#53

When I looked at his hand, a stark white envelope caught my eye.

“What is this?”

“I think it’s a letter addressed to you, sir. I found it in the mailbox when I got home today, so I brought it in.”

A letter for me? Who sent it? With curiosity filling my eyes, I stared at the envelope while shrugging off my jacket. Jung Hosu then took my coat and jacket and handed me the envelope he had been holding.

“Ah, thank you.”

“I’ll hang these in the clothing care system.”

“Yes. Please do.”

As I watched Jung Hosu walk toward the clothing care unit in the corner of the living room with my coat and jacket in hand, my gaze soon dropped to the envelope in my hand. It was a plain envelope, one that could be found anywhere, yet it had no sender’s address, no recipient’s address—only my name, ‘Goo Won’, written on it.

……This looks ominous no matter how you spin it. Staring at the envelope with unease, I slowly made my way to the sofa and sank into my personal one-seater.

“Do you need a letter opener?”

Jung Hosu, who had already finished putting away my clothes, approached and asked while standing next to the sofa. I shook my head in response.

“No, I can just open it by hand.”

Despite speaking as if it was nothing, I couldn’t bring myself to touch the envelope right away. I couldn’t quite explain it, but I had an overwhelming sense of foreboding.

“It does feel unsettling, doesn’t it? No sender, no recipient—just a name.”

“I can’t exactly say no to that.”

“Should I open it for you?”

Caught off guard by his unexpected kindness, I turned my gaze from the envelope to look at him. Standing beside me and staring down at the letter, he seemed to sense my eyes on him and turned his head to meet my gaze.

“No, it’s fine. That would be unsettling, wouldn’t it?”

“But you’re unsettled, too. I’ll open it for you.”

I let out a soft chuckle at the kindness hidden within his indifferent tone.

“It’s okay. It was sent to me, so I should be the one to open it.”

“……Alright.”

After being refused multiple times, Jung Hosu finally gave a slow nod, signaling his resignation. I felt a little bad for rejecting his kindness, but I wasn’t shameless enough to push the responsibility of opening such an ominous letter onto someone else.

“Who knows what’s inside? You should probably step back a bit.”

At my warning, which carried a mix of concern and caution, Jung Hosu plopped down onto a diagonally positioned sofa. I wanted to tell him to sit even farther away, but from that spot, he wouldn’t be able to see the contents, so I decided to hold my tongue. Besides, even if I did tell him to move, he was watching the envelope with such wary eyes that I doubted he would listen.

Compromising with reality instead of insisting on my way, I carefully began to open the envelope. Despite my nervousness, it opened rather easily. Inside was a neatly folded, stark white piece of paper—nothing more.

For a brief moment, I had worried that something terrifying, like a severed lock of hair, would fall out, but it was just paper. That was a relief. Feeling slightly ridiculous for my unnecessary fears, I pulled out the paper from the envelope and unfolded it indifferently.

And then, upon seeing the words written inside, I froze stiff.

“Sir? What’s wrong?”

Noticing my abnormal reaction, Jung Hosu shot to his feet. But I quickly raised a hand to stop him from approaching.

“Wait a moment. I’m fine, so please don’t come any closer.”

My firm voice, leaving no room for argument, made him flinch and halt in place. Once I confirmed that he had stopped, I returned my attention to the contents of the letter.

[Don’t you want to return to your original world?]

An unusual message. And a handwriting I was all too familiar with.

No matter how much I examined and re-examined it, this was my handwriting. But I could swear I had never written such words.

If I hadn’t written it, then either someone had forged my handwriting, or the ‘Goo Won’ of this world had written it. Between the two, the latter was far more plausible.

……If this world’s Goo Won wrote something like this, it would mean he knew I would end up in this world and take over his body. But how could he have known that? Just how much does he know? Could he possibly even know how to return?

As curiosity surged through me, I bit down on the inside of my cheek and turned to Jung Hosu.

“……You said this was in the mailbox?”

“Yes.”

“Did you see anyone suspicious nearby?”

“No, I didn’t see anyone.”

“I see. Understood.”

Of course. Whoever left this letter wouldn’t have stuck around long enough to be caught by Jung Hosu when he arrived. Letting out a small sigh at his expected response, I folded the paper and slid it back into the envelope. Then, without hesitation, I strode toward the door leading to the parking lot. I needed to see Secretary Sung Yoojun immediately.

“Wait……! President, what’s going on? Was there something bad written in the letter?”

As I walked quickly, Jung Hosu hurriedly followed behind, his voice filled with worry. I shook my head at his question.

“No, nothing particularly bad.”

“But your reaction—”

“What’s going on between you two?”

Just as I was about to reassure him, Secretary Sung Yoojun entered through the door, his face filled with confusion as he took in the sight of me walking toward him and Jung Hosu following closely behind. I stopped in front of him, raising the envelope to his eye level.

“Secretary Sung, this. I need to ask a favor because of it.”

He blinked, looking between the envelope and my face.

“What is this?”

“It was in the mailbox today. Can you find out who left it there as soon as possible?”

Since there was no address, it likely hadn’t come through the post office. Someone must have deliberately placed it there. I needed to find out who. And if anyone could do it, it was Secretary Sung Yoojun.

“Understood. I’ll try.”

After briefly glancing at the letter and then at me, he soon nodded with a determined expression. Relieved by his response, I turned to Jung Hosu.

“Hosu-ssi. What time did you get home today?”

“A little before 5 p.m.”

“Got it. Thank you for telling me. Secretary Sung, if you’re checking the CCTV footage, you only need to look at recordings from before 5 p.m.”

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

Taking out his phone, he quickly called the security company that managed the house’s surveillance system.

“From early morning until 5 p.m. Yes. Please find the person who placed an envelope in the mailbox. Yes. Yes. Understood. Thank you.”

“……”

“Sir, they’ll check right away and contact us by morning.”

As Secretary Sung Yoojun delivered the update, I exhaled a deep sigh, feeling drained. It wasn’t like we had already found the person—we had only requested an investigation—so why did I feel so exhausted?

“Sir!”

“Sir!!”

As my body wavered from sudden fatigue, both Sung Yoojun and Jung Hosu grabbed my arms in alarm. Their grip was so strong that the envelope slipped from my hands and fell to the floor.

“……I’m fine.”

“You’re clearly not fine if you’re stumbling!”

It was just a slight loss of strength, yet they were acting as if I had collapsed. Gently pushing their hands away, I straightened up to show I was okay.

“It was just the tension leaving my body all at once. Don’t worry too much.”

But despite my reassuring smile, both of them frowned deeply, unconvinced.

“I think you should rest in your room.”

“Hosu-ssi is right. You should rest now.”

Without giving me a chance to refuse, they worked together to escort me to my room—one pulling from the front, the other pushing from behind.

“Ah, wait! The letter! The letter—”

“I’ll get it.”

Just as we reached my room, I remembered the fallen envelope, but before I could retrieve it, Jung Hosu quickly went to pick it up. Meanwhile, Sung Yoojun made sure I was seated on my bed.