Chapter 78: Personal Details
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 78: Personal Details
“I can’t believe another school actually uses that uniform besides yours… What a nightmare.”
Baek Hae-won clicked her tongue. The hypothesis that her brother and her favorite idol might have attended the same school hadn't even crossed her mind.
Baek Hae-in felt the same. Thinking back, none of his friends seemed like the type to become celebrities. So, Hae-in just grumbled.
“Does Korea only produce spinach-colored fabric or something?”
Just as Hae-in was about to look away in annoyance, the face of the man dancing in a uniform that looked like well-ripened green onion kimchi filled the screen in a close-up.
“Huh?”
Hae-in froze. Hae-won chimed in immediately.
“What? Even you can see his face is on a whole different level, right? I guess a handsome face really is the best accessory.”
Whether Hae-won was marveling or not, Hae-in couldn't take his eyes off the TV.
After the man in the green uniform was shown in a few more close-ups, Hae-in muttered, “Why is he coming out from there…?”
Hae-won looked up at him, asking what he meant. Hae-in’s next words were even more shocking.
“I know him. He goes to my school.”
“What?”
“That’s our school uniform. That’s him, right? Kim Han.”
“Gosh, you scared me. No, it’s not. That’s Kim I-wol.”
“Is that his real name? Not a stage name?”
“They all use their real names.”
Hae-won replied as if the excitement had fizzled out. She had briefly hoped for a situation like 'My idol turns out to be my sibling's in-law's second cousin's aunt's great-aunt's son?' but the world wasn't that small.
Despite Hae-won’s disappointed tone, Hae-in didn't back down.
“No, really. He looks exactly like Kim Han.”
“Look, logically, if someone like that was at your school, do you think I wouldn't have known?”
“What do you know about my life?”
“Fair point.”
Hae-won turned away, telling Hae-in to stop lying.
But truly, the man on the screen looked exactly like Hae-in’s classmate.
“Is his name really Kim I-wol? He never changed it?”
“He’s never mentioned it, so probably not.”
At Hae-won’s words, Hae-in stroked his chin and nodded.
“Well, I guess there’s no way that guy would be an idol.”
“Excuse me? Are you looking down on idols?”
Hae-won flared up. Regardless of his sister’s reaction, Hae-in said nonchalantly, “Can you stop picking fights? I wasn't being sarcastic at all. Seriously, your attitude…”
“Ugh, if you’re going to keep whining, just get out!”
Hae-won threw a cushion, which Hae-in nimbly dodged. It was a move perfected through years of experience.
“No, I’m saying that because Kim Han was a good student. I think he killed it on every mock evaluation. Why would a kid like that be an idol now?”
“I guess you weren't close then. Since you’re a total dimwit.”
“Hey, we only talked when we played soccer, you brat.”
Sparks flew incessantly between the siblings.
Then, images of Kim I-wol—who always seemed exceptionally sharp—flashed through Hae-won’s mind. Along with the fact that he had mentioned starting his trainee life at twenty.
Hae-won said to Hae-in, “Hey, go get your graduation album.”
“If you’re curious, go get it yourself. I’m a 'dimwit,' remember? I don't even remember where the album is.”
“Ugh, so annoying!”
Hae-won ruffled her hair in frustration.
Even though she had to rummage through the storage room herself, Hae-won managed to get her hands on her brother’s graduation album through the power of her overflowing love for her idol.
There, a youthful version of Kim I-wol’s face and the two characters for ‘Kim Han’ were clearly printed.
≫ Is I-wol’s name his real name?
The moment I saw this title, I doubted my eyes. I rubbed them and read the post again.
But nothing changed. The sentence asking if my name was my real name remained vivid.
The post had been uploaded about three hours ago.
When I searched, there were a few similar posts. Fortunately, the number was very small.
It felt like a rumor was starting to circulate after someone brought it up somewhere—likely a community or a private account.
It’s true that I changed my name. I did, but…
‘I’d rather my old name not get out.’
It was a headache. Mostly because I absolutely loathed my previous name.
People who didn't know the circumstances would often ask when they found out I’d changed it, “But it’s a precious name your parents gave you. Weren't you sad to change it?”
For the record, I wasn't sad at all. When I thought about how they named me ‘Hyo-il’—telling me to prioritize filial piety—only to neglect me, I got so angry I couldn't not change it.
What’s even sadder was that I was better off than my older sister.
I heard my sister’s name was made by roughly shortening the name of the community center in the district where they filed her birth certificate. It meant they just named her after the first thing they saw.
