The Long Journey's End
Finally, all the filming had ended, and we had barely managed to leave work.
“Waaah, it’s quitting time……”
“Now we can finally go home.”
Along the corridor leading out of the building, Lee Hae-won and Na Jae-hyun were chatting noisily.
It had only been a short time since the live broadcast ended, so they should have been mentally and physically exhausted, yet the two of them seemed to have endless energy, still talking as if nothing had happened.
“We debuted. Debut…… right?”
Walking side by side with me, Hyeon Si-woo muttered in disbelief.
“I actually debuted.”
Without a word, Hyeon Si-woo patted my back.
“Ji-an also worked hard.”
“……Haha, thank you.”
By the way, since our bodies hadn’t swapped back yet, my mind was still trapped in Won Ji-an’s body.
Thanks to that, I had suffered a great deal on the way home, pretending to be him.
“It was really emotional at the end.”
“Huh?”
“When I said I wanted to debut with Ji-an, it seemed like the first time he’d ever said something like that, so I was deeply moved seeing it…….”
Lee Hyo-seop shrugged nonchalantly and smiled.
Watching his expression, I felt a pang of guilt. From Lee Hyo-seop’s perspective, my comment during the final might not have sounded good.
“I said I wanted to debut with Ji-an, and then 9th place was announced as Lee Hyo-seop.”
Perhaps he felt uneasy because of my comment, even though he ended up 9th.
From Lee Hyo-seop’s point of view, there was no way for a good word to come out, but anyway, Lee Hyo-seop congratulated me and Won Ji-an.
“Hyo-seop hyung, thank you.”
Since I knew it wasn’t easy, I expressed my gratitude to Lee Hyo-seop.
“What for.”
Lee Hyo-seop shrugged. It seemed to mean don’t worry about it.
Since he had come from the bottom, he probably didn’t take big hits from such things.
Originally, according to the personality in the setting book, he had no grudges, was cool, and had strong mental strength.
“Thinking about it, in the latter half I was so focused on Ji-an that I didn’t have time to pay attention to other characters.”
Other characters aside, I had no special connection with Lee Hyo-seop.
“Well, since we debuted, we’ll get to know each other better from now on.”
Thinking that, I left the building.
***
Stepping out of the building, the cold air and dark street greeted me.
“Now I have to go home……”
It was possible to go home.
Thinking that, the dirty, smelly basement apartment felt like heaven to me.
Because my stamina and mental state were in tatters from focusing all my nerves on the final.
“Home……”
After a long, long ordeal, the final debut group was finally decided.
Fortunately, none of this was a fantasy created by the system; it was reality.
There was still a bit of doubt left, but if everything was a lie now, that would make me a crazy person.
“It must be real.”
Thinking that, I quickened my steps home.
“Thank goodness.”
Immediately, a sigh of relief escaped.
It was fortunate that Won Ji-an and I could debut together.
Suddenly, the tension in my body melted all at once. My legs, which had been fine until now, suddenly trembled as if they would collapse.
It felt like a storm had swept through. There were indeed many things that happened today.
“Saying my debut opinion, dealing with the damn system, swapping bodies with Ji-an, and then saying the opinion as Ji-an……”
The only person who said the debut opinion twice in the survival show was me.
I thought I had to apologize to Ji-an. It was a choice to save him, but I hadn’t been able to say the opinion because of me.
“Do Won-woo: Come home quickly.”
Immediately, a message came from Won Ji-an. It was a text saying he had already arrived home.
Since our bodies had swapped, Won Ji-an was sending the text to my phone from inside my body. So the recipient was set to Do Won-woo.
Suddenly, I felt strange. It was like receiving a message to myself. Probably Won Ji-an felt the same.
“I asked him to come with me, but he refused.”
Since we were going to talk at home anyway, I asked if he wouldn’t come together.
But Won Ji-an passed right by my side. It was a silent sign of anger.
“Tsk.”
Actually, even if I had two mouths, I had nothing to say. Suddenly swapping bodies without warning must have been shocking.
But if I had told him in advance, Won Ji-an would never have allowed it. He would have stopped me by any means.
He wouldn’t have understood or accepted the act of entering my body that didn’t debut and dying instead.
“But didn’t Ji-an do the same?”
Thinking about it, Ji-an also lied to me silently last time and let me take the misfortune instead.
In that sense, wasn’t it the same choice? It was just returning the favor to each other…….
“Thinking about it, why isn’t the system appearing?”
On the way home, random thoughts swirled in my head.
The biggest question was why the system suddenly disappeared.
