"Ting."
[Ask her who she is] — SELECTED.
The choice locked in.
Doyeon swallowed and stepped forward slowly, each movement deliberate, cautious. He stopped a few feet away from her, close enough now to see her clearly beneath the highway lights.
Dirt smeared across her pale skin. Her neck tilted slightly at an unnatural angle, broken. A thin stream of dark blood trailed from her temple— but it wasn't red. It was black, thick and glossy, blending into the rainwater at her feet.
And around her…
He saw it.
A faint, shifting aura— black mist curling and unraveling around her body like smoke caught in a slow motion, wrapping her shoulders and drifting outward before dissolving into the storm.
His throat tightened.
"A-a-ah…" The sound escaped him without permission.
The woman tilted her head slightly, the movement delayed, almost as if her body needed a second to understand the command.
"You can see me?" she asked.
Her voice wasn't threatening.
It wasn't hollow or distorted.
It was soft.
Uncertain.
"Y-yes…" Doyeon managed, his voice cracking as he quickly fumbled open the umbrella and stepped closer, lifting it above her head instinctively.
The gesture felt automatic— human. "W-who are you? A-a-are you okay?!" The words tumbled over each other, barely coherent, his eyes darting everywhere except directly at her for more than a second at a time.
She froze.
"I…" Her lips trembled.
Then her shoulders began to shake.
"Y-you can see me…?" she whispered again, and this time her voice broke.
Tears mixed with rain, sliding down her dirt-streaked face.
And suddenly, the memory struck him clearly.
The first timeline.
When she lunged at him— she had been crying.
When she pushed him onto the road— her face hadn't been furious.
It had been devastated.
On the asphalt, moments before the truck's headlights swallowed them, she hadn't looked like a monster.
She looked… alone.
Something inside Doyeon shifted.
The fear didn't vanish.
But it moved aside.
Slowly, carefully, as if approaching a frightened animal, he reached out. His hand hesitated for only a second before gently resting against the back of her head.
Her hair was cold beneath his fingers. Wet. Trembling.
"You're not… trying to hurt me, are you?" he asked quietly, more to himself than to her.
She didn't answer.
She just cried harder.
And without fully thinking about it— without waiting for another prompt, without checking the options again… Doyeon pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her.
The black aura around her flickered violently for a split second.
Then softened.
The rain kept falling.
But for the first time since the crash—
She didn't feel like something from a horror game.
She felt like a girl who didn't want to disappear.
For a long moment, they simply stood there in the middle of the rain-soaked road.
Ha-eun clung to him, crying into his chest. While doyeon didn't move. He just held her, stiff at first, then gradually less so as the weight of her trembling settled against him.
Then—
"Swoooosh!"
A truck roared past them, its headlights slicing through the rain before disappearing into the dark.
Doyeon turned his head, watching it go.
"…I forgot I once got killed by that," he muttered under his breath.
Ha-eun looked up. "What? I didn't hear you."
"Nothing," he replied quickly. "Don't worry about it."
He looked down at her—
And blinked.
The grotesque image from before was gone.
No broken neck. No twisted face. No black blood pooling unnaturally, not even the scary aura was there.
Instead, standing in his arms, was a girl.
Purple hair, damp and clinging to her cheeks. Violet eyes, glassy with unshed tears. Her clothes were still dirty, soil staining what looked like a school uniform, but now he could see it clearly.
She looked real.
Alive…?
Beautiful in a fragile, lonely way.
Startled by the sudden clarity, Doyeon pushed her back a step and stumbled away himself.
"W–who are you?" he asked, face heating up.
"Huh?" She tilted her head and placed a finger lightly against her lips. "I… I'm the one you were just hugging."
She smiled faintly before stepping toward him again, closing the distance he had just created.
"To think… someone can actually see me…"
Her voice trembled.
"Whenever someone sees me, they just run away. They're scared of how I look."
She rested her forehead against his chest again, her fingers lightly clutching his shirt.
