By Zephyria “I was with you until just now, then I went for a cigarette and bought coffee, and you woke up in the meantime.”
Yong-jae placed the coffee on the drawer and pulled out a couple of tissues to wipe Choi Hong-seo’s face.
“Are you okay? Why are you sweating so much?”
“I’m fine. Thank you, Yong-jae-ssi. I… I’ll wipe it myself.”
Despite saying he was fine, Choi Hong-seo’s lips and face were pale and bloodless. He looked even worse than when he was asleep, so Yong-jae asked with concern.
“You were sleeping well until just now. Did you have a nightmare?”
It seemed he had had a very long dream. A dream as long as if he had lived another life. Choi Hong-seo dropped the hand that was wiping his sweat onto his lap and clenched the tissue in his hand.
He met him, and we walked on Namsan together. He received Lee Hae-sung’s personal business card, not ARA’s Vice President, and we watched
A nightmare…
Choi Hong-seo shook his head.
“No… I had a very, very good dream.”
Yong-jae frowned, looking puzzled. Why did he look like that if he had a good dream? However, Choi Hong-seo looked so exhausted that he didn’t intend to ask for details.
Choi Hong-seo, who had been sitting blankly staring into space like a dazed person, suddenly turned to Yong-jae and grabbed his arm. His eyes suddenly regained their sparkle.
“Yong-jae-ssi! My audition… how did my audition go? I got the role of Hwang Ji-woo, right? It’s confirmed, isn’t it?”
“Y-you startled me. Of course, Hyung, you were cast after overcoming a competition rate of 1,000 to 1!”
“Haa… Thank goodness…”
Only then could Choi Hong-seo finally relax completely. Fortunately, the time after waking up as Yoon Hye-an seemed to be completely intact.
However, Yong-jae cautiously observed Choi Hong-seo’s condition with a deeply worried expression.
“It’s a relief that the doctor said there’s no particular abnormality… But if there’s no abnormality, then why did you collapse?”
Collapsing and losing consciousness for no apparent reason, or losing memory for no apparent reason. Surprisingly, these were not uncommon occurrences in hospitals. Patients with clear diagnoses, causes, and treatments were considered lucky. In such cases, there was little more a doctor could say: “There’s no particular abnormality,” “It can happen from overwork or excessive stress,” “Get plenty of rest, avoid alcohol and smoking, and try not to get stressed…”
But Choi Hong-seo had a vague inkling.
He didn’t think the reason he collapsed was due to such vague, general theories. Recalling the sensations before he collapsed, it was a strange kind of headache and nausea he had never felt before. It felt like his internal organs were pushing him out, like his body and soul were twisting. If he had to explain it, it was close to that.
Perhaps it was a side effect, so to speak, caused by Yoon Hye-an’s body. Of course, it was just his own speculation, with no certainty at the moment…
“Still, you need to see the doctor later. Ah, should I go get the doctor now?”
“Just a moment, Yong-jae-ssi!”
At Choi Hong-seo’s urgent voice, Yong-jae turned back from where he had half-turned.
“But how did I collapse?”
“That’s what I want to ask you. Don’t you remember anything again?”
“No… it’s not that, it’s that I don’t remember how I came to collapse.”
Yong-jae, his face serious, pulled up a chair near the bed and hesitantly sat down.
“You went to the ancestral shrine in Hanam?”
“Ah… I remember that.”
“Hyung collapsed there.”
“……”
The ancestral shrine. His remains enshrined in the VIP room. Fans’ drawings and letters.
And Lee Hae-sung’s angry face, looking at him with hostility…
‘Just because a child doesn’t exist in this world doesn’t mean people like you can use them as you please. Do you understand?’
Yes, it was clearly around then that he felt the headache and nausea. He remembered gripping the back of the sofa tightly, trying to stay conscious in front of him. That’s right. He had clearly collapsed in front of him.
Choi Hong-seo then grabbed Yong-jae’s shoulder.
“Then, who brought me here? Did you not see him, Yong-jae-ssi? Very tall, wearing a suit… a remarkably handsome man. Anyone who saw him would surely remember him. The receptionists or nurses…”
As if I could see him if I ran out of the hospital room right now, my words became faster than usual. To calm Choi Hong-seo, who was trembling with excitement, Yong-jae stood up from his chair and gently pressed down on Choi Hong-seo’s shoulders.
“Who brought you here? Hyung, you came in an ambulance.”
