Chapter 164

Since she couldn’t tell that she was staying at Han Ye-seul’s house, after finishing the meal, Erica parted ways with Inna along the way.

While slowly making her way back to her friend’s house who had taken her in, Erica thought about the events of the day. She also realized that nothing from today had been resolved.

It wasn’t as though she and Inna had reconciled. It was merely a deal to let bygones be bygones, acknowledging that both had made mistakes in the past. Still, Inna hadn’t let go of her obsession with Erica.

Moreover, Kim Ha-neul, who today had exhibited an overwhelming presence toward Erica, hadn’t given up on trying to charm Inna either.

Or rather, had Kim Ha-neul ever intended to charm Inna in the first place? A strange intuition struck Erica during the conversation with Inna. A suspicion almost verging on certainty that he might have sent Erica here respecting Inna’s position while fully knowing where Inna was.

“WAH!!!”

“I don’t get startled by little things like that.”

As they say, if even a tiger starts talking, it comes true. Though he hadn’t said a word, merely thinking had summoned the boy, but Erica looked at him calmly as he shouted.

Had he changed his clothes? His outfit was different from before, now wearing a T-shirt with an indiscernible figure, jeans, and a cap pulled low.

“You seem calm, like everything went well; I’m relieved.”

His words only reinforced the suspicions Erica had heard from Alicia. In a romantic visual novel, the protagonist often knows where heroines are during holidays or after school.

Cities are vast. Even assuming this “Seoul” was far from the one Erica knew, it was still large. Would the protagonist just coincidentally meet heroines wherever he pleased?

If the heroine was in danger, it wouldn’t count as a visual novel if she couldn’t be found when needed.

At the very least, even if this world wasn’t a visual novel, due to the system attached to Kim Ha-neul, from his perspective, it should still resemble a visual novel fairly closely.

That is to say, Kim Ha-neul didn’t send Erica without knowing Inna’s location;

Instead, he sent her knowing exactly where Inna was.

On purpose, selecting a distance where Inna wouldn’t overhear, he expressed his sincerity in order to ease Inna’s anger toward Erica.

“Why did you think I sent you not knowing?”

The boy’s mischievous grin made him look more like a friend than an “enemy.” And perhaps that wasn’t entirely incorrect.

With a relatively composed expression, Erica began. She couldn’t afford to be charmed—the protagonist, who indiscriminately courted heroines, was her adversary.

So far, that had always been her belief. However, if he intentionally brought her together with Inna, it might suggest other possibilities.

“Can I ask you one question?”

“Late as it is, I’ll answer if it’s within reasonable limits. Don’t forget, we both have school tomorrow.”

“Is there a meaning behind the number you mentioned when sending me home?”

No matter how cool Kim Ha-neul acted, Erica asked her question, which surprisingly stiffened his previously smiling face.

“No, it has no meaning. I didn’t expect you’d ask such a trivial question. Shouldn’t you have many more questions to ask me?”

He grinned again like earlier, but Erica wasn’t swayed by his smile.

What mattered to her wasn’t his grin but the fact that the seemingly omnipotent protagonist, who courted numerous heroines, had momentarily faltered.

“It’s not for you to decide what’s trivial or not. It struck me as odd that the transportation number used to send me home coincidentally brought me so close.”

Zero. At first glance, it might seem as though no number was designated, but zero could also mean something else. The number so basic yet indispensable, the most crucial digit.

Of course, that sounded absurd. Kim Ha-neul had never seemed so close to her, let alone important.

But if the reason he kept his distance was out of a sense of guilt toward her, things changed.

His intentional avoidance of placing her in Inna’s path could then be interpreted not as hindering his conquest of Inna, but rather to protect Erica from Inna.

“I’ve tried to overlook it so far, but I need to understand now. Reveal your ‘secret’ honestly.”

“Don’t you know already? I revealed it before, my secrets.”

“You’re pretending not to know that I lost my memories, right? I know you know. How long do you plan to milk this secret about my memory?”

Kim Ha-neul knew she couldn’t remember her past—it was obvious to Erica how he exploited this fact.

Specifically, using it to block her speech. If Erica wanted to keep her memory loss secret from Kim Ha-neul, she shouldn’t pry into his secrets either.

“Alright, I admit it; I’ve milked it for too long. So, do you really want to know my real secret? In exchange, I’ll only share one big piece of information.”

“Haven’t you said to ask as much as I want?”

But the moment the terms were set, everything changed, and Erica, somewhat exasperated by his flippancy, questioned him anyway—only to find him shaking his head, indicating he wouldn’t retract the condition.

