Chapter 333: Summer Vacation (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 333: Summer Vacation (3)
Since the lights were already out, I was about to get up first when Park Ju-woo tore open a bag containing the remaining supplies.
He then transferred the flame from his sparkler to a new stick. The stick, now blooming with a fresh shower of sparks, was returned to my hand.
"It’s all thanks to you, Hyung."
"Me?"
"Seong-bin said it. That it’s hard for an idol to receive this much consideration while preparing for entrance exams during active promotions... Hyung, you really looked out for us when it was time for us to go to college."
"That’s because you guys said you wanted to try."
"That’s exactly what I’m grateful for."
Park Ju-woo held up his sparkler and shook it gently. Embers scattered into the air.
"Thank you. For helping with the exams, and for playing in the band with us..."
"..."
"So, if there’s ever something you want to do, Hyung, just tell us anytime."
Park Ju-woo smiled. Orange light flickered across his face.
“Those people will keep waiting in the sweltering heat to persuade the teacher. They aren't the type to let go easily.”
The words the fortune teller had said during the variety show filming came back to me. His gratitude for playing in a band together—despite it being just one clumsy session—overlapped with his offer to listen whenever I had something I wanted to do.
Was it the salty breeze, or the sound of the waves? Or perhaps it was because there was a light capable of illuminating a dark path at sea?
I imagined myself boarding the ship these boys were on. Not as the person I was before—standing alone and hollow, seeing them off—but as someone who had taken a step to place my foot on the small stairs of that ship.
The moon was incredibly bright. Embers crackled and popped in my hand. The light we’d left on in the living room when we rushed out of the pension, the pool reflecting the moonlight, and the fireworks the boys held in their hands as they laughed—everything was illuminating the surroundings brilliantly.
Even though it was night, it was so bright. Bright enough that I wasn't afraid, no matter how dark the periphery was.
After returning to the pension, we all watched a movie together. It was a slow-paced, healing film set in a forest in a small rural village. Perhaps because we had just finished filming a music video set during the end of the world, this sense of peace felt foreign.
Unlike when I watched The Phantom of the Opera with Lee Cheong-hyeon, we even had popcorn with salt this time.
Park Ju-woo, Kang Gi-yeon, and I stuck to the unsalted popcorn. Jeong Seong-bin nibbled on the salty kind, while Choi Je-ho and Lee Cheong-hyeon happily polished off the rest.
『This tree has been watching over this place forever. Watching how we are born and how we grow.』
『But the tree doesn't tell us what it’s seen or heard.』
『Why do you think it can't speak? The voice of the tree remains everywhere. It is arrogant to judge all things by human standards.』
Ten minutes after that philosophical dialogue, Choi Je-ho crossed his arms and started dozing off. Seeing this, Lee Cheong-hyeon struggled desperately to hold back his laughter.
In the scene where the tree—a guardian deity of the village—was suddenly cut in half by an outsider looking for high-quality lumber, Park Ju-woo actually held his breath.
『I’ll just compensate you! If I pay, that’s it! Guardian deity or whatever, you people were just planning to grow it until it was worth money so you could sell it off too!』
『Don't you dare talk like that!』
Suing for trespassing wouldn't bring the dead tree back. Besides, those outsiders probably did it knowing they couldn't get lumber of that quality for the same price elsewhere. Looking at the devastated forest, none of us could say a word.
"That’s so cruel..."
Jeong Seong-bin muttered. Hearing a sniffing sound next to me, I looked over to see Kang Gi-yeon grimacing, trying to hold back tears. In the midst of this, Choi Je-ho actually opened his eyes again because of the shouting. He really was a simple guy who only reacted to auditory stimulation.
When I watched movies alone with Lee Cheong-hyeon, the pause button was pressed so often it almost wore out, but I couldn't do that when we were all together. So, I had to just sit back and watch the movie flow.
So this is what it feels like to let yourself go with the flow of your surroundings.
To not feel anxious even if I don't personally do something, to enjoy the routine in front of me, and to enjoy the consideration given to me—feeling a bit sorry, but even more grateful.
『You must be sad. But other than finding a new tree, what else can you do?』
『I wait. Until the tree grows again.』
『Even if a new sprout grows, it won't be the same as the old tree. Because that tree is dead.』
『I know.』
The white dress of the girl who loved the forest fluttered in the wind blowing through the trees. Her pale, thin fingers brushed over a sprout growing from the severed stump.
『But I have no choice but to love it. Because the roots aren't dead.』
I chewed on those words for a long time.
What if, after so much has changed, my sister has become someone completely different from the sister I knew?
Would I be able to endure the sense of alienation then? Even in an extreme case, if the System's manipulation caused her to find me incredibly annoying or view me as a burden? Would I be able to keep from being hurt?
『The essence is eternal.』
Was it okay for me to lean on her kindness and pray that we could have the same relationship as before?
Wouldn't that... be like placing a burden on her yet again?
With a heavy heart, I watched as the movie raced toward its conclusion.
