Chapter 46
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Prologue
-----------------------------------------------------------------
────────────────────────────────────
────────────────────────────────────
────────────────────────────────────
────────────────────────────────────
Chapter. 2 - Prologue
I had escaped the school. But ironically, I hadn't escaped it completely.
I still had to attend.
Even if the world was ending, even after a near-death experience, I still had to go to school. Such was the fate of a high school student living in the Republic of Korea.
It hadn't been long since I'd returned home, but now I had to head back to school.
"What kind of life is this...?"
I let out a deliberate sigh.
If I had my way, I'd have dived into bed and snored the days away.
But the demerit points for unexcused absences and the mark on my permanent record held me back.
I was reluctantly changing into my spare uniform for school.
When I came out of the dressing room, an uninvited guest came into view.
She was wandering around my house like a cat strutting about its own territory.
Just watching her brought on a throbbing headache.
I quietly called the cat's name.
"Jin Dayeon."
"Hm?"
Dayeon stopped rummaging through the fridge and looked back at me. She was munching on some cookies she must have pulled from a cabinet at some point.
"I'm asking why you're in my house..."
How did things end up like this?
To understand, a tedious flashback was in order.
It had happened just thirty minutes ago.
To be precise, right after we had escaped the school.
"So, where do I go?"
Dayeon asked, bewildered.
Having been stuck in that school for ten years, she clearly had no idea where to go.
"Well, shouldn't you go back to where you used to live?"
The moment I said it, I flinched.
Dayeon had died ten years ago.
Of course she had nowhere to return to.
Even if she did, no one would ever accept her existence.
"Do you know where your family is?"
"I don't know."
At the mention of family, Dayeon suddenly feigned ignorance. Her body language showed she was reluctant to talk about it.
"You don't want to go back to where you were before?"
"...A little."
Dayeon answered with a sullen expression. She didn't seem to want to talk about it.
It seemed there were other circumstances I didn't know about.
Dayeon's expression subtly darkened. Seeing that she was uncomfortable, I didn't press the matter and changed the subject.
"Anyway, what are you going to do now? You can't live a normal life like this."
Dayeon had died ten years ago. Yet she had come back to life and escaped the school with me.
Her very existence was unreal. Even if she returned with her body intact, there was no way anyone would believe her.
And that wasn't all. She could be kidnapped and used as a test subject.
There was an enormous ten-year gap between Dayeon and reality.
Until we escaped the school, I had been relieved, thinking it was all over. But now we'd hit an unexpected snag.
What's more, Dayeon was likely declared dead on paper. A normal life was pretty much impossible for her.
I was racking my brain, trying to figure out what to do with her.
-Ting!
[Reality is being modified due to a change in the ending!]
What the.
I stared at the message that had appeared out of nowhere.
Before I could even grasp its meaning, things started to change.
*Rumble...*
The ground heaved and shook violently, as if I were on an amusement park ride.
"Ugh, argh...!"
At the same time, the sky was instantly covered in dark clouds, then it would brighten, then darken again, repeating the cycle.
Was this one of those natural disasters you only hear about?
The world was finally coming to an end.
So I thought.
Was I receiving divine punishment for pulling Dayeon, who shouldn't exist in reality, out of that place?
Just as my vision started to fade.
Everything that had been rampaging as if to tear the world apart subsided.
I was baffled by the situation. Still, I didn't move recklessly.
Wary of a potential aftershock, I stayed flat on the ground.
Everything was quiet, nothing rampaging, but I didn't let my guard down. I waited silently for the situation to pass completely.
Then, Dayeon crept over and poked me in the back as if to ask what I was doing.
"Get up."
"...Yeah."
...Damn, that was embarrassing.
I forced a nonchalant expression as I pushed myself up. I sheepishly looked around.
The earlier earthquake and dark clouds were gone as if they had never existed.
The scenery, on the cusp between dawn and morning, was nothing but beautiful.
Then what was this?
I checked the message again.
-Reality is being modified due to a change in the ending!
So what does that mean?
I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Just as I was feeling confused.
-Ring, ring!
An alarm went off somewhere.
It wasn't coming from me.
"It's me."
Dayeon fumbled in her pocket. And from within her clothes, she pulled out a pink cell phone.
It was a feature phone that looked like it was from ten years ago. It was obviously old.
It was like looking at an ancient relic.
Of course, by the standards of the era Dayeon had lived in, it would have been a current model.
...For some reason, I felt a generation gap.
"There's a call."
Dayeon pointed to the phone, which was ringing loudly. Listening closely, I realized it was a ringtone.
"Who is it?"
"I don't know."
A phone call.
It was so random and sudden. Could it be related to reality being modified?
"I don't know what it is, but you should answer it."
"Okay."
Dayeon snapped the phone open and held it to her ear.
Would it kill her to answer it normally?
Her every action was needlessly dramatic.
"Hello?"
Dayeon answered the sudden call. Her expression turned quite serious.
Who in the world could it be?
The call went on with no sign of ending. It didn't seem to be a survey or a telemarketer.
"Yes, that's right."
"...Yes."
"I understand..."
For some reason, Dayeon continued a long conversation with the unknown caller. A considerable amount of time passed before she ended the call.
"It's over."
My mind was filled with curiosity about the call. I immediately asked her.
"Who were you talking to for so long?"
"A teacher from school."
