Chapter 368
Chapter 368
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 368. The Story We Write Together
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Grabbing the man by the collar, Song Arin stared intently at his expression.
"...Don't worry, Arin. We have to go out there."
"Aren't you scared of dying?"
"Who isn't scared of dying?"
"Then why does your face look so calm?"
"Well..."
The man mumbled awkwardly, averting his gaze from her.
Every time she saw that, an inexplicable emotion welled up inside Song Arin.
It wasn't anger.
If she had to name it, it was sadness.
A detached expression.
His face carried the look of someone who had already accepted their own death, like a terminally ill patient.
...
Song Arin bit her lip.
She didn't want to see a face like this.
The somewhat troubled look he always made when she asked sensitive questions.
She felt like she'd told him everything about herself.
Of course, some of it had been revealed without her intending it, but whenever she saw him like that, Song Arin sometimes felt anxious.
Even so.
"Don't worry."
The man straightened his posture.
"We have to go."
Unlike the detached demeanor he'd shown earlier, he seemed to have steeled his resolve again.
She was glad she'd come.
If she hadn't, he probably wouldn't have been thinking of a way to get out—he'd have just planned to die right there.
She recalled it.
What they'd gone through to get here.
*
"Hey!"
Song Arin called out to the man,
the man swung the pen, and he vanished from reality just like that.
No. The man hadn't vanished.
They had.
"Huh?"
With a puzzled expression, Song Arin blinked,
"...What is this."
Jang Chaeyeon, who had been a short distance away, also looked around in bewilderment.
Just moments ago, everyone had been bleeding in what was half a ruin—why were they here?
And above all, where had the man gone?
"What the hell. Where'd he go."
She had a pretty good idea, but maybe she just didn't want to know for sure.
Song Arin muttered in a trembling voice as she scanned her surroundings.
Everyone was unharmed.
Everyone except the man.
"Jaeheon?"
Then, from behind her came a bewildered woman's voice.
When Song Arin turned around,
black hair fluttered in the wind.
Yoo Daon was there.
"...Arin, where's Jaeheon?"
She mumbled in a calm voice while looking at Song Arin, and Song Arin stared back at her, momentarily at a loss for words.
What was she supposed to say when even she didn't know?
No, she had an idea, but saying she knew felt like it would make it real, so she couldn't bring herself to admit it.
Instead, Song Arin said something else.
"You went somewhere and now you're back."
"Jaeheon asked me to catch some people for him."
When Yoo Daon pointed behind her with her hand, the branch chief stared at Song Arin with a bewildered expression.
"He said something happened?"
...
Song Arin wanted to sit down and scream right then, but she desperately held it back.
That man wouldn't scream in a situation like this.
He'd think of something, figure out a way to get through it somehow.
"Arin, where's Jaeheon?"
At Yoo Daon's emotionless voice, Song Arin closed her eyes once, then opened them and spoke.
"He stayed behind."
"What?"
"He stayed."
It was exactly that.
The man had used the pen to do something inexplicable and vanished right in front of her and the others.
"Then you—"
"Yeah. I just stood there and watched like an idiot. Happy now?"
Song Arin spoke in a prickly tone.
...
Yoo Daon shut her mouth, and Song Arin closed her eyes.
No. Think. She had to think.
She couldn't leave the man like this.
That wasn't even an option, and Song Arin had no intention of doing so anyway.
"Where'd Kim Jaeheon go?"
Then Jang Chaeyeon, who had appeared beside her, disrupted her focus as well.
"Over there—"
"Chaeyeon."
...
"Jaeheon's not here right now."
"I saw it too. You weren't there at the time."
...
Yoo Daon and Jang Chaeyeon stared at each other, and Song Arin, watching them, turned her gaze elsewhere.
She had to stay calm.
What could she do?
She couldn't leap across dimensions, couldn't bring the dead back to life, and even if by some miracle she endured the pain of crossing dimensions, her own body wouldn't survive.
What could she, with her fragile human flesh that had nothing special and a mind that shook under forces beyond human cognition, possibly do?
*Slap!*
Song Arin slapped both her cheeks hard with her hands, and the others looked at her.
She shook her head while clutching her stinging cheeks.
She'd think those thoughts later.
For now, what she could do—
"I'm here!"
Then Park Ye-eun's voice reached her ears.
Park Ye-eun appeared smiling with a bag in hand, then shut her mouth upon sensing the mood.
"W-What's going on?"
"What'd you bring?"
Jang Chaeyeon urged her impatiently, and Park Ye-eun fumbled with her bag in confusion.
"I-It wasn't anything special, just what that scary-looking sister Arin asked for..."
...