“Since revealing it from start to finish would take time, I’ll only share one significant story. Didn’t you say earlier to keep it brief since I have school tomorrow? Isn’t that what you’re asking to know?”

Not willing to be sidetracked, Erica took a deep breath and thought about his offer before sighing.

“Alright, if you don’t want to talk, you might just lie. So, tell me something else. Like, why did you call your ability ‘Number Zero’?”

“Maybe it’s because your home was the place where I first awakened to my space-traveling ability.”

“If that’s true, what can I even ask you?”

Even Erica hadn’t expected him to evade this straightforward question. But when his voice conveyed an almost comical tone, Kim Ha-neul began to explain what he thought she would ask.

“For example, about my teleportation ability, which I used to bring you home, or why you were set to meet Inna.”

Erica seemed indifferent to these topics, but normally, most people upon discovering someone had teleportation abilities would likely consider using them like a bus service.

Kim Ha-neul was surprised that Erica would have even considered agreeing to such a request, therefore he was taken aback by her line of questioning.

“If you’re not my enemy, your actions become much easier to understand. Initially, it was merely about respecting my free will. You were trying to protect me, weren’t you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Protect? Does someone dating another person these days protect them in such a way?”

Kim Ha-neul feigned ignorance, but Erica had already made up her mind.

Inna might be a strong heroine, potentially a true heroine, but Kim Ha-neul’s approach was off from the start.

“Say, hypothetically, if someone with an obsession confessed to me and I rejected them, what might happen?”

“What would happen? Who knows?”

What Eric was about to say wasn’t a sudden thought. It had occurred to her during a conversation with Inna when her mind had felt suddenly clear.

Erica continued, unaware that this strange clarity was a fleeting moment of wisdom visiting her.

“The person wouldn’t surrender easily; they might force themselves into my life, trying to change my mind.”

“Is that so? I don’t know about that?”

While the boy tried to evade the question, Erica gazed at the night sky, deepening into darkness with no end to the conversation in sight.

“If at that point, someone showed up to resolve their family issues, the obsessed individual might abandon me, choosing instead to lean toward the person who helped them. If they prepared everything for a declaration of love and still failed, wouldn’t they?”

“Inna’s family problems…?”

“I know it’s not my place to talk or speculate. I just think the scenario you’ve probably prepared might be something like this. You can just reply casually if it seems likely or unlikely.”

To conclude the conversation, Erica abruptly jumped to the crux of the matter. Since he showed signs of hesitation, she pushed for yes or no answers.

“I don’t know.”

But the world’s protagonist didn’t readily oblige her questions.

“That’s enough of an answer then.”

Satisfied with his non-answer, Erica nodded her head.

“Huh.”

Erica, despite not receiving a direct response, acted as though she had. While seemingly strange, Kim Ha-neul chuckled for a different reason.

“You’re still the same as ever. We used to exchange dialogues like this before. I thought you’d lost all your memory, but it seems you’ve recovered some part of it.”

His laughter came from pleasure at seeing a familiar pattern of behavior from her past. More precisely, joy that she was overcoming a shared trauma from long ago.

For someone who was supposed to have no memory of her past, her actions were surprisingly reminiscent.

“Since we agreed to end the conversation here, I’ll be going now.”

Erica, wanting to keep Kim Ha-neul’s dwindling favorability neutral, turned around and resumed her walk.

“Ye-seul’s place, right? If you find the conversation burdensome, we don’t need to talk anymore. Here, Load… not no. 17, but another random number.”

“Hey, it doesn’t matter how we discuss it, you’ve still revealed your skill names.”

Had Kim Ha-neul not used the teleportation ability to send Erica to Han Ye-seul’s doorstep, it might have played out differently.

Alone, the boy suppressed something he wanted to say but couldn’t to Erica.

For instance, how Inna might now become fixated on Erica again due to his recent consoling. He now thought Inna might be the true heroine, albeit with a low probability.

If he had considered her as the true heroine, he would not have embarked on a fake relationship with the student council president, who Inna detests.

What Inna was asked to do regarding Erica.

Perhaps Inna’s further “pursuit” under the guise of a dating expert might leave Erica with yet another scar.

“I won’t give any more warnings. I’ve already provided enough clues that she’s dangerous, and since you blocked me when I tried to help you already…”

A man who had warned Erica to excess and a boy who couldn’t even send her covertly back to her current home due to Erica’s protests.

Without mentioning anything about “numbers,” he simply whispered, “Load,” then disappeared as if he’d never been there in the first place.