ROA 11

Elchan Cafe was a place where Shim Seo-woo had worked part-time in the past. It was a shop run together by an affable foreign owner with light blonde hair and green eyes and a Korean owner with black hair and a slightly sharp impression, decorated prettily with a Christmas concept as its main theme, and especially famous by word of mouth for delicious desserts.

Shim Seo-woo had worked there since about 3 years ago. Even though he only worked during the semester and quit saying he was traveling during vacation, they always offered him a position again. The reason was that they had more customers when he was there.

So he worked for quite a long time, but rested continuously after becoming a fourth-year. Graduation and job preparation were the reasons in name only, and in reality, it was just because he had been strangely hazy this year.

“I know you’ll be busy with job prep, so they said they can adjust to your schedule as much as possible, they’ll take good care of the conditions, so if you’re thinking of working, contact them!”

“Wow, a part-timer can receive this much consideration.”

“They have no choice. Just yesterday some customer was looking for him too, asking if the brown-haired part-timer doesn’t work anymore.”

At Park Dong-ju’s admiration, So Da-hyun answered in a pleased tone. To hold onto a part-time worker who gathered customers and even made them regulars, naturally they had to match all conditions.

Yang Ga-young also agreed while dipping her pork cutlet deeply in red sauce and eating.

“There are a lot of customers when Seo-woo is there. I was surprised every time I went…”

During the time Shim Seo-woo worked part-time, the cafe was always bustling.

In fact, she’d felt it since first year of college. Shim Seo-woo’s very existence seemed to draw and pull people in, with his surroundings bustling with people, and this restaurant was the same. Though it was a weekday afternoon, the restaurant had filled up before they knew it.

While the three looked around the shop anew, Shim Seo-woo looked down at his palm. Because the news So Da-hyun conveyed reminded him of receiving a similar proposal recently.

‘If it’s okay, please contact us again later. If you become interested in the industry, or if you have any questions, anytime! The offer I gave to Benefactor is sincere! I’ll meet any conditions!’

…Had three days already passed?

Conscious of the time that had flowed by quickly, he repeated clenching and unclenching his hand. The people from Heun said he had a very special and precious ability, but though he was bewildered when hearing it, he was still puzzled even now. Honestly, it was vague now.

Did he really have such power? Shim Seo-woo swept the table with his hand and checked if it got clean. Since it was a clean table to begin with, naturally there was no particular change. Since strange things hadn’t been visible anymore recently either, he was quite uncertain.

In fact, above all, Heun’s proposal was far from ‘ordinary’…

Since Shim Seo-woo was someone who seriously had the dream of wanting to live ordinarily, honestly he wasn’t very attracted to HN’s proposal. After pondering, he answered So Da-hyun.

“I’ll contact the owner tomorrow.”

This time he should work during vacation while carefully establishing his career path. Since he wandered for a long time during the last vacation. Shim Seo-woo looked around while solidifying his goal.

Light fatigue was contained in his light brown eyes scanning the bustling restaurant, then soon pressed down under his palm.

*

After finishing the meal, they all headed to the movie theater.

They planned to spend this afternoon fruitfully in commemoration of finishing the semester. Looking at shops on the way from the restaurant to the theater, also getting takeout drinks from a cafe said to be trendy these days, and buying big popcorn at the movie theater. Shim Seo-woo chose caramel flavor.

The movie’s genre was comic thriller.

It was about high school students who went on a school trip and were trapped in a training center, and the protagonist with glasses regressed eleven times to find a way to escape. His friends were startled by the grotesque monsters that appeared in the training center, but Shim Seo-woo just watched, feeling sorry for the high school students who couldn’t eat properly.

However, just as the movie was excitingly heading toward the latter half, Shim Seo-woo had no choice but to leave the screening room.

“Why do my eyes hurt…”

He went into the bathroom and examined his eyes in the mirror. His eyes had oddly hurt since the restaurant, and the symptoms gradually worsened. Though no foreign substance had entered, his eyes felt stiff, and they didn’t improve even after putting in artificial tears.

He didn’t even have that dream today, so why is this happening?

It had been fine for nearly three days since last time. The stuffiness like looking outside through a dust-filled window had completely disappeared. Should it be said the other side of the world seemed cleanly organized?

