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"You couldn't find it?"
"Yeah... I really wonder where it is..."
"Where are Soonyoung and Jihoon?"
"Jihoon went to college."
"Oh, I just remembered because I'm at school, Mingyu, you're 19, right?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Isn't Seol-ah 19 years old here?"
"Haven't you seen it at your school? Or a nearby school?"
"It's been a few months since I went to school."
"Why aren't you going? Aren't you going to school?"
"I don't know about that."
"Soonyoung, Mingyu. Be quiet. I'll make a phone call."
***
"Kwon Soon-young, did you find out anything today?"
"I wonder if it's there.. "
"Are you there?"
"No. I asked my acquaintances about his name and what he looked like, but they had no idea."
"Staying out all night today?"
"No. I don't want to get scolded by Seungcheol hyung."
It's already been a year since I started searching for Han Seol-ah and myself in the novel. I thought Jeong-han and I were the only people outside of the novel, but it turns out Ji-hoon and Mingyu are also real people, just like us, outside of the novel. They said they deliberately kept us from telling them.
Jeonghan, Jihoon, Mingyu, and I—the four of us—had been searching for Han Seol-ah for a year, but we hadn't heard or seen a single word from her. We desperately wanted to find her.
***
"But there are a lot of boarders, Seokmin?"
"There are four more. They're probably coming."
"Can you tell me your name? I'll memorize it in advance."
"21-year-old Yoon Jung-han, 20-year-old Kwon Soon-young, Lee Ji-hoon, 19-year-old Kim Min-gyu."
"Min-gyu goes to the same school as us."
" ... "
"What? Why are you looking like that?"
The names that came out of Lee Seok-min's mouth were all familiar. Names I'd heard so many times a year ago. Names I longed for. It's hard to say they were all namesakes, because they all overlapped. The thought of seeing them again after a year made my heart flutter and I felt nervous.