Ch.188188 – Lies 3

# 188 – The Lie # 3

“After recalling memories from before I was five years old, I spent a lot of time thinking about why all this happened. Here’s my hypothesis.”

1. “The clock on the fourth floor had limitations on the wishes it could grant.”

2. “And if any wish was made, Ha Yeongwon would disappear for some reason.”

3. “Ha Yeongwon realized this and escaped from the fourth floor without making a wish, and the world became broken.”

4. “Seeing his friends suffering, Ha Yeongwon eventually made a wish and sacrificed himself to restore everything to normal.”

Yang Juhui found Jeongseok’s explanation difficult to understand. Her school grades were fairly good both in the past and present, but she wasn’t really the type to use her brain in the true sense.

“So Jeongseok, what you’re saying is that our suffering in the world where we opened the entrance to the fourth floor led to Ha Yeongwon’s disappearance. Was it my asking for my sister back that pushed Ha Yeongwon into a corner?”

Yang Juhui surrendered herself to small regrets and loss as she recalled memories that felt both distant and like they happened just yesterday. What if she hadn’t asked for her sister back then?

Her sister and the boy.

If she had known beforehand that gaining one meant losing the other, how would she have acted? So many thoughts rushed through Yang Juhui’s mind that it was almost disorienting.

“It’s not just your fault. I think we all share responsibility. And if my memory is correct, Yeongwon was deeply troubled about Dahi constantly dying before he died.”

Jeongseok fell into quiet contemplation.

The timeline they had lived in was one where Yu Dahui’s death was certain. So Ha Yeongwon must have made a wish to change that timeline.

“Yu Dahui, what’s she doing now?”

Yang Juhui asked angrily.

If anyone held the largest share of responsibility for pushing Ha Yeongwon, it would definitely be Yu Dahui. She felt like grabbing her hair and throwing her to the ground would be the only way to feel better.

But Jeongseok just shrugged.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“It’ll be faster to see for yourself than to explain. Let’s leave school first.”

It was barely past 10 AM, but Jeongseok casually suggested skipping classes and climbed over the school fence.

He looked very skilled at avoiding the security guard at the main gate, and Yang Juhui was inwardly shocked to see this side of Jeongseok that was so different from the one she knew.

‘When did this coward become such a rule-breaker?’

He could even be described as brave.

Yang Juhui recalled memories from both the previous timeline and the current one, realizing that Jeongseok was quite a problematic student who caused a lot of talk at Yeongji High School.

Running out of the classroom during lessons without reason. Lying to friends. In many ways, he was different from the model student and vice class president he had once been.

“You seem pretty used to skipping school now, huh?”

Yang Juhui asked casually as she followed behind Jeongseok.

Without taking his eyes off his phone, he replied:

“What’s the point of attending classes? What good would studying math or Korean do now? We’ve approached a greater truth. The truth of the world.”

Jeongseok thought there was nothing left to learn at school.

The image of Jeongseok who once said he wanted to become a prosecutor to put criminals behind bars had been washed away by the tides of time, replaced by an ascetic expression worn down by wind and years.

The current Jeongseok pursued truth.

Immutable truth. The secrets of the world.

In a way, he had become a student in the truest sense of the word, pursuing the fundamentals of learning that schools claim to teach.

‘It’s funny that I, who skip school, am actually the true student.’

Jeongseok thought of a joke about contradiction but chose not to share it with Yang Juhui.

Silence. It was one of the habits Jeongseok had developed from hiding many lies and secrets from people since he was five years old. No one would understand even if he explained.

‘Even if a prisoner who happened to be freed from a cave where they had been bound their whole lives, watching only the shadows cast by torches, came back to tell the other prisoners about the outside world, they would only be ridiculed.’

But even if the cave prisoners saw only shadows as reality and denied the actual world, the outside world definitely existed.

# # #

As they walked, they soon arrived at the outskirts of the city where a large tree stood. Yang Juhui realized from the memory etched in her body what this place was.

“This is where Yeong-gwang Church used to be, right? There’s a big tree here.”

“Yeah. I don’t know if it’s because the timeline changed, but the city name changed, and many objects and buildings have moved. The fact that there’s a fortune-telling shop instead of a church at the site of Yeong-gwang Church is one of those discrepancies.”

“A fortune-telling shop… could it be…”

Yang Juhui recalled Yu Dahui’s family background. Yu Dahui was supposedly a descendant of a shaman family that had protected a large village guardian tree.

Thinking that Yu Dahui’s family might be running that fortune-telling shop, Yang Juhui strode toward the fluttering five-colored flags and opened what looked like a residential gate.

Creeeeak-

Upon entering, she saw numerous snake wine bottles placed all over the yard. Just as she was thinking it was quite an eerie scene, the scent of incense wafted from the open house.

“Excuse me.”

Yang Juhui walked into the fortune-telling shop without hesitation.

