"Hyung, I'm really sorry. In order to make a hasty and arbitrary judgment of the situation, I carelessly shared the private conversation you shared with me..."

"As I said, it's all right."

It would be the fifth time if I had to listen to that one more time.

I accepted Kim Raebin's apology with a bit of weariness.

'Someone would think he was being framed for something.'

All this guy did was tell the other members, 'Moondae hyung said he could remember his past while sleeping'.

He most likely did it out of fear or nervousness.

Based on that, he must have tried to somehow interpret and respond to that episode of me going completely insane.

'...I thought I hid it well.'

I was deluded.

After returning to Korea and revising the summer package shoot, the atmosphere was awfully awkward and gloomy.

'Looks like they're being careful in case something happens to me.'

Even the camera occasionally captured these guys looking worried or nervous.

'...Ryu Chungwoo is refraining himself.'

It was clear from the beginning of the shoot that he realized I felt uncomfortable with him.

I talked to Kim Raebin, holding back my voice.

"Then I should also apologize. I'm sorry for this dreary atmosphere."

"What?? You absolutely do not have to! In the first place, there is no need to apologize for the unexpected situation that happened to occur during the times when filming was continuously in progress..."

"Okay. In the same sense, you don't have to apologize either."

"...! I understand! Thank you!"

After convincing him why he didn't have to apologize to me, Kim Raebin finally stopped talking and left after greeting.

"Then I will go. I hope you have a comfortable rest."

"Okay. You too."

The room immediately became quiet. One roommate was absent due to a schedule and the other was silent due to his quiet hobby.

'The world feels silent.'

I sighed and buried myself in bed.

However, there was noise coming from the next bed.

'...It's been less than three seconds since I said it's silent.'

It was Bae Sejin.

"...Umm, are you all right?"

"Yes? Yes."

It was a predictable answer but my condition was actually quite stable.

I wasn't sure if it was because I was drinking and let it out on the last day, or if it was because I left the unfamiliar country where the issues broke out and returned to my familiar dorm room.

Either way, it didn't feel like I couldn't keep myself together like before.

Just remembering it made me break out in a cold sweat. So I gladly added an explanation.

"There won't be any interruptions to the filming anymore. Please, don't worry."

"I, I wasn't worried!!"

Bae Sejin shouted and raised up the book he was reading in surprise.

"...!"

What was going on with him?

Anyway, I took a look at the summer package shoot, we checked today. It was the day the summer package was released on the market.

'Just in case.'

I picked up my smartphone and finally started monitoring.

"...Hmm."

I did this just in case, but fortunately, there were no problems.

It was because after going through the magic of editing, my attitude changed to seem more acceptably passive.

The responses were not bad either.

'As expected, it was good to reduce my reactions rather than reacting harshly.'

I thought that the right choice to do was to reduce my responses to the other members and situations as much as possible and not express my emotions too much.

Of course, there were occasional aggros commenting 'Where is Park Moondae's initial passion?' but they tended to disappear after being beaten as they did not receive a favorable response.

It was thanks to public opinion that thought I was really sick since I didn't appear much and even missed the W Live before the filming.

...This kind of, stabbed at my conscience.

'I wasn't even particularly sick.'

I already used the excuse of being sick, so I would really have to take care of my body for the next half year or so.

If I got sick again, from then on it wouldn't be a one-time thing and useless talks would properly appear.

The summer packages seemed to be bought only by fans so this issue easily passed, but I didn't know what would happen in the future.

'I'll have to be careful.'

I shrugged and turned off my phone.

Seeing the clean situation on the Internet, it was good that I overstrained myself at that time to carry it out.

...And, I also kept the promise I made back then.

Beep beep beep.

As I turned off the alarm that was ringing on my phone, Bae Sejin quietly started talking to me again.

"...You're going?"

"Yes."

"Well thought out."

"Well, I guess so."

I also decided to get counseling at the time that Seon Ahyun had it.

Thanks to that, I went out with Seon Ahyun at the same time, who returned from today's schedule.

"M-moondae. Let's contact each other when we're done...!"

"Yeah... sure."

But honestly speaking, it didn't help much.

"Then, what is your biggest concern lately?"

"...I do what everyone else does."

"I see~ Do you have any examples?"

"Well, I'm also worried about whether I can carry out my work properly."

It was impossible to tell the counselor that 'if I can't solve the status abnormality, I will die, and some bastard was even showing me strange visions, causing PTSD symptoms to pop out like seizures'.

I just did this for show.

"Mr. Moondae, you're doing well enough right now. Have you ever thought that it's okay to be more generous to yourself?"

"...I have, a little bit."

But still... Confiding with an expert gave a sense of security. The nerves that were standing on the edge were relieved, and my inner composure strengthened.

