Not a Dream, but Precognition (3)
"Hello?!"
Kim Hyunjo snatched up the phone. I leaned in, straining after the faint voice leaking from the speaker.
"Uh…… hooo. That you, Hyunjo?"
It was Team Leader Park.
"Hyung! What have you been doing all this time? I thought you'd keeled over drunk in the street!"
"Hey, hey, we just wrapped. I'm dying over here. Those men aren't exactly young, but they were pouring it down like they were filling a jar with no bottom. Their livers are in better shape than mine."
"And the deal? How'd the deal go?"
Someone swallowed. Had that been me?
"We're doing it."
"……For real?!"
"Tomorrow—well, today. The article's going out right away."
I clenched my fist against my knee. If I hadn't, I might have made a sound.
What on earth had they talked about, for it to come together this fast?
"The CEO pushed hard. And we got lucky. There was a girl group the production team dropped at the very end of casting, and in the meantime those girls had locked in an overseas schedule. Their director came all the way out here raising hell. If the timing had been even a little off, we would've lost it. Who was it again—the lucky charm who landed this. That kid really pulled it off."
"It's actually confirmed?"
"Only thing missing is the stamp. Treat it as locked."
"Hahaha! The kids are gonna lose it."
"Yeah. They've been through a lot. Get them the good news fast. We've grabbed the chance—whether we make something of it or throw it away is in your hands now."
"I know."
"Do it right. Do it right."
Kim Hyunjo stayed on with the team leader a while longer, then hung up. He fiddled with the phone and held it out to me.
"Here. Take it."
"Yes?"
I took it without thinking, and the screen was already calling Lee Taehee.
Why me?
"You brought this in, Sunwoo, so you tell them yourself. Before the article drops."
The ringing cut off, and a voice thick with sleep came through.
"Something happen? We don't have a schedule today."
Lee Taehee. She still thought she was talking to Hyunjo.
"Ahem. It's Jung Sunwoo. There's something I need to tell you."
I looked up. Kim Hyunjo and the traitor were both watching me, faces bright with expectation. Hyunjo flicked his hand—out with it.
"Knet's starting a new show, Next K-Star. Do you know it?"
"Yes. I do."
"Neptune's going to be on it."
"……What?"
"On Knet—"
"No, I heard you. I just… really? I thought casting was already finished. I thought they'd even shot the poster……"
"Really. One girl group dropped out, so Neptune's going in instead. Chief Manager said to tell you before the article goes out……"
The far end of the line erupted. Taehee seemed to be shaking the members awake and passing it on. A piercing shriek cut through the noise—that was Lim Seoyoung.
"Give it here a second."
Kim Hyunjo reached over and pressed the record button.
The girls' chatter tumbled over itself. A sob, an excited scream, every kind of sound catching on the recording. It wasn't even a video call, and still the scene on the other side painted itself sharp in front of my eyes.
"Why are you recording…?"
"We might need it later."
Thinking about later, even in the middle of this. I ought to learn from that.
I told a tearful Lim Seoyoung that it was real, over and over, then passed the phone back to Kim Hyunjo. He ran through a few cautions and hung up.
"Sunwoo. How do you feel?"
How did I feel?
How was I supposed to put it into words? Hearing the Neptune members rejoice and choke up—that feeling, in that exact moment……
"Proud, and… I don't know. Really content. Warm."
"That's what raising rookies is. The taste of the kids picking up more regular shows. More people recognizing them, more fans, the popularity climbing. The thrill of making that happen with your own hands. Get addicted to that, and you'll never be able to quit this job."
"Ah……"
"Shall we get moving too? Rest now, or there's no working later."
We gathered our things in a rustle and stood.
While Kim Hyunjo paid, I waited outside the shop. Maybe it was the alcohol, but the night wind didn't feel all that cold. A bell chimed, and Kim Hyunjo pushed the door open and stepped out.
In that instant, everything in front of my eyes went black.
Again.
I was back in that office from the future. The moment I understood it, I locked every bit of focus into my eyes and ears. What I saw and heard here might change the rest of my life. I couldn't afford to let even the smallest thing slip past me.
"You first went on the air with Next K-Star, and now, more than twenty years later, you're the CEO of a company with a worldwide network."
"Haha. There's still a long way to go."
"Did that first experience—with Neptune, and with Next K-Star—shape the path you've taken?"
Reporter Song asked. My future self was turning it over. For a long moment, the only thing in view was my own body from the neck down.
"It did. Because I got addicted back then."
"Addicted……?"
"To the thrill of raising someone with my own hands. Those were the days we were still digging in the dirt, so there wasn't much I did myself, and even then it hit me. Neptune was practically unknown, and doing Next K-Star pushed their name way up. We caught plenty of hate, but……"
What?
"Looking back now, that was just a passing rain shower."
I'd wanted him to say more about why they'd been torn apart, and the subject had already slid on past. Damn it.
"And the album after that did incredibly well—all the way to number one on the music shows. Watching that unfold from the side, the thrill was enormous. If I hadn't tasted it then, the person I am now might not exist."
Good. So Neptune's next album lands. The part about catching hate worried me, but it seemed to work out in the end.
"I listened to that song so much back then, too."
Director Park, who had been listening without a word, added his piece.
"It was Neptune's first hit, and even now, when I think of Neptune, it's the first song that comes to mind."
"It must have been a good song?"
"You haven't heard it? Ah… for you, Reporter Song, that's an old song. The track was really good. Suited Neptune, too. I miss it."
"Shall we put it on while we talk, then? It's been a while for me as well."
The moment my future self said it, a clear melody began to play.
