Chapter 323

Chapter 323

Park Moondae, going to see Ryu Gunwoo with Ryu Chungwoo…

“Moondae, did you get a shock? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

How could this have happened so fast? I closed my eyes to keep from trembling. Chungwoo had located Gunwoo.

I’ll start there.

“I guess I’m just surprised. I’m curious how he suddenly got in touch, and how.”

“I know, right? I felt the same way.”

I doubt we feel the same way.

In any case, he grinned and continued to explain, “One of the eldest son’s grandsons met him at a civil servant retreat in Seoul and got in touch with the clan. Apparently, a lot of the people remembered him.”

I doubt it was just a lot of people remembering him. A former gold medalist and national athlete, current daesang-winning idol would have had an instant effect on the clan’s elderly. They had probably searched high and low, asking everyone they could think of.

Unsurprising. A single prestigious title would have been enough to make them eternally proud of Chungwoo. But Chungwoo had two such titles, so no wonder they’d lost it trying to help him out. That was why they’d found Gunwoo as soon as he reemerged into society. The situation aside, I understood logically what had happened and nodded silently.

Now, how do I turn this van around? The moment Chungwoo noticed anything strange about the Moondae in Gunwoo’s body and me, I would be sent for a psych exam.

I thought as hard as I could. If nothing else, I had to make him drop me off and turn around and leave.

“Sorry. I guess I got excited and wanted to make this a surprise. You probably needed time to prepare yourself for something like this.”

Making excuses for me without being asked, huh?

I tried not to smile as I replied gravely, “Uh, I’m grateful, but I’m also a little tense and taken aback. I’m a bit worried about whether I’ll be able to talk properly at all. Why don’t we just go home for today?”

I’d made a huge fuss about finding him in exchange for saving Chungwoo’s life, and it would be stupid to suddenly claim I’d changed my mind and didn’t want to meet the guy anymore.

I’ll stall and gently persuade him to turn around.

Chungwoo sounded worried as he said, “Yeah? You’ll probably find it hard to find another time to see him… We have a tour after the awards ceremonies.”

Damn it.

“Hmm… I’ll have to make time somehow.”

He smiled. “Don’t worry too much. I have a driver’s license… so driving you out to him without telling anyone isn’t going to be a problem.”

I said nothing.

“Moondae, you don’t have a license.”

“That’s right… Thank you.”

This is driving me out of my mind. Phew… Now that he knew about it, it would not be easy for me to just go and meet Gunwoo alone. But if I refused to meet him now and demanded to have his phone number instead, this could become an emotionally charged mess.

He’ll think that I suddenly changed my mind after he went through all the trouble of calling on the clan to help find this guy. In fact, I was even starting to think that it might be best to just see Gunwoo today, since he’d already brought me out in the van. I considered all the possibilities, then came to a conclusion.

“If you’re too nervous, we can go back today. I’ll speak to the agency to arrange another time—” Chungwoo was saying.

“No. I’ll just use the drive over to calm down.”

“Uh… All right.”

I don’t want to make this bigger than it has to be. The moment the agency was brought into the loop, some staff member or journalist might potentially hear about it. Then there would be hell to pay.

There are already plenty of people interested in Moondae’s past. Gunwoo was a civilian, but he was a relative of Chungwoo. There was no guarantee that people would not delve into his financial situation or family background.

Fine, f*ck it. I’d made my decision—I was going now. Given the current situation, I did my best to smile. It would seem even more suspicious if my expression was too grim.

“In any case… Thank you so much. I’m very surprised. I think my heart is racing,” I said.

Though not for the reason you think.

“Haha. All right. We’ve got some spare time, so I’ll go slow.”

Before meeting Gunwoo, I tried to encourage him to go back to the dorm without me by suggesting that he could simply drop me off, but he said, “How will you come back?”

That shut me up. If I didn’t want the agency to know, I couldn’t call the manager. If I took a taxi, people would talk about having seen me.

I suppose Chungwoo would be the best choice in terms of security… Just giving up and accepting my fate made me feel so much better that it was hard to believe.

I should just focus on something I can do. I erased the text that I’d been writing to the few numbers that could possibly be Big Moon’s. I couldn’t let Chungwoo see there were records of messages between us when we exchanged numbers.

We’ll just exchange numbers and part ways quickly. I planned out how the situation would play out multiple times in my head, but the strange headache I was getting felt like a bad sign. I was also starting to have some practical questions.

