I searched for a man named Jeong Hyeonmin, who looked to be a Haeseong High graduate, and dropped that thought.

He was someone whose post about offering Tribute sat proudly among the featured posts on the Haeseong Romance Gallery.

…The search actually turned him up.

A rookie actor with no notable activity on record until a few years ago, who had only recently started getting his face known in supporting drama roles. There was even an interview article. He had originally dreamed of acting, given it up once over practical problems, then been spotted by chance by someone in the industry and cast.

I'd thought the school felt off somehow. I hadn't imagined something transcendent was mixed up in it.

I looked again at the translucent window floating in front of me.

Transcendent beings were stealing a look at every last move Haeseong High made. And I could steal a look at what they were stealing a look at.

"…Tch."

I'd made it sound grand, but it wasn't the sort of thing that would dramatically change my life on the spot. If anything, it still felt like a story with some distance from me.

There was nothing I could do about it right away anyway, so I decided to learn at least a little more first.

One fact I turned up along the way.

These guys… they can't see outside the school, can they?

What they could see was strictly school hours, and the fixed location was inside the school as well. They didn't seem to know what happened after dismissal, which was why there was no shortage of watchers wondering and guessing about whatever came after the school day.

Of course, they could still learn about life outside school indirectly. Social media was that developed these days. The Tribute records on Jeong Hyeonmin I'd checked earlier looked as if they'd been compiled the same way, by tracking his recent updates.

Harsher conditions than even idol fans, if you asked me.

And who's worrying about whom.

Anyway, as I got a feel for the mood of the place, certain names naturally grew familiar. Three of them came up far more often than the rest.

First, Han Sehee. Second-year student council president—a senior I'd actually seen in person at school.

Next, Seo Hajun. Also a second-year, and captain of the basketball team, apparently. Handsome, and good at sports on top of it, his popularity seemed considerable.

Last, Baek Nahyeon. She was a first-year.

A few other names came up often besides those, but I was in no position to memorize students whose faces I didn't even know when I barely knew what the school looked like yet.

And the next day.

After swearing so hard yesterday that I'd live diligently, I spent the whole of class lost in other thoughts.

A translucent window, floating in empty air.

…The name still doesn't sit right, no matter how many times I look at it.

Chin propped on my hand, I was watching the posts go up in real time.

…So this thing showed up at school, too.

Even with the window opened this blatantly in the classroom, nobody could see it. I'd confirmed that it really was something only I could see.

If I had to find a use for it, it was that I could learn fairly quickly whenever something happened at school.

In truth, even if they were some kind of transcendent beings, the things they said were no different from the talk you'd find on any ordinary internet community.

I didn't know how the school ran all that well, but I could still guess the shape of it. The usual Faction Flame Wars, forced hype and forced hate, theatrics, shit-stirring, fights over nothing. Mixed together, it looked like a stew of a community, decent enough for killing time. Which was another way of saying it was the perfect environment for blankly topping up on dopamine—and, put differently, a shortcut to wasting time for no reason at all.

"…."

First year, Class 3. The transfer-student catfish… who was absolutely not a catfish. Just an Ordinary Guy.

That was me.

No matter how well I could see myself objectively, hearing Ordinary Guy, Ordinary Guy still felt bad to the Ordinary Guy on the receiving end.

Still, they don't seem to know I'm looking at this gallery.

A chill at the fact that someone could watch me at any hour, and relief that they didn't know I was peeping on their community—I was feeling both at once when someone came toward my seat.

Ahn Jeonghun. The friend who'd been looking out for me in all sorts of ways since yesterday.

"Namgyu."

"…Yeah?"

"Teacher says fill this out and turn it in."

What Jeonghun handed me was a club preference form.

Being told to pick a club when I still barely knew what clubs there were was nothing but awkward. He must have read that on my face, because he pulled out another sheet that had been tucked behind the application.

"Figured you wouldn't know what's what. So I printed the club list, too."

"……Oh."

"Here. There's a short description on each, so look them over and pick."

Way too nice.

As far as I knew, he wasn't even the class president… Seeing him look after me like this, maybe he was just kind by nature.

Honestly, I was a little moved.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, they're busy dogpiling me—Ordinary Guy, Ordinary Guy…

I looked up and asked.

"Which one are you in?"

"Reading Club. Wanna join?"

"…."

Of all things, the Reading Club.

I'd felt it yesterday, reading for nearly three hours because I couldn't get into a club. It didn't suit me.

"…I'll think about it."

Jeonghun snorted like he already knew I wouldn't be coming, then said,

"They said just turn it in before homeroom ends today, once you've looked."

"Got it. Thanks."

After Jeonghun went back to his seat, I dropped my eyes to the handout listing the clubs.

I looked through quite a few before one of them caught.

Anomalous Phenomenon Research Club.

…Anomalous phenomena.

On any ordinary day, a club I wouldn't even have glanced at.

But with a translucent window floating in front of me, and the talk going on inside it, there was no way not to be interested.

