Second Try Idol

Chapter 440: What Should We Do From Now On (4)

I always said this, but Goh Yoo-Joon could look quite fierce when he was not smiling. I had seen that expression many times, and it was not that I was scared of him, but I kept quiet just in case he was angry.

It wasn't me who answered Goh Yoo-Joon's question, but Joo-Han. "What are you talking about?"

Goh Yoo-Joon shook his head at Joo-Han with the same expression, then gestured for me to come over. "Were you two having a serious conversation? I have something to tell this guy."

"It looks like a lot of people have business with you today, Hyun-Woo."

"It's all this guy's karma," Goh Yoo-Joon joked, and Joo-Han laughed before gesturing for me to go ahead.

"Our conversation is pretty much over. You can go, Hyun-Woo."

"No, no..." I really didn't want to go since it felt like Goh Yoo-Joon knew something.

Goh Yoo-Joon's expression grew even more serious. "Why are you acting like this?"

It didn't seem like Goh Yoo-Joon was upset. I had never done anything to make him mad anyway. His just asking me felt like a psychological pressure because I was hiding something.

Could this be Elated’s Goh Yoo-Joon? No, that didn’t seem right. He had been too playful during the shoot. More importantly, Elated Goh Yoo-Joon used to have a different look in his eyes. This Goh Yoo-Joon wasn't unnecessarily apologetic or watchful. Then... Did he recall more than Joo-Han?

...I was not sure, but that seemed to be the case.

I stood up and headed toward Goh Yoo-Joon. If the memories of his Elated version had fully resurfaced, that was somewhat sad, but I decided to hear what Goh Yoo-Joon had to say.

We left the studio and walked toward the terrace where Jin-Sung and I had talked before.

"Do you look upset because you have something to say to me?"

"Oh, do I seem upset?" Goh Yoo-Joon touched his face in surprise. It seemed he only realized his expression was off after I asked him about it. His laugh was awkward. "You know I’m not really mad, right?"

"I know that, but what were you going to say?"

Goh Yoo-Joon's expression hardened again. He said, "I was looking for you and heard your conversation earlier, and something sounded strange."

"What did?" My heart pounded. It was like experiencing all the dramatic devices of a movie. The tension engulfed me in an instant. I wasn't sweating, but it felt like I was. My throat tightened, hardly moving.

"It seems like other members are having a similar experience to mine." Goh Yoo-Joon pointed at me. "This all seems related to you."

"What experience are you talking about?"

"..."

Goh Yoo-Joon scrunched his nose, apparently very displeased with my answer. Although he had a stoic look, he wasn’t mad at me. "Why are you pretending to not know?"

"What am I pretending to not know?"

My expression hardened more and more. My response came out as if I was challenging Goh Yoo-Joon, even though I didn’t intend for it. I felt sorry for him, who knew nothing, but I was also reaching the limits of my patience.

I couldn't understand why these things kept happening to me, and why even the innocent members were being dragged into this. Was it really that hard to live a normal life like most people?

"You need to tell me what you know so I can respond accordingly."

I managed to bear Elated being here. But now, it was too painful to be called out by the members to ask about this and that. I just wanted to live my life surrounded by members who didn't know anything about my past life, and deal with my trauma on my own.

Goh Yoo-Joon hesitated, surprised by my agitated look. "Is it difficult to tell me everything that happened?" he asked.

...Yes, this wasn't Goh Yoo-Joon's fault. I was not supposed to get this emotional.

Suppressing the rising feelings of injustice, I spoke as calmly as possible. "Everyone in this world has a secret. I will only say as much as I can without revealing everything."

"Well, okay. I don't know much about what’s going on either. I will tell you what I know. It seems I know more than Joo-Han hyung. I woke up and something felt off. As you know, I usually have a good memory." He hated taking situations too seriously, so he mixed in a little humor as he went on.

***

In the morning, Goh Yoo-Joon immediately tilted his head in confusion when he opened his eyes.

"Hmm... Is this possible...?"

It was a truly bizarre story. He vividly remembered events from a week ago, but his memories from just a few days ago up to the day before were completely blurred. It was like trying to recall a dream. He had clearly experienced these events, yet he could only remember them faintly. It was as if someone had stealthily stolen his memories.