“But… Did the guy agree to meet?” I asked.

“Huh?” He shrugged. “I just got a message. The relative who was at the retreat with him told him that there was someone who wanted to meet him real quick, if that was okay. He said it was.”

What?

***

We soon arrived at a training institute on the outskirts of Seoul. People who’d finished with for the day poured through the doors. There had apparently been some appointment issues that had led only Seoul to host some urgent retreats, and no one was sleeping at the institute, instead being forced to commute daily. Not that I cared about these details—I’d never even passed the exam myself. What mattered was that Gunwoo was really sitting and waiting for us in a private room in a restaurant located next to the institute.

The bastard. I was shocked. I had never suspected he would fall for such a clumsy trap as being told someone wanted to meet him. He’d fallen for it though.

“Oh, uh… Hello.”

His reaction told me that it was Big Moon in that body, all right. He looked like he was beginning to sweat profusely, and that was enough to convince me. While I was pissed, I had to admit I was also relieved. Ever since I’d seen him in that strange mindscape, I’d expected to sense the same weird disharmony when I met him in person. Apparently, that wasn’t the case.

In fact, since I’d never seen him move about in Gunwoo’s body in person like this… I was pretty intrigued. I supposed this must be what it felt like to have a younger brother.

“You came to see me…?” he asked.

Yes, you bastard. You seem perfectly fine, so why did you ignore my messages while agreeing to this suspicious meeting? I couldn’t say that out loud, of course, so I kept calm and bowed my head.

“Hello, Gunwoo.”

“I-I’m sorry?”

“You remember me, right? I’m Park Moondae. You helped me before.”

Please act natural. Big Moon glanced between me and Chungwoo, then seemed to realize something.

“Oh, oh… Moondae! Of course!”

“Yes…”

Damn it. He was terrible at acting.

Chungwoo seemed a bit puzzled, but he smiled and greeted Gunwoo, perhaps thinking the other man was just taken aback. “I was surprised to find out that a relative of mine had helped Moondae out. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us,” he said.

Considering that many troublesome situations could easily arise thanks to our occupation, Chungwoo was likely going to stay for the duration of our conversation. He was Gunwoo’s relative and Moondae’s roommate, so it was only natural that he would.

In fact, I might hurt his feelings if I try to send him away. He would probably excuse himself once he felt that the mood had loosened up enough. Until then, I had no choice but to wait. I watched wryly.

“No need to thank me! I hardly did anything. In fact, just call me Gunwoo— Ahem.”

I knew

you’d be like this. I immediately changed the subject.

“Let’s eat, shall we?”

“Sure thing. And what would you like to eat, Gunwoo… If I can call you that?” Chungwoo said.

“Of course…”

Damn it. I’d been hoping to get out of here after having some tea, but now we were ordering food. It was sickening to watch Chungwoo order a full-course meal. A long, arduous path lay ahead of me, and I’d have to cover for Big Moon more than once.

Sh*t.

An hour passed. We’d eaten everything and chowed down on some delicious Beijing duck and Big Moon made over five mistakes that I had to cover for. It was an astonishing number.

Though I assumed this would happen. At this rate, he was going to start building momentum and make even more mistakes. In truth, Big Moon wasn’t being all that careless. Chungwoo kept on trying to lighten the mood by leading the conversation, and Big Moon made a few mistakes here and there by using the wrong names.

For instance, when he explained how Moondae and Gunwoo had met, he mixed up who was supposed to have helped who.

“We ate together, and the advice he gave a total stranger—”

“You gave a total stranger. I remember it very well.”

This was how his slip-ups generally went—always cutting it quite close. Big Moon tried to remain conscious of our swapped bodies as much as he could, but it was difficult for him to navigate the conversation when all he’d done for the past four years was study. It was when we were eating a course of red braised pork belly that a truly close call occurred.

“And Gunwoo— Uh, I mean…”

He called me Gunwoo. If I was honest, I began to sweat.

“Right… ‘Gunwoo, you’re such a great help,’ is what I said.”

Frankly, I thought our cover was blown, but Chungwoo smoothly responded.

“I see.”

Moments later, he whispered to me, “He seems to find conversation difficult after all the studying he’s been doing. I guess I should talk less.”

Just like he had in the van, he’d made a convenient excuse for me without being asked. He was a diligent person, always eager to try and understand others.

