Chapter 251: Double Million-seller (1)

“Haah… ha.”

I woke up while releasing a ragged breath. I hadn’t been sick during the night, yet my pillow was soaked with cold sweat.

With eyes that hadn’t fully opened yet, I hurriedly searched for my phone. The phone lying on the table brushed against my fingertips.

“…….”

Without thinking, I called Seohan. It was the first time the short ringing tone had felt that long.

How long had I waited like that?

—Uh, what’s up?

A calm voice came through the receiver.

That was when I fully woke up.

“Ah.”

I let out a sigh while roughly wiping my face. Relief was mixed into that sigh.

I vaguely knew it had been a dream, but I couldn’t help the way my heart had dropped.

It had been so unnecessarily vivid that even after waking up, it left an unpleasant feeling.

Frowning, I spoke.

“Sorry. Did I call while you were filming?”

—No. I was just about to start getting ready.

“Oh, really? Then let’s hang up.”

—Why? What happened?

“Hoo, it’s nothing….”

His group had just made their comeback last week. The first week of music broadcasts was the busiest time, so I didn’t want to keep him on the line over something trivial.

Shaking my head, I said,

“No, never mind.”

—The thing I hate the most is when someone starts talking and doesn’t finish it, and the second is—

He never let a single word go.

In the end, unable to resist Seohan’s insistence, I reluctantly spoke.

“I had a really unlucky dream.”

Honestly, it was such a horrible dream that I didn’t even want to think about it again.

A deep sigh slipped out of me.

“Hoo….”

It was a ridiculous story.

In the dream, my younger brother was working part-time at a café.

While I was on my way to pick him up, I witnessed a sudden collar-grabbing fight. And just as I went to stop it, a massive truck crashed straight into the café.

‘It doesn’t even make sense from the start.’

After waking up and thinking about it carefully, every single scene lacked plausibility. And yet, the uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away.

“Since it didn’t seem like a good dream, be careful.”

I didn’t believe in meaningless dreams, but there was no harm in being cautious.

I said it in a casual voice.

And then—

“…….”

There was silence on the other end of the line for quite a while.

—

“Thank you for your hard work during the pre-recording!”

At the producer’s words, I relaxed my gaze that had been fixed on the camera.

Seohan smiled brightly and waved to the fans.

“KYAAAAAA!”

“Ian, you’re so handsome!”

“Seohan! Look over here!”

Maybe because it was the first week of music broadcasts, the fans’ tension was unusually high.

They must have come early in the morning and waited… yet the pre-recording ended incredibly quickly.

Seo Haim added cheerfully,

“Dusties! See you again next time!”

“Thank you for coming from so far away!”

“We prepared really hard for this promotion, so please keep looking forward to it!”

Even though he must have been pulling all-nighters all week, Choco Haim was always overflowing with energy.

Seo Haim bounced around, greeting fans everywhere before lightly hopping down from the stage.

In contrast, Seohan was unusually quiet today. His face looked oddly drained, though the corners of his lips were still smiling.

Leaving behind the stage they had finished without mistakes, Seohan stepped into the hallway while taking ragged breaths.

Manager Lee Jaeyoon greeted the members.

“Good work.”

“Thank you!”

Below the stage was always chaotic. While staff ran around busily, the members fixed their eyes on the monitor screen.

The stage had flowed smoothly without any major mistakes. Even so, they carefully reviewed it during monitoring time in case they had missed anything.

“Hmm….”

Kang Siwoo stared at the screen with his lower lip bitten. Someone might mistake him for being angry, but he was clearly just concentrating.

Cha Sungbin spoke with a cheerful grin.

“Wow, look at Haim’s expression.”

“He’s acting like the coolest guy in the world.”

“Excuse me, I’m naturally cool.”

While Jin Sehyun and Seo Haim bickered, the youngest member—who would normally have added a comment here—was quiet.

Ha Junseo glanced over.

“…….”

It wasn’t just his imagination.

The bright-eyed youngest member seemed strange today.

Looking at Seohan’s subtly absent expression, Ha Junseo spoke.

“Seohan, why are you spacing out?”

“…Ah.”

His reaction was about three seconds slow.

Seohan hesitated for a moment before smiling awkwardly. Tilting his head, he muttered softly.

“Really? Maybe I’m just a little tired.”

“You’re not sick, right?”

Ha Junseo asked with a furrowed brow.

His complexion looked slightly pale. It didn’t seem like he was simply sleepy and spacing out.

It was only natural to worry that something might be wrong.

“It’s not like that.”

Seohan waved his hands and took a step back. When he touched his cheek belatedly, it felt warm, and he could feel a slight fever.

It was stress. Shrugging, Seohan said,

“My condition’s just a little bad.”

Though, to be fair, what idol had good condition during the first week of music broadcasts?

Ha Junseo spoke with a worried look.

