Total Disaster

While I was entirely failing to gather my wits without parting my lips a single time, his gaze, which had been subtly directed toward Ji Eunhyuk, slithered into motion.

In an instant, the eyes of those two precisely locked onto one another.

And, witnessing Lee Dohun lifting the corner of his lips as though flaunting it.

“Lunatic…….”

Seohan ultimately spat the words that had been strictly hovering inside his mind out loud.

Granted, he recovered his senses not long after upon witnessing the fellow tilt his head.

“Th-the words from just now were…….”

It was the exact instant he tried to scrape any words together to frantically initiate an excuse.

Clatter.

A noise erupted from Ji Eunhyuk’s direction, who had maintained absolute silence the entire time.

A fellow who hadn’t shown a single shred of proper agitation until just a moment ago was currently trembling uncontrollably.

Before fully processing that reality, an ominous thought slashed straight through Seohan’s brain.

Surely, it cannot be.

‘It must not be…….’

Undoubtedly, it shouldn’t be the case.

“Ugh…….”

The exact moment a tiny groan that was completely mismatched with the situation leaked out, Seohan wordlessly pressed his hand against his forehead.

“Who, who are you……?

Why am I here…….”

It felt as though the reality he desperately wished to deny had been forcefully shoved straight into his brain, leaving zero room for denial.

The fellow murmuring in a voice that looked ready to burst into tears at any second while trembling uncontrollably was ‘Ji Eunhyuk.’

Seohan stole a quick glance at Lee Dohun sitting opposite him.

Unsurprisingly, his expression closely resembled someone beholding something entirely inexplicable.

Although he kept his mouth firmly shut, he was undoubtedly experiencing immense confusion due to ‘Ji Eunhyuk’s’ behavior.

Why on earth did the switch have to trigger at this exact window, in this exact location, out of so many individuals, right in front of Lee Dohun?

Even though he was thoroughly accustomed to situations that consistently handed him a massive piece of trash, he couldn’t help but feel profoundly aggrieved by the reality that he was actually feeling accustomed to this.

It appeared there was zero possibility for the circumstances to deteriorate any further, yet amazingly, the situation lunged toward an even greater extreme.

The fellow who was shrinking away and trembling like a frightened small animal gathered his courage to scan his surroundings, causing his eyes to lock perfectly with Seohan’s.

“Y-you are……!”

You are?

Despite being entirely unable to dare predict what kind of reaction would manifest, his heart hammered frantically.

For some reason, he felt an intense urge to clamp his own mouth shut.

“The person who confined me last time…… hik!

I-I am sorry!

Please spare my life……!”

“……Haah.”

The eyes that had been welling up ultimately spilled tears.

He undoubtedly retained the memory of waking up with his body thoroughly bound during their last encounter.

Though he strained to secure as much distance as humanly possible, the fragile fellow, paralyzed by sheer terror and unable to even contemplate fleeing, wound up falling straight to the floor while retreating his body.

To make matters worse.

“……Confined?”

“No, that was.”

“So you committed the exact same act you pulled on me to another individual.”

“Th-there were unavoidable circumstances involved, you see……?”

The expression of the fellow sitting right in front of me was profoundly ominous.

Without raising a single doubt regarding ‘Ji Eunhyuk’ who was displaying bizarre behavior, he accepted the word ‘confined’ unleashed from his mouth as absolute gospel truth, making the cross-examination intensely frustrating.

Deep within that heavily submerged voice, a chaotic vortex of multiple emotions seemed to be swirling.

It goes without saying that his own predicament—let alone being unable to dodge the accusation, failing to even manufacture a flimsy excuse—was far more pitiful.

“I suppose I wasn’t sufficient to satisfy you?

Since your interest has dwindled, I suppose your logic dictates switching to a different bastard?”

“How on earth can you phrase it that way?!”

“So that was the reason you summoned that fellow to the house completely alone from early in the morning when the presence of individuals is scarce.

To confine that fellow in the basement this time.”

“Excuse me?

Please just listen to my words…….”

“There will never be an instance where the basement of this house is surrendered to that bastard.”

“Th-the basement……!”

……The words unleashed without offering a single gap to smooth things over skipped past absurd to become thoroughly shocking.

How on earth does an individual manufacture a conclusion in that specific manner?

Judging by another voice that erupted in succession, it appeared Seohan wasn’t the sole individual shocked by Lee Dohun’s statement.

Despite weeping under his bated breath, he certainly listened remarkably well during moments like this.

‘Ji Eunhyuk’ who had been sprawling on the floor, caught the word ‘basement’ perfectly and even initiated a bout of hiccups with a sharp hic.

Though he subtly retreated as though wishing to flee, seeing how he collapsed limply onto the floor without making it very far, it appeared the strength had drained entirely from his legs.

The fellow in front was directing a murderous stare with a face that screamed ‘you dare pull this stunt while leaving me behind?’ while the fellow collapsed on the side was completely out of his mind from sheer terror.

If there was a singular common ground shared between the two, it was that neither paid a single shred of mind to the other’s words, strictly inflating their own misunderstandings in isolation.

Could a more perfect total disaster even exist.

Wordlessly monitoring the pathetic display of these two individuals, Seohan ultimately resolved to clamp his mouth shut.

