2
# Chapter 2
“Gasp!”
A breath burst out of me. My lungs felt like they were being torn apart, just like someone who had barely managed to surface after being underwater.
“I survived…….”
At least I was alive. I needed to call 911 first—
“Wait.”
My hand stopped.
There was nothing.
No rain. No car. Nothing.
Endless darkness surrounded me in every direction.
It was as if I had been trapped somewhere.
“What is this……?”
I hurriedly pinched my cheek.
“It doesn't hurt?”
It was a dream!
Of course. It had to be.
It really had been the worst nightmare.
Once I woke up, it would all be over.
That horrible accident wouldn't happen.
I-yul would be fine.
And I would return to my normal life.
“Whatever it is, I should never go to that damn event again.”
But even after a long time, nothing changed.
“……Am I really dead?”
Come to think of it, surviving an accident like that would have been stranger.
So this was what the afterlife looked like.
“Ha, if you're going to take me, then hurry up. Whether it's heaven or hell……”
The moment I muttered those words to myself—
Flash!
With a loud sound, everything around me suddenly became bright.
“Ah!”
An intense light that nearly blinded me, followed by a completely random sound effect.
Ba-dum-bum-bum!
“……Huh?”
[Congratulations!]
Congratulations for what?
[Deceased No. 392849384……, selected after 100 years.]
The mysterious status window began reciting an endless string of numbers.
The farther it went, the more it seemed to huff and puff, which was somehow rather pitiful.
“What is this?”
Then, an animation with an incredibly crude drawing appeared on the status window.
It showed the King of the Underworld spinning a roulette wheel containing the names of the dead.
The deceased who was selected would receive a “Dead Man's Wish Ticket,” which allowed them to make one wish.
[What an incredibly lucky deceased person! The Dead Man's Wish Ticket is normally given out once every 100 years. However, the ticket was revoked because the previous winner used it inappropriately, and you have become the new lucky winner!]
‘So the wish I made about winning the lottery actually came true like this?’
But what did “inappropriate use” mean?
[The chosen deceased, Yoo Seong-woo, may make exactly one wish.]
Well, whatever.
The important thing was that I'd been given an unbelievable opportunity.
“C-can I make a wish involving my life?”
[Of course! There are no limits to the King of the Underworld's wishes!]
“Did Kang I-yul die too?”
Please.
Please say no.
[Two people died in the accident: Yoo Seong-woo and Kang I-yul. Joo Han, Choi Woon-jo, and Han Sang-yoon are in critical condition, but they are not dead yet!]
“...What?”
I was momentarily stunned.
“Only that bastard Go Jae-seong is unharmed?”
As they say, people who get cursed live longer.
I should have cursed that bastard a little less.
“Can you turn back time?”
The status window, apparently understanding what I was trying to do, asked in return.
[Are you trying to make the entire incident as though it never happened?]
“Yes. I just have to not go to the event, right?”
[Even if time is turned back, unless the fundamental cause is eliminated, the future will repeat itself.]
“The fundamental cause……”
Sadly, I didn't have to think for long.
Why had Impactor taken that last-minute local event?
There was only one answer.
“……Because they're a failed group.”
Then that meant the incident in which Kang I-yul and I died would somehow repeat itself as long as the premise remained:
“Impactor is a failed group.”
Was being a failed group really such a crime?
Did it deserve death?
I remembered the self-deprecating social media posts from fans asking those very questions.
Of course, there were plenty of reasons they had failed.
Poor planning.
Bad styling.
Low-quality songs.
But the core problem was obvious.
Go Jae-seong's scandals.
The consequences of the agency's clumsy explanations and painfully slow responses had swallowed the entire group whole.
But did that mean the other four members, who had suffered like hell because of that bastard, were destined to die too?
“That isn't fair.”
At some point, my fists had begun trembling.
Once the wave of anger passed, only the cold reality remained.
Slowly, I came up with an answer.
“I-I can do it instead.”
If Go Jae-seong, the member responsible for all those scandals, disappeared, the group wouldn't fail.
If the group didn't fail, that horrible accident wouldn't happen either.
But once again, the status window saw straight through my thoughts.
[An already-established fate cannot be changed.]
An already-established fate……
“So I can't change Impactor after they've already debuted.”
I understood.
“I have to go back to before their fate was decided.”
If so, there was only one way.
“…The survival show!”
[One minute remaining.]
‘What is this, a fansign?’
I repeatedly refined the sentence in my head.
I couldn't make a mistake.
I only had one chance.
“Turn back time four years and let me participate in the debut survival show ‘Boys Code’ together with Kang I-yul.”
If I couldn't replace Go Jae-seong in the already-debuted Impactor, then I'd participate in the debut survival show from the beginning, push him out, and become a member of Impactor myself.
Becoming an idol?
I'd never dreamed of it even once.
But I'd never wanted anything more desperately.
My life and Kang I-yul's were both riding on this chance.
‘Yeah. Go Jae-seong debuted too. There's no reason I can't do it.’
“This time……”
If he was happy that he was the only one who survived, then I hoped he enjoyed it as much as he could.
It would be the last happiness he would ever have.
“I'll debut.”
To save Kang I-yul.
[Executing the wish of deceased Yoo Seong-woo: “Turn back time four years and let me participate in the debut survival show together with Kang I-yul.”]
[Good luck!]
Along with the darkness that returned once again, my body began falling endlessly downward.
---
“……Gasp!”
I sat up, desperately sucking in air.
Was I in the afterlife again?
Smack!
“Ugh!”
My back hurt like it was about to split open.
What was this?
This familiar palm strike was definitely……
“You're finally awake? You said you had to leave early!”
“……Noona?”
My only blood relative.
Yoo Seong-ah.
“Yeah, I'm your noona. Who else would I be?”