"Sunwoo, are you drunk?"
I jolted out of the music.
"Why are you staring at the ground like that? You about to throw up?"
Kim Hyunjo patted my back.
"Can't hold his liquor, huh."
"No, I'm not drunk. I was just thinking……"
I hurried to show him my perfectly clear eyes.
"Good thing. You're going to be drinking a lot from here on."
"Yes. I'm fine."
"Anyway, both of you worked hard today."
"You too, Chief Manager."
"Get home safe."
The traitor and I flagged a cab. Kim Hyunjo was the first one in, and he spoke as he ducked inside.
"It's five, so go home and sleep it off. Eat something good in the morning. Be at the office by eight."
Had I misheard?
"By what time?"
"Eight. If we're putting out a press release and getting ready, we have to meet with PR."
"Ah……"
"We've got a regular slot now, so starting tomorrow it's going to be a lot busier. But once you're both used to the work, you can split it and cover for each other, so don't scare yourselves too badly. Hahaha."
A devil. There was a devil standing right here.
"See you tomorrow, then. Don't go dark on me."
Kim Hyunjo disappeared, still smiling. The traitor and I looked at each other without a word. If he weren't the sort whose face and insides didn't match—the sort who'd stab me in the back—our sense of being in this together would probably run a lot deeper right now.
"Get home safe."
"You too. See you tomorrow."
We split up, and I climbed into an empty taxi. Someone must have hauled a drunk in it earlier; the smell of vomit still clung to the seats. I cracked the window, and rain started coming down. A perfect ending, right down to the last detail.
The taxi reached my studio in no time. I paid the fare and pocketed the receipt. I might be able to expense it to the company.
I climbed up to the cramped one-room through the pouring rain. The hour had already slipped past six in the morning. Work was at eight. Half an hour of sleep ought to be fine……
But once I'd washed up and lain down, sleep wouldn't come. My body had gone slack and heavy, and my mind was sharper than it had ever been.
In the end I got up and turned on the laptop. I opened a portal and hesitated. What was I even supposed to search…… Right.
A run of posts about movies and dramas full of people with powers scrolled past, and then, at last, the kind of question I'd been looking for. Someone claiming they'd gained superpowers. I read it only half believing, and it was uncomfortably close to me.
After a dream one day, they'd woken up with telekinesis, and now they were agonizing over whether they ought to use the ability to help people or keep it hidden.
This couldn't actually be real. Could it?
I checked, hopeful—and the category was Humor. Damn it. The replies were nothing but sneers, mockery, and people helpfully recommending hospitals.
I tried a few more searches, then gave up. I was going to lose my mind at this rate.
I turned in circles around the tiny room. This was my room. No one here but me. If I did something strange, nobody would ever know.
All right, then……
How was I supposed to use this ability whenever I wanted?
There was no manual, and no one I could ask. Ask, and I'd get a referral to psychiatry too. I'd have to figure it out myself.
First I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. I strained to call back the future I'd already seen. I furrowed my brow and focused until a strange sound nearly escaped me, but there wasn't the slightest hint that anything was about to appear.
I tried more times than I could count, then stopped. It was one of two things.
Either I was flailing because I still hadn't found the method, or the ability wasn't mine to command at all—it simply jumped out at random.
If I could have controlled the precognition, the first thing I meant to check was the next winning lottery ticket……
I opened a notepad and wrote down everything I'd seen and heard in the future before I could forget it.
In the distant future, I was the CEO of a management company. A considerably successful one. Director Park, who had come to interview me, seemed like someone I already knew. According to Reporter Song, I had clawed my way up—down seven times, up eight—all the way to the head of a major firm. From the way they'd spoken of the gates of hardship swinging wide open, it hadn't been an easy success.
At the start, instead of the actor I'd wanted, I'd been put in charge of Neptune. Neptune appeared on a show called Next K-Star, the show was a massive hit, and the seasons came one after another.
Neptune caught plenty of hate while filming Next K-Star, but in the end their recognition rose. The album after that blew up and took number one on the music shows.
He'd said my tie to Neptune began then, which meant the relationship would continue, in one form or another, from here on……
And Choi Geon-young was the one who had stabbed me in the back.
Was there more? Ah—one more thing. There had been no ring on my future self's left ring finger, which meant I was single. A confirmed bachelor well past forty, or else divorced and back out on my own. I couldn't tell which was worse.
Three glimpses of the future, and that was everything I'd managed to sort out.
But wait……
I had changed the present. Instead of taking a knife in the back from the traitor, I had connected PD Go Joon-tae with Neptune, and I had become the lucky charm myself.
Did that mean the future would change too?
I thought of the movies and dramas about the butterfly effect—the small beat of a butterfly's wings calling up a massive storm. If what I'd done yesterday was that beat of wings?
I wasn't going to fail to become CEO later because of this, was I?
No—but I'd changed the present after the first future, and after the second. In that future they'd said a bad first impression on Kim Hyunjo had thrown the gates of hardship wide open, and I'd set it right on the spot, going so far as to pitch the quadruplets. The lucky-charm title they'd said the traitor stole from me—I'd taken that back, too. I had kept altering the present like that, and still the second future, and the third, had shown no sign of a butterfly effect at all.
So then… a parallel world? Something like that?
The future I was seeing and the present I was living had already split apart into two.
I searched parallel worlds again. An enormous mass of information came up. I planted myself properly in the chair and started to read.
Whether it was a side effect or not, drowsiness began to roll in before long. I shook my head, trying to stay sharp. It was nearly time to get ready for work.
A new hire, late on only his second day—that wouldn't do……
It wouldn't……