Omen (1)
It was the day Cheon Seo-hui decided she would not drop out.
That same day.
In a dim, empty playground somewhere in Seoul, a girl in an Academy uniform sat alone on a swing.
Class A-13. Lee Sin-a.
"……."
She rocked the swing gently back and forth, staring into nothing, then slipped a hand into her jacket pocket and drew something out.
An e-cigarette, no bigger than a finger.
She put it to her lips and drew a long, deep pull. A dense cloud of vapor spilled out with her sigh.
"…Huu…."
Through the smoke that shredded and vanished into the night air, her face looked hazy as she replayed what had happened that morning.
The crushing defeat at Seo-hui's hands. The expulsion from training for using mana.
In her entire life, Sin-a had never known a humiliation like this.
She came from a fairly well-off family. The moment her talent showed, she had been enrolled in one of those notoriously expensive Academy prep academies. She had lost to peers aiming for the upper classes before — but never like this. Never with a rage she could barely contain.
Maybe it was the difference between losing to an overwhelming stronger opponent and losing to an overwhelming weaker one.
She simply could not accept that she had been crushed by Cheon Seo-hui — that absolute weakling.
And that triumphant face looking down on her… she hated it more than anything.
"…Fucking bitch…."
She sat alone, puffing on the e-cigarette, trying to force the anger down — when it happened.
"……?"
She suddenly realized someone had come close.
Without a single sound of approach.
"!"
Startled, Sin-a shot to her feet, wariness flashing across her face.
In that instant—
"Do you want revenge?"
A middle-aged man, a dark shape in the gloom, spoke in a low voice.
"…What did you say?"
"The rage nested inside you called me here."
"What the hell…."
She decided he was some weirdo and started to leave — until the next words out of his mouth stopped her cold.
"If you wish it, I will give you the power to take revenge on that girl. Cheon Seo-hui."
Somehow, the man knew about Seo-hui.
Revenge?
He even seemed to know exactly what had happened between them.
"Who are you?"
Sin-a narrowed her eyes, never dropping her guard as she asked.
Then—
"I am."
From the shadows that hid his face, the man's eyes flared red.
"Gu Won."
After Cheon Seo-hui finished her conference with her homeroom teacher and formally withdrew her resignation from the Academy—
"Is Teacher Han in?"
"Oh. You're here?"
At lunch, Choi Yeonjeong showed up at the office.
She had come to keep her promise — a reappearance on her vlog as the reward for finding Mawang.com — but…
"Where's the camera? You didn't bring it?"
For some reason, the woman who had said she was going to film walked in empty-handed.
"Actually, that's what I needed to talk about."
"…?"
Instead of the camera angle she had promised, she shoved something else at me.
"I found her. Professor Bae Jongseok's daughter."
"What? For real?"
The daughter of Bae Jongseok — the professor who had run Mawang.com.
"What's she do? Where is she now?"
The result had come faster than I expected. I pressed her for details at once.
And then—
"Japan."
"…Huh?"
I got news I never saw coming.
"That daughter of his is living in Japan right now."
"!?"
She was living abroad.
"She majored in dungeon archaeology like her dad. Graduated college and went straight to Japan, apparently."
Her husband was Japanese, so that was where she lived now.
"Huh…."
Faced with a problem I hadn't anticipated, I could only scratch my head in empty frustration.
Meeting her in person is out of the question, then.
At least we had her personal details. I figured I could settle for contacting her somehow.
Choi Yeonjeong, however, seemed to be thinking something else entirely.
"Anyway. When are you free?"
"…Free for what?"
"We've got to go meet that daughter of his."
"……What?"
"You're not going?"
From the start, she had been planning an overseas trip.
"No…. You want us to go all the way to Japan?"
A little flustered, I threw the question back at her.
But she answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Bae Jongseok knew about us. His daughter has to know something too."
"That's…. True, but…."
"You said you'd go meet her no matter what."
If anything, Choi Yeonjeong looked like she couldn't understand my hesitation.
"No, I want to go meet her! …I do, but…."
The problem was our Nakyeong.
I had only just barely talked her down from storming off to buy cigarettes the moment she heard I was going to keep looking after Cheon Seo-hui full-time.
—Let go of me! I'm going to smoke and get a tattoo!!
After a desperate negotiation, we had reached a dramatic compromise of three sessions a week.
And now I was going to Japan?
With Choi Yeonjeong?
This doesn't end with a threat.
It was practically impossible.
"Is it because of Nakyeong?"
Sharp as ever, Choi Yeonjeong saw exactly what I was wrestling with in a single glance.
I had nothing to say. I just nodded and told her the whole story.
"If I mess this up, she might actually run away from home…."
Choi Yeonjeong knew about the First Han Nakyeong Runaway Incident. She didn't offer an easy opinion.
"So. You're not going?"
…Or was she?
"I can go meet her alone just fine, but…. Think about this carefully."
"…About what else."
She folded her arms, face serious, and said quietly,
"You can't spend the rest of your life getting jerked around by Nakyeong."
"……."
She wasn't wrong.
For the past twelve years, I had built every standard of my life around Nakyeong.
She had been my entire world.
