Chapter 48
Chapter 48
Dreaming (6)
While Yu Yeon-seo was synchronizing his memories and recovering his broken body, the sixteenth episode of Dreaming aired.
Park Si-hwan realized that his mother in “Utopia” was frequently found in specific places. A kindergarten, a playground, a school... all places where a child might be. And he discovered that every time she saw him in those places, she would secretly wipe away her tears.
“You want to connect to Utopia? Without a case subject?”
“Yes.”
“Si-hwan, even if Utopia shares the same server, without a case subject...”
“Is it possible to reconstruct Lee Min-seong’s ideal world?”
Yang Ju-hui bit her lower lip.
“That... is possible. The data still remains.”
Park Si-hwan lay down and attached the “Utopia” connection device to his body. Yang Ju-hui urgently grabbed his hand.
“But you know it’s dangerous to enter a world that’s already concluded. You could end up adrift...”
“Please.”
Faced with his gaze full of intense longing, Yang Ju-hui let out a small sigh and gestured to the staff. They gathered around Park Si-hwan and helped him connect to “Utopia.”
“You know there have been bugs lately, right?”
“Yes.”
“Be careful.”
After connecting to “Utopia,” Park Si-hwan searched for Kim Yun-hwa, focusing on places where children gathered.
“Mom!”
And after wandering for some time, he was able to find his mother.
In the real world, Yang Ju-hui frantically typed on her keyboard. The time limit for Park Si-hwan to stay in “Utopia” was running out.
(Si-hwan, there’s something wrong with the program. We’re out of time.)
“I know.”
Kim Yun-hwa was kneeling before a young Park Si-hwan, stroking his hair. The grown-up Park Si-hwan stood behind her and spoke softly.
“Mom. Let’s go together.”
“Si-hwan...”
Park Si-hwan grabbed Kim Yun-hwa’s shoulder and turned her around. But her gaze was still fixed on the young Park Si-hwan.
Park Si-hwan gave her a little shake. The rims of his eyes turned bright red, as if he were about to burst into tears.
“Mom, that’s not me.”
“My son.”
“Mom!”
Kim Yun-hwa flinched. The young Park Si-hwan had suddenly frozen, as if paused.
“H-how...”
Kim Yun-hwa avoided the gaze of the son holding her shoulders. She couldn’t bear to face her grown son again.
Life had been hard, so she had abandoned him, practically handing him over to Chairman Park. She thought that even missing him now was a luxury. So she escaped to “Utopia.” There, she spent the childhood with her son that she never could in reality.
Then she found out that the real Park Si-hwan was looking for her. Watching from a distance was enough. She pitied her son, who would have to care for his old mother if she returned to reality now.
“I don’t resent you, Mom. I never thought you abandoned me.”
“...”
“So let’s go back and you can be my real mom. Huh? Not a fake one like this. Be my real mom. Please?”
Park Si-hwan pleaded, his eyes welling with tears. His trembling voice was filled with desperation.
“Let’s finally live together for real...”
Life returned to Kim Yun-hwa’s unfocused eyes. She reached out and caressed her son’s cheek.
“Si-hwan. My son...”
As Park Si-hwan was smiling faintly, feeling his mother’s warmth, an anomaly occurred.
“Huh?”
The floor beneath Park Si-hwan suddenly collapsed, and black hands emerged from the void, swallowing him whole.
“N-no.”
(No...! Si-hwan...!)
Kim Yun-hwa’s trembling voice and Yang Ju-hui’s near-scream could be heard.
Sucked into an endless darkness, Park Si-hwan thus... became a “Drifter.”
‘How many days has it been since I came here?’
When Park Si-hwan came to his senses after falling into the deep darkness, he found himself in a happy memory from his past.
The memory of carefree days running around with Park Si-u, the only person in Chairman Park’s household who had ever approached him. The memory of playing the piano for the first time, and the memory of winning a competition...
‘Living here forever... it might not be so bad.’
It was the moment Park Si-hwan, who had been tormented by the blurring line between dreams and reality and the prognoses of Chairman Lee’s mother and Lee Min-seong, helplessly crumbled.
“Master.”
And then, Chunbaek appeared.
“Are you going to stay here?”
“...Yes.”
“There is no paradise in a place you’ve run to.”
“I know.”
Park Si-hwan was watching from a distance as Park Si-u boasted about buying a motorcycle. Chunbaek glanced at Park Si-u before speaking.
“Do you know what it means to live here forever?”
Park Si-hwan looked up at Chunbaek. The once-despondent Park Si-hwan suddenly snapped back to his senses.
What did I just say? I finally found my mother, only to get lost in a happy memory shown in a dream...
“Even though I know this isn’t real, I can’t escape.”
“...”
“Living a smooth, conflict-free life in this world of false happiness—this isn’t living. You know that.”
“You...”
“As long as the data remains, you can’t even die as you please.”
“What are you?”
