The last class of the afternoon was math.
The final bell rang, and it felt like the end of the world because the teacher assigned homework, left, and ripped through the dead air in the room.
The noise rushed back in.
I finished the last line on the structural formula in my chemistry workbook, and then I capped my pen.
Seraphina testing me and Runa talking to me today were both unexpected, but at most it was extra social stuff.
It still didn't take up my mind the way messy math equations did.
"Bro, let's go, let's go! Three seats at the internet cafe, and we're just waiting on you!"
Monkey's skinny figure swept up to my desk like a gust, and his face was full of that finally free excitement.
Baron followed right behind him, and his huge body almost blocked half the aisle.
He waved three brand-new internet cafe top-up cards in the air.
"I just loaded money. I'll make sure you have a damn good night!" he said. "What do you say bro? Give me some face."
The way they looked at me already had that little-bro vibe, like they were waiting for their boss to nod.
I shoved the workbook into my bag and zipped it up.
The weight pressed down on my shoulder, but it weirdly made me feel grounded.
I looked at them through my black-framed glasses and answered without energy.
"You guys go. I'm tired today, and I just want to get home early and lie there like a corpse."
"Don't do that!"
Monkey grabbed me and wouldn't let go.
"Is this still about what happened this morning? Did Leo mess with you again? Tell us, and me and fatty will grab something and beat his ass!"
"Y-yeah!" Baron pounded his chest so hard it went boom, boom.
"Anyone who touches my big bro has to step over my fat first!"
I yanked my bag strap back and didn't even bother making fun of how scared these two got when they were in front of her.
"Alright, stop acting."
I explained, "Nothing happened. I'm just out of energy and I need to recharge, so have fun and kill a few extra mobs for me."
I didn't give them a chance to cling again, and I carried my turtle-shell backpack straight through the crowded classroom.
Behind me, I could still hear the two of them sighing in disappointment.
When I walked out of the school building, the evening wind carried leftover warmth from the day.
The sunset dyed the sky orange-red, and the shadows of buildings stretched long and tangled across the ground.
I walked with the crowd of students in the same blue-and-white uniforms, and I blended in while I kept my head down as my long bangs and black-framed glasses hid my face as much as possible.
It felt good.
In a loud, massive crowd, I was just a tiny pixel, and I was a background extra who could get swallowed and forgotten at any moment.
That was all, but it was the shelter I wanted most.
After I got off the bus, snack stalls were already set up in the distance, and the oily smell of fried skewers mixed with the sweet smell of roasted sweet potatoes and car exhaust.
With my bag on my back, my brain automatically replayed the practice sets I did today.
I sorted out the mistakes and planned to lock in on them tonight.
Then my phone buzzed in my pocket.
A new text.
I didn't stop walking as I pulled out my old smartphone from my uniform pocket.
The screen had some scratches, but it still worked fine.
I unlocked it and casually opened the new message.
A single line sat in the middle of the screen, and it felt like it had heat in it.
In that instant, time felt like it got paused.
My body jerked hard, and the phone almost slipped out of my stiff fingers, but I clenched down at the last second and barely held onto it.
The smooth, cold phone felt like a red-hot branding iron now, and it burned my palm.
The crowd, the traffic, the street vendors yelling…
Everything faded out into a hollow buzz.
A cold chill rose from the soles of my feet, climbed up my spine like it was sprinting, grabbed my heart, and then exploded in my skull.
Big bro…
I miss you so much…
Damn it, I just ran into a ghost in broad daylight.
That way of calling me, and that tone…
There was only one person on earth who would say that in that innocent, clingy voice.
Asha Vale.
The childhood friend who grew up with the original body's owner.
She was also the first one to fall, and she ended up becoming one of the core women in the male lead's harem.
How the hell did she get my number?
That question slammed into my brain like an ice spike.
Three years ago, I used a near-suicidal kind of resolve to cut off everything from the past so I could escape that northern city.
I changed my number, deleted every social account, sold the house, and even used money and connections to lock down my records as tightly as possible.
I turned myself into someone who basically vanished, and then I rebuilt a brand-new identity in this southern city thousands of kilometers away
The whole point was to escape her, and to escape the male lead Caspar.
I wanted to escape this damn plot that stuck to me like a parasite.
But this text was telling me…
I didn't.
That invisible rope still had one end tied tight around my neck.
Something was wrong.
Everything about this was wrong.
Based on the rough timeline I remembered from that novel, she shouldn't be thinking about me right now.
Shouldn't she be busy having fun with Caspar, or partying day and night with that whole mess of harem members?
In her world, there should only be the male lead who gave her experiences she'd never had before.
So why would she still remember me, a guy who vanished three years ago and wasn't even a real obstacle in the story?
Was it…
Was that damn plot, that invisible hand, still refusing to let me go?
Why…
Fear, rage, and confusion smashed into each other inside my chest.
My fingers shook from the force, and my knuckles turned white.
Almost on pure instinct, I tapped into the unknown number as fast as I could.
On the menu that popped up,
I pressed it hard without hesitation.
Confirm.
The cold phone prompt didn't comfort me at all.
Because blocking a number can't stop a person.
The problem wasn't the number.
The problem was that she already knew the number.
How did she get it?
Did she find it herself, or did Caspar help her find it?
If she could find my number, did that mean she knew where I was now?
Would she… come looking for me?
One deadly question after another circled in my head like vultures, and they tore at my nerves.
I leaned against a rough camphor tree by the roadside, and the bark pressed into my back and made it ache.
The sky got darker.
Neon lights were already lit up in the distance, and they flickered under a deep blue sky.
This city's night view, both unfamiliar and familiar, filled my eyes, and a heavy irritation rose out of my chest.
I closed my eyes.
A different world flashed through my mind.
A hospital room that always reeked of disinfectant, and my grandpa lying on the bed with tubes everywhere while his life burned down to the last bit.
And my dad, working day and night to pay the insane medical bills, with hair already turning white at the temples…
I want to go home.
I just wanted to study, take Province Topper, and then get a ticket back to my original world so I could return to them.
When I opened my eyes again, I tilted my head up and stared at the sky that had been chopped into pieces by tall buildings.
It felt like my throat was stuffed with wet cotton.
It was dry, and it stung, but no sound came out.
"Why… is it this hard?"