Chapter 313

Chapter 313

Unexpectedly being removed from Park Moondae’s body and returned to my own was always a possibility I’d considered, of course. I’d been looking for a way to return at first, after all. The problem was, I’d never considered returning to my own body and bringing Moondae with me.

Both of us were silent for a long moment.

“Uh…”

“Shut up. I’m thinking.”

“Right…”

The echoing voice sounded almost teary. I massaged my forehead with both hands. My head hurt

F*ck. I had no idea what was happening, which meant the first thing I needed to do was collect information.

“You’re… Park Moondae?” I asked.

“Y-yes!”

There was nothing particularly notable about the sound of his voice, but I could ascertain his style of speech and things like that. In other words, I was dealing with a young kid that was currently a little intimidated.

Sh*t. Don’t tell me this is the reward I get for clearing that mission. I was absolutely at a loss for words. This reward had been forced down my throat just as I was about to give my speech on stage.

But wait.

“…!”

I’d just been about to give my speech after receiving our daesang. And the awards ceremony had been a live broadcast, too. My blood ran cold.

“Gunwoo…?”

I ignored him and stood up, starting to search my surroundings.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“My phone.” I tossed aside my blanket, then asked in a low voice, “Where’s my phone?”

“I don’t know… I don’t even know why I’m here…!”

I rummaged around all throughout the room, then discovered a small TV sitting on the table next to the sink that served as both a dining table and a desk.

A TV? I’d never owned a TV. But that was beside the point. I turned it on. A news channel flickered to life on screen, and I watched, thinking there might be some breaking news about me. Then I saw it. The date was displayed in small font at the bottom of the news channel screen.

“…!”

[December 15, 202X]

Four years ago. It was not the day I’d just been living—the day of the awards ceremony, where TeSTAR had been in the midst of receiving their first daesang of the year.

December 15. That was Moondae’s birthday, and the same day he’d gone to a motel and taken sleeping pills, which had led to me finding myself in Moondae’s body. It was the fateful day that everything had begun.

“Ha!”

I tried to back away, nearly tripping over a chair.

“Are you okay?”

I’m back here again? No. It couldn’t be. This was all too similar to the time I’d fallen into a coma, and if I remembered correctly, that time had also been…

Yes. I knew for certain now.

“This is another dream, then?”

“What? Hey!”

I sat down on the chair, intertwining my fingers. The shaking of my hands slowly died down.

“All right. Let’s talk.”

If this was meant to be a f*cking reward, there had to be something I could get out of it. I dove into the conversation without hesitation.

“Park Moondae, you said you don’t know why you’re here.”

“What? No. I don’t.”

Regardless of whether this was a lie or not, he likely had no explanation for why I had entered his body. I decided to push on without waiting for him to elaborate.

“Were you doing before all this happened?”

“I… I…”

His voice shook. I patiently waited for his answer.

“I was visiting… in the hospital.”

“Visiting?”

Who had he been visiting? Family? I hadn’t heard of any family Moondae might have had. The answer I got was completely unexpected.

“I mean you. I was visiting you.”

“…!”

Me? He was visiting me in the hospital? What in the world was he talking about? But then again, I’d noticed something from the moment we’d met.

He knows me. He’d called me Gunwoo from the start. This meant a friendship existed between us, at least from his point of view. This was a clue. I continued with my questions.

“When?”

“Well… That’s what puzzles me, too! I was living in the year 202X, but that news channel just now had a different year…”

This admission forced me to acknowledge something. This was the Moondae from the situation that I’d seen the last time I’d been allowed to reveal the truth. He was from a future I did not remember, in which we’d become friends after I bought him a meal.

The tremulous voice continued. “D-don’t you know me, Gunwoo?”

“I can’t be sure.”

“What?”

I can’t be sure whether I even know you or not.

“Tell me the last thing you remember about your situation, for starters. My memories seem a little mixed up.”

“L-let me see…” Moondae hesitated, but he soon began to describe the last thing he remembered. “You were… hospitalized. I went to see you because I was worried. And then, all of a sudden, I was here…”

“Why was I in the hospital?”

“Uh… You overworked yourself.”

I nodded to myself decisively. “Don’t lie.”

“…!”

It made no sense to say that I’d been hospitalized because of work. And more telling still, his tone changed when he tried to lie.

“That’s not the reason.” A possible answer came to me immediately. “For example, I could have tried to kill myself.”

“Yes… Y-you were mentally tired… Exhausted… So you remember that?”

