The One Who Never Looked Back

"So don't come crawling back begging to try again. Next time we run into each other, we act like strangers. Okay?"

Lee Sihyun flashed a grin, then turned on her heel and walked off.

"Hey, Lee Sihyun!"

Do Suho shouted at her retreating back, but she didn't slow down.

"Lee Sihyun! Aren't you even going to stop?"

All that came back was a yell tossed over her shoulder.

"Come on, I told you not to come crawling!"

The lobby's glass doors swung shut, and her figure vanished from view entirely.

All that remained was Do Suho — and the tangle of stares converging on him.

"They say she was the one clinging."

"Do Suho was?"

"Who even is she, dumping Do Suho?"

The whispers rippled outward like a wave.

Hearing every last word of it, Do Suho raked a hand roughly through his hair.

"Ha!"

Clinging.

Clinging, of all things.

Who's been the clingy one this whole time?

The confession had come about a month ago. Before that, Do Suho had barely known Lee Sihyun existed — he hadn't even realized they went to the same school.

The confession itself he'd been able to shrug off. Ever since that photo in his blue scarf went viral, strangers confessed to him left and right.

But Lee Sihyun alone had been relentless.

And on top of that, she turned up everywhere he went.

He'd even toyed with the idea of calling the police.

But she was a girl at least two heads shorter than him, and she sobbed and clung every single time — nothing good could come of making a scene. So he'd simply done his best to avoid her.

He'd planned to do the same today, too. She followed me again. What a pain. Let's just cut this off cleanly and go.

But then.

She breaks up with me? We were never even dating?

And she treats me to a whole lecture about not clinging.

In the middle of the lobby, no less.

And what was with that look, anyway? Like she was watching a stray dog.

Who exactly is supposed to be angry here?

"Ha!"

The more he turned it over, the more absurd it became.

Seriously, who does that?

Then there was the whole awakening claim. Just when he'd decided she'd invented yet another excuse to keep chasing him around—

...If it was just an excuse, why did she leave?

Before he knew it, Do Suho's gaze had drifted toward the lobby exit.

Something was off. In the past month, Lee Sihyun had never once turned her back on him first. She was the girl who hovered at a distance, shuffling in place, then scurried after him in quick little steps the moment he walked away.

But today—

She'd said her piece, dumped every last word on him, and walked out without a single glance back.

"...Seriously, what the hell."

Do Suho muttered, unable to tear his eyes from the exit.

Just then, his phone gave a short buzz in his pocket. When he checked the screen, his brow twitched. He stared down at the caller for a few seconds — then, instead of answering, walked out of the lobby.

This was a call that needed to be made where no one could hear.

Fortunately, Lee Sihyun's awakened registration card had her home address printed on it. It was a public rental apartment near the school from earlier.

Jeyeon pressed a finger to the front door's lock, and it opened without resistance.

"Pardon the intrusion."

Kicking off her shoes, she stepped into the apartment.

"Whoa, this is the whole place? It's smaller than the foyer back home."

Lee Sihyun's home had no separate bedroom, and her belongings were spartan at best. Her desk, though, was crowded with charming little trinkets — small notebooks in every color, figurines, sticker photos she'd taken alone.

What am I supposed to do with all this.

Looking through what a dead girl had left behind stirred something complicated in her chest. Keeping it all felt inappropriate; throwing it away felt cruel.

Had someone felt this way after her own death, too?

Who took care of my things?

Her private assets would have been reclaimed by the state in their entirety.

...Do you have any idea how much all of that was worth?!

Several Gangnam buildings, stakes in dungeons — gone, whole, without her ever having spent a single won of it.

With that kind of money alone, she could have secured her guild a dungeon of its own, no problem.

And without making the kids work part-time jobs, either.

It gnawed at her, but there was no point mourning money that no longer existed. Clicking her tongue, Jeyeon set the box she was carrying down on the desk.

A cake she'd bought on the way over with Lee Sihyun's card. She propped the sticker photo of Lee Sihyun in front of it and lit the candle — and had to wonder what exactly this monstrosity was meant to be. Not quite a birthday table, not quite a memorial altar.

Shadows swayed in the fragile candlelight. In the photo, Lee Sihyun seemed to be smiling — or maybe crying.

After watching in silence for a while, Jeyeon spoke.

"Happy birthday, Lee Sihyun. I hope the road you're walking now is an easy one."

She bowed her head in brief silent tribute, then blew out the candle — and watched the smoke long after it had risen, thinned, and faded into nothing.

"I'm going to live as myself. But I'll live well, too."

It's your name. But I'll make it shine.

"Goodbye."

She turned Lee Sihyun's photo face-down.

From now on, she was not Sung Jeyeon. She was Lee Sihyun.

The next morning.

Bzzzt. Bzzzt.

Sihyun, who'd been sleeping without a care in the world, frowned.

"Ugh, come on."

No matter how hard she tried to ignore it, the buzzing pressed on, relentless. Hugging her pillow, she held out as long as she could before finally cracking her eyes open.

"Hah... who is it this time?"

An unfamiliar name glowed on the screen.

Sihyun rubbed her eyes and muttered.

"A Japanese person?"

The number was saved in her contacts, so the caller had to be someone she knew, at least.

Half in a daze, she pressed the button.

"Hello?"

A middle-aged man's voice boomed through the receiver, a heavy sigh buried in it.

Someone I know well, then?

Sihyun pulled the phone away from her ear and checked the screen again.

A foreigner? But his Korean is way too good.

Hesitating, she put a friendlier note into her voice.

"...Oh, right. You're Mr. Cheapskate, aren't you?"

A teacher? He was my homeroom teacher?

So these days anyone can be a homeroom teacher, nationality be damned.

And what kind of person saves a teacher's name like that?

Realizing how rude she'd been moments earlier, Sihyun hurried to apologize.

Click—

Staring at the dead screen, Sihyun finally let out a long sigh.

"I guess I don't have a choice. Might as well go and sort things out, then."

Besides, there was the question that had been hanging in the corner of her mind since yesterday.

Lee Sihyun... what on earth happened to you?