Park Ye-eun pulled a small object out of her bag.
"...A doll grip?"
Jang Chaeyeon muttered in disbelief, and Yoo Daon squeezed her eyes shut.
"What's this for?"
"Sh-She asked me to bring it..."
"She asked for it to use against the Troupe Leader."
The Troupe Leader spoke calmly while raising her hand.
"But now there's no need for that."
...
"I was gonna link it to the Troupe Leader to track her or follow her."
"How?"
"If you link it, you can control the connected person to some extent as you please."
The Troupe Leader mumbled on in her usual calm tone.
"But no point now. It's already over."
...That's it.
Song Arin muttered after hearing that,
"Hey, Troupe Leader."
"...What."
"Link it to me."
"What for."
"What do you mean, what for. To find that guy."
The Troupe Leader looked at her in bewilderment upon hearing Song Arin's calm voice.
"How."
"I'll become that guy."
Song Arin spoke calmly while staring at the Troupe Leader, who looked at her like she was insane.
"You'll go mad."
"I won't."
Song Arin stretched her body as she replied calmly.
"And even if I do, it'll be me going mad, not you, so don't worry about it."
...
The Troupe Leader stared at her intently before looking at her with the doll grip in hand.
"Let's talk alone for a bit."
At the Troupe Leader's words, Song Arin turned to the others.
"That's how it is."
...
...
Yoo Daon and Jang Chaeyeon stared at her, but neither said a word—they just looked away.
It might have been silent approval, depending on how you saw it.
The Troupe Leader walked off to the side, and Song Arin followed her to a corner.
...
The Troupe Leader raised the doll's grip, and Song Arin's body stiffened as if caught by strings.
The Troupe Leader questioned her in an emotionless voice.
"You. How did you know I could find that man?"
"How did I know?"
Song Arin smirked at her question and answered.
"Don't you remember? When you first appeared."
...
"If you could appear back then, you can find him too, right?"
Just like the man, she too made an effort not to forget even the smallest details.
"...You're really starting to think like that man."
"I'm working on it."
Song Arin mumbled that it was praise and looked at the Troupe Leader, who looked back at her.
"You said something to me back then."
The Troupe Leader mumbled calmly.
"When you first met me."
...
"Do you remember what you said?"
"I do."
As the Troupe Leader continued calmly, swinging her hand, Song Arin answered solemnly.
She felt her body stiffening more and more as she looked at the Troupe Leader.
"Why."
"It's fascinating."
The Troupe Leader swung her hand while mumbling.
"I've never shouted that I love someone while making such an embarrassing face."
"...That's a shame."
Even as she felt her face heat up recalling that moment, Song Arin continued without showing it.
"It's pitiful that you can't feel that emotion. You have to experience love to grow as a person. Mentally, I might even be your big sister."
"You're saying all sorts of nonsense because it's embarrassing."
The Troupe Leader shook her head with an expression that said it was all rubbish.
...
"That's because you and I think alike."
"Damn it."
Song Arin glared at the Troupe Leader while muttering the curse the man sometimes used, and at the same time, the Troupe Leader spoke again.
"Ready. Now just follow that man."
"Hoo..."
With a sigh, Song Arin closed her eyes and opened them, then spoke.
"I'm ready."
"Good."
The Troupe Leader extended her hand forward, manipulating her like a doll.
...
At the same time, a jaunty fanfare rang in Song Arin's mind,
and she was standing in front of the man.
*
"What are you thinking so deeply about?"
"Just that you and I have gotten really similar."
"Me?"
"Yeah."
Song Arin grinned mischievously as she looked at me.
"Don't you think so?"
"...I don't know about anything else, but when it comes to discussing strategies, no one beats you, Arin."
"See? Told you."
She grinned and looked at me.
"So, how do we get out?"
...
Let me think.
A way out.
Honestly, I couldn't see one.
More precisely, I hadn't even thought about it until just now.
...What if we use the pen?
"Hmm..."
I looked at the pen after hearing Song Arin.
The pen that I could now wield like a hand or foot.
The issue was whether it was okay to use it like this...
...Shall we give it a try?
I raised the pen.
Song Arin grabbed my hand and began tracing the path with me while mumbling.
"Y-Your white hair."
"Yeah."
"You said you liked it."
...
Why bring that up now?
I looked at her with a bewildered expression, and Song Arin turned her head away upon meeting my gaze.
"A-And you haven't answered yet."
"...True."
"S-So."
Song Arin twirled the end of her hair as she looked at me.
"Do I still have a chance?"
[Your synergy with Song Arin increases by one level.]
[You have obtained a joint skill.]
[The Story We Write Together: 1]
A translucent window appeared before my eyes.