Episode 157: An Unexpected Encounter (1)
The thing that woke me was a strangely light and refreshing feeling.
It was the kind of refreshment you feel after waking from an extremely long sleep.
That refreshment I hadn’t felt in a long time brought with it a strange anxiety that was the complete opposite.
‘What if everything up until now was just a dream?’
It was a thought I had always carried in a corner of my mind.
The sweet daily life I shared with Zia was happiness I had barely managed to obtain thanks to the absurd miracle of returning to the past.
I had simply been ignoring it until now.
“Zia?”
The reason my anxiety didn’t disappear was probably because the answer “Why?” that should have come immediately when I carefully called her name with my eyes still closed never arrived.
Thud, crash.
My body moved before my head could think.
“Woo Zia?”
I rolled off the bed, somehow dragging my body that refused to obey, crawling on all fours like an animal while calling her name.
Of course, my head knew.
The space that entered my vision when I forced my heavy eyelids open was not the worst form I had imagined—a penthouse completely trashed from drinking.
Yet the fear that had overtaken my reason showed no sign of fading.
The only thing that could erase this backlash from having ignored the worst possibility until now was the voice of the owner of the name I was desperately calling, answering casually.
“Zia? Where are you?”
Unfortunately, Zia was nowhere to be seen in any corner of the small nest that Seo Yoon-je had prepared for the two of us.
Was it because of the interior, made up of only white and black tones?
In the panic where it felt like color was disappearing from the world, I barely remembered the existence of my phone.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.
At that exact moment, the mechanical sound that captured both eyes and ears grabbed my fading reason.
Drawn by the sound, I moved, and there—
“…so I quietly left to let you sleep in today… Huh? You’re awake?”
The only being who could blow away all the anxiety that had filled my head appeared.
Instinctively, I pulled that single existence shining in a colorless world into my arms.
“Yujin?! Why are you suddenly like this?! Hey, let go first…!”
Zia’s voice, heavily dyed with panic, rang in my ears, and I could feel her small body struggling to escape my hands,
“Where did you go…?”
“……!”
Perhaps she noticed the tremor in my voice.
Zia flinched lightly, then,
“Aigoo… I just went out for a quick workout.”
Instead of pushing me away, she eventually let out a light sigh and gently stroked my back with her soft hand as she answered.
The warmth in Zia’s voice and touch slowly melted the frozen reason inside me. After a short while, one situation finally entered the realm of rational judgment.
‘Come to think of it… it sounded like Zia was talking to someone…’
At that moment, a different kind of anxiety swept over me.
This building had completely controlled access because it housed the greatest diva of the era and a fairly popular girl group.
There weren’t many people who could enter so casually and have a conversation with Zia here, a place that didn’t even accept regular residents.
Moreover, if it was someone she would use honorifics with, I could count the possibilities on one hand.
‘Ahjeong sunbae and…’
Before I could even recall the name that would naturally follow the building owner’s, the owner’s voice snapped my mind awake.
“You’re really making a scene. You don’t have to advertise it all over the neighborhood. Everyone already knows Zia is your person, so take it easy, will you? Aigoo, move. I’m getting cold from the sweat. Hurry inside.”
The person who had called Zia out was Moon Sook-hee, whom I hadn’t seen in a while because she had been so busy.
Even while frowning as if she had seen something unsightly, the corners of her mouth twitched. Feeling embarrassed, I released Zia from my arms and noticed the bundle in Moon Sook-hee’s hand.
“Aigoo. Why did you bring something so heavy? Give it to me. I’ll carry it.”
“You say that so quickly. Right?”
“Hehe.”
“Funny. One person who falls for that silly smile is already enough—your CEO. So stop smiling. Hurry inside, it’s heavy.”
Even while complaining that it was heavy, Moon Sook-hee showed no sign of handing the bundle over to me. Instead, she deliberately squeezed between Zia and me and headed inside.
Slap.
“I told you to let go first, didn’t I? Hm? Aigoo, this precious child never listens.”
“Ouch.”
The stinging pain that followed on my arm.
It didn’t actually hurt that much, but because of what I had done, I couldn’t stop the natural whimper that slipped out.
“But why did you suddenly do that? Did you have a bad dream or something?”