On top of that, our base schedule was not too excessive as it was not a domestic promotion period, so I finally thought of trying 'that' again.

In the bathroom of the dorm after I came back from the consultation.

I took a deep breath.

"...Status window."

Goosebumps ran down my spine, but it wasn't enough to make me quit.

Like that, I checked the status window for the first time in a while.

'Are you crazy?'

This time too, it had no conscience in the figures.

'With this number, there's no choice but to go on an overseas tour.'

Thanks to some events, it had 2000 marked now, but this also had its limitation. It wasn't like there were events all year round.

If things went according to plan, it seemed like we would start with a domestic concert around autumn, so there were no problems with the time limit... but the question now was the scale.

It wasn't at the level that would make me give up early, and if I combined the events and other things, it was worth a try.

'In the end, there's no choice but to release a good album.'

It was back to the same thing again.

...Still, thinking that this was the last time, I could feel a little more at peace.

'There's no need to win the grand prize award.'

I tried to return the status window with my hands slightly trembling, only to suddenly realize that I didn't have to use my hands.

My head wasn't working properly.

'...This isn't normal.'

The status window disappeared. I resisted the urge to stick my head into the sink again.

And I thought.

'...What the hell does it want?'

I couldn't figure out why the status window was like that.

The first reward was Park Moondae... So I was saying, things were different when the real Park Moondae's situation emerged, or when Chungryeo's circumstances were shown in detail for the second one.

I thought that they were hints to let me know how the current situation was working. But what I saw in America... Fuck. Anyway. That... was that not the case then?

Any clarifications, any bits of help... was it not that?

"...Huu."

Let's stop.

I took a deep breath and cleared my head.

No matter how much I thought about it, there would be no answer coming out anyway. Let's just do what I had to do.

That would be the best.

'First of all, the biggest schedule at hand.'

It was my personal schedule. I thought about it since the time I drank with Ryu Chungwoo and let it out at him.

'It's not bad to have some time to work alone.'

...In fact, ever since we came back to Korea, I didn't have any real conversations with Ryu Chungwoo.

Greeting, chatting casually, and reading the script for the camera could be done without much difficulty, but anything more than that... was hard to try since I had a track record.

'I'll use this to keep my distance.'

I gladly accepted the personal schedule.

And honestly, I was actually looking forward to some parts of it. It was because the stats that I raised last time were for this variety show.

'Rather, I ended up doing this later than I thought.'

The situation was perfect for me to take on the challenge for a change of pace.

I drove the useless rubbish out of my head and smiled, thinking only of the clear facts.

It was a singing variety show.

And my current singing stats were... S-grade.

* * *

It was a variety show that had recently become a big hit on MBS.

The program's format, in which celebrities with hidden identities came out to sing, and the winner was chosen through a survival contest, was probably somewhat boring.

Right now, MBS also had a finished variety show that was a big hit with that kind of format.

However, the had a unique difference. It was that the cast did not appear in person.

That's right. They appeared on the stage as holograms.

It wasn't about who you were. It was about the character that was set up by you.

The cast members made the singer mascots themselves by creating a profile with appearance, personality, likings, and age.

Then, a hologram machine supported by a large company embodied the character on the stage.

Viewers were fascinated by the state-of-the-art technology that even implemented the motions of the cast members linked behind the stage, and they fell in love with the familiar format without feeling like there was anything out of place.

Here, a high school student was flipping through the channels and stopped the remote control after seeing a familiar stage on the screen of this variety show.

"Oh~ Fake singer~"

The male high school student, who was chuckling while throwing out profane nicknames, stared at the screen without much thought.

His older sister said that she was going to watch TeStor or TeStar and went into her room.

Maybe for a while, he could comfortably lay in front of the TV without worrying about it being taken away.

Just in time, the second part of the program started after the interim commercials.

From a baseball player to a triangular gimbap, the scene where all kinds of unpredictable characters appeared, was always quite fun.

'The dinosaur should come out again now~ Don't make it boring!'

The high school student grinned as he recalled the last winner, a red-eyed, short-legged dinosaur called 'Tyrannosauron'.

The MC shouted cheerfully.

Dugudugu, along with drum rolls, the spotlight dizzily moved back and forth on the stage.

Then, a tall figure began to form and appear on the stage.

The fine body wore a white wedding suit with a white veil covered.

After that, holograms of white butterflies flew around and disappeared as they wrapped around the figure.

'Ah, it's a human again~'

Just as the high school student was about to boo, he could see beyond the veil in the close-up.

In the place where a face was supposed to be, colorful flowers were placed there like a bouquet instead.

"Whoa."

Cheers and applause that seemed to be artificially inserted could be heard in the screen.

But anyone who's gone through the same things can also probably relate.