"Mom, that man's face is scary."
The child in the convenience store was pointing at the man standing before the counter.
He was, admittedly, an unusual sight.
"......"
A black cap was pulled down low, and a black mask was pulled up high, but they couldn’t hide everything. The slivers of exposed skin—his jaw, his neck, the sides of his ears—were a ruin of red, uneven flesh and deep, jagged scars.
His slightly malformed ears were no exception.
The man’s gaze fell upon the child.
A chill followed it. His entire presence was steeped in a gloomy aura, the kind that would startle anyone on a dark night. The child’s mother flinched and yanked her son’s hand, pulling him away.
The two of them hurried out of the convenience store.
The man remained still, his eyes fixed on the glass door they had just exited. He looked as if he were about to do something terrible, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
Did I stare too hard? Maybe I should have just waved.
Breaking from his stillness, the man took a slow step toward the counter. He was here to pay. He set down his items: ramyeon, kimchi, other basic necessities.
"Could you ring these up, please," he said.
His voice was deep and hollow. The cashier, clearly intimidated, kept stealing nervous glances at him while scanning the items.
The scanner beeped. The man packed his groceries into a plastic bag and left the convenience store. Outside, he checked the secondhand smartwatch on his wrist—a recent purchase he’d wanted for a long time.
-[Monday, June 1, 2020]
-[PM 8:16]
With a low, heavy sigh, the man roughly wiped the sweat from his forehead. The cap and mask only made the summer heat worse.
"Ugh, this damn heat."
He could tolerate the suffocating humidity, but the lack of ways to cover himself was what truly bothered him. In winter, he could bundle up in scarves and coats, but his face was always a problem.
The man scratched at his exposed jaw and the skin behind his ear.
Tsk, so itchy.
Every summer, his entire face erupted in an unbearable itch. It was just another thing to endure. He turned into a narrow alley and unlocked the door to his dim, semi-basement studio apartment. A place as gloomy as he was. His home.
It was located near Suyu Station in Hanseong. Though the interior was small and dark, it was surprisingly tidy, and a faint, pleasant scent hung in the air.
The first thing he did was pull off his cap and mask and head straight for the bathroom.
He splashed his face with cold water.
Nothing worked better when his skin was stinging and itchy. The man lifted his head, water dripping from his chin, and stared into the mirror. His heavy, impassive expression slowly melted into one of sorrow.
"......"
Over eighty percent of his face was a tapestry of scars. Some were red and bumpy, others were deep wrinkles etched into his skin. His lips and ears were misshapen, his eyebrows were gone completely, and his hair had thinned considerably.
"Hideous. And when is my hair going to stop falling out?"
His name was Lee Jin-woo. He was twenty-four years old.
A fire had done this to him. Three years ago, a neighbor’s portable heater had malfunctioned, and the flames had consumed everything. His parents. His life. Lee Jin-woo had miraculously survived. His parents had not.
"Even a monster should be allowed a full head of hair."
With a face this monstrous, Lee Jin-woo felt like he wasn't truly living anymore. For two years, he had been a monster, devoid of hope, filled only with resentment. He had naturally drifted away from people, spoke less, and grew more withdrawn. The longer he spent alone, the more his eerie aura intensified.
"Whatever. I'll just eat some ramyeon and go to bed."
After carefully patting his face dry, Jin-woo put a pot of water on the stove for his ramyeon.
For a while now, he had been waking up early every morning to go to a nearby labor office. After recovering from his injuries, he had tried to find a proper job, but it was impossible. People would either look at his face with open disgust or, worse, ignore him completely. Some just told him to get lost.
In an instant, the world had become a living hell for Lee Jin-woo. The difficulty of his life had skyrocketed.
He was scraping by on the insurance payout and whatever day labor he could get. At least he was working.
He placed the hastily cooked ramyeon on a small folding table. He was finished eating in ten minutes.
Thirty minutes later, after washing up, Jin-woo lay down in bed but couldn't stop tossing and turning.
His face was too itchy to sleep.
With a small sigh, he rolled onto his side and switched on the TV. A boy group was performing on a music show. Jin-woo watched them in silence for a while.
"......"
They sparkled. He muttered, his voice dim but sincere.
"I'm jealous."
A few hours later, just before dawn, around 5 AM, Lee Jin-woo covered his face with his cap and mask. His unsettling aura seemed to deepen. He was the first to arrive at the labor office near his house. The boss, a stern-looking man who seemed to recognize him, spoke in a gruff voice.
"Might not be any work today."
