Becoming An Idol Wasn’T On My Plan [EN]: Chapter 295

I needed to stay calm. I needed to understand what was happening.

…Damn it, I don’t even know his name! Baseborn!

[I’m dying to play the audio for you. Seriously, I’m laughing so hard right now.]

It’s not my past. It’s not your past either. Why is something no one did coming back like this?

The person in front of me was clearly dressed to the nines.

Reasoning, I need to reason. If I push my brain hard enough, it’ll come up with a plausible answer.

He’s a junior, a repeater, probably a year younger than me (if he were two years younger, he would have studied properly and not repeated).

Judging by the fact that I didn’t even know he existed, we didn’t even exchange numbers (I don’t even know his SAT scores; it’s better to consider my earlier statement about remembering even trivial things as limited to mock exam scores).

We didn’t even exchange numbers, but he’s acting so friendly… no, is that even possible?

“Were you two close?”

“No, it’s a bit ambiguous to say we were close. Actually, Dong-hwa Sunbae [senior or upperclassman] had close to zero friends at school. He was incredibly busy as a trainee.”

I perked up my ears.

What kind of relationship did we have, why didn’t I even know he existed, why did Baseborn hide it from me, and if this is the manipulated situation that PD [production director] set up, I’m curious about the intention.

“Oh, then why, here…….”

I guess the goal is to have me meet one or two people I know. Because the show is creating the illusion of going back to my school days.

“Probably because I’m one of the few people who knows about Dong-hwa Sunbae’s school days.”

So, could I ask why you know?

“How about we introduce ourselves first?”

“Ah, that’s right. Hello! Roommates, I’ve joined Roommate too!”

Say your name. Just say it, reading the room. I’ve never uttered your name out loud even once until now.

“I’m Ryu Byeong-gyu, who went to high school with Dong-hwa Sunbae!”

A bright smile bloomed.

“Long time no see.”

“It has been.”

Without anything being clearly resolved, we moved to the library.

As if the only thing that had changed in this private high school was the grass on the sports field, nothing else had changed.

This damn school. It’s rotten from the start.

The only thing I liked about our school was the fact that the library’s usage rate was close to zero.

The library was like a gazebo, a place no one really visited, and the reason was me.

Unlike the gazebo, which I used because the usage rate was low, the library’s usage rate was low because I used it.

And yet, I had a conversation with this person in that library. Why was he there?

At this point, shouldn’t I question the premise itself? Maybe the AI glitched and I became the school’s popular kid.

…If I think like this, Baseborn should be saying, ‘Don’t underestimate my technical skills,’ but he’s not saying anything, probably too busy laughing.

Ryu Byeong-gyu sat down at the innermost table as if it were natural and looked at me. A look in his eyes that wanted to share memories.

Damn it, I’m sorry, I became strange in the future.

That seat is even the one I sit in when I visit the library alone.

It’s not a lie.

In fact, I was desperately worried that the PD would bring in someone I didn’t even know and pretend to be my friend, trying to see my reaction, but that’s not it. It’s even more hopeless.

“But, what should we do? Should I just spill all the stories about Dong-hwa Sunbae from school?”

You seem excited. That’s not me.

[Bullshit. It’s practically you. You would have been the same!]

Shut up, you who have forgotten philosophy. Functional Ji Dong-hwa and all that.

“Dong-hwa Sunbae was pretty much… that kind of person. A person who only reads books.”

“A real scholar.”

“A scholar, that’s right! His posture was always upright, I hardly ever saw him cross his legs, and he read a lot of books. He was originally quite famous. He was good-looking, studied well, but if you talked to him, he would only answer politely, and you could feel a sense of distance if you tried to get close. He isolated himself from the world.”

You’re really excited. It seemed like you were itching to tell someone.

“Then how did you become friends?”

“Ha, to explain that, I have to reveal my dark history too.”

* * *

Gathering all the relationships that Ji Dong-hwa could have had in his life, Baseborn discovered the possibility of meeting someone he could become friends with.

And upon learning that he would even meet his younger sibling again as a result of becoming so close, Baseborn immediately began experimenting with smashing those possibilities through space-time travel.

Where do you think you’re going with that unscientific talk about fate? Human will has always succeeded in overcoming the limits of the world.

However, Ji Dong-hwa was too troublesome to control, so Baseborn came up with a simple solution.

To temporarily cut off Ji Dong-hwa’s consciousness and implant his own manipulated Ji Dong-hwa persona into it.

If he set a few principles and operated it, he could just conduct experiments in a controlled environment without having to pay much attention, how rational!

At the time, ethics were not a significant consideration in Baseborn’s mind.

From the beginning, his own safety was not a consideration.

If he died, well, he could just start over. Since he was using himself as an experimental subject, he felt no remorse or even a hint of pity.

Baseborn’s research log contained records of experiments ranging from the possibility of Ji Dong-hwa meeting Lee Hyun-jae at university, to the possibility of Ji Dong-hwa becoming a doctor and befriending Chae Ha-min with damaged legs, to the possibility of rescuing Ryu I-deun, who was collapsed on the street like a 폐인 [a ruined person; someone who has given up on life], to the possibility of Seok-jun becoming a cartoonist after retirement and Ji Dong-hwa joining as a writer.

The conclusion was always failure, the reason being that Ji Dong-hwa was too crazy to be held back by just one person.

So he increased it. To four.

Let’s force him to become an idol.