“You’ll probably feel better if you just get through this week. Want some coffee?”

“Junseo hyung, wouldn’t that make your health worse…?”

“Ah. You might just be lacking caffeine.”

Honestly, since it was more of a mental problem, it might actually help. Letting out a hollow laugh, Seohan turned his gaze away.

His head was too complicated right now.

‘What exactly is going on?’

The problem right in front of him kept distracting him.

The words Do Seojun had said over the phone that morning—

‘I had a really unlucky dream.’

‘You were working part-time at a café….’

‘It’s really ridiculous, but just in case, be careful.’

Those words were still circling in his head.

The contents of the dream he described as a disturbing nightmare… had been far too specific.

Could something like that really be a meaningless dream?

“Doesn’t feel like a coincidence.”

Seohan murmured quietly.

Something was happening.

Something unpleasant was unfolding.

Swallowing dryly, Seohan pulled his phone out of his pocket.

[Senior Kim Woochan]

He should probably contact him.

—

When a problem like this occurred, there was only one person he could contact.

It wasn’t something he could talk about with family or friends.

After all, if he started rambling about having regressed, he’d be lucky if he didn’t end up dragged to a psychiatric hospital.

Conversations like this had to be shared with someone who could see the status window floating in the air.

Kim Woochan of The Way.

Facing someone familiar, Seohan spoke.

“My brother said he saw the accident.”

“The accident….”

Kim Woochan pressed his temples firmly with one hand, his face turning serious.

He had already heard a rough explanation over the phone. It sounded serious enough that they had arranged a meeting immediately.

Swallowing dryly, Kim Woochan spoke.

“The accident your brother saw… was it the one from your previous life?”

“Yes.”

Seohan nodded.

“He said he had a dream… but the problem is that the dream was too specific.”

Dreaming about someone dying might feel unpleasant, but it was likely just a meaningless dream.

Death from a traffic accident wasn’t exactly a rare type of death.

If someone imagined the worst-case scenario in a dream, it was easy enough to fabricate it in their mind.

But the process had been too detailed.

“He saw me working part-time at a café, and while he was on his way to pick me up… he witnessed a fight.”

The collar-grabbing incident with Lee Junho.

“And then a truck crashed into the café. After that… well, you know the rest.”

Seohan let out a short sigh.

One thing bothered him.

Do Seojun had described the entire process in such detail as if he had actually seen it.

‘But he definitely wasn’t there.’

He didn’t know what had happened after he died, but he doubted his brother would have had any reason to pass by that area.

It had been midday, and a producer who worked overtime regularly would normally have been at the company.

Trying to rationalize it that way, Seohan nodded.

“So I contacted you. It didn’t seem like something trivial.”

“Indeed… it isn’t trivial.”

Muttering softly, Kim Woochan stared into the air.

Seohan glanced at him cautiously before finally asking the question he had been holding back.

“But there’s something I’m curious about.”

“Yes?”

“When you call the status window… what do you say?”

“…….”

“Sorry.”

It had just been a joke to lighten the heavy atmosphere.

Clearing his throat, Seohan avoided Kim Woochan’s blunt stare.

“It doesn’t pop up just because you call it~.”

“Ah.”

Shaking his head, Kim Woochan swallowed a small laugh.

Anyway, although it wasn’t certain, this situation didn’t seem like a good sign.

Kim Woochan spoke calmly.

“In my opinion… it seems like a kind of synchronization.”

He suspected that an error had occurred during the process of overwriting data.

“In other words, people around you normally shouldn’t recall memories from another world. But because of your regression, the universe became unstable and the memories got mixed together… something like that.”

Seohan swallowed as he listened.

“I’m sorry to say this, but in terms of this universe, your existence is essentially an impurity.”

Universe Dust.

He really shouldn’t be living a life that matched the team’s name.

“When impurities enter data, errors occur. It’s like two sets of data that should never be mixed becoming intertwined.”

“Could the other members’ memories return too?”

“No. Even if they do… they’ll probably just treat them as unpleasant dreams. That shouldn’t cause any major problems.”

So some could return.

“The real problem is that this universe itself is becoming unstable.”

The more unstable it became, the shorter his lifespan would be.

Since Kim Woochan had mentioned something similar before, Seohan roughly understood.

With an anxious expression, Seohan said,

“I guess I need to achieve the achievement quickly.”

“Speaking of which, do you think the Double Million-seller is possible?”

“…I’m not sure.”

The trend didn’t look bad, but he couldn’t be certain.

Seohan bit his lower lip and nodded slightly. He swallowed dryly.

Actually, there had been something he had been wondering about.

“But, senior.”

“Yes?”

Do Seojun’s dream was bothering him too much.

That dream…

“…Is it highly likely that it was a memory that actually existed?”

“Most likely, yes.”

At Kim Woochan’s answer, Seohan’s expression darkened.

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