A long time passed, so much that it was unclear whose land the forest had become, and the small rural village had declined and disappeared.
One day, a child climbing a low hill discovers a strangely shaped tree.
Thin branches sprouted here and there from a hideously severed stump—a plant too bizarre to be called a tree, yet showing new life too clearly to be called dead.
The child wanted to ask something about the suspicious tree standing alone among the others, but ended up following their mother, who was walking ahead.
The movie ended with the tree caught at the edge of the frame, under the gaze of the child who kept looking back.
"Humans are the worst!"
Lee Cheong-hyeon shouted.
"Humans are the worst!"
Jeong Seong-bin quickly shoved a bottle of sparkling water with a straw into Lee Cheong-hyeon’s mouth. Perhaps because it lacked sugar, he didn't calm down easily.
"Because of this kind of indiscriminate logging, the earth is desertifying, polluted fine dust is covering the planet, and we end up trapped in air raid shelters..."
"I picked a healing movie because I felt bad for you breathing in all that sand dust, and you go and get over-immersed immediately."
"Look who's talking, Kang Gyeon, you were crying."
"I was not!"
Lee Cheong-hyeon and Kang Gi-yeon started bickering again. Between them, only Park Ju-woo chewed his popcorn with a melancholy face.
"The tree... was a prop, right...?"
"Of course. You think they'd cut down a real tree just to film a movie?"
Jeong Seong-bin worked hard to comfort Park Ju-woo. Lee Cheong-hyeon, who had received a bundle of philosophical points from a single short film, paced the living room, wanting to talk to anyone.
I was the one who got caught. After that, a discussion session disguised as a review meeting lasted for three hours, as expected. It didn't end until Jeong Seong-bin told us to go in and sleep.
We all gathered and talked about 'Indiscriminate logging: Is it okay to continue like this?' and whether the new branches growing from a dead tree were essentially the same as the original tree. The level of interest in the topics varied, but everyone participated in the conversation.
"I think people who do useless things with you are truly precious!"
Lee Cheong-hyeon said happily. With that alone, you could say this vacation had fulfilled its purpose.
The six viewers talked until their throats were nearly hoarse. The night of the vacation faded away like that.
Peaceful air. A refreshed body. A quiet atmosphere.
It was a perfect morning, right down to the sound of the small birds.
Next to me, Choi Je-ho was sleeping with his back to me. Maybe it was because I’d lived in a six-person household for so long, but now a space without people felt foreign.
I readjusted my pillow and lay back down. It was because Jeong Seong-bin had strictly told us not to get up until the alarm went off.
Staring at the back of Choi Je-ho’s head, I remembered the morning of the first day I regressed. The day I was ready to swing a pillow at his head, thinking he was a thief.
That was the day my life began to be reused for the first time.
It was the day I received the quest to debut with Spark.
And it was also the day I realized that I had to complete all the missions to meet my sister and prevent myself from being forced into Hanpyeong Industry.
I took a slow, deep breath. Choi Je-ho’s shoulders, rising and falling in his sleep, matched the rhythm of my breathing.
The current me... is more mentally stable than before.
I feel like my inner self has hardened to some extent. I feel like even if my mind and body become unstable, I’ll be able to stand up again.
I closed my eyes, which had been fixed on Choi Je-ho, and sank into quiet thought.
As I inhaled and exhaled to the sound of steady breathing, my head felt a little clearer.
It was time to put into practice the 'plan formulation' I had been diligently writing in my diary for the past few days. If I wanted to achieve the KPI as quickly and safely as possible and then meet my sister.
To do that, I needed something more than just doing what the System told me.
And the important key to this... would likely be held by my parents.
I had anticipated it, but it was difficult to take the first step. Because I didn't want to face them. Because it was uncomfortable.
So I delayed it as much as possible. I could have tried to contact them through the company, but I held my breath and waited, fearing they might run away if I did.
But now I had to move. With half a year left until the concert, if I wanted to reduce variables and gain even a little more information about my sister.
'I can do it.'
I thought of the members who would be sleeping scattered throughout the dorm. If I were to be pushed back by my parents, these guys wouldn't just stand by and watch. That’s why I can take the challenge.
Because I don't have to face them alone, like I did at the funeral.
"Whew."
I slowly calmed my racing heart.
There was only one thing I had to do. Make them come to me on their own.
If I intervened excessively, the System might give me a penalty, claiming I abused my power or something.
I would do my job while drawing those people in. I would extract every bit of information I could get about my sister and then cut them off cleanly. The System didn't set it for me, but I decided this would be my goal for the second half of this year.
"Hyungs, are you awake?"
I heard Lee Cheong-hyeon’s voice from the bottom of the stairs. Soon after, he poked his head through the door. His face, glowing from the morning sun, woke me up. Beside me, Choi Je-ho rustled and sat up.
"As expected of my Hyungs. It’s so cute how you wake up right away when I call. This maknae is satisfied!"
It was a familiar phrase. A normal day had begun.