There, she encountered a shaman wearing a colorful traditional Korean jacket with a white silk veil covering her face like a bride’s.

A colorful shaman. She was shaking bells—jjallang-jjallang—perhaps in the middle of a ritual, and she flinched as if startled by the sudden appearance of visitors, but there was something familiar about her demeanor.

‘This woman, I know her. She’s young.’

Though a shaman, she was clearly around her own age at first glance.

It had to be Yu Dahui.

“Hey!”

Unable to contain herself, Yang Juhui lunged at the shaman and grabbed the silk veil covering her head, throwing it aside.

“Oh my!”

Thud-

The shaman let out a strange cry and fell over.

Soon, a face with heavy makeup was revealed, and Yang Juhui was greatly surprised.

“What the hell, you’re Bong Jiyeon!”

The head shaman of the village shrine wasn’t Yu Dahui but Bong Jiyeon.

How could this be? Yang Juhui couldn’t understand at all and looked at Jeongseok, demanding an explanation.

Jeongseok calmly picked up the fallen silk veil from the floor and said:

“When explaining the paradoxes of time travel, one of the most common concepts is the butterfly effect. It means that when the past changes, even the tiniest trigger can cause major discrepancies.”

Jeongseok looked at the virgin shaman Bong Jiyeon.

Had some woman once told Bong Jiyeon, “You’re more destined to be a shaman than you think”?

At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it and dismissed it as insignificant. But perhaps that shaman’s words had been right all along.

In a world where the mystery of “Yeongwon’s Clock” didn’t exist, Bong Jiyeon had become a shaman. However, Bong Jiyeon frowned as if she detested this kind of talk.

“Excuse me. You’ve come again. I told you it’s troublesome if you keep coming. I see you’ve brought a friend this time? As I’ve told you repeatedly, my name is not Bong Jiyeon, it’s Bong Yeonji!”

“Huh?”

Yang Juhui couldn’t understand.

What on earth was this wild girl saying?

Soon, Yang Juhui remembered how she herself had suddenly recalled her past memories today. Ah, this is how she must have appeared until yesterday. This girl clearly hadn’t recovered her memories.

The person who identified herself as Bong Yeonji continued:

“As I’ve told you many times, I prefer men who are good at studying, have stable families, and bright futures. That’s what my compatibility and destiny say. I’m meant to marry such a man.”

“……”

“……”

“I detest delinquents like you who skip school. If you’re interested in me just because of my looks and want to try your luck, you’ll face serious consequences! Don’t look down on me just because I only finished middle school!”

Yang Juhui felt dizzy looking at Bong Jiyeon. In some ways, this was more mind-bending than seeing a ghost.

“It’s as you see. Bong Jiyeon has become Bong Yeonji.”

Jeongseok shrugged.

Then he walked out of the fortune-telling shop and burst into laughter.

“Funny, isn’t it?”

“It really is funny. Is it because of Bong Jiyeon? That you said you’d bring Ha Yeongwon back. I don’t know if that’s even possible.”

In Yang Juhui’s memory, Jeongseok had liked Bong Jiyeon tremendously.

To an incomprehensible degree.

Perhaps Jeongseok had been struggling alone in this timeline for Bong Jiyeon, who had lost all her memories and become Bong Yeonji—that’s what she thought, but Jeongseok answered quietly:

“Partly because of Bong Jiyeon, but honestly, I might bear a large share of responsibility for Yeongwon making that self-destructive wish. He asked me something like: what would I do if my wish trampled on someone else’s wish? I said it was right to seek the greatest happiness for the greatest number.”

Humans are selfish beings.

At least that’s what Jeongseok thought. There was bound to be a gap between what one thought was right in their heart and mind and what they actually did.

Everyone preached truth and morality with their mouths, but their actions were often the complete opposite. As the son of a powerful politician in both his previous and current life, Jeongseok knew this well.

It’s difficult to do good.

Especially if one has to suffer loss in doing so.

“Humans dislike even being pricked by a needle. But that guy actually went and did it. I could never have done that.”

Jeongseok had always wondered why those mysterious abilities belonged to Ha Yeongwon and not himself. To be honest, Ha Yeongwon wasn’t particularly outstanding compared to others, nor was he a brave hero.

But he was someone who knew how to show great courage when it was most needed. That must be why Ha Yeongwon was chosen.

“It’s an achievement worthy of being recorded in history books. It wouldn’t be strange if he became a religious leader and was revered. But the problem is that no one remembers this fact. Except for me, and now except for you and me, no one.”

It was an everyday life achieved after difficult challenges. Yet even in this world, there were still many problems, filled with sadness, suffering, and pain.

Jeongseok couldn’t feel hope in this world. It was both hopeless and boring.

“Now I understand. Ha Yeongwon was our hope. If this world is destined to be ruled by self-righteous hypocrites anyway, it would be better for someone like Ha Yeongwon to be king. I’m going to bring him back and make him king.”

“What are you talking about?”