TSCSI 01

Chapter 01

I ran like a madwoman. I didn’t even have time to turn my car around, so I left it parked on the opposite roadside with the emergency lights on and sprinted across the eight-lane overpass.

The academy building, which had closed after ten o’clock, was dark except for the ninth-floor apartment where I lived and the elevator lobby. Everything else was swallowed in complete darkness.

From the middle of the overpass, I looked up—and saw something on the edge of the rooftop.

In-soo!
It had to be In-soo.

While running, I called his mother.

“Ma’am, it’s the academy! In-soo is on the rooftop. Please call 119 and come quickly. I’m heading inside right now.”

While talking, my foot slipped on a stair I failed to notice.

I tumbled down five or six steps and crashed to the ground. My whole body screamed in pain, but I couldn’t think about anything except In-soo on that roof.

Dragging one leg, I staggered toward the academy. As expected, the door opened when I pushed it.

So what he said about losing the key was a lie.

The elevator ride felt endlessly long and suffocating, as if time itself had stopped.

When I reached the ninth floor and opened the door to the rooftop stairwell, the ankle that had been holding out finally gave way and I collapsed.

The moment I saw the iron rooftop door, I screamed.

“In-soo! Kim In-soo! It’s me, your teacher! Look at me—Kim In-soo!”

I pushed open the iron door and crawled out on my knees. There he was—sitting on the edge of the rooftop railing.

A thin silhouette floating alone in the darkness. So painfully familiar.

It was Kim In-soo, a high school senior who had run away two days ago.

My academy closed at ten, and I finished private tutoring in Gangnam around one in the morning. In-soo had texted me during that gap, as if not wanting to interrupt my lessons.

“Teacher, I borrowed a phone from a stranger. I didn’t think I should just go to you like this. Goodbye. Thank you for everything. I’m sorry I can only do it this way.”

A cold hand seemed to grip the back of my neck. I shivered.

Was that message… his last words? From my academy building?

My instincts are usually right when it comes to the worst possibilities.

I had called his parents and rushed here as fast as I could.

In-soo had attended my academy for two and a half years. We were close enough that I had given him an emergency key. But two days ago, he suddenly ran away.

It was the day of the September mock CSAT exam.

The school, his parents, and I searched everywhere—but he had even abandoned his phone and disappeared.

I crawled over the rough cement floor, calling out.

“In-soo, come here. Teacher is injured. Help me up.”

“Teacher.”

“Yes, yes.”

Please, someone hurry and come. What should I say? What should I do to calm him down? Why can’t I think of anything?

Sweat—or maybe tears—blurred my face and hands.

Finally, I saw his feet. Bare feet without shoes.

As I reached out, In-soo, who had been sitting on the railing, suddenly stood up and stepped onto it.

“In-soo, please…”

My heart pounded so violently I felt like it would burst.

“No one loves me. No one will be sad if I disappear.”

“That’s not true! Your parents are here! They love you so much—”

“Is it love if they hit me with a golf club, lock me in a villa, and take away my phone because my grades dropped?”

“In-soo, can we talk after you come down? Please?”

I was shaking even though it wasn’t cold.

“Teacher… I thought you were different.”

What should I say? That I’m just an English instructor? That I only have the ability to see your potential?

“I was wrong. I’ll talk to your parents. I’ll tell them I was wrong. So please…”

I forced myself up, pain shooting through my injured ankle. I bit my lip hard.

Blood trickled down.

“It’s useless, teacher.”

Just a little more.

With trembling hands, I grabbed his ankle and gasped for air. I’ve got him. I’ve got him now.

In-soo crouched slightly on the narrow railing. Good—just lean forward a little more and you can come down safely.

But then—

He started pulling my hands off his ankle.

Bang!

At the same time, the iron door behind me slammed open.

Someone had come onto the rooftop.

The moment I turned my head—

In-soo leaned backward.

“No!”

I pushed up on my toes, lunged forward, and wrapped both his ankles against my chest.

And then—

My body lifted off the ground.

Streetlights stabbed painfully into my eyes.

The horrified face of In-soo’s mother flashed upside down.

Sometimes during my commute, I listen to web novels while driving. Lately, reincarnation and possession stories have been everywhere, so I had thought about it a few times myself.

If I were to wake up as someone else in an unfamiliar world, what would I do first?

I had once concluded, half-laughing, that I would “accept reality.”

