| Episode 144. Returning to Work
Thanks to the system, I really did make a full recovery in just two weeks. Everyone marveled at my astonishing recuperative powers.
If I’d had my way, I would have turned off the Labor Support Service and, now that I was fully charged, signed up for jiu-jitsu classes or something. But considering the worried looks everyone around me kept giving me, I held back. Before this year is over, I’m definitely going to become a master of self-defense.
There was more good news, too.
With the system’s restrictions lifted and Yu Hansu out of the picture, the scope of UA’s support had broadened considerably.
UA apologized for not being able to support us properly until now and promised they would spare no effort for the finals stage.
Seizing the opportunity, we hired an entire dance team. As expected, spending company money is the most fun thing in the world.
The doctor had officially diagnosed me as fully recovered, but I decided to join only from the middle as planned.
Since I was going to come in from the dance break onward, I learned only the dance break choreography separately from the dance instructor, and watched the guys practice the first and second verses from the side…
‘What the hell?’
I could tell at a glance.
These guys’ spirit was on a completely different level from before.
The way their weight settled, the friction of their shoes, the angle of their fingers, even the feel of their waves—everything had become one.
They’d said they had perfectly prepared everything up to the part where I came in, and it really was at a level where they could go onstage right now.
While Jeong Seongbin stopped the music, Gang Giyeon came over to me and said,
“This is where you come in, hyung.”
“Can I just not come in?”
“Come in promptly before I pick you up and move you there.”
I trudged over to my spot.
“You learned all the choreography, right?”
“Yeah. But I want to try matching it slowly first.”
“Okay.”
Gang Giyeon nodded and returned to his place.
Just then, Lee Cheonghyeon, who was in the line beside me, shouted,
“Ah, we’re finally six people again!”
When I looked ahead, Spark and I were reflected in the large mirror across from us.
Jeong Seongbin, whose eyes met mine through the mirror, smiled faintly.
They had looked so cool with five people. I couldn’t ruin this.
For the first time in a while, I felt a sense of responsibility. It wasn’t a bad feeling.
* * *
The positive effects appeared in areas other than money as well.
‘The costume orders are done?’
‘Yes. Once we conveyed the concept, the planning team and production team moved quickly.’
Once Yu Hansu and the head of the production team were both completely excluded from work, the organization finally started running smoothly.
As someone who knew very well how much suffering could be caused by one piece of trash mixed in, even I was deeply moved.
Now that the process was set, we wouldn’t have to suffer through starting from the floor like before. I felt refreshed down to my core.
Aside from that, most of the necessary groundwork had already been wrapped up while I was in the hospital. Naturally, that meant my overtime disappeared.
Thanks to that, these days I could lie down in bed as soon as practice ended. What a luxurious life.
‘Around now, I should probably… organize the current situation at least once.’
Because so many things had come crashing down at once, and because I’d been busy, I had neglected to assess the situation for a while. But I could never forget my goal.
I lay on my side so my wound wouldn’t touch the pillow and reviewed the sequence of events.
First, there was now hope that I could contact my parents.
Before, I’d thought the system had completely severed the connection between me and the two of them, but this incident had shown me that wasn’t the case.
The fact that the two of them didn’t want to be involved with me remained unchanged, but the situation could be changed enough.
I also organized my questions in advance so that, no matter when I got in touch with them, I wouldn’t panic and could ask what I needed to ask.
Next, I felt the need to clearly know the scope within which my safety was guaranteed.
At least, from what I had figured out so far…
1. If I try to change the future outside of idol-related activities, I receive a penalty for something about maintaining secrecy.
2. If I force through an activity the system warns me against, my person comes to harm.
3. If I fail to uphold professional ethics, a penalty occurs.
…That was about how I could summarize it.
This time, I survived thanks to the four major social insurances, but there was no guarantee that would happen next time.
For now, I had to stay alive in order to save my noona, too. I needed to approach this part more cautiously from now on.
Third was more of a question than information.
It was, “Why is the system doing this to me?”
It would have been better to have this kind of fundamental contemplation earlier, but I’m not good at multitasking. Only after I had a little leeway in terms of time and work could I finally think about it.
If someone asked whether the system was a 100% negative existence to me, I could confidently say no.
I couldn’t forgive it for blowing away my degree. Still, if I considered it the price for receiving a chance to bring my noona back to life, it wasn’t a waste.
And although its method was extremely unfriendly, the system had clearly given me a warning before Yu Hansu attacked me. If not for the system, I might have been hovering between life and death.
Then was the system an existence wholly for my sake?
‘That doesn’t seem right either.’
The fact that it keeps me alive and then keeps making me do things must mean the system has a purpose too. If I could figure that out, maybe I could make better use of the system.
I swear I’m going to form a labor union and get revenge on the system. Just wait until I hit the final KPI. I’m giving Virtual Job Planet a 1.0-star rating.
Only after thirty minutes did my boiling anger finally cool. Once my time for thinking ended, the headache I had forgotten returned.
‘No, how can it restore the body and nerves separately?’
At times like this, I really felt that the system was an unrealistic existence.
So what if I recovered in two weeks? The pain was lasting eight weeks.
