Ties from My Previous Life (1)

I couldn't exactly claim I hadn't seen it coming. The company was the same. Society was the same. The date was the same. The country was the same.

It stood to reason that my previous life, Heo Donghyeon, had existed here.

But maybe it was the effect of becoming a woman? I'd chosen death of my own free will, and I knew I'd make the same choice even if I returned to the past. Still, the feeling left me strangely unsettled.

There were plenty of excuses for why I hadn't looked into it. I had no family, few acquaintances, and no important responsibilities in society. The only mark I'd left was a slight dip in housing prices from my suicide. So I'd simply brushed it aside as water under the bridge.

But...

What was I looking at right now? A connection I'd thought I'd left behind in the past had shown up in front of me like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Why?

Well...

To put it bluntly... I'd had a vague idea but never searched. I knew Heo Donghyeon would be perfectly fine, and with just thirty seconds of searching I could have found everything. Yet after becoming Baek Sowol, I hadn't spared a single thought for my previous life for nearly a month.

Why? I'd tried to comfort myself by saying there was no need to look during that time, but let's be honest now. Why?

...This is irritating as hell.

The mood was bad. The reason made it worse because it was so pathetic.

I'd simply been afraid to face my previous life. Afraid that I'd stolen Baek Sowol's body.

If I cut out the long-winded explanation, it came down to fear. I'd sworn that overcoming that kind of fear was the mindset of a true wizard, yet here I was, not even handling the most basic step. And what annoyed me even more was—

I think I finally understand why women always say that.

Looking at my current state, if someone told me it was okay, that it was perfectly understandable, it felt like those words would actually help. Even if they were just words. They wouldn't solve anything in reality.

But reflecting on myself, I understood. Whether it was the influence of this body or because I'd always been that kind of person, right now I wanted someone to tell me it was fine, that it was possible.

Seeing how women had always said even empty words would be enough, the body's influence had to be significant.

It was a body with few advantages besides being pretty.

Let's straighten my thoughts again. It's already in the past anyway.

A mistake is a mistake. Humans aren't perfect, so they can make mistakes.

What matters is not repeating them. That is what makes a wizard. Even someone like me isn't a perfect human, so I can make mistakes.

I corrected my thinking and considered what I needed to do next.

In the end, I have to find a way to make contact.

To dig up the secrets connected to my previous life, I ultimately needed to locate the remains. There might be nothing there. But aside from my own ashes, no other traces came to mind.

That was the correct direction. However, I didn't even know where my body was. The state would have given me a funeral, but without knowing which columbarium held my urn, there was no way to find it.

With bodies overflowing because of Gates these days, remains were stored roughly and left abandoned. Finding it through pure chance was nearly impossible.

But if it was Lee Jihyun... she would have attended the funeral. She would at least know which columbarium Heo Donghyeon had been placed in.

The only straw I could grasp was Lee Jihyun. Other kids might have come, but the only person "Baek Sowol" could reasonably contact was Lee Jihyun—an A-rank hunter and streamer.

Where did the original Baek Sowol go?

There were many things I was curious about. Why Baek Sowol? Where had the original gone?

But random speculation could make me miss something important. It was better to focus on what I could do right now.

So how do I create a point of contact?

Making contact with Lee Jihyun was relatively easy compared to others. But relatively easy still meant absolutely difficult.

If she'd been in the Binghwa Guild it might have been simple. Unfortunately she belonged to the Hwarang Guild.

I had zero connections to Hwarang.

Suddenly asking to meet would never work... and asking Sister Yeseo feels awkward...

I was D-rank. I could probably promote to C-rank within a week, but I was still D-rank. The only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thing I could boast about was my face.

There was no way we'd meet.

Asking Han Yeseo would be difficult too. I didn't even know if there was any connection. And even if there was, what excuse could I give? That I was a fan? That wasn't even true. And even if it were, why would I ask Han Yeseo to arrange it?

Even if I considered every angle and somehow got past all that, it was still questionable whether Lee Jihyun would agree to meet me. If I was going to meet her, I needed a more solid justification.

Nothing came to mind. But I couldn't stop searching just because of that.

