Chapter 75
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Monster Tale Specialist Office: The Invisible Person (10)
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Boyoung excused herself from the grandma for a moment and came back to the two of them.
“…By any chance.”
“Why?”
“That invisible person… isn’t it this guy?”
The two of them were speechless at Boyoung’s words.
“Huh? Suddenly…?”
“No, think about it.”
Boyoung laid out her reasoning step by step.
“It’s someone wearing our school uniform, and the tie color matches, so if they blended in during some event, no one would suspect. And considering they shouldn’t be at school but are… doesn’t it kind of fit?”
As she spoke, her tone grew increasingly convinced, her thoughts solidifying.
“Doesn’t that make sense? There’s someone who shouldn’t be here, and the system confirms they’re definitely not… it lines up.”
“Even so… it sounds too ridiculous.”
Seuli spoke in a tone that wasn’t fully convinced.
“So… that graduate has been living here for about two years after graduating?”
“They probably came and went.”
Boyoung said that, paused in thought, then continued.
“Or maybe they never left and just kept living here. If they could sleep without getting caught somewhere, meals are provided, there’s a shower room… Of course, actually living like that would be pretty tough.”
Boyoung asked what they thought.
“I don’t know how they did it exactly, but doesn’t it make sense?”
She was constructing a logical story from an absurd premise. In a normal tale, it would be nonsense. But in this case, since the culprit was an invisible person, it just might hold up. The beings in ghost stories were irrational by nature. Seuli found herself reluctantly accepting it in the back of her mind.
Woli nodded in bewilderment too.
“Does it… make sense…?”
Thinking about it, it was the Director who had asked her to buy these hot dogs. Had he really called her for no reason?
Was the student this grandma mentioned—the one who didn’t return the money—really unrelated to this incident?
“Of course, I know this theory is a bit flimsy. There’s no evidence yet.”
“…Not yet, for sure.”
“So…”
Boyoung turned back toward the grandma.
“Hey, I just thought of a way!”
“Huh? You have a method?”
The grandma was startled to see Boyoung return with sudden energy.
“A scruffy guy with long hair, right!”
“Y-yeah? That’s right?”
Confirming that, Boyoung nodded a few times and shouted.
“I’ll look into it a bit—!”
Her last words were hard to catch. She was already dashing off. Boyoung vanished like a storm.
“…She paid for it.”
Woli grabbed the two fluttering thousand-won bills in the air.
“When did she snag the hot dog?”
One of the hot dogs the grandma had set out was gone. It hadn’t walked off on its own, so Boyoung must have taken it.
At any rate, no need to give back pocket change like this. Woli pulled three thousand won from her pocket and added it.
“Huh? No, I gave it to her since she was helping, what’s with paying?”
“We can’t not give it since she paid and left. And I can’t keep the money either.”
The grandma reluctantly accepted it with a show of resistance. In return, she packed a few more hot dogs. Even more than yesterday. Woli said in confusion.
“It increased.”
“Th-they look tasty.”
Seuli swallowed slightly. She remembered how she and Sia-unnie had been surprisingly impressed eating one each yesterday without much expectation.
“The Director didn’t ask for these for nothing. Though he couldn’t eat any himself…”
Woli yawned.
“Man, I’m getting sleepy. Shall we head back?”
Seuli glanced toward the school.
“No.”
She hadn’t expected the refusal. Woli looked a bit flustered.
“What?”
“No, just in case. There might be a reply by now.”
“Is there? I wouldn’t know. If you’re that curious, check and go.”
“…Thanks.”
The two slowly headed back to the school. Students were starting self-study now, so they couldn’t make a racket, but the shoe lockers should be fine to revisit.
“Let’s check quick. The hot dogs’ll get cold.”
* * *
“There really is one?”
She opened the shoe locker without much hope, and there was a note.
Woli made a subtle face. It wasn’t bad that it was there, but she hadn’t actually expected it.
If they were going to leave a note like this, why not earlier? Woli unfolded the paper with that thought.
‘Don’t know anything about flowers, please just leave me alone’
“This one feels… a bit more hurt.”
Woli said curtly. Compared to her usual speech, this was actually polite. Put negatively, it could be called servile. Woli scanned the writing with indifferent eyes.
On the other hand, Seuli frowned at the same words.
“Doesn’t seem good.”
“Huh? Who? Boyoung?”
“No, the person who wrote this.”
There was no need to be this submissive. That bothered Seuli a little, and she said with a serious expression.
“We need to talk face-to-face.”
“Talk? What do you mean?”
Woli asked in disbelief.
“You mean actually go into the school?”
“Yeah, why not?”
If Boyoung was right, and if the Director hadn’t mentioned hot dogs for no reason like Woli said, then the invisible person was definitely still in the school right now.
“What good is conversing like this with notes?”
It was too slow. And it would take ages to open up to the other side. In Seuli’s view, the sooner this was resolved, the better.
“It’d be good if we could talk directly.”
“Absolutely not.”
But Woli said coldly, unusually firm. Seuli, who’d assumed she’d agree to help, blinked at the unexpected response.
“Why…? You said you’d help.”
“Yeah, if it wasn’t dangerous. But this could be dangerous.”
Woli shook her head firmly.
“You think I wandered around like that yesterday for nothing?”
An invisible foe with malice—who knew what could happen.
“Yeah, since I’ve encountered it, the invisible person will be at school in the evening too. They’ve hidden inside for quite a long time without anyone noticing. If they’re hiding with bad intent and attack, honestly, I’m not confident I could block it.”
