Side Story 1
[BlackViolet]_Swamp_of_Obsession.txt
“What is this?”
His hand froze without him realizing it. Seo Eun-jae murmured softly as he kept his eyes fixed on the small screen. No matter how he looked at it, this didn’t seem like a file that would come preloaded on a digital dictionary. Swamp of Obsession—the name alone was more than a little embarrassing.
A novel, maybe? There was no way for Eun-jae to figure out what Swamp of Obsession actually was without opening it first. He’d borrowed a few comic books and martial arts novels from rental shops before, paying a few hundred won per volume, but that was about the extent of his experience. For a boy his age attending an all-boys high school, that was perfectly normal. And Eun-jae was the definition of normal—nothing about him stood out.
It felt a little unsettling, sure, but he brushed it off. Aside from that one odd file, the secondhand digital dictionary was thankfully in good condition. He’d read stories online about people opening boxes to find bricks instead of electronics, so he had been a bit worried—but nothing like that had happened, and everything worked just fine. So this? This was a minor flaw at best. Just a leftover file someone forgot to delete. No big deal.
Eun-jae briefly scanned the list of text files, including Swamp of Obsession, before starting to look for the delete button. He had no real interest in finding out what was inside. But no matter how many buttons he pressed, he couldn’t delete or reset the contents.
Only then did it occur to him: maybe the previous owner had sold it without wiping the files because of this exact issue.
Hesitating for a moment, Eun-jae finally tapped on Swamp of Obsession.
[Shared Account/19+/BlackViolet] Swamp of Obsession
—Prologue—
He was just your average office worker. If there was anything wrong with his life, it was that he was maybe a bit unlucky? But being the optimistic person he was, he figured his bad luck was about the same as anyone else’s.
His name was Seo Eun-jae. A precious name given to him by his parents.
As usual, Seo Eun-jae woke up in his studio apartment. The narrow single bed felt lonelier than ever.
“Phew… Mom, Dad… I miss you.”
With a sigh, he glanced over at the cuckoo clock. It was already 6 a.m.—almost time to head out for work.
Clack, clack. Click.
Once he’d finished getting ready, Eun-jae looked into the mirror. Staring back at him was a man with a gentle gaze and a delicate face that seemed tinged with sadness. A lonely-looking man… But that wasn’t who he was.
Shaking his head, he tried to wipe away the somber expression.
Before he knew it, the man in the mirror was smiling brightly.
Eun-jae smiled in satisfaction.
“Yeah. That’s more like Seo Eun-jae.”
With a cheerful face, the man turned around.
“Mother… Father… I’m heading out now. Please watch over me again today!”
Clack. Click.
The door closed behind Eun-jae.
With a sour expression, Eun-jae shut the digital dictionary. He couldn’t tell if the story was meant to be sad or cheerful, whether the protagonist was saying “Mom and Dad” or “Mother and Father”—it was just a confusing mess. But what really unsettled him was that the main character’s name was exactly the same as his own: Seo Eun-jae.
Sure, the name Seo Eun-jae wasn’t extremely rare, but it wasn’t something you heard every other day either. He’d never met someone who shared both his surname and first name. And now, for the first time, he’d stumbled upon a namesake—and that too, the protagonist of a novel. What a strange coincidence.
He wasn’t particularly interested in the rest of the story, but the name stuck in his mind. Hesitating, Eun-jae slowly reopened the digital dictionary.
As a child, Eun-jae hadn’t been unhappy. On the contrary, he’d been a genuinely happy kid—born into a well-off, loving family with parents who adored each other. He was cheerful, outgoing, and had lots of friends.
But his misfortune began in high school… when his father’s business went under.
In the blink of an eye, Eun-jae’s family had to sell their home and move to a cheaper neighborhood. From that point on, his life was plagued with misfortune.
Cursed letters stuffed into his locker. Thumbtacks jammed into his shoes. The girl he liked transferring schools. And then, on the day of the college entrance exam, he got food poisoning…
But not a single one of those things ever broke him.
He might have had a delicate, almost fragile appearance—soft features that looked like they’d crumple under pressure—but deep down, he was tougher, more resilient, and more optimistic than anyone.
Even after all that, the bad luck never stopped. A close friend died. Then, his parents passed away.
Eun-jae was left completely alone in the world.
And yet… he lived on, undeterred—because he believed his parents were still watching over him, always.
But what he didn’t know…
Was that none of those past misfortunes could compare to the tragedy that would strike today.
“What the hell?!”
Eun-jae sprang up from his seat without thinking. He nearly toppled over backward and fell right off his chair. Chills ran up the back of his neck.
His father’s business had failed after middle school. They’d moved away from the neighborhood he’d lived in his whole life to somewhere cheaper. His personality? Pretty cheerful, objectively speaking.
And his name… was Seo Eun-jae.
This was too much to brush off as coincidence. It was uncanny.
Could someone who knew him have written this?
To make someone you know the protagonist of a novel—that was disturbing. And downright unethical.
“And what the hell is this story even about? Is it some kind of curse?”
Grumbling inwardly, Eun-jae dove back into the digital novel, hoping—however unlikely—that he might find some kind of clue. Something that might tell him who wrote this and whether they really knew him.
“Ahh!”
His foot caught on something and twisted awkwardly.
