PDS Chapter 1.4

“Why the hell are you carrying this around?”

“I thought… maybe it could… open something…”

“Open something?”

“…I-I couldn’t open anything with it. I just… grabbed it without thinking and forgot about it…”

Was he talking about the classroom door? Whatever the reason, he had escaped safely, and I couldn’t let him keep carrying a weapon like that.

“Confiscated.”

I wanted to chuck them out the window, but the scissors themselves could be useful later on, so I decided to keep them. Ugh, I guess I did need to go back for my bag.

Besides that, he didn’t have anything else on him. Just like me, he had a cell phone with no signal, a thin wallet with a dorky-looking bear keychain attached, and… a squeezable pouch of cat treats?

…Cat treats?

“Do you have a cat?”

“Huh? Oh… I-I sometimes feed a stray cat I see around…”

“Hmm.”

A cat mom—no, a cat dad, I guess? But Yeon Suho seemed too young to be a “dad,” so maybe a cat brother was more accurate?

Anyway, thanks to this kind cat caretaker, I had another potential puzzle piece. Hooray for party play.

“Alright, then let’s stop by Class 2-3 first.”

We headed down the stairs to the second floor. As we walked, I told Yeon Suho about my theory that several puzzles were scattered throughout the school, and by gathering clues and solving them, we might be able to escape here.

“…Whoa, careful.”

At one point, Yeon Suho missed a step on the stair landing and nearly fell. It was pretty dark, aside from the emergency exit signs, there were no lights on.

I caught him in my arms before he could fall and helped him regain his balance.

“We need to find a flashlight soon.”

The flashlight could be found in the annex building. I also needed batteries for it, but those weren’t too hard to find either.

‘A flashlight will make it easier to get around and open more locked doors.’

As I mentally mapped out an efficient route and planned my next steps, we arrived at Class 2-3. Perhaps because of Yeon Suho’s escape, the stiff back door was now slightly ajar.

The classroom was dim, illuminated only by the faint moonlight and the glow from the streetlights outside. It was an ordinary place, nothing special, and no special events occurred here.

I went straight to my desk and grabbed my bag. Inside the messenger bag I usually carried were textbooks, a pencil case, my wallet, hand cream, earphones, some free tissue packets I’d picked up somewhere, and a bunch of random junk.

‘Let’s see… I don’t need the textbooks, but I should grab something to use as a notepad.’

I pulled out an almost-empty notebook from my desk drawer, stuffed it into my bag, and fastened the buckle as I spoke to Yeon Suho.

“Alright, nothing else here. Let’s go.”

“Um, wait, senior… Just a moment.”

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to… check the lockers?”

“Lockers?”

I slung my bag over my shoulder and turned around. He nodded, looking up at me expectantly. Was there something in the lockers?

‘I don’t remember finding anything there before.’

But I couldn’t just ignore it when he gave me such a blatant hint.

‘Whatever it is, he must be trying to tell me there’s something in there that I need for later.’

He was supposed to help me progress through the game, after all, so he was probably pointing out something I would have missed.

Thinking it was fortunate that I had Yeon Suho in my party, I went to the lockers at the back of the classroom without another word and entered the password for the locker on my seat.

1211.

Click. 

The lock sprang open.

Yeon Suho, who had been watching me, asked,

“What does your password mean?”

“Oh, this? It’s just my birthday, flipped around.”

November 21st. 

When I was younger, I thought using my birthday as a password was too unoriginal, so I reversed it. I’d gotten so used to it that I now used it for almost every number combination I needed.

As I unlocked and opened the locker door, I heard Yeon Suho murmur something under his breath.

“Reversed… it was flipped around…”

Just as before, the locker contained nothing but a few unused textbooks and some miscellaneous items.

Seeing nothing of interest, I stepped aside and said,

“Want to take a look?”

Yeon Suho’s eyes widened as he looked at me. He wasn’t really surprised; his eyes were just so big and round, like a rabbit’s, and it was his usual expression.

