You Came From Another World?
“Aaaah…”
Seoya slammed the pencil in her hand onto the desk and let out a groan.
“I don’t get any of this…”
There had been no word from Jeong Sira since then, but Seoya couldn’t shake what she’d said at the end. It was nagging at her, making it impossible to focus on anything else.
‘A warning? Who the hell is Ibin warning? And what does she gain from warning Earthlings?’
Unable to guess at anything, all Seoya could do was hope Jeong Sira figured it out soon.
“That tough, huh?”
Kwon Yooseok, sitting across from her, asked.
“Ah, it’s not that it’s tough or anything…”
Right now, Seoya was struggling with some equations for calculations. Ever since Kwon Yooseok had promised to help her out, they’d been meeting regularly like this.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“It’s nothing…”
Kwon Yooseok drawled leisurely, his voice probing like he already knew.
“Hmm~ I wonder what could be bothering you~? It’s not like you’d stress over something trivial like dungeons. Gotta be relationships~?”
“Totally wrong…”
“Oh? I figured if it wasn’t relationships, there wouldn’t be anything you’d worry about… Hmm, in that case…”
While Kwon Yooseok trailed off, Seoya gulped down the lemonade in front of her. Her blood sugar must’ve dipped from even that little bit of brainwork.
In the meantime, he tossed out casually,
“Your home world?”
“Gah! Cough! Hack, hack…!”
Seoya choked hard, spitting out the lemonade in her mouth and coughing up a storm.
“Ow, my throat… Hack, hack! It stings!”
Of all things, it had to be lemonade lodged in her throat—the tangy acidity burned like fire. The coughing fit dragged on forever.
“See? Want me to grab some water?”
Kwon Yooseok wiped the lemonade from her mouth and neck with a tissue as he offered.
“Hack, no, I don’t think I could drink even if you did.”
“Ah, your hair’s gonna be all sticky.”
Even as Seoya’s coughs finally subsided and she sat there, brain grinding to process what she’d just heard, Kwon Yooseok calmly wiped her hair with wet wipes. His utter nonchalance made her doubt her own ears.
“Wait, did I hear that right?”
“What? That I asked about your home world?”
“How did you—how do you know about that…?”
“Wouldn’t it be weirder if I didn’t know?”
Kwon Yooseok smirked, lips curling up.
“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. You said you’d make me trustworthy, right? I’ll keep it from everyone. Relax.”
“No, how do you know…?”
Stammering in shock, Seoya racked her brain for any slip-up that might’ve given away she was from another world. She’d never put it in any official records. Only the Neverending guild members knew, and even then, it was just from her telling them verbally.
“Honestly, it was half a guess, but looks like I nailed it~.”
His expression was so casual as he said it that Seoya felt a frustrated urge to shake the truth out of him by force.
“I just thought about it once.”
Kwon Yooseok lowered his voice, mindful of the café patrons around them, and leaned in to whisper.
“Why you’re not System rank 1, but rank 0th… Even if you’re overwhelmingly strong, the System gave you that power. A ‘hunter strong enough to transcend the System’ feels off, right~?”
Seoya blinked uneasily.
“Plus, your nationality’s listed as changeable. You don’t really seem fully Korean anyway~. The way you go by just ‘Seoya’ without a family name, your navy-blue hair and eyes. And sometimes, you use awkward Korean phrasing.”
Language magic wasn’t perfect, after all. It was only natural. Seoya especially struggled with idioms and proverbs, so she’d been studying them separately.
“You act a bit off from Korean culture sometimes too. So I figured you weren’t from the Republic of Korea.”
“I act different from Korean culture?”
“In our country, you don’t usually use casual speech with adults you just met.”
“Ah.”
“I wondered what country has a name like Seoya, or where navy-blue hair could come from… but nothing matched you.”
‘This is driving me nuts.’
Feeling like everything was ruined, Seoya let out a deep sigh.
“I assumed your changeable nationality meant your original country doesn’t exist. Aha, and that gave me the answer~.”
Kwon Yooseok grinned darkly and kept going.
“You’re rank 0th because the System didn’t give you your power. Your nationality’s changeable because your country doesn’t exist on Earth.”
The snake-shaped piercing in his ear glinted in the light. Kwon Yooseok declared,
“Seoya, you came from another world, right?”
“…I dunno…”
Seoya’s voice trailed off weakly. Her little head was screaming.
‘Alert! Overload! Brain overload!’
Even amid the chaos, Kwon Yooseok pressed on earnestly.
“Actually, one decisive clue was… you kinda look like you’re from another world?”
“What…?”
“Never heard that before?”