I rubbed my eyes repeatedly in disbelief.
Even after closing and opening them again, everything remained exactly the same.
“W-what year is it right now?”
“Seong-woo, you're being especially ridiculous today. Aren't you supposed to be one of the top students in your school?”
“……”
“There aren't only ten students in the whole school, are there?”
“Noona, how old are you right now?”
“Can't you count either? I'm seven years older than you. I'm twenty-six.”
I'd become seven years younger than my noona, who had been only one year older than me before.
I slowly turned around and picked up my phone.
July 6, 202X.
It really was four years ago.
“……How old am I right now?”
Yoo Seong-ah looked at me as if I were hopeless.
“What's wrong with you first thing in the morning? You'll really be late at this rate.”
Bang.
The door closed.
And the moment Yoo Seong-ah disappeared, the status window appeared as though it had been waiting for her to leave.
[S: In accordance with the wish of deceased Yoo Seong-woo, time has been turned back four years.]
“You could've told me that before my noona hit me.”
[S: ……The basic information of Yoo Seong-woo will now be provided.]
[S: To facilitate the fulfillment of your wish, a status window in a game-like format familiar to Yoo Seong-woo has been provided.]
Did it just ignore what I said?
[Name: Yoo Seong-woo
Age: 19
Height: 178 cm
Weight: 65 kg]
“Ha…….”
I'd suddenly become nineteen years old.
‘So a twenty-nine-year-old absolutely couldn't participate in an idol survival show?’
The King of the Underworld really was realistic in the strangest ways.
“……If you were going to make me younger, you could've made me even younger.”
I was exactly at the minimum age for an idol debut.
It made no sense, but I had no choice except to accept the reality in front of me.
My back still stung from Yoo Seong-ah's smack, after all.
I cautiously walked over to the mirror.
The dark circles I'd developed from countless late nights of work were gone.
So were my sunken cheeks.
Seeing my smooth face, shiny like a peeled egg, made me smile involuntarily.
I grinned so widely that my uvula was visible.
Then I suddenly noticed something sparkling inside my mouth.
“Whoa.”
I'd forgotten one thing.
“I didn't expect even this to be recreated.”
Nineteen-year-old me was undergoing orthodontic treatment.
I was startled, but an idol wearing braces was surprisingly a marketable option.
“Okay. Not bad.”
There was something else that was genuinely bad.
My limp body, which didn't have a single bit of muscle.
“Do you know how hard I worked to build that body—”
Just thinking about all the money I'd spent on protein made me want to cry.
Putting my disappointment aside, I organized the situation I'd been given.
1. I had returned four years into the past.
2. I alone had returned to my nineteen-year-old state.
3. Nix Entertainment's in-house survival show would begin in one week.
Then the first thing I needed to do was—
“Hey! Aren't you going to the company?”
Bang!
Yoo Seong-ah shouted through the open doorway.
“The company?”
Why would a high school student be going to a company—
Yoo Seong-ah furrowed her brows.
She'd told me that was the expression she made whenever I said something ridiculous.
“Don't tell me that whole thing about getting street-cast was a lie?”
At that moment, everything clicked in my head.
The employee who had handed me a business card on the street a week ago.
And the words “Nix Entertainment” written on it.
The contract.
The practice room.
The survival show.
All the forgotten memories came rushing back at once.
“Holy shit.”
The King of the Underworld's after-sales service was thorough.
---
There was one good thing about Impactor failing.
Nix Entertainment hadn't moved offices during those four years.
The moment I pushed open the same glass doors as before—
[Danger Level: 90% (▼2%)]
“It went down.”
This was the first time since returning that I'd seen it change.
The number that hadn't budged even once had finally moved.
‘What determines this?’
Whatever it was, even the name “Danger Level” made me uneasy.
‘How about explaining it?’
[S: Excessive information may cause panic.]
[S: Necessary information will be provided at the appropriate time.]
“...You sure know how to talk.”
In the end, it was just another way of saying it wouldn't tell me.
I swallowed my sigh and went inside.
Beneath the familiar Nix Entertainment logo, signed CDs from famous singers were displayed wall to wall.
The casting director Song In-hyuk, who had recruited countless famous idols from major entertainment agencies, and the visual director Kwon Jae-hyuk, who had earned praise for his impeccable aesthetic sense.
Although their increasingly hopeless management later earned them the mocking nickname “Talent” rather than their actual name, before founding Nix, these two had been a famous duo regarded as some of the most capable people in the idol industry.
So this was what the lobby had looked like.
For a moment, I imagined the scenery Kang I-yul must have seen every day on his way to work.
‘I actually came here.’
Following an employee's directions, I headed toward the practice room.
The moment I opened the door, I scanned the people inside.
But the face I was looking for wasn't there.
‘Why…… why isn't Kang I-yul here?’
My heart sank.
Then—
Creak.
The practice room door opened again.
“As announced, we have an important notice today.”
Song In-hyuk entered the practice room.
“Starting next week, we'll be holding an in-house survival show to select the debut members.”
The practice room immediately began buzzing.
“A survival show?”
After looking around at the trainees, Song In-hyuk spoke again.
“And the entire process will be broadcast on CNet.”
This time, it wasn't merely murmuring.
It was practically cheering.
“M-madness.”
“We're going to be on TV!”
“Whoa……”
Everyone was excited.
But I was in an entirely different world.
‘No, but where the hell is Kang I-yul?’
I was so anxious I felt like I was going crazy.
Then—
Creak.
The practice room door opened again.
“Sorry. I'm a little late.”
A familiar voice.
Just hearing those words made my heart react before anything else.
I turned my head.
And my eyes met those of the person standing in the doorway.
Kang I-yul.
Kang I-yul, alive and breathing.