Doyeon stiffened.
(Scared… of your appearance…?)
Before he could respond—
"Ting!"
His phone vibrated in his hand.
He pulled it up instinctively.
「Ha-eun (하은)
Mood: Happy, Hope
Intimacy: 39%
Information: Because she trusted you, she allowed you to see her true self.」
Thirty-nine percent.
(It jumped by thirty-eight… How lonely is this girl…?)
"Ting!"
Another notification slid across the screen.
「DATE HAS BEEN COMPLETED
Score: C
120 LP acquired.」
Doyeon stared at the glowing letters, unsure whether to feel accomplished or guilty.
Then thunder cracked overhead, loud and immediate.
Reality snapped back into place.
"Shit… I forgot it's storming."
He gently lifted Ha-eun's chin so she would look at him.
"Would you mind… going inside my car?"
She nodded quietly.
***
(Inside the car.)
Rain tapped steadily against the windshield, the sound softer now that they were inside.
The world beyond the glass blurred into streaks of white and gray beneath the streetlights.
Doyeon sat in the driver's seat, hands resting awkwardly on the steering wheel.
Beside him, Ha-eun shifted slightly, her fingers fidgeting in her lap as if she were debating something.
"By the way…" she began quietly, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. "Why are you helping me?"
Doyeon blinked. "No reason."
He turned his head toward her, trying to look casual— and completely failed.
"Really?" she asked, narrowing her eyes slightly. Then, strangely, she lifted one arm across her chest in a shy, half-defensive gesture. "I'm not dumb, you know. You want something."
Doyeon stiffened immediately.
"W–wait, what? What are you talking about?"
She tilted her head, studying him carefully. "You almost hit me with your car. You know I'm a ghost… and then you just… walked out and comforted me." Her gaze softened slightly. "People don't usually do that."
For a second, Doyeon's brain completely shut down.
"A-ah… N-no? What? A ghost? You?" He forced an awkward smile that looked painfully artificial. "No, no, I don't know what you mean. I wouldn't… uh… do anything weird."
Ha-eun stared at him.
Then she giggled.
"You're really bad at acting."
The tension in the car loosened just slightly.
"I'm Ha-eun," she added, her voice gentler now.
"Kang Doyeon," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck.
She reached over suddenly and grabbed his arm, giving it a small shake. "Nice to meet you."
Doyeon froze at the contact.
Her fingers were cold.
Not painfully cold— just enough to remind him she wasn't alive.
"Y-yeah. Nice to meet you too," he said quickly, clearing his throat. "So… is there anything you want to do? I can help."
The question changed her expression almost instantly.
Her smile faded into something more fragile.
"Oh… right." She looked down at her hands. "I want to see my family… or I want you to pass on a message."
The words came out softer than before.
"They're probably worried about me… or…" she hesitated, blinking quickly as her eyes glossed over, "maybe they already forgot. I just want them to know I'm okay."
The car felt smaller somehow.
Doyeon watched her quietly for a moment before nodding.
"Okay," he said, more firmly than he felt. "I'll help you."
Her head lifted slightly.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I don't have anything to do right now anyway."
She beamed at him— and that expression alone made his stomach twist with guilt.
(I absolutely have things to do. I need to stream tonight or I won't make the rent…)
His fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
(But if this stupid app says I'll die if I fail… then I don't really have a choice, do I?)
He turned the key in the ignition. The engine hummed to life, headlights cutting through the rain.
As the car began to move, his phone lit up in the holder mounted near the dashboard.
「GHOST DATING SIMULATOR — SAVE THEM ALL.」
A new line flickered beneath it.
「Upon completion, you will be set free.」
Doyeon exhaled slowly.
"…Right."
Beside him, Ha-eun watched the rain slide down the window, unaware of the glowing message on Doyeon phone.
He shifted the car into drive and pulled onto the road.
If this was a game—
He had just accepted the quest.