episode_0001

It was around the time I was in elementary school.

Suddenly, due to some unknown family circumstances, I had to transfer to Seoul in a hurry.

“Wow! Kang Yoochan, going to Seoul?!”

“I wish…! I want to go to Seoul too….”

“I’ve been there, but Seoul is nothing special.”

My friends envied me greatly on the day I went up to Seoul.

‘Is this a good thing?’

Yet, I felt nothing but gloom.

A strange neighborhood, a strange school, and even stranger faces.

I couldn’t find any reason why it would be better than now.

Above all, my mother’s hurried appearance in preparing for the move was decisive.

She seemed like someone fleeing in haste.

“Yoochan, you’ll get along well with your new friends, right?”

“Yeah.”

“…Okay…. If something happens, make sure to tell Mom, okay?”

At that time, my mother had a strangely anxious look on her face.

Was it because she, who had been a housewife all her life, suddenly found a job?

Or was it because the ‘man’ who occasionally visited our house had gone missing?

In any case, it was clear that my mother was nervous about our new life in Seoul.

So, in order not to cause unnecessary worry, I made an effort to act confidently.

“Don’t worry, Mom!”

And then,

“Hey, that kid doesn’t have a dad.”

I started to be ostracized at the new school.

“Really?”

“I saw it from the teacher’s seat earlier. He’s from a single-parent family!”

“Wow, that’s crazy.”

“What’s a single-parent family?”

“It means no dad, dummy!”

“Oh…. Wow!”

Murmurs. Murmurs. Voices gossiping about me reached my ears.

I wanted to get up and give them a piece of my mind, but I remembered my mother, who had recently started working as a cashier.

With so much on her plate already, I didn’t want to cause her any more worry.

“Don’t get into trouble. Kang Yoochan.”

Thankfully, there was no physical harassment, but no one came up to talk to me.

That’s how my fourth-grade life came to a dull end.

“Ah… She’s in the same class as me.”

“Another parentless kid we have to deal with.”

“I feel bad.”

Even when I reached fifth grade, my situation didn’t change much. For some ridiculous reason, I ended up in the same class as the kids who used to dislike me. And to make matters worse, there were also those popular, influential types among them. Thanks to that, even by April, I still didn’t have a single friend.

“Well, I guess I should just focus on studying for now.”

Being somewhat of a positive thinker, I decided to take this as an opportunity. Honestly, running around is fun, but reading alone isn’t so bad either.

“Yoochan, how’s school life? Is it okay?”

“It’s more or less fun.”

Sometimes, when Mom or the homeroom teacher asked about my well-being, I deliberately answered brightly.

“Yoochan, the teacher is curious, do you have any close friends in the class?”

I was a child who knew there was nothing good in answering negatively for no reason.

“Um, I think I’m equally close to everyone.”

“Oh… really?”

“Yes.”

That’s how I continued my peaceful days.

“We have a new student transferring to our class.”

Suddenly, a transfer student came to our class.

“She used to live in this neighborhood but went to the US for a while, so please make her feel welcome.”

“Yes!”

“Now, would our friends like to introduce themselves to her?”

The transfer student, who had been in the US, stepped forward without any sign of nervousness and calmly spoke.

“I’m Mayeonseo. Nice to meet you.”

Mayeonseo. Just like her name, she was a very pretty girl.

“Wow… she’s really pretty.”

“She’s tall too…”

“Her clothes look really expensive…!”

Unlike when I transferred, both boys and girls responded very favorably, without any hesitation.

“Ridiculous.”

Deep down, I envied her.

“Yeonsoo… um, Yoochan, sit next to her.”

Mayeonseo was assigned to the empty seat next to me.

Actually, no one wanted to sit next to me, so the seat was empty. Unintentionally, I ended up becoming the center of attention by being paired with the popular transfer student.

“Where are you from?”

“Is it true that you lived in the US?”

“Then, have you been to the top of the Empire State Building?!”

“How tall are you?”

“Where did you live?”

As soon as break time arrived, a swarm of kids gathered around Mayeonseo, bombarding her with various questions. Watching her clear difference from my own past self, I was left speechless.

‘This is truly ridiculous.’

Right at that moment.

“Hah.”

For some reason, Mayeonseo, who had been ignoring the kids, suddenly let out a deep sigh and, with an annoyed expression, glared at them, saying, “Get lost.”

The classroom was instantly engulfed in silence.

“Uh…”

“W-what did she say…?”

“Did I hear that wrong?”

The kids were visibly taken aback by this unexpected response.

Seemingly indifferent, Mayeonseo took out a textbook and said, “Stop bothering me and just leave.”

She wasn’t your average girl.

*

‘What’s her deal?’

Mayeonseo seemed to willingly invite isolation.

It was as if she had an inherently antisocial disposition.

Despite her consistent insolent attitude, the kids quickly gave up on approaching her…

Perhaps due to this, the negative glances toward me also began to slightly fade.

Of course, it didn’t mean I made any friends.

‘She seems to like books too.’

Like me, Mayeonseo always read a book when it wasn’t class time.

Is it a trait of those without friends?

So, we occasionally crossed paths in the school library during lunchtime.