I knew it. I’d tried to die the last time I’d viewed the truth. It seemed I’d failed, and been taken to the hospital before I could do myself any real damage. It seemed my luck wasn’t half bad. The situation was still baffling to me, but I nodded regardless.

“Somewhat. So, what did you talk about when you went to see me?”

“We didn’t get to talk. You were still unconscious…”

So I was in a coma. I asked more questions, but he hadn’t done anything special during the visit, either. He didn’t seem to be lying. There was one more thing that I needed to find out.

“What were you thinking?”

“What?”

Based on the cross-checking I’d done with the others, I’d come up with the theory that those who returned to the past were apparently allowed to do so based on their thoughts and desires in their final moments. In that case, I needed to know what had happened in this Moondae’s final moments. I’d never had any desire to enter Moondae’s body.

“I’d like to know the last thing that was on your mind, if you can remember that.”

For instance, he might have thought to himself that he wanted to run away upon seeing me, if he believed that what he saw was my future.

The voice shook a little more, but he spoke without hesitation. “Nothing much. I just wanted you to live a long, healthy life…”

“…!”

I hadn’t been expecting that. I abruptly couldn’t find words, feeling a little taken aback. His response made me feel a little… ashamed of myself.

Sh*t. It took me a moment to gather myself.

“First of all… I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry I suddenly demanded answers from you like I was interrogating you. You must be just as disoriented as I am.”

In fact, since he’d found himself suddenly without a body, now nothing more than a disembodied voice, it wasn’t surprising that he had been panicked. Dream or no dream, it had been wrong of me to suddenly take such a harsh tone with him. I needed to be more level-headed.

“In any case… Thanks for wishing me well like that.”

“Oh…” The voice sounded slightly confused and hesitant. “Not at all! You’re the one who’s always helping me. I’ve never paid you back for all that.”

Pay me back? Don’t be silly. As I’d expected, he didn’t seem to have much experience being offered help by others. I had no idea how many times I’d been forced to hear him say those words after the single bowl of soup and rice I’d bought him the time I’d been shown our first meeting.

I was grateful, but I decided to move on to a slightly more productive topic.

“That’s fine. So how are you right now?”

“Oh! Uh… I can’t move this body myself… but I can feel it when you move.”

“Okay.”

We were sharing the same body, but I was in control of its movements. It seemed I really was getting my opportunity to speak to Moondae, though occupying the same body while doing so was a downright strange experience.

Why was this necessary? If we were going to be transported into a dream like this, couldn’t we simply have been given our own bodies? But perhaps the real Moondae’s mind was no longer around in the reality I’d occupied, and that was why this was happening.

“Hmm.”

I didn’t particularly like this hypothesis, especially since it led to no clear conclusions. I would have to examine this dream more closely. Standing up, I began looking for my phone again.

“Are you looking for your phone?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe… it’s in your back pocket?” the voice said uncertainly. “I think I can sense something there right now…”

Oh. I reached into my jeans and immediately found the familiar device. I sighed.

“Thanks.”

I’d been too disoriented to even consider it. Tutting, I turned the screen on, which showed a notification.

[No network connection.]

“…?”

It was the sort of pop-up I’d expect to see on an unregistered phone. One without a number.

Wait… I suddenly had a strange hunch, and I immediately began to look around. I hadn’t noticed until now because I hadn’t modified anything about my apartment at the time, but something felt off. I soon found the reason.

“Gunwoo?”

There was a family photo sitting on the shelf in the open wardrobe. The four people in it were complete strangers to me. I knew I’d never taken it, bought it, or placed it there. Somebody else had.

A thought flashed through my mind. When I’d first entered Moondae’s body, I’d checked Gunwoo’s active accounts, phone number, website usernames, and so on. They’d all been gone. I’d believed I might be in a parallel universe at first, but eventually, I’d decided that they had to have disappeared by supernatural means since the accounts and records that I’d abandoned in the past were still around.

Gunwoo had vanished, both from the internet and the real world, the moment I entered Moondae’s body. And what if I’d suddenly materialized again at this point in time, four years ago—with no connections at all to the reality I’d once occupied? I slapped myself in the face just to be sure.

“Hey!”

That hurts. Oh, f*ck. I immediately stood up, taking a closer look around. It confirmed what I’d suspected.

This isn’t the apartment I used to live in. And based on the pain I just felt, this was no dream. This was f*cking real. Practically speaking, the first thing I have to do is…

“We need to get out of here.”

“Get out?”

Yeah. If my rental contract had been reset as well, that meant we were currently in someone else’s apartment!

