“I should have just recorded it. Then they wouldn’t doubt me like this.”
However, there was no time to hesitate like this. There was something he needed to check right away.
Hastily fumbling his body, he pulled out his phone from inside his clothes, and the screen was full of missed calls from agency staff, but Go Yoon paid no attention to them and immediately tried to call Lee Robi.
But the moment he was about to make the call, he reflexively answered an incoming call from the CEO. Go Yoon frowned after answering the phone.
“CEO-nim. I’ll call you back later…”
However, Go Yoon couldn’t continue. Because the CEO suddenly started yelling as soon as she answered the phone.
[Go Yoon, are you okay?! No, why did you go to that intersection!]
She kept pouring out worried nagging at Go Yoon. But Go Yoon didn’t understand what the CEO was saying, so he frowned and asked back.
“What are you talking about?”
[You almost got into an accident hitting a roadside tree after suddenly turning your car at the intersection where you had the accident before! Articles are already out!]
Even though he thought he was being careful, Go Yoon made a disgusted expression at the reporter’s coverage that could have come from anywhere. He wondered why they were so curious about the current status of a celebrity who wasn’t even active that they would try to photograph him like this.
But his thoughts were brief, as Go Yoon opened his eyes wide as if realizing something and asked the CEO.
“That intersection… don’t tell me it’s the intersection where we had the traffic accident before?”
[―What? Didn’t you already know?]
“Are you saying it’s the intersection where Hohyeon and I had the traffic accident?”
[What are you talking about? You didn’t know?]
Go Yoon listened to what the CEO was saying with a pale face, then answered stammering.
“I didn’t know. I wasn’t looking outside properly at that time.”
That day, which was horrifying just to recall, Go Yoon had no idea where the accident had happened. Because the last thing he saw was Cha Hohyeon’s smiling face, and behind him, the motorcycle rushing toward them.
Moreover, even after regaining consciousness, he hadn’t gone online for a while because he thought it would be too painful to see the articles, so he had no idea at all.
[Because of traffic accident trauma…]
“Where did that rumor come from? I don’t have any trauma like that.”
Go Yoon, who didn’t have any particular car trauma even after the traffic accident, had just been driving normally today and passed by that place. He hadn’t even thought that it was the place where the traffic accident happened as he passed through.
[Then why did you turn the car so suddenly there?]
“There was a problem for a moment.”
The reason he turned the car wasn’t because of his trauma or anything, but simply because of his companion Ka Jerim’s seizure.
[A problem?]
“The kid who was with me―”
In the middle of speaking, Go Yoon narrowed his eyes and recalled Ka Jerim’s seizure. Come to think of it, Ka Jerim kept saying something even while having the seizure. He was too distracted at the time to understand what he was muttering.
“What did he say? It seemed like something important.”
[What?]
Could all of this really be a coincidence? A trainee with no connection completing the non-existent, vanished <Poison Cup>, having a seizure at the place where Cha Hohyeon died, and sleep-talking that only Cha Hohyeon would say.
‘If the content of the sleep-talking is correct.’
Briefly recalling the content of the sleep-talking he just heard, Go Yoon gritted his teeth and bit his lip hard once. Go Yoon was about to ask Lee Robi about the content of the sleep-talking he had just heard, but suddenly thinking that the CEO might also know about this, he opened his mouth.
“CEO-nim. When Hohyeon died, was there a note in Hohyeon’s pocket?”
No way. Even after asking, Go Yoon let out an empty laugh because it sounded so absurd. The CEO didn’t answer for a while, and Go Yoon was about to say never mind.
[Did Robi tell you about it?]
But the answer was unexpected. Go Yoon’s eyes widened and he froze, then continued speaking while struggling to hold his increasingly trembling body.
“Is that the acceptance speech for Robi that Hohyeon wrote?”
[Robi told you that much. Yes. That’s the acceptance speech Hohyeon wrote and gave to Robi. Back then, I only told Robi without telling you guys.]
The CEO said she gave the note to Robi because Robi’s name was written on it, and Robi recognized the note right away.
[Robi said this. He thinks Hohyeon remembered how upset he was last time for not being able to give a proper acceptance speech. That kind boy even wrote it in English in case Robi got flustered and couldn’t read Korean.]
In fact, that day, Cha Hohyeon had written an acceptance speech for Lee Robi, who was doing solo activities. Because when Robi previously won an award solo without any preparation, he was so flustered that he only rambled in English, came down from the stage crying that his once-in-a-lifetime acceptance speech had become a mess.
[The note only had a list of agency staff and a simple acceptance speech written on it, but he probably intended to give it to Robi before entering the awards ceremony venue.]