He lay in bed with a deeply unpleasant feeling for a while. However, there were sporadic memories that came back to him while doing this. The memories of him keeping his distance from Park Yoon-Chan for some unknown reason, and memories of Suh Hyun-Woo, Jin-Sung, and Kang Joo-Han flowed in his mind.

"It's strange. No matter how much I think about it, this is so weird."

He had no reason to distance himself from Park Yoon-Chan. Although Yoon-Chan's personal schedule had recently become busier and their time for conversation had reduced, that wasn't a reason to distance himself.

And then there was Jin-Sung. In the memories of the past few days, not only his interactions with Yoon-Chan, but also those with Jin-Sung seemed completely different. The distance he had put between himself and Jin-Sung was utterly nonsensical.

"This is so weird, it feels ridiculous."

Hmm, he really didn’t know how to put this into words. In recent memories, Chronos was not Chronos. He was not himself. These memories were firmly implanted in his mind as if they were his own.

Not only the memories concerning Park Yoon-Chan and Jin-Sung were very strange, but those about Kang Joo-Han and Suh Hyun-Woo were off. His conversations with Kang Joo-Han and Suh Hyun-Woo were mostly forgotten, as if someone had kneaded his memory.

The only clear memories were of insignificant conversations like, "I’m going to the bathroom," "Let's eat," "Let's go eat," and so on.

But disregarding these clear memories and focusing on the blurry semi-forgotten ones made it evident that his interactions with those two members had also become complicated. The memories he managed to scrape together were bizarre.

He had told Kang Joo-Han that he didn't want to go back to the original time. He wanted to stay by Suh Hyun-Woo's side. And he had heard from Suh Hyun-Woo that he should return after all. He didn't quite understand, but they were discussing some absurd phenomenon.

"Ah..." Goh Yoo-Joon stood up and shook his head.

Did those things really happen?

Since he couldn't remember well, he must have confused stuff from real life with a dream. They were such nonsensical memories. He just thought of it that way and went about his usual routine.

He followed his schedule and joked with Suh Hyun-Woo by saying, "I had a weird dream!" He was looking for Suh Hyun-Woo to tell him this. But then he overheard a conversation between Suh Hyun-Woo and Kang Joo-Han.

- What happened after that? I can't really remember. Did I make things worse?

- At some point, your expression seemed off to me. Yoo-Joon thought so too. Did something happen between us?

Kang Joo-Han was puzzled by his poor memory, but Suh Hyun-Woo only replied with a hardened expression.

- I don’t think anything happened, right? We have never fought before. Why would I fight with you?

- Right? But it's strange...

As Goh Yoo-Joon listened to their conversation, he had an intuition. He didn’t simply confuse his strange memories with a dream. Kang Joo-Han genuinely didn’t remember stuff, while Suh Hyun-Woo was lying stiffly about not knowing anything. Goh Yoo-Joon realized all the members had fuzzy memories like his.

‘Maybe not everyone, but Joo-Han and Suh Hyun-Woo for sure.’

But why was Suh Hyun-Woo pretending not to know? While pondering, Goh Yoo-Joon chuckled at Suh Hyun-Woo’s response.

- I don’t know either.

Now he understood a little about the distorted and forgotten memories, as well as the nonsensical events of the past few days. Suh Hyun-Woo was claiming to know nothing about them, but he definitely knew everything related to them.

Whether this was a serious situation or not, Suh Hyun-Woo’s pale face made it obvious that he was hiding some issue.

Goh Yoo-Joon leaned against the open door and said, "What do you mean you know nothing?"

Ah. Goh Yoo-Joon sighed. His question made Suh Hyun-Woo's eyes tremble. He looked very surprised, and his already pale face turned even whiter as he stared at him.

At that moment, Goh Yoo-Joon felt a strangeness toward Suh Hyun-Woo. Was this the Suh Hyun-Woo he knew? Was Suh Hyun-Woo the one holding the key to this bizarre phenomenon?

Then, a memory came to him all of a sudden. When Suh Hyun-Woo was at the airport, on stage, or riding a roller coaster, he always had the same expression. He suddenly became afraid of people and succumbed to his newly found traumas, turning serious.

Goh Yoo-Joon gestured to him with a stern look. "Were you two having a serious conversation? I have something to tell this guy."

"It looks like a lot of people have business with you today, Hyun-Woo."

"It's all this guy's karma."

...It seemed this guy had been hiding something long before Goh Yoo-Joon realized it.