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Chapter 204:
Chapter 204:
Chapter 204:
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 204 Return
“Huh?”
I let out a stupid sound in a loud voice without realizing it. The return message was more sudden than I expected.
“Wow, that’s awesome! You made it to the debut spot!”
Yu-geon sincerely congratulated me, but my head went blank. I wanted to go back quickly, but so suddenly?
I couldn’t even check what was going on with Naru, let alone say a proper goodbye. I was confused by the situation.
“I told you you’d get good results if you worked hard. I’m glad. You should rank higher.”
While Hwijin congratulated me without any ulterior motive, the countdown number quickly decreased.[17]
[16]
[15]
…
I felt like I had to say something, so I grabbed Yu-geon and shouted.
“Don’t ever give up, you can do well! I know what you’re afraid of, but I won’t forgive you if you quit and run away, got it?”
Yu-geon laughed as if he was dumbfounded by my words telling him not to run away.
“What? You were talking to me politely like you were being respectful, but now you’re suddenly talking to me informally like you’re going to leave?”
His words had a point, but he didn’t look annoyed, just surprised. His slightly raised lips proved that.
What, why are you laughing? I grabbed Yu-geon’s collar and snapped at him.
“Don’t run away! If you quit being an idol, I’ll come after you!”
Yu-geon gave a snort of laughter and raised both hands as a sign of surrender.
“Okay, okay, I got it.”
5
4
3
“See you soon.”
That was the last thing I barely managed to say before the countdown ended. My eyes closed involuntarily with a strong dizziness.
My body was dragged down into a dark space, feeling a burning pain as if my skin was being peeled off layer by layer.
The pain was secondary, but I couldn’t breathe. My body twisted and curled up like when I first entered this strange virtual space.
I barely opened my eyes and saw the windows filled with error messages around me.
[Recovering user data from serious system damage.]
[Blocked the attack from %%&^454#[email protected]@ attempts of external intrusion.]
[Blocking access from unauthorized programs.]
[Detected 7,326,437,268,341 attempts of external attack. Recovery measures completed after 4 chip-in defenses.]
The messages with similar patterns flowed into my head like a bunch of TVs turned on.
And then my body twisted for a while and a short guide message popped up.
[System error has been recovered.]
[All error message data will be deleted to prevent user confusion.]
And then I had a severe headache that felt like my head was going to explode.
“Ugh… what are they erasing…”
Before I could regain my senses, my consciousness faded and all my thoughts disappeared.
[Error data deletion complete.]
[Returning to the designated area.]
And then, everything went dark again.
How much time had passed?
When I opened my eyes from my limp body that was too weak to even twitch a finger, the steering wheel was so close to my face as if someone had pushed it towards me.
“Huh.”
I startled and sat up, but my body swayed with a strong dizziness that made my head buzz.
And at that moment, I heard a familiar sound.
Woof-!
[Congratulations on your return, ‘Cheon Ise’.]
Along with the short message, Pposili, who was at the bottom, wagged his thick tail and looked up at me.
‘Ah.’
I had felt something strangely empty all this time. And I realized that it was none other than Pposili. I unknowingly felt glad and rubbed the status window with my fingertip.
Then, once again, woof-! With a cheerful bark, Pposili popped up in the air and jumped onto my chest.
“Whoa, don’t just appear out of nowhere!”
As I flinched and adjusted my posture, I hugged the soft and warm fur ball that weighed over 10kg. Pposili licked my face as if he was happy to see me.
He wasn’t usually this fond of licking. What was going on?
Of course, I was happy to see him after a long time too… But it was awkward. I stroked his head and Pposili got more excited and bounced around. He greeted me.
Anyone would think that we hadn’t seen each other for months…
I shivered and quickly checked my phone.
[December 19th]
Thankfully, it was the same date that I remembered.
“Phew…”
It seemed like time hadn’t passed while I was in the virtual past.
But maybe because I had been in a non-real space for too long, my sense of time was blurred.
‘I don’t have time to waste on useless thoughts.’
I shuddered slightly at the dissonance of feeling different on my fingertips than when I was ‘Lim Hyun-seong’. I fastened my seat belt and started the car.
I still remembered vividly the faces of Yu-geon, who laughed as if it was absurd, and Hwijin, who looked at me with a worried expression.
But in reality, everything that had happened then was like a dream that never happened. I suddenly felt weird.
It was only two weeks, but.
The time I spent on the My Idol Stage, where they forced the trainees to compete in an unreasonable and absurd way.
The moments when we wondered together what was the best we could do, laughed, and felt sad. They became my memories.
Only I remembered.
“…”
They were happy for me even though they could have ranked higher if I wasn’t there.
I wasn’t originally from that world. If I wasn’t there, they could have been more stable in their debut.
