“Ji Hwan, are you awake?”
“Agh…”
No place in my whole body didn’t hurt.
When I barely open my eyes, I see unfamiliar faces with worried expressions.
“Here is…?”
“It’s the hospital, you punk!”
“Whew, the kid is surprised! Be quiet!”
Even in the midst of befuddled, my voice coming out was unfamiliar.
“Uh… My voice…?”
“It’s okay. It’s temporary. I told you not to overdo it, you brat.”
Only then did the surroundings begin to catch my eyes and I realized that I was hospitalized in a quite normal state.
“I, car accident…”
“It’s okay. You’re surprised and collapse for a while. The car’s owner came and left just before.”
“And why did you go out at that time? You carelessly!”
When I shed tears because the hand slaps on the back hurt so much that the sound of aigo came out of its own, the other person who hit me also blushed in embarrassment.
It was the doctor who appeared in nice timing that saved me from struggling with the gap between my last memory and the current condition.
“Ji Hwan-gun, is there no particular place that is in pain?”
“Uh… Yeah. I think so. Although I have a bit of a headache and am out of my mind.”
The doctor then asked a few more questions and left saying that I should be a little more stable.
With that, the unidentified man and woman told me to take this opportunity to sleep well and left the hospital room after covering the blanket up to my neck.
“What’s all this…”
“Nim, won’t you snap out of it uhm?”
“Aish, I’m surprised!”
After confirming that the door was closed, I got up while muttering because I couldn’t understand the situation and a cat, Poing, suddenly appeared on the blanket and looked at me pathetically.
I realized that all the things that I thought were dreams actually happened.
I met Se Bin and died in a car accident because of some crazy guy. There was a fairy who said would give me a chance and I opened my eyes in an unfamiliar bed.
These are the realities that happened to me now. It was really hard to believe though.
“Didn’t I tell you’d know it when you experience it? There was a slight difference from the schedule, but it couldn’t be helped…”
“Woah… Am I dreaming again?”
“Don’t escape from reality and come to your senses uhm.”
Poing hit me on the arm as I was about to lie down again. When I got up, it threw a word and started grooming as if to give me time to come to my senses.
“The memory of that body will come to mind soon, so check it out uhm.”
“That… I was curious since the beginning, but why do you talk in elementary kid’s speech?”
“I learned Korean on the Internet uhm.”1 The reason I put the annoying ‘uhm’ in Poing’s words. The speech is characterized by the ending ‘eum’ rather than the usual ‘yo’ in Korean. Sorry if it’s kind of annoying.
“Ah… Learn again. Even elementary kids don’t talk like that these days…”
With a deep sigh, I grabbed my head with the lingering headache, and slowly the body’s memory began to come to mind.
Gong Ji Hwan, 18 years old.
The new body was a trainee preparing for an idol group project.
And the project was a program where I almost lost my limbs before I died since I’m not used to saying ‘previous life’.
“Idol Create… Ha.”
“Pft, what’s that name uhm. What to do with the naming sense.”
“Ah. Poing, the speech please…”
That’s the case with the damn fairy who pretended not to hear me and was absorbed in grooming. Although the name is the same, I was still so unfamiliar to myself of this world, which is completely different in appearance and what I was doing.
The original owner of this body must have practiced hard with the thought of debuting soon, but I remember that Unravel was a four-member group after watching the show already.
“Ah, so screwed.”
“I told you to choose well.”
“That’s right…”
Finished grooming, Poing stretched and sat in front of me.
“If Nim screws up, I’ll also screw up. So, focus on what I say from now on.”
“Huh, I’m focused.”
So, the biggest regret I had left at the end summoned Poing, and as a result, I lived a new life with my present body.
I wanted to ask about the original owner of this body, but I couldn’t.
Poing’s determined eyes seemed to be telling me that it couldn’t answer.
Poing said that there are a few sensible things it can help with, but it cannot tell me the details.
It also added that its final goal is to help me live a happy life and die a death with few regrets.
“I understood roughly. But is it okay that I’m a tone-deaf, bad dancer, and beat-deaf?”
“Try to call status window uhm.”
“Status window.”
As soon as I murmured, a small window with an inorganic feel appeared in front of me just like when I was forced to make the first choice.
I missed Mom. Dad and Noona too.
“I’m seriously really worried, but this…”
“It’s only visible to Nim and me, and it’ll come up when you think about it uhm.”
“Woah, how did you know I was thinking that?”
“… Nim seriously, how did you live in your past life without even reading those common fantasy novels?”
Huhu ha. With a clumsy smile, I began to check the letters and numbers shown by the window in front of me one by one.
I’ve never seen books with that kind of content as Poing said because I was at an age when I had put off my present (real-life) since I’m really focused on being a fanboy.
I read fantasy novels a lot when I was in school, and even back then, it was such a fantasy where elves, dwarves, and dragons appeared in a medieval world.
[Status Window]Name : Gong Ji Hwan
Job : A Trainee With Many Regrets
Lv : 5
Traits : Undecided
Skills : I Can Hear Your Voice (1), Tough Cookie2In Korean is 독종(dok.jong) which means strong-willed person. (3).