Beings whose nature I couldn't identify. Power enough to intervene in a graduate's life. I was living through a phenomenon science could never explain, and it would have been stranger not to care.

What if… this was a gathering of people who had sensed the strange things happening at this school?

More likely it's just an occult club.

For now, I wrote Anomalous Phenomenon Research Club on the preference form and shoved it into my desk drawer.

A campaign run by the student council?

I was tilting my head, wondering what that was, when I heard the door rattle open up front.

The homeroom teacher had finally come in.

After checking attendance, the teacher ran quickly down a few announcements.

"And once lunch ends today, all grades assemble in the auditorium."

Small groans leaked out here and there.

"Ahh…."

"What is it this time?"

"There's a school-life campaign run by the student council, so gather in the auditorium when lunch is over. Don't be late."

A campaign run by the student council.

Exactly what the post I'd just read had been talking about.

They're actually doing it.

I'd known it in my head. Seeing it actually happen still left me with a strange feeling.

Morning classes ended.

Sadly, there still wasn't anyone I could confidently call a friend, but more people were talking to me than yesterday.

"Hey, but you're kind of out there."

On the way back after PE, one of the boys walking beside me spoke up out of nowhere.

Maybe it was a good thing guys were simple creatures who got friendly after a single workout. Play soccer together once, and they start talking to you like you're already close.

"I was thinking the same thing."

Another friend cut in, laughing.

"I can't tell if you're just laid-back, or if you zone out a lot."

"…."

No answer came easily.

I was supposed to deny it…

I hadn't been like this to begin with.

But a sudden transfer, and then a translucent window appearing out of nowhere, and things that were hard to explain in any realistic way. If someone told me to focus on school life in the middle of all that as if nothing had happened, wouldn't that person be the strange one?

I couldn't explain any of it, of course, so I gave a vague shrug.

"…I'm just a little shy around new people."

"Hmm. Feels a bit different from that, though."

Either way, lunch came right after PE, so we naturally ended up eating together.

The school served good lunches, and that, at least, was genuinely nice.

Then the guy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sitting across from me asked, out of nowhere,

"So which club did you decide on?"

I answered around a bite of pork cutlet.

"Me… the Anomalous Phenomenon Research Club."

"Anomalous… phenomena? There's a club like that?"

He looked at me for a moment, then said, sounding disappointed,

"Just come to the soccer team. From what I saw earlier, you're better than I expected."

I'd already decided, so all I could do was shake my head.

The friend beside him let out a hollow laugh.

"See, I told you this guy's weird. Usually when you transfer, don't you start with somewhere normal?"

"But I've seriously never heard of it. Anomalous phenomena? What, researching natural disasters?"

"Isn't that the one kids who like ghosts and stuff join?"

Right then, the guy sitting immediately beside me narrowed his eyes.

"Wait."

"What?"

"This guy doesn't already know, does he?"

"Huh?"

I asked again, genuinely lost.

"Know what?"

"You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠know. That girl. She's in there."

At that, another one of them seemed to remember something and set his chopsticks down with a clack.

"Oh… right. Baek Nahyeon's in it."

Then he looked at me and grinned.

"Whoa. Don't tell me you're actually joining because you know."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

When I looked sincerely confused, their faces went flat.

"He really doesn't know, huh?"

"Well, yeah. He just transferred, how would he? And he's been zoning out all day."

"True. Jeonghun's not the type to mention that kind of thing, either."

They laughed and carried on for a bit, then turned the conversation somewhere else almost at once.

Who had done what in a game yesterday. Where they had to go after school.

I was the only one still holding on to the name they'd said.

Baek Nahyeon…

The truth was, the name had been familiar in a way I couldn't place.

Thinking about it, I'd seen her on the Haeseong Romance Gallery.

One of the three people who got mentioned constantly.

Han Sehee, Baek Nahyeon, Seo Hajun.

If just saying the name in real life was enough for everyone to know who you meant, she had to be seriously popular.

And a girl like that is in that club?

The Anomalous Phenomenon Research Club.

Hearing the name alone, the two didn't match.

…Did she actually know something?

After lunch I split off from the guys heading to the snack shop again, and on the way back to the classroom alone, I opened the gallery to look into Baek Nahyeon.

…Huh?

The mood was a little off.

The gallery had gone extremely active over something.

Most of the new posts were on the same subject.

……Something must have happened.

Reading a few more posts, the rough shape of it started to show.

Han Sehee. And Jeong Yuri, who was supposedly her friend.

The two seemed to have known each other for quite a long time, but Jeong Yuri had apparently been fiercely jealous of Han Sehee for ages, and Han Sehee—whether she didn't know, or knew and was pretending not to—had kept her as a friend anyway.

And today, Han Sehee had to give a presentation at the upcoming student council campaign… With that presentation only a few hours off, Jeong Yuri had stolen the USB that held the materials.

And she'd thrown the stolen USB into the Recycling Collection Area.

Without thinking, I looked at the window at the end of the corridor.

Beyond it I could see part of the school building, and what looked like the entrance to the Recycling Collection Area.

……Should I go?