The Main Characters That Only I Know

Chapter 64

I said we were going on a date, but I didn’t mean it in a romantic way.

“Ah, really. You should have told me earlier that it was a work-related matter.”

Seoryeon smiled weakly, as if she understood what I meant.

We were currently visiting a large mart. 

It was not a regular mart, but a place that bought and sold collector-related items.

“It’s not exactly a lie, is it?”

“Well, it’s not, but it could be misunderstood.”

“Misunderstood? How did you hear it, Seoryeon?”

“Huh?”

She widened her eyes at my blatant question, then avoided my gaze and blushed.

I chuckled at her cute reaction.

Seoryeon glared at me.

“You’re so mean, Yu-Hyun. Did you have to say that in front of my sister?”

“It’s more fun that way.”

I still laughed when I remembered Hye-rim’s reaction to my words.

She lit up her eyes and grabbed my collar, asking me why I didn’t say that to her.

She seemed to be getting more and more cheeky lately, so I decided to tease her a bit, and it felt like I hit a home run.

“And it’s not really a lie, right? It’s a date. A work-related date.”

“Whatever you say.”

It wasn’t a lie. 

The reason why I came here with Baek Seoryeon was really because of something I needed for work.

“You’ve been having trouble with disposing of the by-products lately, right?”

“How did you know that?”

“I know what I know. Well, you’ve been growing rapidly lately, but still. How easy do you think it is to find a company that wants to contract with a low-profile management like yours these days?”

“…I can’t deny that. But if we just wait a little longer…!”

“It’ll be too late by then. The sooner you sign a contract, the faster you can build trust with each other. That’s why I suggested this. I’m here to help you.”

“But this is my job. You’re a teller…”

“A teller knows a lot of things from hearing this and that. And isn’t it easier to have someone to help you than doing it alone?”

Of course, Kang Hye-rim was an exception.

She was only good at fighting, so she was no help in this situation. 

Sorry, but the best thing she could do was to stay in the office and play with Baek Hyorang.

“And if a teller shows up in person, the company won’t be able to ignore you easily.”

“…”

Seoryeon closed her mouth at my accurate words.

She probably thought I didn’t know, but I knew very well. 

I’ve been watching this side of the business for a long time.

The companies that dispose of the by-products of the world of thoughts are basically very diverse, but they are no different from other merchants who put profit first.

They want to find better contracts with better conditions as much as possible. 

How could they notice Seoryeon in their eyes?

Well, they might come begging later when they think of the growth potential of White Flower Management. 

But we didn’t have time to wait for them.

“Hoo. I guess there’s no choice. I have to borrow the hand of a teller in this situation.”

“That’s a good attitude. It’s much better to be flexible than stubborn. So do you have any companies in mind?”

“Yes. There are a few, but…”

Baek Seoryeon hesitated for a moment.

From her reaction, it seemed like something was going wrong against her wishes.

“Is there something going on? Can you explain?”

I pointed to a cafe near the outlet and asked her. 

Seoryeon sighed and nodded.

We found a suitable place and ordered drinks. 

I ordered without much thought, but Seoryeon shivered when she saw the price of the coffee that exceeded 5,000 won per cup.

“W-what? Is this place always this expensive? How can one cup of coffee cost this much? You can get one for 200 won in a paper cup…”

“Just order it.”

“N-no way!”

She almost had a seizure, so I sighed and paid for hers as well.

Baek Seoryeon was very grateful to me as if she had committed a great sin.

“You invested such a fortune in me.”

“No, this amount is nothing.”

“Where did you get that money from as a teller?!”

“We earn points too, and we can get money from Earth anytime we want.”

Of course, it wasn’t that easy, and we had to pay some points for it.

But I had a lot of points piled up, and this amount was nothing to me, so I could easily invest it.

I sat down in a quiet spot and asked her.

“Seoryeon, you don’t come to these cafes often, do you?”

“No. I never felt the need to.”

“Didn’t you say you worked in this field before you started your own management?”

“I did. But my job was mostly sitting in the office, so I didn’t have time to visit places like this.”

She didn’t even bother to look at them after she quit, because she was strapped for cash every day.

It was a place where high school and college students could easily go, but she didn’t have the money or the time for it.

“I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time, but do you have any problems at home?”

“Uh, well…”

“You don’t have to answer if it’s too sensitive. I just asked because I thought maybe I could help you somehow.”

I was sincere. 

Baek Seoryeon was a great business partner who would work with me in the future.

It was only natural for me to help her as a colleague if she had any difficulties.

“Actually…”

Baek Seoryeon finally told me about her family situation that I didn’t know until now.

“My family wasn’t like this before. We were fairly well-off and peaceful. I grew up under my father’s care without a mother, but it was okay. The problem started after my brother had an accident.”

“You had a brother?”

“Yes. Not anymore.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s already in the past.”

‘But.’ 

She continued with a heavy and bitter voice.

“My brother was a collector who was called a promising talent. He did well with his like-minded friends. But one day, he suddenly died in an accident.”

It wasn’t surprising that a collector died in the world of thoughts. 