“You’re right. Let’s wrap this up.”

I didn’t miss my chance, of course.

Just as another main dish was about to be served, Chungwoo stood and left the room.

“I need to make a quick phone call.”

“Okay!”

As soon as the door closed behind him, I watched Big Moon sigh heavily.

“Phew…”

I understood that it couldn’t have been easy for him. I crossed my arms and watched him, and he kept his eyes on the floor, perhaps conscious of his many mistakes. The silence between us lengthened.

Good. I heard no one lingering outside our room. I unfolded my arms and got down to what I really wanted to ask.

“Why didn’t you get in touch?”

He looked totally fine. My thoughts were tangled as I wondered if some other problem had occurred. He seemed shocked to hear this.

“But I did! I contacted you!”

What?

“You didn’t message me at all, so I was going to get in touch myself. What are you talking about?”

“Oh, but I thought this was… I-I mean, first of all…” Big Moon sounded deeply wounded, as if he’d been wrongly accused. “I texted you right away after you won the daesang…”

Wait, what? I needed to confirm what he’d just told me.

“Right after the live broadcast?”

“Yes… You didn’t respond, so I assumed you were busy and waited.”

Hey!

“I told you to get in touch after the awards ceremony was finished.”

“What?” He seemed dazed, not understanding the difference.

I massaged my temples. “Any number I haven’t saved gets blocked right away. While I’m at an awards ceremony, I can’t change my settings because I have no time to look at my phone.”

“Oh, gosh!”

His text had been filtered out, just like the many other texts that had been sent to me during the award ceremony. He bowed deeply.

“Sorry!”

“Whatever.” It was my fault for not explaining the details. I withheld a sigh. “And in the future, be sure to ask for details when someone you don’t know arranges a meeting like this.”

I had no idea why he had agreed to this suspicious meeting.

He sounded put out as he muttered, “But I thought this was a signal from you.”

“A signal?”

“Yes, like in a spy movie. I thought this was your way of getting in touch, since we’re both Ryus, you know? And Chungwoo is also one of your group members, so…”

I didn’t know what to say to that. He deserved some credit for his imagination. At the same time, it was oddly perceptive of him, which I found funny. I grinned.

“Yes. You were right this time, but you need to be careful from now on.”

“Right!”

It made me feel odd to see him look so proud of himself while wearing my face. He was even less like me than I’d expected.

Can the way a person looks change so much just based on who’s inside? Accepting that this must be the case, I changed the subject. This was the most urgent topic.

“You need to be especially careful about the mistakes you keep on making. You don’t want to get found out, do you?”

“Oh! Sorry…” He hung his head, apparently frustrated with himself, too.

“This situation is partly my fault, since I asked Chungwoo to help me locate my body. Don’t worry too much. I’ll continue to help you out.”

I explained that he should avoid giving long replies to questions, keeping his answers short using the excuse that he was tired from his retreat. He nodded eagerly. He seemed to understand. I gave myself a task to perform as well.

“I’ll steer the conversation so that our past isn’t mentioned.”

His eyes gleamed.

“Why don’t we talk about TeSTAR, then?”

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” I said.

“Hem. I could talk about you all day! Ever since you debuted.”

Huh. He seemed a little less tense, his shoulders going a little slack. I gave him the few slices of Beijing duck left as a more peaceful mood descended over the room.

“You can take the time to formulate a response while you eat.”

“Okay!”

The more relaxed mood aside, there was something I was reminded of now that we were talking about TeSTAR’s debut. The mindscape vision I’d had featured the scenery from the teaser of “Magical Boys,” our debut song. He’d said something then that bothered me.

I spoke slowly. “You know…”

“Yes!”

“You said you’d be using this body for some time. Does that mean you intend to abandon it soon?”

Big Moon was silent.

“There’s no need.”

The face that had betrayed his confusion, joy, and all other emotions so easily until now suddenly grew stiff. He was wearing an odd expression that almost didn’t look human. It reminded me of how he’d looked in the mindscape. I remained silent and he finally responded very firmly,

“It’s necessary, actually.”

What?

“Not that I’m the one who decides,” he clarified.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s a set date after which I will cease to be alive… as a human, at least.” He was referring to the day that had started all this—when he’d fallen over the railing and made a wish to the system. “My time runs out next summer.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“In other words, I can only use this body until then.”

God f*cking damn it.