#169
Sparks seemed to fly from their locked gazes, but soon this world’s Hyun Dowoon averted his eyes first. Even considering the excessive blood loss, his face was alarmingly pale.
His heart beat loudly with an anxious rhythm. The sound was clearly audible to both espers. Listening to the thumping sound as if he had arrhythmia, Shin Haejun frowned and looked at the pale face. It was an even more intense sound than when he had attacked with ice earlier.
This reaction was similar to when Shin Haejun met this world’s Shin Haejun. To him, it was just a realization of what he was like before the remake, but it seemed to have a much stronger impact on the other person. His face turned pale blue, his pulse became irregular, and he even dry heaved.
Hyun Dowoon’s current state was not much different. Unlike how nonchalant one side was.
“It’s noisy. This Center Director… or should we call him Hyun Dowoon 2? Seeing his reaction reminds me of the superstition that when doppelgangers meet, one must die.”
Shin Haejun muttered with a small sigh. Hyun Dowoon nodded, feeling slightly intrigued by the designation “Hyun Dowoon 2”. For whatever reason, it seemed that as soon as he made direct eye contact, the other felt strong anxiety and something akin to motion sickness.
“If it’s difficult, you can speak without raising your head. Just as you think about Jaeha, we feel no different. Tell us how to find Jaeha.”
Hyun Dowoon persuaded sincerely. For a moment, Hyun Dowoon 2’s gaze seemed to waver. Just as he thought the persuasion was working, Hyun Dowoon 2 shook his head.
“If he wanted to appear, Jaeha would have persuaded Shin Haejun directly. It’s clear he doesn’t want to, which is why there’s no reaction. Aren’t you doing this because you’re anxious about that too?”
Hyun Dowoon 2’s words struck a nerve in both of them. Unable to deny it, Shin Haejun glared at Hyun Dowoon 2’s disheveled face.
However, Hyun Dowoon 2 said nothing more, tightly closing his mouth and even shutting his eyes. Shin Haejun knew he couldn’t persuade him any further, having already tried to coax and cajole him sufficiently.
“Let’s go. This seems like a waste of time.”
At Shin Haejun’s words, Hyun Dowoon also realized it was futile and stood up. There was no point in clinging to something that wouldn’t work; it would only be tiring. It seemed much better to track Jaeha through other means.
The two left the room and approached Kim Sehyun, who was trembling. He tried to act composed, managing his expression, but his rapidly beating heart betrayed his true feelings. It wasn’t difficult to manipulate an ordinary person like this.
“That novel might help in finding Jaeha…”
Shin Haejun muttered, trying to concretize a vague idea in his mind.
Since this world’s Hyun Dowoon and Shin Haejun refused to help, they needed to devise a completely different method. Shin Haejun looked at Kim Sehyun’s face with eyes like he was seeing prey. Kim Sehyun might have some way to help here. He thought there must be some significance to Hyun Dowoon appearing near Kim Sehyun.
For him, showing any restraint in not harming Kim Sehyun was already extremely lenient, given how much he disliked him. So using any useful parts felt justified.
“…Novel, the novel.”
Hyun Dowoon clenched and unclenched his fist, deep in thought. Meanwhile, Kim Sehyun, oblivious to everything, had to tremble in fear, not knowing what decision these two monsters would make.
He racked his brain desperately. The thought that he would end up like Hyun Dowoon 2 if he wasn’t helpful consumed his mind. Though his life wasn’t special, he didn’t want to ruin his body by having his leg pierced or being tortured. If he could somehow be of service, they might let him go out of gratitude.
For this purpose, he had no qualms about selling out Jaeha, whom he wasn’t even close to. From his perspective, Jaeha was the root cause of this situation, so he even wanted these two to catch him.
“Um, location tracking! Couldn’t we track his phone location?”
Kim Sehyun blurted out an idea that suddenly occurred to him. He had seen many scenes in dramas where they tracked locations to find runaway people. Even if dramas were fiction, this must be based on something possible in reality. Kim Sehyun looked up at the two with a desperate face.
Hyun Dowoon nodded with an interested expression. Location tracking might indeed be helpful.
The problem was that the two didn’t have the infrastructure to do location tracking.
‘If we don’t have it, we can borrow it.’
Hyun Dowoon manipulated Hyun Dowoon 2’s phone without hesitation. He searched through the contacts and messages to find communication records with the secretary.
Apart from the different body coloration and subtle physical differences, Hyun Dowoon and Hyun Dowoon 2 could be considered almost the same person. Even their voices were identical, so the secretary would be completely fooled.
– Yes, Director. I’ve answered the phone.
“It seems we need to do phone location tracking.”
– For what reason, sir?
“Am I in a position where I need to report my reasons to you?”