My sister didn't go as far as changing her name, but I stubbornly pushed through with mine. I applied for the name change as soon as I was old enough.
Since the name change had already happened in this life too, I wanted to live as if my old name never existed.
If my real name was revealed before I left Spark, it was obvious what would happen when I returned to being a civilian: “Assistant Manager Kim, I heard your real name was ‘Hyo-il’? Is there a reason you changed it?”
However, it didn't seem like things would go the way I wanted.
What kind of beings are idol fans? Aren't they cyber archaeologists who can dig up past stories even the person involved has forgotten with their incredible searching skills?
No matter how much I wanted to hide those three syllables of my name, it would all be over the moment someone leaked a graduation album.
It was a name I had desperately hidden even at Hanpyeong Industry, but there was no helping it. I had no choice but to tell the members first that my name used to be Kim Hyo-il, and that I almost lived as a Confucian boy who prioritized filial piety.
I stood up, letting out a sigh deep enough to sink the ground.
And just as I was about to issue a Detailed Certificate to prove my words…
“Huh?”
Something was wrong.
The ‘Name After Change’ field was correctly listed as ‘Kim I-wol,’ but the ‘Name Before Change’ wasn't ‘Kim Hyo-il.’
Written there was ‘Kim Han’—the name that had been on my school uniform.
The schools I attended were the same, but the name tag and the name itself had changed.
And before that, I had been accepted into university but couldn't go.
Analyzing the events I’d experienced so far, the phenomena could be summarized into two points:
…Does this even make sense?
It’s already a mystery that a person returned nine years into the past, but what is the point of going through all this bullshit, even manipulating my personal details, just to make me an idol?
My pre-change name has absolutely nothing to do with becoming an idol.
The fact that it’s touching even this part meant the System wanted to control aspects of me beyond the KPIs.
But why? What does it mean?
What changes just because my name went from ‘Kim Hyo-il’ to ‘Kim Han’?
Seeing how those people who treated their children like vermin disappeared and left me alone, it didn't seem like their feelings toward us had changed much. So why do something so tedious?
In this moment, I sincerely wanted to fight the System. If it weren't for my sister, I would have jumped out the window right then and there to make all this elaborate, shitty design by the System utterly meaningless.
But anger changes nothing. I knew that fact all too well.
Instead, I used my head. If I couldn't remember the past, I had to at least predict the future. I tried to think that way as I reviewed the current situation.
Whether my parents' expectations of me were shattered, or they were even more fed up with me than in my previous life and kicked me out early.
The shape of my family was already very different from what I knew.
And my memories related to my family were incomplete.
Combining the two, a hypothesis I didn't want to imagine emerged.
What if my sister was also separated from the family home like me, and because of that, it’s impossible to find any point of contact with her until I fully regain my memories or achieve all the KPIs?
What if the structure is such that no matter what situation my sister is in, I, lacking information, have no choice but to be unilaterally manipulated by the System…?
My mind, which had been racing like crazy, stopped instantly.
“Fuck!”
I slammed my hands onto the dining table. I struggled to suppress the erupting rage.
My head felt like it would explode at the thought that I might have been played by the System all this time.
I covered my face with both hands and took a deep breath. Then, the System I saw last time suddenly came to mind.
+
[SYSTEM] A work directive from the ‘Person in Charge’ has arrived.
▶ Assistant Manager Kim, do you really need that to work? Have you thought enough about whether there’s a better way?
[SYSTEM] A work directive from the ‘Person in Charge’ has arrived.
▶ I’ll give you a list of supplies, so pick from it. Assistant Manager Kim needs to realize there’s no other company that looks after its employees like this, tsk.
+
The System at that time was clearly different from the usual one.
Instead of just giving tasks like the normal System, it spoke to me, reacted to my thoughts, and offered alternatives.
Simultaneously with forming the hypothesis that interaction with the System was possible, I summoned it.
The System didn't appear immediately. So, I fueled my anger so that my emotions would be vividly transmitted to it.
‘You piece of shit, come out.’
The System appeared before the foul profanities could completely fill my head.
+
[SYSTEM] A work directive from the ‘Person in Charge’ has arrived.
▶ Assistant Manager Kim, do you know what time it is? Do you think Party A is a joke? Am I someone you can just contact whenever you feel like it?
+
‘Cut the crap and tell me straight.’
I glared at the System and asked.
Is my sister… is she even still alive?