Chapter 7: Twists of Fate

“Because you’re here! This shield, you set it up for me too!”

I clenched my fists tightly and shouted with sparkling eyes as if it was an amazing thing.

Ban-hyun, with a look as if it was only natural, turned around without saying a word.

***

When I thought about the time when I used to run through dungeons with my guildmates before possessing this body…

I realized I wasn’t much different either.

‘Our guild members were really patient people.’

Having gained this insight, I quickly tried to catch up behind him.

After what just happened, it would look strange if I stayed too far away from him.

“It’s because you’re a hunter. Saving civilians is natural.”

Ban-hyun glanced at me for a moment, then said something while scanning the area around him and slightly increasing his pace.

Ah, he’s really good at saying things in a roundabout way to tell me not to get confused.

‘Wait, isn’t this an opportunity?’

This is the perfect chance to implement the ‘distance myself from Ban-hyun’ strategy…!

I immediately poked my eyes with my fingers and tried to make tears fall, secretly.

This should be enough to make my eyes bloodshot.

“I know, you don’t like me…”

“Seems like you do know.”

Without even looking back, Ban-hyun answered and continued walking ahead without stopping.

Drip—

At the right moment, tears began to fall down my face.

Got it!

“I’ve been a bother, haven’t I…?”

I narrowed my eyes and stopped blinking, pretending to hold back tears.

The tears that had quickly gathered flowed down my cheek again.

“If I don’t die here… I promise I won’t bother you anymore.”

Pretending to sniffle and catch my breath in between, I finally said the words I had wanted to say for so long.

I struggled to hold back the smile that wanted to rise up on my face.

Thud—

Because I had been walking closely behind Ban-hyun, I accidentally bumped my head into his back when he suddenly stopped.

“I… I’m sorry for being a bother.”

I hadn’t expected this situation at all when we got caught in the dungeon together.

My heart swelled with unexpected happiness.

“Why would you die?”

At that moment, Ban-hyun, who had been silently listening to me, spoke.

“You don’t know? I’m from Gangnam-gu Focus.”

He actually said that out loud…?

The shocking statement I didn’t expect made the tears that were flowing stop immediately.

Whether he cared or not, Ban-hyun turned around with an indifferent expression and said:

“I’m currently the number 1 in the national rankings.”

“Wow, damn, that was dangerous.”

I barely held back the curse that almost slipped out and, instinctively, couldn’t control my fingers as they reached out, so I quickly stuffed them into my pockets.

It was the moment when the goal of returning to the original world became even stronger.

***

We had walked for quite a while, but the boss monster still hadn’t shown itself.

After seeing the other monsters burn up in an instant, I wondered if the boss had hidden itself somewhere because we couldn’t even catch a glimpse of it.

As both of us kept looking around intently, trying to spot the boss, we suddenly heard some sounds in the distance.

We both stopped and held our breath, slowly approaching the source of the noise.

“People!”

A faint conversation reached our ears, and I was about to rush over in excitement, but I stopped when I sensed something unusual about their mood.

Ban-hyun, perhaps feeling the same thing, stood silently next to me, watching them.

Behind the trees, which Ban-hyun hadn’t burned yet, a couple of students appeared to be hiding.

From the look of it, they were a male and female student.

“What?”

The girl said something to the boy, but the boy didn’t seem to understand and asked again.

“What did you say? I can’t hear you. Say it a little louder.”

“Don’t go, you idiot!”

Oh dear, they were in the middle of an in-soul (virtual romance) scenario.

I couldn’t bear to listen anymore, so I raised my hand to cover my ears but then noticed Ban-hyun calmly observing them from the side, so I slowly lowered my hand.

‘Ugh, I really can’t listen to this.’

At that moment, the boy, whose expression had become serious, looked directly down at the girl and said:

“I didn’t think I’d have to say this…”

The boy paused for a moment, then, as if making a decision, took the girl’s hand and placed it over his chest, quietly confessing:

“You’re in here…”

Are they filming a drama?

What are they doing in a dungeon?

‘Even if this is an in-soul world, confessing in a dungeon? Is love the only thing in this world?!’

It was a scene typical of the in-soul world, where love and friendship are the highest values, but the emotional distress it caused for the onlooker was beyond imagination.

Unable to control my gaping mouth, I closed it with my hand and turned to look at Ban-hyun’s reaction.

As expected from the protagonist of an in-soul story.

His face showed no sign of concern, as if such things had no effect on his mental state.

The boy, looking as serious and bitter as if he were confessing to his favorite girl before heading off to the battlefield, kept his eyes on the girl, waiting for her response.

It seemed like they were both non-awakened, and the boy had decided to sacrifice himself so the girl could escape.

The girl, in turn, was trying to stop him from leaving.

After seeing the girl standing there, stunned and unable to speak, the boy opened his mouth again:

“Can’t you understand? I, Choi Kang-han, like Chae Ah-rin. You idiot.”

That was the final blow.

“Oh, that’s brave.”

With a smirk and a raised eyebrow, Ban-hyun, who had been watching me in a daze, finally spoke up and tapped my shoulder, asking what was wrong.

