#070
“A laptop?”
Hyun Dowoon muttered with a puzzled expression.
I was equally confused. Why a laptop in this situation? Shouldn’t it have given us something to help us escape this space?
“It seems to be turning on…”
Hyun Dowoon mumbled as he turned the laptop over. How could it turn on without power? It felt eerie, but since we had no other options, we watched as the laptop booted up.
“Is it broken? The screen seems a bit glitchy.”
Hyun Dowoon whispered as he saw the laptop manufacturer’s logo on the startup screen distorted in a strange way. But it was unlikely that a skill usable only once a month would give us just a broken laptop.
As I thought, the laptop managed to boot up somehow. Though it was indeed malfunctioning, as the loading time was extremely long.
“The desktop is very simple.”
The desktop only had basic icons like the Recycle Bin, Internet, and My Computer.
Could it be for requesting help from the outside? I moved the cursor with the touchpad and clicked on the Internet icon, but of course, only a white window popped up saying there was no internet connection.
“Hmm…”
Clicking on My Computer didn’t reveal anything unusual either. Since I’m not particularly good with computers, even if there was some secret code hidden in this laptop, I probably wouldn’t be able to find it.
“Jaeha, wait a moment.”
Suddenly, Hyun Dowoon stopped my hand as I was moving the cursor around. Then he pointed at the Recycle Bin.
“There’s something in the Recycle Bin.”
“Oh… you’re right.”
Good observation. I immediately clicked on the Recycle Bin icon. Inside, there was a document file labeled ‘Close to me’. When I clicked on that document, it loaded slowly, revealing a very long text.
[Chapter 1
Lee Jaeha thought the customer in front of him was strange. A customer who came to the cafe where he worked every day at 2 PM. The very handsome man who caught the eye would order coffee, not take a single sip, sit staring at the counter for 15 minutes, and then leave.
“Would you like an Americano again today?”
Just before taking the order from the customer who arrived at exactly 2 PM, Jaeha spoke without thinking. For the first time, the man in front of him smiled lightly.
“You said ‘again today’?”
“Pardon?”
“Seems like you’ve started to remember me.”
The man said with a sweet smile. As Jaeha blinked, he reached into his chest and pulled out a business card holder.
“I’m not a strange person.”
He soon took out a business card. The name ‘Hyun Dowoon’ was engraved on that card. Jaeha stared at the card blankly before slowly picking it up.]
What is this?
I turned my head to look at Hyun Dowoon. He seemed equally confused, also looking at me.
“Why are Jaeha’s and my names…”
Hyun Dowoon tilted his head with furrowed brows. I thought, ‘No way,’ and scrolled all the way down.
The content I skimmed through was like this: Lee Jaeha working part-time at a cafe, and Hyun Dowoon, a CEO working in a high-rise building across the street, visiting every day to make his presence known – their clumsy love story. And then Shin Haejun, the young master of the house where Jaeha’s mother used to work as a housekeeper during his childhood, growling at Hyun Dowoon and fighting to have Jaeha.
The content was very cliché, childish, and old-fashioned. One thing was clear though – it was a story where Lee Jaeha was loved tremendously.
It was a story where Shin Haejun, who didn’t realize he liked Jaeha and kept bothering him, and Hyun Dowoon, who had fallen for Jaeha, competed by throwing money around to appeal to him. Kim Sehyun didn’t even exist, and there were no villains – it was a very ordinary plot.
‘Was this the original novel that the author was writing before changing the protagonist?’
One thing was certain. It’s really boring…
The unfinished writing stopped around chapter 65, and due to the slow development, Jaeha still hadn’t started dating Hyun Dowoon. Every 10 chapters, there was just a repetition of money-throwing: “I’ll buy you something,” “Ah… it’s fine…,” “I bought an island for you!”, “Ah!”
It was so uninteresting that I could understand why it was scrapped. I looked at the file with a sour face and sighed. Did we use the skill just to see this?
‘I often thought I’d like to be the protagonist, but if I had entered this story, I would have just been frustrated.’
I thought that even if it was equally clumsy, the current situation was better. It seemed the author had lamented their old-fashioned material and rewrote the story by mixing in some modern elements. Even the author seemed to have gotten annoyed while writing, as there were phrases like “future me, please” scattered throughout, and at the end, there was a whole page of gibberish like “asdlfkjasdlkfj”.
“This is really boring, isn’t it? Why were we supposed to look at this… Director?”
I was muttering when I noticed it was too quiet beside me, so I looked towards Hyun Dowoon.
I saw that the focus had disappeared from Hyun Dowoon’s eyes.
“Director!”
I gently shook him. However, like someone who had lost consciousness, his pupils remained blank.
‘What should I do? What’s happening?’
