Even when I looked through the names saved in the phone, I couldn’t tell who was who, which made it hard to use. I claimed I’d lost my memory, but I didn’t want to give anyone more reason to suspect something was off.
More than anything, I just can’t stand the fact that I’m stuck inside someone else’s body.
Instead of worrying about hunger like I said, all I could focus on was how bizarre this situation was. As I turned those questions over in my mind, the sprouting potato’s voice popped into my head.
[That thing you’re wondering about—I can explain it!]
“…?”
I snapped my head toward the sound. The potato was poking its head out from among the few belongings in the room.
[So don’t try to kill me again! I really am your manifested ability, I swear!]
“…Ha.”
“Huh? What’s wrong, Yu-jin?”
“A-Ah, it’s nothing, Manager.”
“Really? You must be starving. Here, eat this first.”
Kim Hyun-soo held out a plate of neatly sliced apples. The pieces were shaped like rabbits. Every piece was uniform, cleanly cut—seriously impressive.
A master housewife’s touch.
“Manager.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you… married? You’ve got incredible knife skills, so I was wondering if maybe you have a family….”
He gave me a bitter smile.
“Yu-jin, I’ve never even dated.”
“…Ah.”
Shit. Shouldn’t have asked.
“I learned from my mom. I was the one making your group’s packed lunches back in the early days. You really did lose your memory, huh?”
He chuckled sheepishly. I cautiously took a bite of the apple.
Crisp and cool—it was delicious.
“That one’s called an ‘ice honey’ apple. Sweet, right?”
“…Yeah.”
It’s amazing. Seriously.
Back on the front lines, where we faced a constant stream of monsters from dungeon gates, fruit was a luxury you rarely saw.
The endless dungeon breaks had destroyed the supply chains. The only special treats we ever got were dried fruit, if even that.
And now, only after dying, I get to enjoy this kind of luxury.
Crunching into a fresh apple, lying in a bed where I didn’t have to worry about monster attacks…
All things I’d desperately longed for during my brutal days on the battlefield.
But the piece of apple I had in my mouth vanished down my throat in an instant.
Grrrrgle.
The moment food hit my empty stomach, it let out a dramatic growl.
Kim Hyun-soo smiled warmly as I turned red and tried to hide my ears.
“Want more? I cut plenty.”
“T-Thank you.”
Maybe because I was finally letting my guard down, the hunger came crashing in like a wave.
Watching me stuff apple slices into my cheeks like a starved stray, Hyun-soo opened the cloth bundle and pulled out a thermal lunchbox.
“You’re gonna choke. Slow down.”
“Cough— Y-Yes. I’ll be careful.”
He opened the lid and took out a warm chicken porridge. He looked surprised as he did.
“Maybe it’s the memory loss, but you sound so polite now, Yu-jin. It’s like talking to someone else.”
“Kkh—cough!!”
The apple caught in my throat. Goddamn it.
Hyun-soo patted my back hard as I choked.
“You okay?”
“Cough… Yeah, I-I’m okay.”
He brought me a glass of water, and after drinking it down, I stopped coughing.
“You must be starving. Fruit won’t cut it as a proper meal, so have this.”
“…You made this yourself?”
“Yep. Been a while, so I can’t guarantee the taste, but eat before it gets cold.”
The aroma of the chicken porridge, filled with finely chopped carrots, potatoes, and green onions, was absolutely mouthwatering.
“I brought soy-braised beef, kimchi, and rolled omelet as side dishes. Want some?”
“Yes, please.”
The answer came out without hesitation.
A humble, warm meal, spread out on the table beside my hospital bed.
How long has it been since I’ve had something like this…?
Slurp. I scooped up a hot spoonful and tasted it. My stomach ached in response—it was that good.
“Manager, this is delicious.”
I tried the side dishes too. Every bite was incredible.
Forget being a manager—he should be running a lunchbox shop.
Seriously, Hyun-soo’s cooking was on another level. I devoured it like someone who hadn’t eaten in weeks.
And for those few moments while I ate, I didn’t think about anything else.
“Yu-Yu-jin… are you crying?”
“No?”
