Chapter Four: Threads of Conspiracy
The fading light of day spilled unevenly through Jin-Woo's cracked blinds, casting fractured shadows across stacks of unopened mail, half-filled notebooks, and the dust-laced corners of his small apartment. The hum of the city below was steady, but muted—an illusion of normalcy Jin-Woo could no longer afford to believe in.
The USB drive lay idle next to his aging laptop, blinking occasionally like a patient heartbeat. The files he'd uncovered since last night had opened a door he hadn't known existed. And now that it was open, it wouldn't close.
There were others like him.
Not just people with regrets, not just people who had failed. But returnees—those who had died and somehow returned, reborn with memories of the life they lost.
The list of names in the folder labeled "Returnees" was staggering. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. Most were civilians, but some were figures he recognized from news headlines, business journals, even the obituaries.
He scrolled again until he saw it: Lee Sang-Hyun.
His fingers froze. That name pulled something old and sour from the pit of his stomach.
Rival from the Ashes
Lee Sang-Hyun. The golden boy. Jin-Woo's old rival.
In high school, Lee was everything Jin-Woo wasn't—confident, brilliant, popular, and dangerously strategic. Their relationship wasn't hostile, but it wasn't friendly either. More like two people running parallel races—until Jin-Woo stumbled and Lee kept sprinting.
In their old life, Lee had gone on to become a tech CEO and a poster child for young success. But rumors had surrounded his fall—a sudden company collapse, allegations of embezzlement, and then… nothing.
Now he was here.
Alive again. Somewhere in this timeline. Possibly knowing everything Jin-Woo knew—and more.
The Message
Jin-Woo's phone buzzed.
A new message.
"You're closer than you think. But every step forward costs a price. — K."
The same letter. The same veiled threat.
Kang Min-Jae.
Jin-Woo's jaw clenched. Kang had been a ghost from his first life, a shadowy figure with power and reach far beyond what was reasonable for a man who never appeared in public. Back then, Jin-Woo hadn't understood who Kang was until it was too late.
This time, he had the chance to get ahead.
A Knock at Dusk
As the sun dipped low, casting burnt orange across his desk, a soft knock rattled his front door.
He didn't move at first. He never had visitors.
The knock came again, sharper.
He approached quietly and looked through the peephole.
A young woman stood there. Early twenties. Short black hair. Leather jacket. She looked calm, but alert—like someone who always knew where the exits were.
He opened the door halfway. "Yeah?"
"Song Jin-Woo?"
He nodded slowly.
"My name's Han Seo-Yeon. We need to talk."
Two Pieces on the Board
They sat across from each other, his table now cleared of clutter except for her small tablet and a cup of instant coffee he had hastily brewed.
"How much do you know about the returnees?" she asked.
"Enough to know I'm not alone," Jin-Woo said.
Seo-Yeon nodded. "But not enough to understand the stakes."
She tapped her tablet, and a network map bloomed across the screen. Names. Lines. Red markers. Dates.
"There's a group," she said, "a fractured alliance. Some want to reshape the world. Others want to control it. And a few… a few just want to survive quietly."
"And you?"
"I want to know the truth."
Jin-Woo's eyes narrowed. "And my part in this?"
"You're a catalyst."
Rewriting Fate
"Most returnees cling to their past," Seo-Yeon said. "They try to repeat what worked, avoid what failed. But you… you're doing something different. You're diverging. Making new choices. That's not normal."
"You've been watching me?"
"Since the day you walked into the Noryangjin Academy again. You stepped out of your old path. That put you on someone's radar."
Jin-Woo ran a hand through his hair. "Kang Min-Jae."
"Not just him. There's someone worse."
She tapped again. A name appeared on the tablet.
Yoon Mi-Ra.
"Who is she?"
"They call her the Ghost. Some say she's dead. Others say she's the one who started all of this. We don't know if she's a returnee or something else. But every major disruption in the network links back to her."
"What does she want?"
"To rewrite the future—not just hers, but everyone's."
A Dangerous Alliance
Jin-Woo sat back, the weight of it all sinking in.
"So," he said, "what now?"
Seo-Yeon looked at him, her voice quiet but certain. "We go to Noryangjin. There's a data cache buried beneath the old station. I believe it contains the original seed file—the point where all these timelines started diverging."
"Sounds like a trap."
"It probably is."
He met her eyes. "Let's go anyway."
Closing Shadows
That night, Jin-Woo stood at the window while Seo-Yeon slept lightly on the couch. The city stretched out before him, glittering and unaware.
He had died once. Lived a second time. And now he was caught in a game where everyone had returned, but no one was safe.
He looked down at the tablet. One name blinked on the screen: Lee Sang-Hyun.
He would see him again.
And when he did, only one of them would walk away changed.