However, since it had been an especially exhausting day, Choi Taehun just asked his younger sister to take care of sorting the plastic bottles for recycling and greeted his parents, who had gone to bed early. Half-asleep, his parents still responded, “You’re home, son. Good job today.”

A respectful and polite son, as well as a meticulous and caring older brother, Choi Taehun was the only one among his six siblings to have a personal room. It was a small gesture of consideration from his younger siblings toward the dependable eldest brother who had never once refused to take care of their needs.

Taehun entered the bathroom and stared at his reflection in the mirror. The dark circles under his eyes, more pronounced than usual, clearly reflected the fatigue of the day. He let out a deep sigh that he hadn’t shown in front of his family. It had been a strange day—one where he’d felt oddly spaced out.

Whenever he felt like his day had gone completely off track, Taehun would take a hot shower to calm his mind. As he turned up the water temperature, the sensation of heat spreading from his shoulder to his back earlier that day suddenly returned to him.

It had felt like a burn, searing and painful, yet chilling at the same time—an unsettling experience he never wanted to feel again.

Deciding he was too tired to bother with drying his hair, Taehun quickly washed up, his mind fixated on the softness of his bed.

But as he hastily finished, something caught his attention in the fogged-up mirror.

A massive, dark crimson, snake-like mark.

“What… is this…?”

A breathless whisper escaped him before he could even process the words.

Frantically, he wiped the mirror with his hand, trying to get a clearer view of his back. Though the mirror quickly fogged again, it wasn’t enough to obscure the enormous tattoo-like marking stretching from his right shoulder all the way across his back.

Shock gave way to sheer disbelief.

Because Choi Taehun knew exactly what it was.

A Name.

The sudden appearance of someone else’s name on one’s body belonged to a phenomenon neither science nor religion had been able to fully explain. Only about 20% of the population experienced it—rare, but not unheard of.

This strange mark, perfectly matching in style, color, and placement with another person’s, had led to plenty of romanticized fantasies. Some believed it marked a destined partner or soulmate.

Taehun, however, had no such illusions.

If anything, he found the whole idea laughable.

And now, here he was—at 28—marked with a Name.

Taehun even wondered if this was all just a dream. For him, the Name was nothing more than a fleeting, youthful occurrence that typically came before adulthood.

Just when he thought he’d finally escaped the Esper-guide matching test, now a Name had hit him from behind. The only relief was that the Name had no obligation to be reported to the government, nor any clear reason to exist.

Now, the thoughts that had been floating around in his mind all day—like Ji Gwanyeong or the inexplicable intense heat—had all vanished. In fact, he was almost too dumbfounded to process it. The scorching heat from lunch earlier now seemed to be the same heat that had marked the Name onto his skin. It was almost too absurd.

It wasn’t even like a bear had appeared on his back, and yet, seeing such a large symbol manifest on his body, it was clear that today, his mind had been utterly lost.

Taehun roughly swept his wet hair back and let out a long sigh. The idea of being connected to a fated partner because of the Name was too sudden for him to handle. It didn’t feel real at all.

The guide took another look at the markings on Taehun’s back. The consonants and vowels were strangely intertwined, making it impossible to even guess what name it was. It seemed clear that a Name analyst would be needed.

Today, Ji Gwanyeong’s fan signing, and tomorrow, half a day off.

Taehun swallowed the sigh that escaped him involuntarily.

* * *

“Wow. Look at the size of it…”
“…It’s massive. Ha ha.”

As expected, the Name analyst was astonished by the enormous Name etched across Taehun’s shoulder and back. Yet, despite the shock, the analyst didn’t forget to take photos of the snake-like writing using a special machine. After taking several pictures, the analyst told Taehun he could get dressed again.

Taehun still hadn’t fully processed that a Name had appeared on his back. Perhaps sensing this, the Name analyst grinned and handed him a printout of the Name photo.

It was the first moment Taehun took in the Name that had suddenly appeared.

The weight of someone else’s name etched onto his body made Taehun gulp involuntarily. The idea that his own name, this huge and nonsensical Name, had been marked in the same place, with the same handwriting, by someone unknown to him was both overwhelming and… well, just a little bit thrilling.

“This Name is so large and complicated that it will take about 2-3 days to decode. Please wait patiently.”
“Yes.”
“If you’d like to know who it belongs to, just let us know. We also help with finding the person. We don’t make much money from just analyzing the Name.”

Who could it be? Who would have my name?

The awkwardly nodding head unknowingly turned toward the photo in hand. Choi Taehun had spent last night sleeplessly searching about Connecting Names. He even joined a Name community he thought he’d never visit and read every post there.

The activation of a Name could be someone on the other side of the world or someone close by, in the same country or the same space, he learned. Because of this, sometimes, people are fortunate enough to find their matching Name quickly, but other times, they never meet the person who carries their Name in their lifetime.

The reason the Name community was much more active than expected was precisely because of this. Those who couldn’t find someone connected to them in their country would post their Name in the community to find their match, which naturally grew the community’s size.

Connecting Names wasn’t a matter that had been perfectly analyzed by medical science yet. It hadn’t been recognized as a peculiar phenomenon in mental illness for less than 100 years. But Taehun thought that, even if it wasn’t exactly a mental illness, it could be a kind of condition.

The idea of someone else’s name suddenly being tattooed on your body, and instinctively searching for that person, made Taehun wonder who that person could be.

Taehun left the Name analysis office and got into his car.

Now that this had happened, although it felt uncomfortable, he had to tell his family. He already felt a headache just thinking about how his parents and even his younger siblings would react with shock and loud exclamations.

And as expected, Taehun’s assumption was correct.

“Whattttt?!”

“NO WAY! Hyung! Hyung! Take off your shirt!”

“Yesterday? It happened yesterday? This is crazy!”

His second youngest sibling, Choi Woojin, didn’t even bother talking and instead threw Taehun’s tie off and quickly started unbuttoning his shirt.

Taehun, powerless against his sibling’s enthusiastic intentions, tried to express his confusion with a shaky voice, “W-well, I don’t even know what this is…”

The siblings, except for the eldest Taehun, were completely enraged. Even Jeongmin, who was usually the calmest and most composed, was causing a ruckus with the picture of Taehun’s back.

“Wow, whose name is this?!”

“You said it’ll come out the day after tomorrow—how many times do I have to say it? Hey, hey, slowly! You’re going to stretch it out!”

“Ahhh! It’s real! Hey! It’s huge!”