"I really don't want to die!"
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
"Hyung!"
"Die—"
"Hyung!!"
"Uh...?"
Dansol opened his eyes in DinoSoul's old, musty semi-basement dorm. Two narrow rooms, each packed with two bunk beds, so cramped there was nowhere to step.
"Hyung! Are you hurt?"
Minjae, the youngest, wiped the sweat beading on Dansol's forehead.
"Why am I here...? Wait... Minjae, did you die too? Is this hell...?"
"What are you talking about? Were you dreaming? Who died?"
"No... I definitely got into a traffic accident..."
When Dansol sprang up and looked around, Minjae spoke.
"You said you were nervous since yesterday and even took sleeping pills. Hyung, stop taking those. You look kind of weird from the side effects."
Just as Minjae said, a hazy feeling lingered.
Was this a dream? But the memories of several years were far too vivid. Then was this some kind of unconscious state?
Convinced it was a dream, Dansol slammed his head against the wall.
"Ah! Agh!"
"Hyung! Are you crazy⁈ Woo Hyun hyung! You're here? Come over here!"
As Dansol banged his forehead against the wall, Woo Hyun opened the front door and came in. Minjae urgently called him.
"Agh!"
When Dansol saw Woo Hyun, he convulsed as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Hyung? What's wrong...?"
"Agh! Let go! This can't really not be a dream...? That makes no sense...."
Dansol suddenly stared at Woo Hyun like he was a bug. Woo Hyun's hand, which had reached out to grab him, hung awkwardly as Dansol retreated to a corner, muttering to himself.
"Hyung...?"
Tears welled up in Dansol's crouched eyes.
It couldn't be a dream. Dansol was certain—because his still-broken ear couldn't hear properly.
But his forehead throbbed where he'd hit the wall. If this wasn't a dream, then maybe... could it be... that I came back?
Dansol lifted his head from his knees. Then he looked at the bag Woo Hyun was holding with a puzzled expression.
The day before going on the broadcast, Woo Hyun had given Dansol a present. Before that incident, Woo Hyun had followed Dansol the most among the members.
"You... is that bag holding clothes you brought for me?"
"Huh...⁈ How did you know?"
"Wow.... I really came back."
"Came back where? But hyung, seriously, how did you know I brought clothes?"
There was no way he wouldn't remember.
Among the Omega contestants, there had been someone wearing the exact same outfit as Dansol.
The editing framed them as rivals from their first meeting, and that rivalry continued until the finale.
"I just found out somehow. I appreciate the thought, but... I don't need it."
At Dansol's strangely cold response, Woo Hyun quickly looked dejected.
"Ah, why! I bought it just for you...."
"I'm fine. It's too flashy.... It doesn't suit me. But... I have to go on that program, right...?"
"What are you talking about!"
"Are you crazy?"
"Hyung, what's wrong with you!"
When he said it on a whim, even Yoonseong from the other room rushed over and answered in chorus. The members' eyes gleamed sharply.
He knew it was ridiculous, but if he could turn things back, he'd sworn countless times that he'd never go on that kind of show again—even if it meant grabbing the agency president by the collar.
He never wanted to go on a program that divided people by secondary gender to begin with. Listening to that conman of a president had been the mistake.
But before he could even get to the president, the members stopped him.
Because they had so little recognition, even though it was Dansol's individual schedule, everyone was excited.
Jealousy among members required at least some level of fame. In fact, aside from music shows, Dansol was the only one bringing in schedules for DinoSoul.
When Dansol went to wash his face to clear his head and came back, the members took turns guarding his room door.
"Hey... I'm not running away. You don't have to guard me...!"
Trying to time his escape, Dansol raised his voice in embarrassment, as if his thoughts had been exposed.
"Hyung, you usually don't wash up on your days off. That's super suspicious."
"Hyung, you know Zeus, right? Their center ran away once because it was too hard. It happens sometimes to boy-group breadwinners supporting big families. But even if you run away, can't you still go on RO Match Survival?"
"Ha... Yoonseong.... That Zeus guy was filming dramas, movies, variety shows, and still doing music shows back then.... I have no schedules, I'm super comfortable. Look, the calendar's empty. I slept thirteen hours yesterday."
On the whiteboard in the living room, proudly labeled 'DinoSoul Schedule,' there were fewer scheduled days than red-marked public holidays.
"That's true, but.... Hyung, you even rejected Woo Hyun's gift! There's no way someone as materialistic as you would do that! Something's fishy."
Was I like that? Yoonseong's words made Dansol reflect. He did like flashy clothes and accessories. After years of hiding, he'd forgotten, having grown used to dressing inconspicuously.
"Th-that's because my style changed...."
"Did hyung catch actor disease...?"
At Yoonseong's words, Minjae, who'd been doing dishes, ran over without even taking off his rubber gloves.
"Hyung, it's too early for that! Even if you captured the hearts of housewives in their 40s and 50s overnight, once the next drama airs, you'll be yesterday's news."
"Our youngest really did his market analysis...."
"I have nothing to do since I'm always at home...."
Thinking it was praise, Minjae blushed and squirmed. In the meantime, Yoonseong grabbed Dansol's hand.
"Hyung! Hyung! You have to do well! I really want to go on as a washed-up idol...."
