“……”
Yeon Cheonguk’s movements slowed as he headed toward the cordless phone placed on the table. Goosebumps began to rise as the scenery inside the house came into view.
The atmosphere was completely different from the old house Yeon Cheonguk knew. Improperly organized household items, crude decorations, a faint smell of alcohol…. He was appalled at the messy state of the house steeped in poverty. The people in the family photo hanging on the wall were also exactly the same as Yeon Cheonguk’s family, but their attire and impressions were different. Gaunt impressions showing signs of hardship. The sense of dissonance was great.
When he picked up the phone with a stiff face, he heard a young man’s sobbing.
– Jegu… they say he died.
Fuck.
I know. Whether this is a dream or real, Yeon Cheonguk came to the day that bastard Hwang Jegu died.
…But suddenly, a question arose.
Why is the news that a bastard named Hwang Jegu died being delivered to Yeon Cheonguk first?
Yeon Cheonguk snapped coldly.
“Who are you?”
– What? Hello? Isn’t this Cheonguk?
“That’s right. It is, but….”
“Cheonguk-ah, didn’t you hear? Just now Jegu… Jegu was brought to the emergency room in an ambulance… death verdict….”
“Haa…… Hang up for now.”
– What…? Wh-what did you say? Cheonguk-ah. Yeon Cheonguk!
Yeon Cheonguk threw the phone onto the old leather sofa. Entering the room with an irritated face, his eyes widened. New text had appeared in the electronic dictionary’s notepad.
[You have chosen to give up the future and return to the real present.]
“What… crazy talk is this?”
Present? This is the past, how can it be the present?
The ‘present’ that Yeon Cheonguk lived in was clearly the present during the musical gala concert tour. This is absurd!
The sounds of cicadas and crickets rang in his ears so realistically. The sound of the second hand grated on his nerves faster and more regularly.
Here… what exactly is this space-time?
The computer clock was still stopped at AM 02:17.
[By your coming here, that future has been erased.]
[You cannot return to the future you lived in.]
[From now on, you must create a new future.]
Shock penetrated his entire body.
“What does that mean? The future has been erased? My… my daily life is gone?”
While Yeon Cheonguk muttered like someone who had lost their mind, messages continued to appear one after another.
[This is the only intermediate choice point. Would you like to return to 2002?]
►[Yes] [No]
The electronic dictionary sent a ding, warning sound. Yeon Cheonguk couldn’t close his mouth at the unbelievable notepad content.
“Wha… what bullshit is this? What the hell is this….”
[Time remaining until choice: 7 minutes 9 seconds.]
A timer window appeared on the computer monitor. The timer immediately began counting down backwards from 7 minutes 9 seconds. In his ears, he still heard the nagging sound of the second hand.
“Hey. Choice, erasure, wake me from this dream! I have to go back and perform. Send me back!”
[Time remaining until choice: 7 minutes 4 seconds.]
“This isn’t right, it’s definitely a dream! This place where time has stopped, this is my virtual world…!! There’s no way I could have fallen into a place like this!!”
Nothing changed even when he denied reality and shouted in musical singing technique. The electronic dictionary repeatedly wrote down the same warning message.
[This is the only intermediate choice point. Would you like to return to 2002?]
►[Yes] [No]
Yeon Cheonguk sat back down on the chair. He held the electronic dictionary with both hands and stammered as he pressed the keypad.
[Who the hell is Hwang Jegu anyway I didn’t know that person fuck.]
The notepad answered without hesitation.
[You don’t remember. If you went to the past through me, that world is reborn as a separate parallel world. There is a high probability that the world you lived in was a newly created future through regression. If you never contacted me after regression, you would not have recovered your memories.]
It was a completely different world. As Yeon Cheonguk pondered the meaning carefully, he asked again.
[Are you saying someone already regressed once? I have no idea about this I don’t remember anything]
[Yes, there is a high probability that you regressed and lost your memories.]
“Ha…! This is impossible….”
Let’s organize this.
So, the original past Hwang Jegu did die in 2009. Let’s call this Past 1. In the ‘Past 1’ world where Hwang Jegu died, Yeon Cheonguk chose to regress through the electronic dictionary, and the moment he regressed, a new parallel world was created.
But in the new world, for some reason, Hwang Jegu died early. That’s how Yeon Cheonguk had been living a life without that existence in ‘Future 2’.
He couldn’t recover his memories because there was no contact with the electronic dictionary, but thanks to the mysterious coincidence called synchronicity, he belatedly encountered the dictionary. If he had just thrown it away… if he hadn’t found the password… if he hadn’t gone to the used bookstore that day, this wouldn’t have happened…!
Yeon Cheonguk had returned to Past 1.
To the point right after Hwang Jegu’s death.