It was certainly sad, but not enough to deny reality.

The problem happened after that, Seoryeon said.

“Several other collectors died or were injured in the same accident. And among them, there were some from a large clan. And they sued us. They said it was all because of my brother.”

“That’s…”

How could one person cause the death and injury of several collectors?

It felt strange, but I didn’t interrupt her and decided to listen quietly.

“The court sided with the large clan that filed the lawsuit, even though my brother was dead. So our house was buried in debt in no time.”

[What? How is that possible?]

I heard Baekryeon’s reaction. 

She didn’t know much about Earth, but she learned some things from being with me.

Even she sensed something weird about Seoryeon’s story.

‘It’s possible and it happened.’

[But. The dead person is dead, why should his family…]

‘They have to hold someone responsible for what happened.’

[Even so, isn’t it strange that the court made such a decision?]

‘It is strange. But think about it. One side is an ordinary family and the other side is a large clan with strong social influence. If they fight legally, who do you think the government will support?’

[Well, they should support the right side… Oh, damn.]

Baekryeon couldn’t finish her sentence. In the end, she also knew how this world worked.

‘The large clan would have many collectors and tellers working with them. The government wouldn’t want to mess with them. They would rather be friendly with them.’

I asked carefully.

“What kind of person was your brother?”

“My brother was a good person. He was more righteous and kind than anyone else, and he loved his family terribly. He wasn’t someone who would cause trouble or anything like that. He just said differently from other collectors that this society was going wrong.”

“…”

As soon as I heard her words, I pictured the situation in my head.

“Did your brother think that the world of thoughts…”

“He thought it shouldn’t exist.”

“I see.”

Now I understood everything. 

What situation Baek Seoryeon was in, and what she had gone through.

‘I didn’t know something like this happened.’

[What? What exactly… happened?]

‘It’s simple. It’s a story of a righteous young man who thought the world of thoughts should be destroyed, clashing with this society that refused to change.’

And the end of that story was a bad ending unlike the happy endings in other novels.

‘I wondered why those bastards from the large clan sued Seoryeon’s family, but there was such a background.’

[No, what! Don’t just talk to yourself, explain it so I can understand!]

‘You heard that Seoryeon’s brother said the world of thoughts should be destroyed, right?’

[Yeah. So?]

‘But most people want the world of thoughts to stay as it is. If the existing ones disappear, it becomes harder to get materials or points from them regularly, and new worlds of thoughts appear instead.’

No one knows what’s in the new worlds of thoughts. 

It takes a lot of money and manpower to explore them.

Of course, there’s a very slim chance that they might change into something better than the ones that disappeared. 

But would this society that pursues stability gamble on an uncertain probability?

The world of thoughts was a treasure trove that the government and the large clans had to maintain. 

Naturally, Seoryeon’s brother’s claim would annoy them.

‘He probably had some clashes with them before. He didn’t want to bother his family, so he hid it from them. And then the situation reached a breaking point…’

It might be a leap of logic, but maybe her brother’s death wasn’t an ordinary accident.

If that was really true…

[Wow, that’s… such a thing…]

“I’m not sure yet. I’m just saying, it might be possible.”

It was because of her debts that Seoryeon’s house was buried under a pile of loans, and because she couldn’t pay them off properly, she ended up jumping into this underworld, hoping for a quick fortune.

Now, all my curiosity was satisfied.

“I guess… I’ll have to look into it myself soon.”

I couldn’t just let it go. 

It was not a trivial matter. 

The clan on the other side was so vicious that they sued the family of the deceased and drove them to ruin, even though the person involved in the incident was already dead.

Would they really leave her alone if she revived White Flower Management?

They would surely move. 

And naturally, their arrows would not only target Seoryeon, but also me and Hye-rim.

[This is… I didn’t expect this kind of problem.]

“I know, right?”

I already had a headache from the Pentagram department’s work, and now I had one more thing to deal with here.

[Is it hard to have more work to do?]

“No. It was something I had to do sooner or later anyway. Even if it wasn’t related to Seoryeon, the giant clans wouldn’t just sit back and watch us erase the worlds one by one.”

They probably didn’t move right away because they didn’t feel the need yet.

But now that Hye-rim was gaining more fame and her presence was growing. 

They might try to take some action.

Maybe they were already working behind our backs.

“It might be why Seoryeon is having trouble finding a company to dispose of the by-products.”

[They are bad guys.]

“They are bad guys. And that’s the reality of this society, where those bad guys have power.”

I never thought that the world before the end was such a good place.

After all, the current world was also a place where power and authority ruled, in a way.

But still, the reason why I wanted to protect this world was because at least it didn’t try to give meaningless death to people like the current Earth did.

“But maybe Seoryeon would rather have this damn world destroyed if she knew all this truth.”

[…That’s a terrible story.]

“I know, right. It’s exactly the kind of story that Exodus would want.”

I wasn’t feeling too good either, so I carefully took a sip of coffee.

“Hey? Who is this? Is this Seoryeon?”

Just then, one of the men who entered the cafe recognized Seoryeon and approached us.