“It feels strange, doesn’t it. You don’t really look at old photos from when you were little at home. I haven’t seen these in forever either.”
Well, it wasn’t “forever” — it was actually the first time.
“True. If it weren’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have seen this until graduation.”
“See? Same for you. Should we put the album away now? I think we’ve looked at it enough.”
“Yeah, let’s. Hand it to me.”
He had listened to stories about Yeon Juwoo’s childhood and picked up some useful tidbits — like how his personality had changed between then and now. The main objective had been accomplished. He closed the album and handed it to Yang Inho, who slid it back onto the bookshelf.
“Inho, don’t you need to send Juwoo home?”
Yang Inho’s mother knocked on the door, cracked it open slightly, and called in.
“What time is it?”
“It’s already past 10. Juwoo, have you let your parents know you’ll be home late?”
“Oh?”
He had completely forgotten that he needed to contact Yeon Juwoo’s parents. After turning adult, being out late was never an issue — he could just say he’d been drinking and lost track of time. But right now, as a minor, 10 o’clock was quite late. Even more so for a student who didn’t even go to a tutoring academy.
“Not yet.”
“Oh my goodness! Your parents must be worried. Call them right away and get going.”
“Yes, I will.”
……But where does Yeon Juwoo even live?
He suddenly realized he didn’t know the most important thing. He couldn’t exactly say he didn’t know his own home address, and he couldn’t stay over either — it was an awkward situation. But he wasn’t too worried, since he figured the System would give him a tip like it did earlier. Surely it wouldn’t leave me homeless on the very first day of possession, right?
“You’re not upset that we’re kicking you out, are you? I’m only saying it because I’m worried about you, Juwoo.”
“Of course not, I understand. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. Go get ready and head out.”
“Yes.”
After saying goodbye to Yang Inho’s parents and stepping out into the hallway, Yang Inho said he’d at least walk him down to the first floor of the apartment building and followed him out.
“Take care. See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”
He waved goodbye and everything was fine until he made his way out of the apartment complex. Retracing the route he’d come from was easy enough. The problem started the moment he left the complex.
The System window he’d expected to appear right away was silent. He called out to it, tried summoning it in his mind — nothing. The System window refused to show. If it never appeared at all, he’d be in the devastating situation of having to find Yeon Juwoo’s home on his own, not even knowing where it was. At least give me a general direction.
As he stood there anxiously shuffling his feet, he felt something brush against his leg and shoved his hand into his pocket — and found a phone.
“This is it!”
With a phone, he might be able to find his way home. In this day and age, there had to be at least one app with a saved address on it. He opened every app that might have one stored — delivery apps, map apps — with hopeful anticipation.
“……How is this even possible?”
How did this kid not have a single delivery app? The map app had his school and Yang Inho’s house saved, but not Yeon Juwoo’s own home. He tried searching through his messenger chats to see if he’d ever sent his address to someone, and even opened the notes app — but no matter how hard he looked, everything was school-related.
Buzz buzz —
An alarm Yeon Juwoo had set went off.
[11:00 PM — Check grocery list for tomorrow and go to bed]
“……You’re a total home-cooked meal person, aren’t you.”
He should’ve figured it out the moment he saw no delivery apps — Yeon Juwoo apparently never ordered takeout. Well, home-cooked food is better for growing kids than delivery anyway.
He let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity. No System, a completely useless phone — how was he supposed to find his way to Yeon Juwoo’s house now?
“Aaaargh!”
He clawed at his hair and let out a shout of frustration, and the people passing by stared at him like he was out of his mind, whispering among themselves.
“Try being in my situation. You’d lose it too.”
He never should have entertained the thought of going homeless on the very first day. He knew the saying that words could become reality — but he’d never experienced thoughts becoming reality before.
With no sign of the System appearing, he trudged off toward the school in a daze. It was the only place he knew, and if he was going to be sleeping rough anyway, school was a better option than the open street.
[ System ]
[Yeon Juwoo, you’re heading in the exact opposite direction of home!]
He was plodding his way toward school when the System window appeared and blocked his path. He’d almost felt relief at the sight of it appearing like a savior — but instead, irritation surged up.
I’m possessing this body and you know I have no idea what’s going on — so why did you only show up now?
“I left Yang Inho’s place ages ago. Why are you only telling me this now?”
[ System ]
[But you looked at the map, so why don’t you know?]
“You never told me where his house was. How was I supposed to find it?”
[ System ]
[That’s strange. There’s no way you wouldn’t know.]
“……What?”
The System’s words felt like some kind of wordplay meant to mock him, and it made him bristle. He knew absolutely nothing about Yeon Juwoo — they only shared a name. The idea that he would obviously know was complete nonsense. He’d been about to unleash a string of curses, but the System’s next message just made him laugh in disbelief instead.
[ System ]
[You’ve seen the ending multiple times, so I assumed you were dedicated enough to the game to know.]
Yeon Juwoo’s house — a character so inconsequential that nobody would have remembered him if not for Choi Woosu — would never appear in the game’s story. It didn’t matter how many times you saw the ending; there was no way to know where it was.
What gave him chills in the midst of all this was the fact that the System knew he had seen the game’s ending — and that it hadn’t just been once.
“Wait — how do you know that? Don’t tell me you hacked my phone?!”
[ System ]
[There’s nothing I don’t know ^^ ]
The tone and the little smiling emoticon made it sound as if it knew his every move. Creeped out, he took a step back.
[ System ]
[Don’t you want to go to Yeon Juwoo’s house?]
“Obviously I do. If I don’t go there, I’m sleeping on the street.”
[ System ]
[Then please stop trying to run away 🙁 ]
It has no eyes and no camera — how did it even know I stepped back?
He scoffed lightly and stepped boldly up close to the System window.
“Happy now? I came closer. So tell me. Where does Yeon Juwoo live?”
[ System ]
[Do you really not know?]
“Of course I don’t. What does it matter that I’ve seen the ending multiple times? Do you really think the home address of an Extra with so little presence in the story that they won’t even show you his face without glasses would ever come up?”
[ System ]
[Hmm, that’s a fair point.]
A human-shaped emoticon appeared in the System window and made a gesture as if stroking its chin. Whether it was actually capable of thought was unclear — but at least it seemed to have caught on that what it had said didn’t quite make sense.
[ System ]
[Still, you should know.]
It had pretended to think for a moment, only to come out with that conclusion — which was almost funny. Even after being told flat out that he didn’t know, it stubbornly insisted he must. The sheer nerve was baffling.
