ULAS 06

Chapter 6

There was a brief silence, and then Red suddenly started bouncing in place with both arms stretched upward.

It seemed like he was trying to get our attention because the mood between the two of us had gotten so serious.

Neither Dan Seohyeok nor I had the time to pay attention to Red, though.

Soon, Dan Seohyeok clicked his tongue irritably.

“Do whatever you want.”

I was already doing whatever I wanted.

Still, I knew he was only saying that because he was worried about me, so I was grateful.

‘Well, he’s had enough bad experiences with ghosts that trusting them would be harder for him.’

Not only me, but Dan Seohyeok was probably desperate for information too.

The trafficker ghost was a huge urban legend that I couldn’t handle alone. I needed to gather as much information as possible.

I held out my phone to him. He shot me an annoyed look as if asking what I was doing.

“Give me your number.”

“Why?”

“You need information too, right? If I find any clues, I’ll share them.”

Dan Seohyeok turned his head away. It seemed like a refusal, so I was about to put my phone away without lingering any longer when—

A surprisingly large hand snatched it away as if stealing it.

“Send me your brother’s name with that number.”

He called the number as if it were his own, then hung up and added,

“…I’ll tell you too if I find something.”

Hmm, so this meant I was being added as one of Dan Seohyeok’s allies?

‘Well, even then, I wasn’t in the original, so I’d probably just be something like Informant No. 1.’

I nodded and saved the number from the call history under the name “Dan Seohyeok.” Then I remembered something and looked up.

“By the way, why hadn’t we run into each other before if we go to the same school?”

It was a genuine question. I didn’t really want to say it out loud, but with a face like that, there was no way the other students would have left him alone. And his surname was unusual too.

It was strange that I had never even heard rumors about him.

“I don’t go.”

Did he drop out of high school?

I didn’t remember any mention of that in the original.

“I don’t even have the mind for it.”

So he was basically just skipping school on his own.

“Crazy.”

Even if he had to look for his parents, still!

“You need to graduate, you idiot!”

“Is that what matters right now?”

“What are you going to do after you meet your parents again? If you say you couldn’t even graduate because you were busy looking for them, do you think they’ll pat you on the head and say, ‘Good job’?”

I slapped Dan Seohyeok hard on the back.

I couldn’t believe I was doing this to the protagonist too, something I usually only did when punishing my little brother’s immature behavior.

Dan Seohyeok, caught off guard by the sudden hit, stared at me with wide eyes.

“Huh? You think they would? Your parents wouldn’t want that either.”

“Ah!”

Smack!

“It’s important to find your family, but don’t give up on everything else too!”

“Who are you to say that—ah! Stop hitting me!”

Smack!!

Before Dan Seohyeok could argue, I dealt the final blow.

“I’m going to attend school, and even if exam prep is hard, I’m still going to make sure I can graduate without any problems.”

I didn’t know how the original story ended after this, but now that Dan Seohyeok was standing right in front of me, that was my reality.

I needed to teach this guy how to face reality properly. That might be an even harder road for a regressor.

For now, he needed to graduate high school first.

“If you go to school, you get meals. If you stay in a dorm, you get a place to sleep. Tell me honestly—where are you eating and living?”

“That’s—!”

Ignoring Dan Seohyeok’s outraged reaction, I continued.

“More importantly, if you have an institution backing you, you can actually receive protection. You may think you can do everything alone, but you’re still a kid who needs help and protection. So am I.”

By the look on his troubled face, it seemed like he understood at least a little.

[No violence…….]

Red’s weak protest echoed through the alleyway.

Dan Seohyeok eventually got sick of my nonstop lecturing, snapped that I was being nosy for no reason, and left.

Red, who had been covering his ears and looking back and forth between us, also said he would come find me again before disappearing.

‘I got too worked up.’

It was a little embarrassing, but I still thought it had been something Dan Seohyeok needed to hear.

I could picture his awkward retreating back, angry-faced yet clearly hesitant.

‘Dan Seohyeok really is still a kid inside, even if he looks grown on the outside.’

Reality was harsh.

To put it bluntly, if he couldn’t find his parents and had to survive on his own, who would cut him any slack?

‘If I say I couldn’t graduate because I was looking for my parents, nobody’s buying that.’

