By Zephyria 
“But if I don’t use formal speech, it gets a bit confusing.”
“Confusing?”
“Yeah. It’s like… I get mixed up. I guess you could say my sense of self gets weird. I’ll try my best, though.”
“Then just do what’s comfortable for you.”
“No. If I want to get closer to you Hyungs, informal speech is better.”
Even though he had memories from the novel, they were people he was meeting for the first time. Lee Beom was surprisingly calm. Contrary to Min Si-hu’s insistent worries about honorifics being an issue due to age, Lee Beom still insisted on using the “Hyung” honorific.
Lee Beom clearly separated the person he was in the novel from the person he was now. He said the same thing as Min Si-hu, who had asked us to forget his past embarrassing moments. Lee Beom’s behavior hadn’t changed much from when he had no memories, making him feel very much like the same person as in the novel.
For me, this might have been a good thing. Having known Lee Beom for a while when he had no memories, it was more comfortable for me if he acted the same as before.
Although it was a little concerning, he was a reliable guy who handled himself well.
“Meeting Pyo-ran was the funniest!”
“How did you meet?”
“They suddenly sent the novel title via DM!”
“Ahhh…”
“Thinking back, I should have teased them by asking, ‘What is that? Is it a proverb?'”
“If you had, I would have blocked you right away, Si-hu!”
“Huh? Why would you block me!”
“It’s embarrassing if it’s from a stranger.”
The ordered food arrived, and the sizzling sound of grilling meat began. As our stomachs filled, the atmosphere became more lively.
As we reminisced about the past, the mood escalated, and soon it was a boisterous affair. Lee Beom was also visibly excited and naturally blended in. Still, he seemed to be watching us, and our eyes met frequently.
While listening to them chatter, I quietly accepted the meat Seong Hae-min was grilling. The funny stories made me chuckle involuntarily.
Now that we had all met in person, I became even more curious about Ban Seo-yi.
‘Ban Seo-yi…’
I definitely remembered her sharp eyes, but her face was now blurry.
Do Yun-hyeok had said it seemed impossible to meet again, and I thought so too, but the more I thought it was impossible, the more I wanted to meet her.
“But then, did everyone read that novel?”
At Seong Hae-min’s question, the table, which had been enthusiastically eating meat, fell silent. Everyone looked at each other and nodded.
“Wow… that’s really fate!”
Kim Yi-dam clapped his hands gleefully. It was certainly a strange coincidence.
“But the novel title itself is hilarious!”
“What’s strange is how there are people in reality with the same faces and names as the characters.”
“Ji-han Hyung, you’re different.”
“Ah, right. I am different, aren’t I?”
“Honestly, if there was someone with a different name, I thought it would be Pyo-ran, not Jae-hyung.”
“Ban Pyo-ran isn’t a common name, after all.”
“Did you even expect there to be someone with a different name?”
Amidst the chatter, Ban Pyo-ran paused, about to put a meat wrap in her mouth. Then, she slowly raised her hand.
“Ah, that’s actually…”
And she dropped a bombshell.
“It’s because my cousin wrote the novel.”
“Whaaaat?!”
“What?”
“Huh?”
The reaction was explosive. I also jumped up in surprise and looked at Ban Pyo-ran.
“Then, could it be that Ban Seo-yi…”
“Yeah, I guess so?”
As I murmured involuntarily, Ban Pyo-ran, who had been chewing a mouthful of wrap, quickly waved her hand. After hastily swallowing the wrap, she coughed as if she was choking and gulped down a drink.
“The person who helped back then. Was it Ban Seo-yi? Isn’t she your cousin?”
“No, no! My cousin isn’t Ban Seo-yi.”
Putting down her glass, Ban Pyo-ran denied our question and began to explain.
The internet novel, which I had merely found on my younger sister’s external hard drive, turned out to be a once-popular hit. It was a novel that had circulated throughout the internet world as a recommended introductory work for internet novels.
The person who wrote that book, which was even published in physical form, was Ban Pyo-ran’s cousin!
And during the process of naming the characters, Ban Pyo-ran’s cousin searched various places, like the popular mini-hompys of the time, and came up with the names. Although she probably didn’t search for us specifically, that’s how it happened.
She even searched for extras who only made a brief appearance, but ‘Ban Seo-yi’ was the only name she created.
She couldn’t use a real person’s name for a villain who was meant to receive all sorts of curses.
“Ban Seo-yi sounds like a more plausible name than Ban Pyo-ran.”
“Right. If you want a name that doesn’t exist in the world, it should be something like Kim Nyeh-hyeng, shouldn’t it?”
“Anyway, that’s how it is!”
Clearing her throat, Ban Pyo-ran put down her empty drink glass. Kim Yi-dam pushed a new cola towards Ban Pyo-ran. I subtly handed her a bottle opener.
