[Part 2]
“Hyung.”
“…Hyung.”
“Siwoo hyung.”
Siwoo opened his eyes that had been closed. He didn’t know when he’d closed them, but apparently he had.
Autumn rain had been falling hard, and he’d been with Evan.
And lips. Evan had said something to him. It seemed like very important words…
‘My pair.’
My pair. That was the phrase that came to mind.
“Siwoo hyung! Hurry and get up.”
The voice that kept touching his shoulder and talking to him wasn’t unfamiliar.
At the urging words, Siwoo sat up and covered his face with both hands.
‘I think I’ll be fine as long as it’s not you.’
The words he’d just exchanged with Evan floated tangled through his mind.
The hands covering his face slowly lowered and touched his lips.
“Hyung!”
He could hear someone next to him continuously calling.
The room decorated in pastel tones was somewhere he’d never seen before. Dark gray blackout curtains were draped on the window, and the blanket covering him was mint-colored. A laptop was open on the desk by the window.
On the opposite side was a vanity. It was a structure where if you went next to it, there would probably be a dressing room.
This place wasn’t his study where he’d been just moments ago, but someone’s bedroom.
“Siwoo hyung!”
Siwoo, who had been spacing out blankly as if possessed by something, finally turned his head to look at the person calling him.
“Yechan?”
Siwoo, who had been blinking slowly, closed his eyes long and opened them.
Yechan was still standing next to him.
Not Evan, but Yechan was with him in this unfamiliar place.
In a dreamlike haziness that wouldn’t wake, Siwoo rubbed his eyes with both hands.
“Geez, wake up properly. I should’ve come to wake you from the start. I shouldn’t have asked Chan hyung to wake you instead. Hyung, hurry and get ready and come out. Got it?”
Right in front of him, he snapped his long, firm fingers making clicking sounds to get Siwoo’s attention.
Siwoo took his hands off his face and stared at Yechan.
He looked different from what he knew. The face and build, those things were the same, but the hair color changed to blonde and the blue eyes weren’t what he knew.
“Are you sick somewhere?”
At Yechan’s action of approaching close to his face with a worried expression and voice, Siwoo’s hand moved on its own.
Smack—.
His palm stung. And instead of a worried expression, Yechan had a surprised and flustered expression, covering his cheek with one hand.
“Ah…”
Siwoo, who stopped his hand in mid-air, stared blankly at Yechan who was blinking his large cow-like eyes. He’d suddenly approached and Siwoo had unconsciously slapped his cheek.
“Sor… sorry.”
It wasn’t words spoken in a proper voice. In a self-deprecating voice full of empty air, Siwoo muttered unconsciously.
“Hyung! Why did you hit me? If you don’t like it, say so with words. Chan hyung! Siwoo hyung hit me!”
He hastily reached out toward Yechan who was whining loudly and turning to leave. Soon his solid wrist was caught. Those blue eyes looking at him were too unfamiliar.
Something seems wrong right now.
“What’s today’s date?”
He blurted out a word without thinking.
“July 2nd.”
As if his question wasn’t strange, Yechan immediately said the date.
But Siwoo couldn’t easily understand.
It had been autumn. A night when autumn rain full of coldness was falling.
“How old are you?”
“Hyung, what did you dream about? I’m Kang Yechan, nineteen years old. You’re Kim Siwoo, twenty years old. What else should I tell you?”
Yechan, who was covering the cheek he’d been hit on with one hand while his other hand was caught by Siwoo, frowned. Siwoo, who always slept late, wasn’t good at waking up in the morning. He seemed to be having an especially hard time waking from sleep today.
“Hyung. I guess you’re not waking from your dream well. Once you get up and wash, you’ll wake up. Let’s get up.”
Siwoo squeezed his eyes shut tight and opened them. The date had changed. More than anything, his and Yechan’s ages had changed. In this situation, there was no reason for Yechan to lie to him.
While he was lost in thought blankly, Yechan had lifted Siwoo from the bed and brought him to the door on one side of the room.
“Where’s Evan?”
“Why are you looking for Evan hyung?”
Pushed by Yechan’s tap on his back, Siwoo entered the bathroom and as the door closed behind him, he slumped down.
Everything was jumbled.
His palm still tingled from hitting Yechan’s cheek. This meant it wasn’t a dream. There was no reason to hit or pinch his own cheek.
If this situation wasn’t a dream.
He had definitely been twenty-three years old and had been with Evan.
The regressions repeated until now always returned him to his underground studio apartment as eighteen-year-old Kim Siwoo.
But this place had a different location and a different age.
However, there was only one thing that could explain this situation.
Regression.
