My heart dropped.
—My name? I don’t have one.
—I’m just an NPC.
—Even if I had a name, no one would ever call me by it—and they shouldn’t. I’m just an NPC.
It had been about two years ago, before I had ever received a warning from the System.
That was how I had answered Jeong Uijin when he asked my name.
I told him I didn’t have one.
That I was nothing more than an NPC, a mere component of this damned world, bound far more tightly by the System than any Player.
I even remembered the expression Uijin had worn then.
He hadn’t understood.
Even so, he had not dared contradict me. He had merely parted his lips with careful hesitation.
The reason I had refused to tell him my name back then was, well…
A form of rebellion.
A little self-mockery over my situation, trapped as an NPC who could do nothing but sell goods to Players, and a petty way to vent my frustration at the endless boredom waiting ahead of me.
Back then, when I had only barely been holding on thanks to Mental Stability, it seemed I had still possessed enough energy for at least that much defiance.
After the System warned me to behave like an NPC, I had abandoned even that.
There was no possibility that I, who remembered something from two years ago so vividly, had misunderstood what Uijin meant. Even so, I slowly turned my head away and struggled to push his arm aside.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Today is the first time I’ve ever seen you in person, Mr. Jeong Uijin.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
Uijin caught my chin and turned my face back toward him. It did not hurt, as expected, but his grip was far too strong for me to escape.
Damn Player.
His physical abilities were so absurd that even in this pitch-black darkness, he could apparently see exactly where my face was and which way I was looking.
Forcing me to meet his eyes without hurting me, Uijin spoke in an even darker voice.
“You know me. You… remember me, Jaeo.”
His voice seemed to tremble, and now he was switching between formal and informal speech however he pleased.
But I could hardly blurt out, “Of course I remember you! You were one of my regulars!”
Uijin might have been a regular at the Special Supply Station, someone I had grown attached to over two whole years, but he was still a Player. I had no way of knowing what he might do to a wandering NPC.
This was different from the days when the Special Supply Station’s countless rules had protected me. If he twisted my wrist or shattered my jaw, I had no means of bringing sanctions down on him.
And now that I no longer had anything like the station office, where I could sleep and wake up completely healed, I could not allow any Player to discover that I was an NPC.
“I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about. First, let go of—”
“After the supply station was destroyed, I searched for you like a madman. Your voice, your silhouette, the way you spoke—I used every scrap I could remember. I searched for you and no one else.”
Why the hell were you searching for me that desperately, you lunatic?
The thought that a terrifying Player on the verge of Level 60 had been hunting for me sent a chill through me so powerful that even Mental Stability could not fully suppress it. Before I knew it, I was reviewing every interaction I had ever had with Uijin, wondering whether I had done something wrong.
We got along, didn’t we? Things weren’t bad between us, right? Wait. Is this about the handkerchief? Then why did this bastard force it on me when I said I didn’t need it?
Once it occurred to me that he might have searched for me to recover the expensive Healing Handkerchief, the urge to return it immediately clashed with my judgment that I should keep denying everything to the bitter end.
While I remained silent, Uijin rested his forehead against my shoulder. His brow, pressing down with a faint weight, was hotter than I had expected, and a heavy pulse throbbed through it as though it were his heart.
“Do you really not know me? You don’t remember?”
“…I told you, I don’t.”
When I continued pretending, Uijin’s hands closed around both my arms. I appreciated that he was careful not to hurt me, but my thoughts were already too tangled to focus on details like that.
I never should have accepted that handkerchief.
Damn it.
“We met at the Special Supply Station. I came to see you all the time, Jaeo.”
Yes, I remember.
You came so often that I knew exactly what you would buy every time you appeared.
Yet what emerged from my mouth was a voice filled with confusion convincing enough to shame most professional actors.
“I keep telling you, I don’t know what you’re—”
“You saved my life!”
Uijin’s shout sliced clean through my performance.
What did he just say?
I had been bracing myself for him to demand the handkerchief back. The completely unexpected words made me fall silent.
Perhaps my silence made him anxious, because Uijin clasped my hand tightly.
“Your voice… these hands saved me. Are you going to say you don’t remember that either?”
Of course I remembered.
Back when I had endured each powerless day by burying every emotion at the very bottom of myself, I had saved him because I wanted to feel the presence of another person.
Because I wanted to escape the loneliness, even briefly.
How could I possibly forget?
“Was it the System…? I thought it had finally released you, but… did it erase your memories too…?”
Only then did I understand.
Uijin had not learned that I was an NPC and cornered me to satisfy his greed.
He was not after my items or anything else I possessed.
He simply…
He wanted to see me.
Enough to drag up memories from two years ago and turn them over again and again.
Enough to recognize me immediately from nothing but a vague silhouette and a voice, even though Recognition Interference should have prevented him from remembering my face.
Something buried deep within me seemed to stir.
Against my will, I had become a component of this wretched world, a mere NPC whose face could not even remain in another person’s memory.
Yet the simple fact that someone had remembered me and wanted to meet me again made my heart, silent for two years, begin to itch faintly.
I did not trust Players.
They possessed overwhelming Levels and enough power to exploit the weak, while I was merely a fragile NPC who could fall out of this world at any moment without consequence.
But…
—I’m Jeong Uijin.
—What should I call you?
He had been the first person to ask my name.
If it was Uijin, who had treated me as a person rather than a mere NPC ever since two years ago…
Maybe I can trust him.
It felt as though letting this one person know all of me might be all right.
I slowly patted the back of the hand that held mine. Uijin flinched, then gradually raised his head.
By then, my eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, allowing me to meet his gaze clearly.
What kind of look is that?
Grief, anxiety, sorrow, misery, emptiness…
There were too many negative emotions to count.
And yet, among them, I could not find even the slightest trace of blame or resentment directed at me.
How am I supposed to lie to someone like this?
He held my hand even now, unable to tighten his grip properly for fear that he might hurt me. There was not a hint of hostility in him.
In the darkness, I raised the corners of my mouth slightly.
It resembled the customer-service smile I had worn whenever greeting Players at the Special Supply Station, but the curve had always softened a little more whenever it was meant for Uijin.
“Mr. Jeong Uijin, I…”
Just as I was about to confess that I was an NPC—
<Trait: Mental Stability’s secondary effect has been activated.>
I flinched at the System window that appeared before my eyes.
Wait. Is it midnight already?
My already dark vision instantly went black. I could no longer see Uijin’s eyes, or even his silhouette.
“Jaeo!”
The last thing I heard was Uijin calling my name.
And then—
<07:00>
“Jaeo, are you awake?”
The first thing I heard after opening my eyes was also Uijin calling my name.
Slowly turning toward the sound, I stared at Uijin’s handsome face, glowing softly in the morning sunlight.
“Um… Mr. Jeong Uijin?”
“Yes.”
After watching him answer my call without hesitation, I took a moment to steady my breathing before asking,
“Why are we… lying in the same bed?”
Uijin, lying confidently beside me, curved his eyes into a smile.
The sight of that handsome smile left me speechless.