"Me too, me too! I want to be the ending fairy! I even prepared poses. Want to see?"
As Minjae showed off his charms, panting, Yoonseong clung on stubbornly.
"That ten-second thing? Hey, even cold water has an order! I'm going first!"
"Hey, shut up. Hyung has to leave early tomorrow. If you're that loud, his skin will suffer."
Only after Woo Hyun's nagging did Yoonseong and Minjae back off.
Naturally, unlike Woo Hyun, who treated Dansol casually, Dansol flinched every time he saw Woo Hyun.
What made it more uncomfortable was that Woo Hyun and Dansol had shared a room since trainee days. After Minjae and Yoonseong left, silence filled the narrow room.
"So... where are the others?"
"Hyunwoo, Jiwoong, and Yeongyu went for short-term part-time jobs. Jacob has an English lesson."
"Ah... I see."
Because life was tight, quite a few members secretly worked part-time jobs behind the agency's back. Minjae and Yoonseong were minors, and Woo Hyun came from a well-off family, so he didn't need to work.
Before filming daily dramas, Dansol also used to do short-term part-time jobs like the others.
"Um.... Hyung, I'm sorry."
"Huh? For what?"
"The clothes.... You have your own taste, but I bought them too much my way.... I didn't know your taste had changed."
Dansol was flustered by the unexpected words.
For years, the image of Woo Hyun stuck in Dansol's mind had been only that final moment. Didn't he scoff even at the sight of Woo Hyun donating right before dying?
Could it be that he'd turned an originally kind kid into someone so cruel?
"No, it's not that.... Even if your family helps, you probably don't have much money, so I felt bad, that's all."
Just because someone had means didn't mean they were obligated to help.
"I just felt bad that you were the only one struggling. Hyung, then take this. It's not new—I bought it for myself, but it was too small."
Woo Hyun handed him a plain black tracksuit.
Only then did Dansol realize he'd hated Woo Hyun almost as much as the agency president. His stomach churned strangely.
As Dansol couldn't say anything, overwhelmed, Woo Hyun shyly pressed the clothes into his hands.
"They'll probably have missions there.... The stylist said not to wear the sponsored clothes roughly. Your training clothes are all torn and the knees stick out. If you wear those, people will look down on you."
Dansol couldn't bring himself to tell Woo Hyun that he'd be looked down on no matter what he wore.
To the members, he might seem amazing, but among top actors and popular idols, Dansol was nothing more than an easy chew toy. The younger ones didn't even know that and were cheering him on excessively.
'What should I do... Why did I have to come back to the day before the broadcast? They could've sent me back to before I was even a trainee.'
Using the excuse of leaving early, he went to bed, but sleep didn't come easily. He couldn't bring himself to run away, leaving behind members who were this expectant.
'Fine, I'll go on the program first.... If I get edited out completely, they'll be disappointed for now, but they'll accept it. It's better than getting cursed at and disbanding, right?'
As a child starved of love due to his parents' absence, Dansol wanted to become an idol because he liked people's attention. But after experiencing curse-like malicious comments and blade-sharp gazes, he only wished for one thing.
For the world to forget him.
When he realized he'd returned to the past, he wondered if a god who pitied him too much had given him a gift. He felt sorry toward the members, but Dansol had no intention of desperately surviving the survival show like before.
The next morning, after tossing and turning all night, Dansol was shaken awake by his manager. They had to leave at dawn and stop by the salon for hair and makeup.
After rubbing his sleepy eyes and finishing a full setup, he left the shop at 7 a.m.
Before regression, Dansol had been thirty minutes late on the first shoot because the manager took a wrong turn. Was that when he fell out of the production team's favor?
'Nothing more, nothing less—let's get there at least five minutes early.'
Dansol's eyes snapped open at the spot where the manager had gotten lost before.
"Hyung, not straight—turn right here. And please, can you update the navigation?"
"Oh... is that so? Haha, I've been busy and didn't update it."
Gilseong was a nice person, but a terrible manager. Still, his mellow personality was why Dansol kept in touch with him the longest—though he could be frustrating.
"First time here, so it was confusing. Sorry. But Dansol, have you been here before? There's nothing but uninhabited islands around here...."
"Um... I've been here before. A pre-shoot scout... or something."
"Haha, acting uninterested but you even did a scout? The representative will like that."
"Ah! Please don't tell the representative!"
Dansol deliberately avoided Gilseong's gaze in the rearview mirror. When the agency president came up, his expression stiffened, but Gilseong assumed he was just shy.
Outside the window, the island used as the backdrop for 'RO Match Survival in Island' came into view. At the entrance of the island, connected to the mainland by a bridge, English signs stood as proof of its once-glorious days as a tourist spot.
Chunmongdo, located at the far western edge of the sea. A picturesque island with clear waters and wide tidal flats. It once had tourist attractions and residents, but people left for their own reasons, and now only bored anglers visited the deserted island. After the broadcast, it became a famous tourist spot—but for Dansol, it was a place he never wanted to see again.
'Damn it, my luck really is shit. I even regressed before dying, and I still end up stranded on this shitty island twice.'
Dansol knocked his head lightly against the car window. The spot he'd hit against the wall yesterday throbbed, proving this wasn't a dream.
Continue reading up to chapter 40+ at Novelshub.org