When he lifted his heavy eyelids, a familiar ceiling came into view. Jaeyoon’s eyes, which had been blankly staring at the white wallpaper, gradually widened. He bolted upright and quickly examined his body.
“Huh…?”
A confused voice escaped his lips.
‘I definitely fell down the stairs, but I’m too unharmed? Plus…’
Jaeyoon raised his hand. It was a large man’s hand, completely different from Lee Jaeyoon whom he had possessed. As he hurriedly got up from the bed, he stopped in his tracks at the sight of his surroundings.
“This is…”
The clean and modern room interior in white tones. Small snacks placed within reach everywhere. The familiar, comforting scent of a candle… This place was all too familiar to Jaeyoon.
“This is my room, isn’t it?”
Jaeyoon, who had been blinking slowly, suddenly got up in a hurry. Then he looked at his face in the rectangular mirror on the desk. Apart from slightly sharp eyes, there was nothing that resembled Lee Jaeyoon anywhere.
‘My face…’
Jaeyoon awkwardly stared at his black pupils. Having seen many vivid colors for so long, they somehow felt unfamiliar.
“Am I back?”
After slowly scanning his room, Jaeyoon’s legs seemed to give out as he slumped down on the bed. He stared out the window with a blank gaze, then narrowed his eyes and stood up.
“What the…??”
Jaeyoon quickly opened the window. A rush of cold air immediately entered the room. Breath flowed out between his light pink lips. Staring in disbelief at the cityscape covered in pure white snow, Jaeyoon hurriedly searched for his phone. As he looked around the room, he noticed a white phone carefully placed by the bedhead. He approached the bed with quick steps, turned on the phone, and checked today’s date.
“Ha-?!”
A hollow laugh escaped Jaeyoon’s lips. February 26, 20XX. It was the exact day he had been possessed into the BL game. The phone dropped limply from his hand onto the bed.
“It was all a dream…? That’s it? I was suffering from insomnia in a dream??”
Jaeyoon shook his head vigorously from side to side. No, no, that doesn’t make sense. How could all that long time have been just a dream? How could such vivid sensations be called a dream? All those events? Jinhoo sunbae?! Jaeyoon swept back his bangs and bit his lip. His head throbbed. As he tried to organize his confused thoughts, his phone vibrated. Lowering his gaze, he saw the name on the phone screen.
[Jin Hojun]
Seeing his friend’s name after a long time, Jaeyoon closed his eyes tightly and opened them again. Carefully picking up the phone, he pressed the call button and held it to his ear.
[Lee Jaeyoon~!! What are you doing?]
Hearing the familiar voice asking as if they had met just yesterday, Jaeyoon hesitated momentarily before parting his lips.
“I was just sleeping…”
[Have you finished the translation work?]
“Uh…”
[So you’re free then?]
At Jin Hojun’s question, Jaeyoon’s lips merely twitched. He had no further schedule. He had planned to enjoy a rare break after finishing his novel translation work. He remembered feeling both bewildered and angry when he was suddenly possessed into a BL game for that very reason.
[Hey, then come to Hongdae. Lee Kyungsu, that bastard, got dumped!]
[I didn’t get dumped!!]
[Wouldn’t it be better if you had been dumped?]
[I said I didn’t get dumped!!!]
[Yeah, yeah. Hey, you know that junior of his, right? That guy who goes around looking like a punk with his hair full of wax. That bastard cheated with his girlfriend. And get this, even after catching them in the act, he couldn’t say a word and just left. What a pathetic bastard…]
Jaeyoon, who was about to decline, closed his mouth upon realizing the situation was more serious than expected. Love wasn’t smooth sailing, whether here or there.
[I trusted my friend as much as I trusted you! I introduced you to my friend without any hesitation!!!]
[You crazy bastard, this isn’t a karaoke room!! Come to that bar where we always meet!]
As the call abruptly ended, Jaeyoon let out a big sigh. His mind was already complicated with the possibility that everything that had happened might have been a dream, but he couldn’t just ignore his friend Kyungsu in this situation.
“Haah…”
Jaeyoon messed up his hair.
‘That guy will be there too, so actually, that’s good.’
Jaeyoon took a coat from the closet and went out.
***
“Lee Jaeyoon, over here, over here!”
As he entered the bar, he spotted his friend waving his hand from a table in the far corner. Jaeyoon carefully closed the door, slowly unwound the scarf from his neck, and approached the table where his friends were gathered.
“Jaeyoon-ah~!!”
