Chapter 451
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 451
How much time had actually passed?
Sitting on the living room sofa, Kang Yi-chae did nothing but glare at the ticking second hand of the clock.
A day? Three days? Or perhaps weeks?
Could it have been even longer?
He could certainly feel the flow of time, but because every clock in the house seemed to be running on its own whim, he couldn't determine the exact hour. Even the sun rose at a different time every day.
So, Yi-chae sought a way to establish a more objective metric.
He found it in the mechanical metronome sitting atop the piano in his favorite room.
After winding the metronome once, he began to play Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, 1st Movement. If his memory served him correctly, the metronome should stop and the music should end at roughly the same time.
“…Hmm.”
Sure enough, the metronome clicked to a halt just moments before the piano notes faded.
Yi-chae pulled his hands back and slumped over the slightly worn keys.
The chaotic, tangled notes lingered, drifting through the room.
“…I guess I’ll have to use this to measure a day.”
He let out a hollow, incredulous laugh before lifting his upper body to stare into the empty air.
“Hey.”
[Loading…]
“Hey! I said let me out.”
[Loading…]
He had called out to the system numerous times already, but all he ever saw was a blue window displaying the words ‘Loading…’.
Yi-chae let out a deep sigh, his head beginning to droop again.
Ding!
“Are you there?!”
At the sound of the familiar notification, he snapped his head up.
[Shutting down due to overload!]
The system window vanished.
“…I almost cursed.”
He was now certain that this unresponsive piece of junk played a significant role in why Seo Ho-yun had such a foul personality.
Yi-chae ran a frustrated hand through his hair and shifted his gaze toward the ceiling.
“Wow, Kang Yi-chae, your life is really something else.”
To think he’d end up dropped in a strange place like this again.
The circumstances leading up to this weren't particularly grand.
Not long after the members had scattered for their individual schedules, a headache had begun to throb behind his eyes. His manager, hovering anxiously, eventually suggested that they postpone the day’s schedule.
Yi-chae hadn't been thrilled about the idea, but he felt so genuinely unwell that he had no choice but to accept.
[‘Kang Yi-chae’ is not a ‘Player’ of this system.]
As he lay groaning in bed, the system window had suddenly appeared before his eyes.
He hadn't seen it this clearly since he returned the system to Seo Ho-yun during the song camp filming, and the suddenness of it left him utterly bewildered.
[Due to frequent system proxying, ‘Contribution’ has exceeded the ‘Promised’ value.]
[E R R O R!]
[E R R O R!]
[E R R O R!]
[E R R O R!]
[E R R O R!]
.
.
.
The moment he read the messages, his intuition told him he was in serious trouble. But before he could even think of a way to respond, blood began to pour from his nose, staining the bedsheets crimson.
Yi-chae clamped one hand over his nose and reached for his phone with the other, but he didn't call anyone.
‘Is there even any point?’
He realized then that Seo Ho-yun must have suffered in secret alone because there simply was no other way.
For the first time, he understood why Ho-yun chose silence over honesty. Telling the members would only make them worry when there was nothing they could do to help.
Knowing he’d get an even bigger earful if he were eventually caught, Yi-chae roughly wiped away the blood with a towel, changed his clothes, and hid his face behind a mask. He went outside, hailed a taxi, and recited an address from the depths of his memory.
‘XXth Street, Brooklyn, NY.’
Even though it was the house that had sheltered his younger self, he kicked the gate open with indifference. He pushed through the overgrown weeds and opened the white door that now looked a dull grey.
The moment he ripped off his mask, his vision tilted. He tried to force his flickering consciousness to hold on, but as he saw fresh blood pooling on the floor, his eyes finally slid shut.
“…It’s clean.”
When Yi-chae regained consciousness, he wasn't greeted by a dusty, dilapidated house, but by a pristine, well-maintained home from a time when he was happy.
Since then, he had spent his time either frantically calling for the system or searching the surroundings like a madman.
Still, it wasn't as bad as when Seo Ho-yun had been left all alone in a world where he was an actor.
‘Because I believed it would be okay this time.’
Having acted as a proxy for the system and cleared quests over the past six months, he thought he had a grasp of how the mechanics worked.
However…
‘…I’m screwed.’
No matter how far he wandered, no matter how many doorbells he rang, he didn't see a single soul.
Eventually, in an act of desperation he himself considered insane, he even broke a window to break into another house, only to find it completely empty.
By that point, Yi-chae couldn't help but realize the truth.
There was no one here but him.
He also realized how arrogant his judgment had been.
‘I never imagined I’d be wandering a ghost town without even an internet connection.’
Ironically, everything he liked—excluding living things—remained perfectly intact. His metronome, his favorite movie DVDs, the sheet music filled with memories.
Feeling like he would go insane if he stayed still, he decided to connect the DVD player to the TV. Fortunately, it worked.
With the dialogue of the people on the screen serving as background noise, Yi-chae began to organize his thoughts by scribbling lines on sheet music.
By the time he had filled several pages, the moon had already passed his window four times, even though he had only rewound the metronome ten times.