They said things like, even if you don’t debut here, you’ll have a chance somewhere else. But I thought the My Idol stage was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I decided to stay even though I was treated poorly.
Besides, Hwijin seemed to have a limit in his mind that this was his last chance to challenge himself.
But I felt strange when my colleague, who was so happy for me when I unexpectedly got a high rank, said that it was just my fantasy.
“Sigh…”
I should have spent the time looking for a way to catch Kang Yu-geon instead of having these weird thoughts.
I had to drive, but tears started to fall without me noticing.
I guess I cry more easily over trivial things as I get older.
The low voice that used to greet me with small talk or sincere worries before falling asleep was fading away.
I would see the owner of that voice again soon, but.
“…”
I stared at the traffic light without saying a word, then stepped on the accelerator and headed to the dorm.
When I arrived at the dorm and parked the car in the designated spot in the underground parking lot, I checked the rearview mirror to see if there were any traces of crying. Fortunately, they had settled down.
‘Don’t think about useless things.’
As I glanced at the spot where Pposili had disappeared, a familiar name popped up on my phone screen.
[YOU] (picture) 5:21 PM
This crazy guy is really making me worry.
I quickly checked the picture and it was a landmark of the area I knew.
I texted Yu-geon back right away.
[Me] Are you there now? 5:22 PM
Then he sent me another picture without saying anything.
[YOU] (picture) 5:23 PM
‘Sigh…’
It was a tourist spot not far from the landmark he sent earlier.
It was the off-season, so there was no one around and the winter scenery was darkening as the sun began to set.
I quickly found and booked the fastest flight I could catch and sent him a screenshot.
[Me] (picture) 5:32 PM
[Me] Don’t think about running away and wait quietly 5:33 PM
There was no reply from Yu-geon.
I couldn’t read his mind like a magician, so I didn’t know why he kept sending me these messages.
But I could roughly guess that he wanted me to find out where he was.
He loved the stage and singing and dancing too much to give up on this.
He wanted to run away and leave everything behind, but he also wanted to come back. He was lost and didn’t know how to return.
‘I have to go and beat him up and drag him back.’
I clenched my teeth and went up to the dorm to get ready to pack.
As I opened the door lock, which was familiar but somehow unfamiliar.
“Woof-!”
“Whaaat!”
“Huh, hyung, you’re here?”
The two furry beasts and Seon-woo greeted me from behind the door.
They probably didn’t think it had been that long, but for me, their faces were ones I hadn’t seen in too long.
Without realizing it, my eyes welled up and I hugged Seon-woo.
“Huh…? Hyung, what’s wrong?”
Seon-woo stuttered in confusion and I patted his back a few times before lifting my face to greet him.
“No, I’m just glad to see you.”
I pushed the bewildered Seon-woo aside and Kyunghwa came out of the room when he heard the sound of people coming in.
“What’s going on…?”
I didn’t give Kyunghwa a chance to say anything and grabbed him and hugged him too.
“Why are you doing this? Are you crazy? Did you drink?”
Kyunghwa grimaced and wriggled out of my arms, so I grabbed Yi-jun, who came along with him as a 1+1 deal, and hugged him.
Maybe it was because he worked out a lot. Unlike the previous softies, the feeling of hugging him was bad, so I quickly backed away as if I had touched someone I shouldn’t have.
“What’s with the sudden hug time?”
Yi-jun looked at me and Kyunghwa with a bright and innocent expression and then hugged us both like a shoulder buddy.
“Seon-woo, do you want to join too?”
He then squeezed Seon-woo in as well, creating a scene of reunion that was more weird and suspicious than touching.
“…”
Seong-won, who came out to see what the commotion was, looked at us with contempt.
“I don’t know what this is, but I’m not doing it.”
Seong-won turned his head and tried to run away, but.
“No way!”
Yi-jun ran after him with an unbelievable force, dragging the three of us along.
We couldn’t even move a few steps and fell over towards Seong-won.
“Ouch.”
“Ow.”
“Wait a minute, I’m hurting because I have my hand under me.”
“Ah, Oh Yi-jun, are you crazy?”
The annoyed complaints and whining mixed together and one by one, the faces I had missed came into my view.
“What’s going on all of a sudden? What happened at the head office?”
Kyunghwa looked at me with genuine concern and asked.
There was a lot I wanted to say. But right now, the first thing I had to do was get Kang Yu-geon.
“I’ll tell you slowly. I have to go somewhere quickly, so I have to pack my bags first.”
I tapped his shoulder with a happy feeling and hurried to my room, and Kyunghwa followed me with his arms crossed.
“At this time? Where?”
I took out the suitcase I had put on top of the closet and spread it on the bed and answered.
“Jeju Island.”