If something happened to Hyun Dowoon in this situation, it would be an even bigger problem. I shook him a bit more vigorously, hoping he would come to his senses.
“Ah…”
Suddenly, focus returned to Hyun Dowoon’s eyes, and he let out a long groan as he ran his hand over his face. Turning his head, he asked me in a somewhat passionate voice.
“I have a question.”
“Y-yes…”
His voice was so stern that it startled me. Hyun Dowoon put down the laptop and grabbed both my arms as he asked.
“Did you know that this world is inside a novel?”
…What?
“Can you believe… that we are characters in a novel?”
What kind of realization did Hyun Dowoon just have?
I was so shocked that I froze and just blinked. Normally, even if someone found a document like this, wouldn’t they think ‘Someone wrote a novel using my name’ rather than ‘I’m in a novel’? Like, you know, idol fanfiction.
“Um… well.”
“I just heard a voice in my head. A voice saying, ‘This is a world inside a novel, and you are a character. That was the world you were supposed to go to originally.'”
“Um, Director.”
“How can this be a novel when it feels so real?”
Hyun Dowoon grabbed my hands, fumbling, with a confused look on his face. He looked like he was facing an unbelievable truth.
“Well… you said you heard a voice, but couldn’t it be an illusion?”
It really is a world inside a novel, but suddenly hearing voices… Isn’t that an auditory hallucination? I carefully examined Hyun Dowoon with a cautious expression.
“No, that’s not… I’m not sure. When I heard that voice, the feeling of fullness that resonated through my body… I had an oddly strong conviction that it was true. Did you not hear anything, Jaeha?”
“Well…”
What should I do? Should I tell the truth? I really don’t understand what this situation is.
Was the sub-quest given by Nine not to show us a way out of here, but to awaken Hyun Dowoon?
‘Can I tell someone who just realized they’re a character in a novel… that I’m actually not Lee Jaeha, but someone who possessed him?’
Even if I don’t know what’s going on, could Hyun Dowoon, who just learned the secret of the world, immediately understand about beings possessing from outside the novel? What if he looks at me like I’m some kind of alien after I tell him?
‘In this situation, I actually am an alien…’
Feeling my mouth go dry, I shook my head.
“I didn’t hear anything just now.”
“I see… It says we are characters in a novel.”
Hyun Dowoon spoke in a strong voice, as if trying to impress this fact upon me. I nodded reflexively.
“I-I see.”
“What do you think the purpose of this novel is?”
“Pardon?”
“There must be some purpose, right? Because novels have themes.”
“Well…”
Not understanding what Hyun Dowoon was thinking, I tilted my head with a puzzled expression. Then he furrowed his brows and muttered.
“In novels, each scene has a purpose. So I think there must be some meaning to why Jaeha was brought here now.”
Maybe because Hyun Dowoon was smart, he unexpectedly hit the nail on the head right away. Then he muttered to himself.
“Crisis? Why would there be a crisis for Jaeha…”
“Um…”
“Ah. Could it be to give the protagonist, Jaeha, a moment of crisis? Don’t tell me… are Jaeha and Shin Haejun the Esper the main characters…?”
He spoke as if he was turning his thoughts over in his head, trying to figure things out. I sighed and shook my head.
“Actually, I received something like a revelation earlier with the help of my constellation. I’m not the protagonist… I’m the villain.”
The fact that this is the only way I can explain it, I really don’t know what to say. I just felt like I wanted to escape this chaotic situation. I don’t understand why Nine is giving me this trial.
“The villain?”
“Yes… well. The protagonists are Haejun and Kim Sehyun. I’m the villain who interferes with their love.”
Outside, I mean in the actual novel, these meta comments aren’t appearing, right? If the author knows we’ve become aware, I don’t think they’d stay quiet…
“Villain… Why is Jaeha the villain? That can’t be right.”
“What?”
“Why are you the villain when you haven’t done anything bad? From what I’ve seen, all the strange things were done by Kim Sehyun the Guide.”
“Well… I guess in the romance genre, if you interfere with love, you’re the bad guy…?”
Hearing my words, Hyun Dowoon’s eyes lit up as he spoke.
“I think I’m probably a supporting character.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because I’ve never once felt any attraction towards Kim Sehyun the Guide. That’s good. If Jaeha meets me, you’re no longer a villain, right?”
What are you saying? You’re the sub-protagonist…
I don’t know how to organize this situation that feels like a nonsensical conversation, but somehow I felt a bit better. Hmm, am I feeling smug?
‘Why does it feel so good to hear that he’s never once felt attracted to Kim Sehyun?’
I guess it’s because I dislike him.
I was nodding when I suddenly realized that I hadn’t received the sub-quest reward yet.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