He firmly believed that repeated contact, the formation of intimacy, and a name that would bind them as a group would prevent Ji Dong-hwa from escaping.

A crazy scientist doesn’t care about trivial things.

One of those trivial things was Ji Dong-hwa’s (Baseborn modified ver.) school days.

Back in the day, when Ji Dong-hwa, who was planning to become an idol trainee, was attending school.

Only a few people at school knew that Ji Dong-hwa was an idol trainee.

The teacher looked at Ji Dong-hwa’s grades and said that he didn’t understand why he was trying to become an idol, but he was someone who respected dreams.

Ji Dong-hwa was tormented every morning by the internal contradiction of wanting to see his younger sibling but not having the confidence to approach them, and yet being a trainee.

He had no certainty about whether he would have the confidence not to run away if he met his younger sibling, or whether he had the personality to endure debuting.

It was as if someone was controlling him, as if the thought of becoming a trainee had suddenly been implanted in him one day.

He would never do that.

Is it humanly possible to collapse for three days with an unknown illness and then immediately start preparing to become a trainee the next day?

Even after only being separated from his younger sibling for so long…….

Ji Dong-hwa thought rationally. More precisely, he suspected. He wondered if he had a mental illness.

‘…Let’s go to the hospital.’

The moment he got up from his seat thinking that, his consciousness suddenly cut off.

His body wouldn’t move, along with the dangerous thought that a trainee shouldn’t leave such traces.

After that day, Ji Dong-hwa entered an experiment. To find out what actions would cause his consciousness to be cut off.

And he found the first principle, he cannot perform ‘actions that interfere with becoming an idol.’ If he tries to go outside the established rules, his consciousness is cut off.

‘…What is it, damn it.’

Discomfort surged. The very fact that something was trying to interfere in his life.

Whether there was some absolute being that was unrecognizable under his rational system, or whatever. What was certain was that there was an intention.

In other words, it meant there was intelligence. A strange being, perhaps a life form.

Ji Dong-hwa sat in the gazebo, thought for a while, and sighed.

“Is anyone there?”

Ji Dong-hwa pretended to be crazy and muttered to himself.

Ji Dong-hwa couldn’t know that all of this was ‘a situation where Ji Dong-hwa manipulated Ji Dong-hwa for Ji Dong-hwa’s sake.’

Ji Dong-hwa wanted to screw with them somehow.

That desire grew stronger as he tried things he would never do and discovered a few more principles that had been given to him.

Second, no exchanging numbers. Third, no forming close relationships.

Seeing the rules as if the relationships he formed were interfering, Ji Dong-hwa spent many sleepless nights pondering.

One day, while using practice as an excuse, he bought a bunch of coffee and Demisoda [a Korean soda] and went into the composing room, and a thought suddenly occurred to him.

‘A life for others, it’s so X-like.’

Ji Dong-hwa suppressed the curse words he couldn’t utter because of the rules.

‘Even a very small revenge…….’

From that day on, Ji Dong-hwa, who was manipulated by Ji Dong-hwa for Ji Dong-hwa’s sake, tried to leave behind relationships that Ji Dong-hwa didn’t know about in order to take revenge on Ji Dong-hwa.

* * *

“One day, a bulletin board was set up at school. It said, ‘We’ll answer anything,’ The teachers said that if you wrote learning-related questions there, someone else would come and write the answers?”

“Yes.”

“At first, I thought, ‘Why not just use an app?’ but there were ambiguous questions. Questions like, ‘Is it okay to ask this?’ So the kids started writing them as a joke. You know, like, ‘Why is a negative number times a negative number a positive number?'”

The writer seemed curious about the end of the story.

“But the strange thing is, the answers were all in one person’s handwriting. If a sticky note wasn’t enough, they would write the answer on several sheets of A4 paper [standard paper size in many countries], and some questions even had papers attached to them, so I was curious. What kind of person is it?”

Don’t tell me, that’s me.

“There were many rumors? Because no one had ever seen anyone writing the answers. There were even rumors that it was a ghost.”

“…Wow, so that was.”

“Yes! It was Dong-hwa Sunbae! No one knew. He would ask the security guard at five in the morning to let him in and write all the answers.”

How did you see that? Who comes to school at five in the morning?

“Oh, then how did you know?”

“I fought with my parents and was sleeping at school.”

Filial impiety.

“I woke up in the morning because I was cold, and lo and behold, I saw Dong-hwa Sunbae pinning the answers he had prepared in advance with thumbtacks!”

Ryu Byeong-gyu recalled as if it were still vivid.

When I shouted ‘Oh!’, I apparently had an expression that said ‘Finally.’

“So I’m still a little curious, too. Why did I have that ‘Ah, finally, the expected thing.’ expression!”

His eyes turn to me.

What is it, damn it. Baseborn, please save me. I have no idea at all. I’m not the kind of person who would do that.

[No, after looking into it, it was you yourself. I’m glad I kept it. I think it’ll be useful if I fix it a little. I’m considering entrusting him with the management of my office!]

I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I couldn’t control the time any longer, so I racked my brain.

“…Even though good deeds should be done in secret, I wanted someone to know.”

A petty excuse leaked from my mouth. It’s the best I can do to explain the ‘finally’ expression.

[Ah, he’s grabbing me by the collar as soon as he opens his eyes, please save me.]

Stop talking nonsense.

[Uh……? Sorry, I think there’s more?]

“But that’s not all. You did a lot of really amazing things, Dong-hwa Sunbae.”