“…I’m starting to get worried—you’re not sick, are you?”
It was hard for me to say this while in my right mind too. I smiled awkwardly and tried to speak as calmly as possible.
“So like, what if someone knew how the world was originally supposed to flow?”
“Are you talking about religion?”
“Surprisingly, no.”
“Like superpowers?”
“It’s more similar to that.”
“Do you have superpowers?”
Jung Yoonseo asked as if genuinely curious.
“Would I?”
“That’s what the context was like. Wasn’t it some kind of hero and hero’s heroine nuance?”
“Heroine?”
“Usually heroes reveal their secrets to heroines.”
“I’m not a hero though….”
“I’m not a heroine either, so anyway, finish your story.”
Jung Yoonseo put down his mug and looked at me as if fascinated. I was a bit amazed that Jung Yoonseo seemed genuinely amused.
“Hyung, you like this kind of thing?”
“When I was young, I was totally into comics.”
“Really?”
“What other entertainment could a kid who came to Korea and couldn’t even speak Korean properly enjoy?”
“I thought you’d been reading business management theories since you were young, so this is unexpected.”
At my words, Jung Yoonseo snorted and leaned back completely on the sofa, looking at me. At the silent urging, I spoke again.
“You probably really won’t believe this, but to put it conclusively, I read a novel that showed how the original world was supposed to flow, and it’s connected to my life, so I need to find the author who wrote that novel.”
“Honestly, I didn’t expect to witness such a fantasy-like phenomenon at this age. Can I ask a few things?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the probability that the novel just coincidentally matched the situation?”
“None.”
Because it’s not just a prophecy book, but a BL novel that made someone possess another person’s body.
“Then secondly, what’s the probability that Lee Hyun-ssi is mistaken?”
“None.”
“I least want to consider this, but have you gotten a psychiatric diagnosis?”
“Um….”
I thought for a moment, then answered honestly. I’d actually briefly gone to a psychiatrist until last year. The cause was a bit of lethargy.
“I went until last year, but it was just depression accompanied by lethargy, and there were no symptoms of delusions, mental confusion, or schizophrenia.”
“Depression?”
“As you can see, I’m not like that now.”
“You don’t know that. I’ve relied on psychiatrists a few times myself.”
…This was also new information I learned about Jung Yoonseo. Jung Yoonseo spoke as if talking about everyday matters. Meanwhile, Jung Yoonseo’s questions were all more realistic than what I’d experienced, making them hard to refute.
“Anyway, it’s not. It’s not a coincidence or a mental problem.”
“Then moving on, why are you looking for that author?”
“…Because that author knows my life in too much detail somehow, so that’s strange.”
“Is there no possibility they’re an acquaintance?”
An acquaintance? This was something worth thinking about differently. Actually, since I’d never had a chance to meet that author directly, I didn’t know what they looked like. Then was that author someone who actually knew me? But for that, the world had been turned upside down, hadn’t it?
“That’s… I don’t know. But they know me in too much detail to just be an acquaintance. Even my inner thoughts.”
“Then what’s the probability of a stalker?”
“I doubt it. It’s not written to that extent. My inner thoughts are written down.”
“Then are you trying to catch them thinking it’s related to a crime?”
“Precisely, I think I need to know the whole story of the incident. I’m sorry I can’t explain anything to you. But I really don’t know well either….”
Jung Yoonseo looked at me quietly, then sighed. It seemed like he clicked his tongue briefly too. After a long while, Jung Yoonseo spoke coldly.
“There are a few conditions.”
It was a calm and cold voice, but ultimately it contained the meaning of consent.
“First, report to me whatever it is when the situation progresses.”
“Yes.”
“Second, there’s nothing good about me approaching personally, so you meet them directly. I’ll help you up to that point.”
“Of course.”
“Lastly, grant my request too.”
“Say anything.”
At my answer that came out readily, Jung Yoonseo raised one corner of his mouth and smiled.
“Acting naive, but you shouldn’t make blank contracts.”
“What kind of request is it?”
“I’ll think about that too. I haven’t thought about it specifically yet.”
I obediently nodded. It seemed right to grant everything within the range I could grant. Jung Yoonseo looked at me nodding for a moment, then asked lightly.
“Now that your business is done, what do you want to do?”
“Hyung, is there something you want to do?”
“Well. I haven’t thought about it yet.”