"That's fine."
"Just wait and see."
Over the next thirty minutes, the office began to fill up, mostly with foreign workers. Besides Jin-woo, there was only one other Korean. The competition was stiff, and there were plenty of days he went home empty-handed. But today…
"Hey, you. Let's go."
Maybe because he was young, or maybe because of his face, the stern boss always seemed to prioritize Jin-woo. Lee Jin-woo climbed into the waiting van outside. The other workers inside flinched when they saw him. Some avoided his gaze entirely; others stared awkwardly out the window. The van pulled away.
The job changed daily. Today, they were at an apartment construction site.
Jin-woo was satisfied.
The pay is good, and the meals are decent. Not a bad start to the day.
After some initial training, his first task was to move materials. He hauled heavy sacks up to their assigned floors, stacking them neatly. Sweat poured down his face, making his scars sting and itch, but when he worked, his mind was blissfully empty. He was good at his job, so much so that even his coworkers had to comment.
"That creepy guy… he works damn well, though."
Then came lunchtime.
He was hungry, but it was always an uncomfortable hour. He had to take off his mask to eat.
As expected, he drew stares. He was used to it, but the occasional whispers still felt like daggers in his heart.
"Damn… that guy's life is completely screwed."
Lee Jin-woo, sinking into a pit of gloom, slowly lifted his head. The whispering workers hastily dropped their eyes. His eerie presence had intensified.
Just eat quickly and get out of here.
After finishing his meal, Lee Jin-woo climbed to the apartment rooftop.
As if it were a daily routine, he laid out a thick sheet of Styrofoam, taller than a man, and stretched out on top of it.
The heat was unbearable, but the sky was clear.
Finally free from his cap and mask, Jin-woo took a deep breath.
Then, suddenly, he sat up and walked to the edge of the rooftop.
Down below, people moved about like tiny ants.
Watching them intently, he murmured in a low voice, "If I fall, will I be reborn?"
At that moment, a sharp sting pricked his wrist. Startled, he took off his smartwatch.
"What the hell?"
There was nothing wrong with it. Tilting his head, he glanced down at the dizzying drop one more time before letting out a small, humorless chuckle. Lying back down on the Styrofoam, he closed his eyes and muttered.
"Reborn? I'd just be a splatter on the pavement."
Later that evening, after finishing work, Lee Jin-woo returned to his semi-basement home. His whole body ached, but it wasn't a bad feeling. He had worked, and he had been paid. After a quick shower, he collapsed onto the floor and turned on the TV. He glanced at his phone, mumbling to himself.
"Haven't had Chinese food in a while."
It was then that he noticed something strange.
"Hm?"
An unfamiliar app was installed on his phone.
"What's this?"
The icon was a simple design with the word "AI" displayed prominently.
The app's name was [‘Persona Creator’].
Jin-woo furrowed his brows.
"‘Persona Creator’? I never installed this crap."
He tapped the icon. The app launched, displaying a spinning loading circle that quickly gave way to white text on a black screen.
-[A character will be automatically generated through user analysis.]
-[User: Lee Jin-woo / Age: 24 / Height: 182.8 cm]
Lee Jin-woo’s eyes widened slightly. He hadn’t entered a single piece of information, yet his details appeared on the screen. His name, his age, even his exact height—it was all correct.
"What the hell is this? A game?"
The app displayed another message.
-[Select a profession for the simulation.]
Jin-woo’s brow furrowed deeper.
"A profession?"
His phone screen instantly filled with an extensive list of careers. Doctors, lawyers, writers, business owners—there were too many to count. As he skimmed through the list, his thumb stopped on one particular job.
-[Idol]
He remembered the glittering boy group from the night before. On a whim, feeling a pang of that same envy, he selected it. The screen changed.
-[You have selected the profession ‘Idol.’]
-[Proceed with character appearance customization.]
Now it wanted him to customize his appearance. Letting out a gloomy sigh, Jin-woo’s eyes suddenly shot wide open.
"…Is that my face?"
His own face was staring back at him from the screen. The scars, the red and bumpy skin, the slightly misshapen ears and lips—it was a perfect replica. Startled, Jin-woo thought back to the RPGs he used to play, to the character creation screens where you could customize every feature.
It was just like that.
Except this was a fully rendered 3D model of Lee Jin-woo himself.
"Wow… the quality is insane."
How was this even possible? He hadn't uploaded a photo, so how had it recreated him so perfectly? Fascinated, Jin-woo dragged his finger across the screen, rotating the 3D model of his head. It turned smoothly, even showing the thinning patch of hair on the back of his scalp. It looked like he’d lost even more than he thought.