If not a dream, then regression.
His head was complicated, but for now he took off his clothes and entered the shower booth. As cold water poured over his head, the drowsiness that had remained hazily instantly fled.
Siwoo’s mind, rubbing his body with a shower ball full of foam, turned quickly to grasp the current situation.
The age difference between Yechan and himself was one year. Currently he said he was nineteen and Siwoo was twenty.
And today was July 2nd.
Chan. Yechan had definitely said Chan hyung.
Who was he? What was the current situation? Why was Yechan, of all people, here? This place wasn’t even the ‘Journey’ filming location.
Countless questions continued.
He’d regressed countless times, but this was the first time the regression point and situation had changed.
Finishing his shower and going out to the living room, Siwoo stopped at the door.
There were many people in the wide living room. And among them he could find familiar faces.
Yechan was organizing luggage while talking with someone.
Chan. This Chan.
The moment he confirmed the person conversing with Yechan, Siwoo covered his mouth with one hand.
Lee Chan, Yechan’s unrequited love. Why was Lee Chan here? Yechan had said Chan hyung earlier.
In the increasingly complicated situation, Siwoo roughly ran his hand through his hair.
He was used to regression and was now used to forming new relationships with new people.
But this was the first time for a case like this. In a situation where he was already in deep relationships with others, Siwoo had no choice.
“Siwoo. What are you standing there for? Are you all ready?”
Standing blankly, Siwoo checked who was speaking to him and unconsciously stepped back several steps. This person was also someone he knew. Park Myunghun, Evan’s manager. The one who had warned him to distance himself from Evan.
“Myunghun hyung.”
Before Siwoo could answer, someone called him and he turned and moved away.
“Can I take this?”
“Arthur, why would you take that? We’re just filming briefly and coming back. Pack it when you’re traveling alone.”
Seeing even the person talking with Myunghun, a long sigh that Siwoo had been holding back until now flowed from his mouth.
Yechan and Chan still in conversation. The two were laughing loudly, finding something so funny. Whether Yechan said something, Chan playfully tapped Yechan’s shoulder.
The one conversing with Myunghun was Yoo Sangjun.
His stage name was SJ. He was a singer-songwriter who had been active solo.
Every song he released was a hit, he actively worked with other singers, and at one time Siwoo had also wanted to work with him.
Why was someone like him here, and everyone looked so close.
“Siwoo hyung. Still in a dream? Is it because you’re meeting Evan hyung? But this time you were apart for a whole week.”
Siwoo, who had been standing in that spot, looked at Yechan who was speaking to him energetically. One of his cheeks looked especially red and swollen…
“Yeah. I’m a bit tired.”
“They said you were alone in the practice room until late yesterday too. Honestly, I should be the one practicing.”
Even though he’d suddenly been slapped on the cheek like that and could be angry, his bright personality was the same.
Watching him disappear after playing around cheerfully and then come out pulling a suitcase, Siwoo slowly returned to the room he’d come from.
A large travel suitcase on one side of the room. And seeing the backpack placed on top of it, he felt strange. Where were they going?
Since he knew this room was his room for now, Siwoo opened the backpack.
He found and took out a black wallet, but couldn’t easily open it.
After hesitating for a long time, Siwoo’s face showed a subtle expression as he opened the wallet.
The birth date, the address where he’d lived with his parents, the contact number—everything was what he knew. And there was also a passport in the backpack. If there was a passport, that meant taking a plane, and that meant going far, but for what purpose?
Without even time to be lost in thought, led by Yechan who entered the room without knocking, Siwoo had to move together with them.
Boarding the van, Siwoo tried to go to the back seat but was stopped by Lee Chan.
“You’re in the front seat.”
“Siwoo hyung. You’re strange today.”
Yechan tilted his head as he entered the back seat and sat next to Chan. Siwoo, who ended up sitting in the front seat, let out a long sigh. There was too much time he didn’t know about.
Seeing Sangjun, who came out last, sit in the passenger seat, he stared at the empty seat next to him.
He seemed to know who the owner of the remaining empty seat was.
When several people move together for a long time, there’s a subtle rule.
An implicit rule that gets unconsciously decided and fixed.
Things like the seat you sit in when traveling by car or the position you stand in during filming. So the fact that these things had already been established for them made his heart feel heavy.
He couldn’t even ask where they were going. In case they’d find it strange again.
But the car was heading to Incheon Airport as Siwoo expected.
Since everyone mostly spent the travel time on their own, Siwoo quickly took out his phone.
And a little later.
Siwoo closed his eyes and buried himself in the chair. It was more complicated than expected.
He wished nothing had started yet, but too many things had already progressed.