Only then did I look around Jung Yoonseo’s house. The living room was connected by corridors in both directions, and at the end of one corridor, I could see a large room configured as a sliding door. The interior seemed to be cleanly implemented basically with marble, but it seemed like Jung Yoonseo had just bought a house that originally looked like this rather than designing the interior separately.
“But is this your house, hyung?”
“I just bought one to become independent from the main house. It’s a house I bought rather hastily.”
“Can I look around?”
“Well….”
Jung Yoonseo obediently got up. It seemed he would personally guide me through the house. I asked a few more curious things.
“But don’t you have servants?”
“There’s no one who stays permanently, but on weekdays a housekeeper comes to help with housework. Until a few months ago, I also received meals through servants, but as I got busier with work and stopped eating at home much, I just asked them to report to the main house again.”
“You’re really a young master.”
When I asked while following Jung Yoonseo around, Jung Yoonseo chuckled, then turned around and met my eyes. Deliberate arrogance settled on Jung Yoonseo’s delicately beautiful face.
“If you’re going to keep calling me young master, you should treat me properly like a young master.”
Jung Yoonseo spoke brazenly as if he’d shoved the previous embarrassment somewhere.
“How?”
At my question, Jung Yoonseo shrugged once.
“Think about that yourself.”
Jung Yoonseo had no intention of properly explaining the rooms and just strode through the wide rooms with his long legs. Since all the curtains were pulled back, the sunlight coming through the large windows illuminated Jung Yoonseo’s bright hair, giving the feeling of appreciating some pictorial.
“Hyung, really….”
“Why?”
“You’re handsome.”
When I spoke honestly, Jung Yoonseo frowned.
“I didn’t mean for you to flirt.”
“It’s not flirting,”
“I’ll correct myself. I didn’t mean for you to say things that I could reasonably interpret as flirting.”
With those words as the end, Jung Yoonseo flung open doors and gave minimal explanations.
“This is a study, but it’s just a book storage. I have a bit of a book collecting desire.”
“Do you organize the books?”
“I just roughly divided them by genre.”
“Do you have comics too?”
Jung Yoonseo hesitated for a moment, then confessed.
“I hid them.”
For a moment, that answer was a bit cute and I almost laughed. I barely held back my laughter and nodded seriously.
“I’m not into them now. It’s just a waste to dispose of them.”
“Are you making excuses?”
“I’m clarifying.”
Following Jung Yoonseo’s half-hearted explanations, I finished the house tour and returned to the living room.
“You didn’t eat, right?”
“No.”
“Let’s eat something simple.”
“Order whatever you want to eat, hyung. German food is good too.”
At my words, Jung Yoonseo, who’d been thinking for a moment, seemed to be ordering food and tapped his phone, lost in thought.
“What did you order? German food?”
“Do you know any German food?”
“Sausages?”
“Besides that.”
“…Beer.”
Jung Yoonseo gave a deflated laugh and plopped down on the sofa to talk.
“I just ordered fish dishes. White fish dishes. I’ve been craving them since yesterday.”
“Sounds delicious.”
“Do you like it?”
“I don’t know how it’s cooked, but it seems like it’ll be food I’m trying for the first time. For fish, except for occasionally getting raw fish to eat, I’ve only eaten it in school lunches or cafeteria food…. Grilled.”
“Do you like raw fish?”
“Yes.”
That raw fish wasn’t something I bought with my own money either—it was something I ate at company dinners. Raw fish was too expensive to buy with my own money.
“It’ll still take a while for the food to come, so do you want to watch a movie?”
“Movies are good. What kind of movies do you like?”
“I don’t really discriminate by genre. I watch classics often and action too.”
“Do you watch Spider-Man and stuff like that too?”
“I shouldn’t have talked about comics….”
Jung Yoonseo’s lament was funny, so I laughed quietly out loud. Jung Yoonseo turned on the TV, entered an OTT program, and handed me the remote.
“Pick what you want to watch.”
Actually, unlike saying movies were good earlier, I actually didn’t watch movies that often compared to dramas normally. Not knowing what to pick, I played an old black-and-white film that Jung Yoonseo would probably like.
“You want to watch this?”
“Have you seen it?”
“No…. We can watch anything.”
Jung Yoonseo permitted reluctantly. Was it because he’d already seen the movie? But the movie was already starting.
