4. Has Anyone Seen a Heart?(4)
“Haa….”
Eunchan wiped the sweat that had trickled down to the hem of his T-shirt and exhaled. A smile spread across his lips.
Realizing that he had regressed six years, he couldn’t calm down easily. Putting aside how wondrous and thrilling it was, the feeling of confusion was even greater.
What if the moment he stepped out of the practice room, he returned to being the twenty-seven-year-old Yoo Eunchan? Since he had suddenly come back to the past, wouldn’t it be just as easy to suddenly return to how things were?
Because these thoughts kept coming to him, he had remained in the practice room even after the evaluation ended and danced without thinking. Only then did it feel like his head was clearing up a bit.
First, he had to give thanks. He didn’t know who it was, but they had turned back time as he wished. Whether it was a coincidence caused by a simple accident or not, he was grateful for the outcome.
*In manhwa, you always hear a voice that you couldn’t hear before.*
Wondering if there might be something more, he tried internally demanding an inventory be created and looked around to see if anything else appeared in the air, but it seemed the heart, the star, and the system window were all there was.
*Earlier it even gave me some skill. I’m not some magical boy—what the hell?*
Lost in thought like that for a while, his breath, which had been panting from dancing, calmed down to some degree.
Eunchan turned off the music echoing through the practice room and checked the clock on the wall.
[10:58 P.M.]
*It’s so late? I didn’t even feel the time passing.*
Practice room hours were until 10 P.M. He resolved to leave as quietly as possible to avoid getting caught.
*Well… I guess it doesn’t really matter.*
It had changed after the junior group Utopia debuted later, but in the current situation where they were forming the Chilwolchilseok debut team, it wouldn’t be wrong to say he was the most favored trainee.
He was the agency’s first trainee, and since he listened well to what the company said, he must have looked quite commendable to the adults. So they would probably just give him a warning for going over practice time by about an hour.
*The stats shown in the stat window seem pretty accurate, huh?*
What he felt while practicing was that while the technical details obviously needed more work, the twenty-one-year-old Yoo Eunchan now was better in flexibility and fundamentals than when he had been twenty-seven.
Thanks to being younger, he got relatively less tired even after practicing for a long time. He was still in good enough shape to walk all the way back to the gosiwon.
*I think I can really do well this time.*
He couldn’t hide the smile rising to his lips.
The feeling after practicing until he sweated buckets was always good, but this time he truly felt like he could live a pretty decent life.
Maybe he was counting his chickens before they hatched, but he just felt that way. It’s not like imagining costs anything, right?
***
1. Yoo Eunchan
2. Seo Juhyeok
3. Orion
4. Hong Byeol
5. Do Iseon
6. Yeon Gaeul
7. Hyeon Joo-in
8. Ham Jeong-won
9.
10.
11.
12…….
Closing the practice room door, he mulled over the rankings the trainer had called out that afternoon.
Up to 3rd place was practically fixed, so that was one thing, but Hong Byeol, who hadn’t even been a trainee for half a year, was 4th. He had been treated like a star on social media even before casting, so he definitely had talent, but still.
*He’s amazing, as expected… but wasn’t Hyeon Joo-in 6th before?*
While the other trainees were being evaluated, Hyeon Joo-in had unhesitatingly done his own thing in the corner, looking at his phone with a bored face or memorizing scripts. To the point that anyone could see he had zero interest in debuting as an idol. Moreover, there were countless times his lessons were pushed back due to drama filming schedules.
*If he got his act together and worked hard, he’d shoot straight up to the top ranks.*
From Eunchan’s perspective, Hyeon Joo-in slacked off in everything except acting, but even so, making the CEO nod his head was worthy of praise.
*…It is a bit of a shame.*
It was a waste that a talented guy who could secure top ranks if he just participated in a few more voluntary practice sessions was settling for 7th place… what waste? It wasn’t a waste at all!
Ha. The moment he came to his senses, Eunchan tapped both his cheeks with his palms.
“What are you even thinking?”
He shook his head and shook off the distracting thoughts. Even if he was nosy, this was too much.
Anyway, Hyeon Joo-in wanted to act more.
This time, I won’t tell you to become an idol either. Let’s keep this distance exactly as it is. Whoever it was, didn’t they turn back time so I could do exactly that?
Even though he thought that far, seeing how unconsciously some lingering attachment remained, he couldn’t completely stop caring. After all, they were former members.
*But this time, I won’t step up needlessly….*
Having steeled his heart, Eunchan turned off the practice room lights and secured the door. Even the dark interior of the company looked bright to him now.
*I’ve been in this building for over six years since it was built, but today I’m happiest to see it.*
It was just that the familiar main gate looked new again. The night air greeting the first day of his regression was refreshingly incomparable to anything else.
***
While returning to the gosiwon where he used to live, recalling old memories, Eunchan stopped by a convenience store and picked up cup ramyeon and triangular kimbap as usual.
*Lucky! This isn’t sold out.*
Due to the nature of this convenience store with its large floating population, if you were even a little late, the triangular kimbap would be gone. Before the regression, there were countless times he came back empty-handed. Fortunately, today he was able to secure the very last one.
“…That’ll be 3,200 won total.”
Today too, he succeeded in getting a meal for under 4,000 won.
There were times he wanted to eat something other than convenience store food, but he couldn’t afford such luxuries in his current situation.
*Huh, but the part-timer changed?*
The butterfly effect of the regression… was it something like that? Hyeon Joo-in earlier too.