But I actually did possess someone.

And I calmly accepted reality.

Where or when you live isn’t important. What matters is how you live.

So I decided to live well even today, while eating a snack.

Then my maid Jeong-oh laid a bundle of books in front of me.

“I brought them, young lady. These were from the young master’s study.”

“You didn’t bring what he’s currently reading, did you?”

Jeong-oh was the type who might do exactly that.

“No, no! I heard from Paeng-mun that these are books he read when he was seven. He hasn’t touched them for over ten years.”

I flipped through them. I couldn’t even read the titles properly.

So this is what scholars in this era read at age seven?

Meanwhile, I was pouring money into English kindergartens at that age.

In my previous life, I was a well-known CSAT English instructor.

Just by looking at people, I could instantly rank their current ability and future potential in my mind.

After my parents suddenly died in a car accident, I developed this strange ability. I used to think it was their love left for me.

Thanks to it, I became a successful instructor with a high income and was on track to becoming a building owner.

And then I ended up possessing a young girl in a world around A.D. 1000 in the East.

In this era, women who could read were rare, and the girl I possessed—An An-yong—could speak well but couldn’t read. It seemed she had just started trying to study before I arrived.

Honestly, I was sick of studying and academies. I had worked so hard in my past life that I literally died.

So now I decided to live easily.

Still, being completely illiterate was a problem, so I planned to learn at least the basics.

“Miss, Paeng-mun says this is the easiest book here. There’s nothing simpler in the house.”

“Are all people in this house born at level five? Do they cry ‘oh-oh-level’ instead of just crying?”

“P-pardon?”

“Never mind. I can just buy books outside.”

“But, young lady, you should visit the madam today. She’s been asking you to come for days. If you delay any longer, she might come here herself.”

The “madam” Jeong-oh mentioned was An An-yong’s mother.

Even though her family home was nearby, the newly married girl had been visiting her parents every three days.

That probably meant her relationship with her husband wasn’t great.

“Fine. Let’s go now.”

Either way, they were family I had to face sooner or later.

And a rich household where the child was bad at studying usually had piles of unused workbooks lying around. I could pick something suitable.

Dressed in luxurious silk clothing helped on by the maids, I left the annex.

At the entrance, Jeong-oh asked worriedly, “Young lady, should we get permission from the young master? You haven’t visited the elders for days even though you were sick. If you leave suddenly, they may think you were pretending. Though this time, you really were ill.”

So before, it was really pretending.

“Do I really have to?”

I wasn’t mentally ready to face my husband’s family yet.

“Last time you snuck out, the young master got angry and confined you for a day. He only gave you water and salt.”

What? Confined? Water and salt? What kind of barbaric combination was that?

“Is that true?”

“You only scratched the young master a little, but…”

I tilted my head slightly, making eye contact.

My subordinate maid Jeong-oh’s academic level flashed in my mind.

Unclassified.

In Korea, even failing grades are level 7—but here, there was even “unclassified.”

“Jeong-oh, when you speak, say things in order. Start from the beginning.”

“Yes, miss.”

She swallowed nervously and rolled her eyes.

“But… why are you asking if you already know?”

“I’m testing whether you can organize things properly.”

I brushed it off.

I had no memory to “forget.” I had fallen from the rooftop of my academy and woken up in this world, while An An-yong had only had a mild cold.

Then Jeong-oh continued, “Six days ago, the madam sent new clothes and told you to visit your parents…”

As she explained, I learned that the young lady had apparently argued loudly with her husband when he came home late worrying about her.

“Do I usually shout like that?”

“It wasn’t your fault. He suddenly showed up after ignoring you since the wedding…”

“That… makes sense.”

“And then you grabbed his sleeve and…”

Jeong-oh mimicked a violent gesture.

I dodged slightly.

There’s no need to reenact it so vividly.

“So I was confined because I scratched him?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s settled. I won’t do it again.”

Just then, Jeong-oh stopped and looked to the ten o’clock direction.

There stood a young man in gray robes, hands behind his back, watching us.

The husband of An An-yong.

I couldn’t see his eyes from this distance, but his tall figure and sculpted face were clear enough.

Most likely Mu Seon-hu.

But without seeing his expression, I couldn’t assign a “grade.”

The best option now?

Pretend I didn’t see him and walk on.

Yes. I’ll just treat him the way a cow ignores a chicken.