Of course, the scolding ended there.
As if it had never happened, Zia looked at me with eyes full of worry and asked in a lowered voice.
“Uh… yeah.”
If it could be called a nightmare, it was something similar, so I nodded. But even I could feel that the answer sounded like I was dodging the question.
Because of that, I couldn’t stop Zia’s eyes from narrowing slightly.
“What are you two doing over there! You’re not telling me to organize all of this by myself, are you?”
“Ah, yes! We’re coming right now!”
Fortunately, Moon Sook-hee’s timely scolding saved me. I quickly turned toward the kitchen where her voice had come from, leaving that gaze behind.
“Ha, is something cursed this year…? Chuseok is the same—why can’t anything go smoothly…”
I could hear Zia muttering behind me, but even that was soon buried by the lavish feast spread across the table.
“No, why did you bring so much?”
“How can I take the two of you out to eat these days? Both you and Zia have to protect your faces. It’s nothing special. This is kimchi. It’s not kimjang season yet, but good cabbages came in so I made it a bit early. If you still have the ones I gave you last time, eat those fermented first and have these now.”
“What about this?”
“Ah, that’s galbi. No matter what, it’s Chuseok, so I had to feed you meat.”
“Wow, this looks delicious. Thank you for the meal.”
The abundance that Moon Sook-hee’s generous, large hands had laid out on the table told me what day it was today.
The end of autumn—Chuseok.
***
“I was going to say that even on a holiday you shouldn’t let yourself go this much… but seeing what you’ve been doing lately, Yujin, I can’t bring myself to say anything. You probably need to rest at times like this. Zia said she was extremely careful when leaving so she wouldn’t wake you. Are you eating properly these days?”
So that’s why she wasn’t there.
‘I wouldn’t have minded if she woke me.’
If she had woken me, I wouldn’t have caused that kind of scene…
‘Well, I brought it on myself.’
If there was any fault, it was mine for worrying Zia so much.
If I were to answer Moon Sook-hee’s question honestly, the answer would be “no.”
In the past few weeks, I had skipped more meals than I had eaten properly.
‘If it weren’t for Su-hyeok, it would have been even harder.’
If Su-hyeok hadn’t stubbornly tried to feed me kimbap or sandwiches no matter what, Moon Sook-hee’s greeting might have been “Your face has become half its size.”
But there was no helping it.
“Ha. From what I hear from that person, there are so many things that can’t run without you, Yujin, so I can’t say much more…”
So many people were looking for me.
Project Trinity went without saying, and even though there were only four of them, I couldn’t just leave the care of the newly joined trainees completely unattended.
Of course, no one was forcing me on the latter, but my heart simply wouldn’t allow it.
Yu-won and Oh Cho-hee aside, the other two successful applicants also possessed talents that tickled my instincts.
‘Number 7, Jo Eun-song. Number 232, Yoon Do-young.’
Both were names that didn’t leave even a fragment in my pre-regression memories.
Yet both had such outstanding qualities that I felt they must have been doing music in some form.
Even if I felt like I was going to die from exhaustion, it made me head to the company somehow whenever I could find time.
In the end it was self-inflicted, but since the results were good, I couldn’t help but smile.
‘Project Trinity is sailing smoothly.’
They say charity begins at home.
If the broadcasting station’s storehouse was ratings, then Project Trinity’s storehouse—where ratings were climbing like a snowball rolling down a slope—was truly enjoying a happy Chuseok.
‘That’s why they even gave us a holiday.’
If the ratings had been low, we would have had to create elements to boost them somehow, but since the topicality was already sufficient, PD Ryu Je-hoon gave all the participants a Chuseok break.
Of course, it was only a two-day holiday including Chuseok day and the day before, but there were plenty of places that didn’t even get that.
The four new trainees were the same.
Yu-won, who had proven the nickname “3rd incident,” along with the other three, had clearly shown in the end-of-September test that their skills were by no means inferior, so they had already naturally blended in among the trainees.
Anyway.
At times like this, it would be polite to lie and say I was eating well, but instead of a smooth denial, I awkwardly scratched the back of my head and avoided her eyes.
“Still, take care of your body. If you wear yourself out while you’re young, it all comes back to you later, you know?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Listen to you. Only the answers are good?”