Just as I was about to step forward to tell the couple that they wouldn’t die after all, the scene took another unexpected turn.

“Don’t like me.”

“Wait a second!”

What was she going to say next?!

I froze in place when three pairs of eyes suddenly locked onto me as I shouted in panic and stepped forward.

“Monsters!”

I couldn’t be happier to see the monsters wriggling in the ground, not fully dead.

Ban-hyun, without missing a beat, burned the roots of the trees that hadn’t caught fire yet, then pointed at the high school couple, who were about to make an ill-fated attempt at love, with a flick of his chin.

“Those two, quietly follow behind.”

‘Thank you, Ban-hyun!’

The word “quietly” had never sounded so sweet.

The couple, who were startled at recognizing Ban-hyun, pursed their lips and nodded, following me closely.

The boss monster was a fire bear, hiding its body between the trees.

It seemed intent on turning us into winter food, attacking us fiercely. But it fell after Ban-hyun summoned the mid-level fire spirit, Sally, to strike it down.

Unlike me, who always made sure to take the dungeon’s spoils, Ban-hyun, being the third heir to a conglomerate, didn’t seem to care much for the dungeon’s spoils.

He only took a few items and some noticeable materials.

When we exited the gate, the couple, who had been spouting lines that were hard to bear, kept thanking Ban-hyun before they left. I, too, dragged my exhausted body back home.

“Tofu?”

Even before I could take off my shoes at the entrance, I had to go back out immediately.

***

The next day, news spread throughout the school that I had gotten caught in a surprise gate with Ban-hyun.

I had an idea of who spread the rumor, but I couldn’t understand why I was specifically targeted, and not Ban-hyun.

‘Rumors are scary.’

“Dana! You got caught in the surprise gate, right?! Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

As soon as I got to school, Nari, who ran up to me and hugged me tightly, worriedly checked if I was alright.

“I’m fine. No injuries. Did you worry a lot?”

I smiled and reassured her in the sweetest tone, and I couldn’t help but think, ‘It’s good to have friends,’ as I laughed.

“So, how was it, going to the dungeon with Ban-hyun? That’s not something just anyone gets to do. I bet everyone will envy you.”

That’s just insane.

With their eyes sparkling, my friends and some of the others kept asking about what happened in the dungeon, how I ended up there with Ban-hyun, and why I was caught in the surprise gate with him.

“I just got caught by chance. That’s all, really.”

I didn’t understand why I was explaining myself, but I had to make it clear.

If I didn’t, something bad could happen.

There were a few kids who had tried to attack me before because they liked Ban-hyun.

Of course, Ban-hyun wasn’t someone who’d let them get away with it, so they ended up being punished.

“Dana, was it really just a coincidence that you were with Ban-hyun?”

At that moment, I heard a soft, kind voice asking me that question as someone pushed through the crowd to stand in front of me.

The voice belonged to someone who had tried to hire someone to beat me up before.

They had wanted to intimidate me, but after getting beaten up by Ban-hyun, they ran off, only to be caught and punished for their actions.

On the outside, they looked like an innocent extra with calm, light brown hair and large, round eyes that made them appear kind.

But deep down, they were obsessed with stalking the male lead.

It’s a bit of a cliché in in-soul stories where the seemingly innocent character is actually sinister.

I couldn’t help but come up with useless theories as I imagined what was happening.

BAM—

“Dana, come out.”

“Ah! Dana, what should we do?”

Just then, the door to the classroom slammed open, and the school’s female power players came looking for me.

‘Ugh, this is going to be annoying.’

It seemed like the rumors wouldn’t die down anytime soon.

Why were they making such a big deal out of the fact that I just got caught in a dungeon once with Ban-hyun?

I couldn’t understand, but I obediently followed the girls as they led me to the corner of the school by the incinerator.

BAM—

The wall near my face cracked slightly from a punch.

Looking at them, I could tell that the one who made the hole in the wall was the one standing there with her head lowered, speaking in a trembling voice.

“Because of you… My world collapsed yesterday.”

The girl, who had awakened to rank D, took a step closer and spoke.

“I wanted to explore the dungeon with Ban-hyun, but you stole my chance.”

With her arms crossed, she raised one eyebrow and then put on a frustrated expression.

Her face was full of anger and annoyance.

“I’m so mad. I can’t control my anger. Must be nice, huh? Exploring the dungeon with Ban-hyun alone?”

She was shaking with rage, and with another blow, she cracked the wall next to my face again.

‘Did I get caught this quickly? Is this where the original story is twisted?’

In the original, this body had been expressing her feelings for Ban-hyun through six confessions, only to be targeted by the school’s female bully on the seventh confession, and then disappearing from the story after being hurt.

But here, just getting caught in a gate together with him had already led to this kind of trouble?

The plot had clearly twisted early on.

‘How do I get out of this?’

I looked at the raging girl in front of me and wondered how I could escape this situation.

‘Aha!’

As I saw the shadow looming behind her, I lit up with an idea.