A lot seemed to have changed in a corner of the world that I didn’t know.
I didn’t expect to see things seen in games floating in front of my eyes.
After I checked the combination of words that were not so long and looked at Poing as if to explain, Poing looked at the Status Window and became sullen.
The expression was so cute somehow that I almost hugged it, but I managed to stop because I didn’t forget the nyang nyang punch.
“It’s not very very bad, it’s just a little bad.”
“Then that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“What good things! It’s average for most people who can summon fairies to have a basic level of 10 and have three Skills uhm!”
This cat is a fiery cat apparently.
Inevitably, I began to appease Poing with the skill I had learned to relieve Noonim’s anger.
“But, you just said it wasn’t very bad. Poing, it’ll be fine if you help me. Unravel was quite a well-known group, so it’ll work out if I just work hard.”
“It’s good that Nim is positive uhm…”
I gently held Poing, who had a subsiding voice, in my arms and patted the middle of its head.
And yet, to be honest, I still didn’t feel it.
I was just one of many idol fans, but now I have to work hard to become that idol.
But, unless I am having a very long vivid dream, the situation where I am lying in this hospital room now is my reality.
Noona often told me.
Don’t even start if you’re going to do it sloppily.
My parents, who always had to be away from home due to busy work, and me as a child.
There was Noona who was grumpy but always cared for me with affection from beside.
Noona has always been my spiritual support and a haven where my heart can rest completely.
Even in my previous life, I died because I didn’t listen to Noona.
When I thought of my family that I couldn’t see anymore, tears filled my throat along with heart-wrenching pain.
Emotions that I swallowed because I couldn’t bear to spit out were up near the limit.
I couldn’t do anything for them, but I even left first, so my existence must have been a big nail in the heart of my family.
My face was badly distorted by psychological pain, but fortunately, Poing turned its head and pretended not to notice.
“…Poing, what can I do to make it easier to recall the memories?”
“Think strongly about what can be a keyword uhm.”
I thought I was about to cry soon, so I decided to put aside my sad thoughts for a while. I focused on my thoughts about the family of the current me as Poing said and memories of them flooded in like watching a documentary.
“Haa… Why am I always like this?”
“?”
“It’s just, Ji Hwan of here was like that too.”
Former Gong Ji Hwan also had a hard time with his family, but the current Gong Ji Hwan was not that different.
He didn’t have much talent to stand out.
He just liked singing and moving his body.
Both parents died when he was young.
The older sister, who has a large age gap, raised ‘Gong Ji Hwan’ with the help of their mother’s family, and Gong Ji Hwan, that is ‘me’, left the house as if running away after a big fight with his sister because of the vain dream of becoming an idol.
After that, he kept it a secret from his sister and was able to enter the current agency with the help of his youngest maternal uncle.
But unfortunately, Gong Ji Hwan, who wanted to become a happy person who shines like a star, was on the verge of collapsing before he could shine.
“Perhaps the difficulty can be adjusted aga…?”
“Don’t talk nonsense uhm.”
“Yeah… There’s no way, huhu.”
Recalling Idol Create, I could remember a trainee who was in a similar position and eventually failed the evaluation.
A trainee who was expelled from the first evaluation after hearing that his mask3Refers to visual or face. and vocalization were okay but lacked talent.
It was pure coincidence that ‘I’ overheard the broadcasting staff and company people talking with serious faces while coming out of the practice room.
As each episode progressed, there were more days when ‘I’ received bad reviews, and as much as that, ‘my’ confidence fell to the bottom more and more. ‘I’ had already lost much confidence in myself.
As a result, ‘I’ seemed to be unable to suppress curiosity at the mention of ‘my’ own name even though ‘I’ quickly tried to avoid the place in case it was noticed or being told.
‘Right, why did you hear that.”
“What uhm?”
“No, it’s just a bit pitiful.”
“Nim is not in a position to pity others uhm.”
“It’s not others anymore. It’s me.”
I even remembered that the man who took care of the hospital room is the manager and the woman is the rookie team leader.
They must have been aware of the situation going back, so they seemed to have told me to calm down and have a good rest.
“Absurd.”
“??”
When I pulled Poing who looked at me with a puzzled look and lay down again, it turned its back and put itself in my arms as if it couldn’t win.
It seemed to be a fairy with a cute side even though it was a bit fuzzy.
“Poing, but are you only visible to me?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Just. I like it.”
“Weird human.”
I was grateful for Poing, who put its front feet on my arm pretending can’t win. Because the only one that gave a chance to me who almost ended up as it was and also the one who remembers who I am actually in this world now is this violent cat fairy.
A myriad of things came to mind when I closed my eyes.
My memory and Ji Hwan’s memory.
And the moment he saw the car running towards himself, I even saw the empty heart of Ji Hwan who let go of everything behind.
If Poing came to make what I desperately longed to come true, there was one thing I had to do in this world.
Making Unravel shine brighter than anyone else in the world.
I decided to become the fifth member of Unravel and lay petals on the children’s future myself.
It was the dream I had and the only tribute I could offer to another ‘me’.