“Ah, I’m seriously going crazy.”
Finally fed up with the entire situation, Yi-chae threw his pen and let his true feelings slip out.
“…I miss Da-jun….”
If only the maknae were here, his presence alone would have been as reassuring as a mountain.
Once that first honest thought escaped, his other inner feelings followed without shame.
“…The hyungs, too….”
If they had heard him, they would have teased him for being gross, but in the end, they would have all gone out to eat together, laughing.
Perhaps because the scenes in his head were so starkly different from his current reality, his mood sank even further.
Yi-chae stood up abruptly and ruffled his messy red hair.
“……I can’t just sit here. I have to do something….”
Maybe this time, he would actually find someone.
‘There has to be a way.’
To be honest, Yi-chae still had no idea what kind of world this was.
Based on the location, he could only guess that it was somehow connected to him.
But he hated the idea of just sitting around, hoping things would work out. He had done enough waiting in the past to last a lifetime; if he did any more, he’d lose his mind.
The system window had glitched out and vanished earlier, but he knew it existed in this place. He thought that if he could just find another person—anyone who wasn't him—maybe a quest would pop up and give him a clue on how to escape. He knew it was naive thinking, more of a wish than a plan, but he ignored that fact and moved his feet.
“…I’ll be back.”
Standing at the entrance for a moment, Yi-chae gazed at a photo of his younger self with his mother. He gave it a light tap with his finger before stepping out and closing the door.
He climbed into a random car nearby and started the engine. Just like the DVD player, it worked perfectly.
Yi-chae decided to venture further than he ever had before.
However…
“Talk about confirmation….”
He retraced the paths he knew and arrived at a small shopping district, but as expected, he found nothing. Yi-chae leaned his head against the steering wheel, clenching and unclenching his hands as he took long, slow breaths.
He drove around the shopping district in circles after that, but only the empty streets greeted him.
“Yeah, it’s fine….”
Could he really escape?
“It’s fine….”
Was he going to be stuck guarding this place alone forever?
The car screeched to a halt, and Yi-chae squeezed his eyes shut.
He panted heavily, and once he had calmed down enough to start driving again—
Rumble—!
A sudden, massive peal of thunder shook the air. Simultaneously, dark clouds swarmed into the sky where a beautiful red sunset had been spreading, and brilliant white light began to leak through the gaps in the gloom.
“Ugh….”
The light, which had momentarily turned the world blindingly bright, vanished just as suddenly.
Yi-chae, who had been shielding his eyes, slowly lowered his arm once things settled. The shopping district was silent, as if nothing had happened.
After staring at the stillness for a moment, Yi-chae turned the car around and headed home. He parked on the shoulder, passed through the broken gate, and trudged toward the front door.
“……Huh?”
The door was open.
‘Didn't I close it when I left?’
But as he had just confirmed, there was no one here but him. Who else could have opened it?
Despite that thought, his senses sharpened to a lethal edge, and his nerves felt like they were on fire.
Yi-chae moved forward, cautious and alert.
【…—I’m sorry, I should have believed in you】
The OST of the movie he had left running played softly. As he took a few more steps, the dim glow of the TV monitor stained the walls.
【This is a moment in our life—…】
Across from the screen, in the middle of the floor littered with half-finished sheet music, he saw a man standing in the shadows.
【I will never forget what you’ve said to me】
Even from behind, he knew exactly who it was.
A white turtleneck, faded jeans, and a jacket with a brand logo.
He looked exactly as he had the last time Yi-chae saw him before falling into this strange world.
【(Ah- Ah- I will never forget)】
Yi-chae’s footsteps came to a dead stop.
He felt as if he were being possessed by a ghost.
Then, sensing a presence, the man turned his head. The man, who had been frowning as if displeased, relaxed his expression slightly the moment he saw Yi-chae, looking almost relieved.
“……Have I gone crazy?”
Was this a hallucination, or yet another disaster?
While Yi-chae hesitated, unable to bring himself to step closer, the man spoke slowly.
“No, you haven't gone crazy.”
The owner of the voice he had missed so dearly walked toward Yi-chae and stopped in front of him.
“You’ve never been crazy.”
Yi-chae realized this was the sincere answer to a conversation they had once shared on an emergency staircase.
The man’s gaze traveled over Yi-chae’s body as if checking for injuries. Yi-chae did the same, scanning him, and noticed that the man’s fingertips were trembling slightly. Noticing Yi-chae’s gaze, the man hid his hands in his pockets and tilted his chin up.
A laugh escaped Yi-chae’s lips in spite of himself.
“Why….”
Because it really was the person he knew.
“…Hyung, why are you here?”
In a world where he was supposed to be alone.
A world where no one had come, no matter how much he had practically advertised for someone to find him.
The man’s eyebrows twitched at the question, which sounded almost like a sulky complaint.
“Why do you think?”
He looked Yi-chae straight in his trembling eyes and curled his lips into a smirk. It was the expression he always wore whenever the group faced a hardship.
As if this sort of thing could be solved in an instant. As if it were nothing.
“You said you get lonely.”
Seo Ho-yun spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.