“Earlier during the live broadcast, it was almost going crazy, and then it just vanished like magic.”
I really didn’t want to see the system, so I hoped it wouldn’t appear, but I couldn’t help but feel curious.
Why did it suddenly disappear?
“If it was that guy, he would have come to see my reaction or to tease me.”
Well, even if I had questions, since I couldn’t know immediately, I decided to think about it later.
For now, I decided to put out the fire.
***
I opened the door and entered.
This was after how long? The dark, musty basement greeted me.
But what greeted me was one more thing: a person staring at me while inside my body.
“Mi……”
Upon entering the house, I had planned to apologize, but when I tried to speak, my lips wouldn’t move.
“So, mi……”
“Crazy bastard.”
Won Ji-an cut me off and stood up from his seat.
“Are you really a crazy person?”
“First, calm down.”
“Am I supposed to calm down?”
“I’m sorry, okay?”
“So this was the ultimate measure you thought of? If I couldn’t debut, you’d throw this body and die alone?”
He looked much angrier than I thought.
“But that’s the same for you too.”
“What?”
“You also lied to me and tried to take the misfortune for me. You can’t just brush it off as if nothing happened?”
Won Ji-an, after hearing my words, stayed silent for a long time and then burst into laughter.
“So you did well?”
“That’s not it.”
Anyway, I was wrong.
I tried to open my mouth to apologize, but the words I was going to say were interrupted by Won Ji-an’s words and scattered in my mouth.
“If I really couldn’t debut, you would have died, and I would have had to live in this body for the rest of my life?”
Won Ji-an hit my chest with his fist while his face was angry.
“How am I supposed to live in this body?”
“……If I live well, it’s fine.”
“You’re joking? Are you crazy?”
Looking at the angry Won Ji-an, I rolled my eyes and made excuses.
“No, I was also surprised when I first possessed this body, but I managed to live with it somehow. More importantly, my face is really handsome, so people like me everywhere…… Huh?”
Won Ji-an, listening to my words, laughed as if he was dumbfounded. At that moment, when I tried to laugh along, Won Ji-an’s face hardened.
“Have you ever thought about my position of living in your body?”
In Won Ji-an’s eyes, which continued the words, tears began to well up.
“My position of being trapped in your dead body, living while seeing your face and hearing your voice for the rest of my life, was not in the slightest consideration?”
Suddenly, my head went cold.
“I……”
For a moment, my head was blank.
Ah, why couldn’t I think of that?
“I couldn’t have not known. You have a good head, so how could you not know!”
First, I had to calm down the Won Ji-an, who was shouting in anger in front of me.
“Ji-an. To explain, intelligence and empathy are completely different things.”
“What?”
Won Ji-an looked at me with tear-filled eyes and furrowed his brows.
“You know it too, but in my previous life, I was incredibly unlucky. I had no friends, no social skills, and being good at head and being good at empathy are thoroughly different fields……”
When I looked up, I saw a look of “what kind of bastard is this” in his eyes.
“I didn’t think of that. Sorry.”
“H……”
Immediately, I grabbed Won Ji-an’s swaying shoulders to support him.
“But we debuted together. Isn’t that enough to be okay?”
I tried to console him by talking about the result, but it wouldn’t work.
Originally, Won Ji-an’s personality was clear: he valued the process over the result.
“No matter what the result was, I would feel enormous betrayal for deceiving myself and making such a choice.”
Since I understood Won Ji-an’s feelings, I patted his shoulder and comforted him.
Actually, the real culprit of the anger was me, and this situation of me comforting him was a bit odd.
“Take your hand off.”
“……Yes.”
An awkward silence flowed.
“So when does the body swap back?”
“……”
“This will come back, right? Not that it won’t come back forever……?”
I shook my head.
“There’s no way. Then how can I stand here calmly?”
“You’re a crazy person.”
Suddenly, my mouth was shut. It was a situation where I couldn’t affirm or deny.
“Yeah. I’m a crazy person.”
Thinking that, I tried to lighten the mood with self-deprecating jokes, but it didn’t work. The room was still filled with a coldness like walking on thin ice.
“So when does it swap back? I want to go back to my body.”
“Umm……”
What should I say to this?
“That’s right, you said it. If I can’t debut, I’ll disappear the day after the program ends.”
A look of “no way” passed over Won Ji-an’s face as he heard my words.
“Until tomorrow, I can’t swap.”
Looking at the face in front of me, which was turning pale in shock, I smiled awkwardly.
“Sorry, it happened that way.”