He couldn’t guess, but Heeyoung might be different. She was the original author of both novels. So he thought Heeyoung might know some way. As expected, Heeyoung abruptly stood up as if she had been waiting for this.
“I, I can restore everything.”
“…Really?”
“Yes.”
Nodding, Heeyoung approached a table in one corner of the studio. A small laptop was placed on it. Heeyoung turned on the laptop and searched for something. Then she returned with the laptop and showed Suhwan what was on the screen.
“This is…”
Suhwan frowned as he looked at the screen. Black letters were densely packed on a white screen. A program commonly used for writing was running, and it contained countless letters arranged in it.
It was a novel. It had so many pages that it was impossible to tell when she had started writing it. And finding a familiar name, Suhwan’s eyes widened even more.
“Is this a novel about me and Seunghyun?”
“Yes.”
Heeyoung nodded at Suhwan’s question. Suhwan looked up at Heeyoung with a confused face, tearing his eyes away from the screen.
“This world brought you here and made you manifest because I regretted it. So I thought if I wrote a novel I wouldn’t regret, it would work.”
“So you rewrote a novel where Seunghyun and I are the protagonists?”
“Yes, if I upload this to the site now, everything might return to how it was.”
“…!”
She couldn’t write exactly the same novel as before. But Heeyoung was an author and creator. She could write a peaceful novel with Suhwan and Seunghyun as the protagonists as much as she wanted. In it, she wrote only happy stories, without any hardships or trials.
“It’s a perfect novel that I won’t regret. Then there will be no reason for you and me to manifest here. We will probably return to our respective worlds.”
“…”
“So…”
“Then, what about Seunghyun?”
Suhwan, who had been listening quietly, opened his mouth. His mind was extremely complicated, and he couldn’t understand everything Heeyoung said, but he could understand one thing.
“What will happen to the current Seunghyun?”
If he disappears again, what will happen to the current Seunghyun? Won’t he be left alone here again? Meeting Suhwan’s anxiously wavering eyes, Heeyoung spoke in a resolute tone:
“Suhwan.”
“…”
“The current Seunghyun is insane. He’s not in his right mind. You… know that too.”
“But…”
“No matter what we do, things won’t go back to normal. He’ll try to imprison you because he doesn’t trust you, and he’ll monitor your every move. You’ve already experienced it once.”
“……”
“Are you really okay with that?”
Suhwan couldn’t answer Heeyoung’s question. It was Suhwan himself who had asked for her help when Seunghyun’s behavior became unmanageable. Even though he had regained his memories, even though he now knew that he and Seunghyun had been lovers in another novel, he had no confidence in his ability to persuade or stop the current Seunghyun.
“I…”
Suhwan’s lips trembled. For a moment, he recalled the Seunghyun from the other world. Though he had regained his memories, he was still confused.
Heeyoung said she had only used the same character names, but because Suhwan had manifested here, Seunghyun had also been affected by that other world. Did the current Seunghyun have memories from that world, like Suhwan did? Had he perhaps known before Suhwan did? If so, he didn’t know what to say. Was Heeyoung right that writing an entirely new novel to make everything as if it never happened would be best?
Ding-dong.
“…!”
“…!”
Just then, the doorbell rang sharply in the silent space. Suhwan and Heeyoung, who had looked toward the door, soon turned to each other.
Heeyoung was surprised but didn’t think much of it. She thought it was probably a delivery. But to be safe, she remained silent. If the person knew no one was inside, they would leave the package at the door and go. The small studio building didn’t have a security office, so everyone usually did that.
But even after some time passed, there was no sound of someone putting something down or footsteps leaving. Heeyoung continued to stare at the door tensely.
“Hyung.”
“…!”
“…!”
“Hyung, I know you’re in there.”
It was Seunghyun’s voice. In the small studio, his voice standing in front of the door was clearly audible. Suhwan and Heeyoung froze at the sound of a voice that shouldn’t be heard here.
How did Seunghyun come here? Suhwan now knew that Seunghyun had been monitoring him through abnormal methods. But Suhwan wasn’t carrying anything on him right now. Seunghyun had taken his original phone and hadn’t returned it, and Suhwan had left the spare phone he’d used to contact Heeyoung at home, just in case. He had changed clothes hastily, but surely Seunghyun wouldn’t have put a device in his clothes. Not understanding the reason, Suhwan could only blink his eyes.
That’s when Heeyoung noticed the bracelet Suhwan was wearing. The silver bracelet was unobtrusive and plain, so even Heeyoung had overlooked it. Looking at it now, she wondered why she hadn’t noticed it before. The bracelet that Seunghyun had originally worn. A small groan escaped Heeyoung’s lips.
“That bracelet.”
“Oh, this.”
Suhwan covered the bracelet with his hand, looking flustered. He thought he had lost it forever when Geonyul forcibly took it and dropped it in the chaotic room, but later Seunghyun brought it back. He had accepted it without suspicion when told the police had returned it because it was just an ordinary bracelet, not needed as evidence. But thinking about it now, it was strange.
“It was just a detail in the story…”
Heeyoung looked as confused as Suhwan. The fact that Seunghyun’s bracelet had a tracking function wasn’t mentioned in the original novel. In the original, Seunghyun never even wore a bracelet. It was just one of many simple details that Heeyoung had only thought of in her head. But to think that even something like that was reflected. Heeyoung looked at Suhwan’s hand holding the bracelet with disbelieving eyes.
Bang.
“Please come out.”
“…!”
“…!”
“I was wrong. I won’t do anything you dislike anymore. Okay?”
Thump, thump, Seunghyun continued to knock on the metal door. His pleading voice made the listener feel pitiful. Suhwan unconsciously took a step toward the door.
“Suhwan.”
“……”
“Suhwan, don’t go.”
Heeyoung spoke in a small voice, almost pleading. Her hands holding the laptop trembled. When Suhwan looked at her, she desperately opened her mouth again.
“I, I can really solve everything. So…”
Her trembling hand grabbed Suhwan’s arm. Suhwan’s gaze settled on Heeyoung’s fingers.
It was guilt. That’s why Heeyoung was so desperate. Because of her, the novel’s world had been thrown into chaos, and Suhwan, who knew nothing, had suddenly disappeared from his original world to live as a foreign element. And from the shock of losing Suhwan, Seunghyun had gone mad. Everything was a mess.
As the author, Heeyoung felt obligated to fix it all. That’s why she had been writing furiously after she realized what happened. She believed that only this novel could free her from her guilt.
“Heeyoung.”
“……”
“No, Author.”
Suhwan called Heeyoung in a low voice. Born from Heeyoung’s fingertips, he was like her child. Perhaps because of this, Suhwan also felt many indescribable emotions toward Heeyoung.
“That novel… please don’t publish it.”
“…!”
Heeyoung’s eyes widened at the calm request. She was considerably surprised because she hadn’t expected Suhwan to refuse.
“Why…”
“I can’t abandon Seunghyun again.”
“……”
“This time, I’d be abandoning Seunghyun of my own will.”
His quiet mumbling seemed almost like he was talking to himself. Suhwan slowly turned his head. The pleading voice was still coming from beyond the door. Seunghyun was calling for him.
Manifesting here wasn’t Suhwan’s choice. It was something the novel did on its own to fulfill the author Heeyoung’s wish. But this time it was different. Going along with Heeyoung’s proposal to create another novel’s world and escape from here would be equivalent to Suhwan directly abandoning the current Seunghyun.
“And there’s no guarantee it will work out well. Right?”
“That’s…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