“Then… if you’ll excuse me.”

He rummaged through my locker with a somewhat nervous expression on his face. Sorry for your hint, but I really couldn’t find anything useful in there.

Whether there were any items I needed to take, or if there were new clues or puzzles hidden inside.

“Oh…”

As I silently watched him expectantly, he hesitated for a moment before pulling out my gym uniform. It was a summer gym uniform, slightly different in material and design from the one he was wearing.

Yeon Suho fumbled with the loosely rolled-up gym uniform, then unfolded the top and held it against himself. It looked about two sizes too big. At this rate, I could probably fit two of Yeon Suhos in there. …But seriously, what is he doing right now?

Then, his next action caught me completely off guard. He lifted the uniform to his face, burying his nose in the collar, and took a sniff.

“Hey, hey! What are you doing?”

“Ah!”

Oh, crap… This is so embarrassing. 

I snatched the gym uniform away from him.

“S-Sorry… I couldn’t help myself…”

“Does it smell?”

Ignoring his flustered apology, I buried my own nose in my gym uniform. We didn’t even have gym class in our third year. And if I recall correctly, whenever we played soccer on the field, we just wore t-shirts and shorts.

As expected, the gym uniform top smelled a bit musty from being stored in a locker for too long, but otherwise pretty normal.

I was slightly relieved, but at the same time, also a little weirded out. Thank goodness he and I were both guys. If I were a girl, I would have labeled him a total pervert without question.

“Hey, never do that to a girl, okay?”

“Huh? Do what?”

“Sniffing clothes, following people around in secret… stuff like that. Just don’t.”

I didn’t know if anyone else would ever play this game, but I felt the need to warn him.

If the player character were a girl, he’d be just as terrifying as the other monsters in this game. He looked harmless enough, but his actions were seriously creepy.

“There’s no way I would ever do that to anyone other than you, senior…”

“…….”

Well… I’m sure there were plenty of people who liked this type of character.

Even I, knowing that it was just a pre-programmed line, felt strangely… not entirely repulsed when I heard it.

‘I think I’m starting to get sucked into his pace.’

But what choice did I have? Ever since I got trapped in this game, Yeon Suho was the only person I could relate to, the only one I could rely on.

Anyway, his reactions were surprisingly natural. I didn’t know what the original protagonist’s personality was like, but it was probably very different from mine. The game must have some excellent patching system.

So, no matter who got trapped in the game, he’d probably say the same lines, with the same expression. The thought made me feel inexplicably annoyed, and I blurted out a curt reply,

“Whatever… You don’t even know my name.”

Since I didn’t remember entering a name for my character when I started the game, I assumed he wouldn’t know it. After all, even Yeon Suho, with his obsessive devotion to the protagonist, had only ever addressed me as “senior.”

“Huh?”

But at my words, he furrowed his brows and his eyes widened again—that same rabbit-like expression—and said,

“Of course I know your name, senior… It’s Kang Jiha, right?”

“……What?”

…Huh? Was the protagonist’s name also Kang Jiha?

It was a fairly gender-neutral name, to the point where I’d been mistaken for a girl a few times because of it.

‘No way.’

It looked like the game automatically synced with the player, even without me having to input it myself.

For a moment, I wondered if they were allowed to use my personal information without my consent like this. But then I remembered I’d already been practically kidnapped and forced into this game, so a little name theft seemed insignificant in comparison. 

Haa.

“Senior… Can I… take this?”

Lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed Yeon Suho continuing to rummage through my locker. He held something out to me.

In his hand was my toothbrush, which had been stuck in a rinsing cup along with my toothpaste.

“My toothbrush?”

I used it to brush my teeth after lunch and dinner every day. But what else could a toothbrush be used for?

“…….”

Never mind. I guess he probably wanted it for something. I shrugged it off and nodded my head in agreement.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Thank you so much, senior… I’ll treasure it.”

Huh? Treasure it? What for?

I thought he needed it for a puzzle or something.