***

I hurried out of the apartment that was no longer mine. I hadn’t touched anything in particular, so they probably wouldn’t notice there had been an intruder. A new problem emerged.

What I have right now… I had a flip phone—not a smartphone—that had no network connectivity. There was also only about 140,000 won in my wallet. No doubt, I had no bank account, either.

I dearly wish to kill whoever is responsible for this.

Grinding my teeth, I said, “Status window.”

A window did appear, which was something.

[Currently receiving reward]

I need to stay calm. I tried to look on the bright side. Perhaps things would go back to normal after this was over. I quickly put aside any thoughts of the award ceremony. That wasn’t going to help me right now.

“Phew.”

The voice of Moondae, who had also figured out some of what was going on, hummed softly in my mind.

“Hey, uh… Are you all right? What do you think is going on here?”

“I’m fine.”

I wasn’t, actually, but kicking up a fuss wouldn’t change anything. I shut up and sat down. There was one thing I needed more than anything else right now.

I have no home to go to. In fact, I had nothing at all, since all my contacts within society had been totally reset. I wasn’t sure how long this damnable situation was going to last, but I needed to have a working phone, at least.

There’s only one thing to be done. After I’d come to this conclusion, I began to walk.

“Uh… Where are we going right now?”

“The convenience store.” I added nonchalantly, “I’m going to buy some lottery tickets.”

“Lottery tickets? I-I think I’m in the past, but I don’t remember any winning lottery numbers…”

He seemed to have misunderstood.

“I know the numbers.”

“…!”

I opened my phone again. I couldn’t make calls with it or anything, but I could see the day of the week. It was a Friday, and tomorrow was the day that the lottery winners were announced. The moment I’d entered Moondae’s body, I’d realized that I didn’t have any information about stocks or lottery numbers. Of course, I couldn’t resist taking a look at the numbers being announced the very next day. Even if it had no practical benefit, it was a disappointment-fueled act I’d indulged in. And that sort of remarkable experience was bound to stick in one’s memory for a while.

I still remember it. As soon as I walked into the convenience store, I bought twenty tickets or so, including a couple of numbers that I wasn’t sure about.

“One of these is bound to be the winner.”

The voice in my mind seemed to swallow.

“You’re… very smart.”

This wasn’t about being smart. This was about the situation at hand. In order to understand this, he would have to hear about the things I’d been through in his body.

But right now… he seems tired, too. Moondae had begun to sound anxious a while ago. The situation was sinking in, and he was feeling the fear.

I’ll give him some time to rest. I then reserved somewhere cheap for us to stay. I would only have to make my funds last until Monday morning, which meant I had enough cash for now.

We’ll rest for a bit, then talk after we’ve calmed down a little. As soon as I woke up from my nap, I would tell him about what I’d been through and explain the exact situation.

As I lay down in bed, I said, “Please wake me if you can’t sleep after I’ve fallen asleep.”

“What? No! It’s all right—”

“Just wake me.”

I checked the status window, which still showed the same message, then fell asleep.

***

Light fell over my eyelids.

“Gunwoo?”

I gasped and opened my eyes. My head felt clear—it seemed I’d slept more deeply than I’d expected to. I heard a voice calling to me that sounded to be on the verge of tears.

“Gunwoo! I knew you’d still be around!”

Why was he so glad that I was here? I sat up, then was immediately confused.

“…?”

This was not the motel I’d fallen asleep in. I could see what looked like the interior of a studio apartment. I saw bright sunlight and green trees outside the window.

It can’t possibly be December.

“What the…”

The voice began chattering away before I could think any further. “Oh, by the way, we won the lottery, just like you said we would! We got 1.2 billion won!”

That was good news at least. But that meant enough time had passed for us to get that money and buy an apartment with it. I questioned him regarding this.

“It seems it’s been a while since we bought those tickets.”

His voice became much smaller. “Yes. I woke up the next day, but you were gone, and I was you… you know?”

What?

“S-so I’ve been living that way for some time…”

This was bullsh*t of the highest degree, and it made my head spin.

I need to stay calm. At least we seemed to have no money problems after winning the lottery. I looked around at the apartment, which looked loads better than the one I’d lived in before. That was one less thing to worry about. The biggest surprise, however, was still to come.

“Oh, and, uh… Something strange popped up after you disappeared…”

“What?”

“T-take a look at this…”

Moments later, I was staring at a window.

Status abnormality: “Pass or Die!” (1)

Avoid failing any subject in the first-round written exam of the “Grade Seven Open Competitive Civil Servant Exam” or die.

This can’t be… These motherf*ckers…