Lee Kyungsu seemed to have already downed three bottles of soju before Jaeyoon arrived. Seeing his drunk state, Jaeyoon looked at Jin Hojun sitting beside him. In response, he shrugged as if to say he was innocent and said,
“I tried to stop him. But how could I control a guy who’s been dumped? A guy drinking straight from the soju bottle…”
Jin Hojun downed the soju in his hand in one go. He looked like he had already suffered enough before Jaeyoon arrived. Jaeyoon turned his gaze to Kim Dongwoo, who also seemed to have arrived not long ago. Kim Dongwoo was quietly devouring pork belly, ignoring the drunken antics beside him.
Seeing the chaotic scene already unfolding, Jaeyoon rubbed his forehead. It was like adding fuel to the fire in his already complicated mind. Haah, Jaeyoon let out an involuntary sigh and looked around. Jin Hojun, who was mixing soju with beer, asked curiously,
“Who are you looking for?”
“Where’s Byun Junghwan?”
Byun Junghwan was the developer who created the BL game Jaeyoon had been possessed into and was Jaeyoon’s longtime friend since childhood. Thinking that he might know something about what had happened to him, Jaeyoon had rushed over, but Junghwan was nowhere to be seen.
“He’s fucking busy, not even answering his phone. Don’t you know? You’re the closest to him.”
Jaeyoon’s eyebrows furrowed. He had been calling all the way here, but Junghwan hadn’t answered at all. Text messages, KakaoTalk, even emails – he had tried every possible means of communication, but there was no reply from anywhere. After glaring at the KakaoTalk chat room where the number of unread messages remained unchanged, Jaeyoon let out a small sigh and put his phone in his pocket.
“Why? Do you have something urgent?”
“Kind of…”
“Did someone steal your girlfriend too?”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Yejin-ah!!!”
Lee Kyungsu, who had been lying face-down on the table like a dead mouse, suddenly slammed his soju glass on the table and stood up abruptly. As he called out the name of his girlfriend—or rather, ex-girlfriend—and began singing Kim Gun-mo’s “Wrong Meeting” again, Jin Hojun shook his head.
“Didn’t that junior really look up to Kyungsu?”
“Yeah, he followed him like crazy. Like a little chick, always trailing behind him calling ‘sunbae, sunbae.'”
“Then how did it…”
“Admiration and jealousy are just a hair’s breadth apart.”
Jaeyoon, who was taking a sip of soju after a long time, narrowed his brow at the pungent taste.
“So that junior stole his girlfriend out of jealousy?”
“That bastard, despite how he looks, has a genius talent in art, believe it or not. Anyway, at first, the junior saw Kyungsu’s work and was instantly captivated, starting to admire him. But eventually, realizing it was a talent he could never match with his own abilities, his admiration finally turned to jealousy.”
Jin Hojun glanced momentarily at Kim Dongwoo, who was devouring the pork belly at the speed of light, then downed his somaek in one go. A satisfied sound escaped his lips, “Keu!!”
“Well, since he couldn’t steal his talent, he coveted something else. He gets a stupid sense of superiority by taking what Kyungsu has. The more Kyungsu suffers like this, the happier that bastard will be, right? So pull yourself together and meet another woman, you idiot!”
“I only have Yejin!!”
“Bullshit. What’s so good about a woman who left you for another guy? ‘I only have Yejin~’ What nonsense, really…”
‘Happiness…’
Jaeyoon’s eyes narrowed. He remembered Kim Yeonwoo’s wailing. Those words about just wanting to be happy. What did stealing the people around Lee Jaeyoon have to do with his own happiness? Jaeyoon’s expression hardened. This problem could be solved if Byun Junghwan were just here, but the person in question was nowhere to be seen.
‘Just answer your phone…!!’
“That bastard doesn’t like the woman Yejin herself; he took her because she was your girlfriend. He’ll keep approaching your girlfriend in the future, and are you just going to take it like an idiot?”
At the stinging voice, Lee Kyungsu lunged at Jin Hojun.
“I called you to comfort me, but all you do is spout venom?!”
“You should be grateful I’m putting up with your drunken ramblings? Fuck, do you know how many times you’ve sung ‘Wrong Meeting’?! The owner is letting it slide because he knows you got dumped. It’s so embarrassing, really!!”
Seeing the two grabbing each other’s hair and fighting, Jaeyoon sighed. He tapped Kim Dongwoo’s shoulder as he was wrapping pork belly in lettuce. Dongwoo stood up reluctantly. They struggled to separate the two who were squirming while holding each other’s waists. One way or another, it seemed impossible to go meet Byun Junghwan right now.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