It might be because it had been so long since I received such sincere worry.
Well, I had often heard similar things from the parents of the Polaris members before regression, but the temperature of Moon Sook-hee’s worry felt completely different from what I heard back then.
‘No, maybe it was my own problem.’
The thought suddenly crossed my mind that, before regression, I might have been the one pushing away that kind of warmth myself.
There was no need to express why I could now accept the warm touch directed at me.
‘It’s all thanks to Zia, after all.’
I had to acknowledge it.
The days I spent with Zia were changing me in this way too.
“I’ll take care of myself for Zia’s sake too.”
“Pfft.”
Of course, I couldn’t say my true feelings outright, so I packaged them in a slightly different form. But these days, I had no intention of holding back expressions like this.
I had already learned painfully that holding back things like this was meaningless.
Half of Moon Sook-hee’s laughter seemed amused, the other half seemed pleased.
“Hm? Did you call me?”
The person in question appeared.
Zia, who had finished light makeup and put on a light coat, ready to go out, asked as if she had faintly heard her name.
“Mm. It’s nothing.”
“Yeah. It’s nothing.”
The moment our eyes met, Moon Sook-hee and I shrugged at almost the same time and spoke the obviously fake line in unison.
The light laughter that burst out right after made it clear that no one would believe it anyway.
“Now that I think about it, ‘that drama’ airs today, right?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
Zia couldn’t help but get swept along by Moon Sook-hee’s skillful topic change.
Well, given the topic, there was nothing Zia could do.
“Zia, you said you were going to monitor it with the drama filming team, right? I wanted to watch it together, but that’s too bad. You’re going to Grace Salon then? I’ll drop you off on the way. Tell your manager to come to Grace Salon.”
“Ah, you don’t have to… Hehe, thank you.”
This part was a little disappointing.
I had wanted to watch the broadcast of <1 Hit Lover> together with Zia, but unfortunately the situation didn’t allow it.
Thanks to receiving the best reviews among the one-act plays that started airing in mid-September, <1 Hit Lover> had been given a special two-hour slot today on Chuseok, unlike the others.
‘It’s a good thing… it’s a good thing, but…’
I’m still human, so I can’t help feeling a bit regretful.
Of course, I could just go there myself, but…
‘No, they did invite me…’
I had turned down the persistent courtship from the writer because I didn’t want to go there on my own feet and accept it.
“What about you, Yujin?”
“I’ll just watch it at home. There’s plenty of food instead of popcorn.”
“You’re better than my sons at times like this. Those boys don’t even know how to be grateful even when I feed them. Yeah, that’s fine too. You’re going to be busy again starting tomorrow anyway, right? Take a good rest today.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
So I had no choice but to watch it at home, picking at the Chuseok food scattered across the table and refrigerator instead of popcorn.
Even though I had unintentionally dissed someone, it was clearly a joke—both I and Moon Sook-hee knew it, and so did the targets of the diss.
With that, Zia and Moon Sook-hee left the house again, and I was left alone.
The intense anxiety from earlier had mostly disappeared, but a slightly awkward feeling still lingered.
‘Hmm…’
When my mind was mixed with these idle thoughts, I couldn’t work properly either.
To be precise, my efficiency dropped significantly.
‘Because it takes that much more time to concentrate.’
Before regression, I would have met someone and gone out for a change of air in a situation like this, but one regrettable thing after returning to the past was that there weren’t many people I could meet in times like these.
The only person I could call a friend was Ji-woo, but…
‘Right now Ji-woo is probably with Jung Eun-hye.’
No matter what, I couldn’t disturb that couple again.
If I went to the company now, it would definitely be empty.
I had already told the trainee kids never to come practice during the holiday, and I had informed the security team to contact me if any of the kids tried to come practice anyway.
‘In that case… I guess I’ll just do a big cleaning.’
It didn’t seem like a bad idea.
It would also help shake off the traces of that nightmare that felt like it had been carved into me.
And I could look forward to Zia coming back and being happy to see the house clean.
With that decision, I rolled up my sleeves.
I didn’t forget to set an alarm either.
If I got too absorbed, I might unconsciously miss the promised time.
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