He couldn’t remember everything from before, but he remembered the male part-timer at this convenience store quite vividly.
He always had a tired-looking face, yet moved quickly as if he had urgent business, and his slightly gloomy appearance was eye-catching too. To the point that I, who had grown numb to that sort of thing due to being surrounded by handsome faces, would glance at him.
But the part-timer at the counter now was the exact opposite.
The gender was female, and especially since she was slow at calculating, the contrast was even greater. She seemed to keep glancing this way too… was there something on my face?
*…I washed my face before coming out, though?*
Anyway, since there was nothing particularly urgent, he waited leisurely and rehearsed the way home in his head. It was the room where he had lived alone for the first and last time since coming up to Seoul, so he had never forgotten it.
The bag containing the cup ramyeon rustled as it swayed.
Eunchan headed toward the gosiwon near the agency where he had lived before his debut, following his memories. As expected, it was a familiar, narrow, yet nostalgic place.
The only thing a high schooler who had recklessly come up from the countryside with nothing but the determination to become an idol could secure was that gosiwon.
Creak—
Eunchan’s body flinched at the squeaking sound of the stairs.
“Ugh.”
Right. This place was like this.
Look at him, suddenly finding this uncomfortable. Even though he had lived in that cramped lodging with seven rough-looking guys, to think it would feel uncomfortable just because he had once lived in a proper house.
His desire for success burned even more fiercely.
*This time, I’ll definitely become an idol who holds a solo concert!*
Eunchan quickened his pace up the stairs.
***
Taking a cold shower and cooling his head, he judged that he needed to accurately grasp the current situation.
Since Hyeon Joo-in’s rank dropping in the monthly evaluation seemed to be a change caused by the regression, he needed to understand the circumstances.
He hadn’t been in his right mind earlier, but it wouldn’t be bad to do some searching.
First, Eunchan’s agency, Minutes Entertainment, hadn’t been established long but had a unique trainee system.
As expected of a newly founded agency, they needed a method to attract public attention, and that was exactly the “Minutes” system.
Before even debuting trainees, they filmed teasers and released them periodically, thereby succeeding in drawing a certain amount of attention by turning them into celebrities in advance.
There were even several trainees who already had individual fans, so this was successful marketing for a new agency.
*Even non-fans would guess for fun who among them would debut, so there were quite a few people like that.*
It wasn’t a survival show, but since it could be approached in a similar way, it was only natural that various posts went up and down on the internet. I was a hidden trainee, so I was only revealed after the debut team was selected.
*The Minutes system is perfect for attracting attention.*
In this situation, what received the most attention and was mentioned the most on social media was undoubtedly Hyeon Joo-in.
Next was roughly Seo Juhyeok. Both of them had risen to real-time trends, the measure of topicality, as soon as they were revealed through Minutes.
In my case, I wasn’t revealed through Minutes and remained a hidden trainee before debuting immediately. I had felt somewhat disappointed about this, but the CEO said something about it being like a hidden card, so I should think positively.
After roughly scanning social media, the netizens’ reactions didn’t look very different from before.
*Besides this, I want to know my current situation in more detail.*
He wanted to confirm if things were going according to his expectations.
But he couldn’t ask the people around him how things were going, so he had no choice but to rely entirely on his own memory and instincts.
*The few friends I had, I left them all behind when I left my hometown….*
If he contacted them later to treat them well after becoming successful, that would be one thing, but contacting them now pricked his conscience. Even if he was shameless, there was a limit—contacting them now just for his own convenience was a bit….
*Trashy.*
Even so, to not have a single person he could meet and open up to.
“I… really don’t have any friends, huh.”
He asked and answered himself while pouring hot water into the cup ramyeon. It was quite a bitter fact, but at this point in his life, he didn’t have a single friend in Seoul.
*Then I have no choice but to believe in myself.*
He had always lived doubting himself, but just this once.
*What if there’s someone else who came from the future besides me…?*
Eunchan furrowed his brows at the possibility that suddenly crossed his mind. But soon he split the wooden chopsticks in half and pulled up the corners of his mouth. With a crack, he ruthlessly discarded that momentary possibility.
“What a ridiculous thought.”
If such things happened often, where would there be any failed people in this world? He pushed a chopstickful of cup ramyeon into his mouth and decided to focus on the present again.
*What was the content of that system window I saw during the day again…*
He had been in such a hectic state that he couldn’t remember the content exactly. Seeing that the word “today” was deliberately written before the remaining count, he only vaguely guessed that he would be able to see the favorability again tomorrow.
But would there even be any use for it? Reading people’s inner thoughts would probably lead to more heartache than help. He thought it would be more comfortable to just act as if the favorability check didn’t exist.
*But what is the “specific goal” the system window mentioned?*
He thought it had said you could acquire stats by achieving specific goals.
The “skill” from the hidden event that appeared suddenly also seemed to be granted only after accomplishing something.
“Ugh, stiff.”
Eunchan grumbled in dissatisfaction and squeezed his body into the small bed that could barely fit one person.
*For now, I have no choice but to intervene actively….*
Even if things went wrong, it probably wouldn’t be worse than what he had experienced in the past. He had already been through the worst.
“Ah, right. The ring.”
He took out the ring he had kept in his pocket and put it on his index finger.
Indeed, he only felt less anxious when he could feel the pressure of this ring. Looking at the ring that had returned to its place, his heart calmed a little.
It was because it was his mother’s keepsake, but also because it was a ring he had been with since coming up to Seoul. He had to be careful not to lose it.