Ties from My Previous Life (2)
I blinked twice at the bizarre statement.
“I’m an orphan, you see.”
I turned my head slightly and looked at Lee Jihu. True intentions have a way of getting across even without words. Lee Jihu immediately caught on to what I was thinking.
Didn’t you say she was your cousin?
“Ah! Noona! Don’t say things that confuse people! You’re not an orphan!”
“Why not? I did grow up in an orphanage!”
“That’s only because Uncle ran the orphanage! We just lived there together!”
Once I summarized the situation, the answer became clear.
Lee Jihyun had grown up in an orphanage as a child. That was why I had assumed she was an orphan. But the director of that orphanage was actually her biological parent.
Which meant that Lee Jihyun, who had grown up there, could have parents—and cousins.
Hmm… but she never really acted like she had close family around.
Well. They did share the same last name, Lee. But how common was the surname Lee in Korea?
“Haha. I see. Haha.”
She had always been like this. The kind of person who deliberately phrased things in ways that invited misunderstanding. It wasn’t that she lacked social skills or eloquence. She just enjoyed watching people get the wrong idea and then savoring their reactions.
That was probably why she had become so popular as an internet streamer.
“Haha. Sorry about that. I just felt like messing with my cousin since it’s been so long. I’m Lee Jihyun.”
Lee Jihyun’s (in this body’s) first impression was exactly the same. She hadn’t changed at all from the last time I had seen her a few months ago.
Was it strange that she hadn’t changed in such a short time? My childhood friend—the one I had spent nearly twenty years with—had jumped off a building. Depending on how Lee Jihyun had felt about me, it wouldn’t have been odd if she had fallen apart.
But seeing her perfectly fine like this… it seemed she hadn’t been that devastated. No sense of loss or anything. If she had killed herself, I would have been shocked too, but I probably wouldn’t have stayed depressed for a whole month.
So we were the same, I guess.
“Whoa… but… what cosmetics do you use?”
“Cosmetics?”
“Yeah. I mean, you’re seriously the prettiest person I’ve ever seen. I’ve had idols and actors on my stream before, but wow.”
However, the way Lee Jihyun was acting now was quite different from the person I remembered. Our relationship could have been called that of childhood friends who were also rivals.
Like two people who had known each other since they were little. Teasing each other, liking each other, disliking each other, playing pranks. We weren’t blood-related, but we had lived like family. That was why we could have been called siblings in everything but blood. So I had almost never seen her show this kind of respectful attitude.
Well… it made sense that she would act differently toward someone she was meeting for the first time. Especially since our genders were different now. I had treated her differently from other people too. She was probably the same.
“I don’t really use any cosmetics. It’s… kind of a waste of time.”
“What? No way. This skin?”
“If you’re curious, you can touch it. I really didn’t put anything on.”
“How is that even…? Then excuse me…!”
Just like Han Yeseo had done, Lee Jihyun reached out and gently touched my cheek. Back then she would have done it without even asking permission. Seeing her act like this now felt strangely new.
“So, Jihu. Why did you call her here?”
“Oh! Sowol noona said she was your fan, so I asked if she wanted to meet you if she got the chance.”
“Ah? You’re a fan…?”
“Hello. Yes. I just watch your YouTube videos from time to time.”
Of course I hadn’t actually watched them properly. But I could act like a fan well enough.
Lee Jihyun often shared stories from her past on stream. And quite a few of those stories had involved me.
I could testify more accurately than you about any of them, you idiot.
“Well. The stories you told were pretty entertaining. Like the time you tripped and face-planted straight into a cake, or when you lost two million won trying to day-trade stocks. You made them really fun to listen to.”
“Wait, you actually remember those?”
“Some of them. There are a lot I don’t remember either.”
“Those were all stories from my early streaming days…”
Oh, was that why? No wonder I couldn’t find them when I looked up the videos. There were over a hundred uploads. It would be impossible to watch them all one by one. Some probably weren’t even uploaded.
“Then… should I call you Sowol? Sowol-ssi. So, is there anywhere in particular you’d like to go?”
“I’m fine with anything. What about you, Jihu?”
“I don’t really have any preferences either.”
Lee Jihyun seemed to be thinking. From my perspective, I had come here purely out of fan admiration. I didn’t really know how streamers and fans usually spent time together.
But while the streamer Lee Jihyun didn’t know me, the human Lee Jihyun knew me very well.
And right now, she wasn’t streaming. So what she would probably choose was…
A PC bang.
“How about a PC bang?”
Of course. I knew it.
She had always loved going to PC bangs. Why? I had no idea. Some people just had that kind of taste. And from what I had seen of her streams, she focused more on gaming than on chatting anyway.
“What about you?”
“I go to PC bangs pretty often, but what about you, noona?”
“Me?”
I hardly ever went. Though I had visited quite a few times because of Lee Jihyun.
“I don’t mind.”