The more Chunbaek spoke, the more his mechanical expression peeled away, replaced by a human one. The director was satisfied the first time he saw this change in expression, but Yu Yeon-seo, dissatisfied, had insisted on reshooting the scene several times.
Behind Chunbaek, men in black suits and sunglasses began to gather one by one. They were bugs that had occurred in “Utopia.”
“Don’t be so sentimental, Master. It doesn’t suit you.”
“Chunbaek.”
“Get out of here.”
Chunbaek summoned a gun and aimed it at Park Si-hwan, looking ready to shoot at any moment.
“Before I’m forced to throw you out.”
Soon, the bugs rushed toward Park Si-hwan. Park Si-hwan turned and ran.
‘Where do I go?’
There was no time to think. Chunbaek’s incessant gunfire forced him to abandon his intended path and take another.
Soon, “Utopia” ended, and Park Si-hwan’s room of memories revealed itself.
“Dr. Yang Ju-hui is just too good at her job...”
Chunbaek, who had been shooting, suddenly staggered. In that opening, Park Si-hwan was able to put some distance between himself and the bugs chasing him.
(Si-hwan!)
“Ju-hui?”
Yang Ju-hui in the real world wasn’t idle either. She was frantically typing, debugging, and trying to pull Park Si-hwan out.
(Suddenly, the program is showing a rejection response...! There are too many bugs!)
“Just a moment!”
(I’ll hold them off as much as I can, so get out of there quickly!)
With a moment to spare, a question arose in Park Si-hwan’s mind. Chunbaek, an artificial intelligence, was a perfect shot. He never fired so erratically. Never.
‘He’s luring me.’
To whom?
The answer came immediately. At the end of the path he had been led down, Kim Yun-hwa was anxiously waiting for him.
“Mom!”
“Si-hwan!”
Park Si-hwan grasped Kim Yun-hwa’s hand tightly, reassuring her.
“Mom. Let’s go now.”
“Okay.”
Having confirmed Park Si-hwan’s safety, Kim Yun-hwa ascended into a cluster of light without any lingering regrets and returned to reality. Park Si-hwan let out a sigh of relief. Now I have to go back to reality... but how?
“Did you send your mother back to reality?”
“You...”
Caught from behind, Park Si-hwan flinched.
“Follow me.”
“What?”
“There’s no time.”
Chunbaek grabbed Park Si-hwan’s wrist firmly and led the way. Dragged along without understanding, Park Si-hwan tried to break free, suspecting it might be another of Chunbaek’s traps, but Chunbaek’s grip was stronger.
“There’s one door left to reality. I planted a backdoor... It’s here.”
“What on earth are you?”
Standing before a white door, Park Si-hwan shook off Chunbaek’s hand and scowled.
“So, is your escape from reality over?”
“...Yes.”
“Good. Please, hurry. There’s no time.”
Park Si-hwan hesitated for a moment before sighing in resignation.
“Let me at least know why. Why did you do all this?”
There was no other way, and seeing as he had been led to his mother, a part of him believed Chunbaek wouldn’t do something like this without a reason.
Chunbaek looked at Park Si-hwan for a moment, then smiled faintly. It was a complex expression, a mixture of relief, joy, and other emotions.
“I can’t let you get trapped in here too, big brother.”
“What?”
“Go now. Live your life in the real world.”
Chunbaek opened the backdoor and pushed Park Si-hwan inside. The door slammed shut mercilessly.
Big brother?
Park Si-hwan tried to open the door again, but Chunbaek was blocking it from the other side, and it wouldn’t budge. He pounded on the door.
“Hey, you!”
He could hear the sounds of Chunbaek fighting the bugs outside. Park Si-hwan’s eyes darted around as he was lost in thought.
[“No matter what humans imagine, reality is always crazier. A son abandons his mother with dementia, a father abandons his child.”]
[“If I destroy it, what happens to the ‘Drifters’ in this world? Do they wake up by force?”]
[“An excellent thought.”]
Park Si-u, who had become a guinea pig for the “Utopia” project at his father’s hands. Chunbaek, who had subtly guided Park Si-hwan, suggesting it was better to send the case subjects back to reality.
[“You can’t even die as you please.”]
Park Si-u had been burned in a fire during an experiment. The researchers had presumed his consciousness, left behind in “Utopia” without a body to return to, had been annihilated. But what if it wasn’t?
What if Park Si-u’s consciousness remained as data, becoming a “Drifter” in “Utopia”? And what if his wish to destroy this world was so he could finally die...
Park Si-hwan clutched his head and laughed hollowly.
“Haha...”
Chunbaek’s habit of blinking his right eye—that was Park Si-u’s habit as a child.
How did I only notice this now?
“Si-u...”
After holding on for a long time, Park Si-hwan lost consciousness.
-????
-Whoa
-Insane
-No way
-Didn’t someone post a theory that Chunbaek = Park Si-u?
-The foreshadowing was so obvious.
-Agh, Chunbaek ㅠㅠ
The screen went black for a moment before the scene changed. In an all-white space, a black-haired man was on the verge of tears.