“But is there another way?”
Seuli countered.
“From what you’ve said, the less time it takes, the better, right? And to end it quickly without explaining the ghost story, isn’t that the only option?”
“If there’s no other way, we don’t have to force one. We can stick to the original plan—slow and steady. Is this so urgent? No need to risk danger.”
The two faced each other. A difference in opinion. A first.
One side wanted to resolve it now; the other prioritized safety. Not about right or wrong.
“We didn’t take a request this time. We just happened to see something and cross paths.”
Woli’s attitude was stubborn.
“If Taeju or unnie said that, I’d go along even if I didn’t like it. They can protect themselves.”
But Seuli was different. Woli didn’t want to dismiss her, but Seuli clearly wasn’t like those two.
“Do you have confidence you could escape unscathed from someone suddenly trying to kill you? You want to poke at someone begging to be left alone? When we don’t even know how dangerous? You can’t help someone just on simple sympathy.”
“I don’t have confidence in protecting myself…”
“But what?”
Seuli hesitated a bit before speaking.
“I do have some ideas prepared.”
She said it with slightly anxious eyes. Seeing them, Woli asked.
“Then tell me. What makes you think you can talk?”
“The way they write, and the fact they’ve hidden without leaving any traces so far…”
Seuli’s voice trembled a little.
The note writer was overly defensive—excessively so. Thinking about it, it was odd.
“That person is overly cautious. Is that level of caution even necessary?”
Did someone who couldn’t be seen by anyone need to act this submissive and careful?
“They could’ve threatened us, or said to butt out if we didn’t want to get hurt. But this person just keeps pleading.”
The second note even seemed like begging. “Please leave me alone”—no way was that a threat.
It looked more like someone afraid.
“You said it yourself. It seems servile.”
That’s why Seuli felt convinced. The other side absolutely couldn’t harm anyone.
“And look. All the rumors are just minor good deeds.”
No real wrongdoing. Hiding in the school might be a crime, but it wasn’t on the level of directly committing some major, clear offense against someone. Honestly, it was too trivial to call a ghost story.
“The moment they’re noticed once, they act excessively servile. No need for that.”
Considering that extreme caution, Seuli said she was convinced the other wouldn’t harm her even if she went in.
“I don’t know yet why they’re invisible. And I know it could be dangerous if they target us. But they’ll be too cowed to hurt us.”
There was some persuasiveness. Woli thought for a moment.
“You might be right.”
“Then?”
Seuli looked at Woli brightly, but Woli didn’t change expression.
“Still no.”
Being invisible meant that much more vigilance was needed.
It was a power that could kill someone definitively in one go, if they willed it.
“What if you get seriously hurt? Or Boyoung does?”
Now Seuli was at a loss.
“Cowed? Sure, probably. I don’t know the mindset of someone desperate not to be seen. Helping if we can isn’t bad. I like that too.”
Woli wasn’t without sympathy. Her goal was singular.
“But my job is protection. I can’t stand seeing the people around me get hurt.”
“So, we just leave them? Like that? I don’t think that’s right.”
“Not completely leaving them. But no need to risk danger.”
The root of their differing thoughts was one thing.
“Safety first.”
“…I still want to help that person.”
Narrowing the gap would be hard now. Seuli sighed.
“What I wrote on that poster… I meant it sincerely. Sure, I tweaked the first words to fit what we wanted if read standalone, but even separately, I wanted it to convey my true thoughts.”
“That’s…”
Woli wavered a bit. She’d felt the sincerity in those words.
“That’s exactly how I think.”
That’s why she’d included understanding the other side. Seuli’s first regret had stemmed from not knowing them well.
If she’d tried harder to understand her sister—not just assuming coexistence was natural, but making real effort—maybe she could’ve known about Jine earlier, and they might’ve gone outside better prepared.
“I still regret it. If I’d known sooner. That unnie wasn’t human, and I was. If I’d understood beforehand why unnie raised me isolated far away. Maybe we could’ve prepared and gone out together—not every day, but sometimes I think that. And I hold tight to the item unnie left me when I sleep.”
Of course, neither Jine nor unnie was completely gone. But they were in fact dormant in the hairpin, having taken severe blows. Maybe they could’ve emerged unscathed.
“It might not have been my fault. But I could’ve stopped it. In that sense, I was lazy. I didn’t really know the people I thought I already did. I don’t want to repeat that mistake.”
That’s why Seuli wanted to understand the other. She knew, of course. Understanding wouldn’t instantly solve the immediate problem.
But she also knew. Without understanding, she could never truly help them.
“Is it worth risking danger for that?”
“To me, yes. And maybe to that person too.”
Woli let out a deep sigh. Seeing her so determined, forcing a no seemed pointless.
Seuli’s resolve was firmer than Woli had first thought. Woli knew this was the stubborn kind she couldn’t dissuade.
“…Prepare at night. If you’re gonna try that talk, no other time works.”
Woli said it coldly on purpose. She was a bit annoyed that despite her worry, Seuli insisted.
Put differently, a little sulky.
“Really?”
But Seuli, unconcerned, smiled brightly.
“Thanks. I couldn’t even try without you.”
Woli couldn’t get madder at Seuli suddenly turning innocent.
In the end, Woli just made a few earnest requests.
“Absolutely, absolutely do not go ahead first.”
“Of course! I’ll be careful.”
“We’ll talk details when we get back.”
Woli shook a bag of hot dogs.
“These’ll all get cold.”