To be honest, it felt a bit strange that the only thing a popular streamer and her fan would do together was go to a PC bang. But I didn’t watch streams that often anyway. Might as well just go with the flow.
We arrived at the PC bang that Lee Jihyun frequented. It was a familiar place to me too, since she used to drag me there. But I couldn’t act like I knew it.
Baek Sowol probably wouldn’t have visited places like this often. There weren’t even any games installed on her computer. Why would someone with plenty of money go to a PC bang?
“Do you have any games you usually play?”
“No, not really.”
I had never been into games in the first place, so I could answer honestly. I just casually fiddled with my phone like a normal person.
After some time passed, I started to feel a bit hungry. About two hours had gone by.
No matter how I looked at it, this didn’t seem like something you’d do with a fan. But if it was Lee Jihyun, it made sense.
She really is a weirdo.
There was a reason I had found it ridiculous when people said all mages were weirdos. The real weirdos don’t even realize they’re different.
I at least acknowledged that I was slightly different from other people. A mage had to be different from ordinary humans. It was impossible for non-mages and mages to be the same.
Lee Jihyun was in a similar category. That was why, even when I had said things that normal non-mages couldn’t understand, she had stayed by my side. She didn’t understand what I was saying either, but she just stayed anyway. That had always fascinated me.
While I was lost in thought, Lee Jihyun turned her head and spoke.
“Sowol-ssi… are you okay just watching me play like this? Do you want to do a stream together…? Since you said you’re my fan?”
Lee Jihyun’s unexpected suggestion made me doubt my own ears.
What? Lee Jihyun was asking for my opinion? That was impossible! The same Lee Jihyun who had dragged me to a PC bang saying she was bored and then spent two whole hours just playing games. The one who had left me completely alone while she focused entirely on her game. That was the real Lee Jihyun!
It wasn’t because we were close or comfortable with each other. She had always been like that. Once she got into a game, she concentrated like nothing else existed.
Was she acting differently because it was our first meeting? No. If that were the case, she wouldn’t have suggested a PC bang at all. That was why I had assumed we wouldn’t actually play games even if we came here. So what the hell was going on?
Had my death actually changed her?
I don’t get it.
Now that I thought about it, it was very strange. Lee Jihyun was a popular streamer. How could someone with zero social skills become a popular streamer? People like that usually ended up fighting with their viewers.
Yet here she was, taking someone she had just met to a PC bang. Why?
Jihu was still young, so maybe that explained his suggestion. But normally, wouldn’t she have arranged a proper meeting?
“I’m fine with it.”
Of course I was fine. It wasn’t like this was the first time. It just seemed weird from Baek Sowol’s perspective. From Heo Donghyeon’s perspective, it was something I could easily overlook.
“Um… I must seem really strange, right? I don’t even know why I brought us here. It just feels so familiar. Isn’t that weird? We only met today. There’s no way I could feel familiar with you, Sowol-ssi.”
And then came Lee Jihyun’s awkward attempt at an explanation. Hearing it only made me more suspicious. Baek Sowol had white hair. She possessed an appearance that was anything but ordinary.
Someone like that felt familiar? Even if she were a celebrity, it wouldn’t be easy to feel that way about Baek Sowol. I had been staring at this face in the mirror every single day for a month now, and I still couldn’t fully accept that it was mine. So how?
“You just… remind me of someone I know.”
Huh?
“Someone you know…?”
“Yes.”
Hmm. Was she talking about… me? There shouldn’t be anyone Lee Jihyun knew that I didn’t know about. How was this possible? You’ve only known this body for about an hour!
“The way you act is similar to someone I knew. I guess I unconsciously treated you that way.”
“I see. What kind of person were they?”
“Just… a comfortable person. Someone who was fun to be around.”
Were. Yeah. She was definitely talking about me.
Because I was already dead.
“Noona. Shouldn’t we order some food?”
“Oh! Right, Jihu. Want to order something? What about you, Sowol-ssi?”
“I’ll have something too.”
After spending time naturally at the PC bang, I started feeling hungry. These days, PC bangs had such a wide variety of food that you could practically have a full meal there. We placed our orders. After waiting a little longer, the food arrived.
Jihu got ramen. I ordered spam fried rice. And Lee Jihyun… also got spam fried rice?
Huh?
“…You like it?”
You. You didn’t like that. You always said it tasted like kids’ food. I loved it, but you said you didn’t.
“…No. But… it suddenly came to mind today.”
“If you don’t like it, why order it on purpose?”
“It’s not my favorite. But today it just reminded me. It was someone I liked’s favorite food.”
What? Someone you liked?
“Noona, do you have a boyfriend?”
“No. Haha. I don’t usually talk about this, but it suddenly came to mind today. Sorry, Sowol-ssi.”
The person Lee Jihyun was talking about was almost certainly me. And Lee Jihyun had been acting this way because of me.
She had liked me. She had liked Heo Donghyeon.
And that Heo Donghyeon… was sitting right here with her. But to Lee Jihyun, he was already dead and gone.