Chapter 76
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Monster Tale Specialist Office: The Invisible Person (11)
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“This is pretty good.”
Taeju said as he picked up another hot dog and ate it. Actually, when they’d said they ate hot dogs just among themselves, he hadn’t thought much of it, but if it was this tasty, he felt a bit belatedly envious.
“The ones sold in front of your school? This doesn’t taste like just some street cart food.”
Even though it had cooled a bit, it was still this good—what must it have been like fresh out of the fryer? Taeju took another bite, regretting it.
“You’re eating well….”
She’d brought them over for him to eat, but she hadn’t expected him to devour them like this. Woli looked at Taeju with slightly surprised eyes.
“No, I’m not usually one for this kind of stuff, but this is good.”
“Of course it is.”
Taeju quickly finished off the rest and said.
“Phew, so? What did you want me to tell you? Sounds like things are going smoothly so far.”
“…You were listening, right? You were just busy stuffing your face with hot dogs.”
Seuli asked in a suspicious tone. Honestly, all she’d seen was him eating heartily.
“We told you the response came, we happened to figure out who it was, and we decided to try talking to them directly on the spur of the moment.”
As if to prove he hadn’t just been eating, Taeju answered precisely.
“The reason I ate without saying anything was because there wasn’t anything to say.”
“Even so, you should at least pretend to be listening!”
“Do I need to say more? Doesn’t seem like you’ve got anything wrong.”
If he had to point something out, it was that they’d chosen to meet a bit hastily, but even that was an impulsive decision, not a thoughtless one, so he didn’t have much else to add.
“Why explain all this to me specifically?”
“To ask for your confirmation.”
Seuli said with somewhat grave eyes.
“Confirmation?”
“Yeah. I’m just not totally sure.”
“Sure about what?”
“About why the invisible person is invisible.”
Taeju nodded. That kind of certainty was always hard to come by.
“You’re getting into some deep stuff.”
The fact that she was asking this meant they were already handling it well. Taeju praised her inwardly.
“Um, you said there are different ways to be invisible, right?”
“That’s right.”
After hearing Boyeong’s words and seeing the note’s tone, Seuli had made some guesses too.
“Being invisible means, in other words, that no one was paying attention to that person. So they must have had a tough time at school… something like that, right?”
What if that person had been bullied? That’s what Seuli thought.
Seuli hadn’t been in school long enough to fully understand why group bullying happened or why people did it, but she knew it existed and could imagine the suffering it caused.
“Not being recognized by anyone at all—that’s got to mean that, right?”
Taeju nodded, finding it plausible.
“Could be.”
“But then why stay at the school?”
That was the part she couldn’t figure out at all.
“Boyeong said this is a school ghost story. If school was so painful, wouldn’t you normally leave the school grounds?”
Why force yourself to stay as the school’s invisible person? It’d be better to just go.
“I don’t get it. Why stay at school specifically? If they loved it that much, they could be like Boyeong… it’s a bit weird, but at least there’s no need to haunt it like a ghost even after graduating.”
Sticking around the school even after graduation? Seuli couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Do you have any guess about what happened?”
“Nope, not at all. I don’t know that part either.”
Taeju just shrugged since he couldn’t know things like that.
“But the conclusion is probably simpler than you think. Why stay at a school where you couldn’t even get along, turning into an invisible person?”
Taeju pondered for a moment.
“Maybe, just maybe, the school was more comfortable.”
“Comfortable?”
“Yeah. Or maybe not.”
Seuli let out a deflated sigh.
“In the end, nothing’s certain.”
“Yeah. So today… or tomorrow, I guess? Since it’s past midnight when you go in.”
Taeju shrugged after saying that.
“You’ll have to talk it out there.”
“How should I talk to them?”
“How should you talk?”
“I mean, I can’t just suddenly bring up stuff like, ‘School life was tough for you, huh?’”
“Yeah, exactly. That could be comforting, but it might also just reopen old wounds.”
Sometimes you even have to dig into wounds knowing they hurt. Taeju himself constantly wrestled with how to handle that. He believed there was no single right answer.
So he didn’t have much advice for this either.
“You’ll do fine, though. If it’s you.”
“…I want to live up to expectations, but.”
Seuli sighed.
“So you’re not gonna help any more?”
Taeju shrugged.
“Yeah. The hot dogs were great, though. Bring some next time.”
Taeju grinned. It was basically eating and running. Feeling unfairly treated, Seuli said.
“…Not next time.”
“Huh?”
Taeju gave a slightly disappointed look. But it was fine. He knew where to buy them now—that was the adult way.
“I’m not telling you where either. And I’ll tell Woli not to tell you.”