Dayeon's caller was quite unexpected. A teacher. I was baffled by the appearance of such a random person.
Ten years ago, maybe, but the current school had no connection whatsoever to Dayeon.
There was no reason for a high school teacher to call a complete stranger like her.
"So what did the teacher say?"
"Well, they congratulated me on transferring today."
"...Transferring?"
I couldn't believe my ears.
Dayeon, on the other hand, was completely unbothered.
"Looks like I'm transferring to the school."
Ah.
So this is what 'reality is being modified' meant.
Dayeon, who should have died without a trace, had come back to life, and so reality had been naturally adjusted to accommodate her.
From Jin Dayeon the ghost to Jin Dayeon the human.
In that case, her future life would be fine. I had wasted my energy worrying for nothing.
"That's a relief, I guess."
Just as I was sighing in relief, I caught sight of myself.
My uniform, filthy from rolling around all through the dawn. My hair, slick with sweat from running around without a chance to wash. And to top it all off, my eyes had lost their focus from exhaustion.
I was in a perfectly disheveled state, easily mistaken for a beggar. There was no way I could go to school like this.
If I showed up at school like this, I'd definitely be branded as the poor kid.
Then it would only be a matter of time before I was ignored. I wanted to avoid that situation at all costs.
I immediately set my destination for home.
There was still plenty of time before school started.
I wouldn't be late even if I took my time washing up and getting ready.
Just as I was about to head home, I felt a burdensome gaze on me.
"...What."
"What about me?"
Dayeon looked at me with an expression that asked if I was really going to heartlessly abandon her.
Unlike at school, her eyes held emotion. A strange sense of guilt started to creep in.
"...Follow me if you want."
"Hooray."
I knew I shouldn't, but I gave in to her wishes. Was my trait really affecting me without my knowledge...?
A chill ran down my spine as I started walking home.
And that was the story of what happened right after we left the school. Now, back to the present.
"Look at this, there's so much cool stuff."
As soon as she entered my house, Dayeon's eyes lit up and she started looking around everywhere.
"Please, just try to be quiet..."
"I'll try."
I barely managed to restrain Dayeon from rummaging through the whole house. As I thought, letting her into my home was the worst possible move.
"But do you live alone? What about your family?"
"It's a long story, but they're basically abroad. I'm the only one in Korea."
The truth was, my dad died in an accident when I was in middle school, and my mom works overseas.
That was why I lived alone in this house.
Still, there was no need to go into detail about my family situation, so I gave a vague answer.
"Is that so?"
After hearing about my family, Dayeon rested her chin on her hand as if deep in thought. Then she gave me a meaningful smile.
"Then it should be fine for me to live here, right?"
"...You think?"
What utter nonsense. Unless I was crazy, there was no way that would ever happen.
"Heeey, are you going to abandon me so heartlessly?"
"...Whatever, just get ready for school."
I moved away before she could say anything weirder. It was almost time to leave for school.
And so, we headed back to the very school we had gone through hell to escape.
**
The school we returned to was perfectly ordinary.
There wasn't a single trace of any bizarre phenomena, and the security guard was fine.
"*Yawn.*"
I rubbed my sleepy eyes and quickly sat down at my desk. Looking back, yesterday morning had been exactly like this.
Yesterday, too, I had dragged my exhausted body to school after staying up all night. And I'd fallen asleep sprawled on my desk, only to get trapped.
Surely, falling asleep here again wouldn't get me trapped in the school a second time...
I had exorcised the school's devil with holy water. It wouldn't appear before me again.
So I was relieved.
Now I can finally get some sleep.
Just as I was about to lay my head down on the desk, a slender finger poked me in the side.
"Get up."
Unsurprisingly, it was Dayeon.
After tormenting me all through the dawn, she seemed determined to torment me during the day as well.
"Of all the places, why did you have to sit next to me?"
"Well, the teacher told me to sit in an empty seat."
"Damn it..."
This was a disaster. The fact that no one sat next to me was the problem.
For the record, the reason I'd been sitting alone all this time wasn't because I was an outcast, but because I chose to sit by myself.
I'm always sleeping at school, so wouldn't having someone like me next to you be distracting when you're trying to study?
I sat alone out of generous consideration for my classmates.
It's not like I was an outcast or anything. I was definitely not ostracized by the class. ...Really.
Anyway, for that reason, Dayeon sat down next to me. At that, the sharp glares of my classmates shot in my direction.
"Why'd she sit next to that asshole?"
"But she's hot as hell."
"Should I go talk to her?"
...I knew this would happen. The arrows of attention that should have been aimed only at Dayeon, the new transfer student, were now directed at me as well.
Of course, most of them were misfires.
I wasn't exactly a great topic of conversation.
If anything, they used me as a stepping stone to start talking about Dayeon.
"Must be nice getting so much attention. Maybe you can make some friends while you're at it."
"Not really. I already have one right here."
"...Is that so."
Just as I was talking with Dayeon, unable to get any sleep.
A shadow fell over us from behind.
Soon, a female student appeared before us.
"Hi, you transferred today, right? Your name was... Dayeon, was it?"
A clear and crisp voice.
Unlike my shabby appearance, her uniform was neat without a single flaw.
The girl, who looked like the very personification of a model student, greeted us with a bright smile.
"I'm the class president, Han Ju-hee. Feel free to call me that."