TFGSR 08

Chapter: 08

“So, don’t think about clinging to me and trying to make things work again. Let’s pretend we don’t know each other if we meet again. Okay?”

Lee Sihyeon flashed a grin and turned around.

“Hey, Lee Sihyeon!”

Do Suho called out to her retreating back, but she didn’t stop walking.

“Lee Sihyeon! Aren’t you going to stop?”

Instead, all he got in return was a scolding voice.

“Hey, I told you not to cling to me!”

The glass doors of the lobby closed, and her back disappeared completely from view.

All that remained was Do Suho and the complicated gazes gathering around him.

“She said he was clinging to her.”

“Do Suho?”

“What’s with that girl? She dumped Do Suho?”

The whispers spread like waves.

Having heard every word they were saying, Do Suho roughly ran a hand through his hair.

“Hah!”

Clinging.

She called him clingy.

Who had been clinging to whom all this time?

Hadn’t it been about a month ago that he rejected her confession?

Before that, Do Suho didn’t know much about Lee Sihyeon. He didn’t even know they attended the same school.

He hadn’t thought much of her confession itself.

Ever since he became famous because of his photos in casual clothes, people had been confessing to him left and right.

But Lee Sihyeon was especially persistent.

<Suho, why don’t you want to date me?>

<How many times do I have to tell you? I just don’t want to date anyone right now.>

<I’ll try harder. I might even awaken soon.>

<That’s not the issue.>

On top of that, Lee Sihyeon appeared everywhere he went.

<You know, my birthday is tomorrow, and I’m alone.>

<So?>

<Can’t you stay with me, at least on my birthday? I’ll buy dinner!>

<Lee Sihyeon, how did you even know where I live?>

<What?>

<I’ve been doing that for the past month?>

He had even considered reporting her to the police.

But she was a girl nearly two heads shorter than him, and every time she clung to him in tears, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything harsh.

So he simply avoided her.

He had planned to do the same today.

She followed me again. This is getting annoying. I’ll cut things off properly and leave.

That was what he had thought.

But then—

‘She wants to break up?’

They had never even dated.

And on top of that, he had been lectured for being clingy.

Right in the middle of the lobby.

And what was with that look in her eyes earlier? She had looked at him as if he were some stray mutt.

‘Who’s supposed to be angry here?’

“Hah!”

The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed.

‘No, seriously, what is wrong with her?’

Even the claim that she had awakened was strange.

At first, he thought she was just coming up with every excuse imaginable to keep chasing after him.

But—

‘…If it was just an excuse, then why did she leave?’

Without realizing it, Do Suho’s gaze turned toward the lobby exit.

Something was strange.

During the past month, Lee Sihyeon had never once turned her back on him first.

She had always stood at a distance, fidgeting nervously, and whenever he turned around, she would hurriedly follow after him with tiny steps.

But today—

She had said everything she wanted to say, then left without looking back even once.

“…What the hell, seriously.”

Do Suho muttered without taking his eyes off the exit.

Just then, the phone in his pocket vibrated briefly.

Do Suho’s eyebrows twitched as he checked the screen.

He stared at the caller for several seconds, then, instead of answering, walked outside the lobby.

This was a call he needed to take somewhere no one could overhear.

Fortunately, Lee Sihyeon’s Awakened registration card had her home address written on it.

It was a public rental apartment near the school from earlier.

When Jeyeon placed her finger against the front door, it opened easily.

“Excuse me.”

After taking off her shoes, Jeyeon stepped inside.

“Wow, is this all? It’s smaller than the entrance to my old place.”

Lee Sihyeon’s home had no separate rooms, and there were very few belongings.

The desk, however, was decorated with all sorts of cute little things.

Colorful little notebooks, figurines, and sticker photos she had taken by herself.

‘What am I supposed to do with all this?’

Looking at the things left behind by a girl who had died made her heart strangely complicated.

Keeping them felt awkward, but throwing them away seemed too heartless.

Did someone feel this way about my belongings after I died?

‘Who took care of my things?’

All of her personal property must have been reclaimed by the state.

‘…How much was all of that worth?!’

Several buildings in Gangnam, not to mention her shares in dungeons—she had lost everything without even getting to use it.

If she had only been able to bring that money with her, she could have easily secured at least one guild dungeon.

‘And I wouldn’t have made the kids work part-time jobs.’

It frustrated her, but what good was regretting it now?

Clicking her tongue, Jeyeon placed the box she was carrying on the desk.

It was a cake she had bought with Lee Sihyeon’s card on the way home.

As she placed Lee Sihyeon’s sticker photo in front of it and lit the candles, she wondered what kind of bizarre combination this was.

It was neither a proper birthday celebration nor an ancestral memorial.

The shadows swayed with the weak candlelight.

In the photo, Lee Sihyeon seemed to be smiling.

Or perhaps crying.

After watching silently for a while, Jeyeon spoke.

“Lee Sihyeon, happy birthday. I hope your journey ahead is peaceful.”

After observing a moment of silence, she blew out the candles and continued watching the smoke disappear for a long while.

“I’m going to live my life as myself. But I’ll still try to live well.”

It was your name.

So that your name could shine.

“Goodbye.”

Jeyeon turned Lee Sihyeon’s photo face down.

From now on, she was no longer Seong Jeyeon.

She was Lee Sihyeon.

The next morning.

Bzzzt, bzzzt.

Sihyeon frowned as she lay deep asleep, completely unaware of the world.

“Ah, come on.”

No matter how much she tried to ignore it, the vibration kept going persistently.

After enduring it for quite some time while hugging her pillow, Sihyeon finally opened her eyes.

“Haah, who is it?”

An unfamiliar name was displayed on the screen.

Heihachi Baldy

Sihyeon rubbed her sleepy eyes and muttered.

“Japanese?”

Judging by the fact that the number was saved, he seemed to be someone she knew.

With a half-dazed expression, Sihyeon pressed the button.

“Hello?”

—Hello? You sound awfully relaxed.

The voice of a middle-aged man came through the receiver.

“Who is this?”

—Who is this? You’re asking me who I am?

A deep sigh accompanied his voice.

‘Is he someone close to her?’

Sihyeon pulled the phone away for a moment and looked at the screen again.

Heihachi Baldy

‘Is he a foreigner? His Korean is way too good.’

After hesitating, Sihyeon spoke in a somewhat friendlier voice.

“…Ah, I know. You’re Mr. Baldy, right?”

—What? What did you just say?!

The man’s voice instantly rose.

—Lee Sihyeon, you skip class like it’s nothing, and now you’re calling your homeroom teacher “Mr. Baldy”? Are you seriously going too far now?

‘Teacher? He was a teacher?’

Teachers are homeroom teachers regardless of nationality these days?

‘Why would she save his name like that?’

Realizing that the way she had addressed him moments ago was rude, Sihyeon hurriedly apologized.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

—You, come to school right now!

“But I awakened. So I’m planning to stop going to school now.”

—You awakened? Even so, you still have to come to school!

“I’m sorry, but I’m planning to devote myself to working as a Hunter from now on.”

—How am I supposed to believe you? If you want your absence to be recognized as a special leave, shouldn’t you at least bring your registration card?

“I just mean that I’m not going to school anymore.”

—Lee Sihyeon, get to school right now before I come to your house myself and drag you here!

Click—

The call ended.

Sihyeon stared at the screen and eventually let out a sigh.

“Guess I have no choice. I’ll go and sort things out.”

And there was another matter that had been nagging at the back of her mind since yesterday.

‘Lee Sihyeon, what exactly happened to you?’