As If Transmigrating Wasn’t Enough, I’m Pregnant?!

Forcing himself to calm down, he roughly brushed back his disheveled hair and rummaged through both pockets. What touched one of his hands was a rustling wad of cash. The payment for his body received from Do Won-hyung. Pushing away the terrifying thoughts trying to surface, Ryu Hae-sol concentrated on the sensation in his other hand.

This time, something cold and solid came into his hand. It was the old cell phone Ryu Hae-sol used to have. A sole lifeline connecting this world to him, and an object that might hold the clue to his escape. With trembling hands, he took out the phone and turned on the screen.

Fortunately, the battery he had charged earlier at the hotel still had a little juice left. As the screen lit up with a faint glow in this narrow, dark, hellish studio apartment, he let out a sigh of relief without realizing it. And one of the notifications floating at the top of the screen caught his eye.

[Missed call: Ju Ha-ram]

Ju Ha-ram was Ryu Hae-sol’s only friend in the novel. Yes, looking back, he was the only well-meaning figure who had reached out a helping hand to the despairing Ryu Hae-sol in the novel time and time again. However, to the current Ryu Hae-sol, the existence of ‘Ju Ha-ram’ approached him with a meaning far beyond that of a simple friend.

There was no room left for doubt, nor any luxury to spare. The existence of a friend felt like a sweet rain falling upon this terrible reality. Everything he had experienced just moments ago, and the pain felt throughout his body, were proving to Ryu Hae-sol that this was no mere nightmare.

With a bitter expression, he tapped on the call logs. The missed calls weren’t just one. Starting from even before he pulled himself together and turned on his cell phone for the first time at the hotel, up until the most recent moment, calls placed at regular intervals were recorded. And below the call logs, message notifications were also floating.

[Ju Ha-ram: Hae-sol, where are you? Why aren’t you picking up?]

[Ju Ha-ram: Nothing’s wrong, right? Give me a reply. I’m worried.]

[Ju Ha-ram: Hey, you’re alive, right? Please, I’m begging you, call me the moment you see this message, okay?]

A twisted, faint smile appeared at the corners of Ryu Hae-sol’s lips as he blankly stared down at the sentences overflowing with worry. Worry. Receiving someone’s concern felt like an emotion so entirely unfamiliar and luxurious. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should call Ju Ha-ram right now. But he shook his head immediately after.

What on earth was he supposed to say if he contacted a friend right now? That he got beaten up by loan sharks, and if he didn’t pay back a hundred million won by the end of the month, he’d end up sold off to the red-light district? He couldn’t spill this gutter-like reality to that kind and affectionate beta friend and beg for help. Since that would be begging for pity, Moon Seong-yoon’s pride wouldn’t allow it.

Instead of the call button, he pressed the back button. And he began rummaging through his phone again. Money—he had to find a way to get that astronomical sum that had become a shackle around his neck. Do Won-hyung. In the end, the answer lay with that bastard. He had to meet him again and somehow extort the money out of him.

It was just when Ryu Hae-sol was staring intently at the old cell phone screen, deeply pondering how he would meet Do Won-hyung and extract money from him. A short vibration rang within his palm. Bzzzt— Startled by that microscopic tremor that struck without warning, Ryu Hae-sol almost dropped his phone without meaning to.

At that moment, a new message notification window flashed and popped up above the screen. The sender was ‘Ju Ha-ram,’ just like a moment before. Thinking it a bit bothersome, Ryu Hae-sol opened the messaging app. Extremely ordinary and everyday contents, quite different from the anxious messages sent frantically until just a moment ago, came into view.

[Ju Ha-ram: Hey, where on earth are you and what are you up to?]

[Ju Ha-ram: You know our department’s general gathering is tomorrow evening, right? Are you going?]

[Ju Ha-ram: The student council president hyung says you don’t have to pay the participation fee this time, so he asked me to pass along that you should come if you can.]

[Ju Ha-ram: Answer me, will you?]

Department. General gathering. Those words embedded themselves into Ryu Hae-sol’s vision. They felt unfamiliar and alien, like words from another world. In this hellish studio apartment stained with blood and dust, directly after taking the brutal threats of loan sharks all over his body, encountering the everyday word ‘gathering’ drew a thoroughly absurd, hollow laugh from him.

However, that self-deprecating dry chuckle didn’t last long. The words scattered inside Ryu Hae-sol’s head began to connect rapidly into a single line. School. Gathering. Alcohol. And one person who might attend that place. Do Won-hyung. Yes, this was it. Ryu Hae-sol’s heart violently churned.