The intensity had gone down a lot compared to right after the accident, but it wasn’t as if it didn’t hurt, so I clutched my head under the blanket and curled up.
Just then, I heard a rustling beside me. I also heard the sound of a blanket being pushed aside and Choe Jeho’s feet touching the floor as he got up.
I held my breath until he left the room.
I thought he might be going to the bathroom, but his footsteps passed the bathroom.
Then I heard the refrigerator open. He must have been rummaging through the freezer pretty hard, because the clattering reached all the way to the room.
‘Is that punk eating a late-night snack?’
Right before the final episode of the program? At this point, when he should be burning fat harder than anyone? And he calls himself the center of the group?
I considered jumping out immediately and catching him in the act, but gave up. He deserved to be beaten into shape, but my head hurt too much.
It wasn’t like Choe Jeho was the type to gain weight from one stupid act. And since he was even learning acrobatics short-term for the final performance, he was probably burning a lot of calories.
There weren’t any high-calorie foods in the dorm anyway, so even if he secretly ate something, it would probably be something like a frozen yogurt stick.
‘What is there to eat in our dorm fridge?’
Now my imagination spread as far as, “Choe Jeho has been secretly hiding something from the members and eating it whenever he gets the chance.”
Tomorrow, as soon as the sun rose, I would turn the dorm upside down.
And then I would raid every last bit of that bastard’s emergency ration stash and make an example of him…
While I clenched my fist and planned the major cleaning operation, he calmly returned to the room.
Then, without even closing the door, he approached my bed.
Soon after, his hand grabbed my head under the blanket. Because he grabbed near the wound, I nearly screamed in the middle of the night.
“Ahk…!”
“What the—why is your head here?”
Choe Jeho’s voice rose too, as if he was startled. When I pulled back the blanket and lifted my head, I saw Choe Jeho frowning as hard as he could.
“What are you doing?”
“I was trying to grab your shoulder.”
Judging by what he said, this guy must have poor night vision and had just reached out somewhere at random.
“Why are you grabbing someone else’s shoulder in the middle of the night?”
“You think I grabbed you because I wanted to?”
No sooner had he finished speaking than I felt cold air against my face. Choe Jeho was holding out an ice pack wrapped in a towel.
“For me to use?”
“What’s the point of having it if you don’t use it?”
Without answering, I kneaded the ice pack.
When I placed the pack near the wound, it felt like the pain subsided.
“This is nice. It’s cool.”
“Don’t put it directly on your head.”
“I know that much. But why this…”
“You kept tossing and turning.”
Choe Jeho lay back down in his own bed. Even after doing something so considerate, the way he turned his back to me was exactly the same as usual.
I looked at the back of his head and quietly apologized.
“Sorry. You couldn’t sleep because of me, huh?”
“I’m going to sleep now.”
After saying that, he was silent for a long while, then muttered,
“Wake me up if it gets bad.”
How kind of him. This old man almost teared up a little.
Once the pain quieted down, I gradually grew sleepy. I closed my eyes and answered,
“Yeah, thanks.”
* * *
Even a long project must come to an end someday.
The final day of Awangsil, which had been full of talk and trouble, dawned.
Maybe because everyone had suffered so much, far from being puffy, their jawlines were alive and sharp. With jawlines like that, I thought they should all show us a paper-cutting show using their chins.
One burdensome thing was that too many eyes were on me.
First of all, I looked the part. During the surgery, they had shaved the area around the wound for stitching—the doctor had proudly said he’d shaved as little as possible out of consideration for the fact that I was an idol—and when I wore a cap to hide that, I ended up being the only one who stood out among the flashy idols.
‘It’s not like everyone wouldn’t know why I’m wearing a hat.’
It had been on not only entertainment news but also social news, so of course everyone must have been shocked…
“Iwol, are you really performing today?”
…I hadn’t expected even Yureu, the MC, to look at me with surprised eyes instead of his usual calm expression.
In the end, Yureu made us, who had come to greet him in the waiting room, sit in a row on the sofa and even gave us snacks.
“I’m just going in for a little bit and coming out!”
“Is that okay? I heard you were seriously injured.”
“I have good recovery resilience.”
Yureu advised me that passion was good, but I should take good care of my health too. He added that once Awangsil ended, we should have a meal together sometime.
On top of that, after receiving greetings so touching I nearly cried from Berion—who had apparently been telling everyone everywhere what a good person I was—I returned to the waiting room completely drained.
The only idols I properly knew had been Spark. I had no idea when I’d gained so many sparkling celebrity acquaintances.
“It was hard while we were doing it, but now that it’s ending, I feel sad.”
Lee Cheonghyeon said as he plopped down into the seat beside me.
“We haven’t even performed yet. What are you going to do if you’re already sad?”
“I knew you were going to say that, hyung.”
He knew and still said it. This guy had gotten gutsy.
Back then, he’d even run away because he was scared to debut with his own song.
“It hasn’t even been a year, but you’ve changed a lot, huh?”
“What are you talking about? I haven’t lost my original mindset!”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Lee Cheonghyeon ran over to Jeong Seongbin with a pale face.
Then he started badgering Jeong Seongbin, asking if his eyes lacked vitality. Anyone watching would think I’d scolded him or something.