Stopping wouldn't make an answer appear. I opened the profile that might hold some clue.

Hmm... So this is how she lived.

We'd been orphanage classmates. Even if we'd been close while I was alive, it was only to that extent. I'd never checked her profile before.

And only after reincarnating was I finally looking at updates I hadn't bothered with even when we were close. In a way, it was ironic.

And at that moment—

"Huh?"

I found something.

I discovered an ordinary photo. Under normal circumstances I might have scrolled right past it.

But the moment I saw the person in the picture, doubt flooded in.

Why... is Jihu there...?

In the photo, Lee Jihyun had her arm around Lee Jihu's shoulders. Both of them were smiling, so they seemed fairly close.

I clicked to read the post, but there was no content that hinted at their relationship.

I scrolled further, searching for more points of contact with Lee Jihu, but nothing else appeared.

Lee Jihu had been with Lee Jihyun. They looked close. The chances they had each other's contact information were high.

A path had opened.

...Should I reach out?

The only question left was whether to make contact. The contact itself would almost certainly work. Being invited there meant there was already a connection.

Even if it wasn't direct with Lee Jihyun, through one or two degrees of separation she would definitely know me.

It should be fine.

Being curious isn't a crime. I could ask.

I sent Lee Jihu a message.

Something that looked complicated at first turned out to be nothing special. This was exactly that kind of situation.

It was simply a cousin relationship. I should have noticed from the shared surname.

But I'm sure we both grew up in the orphanage?

What was going on? Had I been lied to? If they'd been close since childhood, then of course—

I considered the possibility that Lee Jihu was lying, but why tell a lie that would be so easily exposed? It was more logical to assume this world was a parallel one.

But that's impossible to confirm anyway, isn't it?

That was something I'd learn later. For now, I decided to focus on the present.

I continued the conversation.

Lee Jihu agreed without any real effort on his part. A meeting with Lee Jihyun would be arranged soon.

Before that, I should prepare to promote to C-rank first.

I'd meet Lee Jihyun after promoting to C-rank.

With that resolution, I moved on to the next matter.

...I ended up failing after all.

Time passed, and the day of the meeting Jihu had arranged arrived. But by then I had failed to become a C-rank hunter.

The reason was simple: the Gate had been temporarily closed.

I was just a few points short, which led to this outcome. I could make up the points later. Still, since he'd gone through the trouble of setting up the meeting, I needed to extract as much information as possible.

"Jihu, you're sure Lee Jihyun is really coming?"

"I told you she is."

"And Lee Jihyun really is your cousin?"

"Yes. She's my cousin."

So it really was this easy to meet her. All the worrying I'd done about how to arrange a meeting felt pointless. The news came that Lee Jihyun was on her way here.

And it was true.

Lee Jihyun appeared before my eyes not long after.

"Hey, Jihu. Long time no see? Is this your girlfriend?"

"No!? She's just an acquaintance!"

"Really? A school senior?"

"No. She's an adult. We met while working as hunters."

The two really did seem like cousins. Their comfortable familiarity was nice to see.

But one question remained. I'd lived with her in the orphanage since we were little. How could she have a cousin?

Had her parents died and she'd been sent to the orphanage? If the relatives had refused to take her, that would explain it. But then the claim that they'd been close since childhood wouldn't make sense. Lee Jihyun had been with me from the moment my memories began.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Baek Sowol."

"Hi! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Nice to meet you too. I'm Lee Jihyun!"

Lee Jihyun greeted me with the exact same smile as before.

It was identical. Far too identical. The same smile as in my memories.

That only made the question stronger. Why did she have family?

I decided to test the waters.

"You two seem really close. The way you hang out together."

"Yeah, we are. Well, we've been close since we were kids."

"Did your families get together a lot when you were young?"

"Ah, that didn't happen often. I just went over to their house."

"Really? You didn't go with your parents?"

Fortunately, she took the bait. If she dodged the question here, it would mean there was more to the story.

I pressed further, aiming for the truth. But Lee Jihyun's answer completely exceeded my expectations.

"Oh. I'm an orphan, so that's why."

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Where does an orphan get a cousin from?