“Hey! That’s cheating!”
* * *
“Is it really okay to get in this easily?”
It was so easy sneaking into the school that Seuli found herself blurting it out.
“No, last time wasn’t this easy for me either.”
Even Woli was baffled. Her tension felt foolish now. It was all thanks to Boyeong.
Next time you need to get in, don’t do anything risky like before—just use this method, she’d said. It was so simple it was disorienting.
“How does she even know the school’s security disable code?”
It was different from just guessing a student’s phone number or birthday.
“…If she wanted to, she could probably rob the principal’s office.”
Woli decided not to ask how Boyeong knew these things. She had a feeling hearing it might reveal something a bit scary.
“But at least it worked out.”
Seuli knew it wasn’t normal, but her sense of it differed from Woli’s. She didn’t know how other students managed.
“Better than making you go through trouble, right?”
“It is… kind of.”
Trouble or not, it wasn’t a huge deal for Woli. How much effort did it take to find that out? No matter how she thought about it, infiltrating by carrying one or two people over the wall seemed easier.
“For most people, climbing the wall would be easier than figuring this out.”
“Is that so.”
Anyway, they were already in, so it didn’t matter much. Time to put the admiration for Boyeong on hold.
Seuli stared down the dark hallway.
“This place feels kinda weird.”
She murmured without realizing it. In the empty dark hallway, only the two of them were there.
“I’ve never seen darkness like this.”
Seuli had seen night in the mountains and night in the city. Mountains had a subtle glow, cities had dazzling lights.
But the school’s night was neither. It was utter silence. This was a completely alien sensation.
She was used to darkness, used to places like this, yet it felt so unfamiliar. Seuli was overwhelmed by the atmosphere.
This was a place where someone could hide. But she couldn’t believe anyone could live hidden here. There was truly nothing.
Caught in these contradictory thoughts, Seuli zoned out for a moment. Then she stared at a faintly glowing green light. Seeing it, Woli tapped her shoulder.
“What did I say before we came in?”
“…Sorry.”
Seuli apologized readily. She hadn’t meant to go further, but she had taken an unconscious step forward.
“Don’t go ahead of me. Just in case.”
With that, Woli stepped slightly ahead.
“Remember the precautions?”
Woli whispered softly. Seuli nodded. There weren’t many.
“Yeah, don’t make loud noises if the night guard’s awake, don’t go ahead of you, and don’t try to do too much today.”
Seuli said that, then asked.
“But is he awake?”
“No, seems like he’s sleeping.”
Even tonight, snoring echoed from afar.
Wasn’t he a bit too lax? But there wasn’t anything in this school worth waking up to guard. No one had ever snuck in like this before.
Except on special exam days, there was no reason for strict patrols.
“We can’t be too loud, but we don’t need to whisper that much.”
“Good.”
“As if it’s that good….”
Even if he were awake, he probably wouldn’t patrol diligently. It was just a matter of being a bit careful with noise.
“But we’re in—now what?”
Woli voiced her doubt.
“We can’t just yell, ‘Invisible person, come out!’”
“I thought about it a bit….”
Seuli didn’t have a great plan either. Deciding to talk directly had been pretty impulsive.
“Maybe if we wander around a bit, they’ll show up on their own?”
The person had definitely been watching Woli. Woli hadn’t rummaged through the whole school. She’d just posted the flyers and left.
“They’ll come check if someone shows up in their territory!”
“Yeah, they remember my face.”
That made sense. Woli nodded and slowly walked forward.
“Follow slowly. And don’t forget to glance behind occasionally, just in case.”
The two proceeded cautiously.
“Are you there?”
Seuli called out softly as they walked. It was barely a whisper. She seemed anxious. Woli smiled a little.
“You can speak louder than that.”
“Oh, really? Are you there—!?”
“Hey! That’s too loud!”
Even if he was asleep, that was excessive. Not a full shout, but enough to echo in the silent hallway.
“Tone it down a bit.”
No signs of stirring from far away yet. But keep yelling like that, and he definitely would.
“…Harder than I thought to find the right volume.”
Seuli said glumly. Woli thought for a moment.
“No, actually, this might be better.”
“Better?”
“They definitely heard that. The invisible person.”
Woli said.
“They might be pretending not to know and hiding nearby, but I’m sure. They’re around here.”
“Even if they’re nearby, staying hidden means they don’t want to come out, right?”
“So what? We’ll just keep talking. We’ll search until they do.”
The night was long. Plenty of time before sunrise.
Stir things up until they can’t stand it without coming out. If not, keep going till they do.
“Taeju said it before? Sometimes the brute force way works best.”