“Why are you silent?

Are you truly determined to confine him downstairs?”

“Heeg, hup…… I am sorry, I am sorry…… please don’t confine me……!”

Simply, a thought rapidly crossed his mind.

That he wanted everything to just end so he could be completely alone.

The atmosphere that had been escalating to an uncontrollable degree returned to its original state the exact instant Ji Eunhyuk recovered his senses.

Seohan, who had maintained a firmly closed mouth despite Lee Dohun’s relentless questioning, was finally able to release a sigh of profound relief.

“Ah…… I am sorry.

It is happening again.”

Because the terrified ‘Ji Eunhyuk’ had been sprawling on the floor, the moment he regained his senses, he pushed himself up from the spot and occupied his original seat once more.

It was a fluid, natural movement devoid of a single shred of awkwardness.

There happened to be an individual monitoring that entire sequence of actions with intense scrutiny.

“…….”

It was Lee Dohun, who had been spouting an entirely incomprehensible tirade regarding the basement.

The behavior from just a moment ago was something anyone would find distinctly bizarre.

Rather than striving to break Lee Dohun’s stare, Seohan elected to completely look away and ignore it.

Whether it was a stroke of good fortune or a tragedy, the burning gaze that seemed to declare zero tolerance for any diversion of the topic was ultimately withdrawn.

It was a window of time perfectly sufficient to secretly catch his breath.

Though the narrowly slit eyes were flooded with immense suspicion, Ji Eunhyuk, who was receiving that exact stare, appeared entirely unbothered.

Right then, Lee Dohun abruptly stood up from his seat.

‘Is he perhaps intending to strike him?’

Because his aura was entirely ominous, that exact thought crossed my mind automatically.

Was it due to that reality that his solid arm muscles registered more prominently than usual today.

“……Handle the conversation yourselves.”

However, the line that returned was an unexpected phrase.

To top it off, was he not rapidly vacating the spot entirely?

Seohan was left with zero choice but to stare blankly at the opposite chair, which sat entirely vacant, for a good while.

An identical reaction predictably erupted from the side.

At that specific moment, Ji Eunhyuk also appeared entirely unable to conceal his bewilderment.

Though the absolute instant he processed the circumstances, his eyes began to glitter with a massive mountain of satisfaction.

‘Suddenly?’

Seohan couldn’t help but register a profound sense of foreboding at that behavior from Lee Dohun.

“Since the obstruction has departed, we can finally converse strictly between the two of us, right?

Yes?”

Entirely detached from his complex inner thoughts, the voice leaking from the side was strictly bright.

Was it because the whisper delivered while subtly capturing his arm was remarkably enchanting.

He nearly forgot that the culprit behind the previous situation which had given him an immediate headache was this exact fellow.

“……First, just be quiet.”

Subtly shaking off the captured arm, Seohan mastered his emotions with the absolute maximum level of composure.

Though he possessed zero clues regarding the reason, now that Lee Dohun had compliantly retreated, it was due to a greed to extract every single detail he could possibly ask this fellow.

In the midst of this, the sight of him blinking his eyes with smoothly folded hands closely resembled a well-behaved child.

Of course, the memory of him spamming calls since the dead of night and blindly invading the front of the house since the crack of dawn to unleash a racket surfaced, causing him to erase that thought with extreme speed.

“You explicitly stated that you underwent a forced possession.”

“Yes.

Then Seohan-ssi…….”

“As for me, I chose it.”

Even though the entity chosen wasn’t ‘Baek Seohan’s’ body.

Evaluating based on the stories accumulated thus far, Ji Eunhyuk was also a victim.

Confronting an individual who had cut in line entirely against his will, he couldn’t bring himself to voice a complaint, so he omitted that detail.

“Can you explain what that system committed in absolute detail?”

Though a brief hesitation manifested, Ji Eunhyuk opened his mouth at a slow pace.

Seeing how his face drained of color in that short window, merely summoning the memory of the ‘system’ seemed to make him shudder with intense revulsion.

“The very first time I encountered that system was inside a pitch-black space where absolutely nothing was visible.”

A submerged voice initiated the explanation.

Seohan was able to rapidly visualize that space inside his mind.

A pitch-black space encountered immediately following death, that location was identical to the space where Seohan had encountered ‘System R.’

“The system offered a possession, and I refused.

But…… when I recovered my senses, I had been inserted into another person’s body.

That entity happens to be ‘Ji Eunhyuk.'”

A self-mocking smile surfaced across his face.

“Thinking it was a dream, I attempted to end my life, but every single time I tried, my body moved entirely on its own.

Just like a moment ago.”

“Was it a synchronization rate issue?”

“……Synchronization rate?

That happens to be the first time I am hearing that term.”

For Seohan, who had naturally anticipated an affirmative response, it was left with zero choice but to be an entirely unexpected answer.

‘He possesses zero knowledge regarding the synchronization rate?’

Following the instances where his body moved entirely on its own, Seohan had been informed through System R that it was a matter regarding the ‘synchronization rate,’ an inherent defect triggered by entering a mismatched body.

The Ji Eunhyuk standing before his eyes appeared entirely unacquainted with even that basic information.