I said it as if I knew all about life, but in truth, my only real experience was a few years as a rookie employee in my previous life.

If that hadn’t been the case, I might not have been that different from Dan Seohyeok.

I let out a short sigh and returned to the dorm.

Since I had only asked for leave and then stayed out without permission, the night supervisor scolded me severely for coming back in the early morning.

“Exhausting.”

Even after being scolded, lying down on the bed felt wonderful!

I had dozed off in the elevator, but it had been uncomfortable, so now it felt like my body was melting into the blankets.

I should wash up, I thought, but my eyes kept closing again. If Dan Seohyeok had been beside me, he probably would have freaked out and called me filthy.

‘When I read him in the novel, I thought he was the neat, sharp, blunt, emotionless type.’

The real Dan Seohyeok was completely different. He got angry a lot, and he seemed to rush into things more easily than I expected. And yes, he had that terrifying mouth that caused misunderstandings, but more than anything, he had a kind heart that cared about others.

Still, he was definitely obnoxious….

Yawning, I closed my eyes.

‘I still have time before school starts.’

I should just sleep a little, I told myself, setting an alarm and shutting my eyes.

It was basically a sleep so deep it was almost like fainting.

Ep. 2. A Suspicious Free Giveaway

Third-year student Jang Hyunwoo at Dongsan High School was once again goofing off during self-study time as always.

Games were boring, and there weren’t any comics worth reading.

Out of boredom, he tapped aimlessly through apps on his phone until his thumb landed on a secondhand trading app icon. It wasn’t like he had anything in particular he wanted to buy or sell.

‘Would be nice if someone gave away a coffee coupon or something.’

Just as he was lazily scrolling through the list with a dull expression—

“Hm?”

A title stood out to him more than the others.

Title: Free giveaway.(+1000 won)

‘A thousand won? At that point, just give it away for free.’

It looked like the poster had originally planned to give it away for free, then changed their mind.

Hyunwoo clicked the post while clicking his tongue.

‘What are they giving away that they need to charge money for?’

It started with curiosity.

Title: Free giveaway.(+1000 won)
Content: It’s a keyring doll I won from a claw machine in the neighborhood. I was going to give it away for free, but a weird person contacted me, so I’m asking for 1,000 won.
(Photo attached)

The photo was ordinary.

A black fuzzy little doll resting on the palm of a rather thin woman’s hand.

Even in the photo, it looked like a hedgehog-shaped plush with glossy fur. It was round and looked like a very well-fed hedgehog.

‘What is this?’

It was a strangely impossible object to look away from. Hyunwoo kept staring at the photo as if spellbound and thought,

‘Looks like someone weird approached her after seeing the photo.’

Was some pervert drawn in because it was a woman’s hand? Seriously, because of a few weird people, all men end up getting blamed.

‘Even if she’s asking for a thousand won, weird people are still probably going to contact her.’

Hyunwoo stroked his chin. He was bored, and maybe he should do a little good deed too.

‘The more I look at it, the more that doll seems cute.’

Keyrings were trendy these days anyway, so maybe he’d get one too.

He quickly made up his mind and acted just as fast.

└Did you already do the giveaway?

As soon as he posted the comment, a private message arrived from the poster.

ReallySorry: Hello. The keyring is still available.
ReallySorry: Are you close to Eden-dong?

‘Are they an Eden-dong resident?’

Hyunwoo paused with his hands on the keyboard.

‘I heard there have been a lot of disappearances there lately.’

Surely this wasn’t a kidnapping using a free giveaway as bait…?

He thought he’d once heard about a case on the news where someone exploited a giveaway like that.

‘Ah, come on. Could that really happen? And she seems like a woman, so it should be fine.’

That was just unnecessary paranoia. Hyunwoo grinned confidently and replied.

Me: Yeah, pretty close.
ReallySorry: Are you a woman?
Me: No, male.

Why ask about gender? Was she only planning to give it to women?

‘I want that doll.’

Without realizing it, he became anxious and bit his nails when another reply arrived.

ReallySorry: Then I’ll give it to you for free.
ReallySorry: I only said I’d ask for 1,000 won because some weird person contacted me.

“Nice, score.”

So it really was just his weird misunderstanding after all.

Hyunwoo smiled brightly.