Now that the mystery was solved, what covered Yeon Cheonguk’s heart was an unbearable sense of loss and emptiness.
How did I succeed as a musical actor that all citizens know!
Are all those days of hard effort turned to nothing in an instant?
Just because I played around with one unlucky electronic dictionary?
“Ah…! Fuck! Aaaaah!!”
– Hey! Be quiet, let’s get some sleep!
Someone from the neighborhood shouted from far down the alley, mixing in curses. Yeon Cheonguk quietly closed his mouth.
[The time given to you is 6 minutes 2 seconds.]
[This is the only intermediate choice point. Would you like to return to 2002?]
►[Yes] [No]
Seeing that it’s asking him to choose whether or not to go back to the past, that must mean that bastard Hwang Jegu is alive in 2002.
…Honestly, whether he died or we were close, what does it matter to me?
Can’t I just find a way to return to the future from here?
Yeon Cheonguk crossed his arms and leaned back with cold eyes.
The notepad continued to explain.
[Rule 1. If you disclose this matter or act in violation of the settings, the opportunity to return to the past will disappear.]
[In other words, you will be forever trapped in the present where Hwang Jegu died.]
“No, I mean!!”
[So what the hell does Hwang Jegu do]
[Cannot answer. It violates the rules. Please find the memories yourself through the ‘Us.txt’ file.]
Yeon Cheonguk immediately operated the buttons. When he went into the E-book menu, indeed, there was exactly one text file titled ‘Us.txt’ remaining in the file list.
It was a large file, so the loading time took quite a while. While looking at the lagging LCD, Yeon Cheonguk turned around, startled by a loud sound.
– Cheonguk-ah! Yeon Cheonguk! Are you home? Come out for a bit!
It was the sound of someone banging on the front door. He quickly ran, afraid they’d be reported for disturbing the peace at this dawn hour with their loud noise.
When he opened the door, two men who appeared to be his age were standing there. Both were covered in tears, so they seemed to be the ones who had called the house.
The man standing in front wore flashy tight clothes that clung to his body, and had put great effort into styling his layered hair. It was possible to assume that this man was the person saved as ‘Gakseori’.
“Yeon Cheonguk, you hung up the phone and what were you doing!”
He wanted to question who these people were and how they knew his home address, but Rule 1 said he mustn’t get caught. Yeon Cheonguk replied as ambiguously as possible.
“Even so, are we on terms where you’d suddenly visit my house at this hour?”
“Fuck! When did you tell me to come pick you up and now you’re acting crazy?”
“……You came because of Hwang Jegu?”
“Of course! Hey, get on. Let’s go see him quickly! Please, fuck… Yeon Cheonguk! Why the hell are you acting like this!”
The man burst out in fury and wailed. It seems it’s true that Hwang Jegu died. He had no idea how he ended up being friends with such a guy, but he’d figure it out later. Yeon Cheonguk had to settle things with the electronic dictionary quickly.
Yes, I understand someone has passed away, but this side is urgent too. The choice time limit now had less than 5 minutes remaining. Before the opportunity disappeared, he had to decide whether to return to the past or not. Finding his memories was the priority.
Yeon Cheonguk brushed off the tight-clothes guy who was pointing at the motorcycle back seat and raising a fuss.
“Shit. Wait, I’ll go after 5 minutes!”
“What…?!”
“I’ll go on my own later, so you go first.”
“You… you……”
The guy, who had been stuttering with eyes that seemed to have lost his mind, glared fiercely at Yeon Cheonguk.
“You fuck, you were using him from the start. You were using Jegu from the start, weren’t you?”
“Ha… it’s not like that….”
Yeon Cheonguk gave up replying and pushed the man away.
“That bastard Hwang Jegu became a stupid idiot for you. You manipulated him, didn’t you? You acted friendly thinking you’d use him when needed and then dump him, right?! Son of a bitch…!”
Yeon Cheonguk barely brushed them off and closed the door. When he locked it coldly, they pounded on the door while hurling curses. To make matters worse, he could even hear the cries of neighborhood residents whose sleep had been disturbed.
– Fuck! Let’s get some sleep! Heyyy!!
His nerves became sensitive and heat boiled up.
The remaining time on the monitor timer was 3 minutes 25 seconds. The electronic dictionary was still loading the file.
Yeon Cheonguk urgently rummaged through the drawer and found earphones. He wanted to at least block his ears from the commotion outside the front door. His whole body trembled with an anxious heart. He plugged the jack into the earphone port and looked at the stopped LCD with both hands clasped.
After about 10 seconds.
Ding- A mechanical sound rang out and text began to appear one after another on the LCD.
Before he knew it, the sound of the clock’s second hand had stopped. A wind-like flow rippled through the earphones. The memories from ‘Past 1’ all returned through Yeon Cheonguk’s eyes and ears.