The lid of his coffee cup popped off, and the scalding hot contents splashed out—right onto the man standing in front of him.
SPLAAASH—
The man’s icy gaze locked onto Eun-jae. And for a moment, Eun-jae was completely dazed.
He was beautiful.
More than any celebrity—more than Jung Woo-X or Jang Dong-X… even drenched in coffee, his looks were utterly untouched.
Those piercing eyes, as if they could see straight through him… Eun-jae finally snapped back to his senses and bowed deeply.
“I-I’m so sorry! I really am!”
But his eyes—he couldn’t tear them away. Even as he bowed in apology, his gaze was fixed on the man’s wavering eyes.
Why? Why was this man looking at him with such eyes? Why did they look so lonely… so unbearably empty?
“I’m truly sorry…! I’ll pay for the cleaning. Did you… are you hurt at all?”
Paying for the cleaning might mean skipping a few meals this week. But it was his fault, no question about it. The man’s gaze remained unsteady as his elegant features twisted into a scowl.
“…Haa…”
“…Tch…”
“You’re really pissing me off. Where the hell are your eyes when you walk?”
Gasp!
Eun-jae swallowed hard.
His voice was beautiful—but the words were anything but. Ashamed, Eun-jae lowered his head. But even as he glanced up from that bowed position, he saw that the man’s expression… was still trembling slightly.
Why… why do you wear that expression? Why do you look like that…?
***
That night, Eun-jae ended up staying awake until morning, completely absorbed in Swamp of Obsession.
In the novel, Seo Eun-jae—a character with an eccentric personality who had a penchant for dramatic speeches—fell in love with a cold-hearted chaebol heir. That was the ending.
Honestly, the writing wasn’t exactly award-worthy. But somehow, it kept pulling him in. Cringe-inducing as it was, he read it to the very end.
Especially that part where the villain everyone thought was caught turned out to be a puppet—there was actually someone pulling the strings behind the scenes. That twist was genius!
Still… if someone he knew had written this about him, he had to find out who it was. Yawning, Eun-jae opened his locker. And there—inside—were stacks of curse letters.
“While attending high school, Eun-jae experienced all kinds of misfortunes… Like lockers filled with curse letters…”
He didn’t recall crossing anyone lately. He wasn’t being bullied either. Like he’d just seen a ghost, Eun-jae slammed the locker shut and immediately filed for early dismissal.
On the way home, he destroyed that cursed digital dictionary and tossed it out.
***
Looking back now… maybe he shouldn’t have done that. Because of that, he never got to read the novel again. And despite his best efforts, he couldn’t wipe it from his mind.
Maybe because of how abruptly he’d tossed it, even the memories that remained were fragmented.
He’d tried to convince himself it was all just an eerie string of coincidences—but after that, everything written in the novel continued to unfold in real life.
He’d tried, belatedly, to contact the dictionary’s original owner, but the person had vanished like a ghost off the secondhand trading site, as if they’d never existed.
Even searching for BlackViolet Swamp of Obsession online turned up nothing.
If he’d known this would happen, he would’ve kept it, revisited it again and again. If he’d done that, maybe… just maybe…
No. Stop thinking about it!
It was already over.
He’d hit a mental breaking point and done all sorts of insane things—but now that everything was resolved, he almost felt relieved. Like a fog had finally cleared from his mind.
After kidnapping Gwak Seon-woo… then pathetically showing up at the hospital… and finally getting dumped in the most thorough, uncompromising way possible—
After that day, Eun-jae hadn’t been in his right mind for a while. He’d used up his unused vacation days and holed himself up at home for days on end. It wasn’t just the heartbreak. What shook him even more was the collapse of everything he’d believed in until now.
Then, on the third day, he turned on the TV.
A terrestrial channel was airing a movie he’d never seen before. He had no clue what it was about, but he watched it all the way through. And only then… did it truly hit him. That he no longer knew what lay ahead. Just like everyone else, he knew nothing about the future.
He’d finally escaped.
There was a noticeable difference between the Eun-jae in the novel and the real Seo Eun-jae. The real one wasn’t just kind and obedient like the character. He wasn’t someone who clung to a person in a hopeless, obsessive kind of love.
Even so, there were some similarities—Like his unshakable optimism and inner resilience. Thanks to that, Seo Eun-jae returned to human form in just a few days. He managed to get back to work without calling in sick.
Now, seated at his office desk, Eun-jae pretended to work diligently while actually spacing out. Sure, he’d pushed through and come back to the office, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t exhausted. He still felt a lingering sense of regret.
Gwak Seon-woo had been someone who’d held a grudge against Seo Eun-jae ever since their high school days—ever since Eun-jae first read that novel.
But Seon-woo hadn’t been the person Eun-jae thought he was—neither the way he remembered him nor the way he was depicted in the book.
Would things have turned out differently if Eun-jae had approached him in a better way…?
Pointless thoughts.
Letting out a sigh, Eun-jae’s eyes drifted to a banner ad flashing across the portal site.
[★ Surprise Hawaii Vacation Event Package ★ For Those Seeking a Fresh Start!]
He glanced back and forth between the empty desk where his team leader used to sit and his own monitor.
Then, without hesitation, he clicked the banner.
A fresh start…What a beautiful phrase.