“I’ve heard it a ton…”
She’d heard it plenty when she first met the Neverending guild members. They’d taken her otherworldly looks as obvious proof she was from somewhere else.
“So, Seoya, got anything to tell me about your world?”
“…Sniff, dunno.”
At the tiny sniffle, Kwon Yooseok finally looked surprised, staring at her face. No tears flowed, but Seoya’s reddened eyes sniffled as she glared at him.
“…Y-you, are you crying?”
Kwon Yooseok panicked, frantically tapping around her eyes with his finger, but no tears came out. In a rare fluster, he said,
“Damn, sorry if I scared you. I didn’t expect this reaction…”
“I dunno, I don’t get anything anymore…”
Seoya buried her head on the desk, whining like a sulky kid. Stranded alone in a strange world, fighting to get home, lying to everyone, bearing secrets by herself—it was all too much. Talking to Jeong Sira had lightened the load a bit, but now new worries about why Ibin had built the System so violently clouded her mind again. Every day felt like a burden.
Suddenly feeling wronged, Seoya started crying like a child.
“Drip, drip. There, there.”
“I miss Taesa oppa…”
“…Okay, cut it out first.”
“Why’d you pry like that…”
“Yeah, my bad. Must’ve freaked you out bad, huh?”
Seoya slowly stopped sniffling and wiped her tears. Whining it out actually made her feel a little better. Embarrassed now, she grumbled,
“Why’d you figure that out? It was all supposed to be secret.”
“Yeah, sorry. Wasn’t on purpose—my head’s full of you, so I just kept thinking and pieced it together.”
“Ah, so why’re you always thinking about me?”
To Seoya’s words, Kwon Yooseok replied slowly, his expression unreadable.
“That’s just how it is.”
“Dunno, I’m telling all the unnies.”
“…Oh? Then this might be our last meetup~.”
Kwon Yooseok regained his usual rhythm with light teasing, and Seoya finally dropped her blank expression, slipping on her coat from the chair.
“Time to head out.”
“Wanna walk you home, but I’d probably get throttled by Baek Yena for real.”
“Spot on.”
Kwon Yooseok smiled with crinkled eyes, his impression far from friendly despite the grin, and said to her,
“I just wanted to know everything about you.”
“No invading privacy.”
“Then, thinking about you like this?”
“That’s fine.”
When Seoya got home, the first to meet her eyes was Ji Sein, sprawled on the living room floor.
“Our princess is back~? Your eyes are a bit red—been crying~?”
“Wh-what?”
Ji Sein’s beaming smile twisted suddenly, and she bellowed loud enough to shake the house.
“Hey, Baek Yena!!!! Gayeon unni!!!!! Hurry, get out here!!!!”
“What?”
Lee Gayeon and Baek Yena shuffled into the living room, looking exhausted from work, and Ji Sein pointed dramatically at Seoya.
“Emergency, emergency! Look at the princess’s eyes! She’s been crying!”
“…Who the hell was it?”
“Who?”
Feeling a bit calmer wrapped in her unnies’ concern, Seoya pouted.
“Kwon Yooseok… I think he figured out I’m from another world…. He promised to keep it secret, at least…”
“Hah, I told you that guy’s bad news. Worse than Go Heejae?”
“…How the hell did he figure it out?”
Unlike Baek Yena venting her rage, Lee Gayeon seemed to be approaching it rationally.
“He just guessed from stuff like rank 0th and changeable nationality. All on his own. Said he figured it out from thinking about me so much?”
“Ugh!”
Ji Sein’s face twisted indescribably, Lee Gayeon clutched her neck, and Baek Yena clenched her fists at those words that made their skin crawl.
“He said that outright?”
“Yeah, why?”
“…Good thing our clueless princess in that department didn’t catch the implication…”
They exchanged glances, deciding not to explain the meaning to Seoya, and resolved to kill Kwon Yooseok.
“You cried over that? From shock?”
Lee Gayeon asked again, as if just that wasn’t reason enough to cry.
“Just… scared me…”
“Why? Did he act scary toward you?”
“No, not Kwon Yooseok’s fault. Just… scared of my secret getting out…”
Lee Gayeon frowned slightly at that and pulled Seoya into a tight hug.
“It’s okay, Seoya. Even if it all comes out, it’s fine. We’ll protect you no matter what, so don’t stress over keeping secrets.”
But Seoya felt guilty for lying even to the Neverending guild members….
“Any secret you have is okay.”
Unable to respond, Seoya just clung quietly as Lee Gayeon whispered,
“Even if this disaster hitting Earth is because of you, we’ll protect you.”