After taking another drink, Ban Pyo-ran put down her glass with a refreshing sound, like a pirate downing a strong drink.
“As far as I remember, my cousin wasn’t in that world. She’d probably love it if she went into the novel world. She’s still writing novels. What was it these days, possession stories? Right, possession stories are trending, so she desperately wants to enter a novel, even as an extra, to meet a Northern Duke.”
“Yeah, there are a lot of those in webtoons these days too.”
“She’s still writing novels? That’s even more impressive.”
“It’s become her profession.”
“Yeah. There’s quite a big age gap between us, more than 10 years. She even helped name me when I was born. My uncle’s family is very close to ours, we’re practically like one family.”
Jeon Jae-hyung nodded, finally understanding after hearing the explanation.
“So that’s why. I thought it was too far-fetched for people with the same names to exist in the world.”
Seong Hae-min shook his head.
“What’s creepier to me is that they’re all around the same age.”
“If they read the novel, it makes sense for them to be around the same age.”
“But isn’t it much earlier than our generation? The novel is set in 2005.”
“It’s not like many people read it these days either.”
“I read it when I was preschool age.”
“You too, Hyung? Me too.”
“I was in elementary school…”
“Huh?”
Listening quietly to the scattered conversation, I suddenly looked up. My eyes met Lee Beom’s, who was looking at me with dark eyes.
A question mark appeared above my head as I quietly picked at my meat.
So, not everyone read it recently?
“…I read it recently?”
“What? How on earth did you end up reading it?”
“While organizing my younger sister’s hard drive…”
“Pfft!”
Min Si-hu burst out laughing, then clamped his mouth shut when he caught my gaze.
It turned out I was the only one who had read the novel recently. Min Si-hu had stumbled upon it while Googling in middle school and read part of it, while Jeon Jae-hyung had accidentally read it on his older sister’s electronic dictionary in elementary school.
Min Si-hu reached out and cut off Jeon Jae-hyung.
“Wait, you have an older sister?”
“Yeah.”
“And a younger brother?”
“No.”
“So, in the novel, you were family with someone who was a complete stranger?”
“Actually, not a stranger… thinking back, he was my cousin.”
“Even a cousin? Did he have memories?”
“No. I asked him, and he just thought I was crazy.”
“What? Why is it different for us?”
“How should I know?”
Jeon Jae-hyung shrugged. Lee Beom, adding more meat to the grill, said as if it were no big deal,
“Hae-min Hyung and Hae-jun Hyung were twins, too.”
“Come to think of it…”
While everyone was engrossed in the conversation, I quickly snatched the last piece of perilla leaf. Seong Hae-min expertly placed a piece of well-cooked meat and some grilled garlic on it for me.
Min Si-hu, who had been staring intently at Seong Hae-min and me, pointed out something that everyone had probably wondered about but never dared to ask.
“Don’t you two look nothing alike?”
“We’re not related by blood in the first place.”
I replied with a hint of bitterness as I chewed the perilla leaf wrap. Why is he stating the obvious? Min Si-hu shook his head.
“No, it’s just that in that world, I really thought you two were identical. That’s what’s strange.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Just by looking at your appearances, you were total twins. Why did you think that?”
Testimonies poured in from all sides. I just kept moving my jaw.
Thinking about it, in that world, people recognized me because I looked like Seong Hae-min and even picked fights with me. I also looked in the mirror and thought I resembled Seong Hae-min.
Was there some kind of perception-altering effect?
Then again, the fact that I entered the novel in the first place was absurd, so even if there were some additional effects, it wouldn’t be surprising.
In essence, that world was no different from a role-playing game.
“It was a strange world.”
“The novel was just a novel, I guess.”
As everyone nodded in agreement, Min Si-hu, who had been standing with his arms crossed, looking serious, spoke up again.
“I have a serious question.”
“What is it now?”
“How could something like this have happened?”
His face was unusually grave. He even rested his chin on his fingers, looking so serious that it didn’t seem like a fleeting thought.
It was a question I had pondered myself from time to time… but that wasn’t what was important right now. While Min Si-hu was lost in thought, I stole a piece of meat from in front of him, then another.
Min Si-hu had no idea his meat was disappearing, lost in his own thoughts. He seemed to be spinning elaborate theories bordering on conspiracy.
As Min Si-hu, who had been the most vocal, fell silent, Ban Pyo-ran clapped his hands in front of Min Si-hu’s face like a slate, telling him to snap out of it. Min Si-hu jumped, startled, and looked up.
“Why are you suddenly looking for the ‘how’? If you get stuck there, how do you explain that we all experienced the novel together? Give up on reason and logic!”
Jeon Jae-hyung, who was also stealing Min Si-hu’s meat like me, nodded while chewing.
“Right. If you put it that way, the fact that we’re all gathered here doesn’t make sense either.”