“But your eyes and nose are leaking like crazy…”
I wiped my face with the tissue he handed me. It was damp.
“It’s just sweat and a runny nose.”
There was definitely a sniffle in my voice, but I wasn’t about to admit it.
“I’m not crying.”
“R-Right. Just eat as much as you want.”
He patted my back gently. I finished every last bite, even the dessert.
It was the first real meal I’d had since becoming Yeon Yu-jin.
And it was warm.
***
Once I’d eaten my fill, I sent Manager Hyun-soo out of the hospital room.
He asked if he should stay with me, probably still worried, but I needed to deal with the potato. So I insisted he go home and practically shoved him out the door.
Just to be safe, I locked it behind him.
I turned the light on in the dark hospital room.
The sprouting potato was waiting, arms crossed, nestled in the pile of luggage.
“Hey, potato.”
[I told you I’m not a potato.]
“You look like a sprouting potato. What else would I call you?”
[Hey!]
“Don’t tell me you don’t even have a name?”
That hit the mark. The potato clammed up.
“If you’re really the manifestation of my ability, then I guess I have to name you.”
Though why the hell it had to take this shape, I had no idea.
The potato mumbled grudgingly.
[…Yeah.]
“Then I’m naming you Potato.”
[HEY!!!]
“Shut it. I hate noise.”
[Ugh… I can’t believe this guy is my owner.]
I ignored its whining. I had more important things on my mind.
I sat on the edge of the bed and placed the potato in my palm.
“You said you could answer my questions.”
[Y-Yeah.]
“Then answer this: Why is it that I, who died in front of a gate twenty years ago, ended up possessing the body of some complete stranger?”
If it didn’t give me a real answer, I’d boil it and eat it with salt.
The threat was pretty clear in my gaze, and the potato flinched.
[Like I said, I’m your special ability, manifested.]
“Right… Self-healing. Did it just get flung out of me when I died?”
[Kind of. Technically speaking, Ahn Ga-hyun—your special ability isn’t just “self-healing.” It’s something closer to resurrection.]
“…Resurrection?”
[Yeah. You probably thought it was self-healing because you kept surviving those awful injuries. But nope—you were wrong. The reason you could recover so fast from fatal wounds… is because your ability wasn’t healing. It was resurrection.]
“But the higher-ups never said anything about that.”
All they ever told me was that I had some unusual extra ability.
“And if I really had the power of resurrection… then why did I die?”
My cause of death had been a penetrating wound. A huge hole through my torso. I’d bled out. But if I had Resurrection… why didn’t it activate? Why did I only come back now, twenty years later, in someone else’s body?
“How the hell do you explain that?”
The sprouting potato went on.
[While your Resurrection was trying to trigger, someone interfered… Someone tried to forcibly extract me—your power—from you.]
“…What?”
[That’s why you died instantly from that fatal wound. They tampered with your Resurrection ability in advance—probably with drugs or something else.]
That was insane. I clearly remembered how it happened.
Je-ha and I had gone out to close an out-of-control dungeon gate that had suddenly opened.
“There’s no such thing as stealing a Guide or Esper’s power. I’ve never heard of that.”
[Of course you haven’t. The ones behind it kept their plans very quiet. If I hadn’t managed to manifest and escape, you’d never have known the truth.]
“…Are you saying the upper ranks were in on it? That they deliberately tried to kill me?”
[I don’t know if it went that high. But someone definitely wanted you dead.]
My heart pounded at its words.
I remembered that day vividly.
S-rank dungeons were common enough back then. Je-ha and I were among the best, so we were always assigned to those emergency teams. It was routine. Nothing strange.
But that gate had been different. The difficulty was way beyond what we’d expected.
The monsters pouring out of it were almost on par with boss-level creatures, some of which we’d never even seen before. They were overwhelming.
In the end… a dragon—the dungeon’s boss monster—emerged. I took the hit meant for Je-ha and died.
To be honest, I’d been overconfident.
I thought, I won’t die. I have self-healing. Sure, it’ll hurt like hell, but I’ll recover like always and get back in the fight.
But maybe losing my heart entirely had been too much. I figured that was the end.
“…So my death… wasn’t an accident?”