“An ambu…lance?”
Choi Hong-seo grabbed Yong-jae’s chest, where his shoulders were being pressed, as if to wring it.
“Someone called it in. It’s a great relief. Anyway, you came alone in the ambulance. I rushed here after the hospital contacted me, and I moved you from the ER to here.”
Choi Hong-seo’s hand, which had been tightly gripping Yong-jae’s T-shirt as if it were a lifeline, slowly dropped.
Right, that would be it.
Why did I think he would bring me here himself? To him, I am not Choi Hong-seo right now.
It was such a foolish delusion that I let out little chuckles. I was so embarrassed that my face burned.
“Hyung… are you okay? You didn’t see something like a grim reaper, did you?”
Yong-jae asked cautiously, his face filled with fear. Choi Hong-seo laughed even harder at Yong-jae’s words. He shook his head repeatedly and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“No, Yong-jae-ssi. I… I mistook it for a dream.”
“The good dream you mentioned earlier?”
“Yes, a good dream. A very good dream.”
There hadn’t been many good things in Choi Hong-seo’s life. After years of struggling as an unknown, the popularity he gained with ‘Layered’ was his only glory, but even then, he was still being manipulated by CEO Myeong.
However, the short time spent with him. That time alone made his previous life worthwhile. That alone made his previous life a good dream. A very good dream, so good that no other dog-like incidents could dare dilute its light.
“But Hyung, why did you go there?”
“Huh?”
“The ancestral shrine. Is someone you know enshrined there? Did you remember something from the past?”
Yong-jae’s face, full of anticipation, drew closer. Yong-jae seemed to have no idea that Choi Hong-seo was enshrined there.
The entire nation knew the sensational first report that the X-kid from a host bar was Choi Hong-seo. Even people who hadn’t known who Choi Hong-seo was until then. However, few people paid attention to the additional truths revealed afterward.
Even when the truth came out that the X-kid had been sexually assaulted by a powerful figure from a conglomerate, and was blackmailed and dragged around, exploited by the initial perpetrator and the agency CEO, it existed only as a court verdict, and most of the public still remembered Choi Hong-seo based solely on the initial report.
Even those who knew the final court ruling sometimes shifted the blame from the perpetrator to the victim’s conduct, saying that he frequented places like host bars, so he deserved what he got.
Even though the entire nation knew Choi Hong-seo was the ‘tough guy’ who jumped from the 32nd-floor building, no one paid much attention to why Choi Hong-seo had no choice but to make such a decision, or to the background that was ‘tougher’ than Choi Hong-seo. Therefore, it was perfectly normal for people to know Choi Hong-seo jumped from the 32nd floor in Bangkok but not know where he went afterward.
It wasn’t Yong-jae’s fault, and he didn’t feel resentful towards him. Choi Hong-seo smiled faintly and shook his head.
“No. It’s just… I’m playing the role of Choi Hong-seo, so I went to see it. I just went to say hello, to work hard on the project.”
“Ah, so that was the ancestral shrine where Choi Hong-seo is buried?”
An ancestral shrine is not a place where people are buried, but Choi Hong-seo simply nodded.
“I knew he died in Bangkok, but it seems they brought the body back to Korea afterward. The procedures must have been complicated.”
Expressions like ‘died’ and ‘body’ were a bit difficult, but he swallowed dryly and endured.
“You did a kind thing, but you should still take care of your body, Hyung. You just woke up and are still adjusting. What if something bigger had happened?”
Yong-jae was just a good, ordinary person who kept a distance from the thorough strangers in the news and observed them objectively, but cherished those close to him…
“Here, Hyung. It’s your favorite iced americano. I bought yours too because I thought you’d wake up soon. They said you could eat anything once you woke up, since there was nothing particularly wrong. I’ll go tell the desk you’re awake and call the CEO. Please rest.”
Choi Hong-seo unconsciously accepted the coffee Yong-jae placed in his hand. Yong-jae, who had half-stepped out the door, turned back and smiled.
“Still, it’s a relief. I was worried you might not wake up for long again and wouldn’t be able to attend the Monday meal.”
Seeing Yong-jae’s genuine relief, Choi Hong-seo also smiled his best. Only after the door closed did he let out a long sigh. The lingering effects of the dream were still within him.
It felt as if I had been touching his sleeping face in his arms just a moment ago, so I sat there for a long time, looking down at my hands.
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