But like a reaction to the few days of calm, eye pain came. Was it because he was tired from going out to a crowded place for the first time in a while? The restaurant, the cafe, and the movie theater were all crowded. Or maybe the air in the movie theater was stuffy.

Swoosh—

Planning to just endure until the movie ended and go home to rest well, Shim Seo-woo was washing his hands when someone spoke from beside him.

[Hyung. How do you use this sink?]

“Ah, this is a sensor type, so if you put your hand close in front of the faucet, water comes out.”

Though he hadn’t even felt any sign of someone entering the bathroom, a boy was right next to him. Shim Seo-woo reflexively answered the boy’s question while turning his head… then hesitated and froze.

The boy had no shadow.

[You can see us, so why are you pretending not to?]

The ghost grinned. Tearing the corners of his mouth up to his cheekbones as if he’d caught perfect evidence that could no longer be denied, but for Shim Seo-woo it was just a very bewildering point.

“…Pretending not to?”

[I’ve been following you continuously since the restaurant. Even when I deliberately approached close at the movie theater, you ignored me to the end. Very persistently!]

The ghost shouted angrily. It seemed he was resentful that though Shim Seo-woo clearly seemed to see ghosts, he didn’t react at all, but honestly he was flustered.

Shim Seo-woo also knew someone was gradually sitting closer at the movie theater. But he just thought that since it was a weekday afternoon so seats were available, people were gradually moving to comfortable seats. The seats his friends reserved happened to be premium spots, and also those moving came slowly backward from corner seats.

Though their forms were a bit dark, he just understood it as being that way because it’s a theater, and still saw they moved very quietly observing etiquette…

All of that was ghosts?

Hearing the boy’s story and tracing back, it seemed a certain group really had followed since the restaurant. A group with faces not just pale but blue with pallor had continuously been with them on the street and at the cafe too.

“I just thought there were lots of people because it’s a busy area…”

[I even dropped from the ceiling during the movie!]

“I thought it was special effects…”

Since the movie’s setting was rather eerie, he thought it was one of the directing choices. He’d even marveled that these days with good technology, even 2D movies look almost like 4D.

The more Shim Seo-woo answered, the more the ghost’s face contorted.

[Are you making fun of me?]

The ghost seemed furious, but Shim Seo-woo was sincerely wronged. Weren’t they situations not completely incomprehensible? Among incidents and accidents occurring in the world, how overflowing are things without plausibility, this level even has quite plausible background.

And encountering a ghost again after not seeing them for a while was also bewildering. Why suddenly? Perhaps his tension eased after exams ended?

[I approached because your soul was clear, yet to have such an absurd attitude even after seeing ‘me’.]

“I’m grateful for the compliment, but the narcissism is a bit…”

[Eeeek, your brain must be clear too!]

If the first of Shim Seo-woo’s mottos was ‘let’s not think deeply,’ the second was precisely ‘prevent narcissism and find enlightenment.’ So when he reflexively pointed it out without realizing, the ghost became greatly enraged.

Stomping his feet—thud thud!—so furiously that Shim Seo-woo met him with an absurd gaze. Honestly, the reason he knew the boy was a ghost was also just that he initially approached so soundlessly that when trying to check information about his shoes, he discovered there was no shadow.

Moreover, unlike the ghosts he’d seen before, the boy looked too much like an ordinary human. There were no peculiarities like disheveled hair or clothes worn backwards.

The boy who looked about ten years old wore ordinary short sleeves and shorts, and just as he was beginning to speculate whether ghosts this indistinguishable from humans might actually be more dangerous…

Slowly, jet-black energy began spreading from the ghost. Right after discovering it spreading like fog, his eyes stung sharply.

“Ah.”

As Shim Seo-woo briefly sighed while covering his eyes, the boy’s mouth corners rose sharply.

[Right, hyung’s eyes must have been covered. I wondered how you could be so calm after seeing me, but that was the reason after all.]

As if he’d finally found the reason, the boy giggled and pointed at the mirror. Moving his gaze to follow the fingertip as if drawn, Shim Seo-woo soon had no choice but to firmly close his mouth.

In the mirror, jet-black masses were wriggling abundantly.