At that moment, another message appeared.
-[Confirm your desired appearance customization and press ‘Confirm.’]
A panel of options appeared on the right side of the screen: face shape, skin tone, eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows. He could change anything he wanted. Now fully intrigued, Lee Jin-woo tapped the first option.
"Let's get rid of these scars first."
He adjusted the skin tone, erasing the redness and smoothing out the rough, bumpy texture of his burn marks. In an instant, a clean, unblemished version of Lee Jin-woo appeared on the screen. It was just an app, but his mood lifted instantly.
"Okay. Next… obviously, a full head of hair."
He thickened his hair and gave himself a pair of sharp eyebrows. Then he began refining his features—his face shape, his eyes, his nose, his mouth. He focused on defining his T-zone, making his features more striking, even using the handsome men on TV as a reference.
An hour later, he was finished.
"Done."
The face on his phone was still recognizably Lee Jin-woo, yet it wasn’t him at all. It had clear, flawless skin. Thick, healthy hair. Bright, alluring eyes. A perfectly sculpted nose and well-proportioned lips, no longer deformed. And of course, bold, perfectly shaped eyebrows.
A ridiculously handsome man had been born.
He wasn't just handsome; he was a new kind of monster, one that would shatter the hierarchy of good-looking men. The new monster, Lee Jin-woo, let out an eerie smirk.
Heh, heh, heh.
The last setting was his voice. There were multiple tones to choose from, but for some reason, Jin-woo decided to keep his own.
"My voice is fine. I'll leave it."
He pressed ‘Confirm.’ At that same moment, a sharp tingle pricked his wrist again.
What the hell?
It was the same feeling he’d had at lunch. Confused, Jin-woo took off his smartwatch. The moment he did, the ‘Persona Creator’ app displayed a new message.
-[Connection error.]
Frowning, Jin-woo put the smartwatch back on. A different message appeared.
-[Connection stable.]
Curious, he took it off and put it on again. The same messages appeared.
"So, I have to be wearing the watch for this to work, huh?"
Whatever. The phone screen once again displayed a spinning "Loading..." circle. A moment later, the app generated a result.
-[Analysis complete. Application will take approximately 8 hours and 11 minutes.]
Eight hours and eleven minutes?
He had no idea what was being "applied," but over eight hours to create a single character? His excitement vanished. Annoyed, Lee Jin-woo closed the app and tossed his phone aside.
"Who the hell plays a game where character creation takes eight hours?"
He sprawled out on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. His mind was completely filled with the god-tier face he had just created, a face so perfect that even the most handsome men would bow before it.
"Honestly… that was kind of fun for a minute."
The next morning, Lee Jin-woo’s eyes snapped open. He was still lying flat on the floor.
"…Did I just sleep like this?"
His memory of falling asleep was a blur. He’d been tired, sure, but it felt more like he’d been knocked unconscious, as if by anesthesia. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced at the smartwatch on his wrist. It was already past 8 AM.
"Shit."
He had overslept for the first time in a long while. Today's work was a lost cause. Clicking his tongue, Jin-woo decided to just take the day off. He stretched with a wide yawn, cracking his neck from side to side, and shuffled into the bathroom to wash his face.
He turned on the faucet and glanced in the mirror without thinking. Then he froze.
"...Huh?"
He just stood there, staring at his reflection as if his circuits had fried. For a full ten seconds, he didn't move. Finally, with a trembling right hand, he reached up.
"Who… the hell is this?"
He stretched both his cheeks, pressed his nose, touched his eyebrows, and pulled on his ears. Thinking it had to be a dream, he even slapped his own face. But the reflection didn’t change. Lee Jin-woo’s eyes grew wider, and wider still, until they felt like they might pop out of his skull.
His reaction was understandable.
Because in the mirror, the exact face he had customized the night before was staring back at him.
"This face… the one I made yesterday…"
A ridiculously, impossibly handsome man was looking right at him.
"What the hell is this?!"
His brain short-circuited from the shock. For a moment, he could only stare at the stunning face in the mirror.
Then, with a crash, he bolted from the bathroom. He scrambled for his phone, fumbling to open the ‘Persona Creator’ app that had mysteriously appeared yesterday. When it loaded, his eyes widened several times over.
On the main screen of the app, another Lee Jin-woo was standing there.
"...What is this? Is that… me?"
It was a perfect 3D model of his original, scarred face.