The secretary who answered Hyun Dowoon’s call hurriedly apologized at the last remark, as if coming to his senses. It seemed this world’s Hyun Dowoon was a boss who shared his intentions more regarding instructions. If it were the usual Hyun Dowoon, he would have acted similarly, but he couldn’t do that for Jaeha’s matter. They couldn’t risk Jaeha slipping away from their grasp again.
Hyun Dowoon gave the secretary Jaeha’s number saved in Hyun Dowoon 2’s phone. He also added a threatening request that it would be good if it didn’t take too long.
Like the protagonist in the novel, Hyun Dowoon 2 also had considerable power. Hyun Dowoon was soon able to confirm where Jaeha’s phone had last sent a GPS signal.
The last signal was about 3 hours ago, and the location was within Seoul. Hyun Dowoon shared the situation with Shin Haejun and then moved to the location he had received.
“Hmm…”
It was on a road on the outskirts of Seoul. It was fortunate that he appeared in mid-air just in case; otherwise, he might have collided with a speeding car.
Hyun Dowoon clicked his tongue softly. It seemed Jaeha had turned off his phone while moving. Unaware that this was because Shin Haejun’s secretary had advised it, Hyun Dowoon had to return to Hyun Dowoon 2’s house without any results.
“The location tracking was a bust. He turned off his phone while moving.”
“Damn it…”
At Hyun Dowoon’s words, Shin Haejun muttered a small curse. Kim Sehyun, who had been waiting only to be released, had to watch the mood of these two ominous people.
He had thought it was a good idea, but the result wasn’t good, making the atmosphere even worse. Kim Sehyun desperately racked his brain for the next proposal.
‘How to be loved by an S-class esper’ New chapter has been released.
Jaeha, unsure of what title to use, had borrowed a title he knew. Thanks to having read it with interest and even setting up notifications, unaware that he had once competed alongside it in S-class Love, a notification for the new chapter popped up on Kim Sehyun’s phone.
The moment he saw that notification, a very innovative idea occurred to Kim Sehyun.
“Gift certificate!”
At the sudden loud voice, Shin Haejun’s eyebrow twitched. He tilted his head and looked at Kim Sehyun.
“Well, I’m a reader, right? If Jaeha is the author who wrote this… how about sending a message to lure out his location…?”
It was a short and rambling statement, but Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon understood Kim Sehyun’s plan.
To track a new location, they needed the whereabouts of the new phone. Hyun Dowoon thought that when hiding Jaeha, Shin Haejun must have given him a new phone. They would need to be able to contact each other.
So Kim Sehyun, from a reader’s perspective, had come up with the idea of contacting the author through a message, saying he wanted to gift a gift certificate and asking for a number.
“Why don’t we just trace the IP address?”
Shin Haejun muttered with a frown, crossing his arms in thought. He thought there was no need to go about it in such a roundabout way; they could just trace the IP address where the novel was uploaded.
“That would require contacting the site administrator, which would take a bit more time. I think it’s best if we use both methods.”
It would take some time for both Jaeha to read the message and respond, and to contact the site administrator and get the information needed for IP tracing. So it seemed best to use both methods.
Above all, they had to consider the possibility that Jaeha might read the message and ignore it, or that the site administrator might ignore the request to protect personal information.
Shin Haejun thought for a moment, then glared at Kim Sehyun with stern eyes.
“Write it long and sincerely.”
“…Pardon?”
“Send a long and sincere review that can’t be ignored.”
If he just sent a casual message about wanting to give a gift, Jaeha might ignore it. But the Jaeha that Shin Haejun knew couldn’t easily ignore something filled with sincerity.
So it seemed better to send a very detailed review that would move Jaeha, along with saying he really wanted to send a gift.
Kim Sehyun, who suddenly found himself having to write a long review, looked even more appalled, but that wasn’t Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon’s concern.
In the end, Kim Sehyun, who found the computer in Hyun Dowoon 2’s study room, began writing a very sincere review while suppressing his feelings of resentment.
[Hello, author. I’m a reader who’s been enjoying S-class Love. I’m writing this message because I really want to convey my feelings of being moved by reading S-class Love recently.]
The review, which started with these casual words, quickly grew very long. Regardless of his resentful feelings, he had genuinely been enjoying the novel, and the fear that he would die if he didn’t write properly drove him.
An excellent piece of writing that would normally be impossible was born. After writing at the end that he wanted to send a gift somehow, a sense of satisfaction washed over him, making him forget the situation.
Kim Sehyun sent the message after getting approval from the two. Now they just had to wait for it to be read…
“Oh, he read it!”
As if he happened to be active, Jaeha read the message right away. Kim Sehyun exclaimed in a bright voice.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