“……”

“……”

Since she hardly spoke, we mostly treated each other as strangers.

Anyway, I had grown accustomed to life with Mayeonseo around.

‘Oh, a new book.’

Just as usual, when I visited the library, I found a newly arrived book.

[ Path of the Tower ]

It was a book related to the “tower.”

The tower referred to a peculiar structure that emerged globally decades ago overnight, a massive cylindrical pillar rising from the ground.

Humanity called it “the Tower.”

The multi-layered tower connected to different dimensions on each floor, harboring all sorts of dangerous creatures…

At the same time, humans started gaining supernatural abilities.

Humans who wielded the inexplicable power of “magic,” demonstrating tremendous supernatural abilities.

Those who awakened to these powers were called “Awakened Ones.”

They used their superpowers to subdue the monsters flowing out of the tower.

Later, they began a full-scale assault on the tower itself.

The book “Path of the Tower” contained the story of a certain raid team’s first conquest of the tower.

“How interesting.”

Now, awakened for decades, the Awakened Ones held a celebrity-like status according to their grade.

Like many kids, I was curious about the Awakened Ones, and I felt intrigued by the brief introduction written at the back of the book.

“I should read this today.”

With an excited heart, as I turned around…

“Whoa, hey! You scared me.”

I came face to face with a girl who was standing there dumbfounded.

Her loosely tied black hair and a pretty face with fair skin.

She was in my class, Mayeonseo, the troublemaker.

“What’s up?”

For some reason, she was staring fixedly at the book in my hand.

It seemed like she had been looking for this book too…

“Not my concern.”

“I’ll pass by.”

I brushed past her and headed straight to the counter.

I’ll finish reading it in a couple of days, and then she can read it.

“Hehe. This is going to be fun.”

Returning to the classroom early, I sat down and started reading the borrowed book.

“…This is really exciting.”

All the books I borrowed this time were successful.

Especially “Path of the Tower,” borrowed cleverly from Mayeonseo, was so engaging that I wanted to read it secretly during class.

“Glad I didn’t give in.”

After finishing all the afternoon classes with self-reading, it was just before the closing ceremony.

“…Is it because of the mood?”

Mayeonseo, who usually never paid attention to me, kept glancing at my seat.

“……”

More precisely, at the book lying on the desk.

“Do you want to read it that badly?”

Scratching my head, pondering for a moment, I gathered my courage and decided to talk to her.

“Hey.”

“……”

“Mayeonseo.”

As I called her name, she barely met my gaze.

There was a subtle hint of disdain in her eyes.

This guy. She wasn’t just an ordinary troublemaker after all.

“You were trying to borrow this, weren’t you?”

I showed her the half-read “Path of the Tower.” Her gaze immediately shifted to the book.

“……”

When our eyes met, her gaze was far gentler than usual.

“I’ve almost finished this. If you want to read it, I can lend it to you. Read it and bring it back.”

As I handed her the book, she glanced down at it without a word.

After staring at the book for a while, seemingly lost in thought, Mayeonseo said, “I’ll give it to you tomorrow,” as she took the book and quietly tucked it into her bag without a word of thanks.

“She doesn’t seem to have any intention of expressing gratitude.”

“Her attitude is just like that.”

Feeling somewhat annoyed, I began to pack up to head home.

“Oh, right,” I suddenly remembered and mentioned belatedly, “There’s a part I folded in the middle. It’s where I left off, so please keep it that way.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Ugh, what an attitude.”

She really had a face that made one question her worth.

*

The next day.

“I’m off.”

“Yeah! Do your best today too!”

“Mom, take care too.”

“See you later for dinner!”

As usual, I left the house at my mother’s work time and, as always, I was one of the first to arrive at the school gates.

“I’ll probably be first again today.”

Thanks to that, I usually arrived earlier than anyone else in my class, but today, there was someone who arrived a step ahead of me.

“Hmm.”

It was Mayeonseo.

“What? She always arrives right on time.”

She usually came to school at the regular time, but today, for some reason, she arrived first and was reading a book.

“You’re early today?”

“….”

Just out of pure curiosity, I asked, but receiving no response, I simply took my seat without thinking much about it.

At that moment, Mayeonseo quietly placed something on my desk.

[Path of the Tower]

It was the book I had lent her yesterday.

“Finished already?”

“I said I’d give it to you today.”

“That was fast.”

As I had intended to read the book until the bell rang, I roughly flipped through the pages to the marked section.

However…

Thud. Something thin protruded from the book.

“Huh?”

It was none other than a bookmark.

The thin metal material and its exquisite design made it seem like anything but a cheap product.

“Mayeonseo, what’s this doing in here?”

Taking out a bookmark and asking her, she calmly replied without even looking at me.

“Stop carrying the book around, just write in it.”

“Uh… for me?”

“If you don’t like it, give it back.”

Extending my hand, she briefly met my gaze.

Momentarily taken aback by her strangely stern look, I tightly gripped the bookmark and said,

“Alright, I’ll use it well.”

Deep down, I thought he might turn out to be better than I expected.

“Oh… I forgot how far I’d read.”

“Page 223.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

From then on, every morning we sat side by side, reading together.