Thoughtful Cha Hohyeon remembered that time and wrote down a list of agency staff and an acceptance speech for Lee Robi, a foreigner, to refer to during his acceptance speech. Suddenly, Go Yoon recalled the group chat where Lee Robi, who arrived first at the OMA Awards, was whining asking when Hohyeon would arrive.
“So that’s why Robi didn’t go in first and waited for Hohyeon.”
[Yeah. Robi arrived first and was waiting for Hohyeon in the car. Hohyeon said he wanted to meet briefly, that he had something to give him.]
“……”
[I guess he wanted to give it before going into the building where he couldn’t escape the cameras for even the smallest action.]
The CEO said in a bitter voice.
[In the end, he couldn’t deliver it.]
Until the very end, Cha Hohyeon took care of his members. Go Yoon, remembering Cha Hohyeon who always hugged them so no one would be left out or feel lonely, gritted his teeth and held back the tears that were about to surge up for a moment, then spoke.
“The reporters don’t know about this, right?”
[I didn’t even tell you guys, why would I tell the reporters? What’s so pretty about them?]
“Then who knows about this?”
[Me, Robi. And you? That’s it.]
<Poison Cup> was also only known to three… no, two people. This note was also only known to three people in the world. Could all of this be a misunderstanding?
At first, he tried to dismiss Ka Jerim’s sleep-talking as mere nonsense. The guy who was moaning unintelligible sleep-talk suddenly got up and started looking for something with bloodshot eyes.
‘I have to give it to Robi hyung, I have to give it…’
With a tear-soaked face, he frantically searched his pockets and scratched his body, and Go Yoon instinctively grabbed Ka Jerim.
‘It’s gone, no. I have to…’
At first, he thought he was crazy. But for that to be the case, he spoke too clearly, and Go Yoon frowned as he kept searching his pants pockets like someone who really had put something in their pocket.
‘Why would you meet Lee Robi? Do you know Robi?’
‘The note… give it. To hyung.’
Lee Robi, note.
All these keywords didn’t fit together and circled around his head before being organized by Ka Jerim’s following words.
‘Note?’
‘I wrote… the acceptance speech. Yours, hyung. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’
‘……’
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t give it to you.’
From Ka Jerim, who was bursting into tears like a child, Go Yoon kept seeing Cha Hohyeon overlapping for some reason. He hated it. Feeling Cha Hohyeon in another person. Because Cha Hohyeon, who was the only one in the world, was already dead and gone. Go Yoon spoke fiercely to Ka Jerim.
‘Who are you to give that to Lee Robi?’
‘……’
‘Who are you? Why do you keep acting like you know me?’
But at his words, Ka Jerim looked at Go Yoon resentfully, tears streaming down. Ka Jerim seemed to feel like this was a dream, sobbing and crying continuously about how he could live if even in his dreams it was like this, asking if he had really been forgotten.
[…Yoon? Go Yoon? Are you listening?]
“…Yes.”
Go Yoon, who had been recalling Ka Jerim’s face wet with sleep-talking, stared blankly into space before belatedly answering the question from the phone. The CEO, who couldn’t know about Go Yoon’s state, asked him.
[But it’s strange. Robi said not to talk about Hohyeon because you guys are still in shock, so he didn’t mention the note… Did Robi tell you?]
“No.”
[Then who…]
Ka Jerim’s desperate cry echoed in his head like an echo.
‘I’m not dead. I’m alive here.’
He thought it was nonsense. He thought he had finally gone crazy and was now seeing hallucinations. But.
“Cha Hohyeon.”
[…What? Go Yoon, what did you say?]
The CEO, who had been silent on the other end of the phone, answered a beat late.
Who could believe this?
This unbelievable fact.
‘Hyung. It’s me, Cha Hohyeon, Hohyeon.’
That was his last sleep-talk. If he could hear the sleep-talking one more time, everything would become clear, but the room beyond remained completely silent.
Standing still, wondering what tangible evidence there was that wasn’t just some fantasy-like thing, he suddenly lifted his head at a thought that came to mind and asked the CEO.
“CEO-nim. Dashcams record audio too, right?”
[What are you talking about from earlier? Of course they do… You didn’t fight with a reporter, did you?!]
Suddenly remembering Ka Jerim who had panicked earlier, he felt he had to hear what he said at that time.
“I’ll tell you later.”
[Hey, Go Yoon! You!!]
Go Yoon hurriedly hung up the phone. Go Yoon, filled with all kinds of confusion, slowly walked toward the room, looked down at Ka Jerim who had fallen asleep tear-soaked, then staggered back and retreated. And when his body touched the wall, he slowly sat down.