But the situation had changed.
There were things I had to take responsibility for now besides her.
I couldn't keep adjusting everything to Nakyeong forever.
"Just try talking to her once. If it really doesn't work, I'll go by myself."
Fortunately, Choi Yeonjeong understood my circumstances well enough. She put off booking the flights and gave me another chance.
Japan, huh….
At this point, I couldn't just sit still either.
"Dad! I'm here!"
"Yeah. Let's go right away."
That same day. For the first time in a while, I was driving home with Nakyeong after work.
"So today, right? In our class…."
From the passenger seat she chattered away without pause.
Riding home together seemed to put her in an exceptionally good mood.
Is now the moment?
I gave the appropriate responses while carefully reading her face, then gathered my courage and floated the subject as gently as I could.
"Nakyeong."
"Yes?"
"I think I might need to go somewhere soon. Is that okay?"
"Where?"
"Japan."
"…Where?"
She had heard me perfectly well and still asked again in a tone that pretended she hadn't.
I fidgeted with the wheel. A red light came up just in time; I stopped the car and laid it out quickly.
"There's something important related to dungeons. I need to make a short trip to Japan. It's out in the provinces, so a day trip won't work — more like two nights, three days?"
"……."
"Probably leave Friday night and come back Sunday morning. Basically one night, two days."
Then I glanced at the passenger seat and asked carefully,
"Can I go?"
And then—
"Who are you going with?"
The sharp question I had expected hit me right in the blind spot.
"People from the agency. Choi Yeonjeong will be there too…."
Officially, I was signed to Choi Yeonjeong's company.
I wasn't listed on any website and I didn't have a manager attached, but the affiliation itself was real.
Going alone with Choi Yeonjeong would just be a trip. The moment the company was involved, it became official business.
"…Hnn…."
Nakyeong didn't react as violently as I had feared.
Laying a few pieces of groundwork beforehand seemed to have worked.
Of course, that didn't make my anxiety disappear.
"I already told them I might not be able to go, by the way."
I quietly handed her the choice — if she said no, I wouldn't go.
I hadn't wanted to go this far, but…
A tattoo is absolutely out of the question…. An underbelly tattoo even more so…!
Nakyeong's earlier tattoo threat had been far too vivid.
"……."
She pressed her lips together and sat still for a while, as if lost in thought.
Then—
"When are you going?"
"!"
An extremely positive signal.
"I still need to get a passport made. Probably next weekend? The exact date isn't set yet, but I'll go as fast as I can and come straight back."
I kept explaining while stealing glances at the passenger seat even as I drove.
And before long, as we drew closer and closer to home—
"…Haa…."
Nakyeong let out a helpless sigh and said,
"Go ahead."
"Really!? I can really go?"
"You said it's company work."
Her tone said she wanted to stop me so badly she could die, but there was nothing she could do.
"But when I send you a message, you read it and reply right away. The second you leave me on read…. You know, right?"
Tattoos. Cigarettes. Motorcycles.
"I don't just talk."
When Han Nakyeong said she would do something, she did it. She was the kind of girl who would actually follow through.
"O-of course…."
…I was going to need the absolute best data roaming plan available.
A bright weekend morning.
"……."
Seo-hui woke late, blinked, and groped across the pillow for her phone.
A little past nine.
"…Ugh…."
She yawned wide and began the stretches that had already become habit.
"Hwaaam…."
She needed to finish stretching before it got any later and send Dohyeon her morning proof-of-life photo.
Thud. Thud-thud-thud.
When she finally came out into the living room, Seo-hui poured cereal into a bowl, then tore open a mixed-nuts pack the way Dohyeon had taught her and dumped that in too.
Only after she had taken a decent photo and sent it did she finally pick up her spoon.
She chewed slowly, eyes locked on the phone where the messenger with Dohyeon was open — until, at some point, the little "1" vanished, a "Read" mark appeared, and a thumbs-up reaction bloomed on the meal message she had sent.
Dohyeon had seen it.
Three minutes?
Only then did she close the messenger, set the phone face-down, and start properly shoveling cereal into her mouth.
That was how her day began.
What should I read?
After breakfast, Seo-hui left the house and found the neighborhood library.
Aside from when she was very little, it was the first time she had ever set foot in one.
Dohyeon had advised her that if she got bored on the weekends, she should try reading a book or two.
Romance Masterpieces Best 50
Someone who had always kept her distance from books, Seo-hui picked a novel that looked reasonably thin and popular, then stopped by the neighborhood mart on the way home.
She intended to buy snacks to eat while reading — snacks Dohyeon wouldn't know about.
A small rebellion of her own, you could call it.
On everything else she obeyed him. On snacks, she ignored his instructions completely.
Is this a new product?
She was standing there with a more serious face than usual, carefully choosing which snacks to buy, when—
"Um…."
Someone approached and spoke to her carefully.
"…?"
Seo-hui turned her head — and the moment she saw the girl, she thought, without meaning to, that she was extremely pretty.
"I feel like I've seen you somewhere…."
Black hair half-tied and left to fall, a face as lovable as a rabbit's.
"You go to the Academy… right?"
It was Han Nakyeong.