“Mom!”
It was Park Si-u, trapped in “Utopia.”
The special appearance for the role of Park Si-u was made by Park Min-woo, who had filmed White Tiger with Yu Yeon-seo. His lower jaw trembled as he expressed his anxiety.
“Big brother!”
He shouted, but no answer came back.
Overcome by panic, he wandered through the white space until he found himself staring blankly at a massive cluster of light that filled one wall.
Eventually, Park Si-u reached a hand toward the light and was sucked into it. The light expanded greatly, filling the screen with white.
The black-haired Park Si-u was gone without a trace. In his place appeared the silver-haired Yu Yeon-seo.
Chunbaek was born.
Park Si-u, now Chunbaek, had approached Park Si-hwan to find a way to destroy the program in order to escape “Utopia.” He thought destroying the program would allow him to return to reality.
[There was a fire at the hospital he was in.]
[We couldn’t even find his remains...]
But he fell into despair when he realized he had no physical body left to return to.
Having lost his will, he changed his mind after seeing Park Si-hwan. He couldn’t live here forever. To leave this world and at least face a complete death, he deliberately caused bugs in “Utopia.”
“...Why did my brother connect again?”
Just when the destruction of “Utopia” was imminent, a variable occurred.
Park Si-hwan, who had connected without a case subject, was struggling to find his mother. Just when the destruction of this world was so close... After hesitating, Chunbaek chose to play the villain to save Park Si-hwan and Kim Yun-hwa.
“Dr. Yang Ju-hui is just too good at her job...”
And in the process, the destruction of “Utopia” became unattainable. Yang Ju-hui’s skill at stabilizing “Utopia” was simply too exceptional.
“Looks like dying is out of the question... Haha!”
For a moment, he considered living here with his brother, but he changed his mind.
Chunbaek pushed Park Si-hwan through the backdoor, thinking that one person trapped here was enough.
Park Si-hwan, who had barely made it back to reality through the backdoor, was said to have slept for several days straight. When he finally got up, he was fortunately sound in both body and mind.
“We’ve managed to stabilize Utopia. We had to preserve the minds of the people currently undergoing treatment.”
“...I see. You did well.”
“I think we’ll be busy stabilizing the server for a while.”
“What happened to Chunbaek?”
Yang Ju-hui shook her head with a sad expression.
Afterward, Park Si-hwan reported Chairman Park, providing evidence that he had used “Utopia,” which was meant for patient recovery, for his own selfish desires.
Naturally, Chairman Lee of Garam Global Holdings also faced public criticism. Chairman Lee’s mother, brought back to reality, was said to be receiving devoted care from her daughter, who had been abroad and unaware of the situation.
A person who had been in a vegetative state for ten years and returned to reality opened a restaurant with their family, their expression endlessly bright.
Lee Min-seong, finally aware of the void his parents had left, gritted his teeth and dedicated himself to rehabilitation therapy. To stand on his own.
(The data is severely damaged.)
After a hearing, Chairman Park was stripped of his authority over “Utopia.” “Utopia” was separated into its own entity, promising transparent operation. Park Si-hwan was appointed its CEO.
As scenes of the case subjects living their lives in reality appeared one by one, Yang Ju-hui’s voice played as narration.
(It’s impossible to even open the file. I can’t restore it...)
(...I see.)
The screen slowly faded to black, then the scene changed with the sound of an alarm. It was Park Si-hwan’s bedroom from the first episode.
Now, Park Si-hwan no longer had nightmares. He rose from bed with a light movement, washed up in the bathroom, and came out drying his wet hair with a towel.
“Echo, today’s schedule.”
(This morning, there are new employee interviews. For lunch, you have an appointment with Dr. Yang Ju-hui. And...)
Echo’s monotone voice recited the schedule. Park Si-hwan, who had changed his shirt, spoke while choosing a watch.
“What’s the weather today?”
The camera focused on a black electronic device on the nightstand. It was a product placement for Juseong Electronics’ AI speaker, “Ego.”
“Echo?”
It had been working fine lately, but now it’s unresponsive again... Park Si-hwan sighed softly and tapped the speaker.
“...What?”
Seeing the speaker stubbornly refuse to turn on, Park Si-hwan sighed and turned back to finish getting dressed, thinking he would have to buy a new one.
The camera once again focused intently on Echo. And then, suddenly, a change occurred in the motionless speaker.
A vibration signaled that the speaker was rebooting, and a blue light blinked once, then twice, before suddenly changing to a white light and blinking one more time.
Park Si-hwan, who had been getting dressed, turned around. His face, in close-up, showed his eyes widening in disbelief.
All sound ceased, and only the quiet sound of Park Si-hwan’s trembling breath could be heard.
At first, he couldn’t believe it. Then, relief washed over him. And just as Park Si-hwan, his eyes welling with joyful tears, broke into a bright smile...
Dreaming
The drama’s logo appeared, and the show ended.