Chapter 2丨He Dreamt
Author: CPT Spankula
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

It had been three days since Soo-Ha had opened his eyes.

Things were strange.

But....

It wasn't so bad.

It took some time for Soo-Ha to adjust and if what was happening to him wasn't an illusion, Soo-Ha could do it all over again.

This time he could make his dreams come true.

Although Soo-Ha felt pain for having to send his father for a second time.

For him, it had already been ten years.

Like a scar, the wound had long stopped hurting.

Unlike in his previous life , where the death of his father, caused Soo-Ha to panic about his future.

While there were support funds from the country as well as death insurance, they weren't poor by any stretch of the imagination, they surely weren't wealthy either.

In his panic, he hurriedly picked up a bunch of part-time jobs.

The desire to relieve his mom and brother of their worries, caused him to quickly neglect his idol training.

Every day, he was drowned in fatigue and his exhaustion caused him to be quickly kicked out of the debuting boy group at MS Entertainment.

In his desperation, he hastily signed with a small company, a former friend had signed for.

So in his struggle to succeed, he was placed in a lukewarm group with lukewarm members and debuted in a very lukewarm manner.

It would be the beginning of a domino effect that would plague him until  his final breath.

This time, he won't be making any on the same mistakes.

This time he would be doing it his own way.

Soo-Ha had always been bored of his time in the entertainment industry.

Nothing was never his.

It was the music the company wanted.

The clothes the stylists wanted him to wear.

The advertisements his manager had picked.

And he, was just a product for them to use.

In this life, he is going to become artiste, if you will.

Soo-ha had always envied those who managed to step out of the small pond that we call Korea, and into the international stage.

That longing – he could never fulfil it.

Not....Until Now.

Soo-Ha had an opportunity now.

He had the freedom to become the idol he wanted to be.

Whether it was because he had never seen the end of the road or because there was a bit of regret lingering deep inside of him, he didn't care.

He wanted to walk that thorny path, one more time.

"Will I be able to do it?"

Soo-ha asks his reflection in the mirror, but the answer came far more easily than expected to him.

Of course he could.

He had confidence in the future, in his talent and himself.

Today, he dreamt.

But starting tomorrow, he would run to hold that dream in his hands.

***

Trying to fall back into the routine of ten years ago was hard.

Especially so when these were the days you actively tried to forget.

Thankfully, when school was over, Soo-ha remembered the route towards MS Entertainment.

He was still a trainee there, after all.

MS Entertainment.

It was one of the Big Three, entertainment companies, and had produced top-tier girl and boy groups for the past 3 decades.

As Soo-Ha entered the subway train, he quickly notices some girls taking timid glances at him.

The glances made him uncomfortable, not because their was too many, no.

But because there were too few.

He had gotten used to the drug called attention.

Although Soo-Ha's image had been crushed in his last life, he still had outstanding facial features.

With clear pale skin, a v-shaped jaw, straight eyebrows, a high nose and luscious lips.

He was the epitome of Korean beauty standards.

Standing next to him was unrealistic.

His looks were more than enough to grasp people's attention.

This was not his own judgment, but the judgment of the entertainment industry that he had been in for ten years.

"Soo-ha, you're here?" questions a youthful and energetic voice.

Turning towards the purple haired teenager, whose face still has the last reminisces of baby fat slowly fading.

He quickly connects it to the man who always stuck by his side.

"Yo, Lee Suk. Where else would I go?"

For some reason or the other, even after he debuted and became the main vocal in the group Soo-ha had been kicked out of, XO.

Whenever they met later in life, they would pass each other by with a friendly greeting here and there.

They were never friends with Suk always being younger, but he guesses they were acquitances who got along.

Lee Suk, was just on another level, while Soo-ha fought to sell even one more album.

XO, would be fighting to sell one more million of theirs.

XO's popularity at their peak was worldwide, it quieted overtime though.

Every group comes to an end, eventually.

"H-How are you, Hyung?"  The nervous attitude and worried expression ever present.

"i'm doing fine...." Soo-Ha answers as he enters the building.

However instead of following Lee Suk, he heads towards the elevator and presses the up arrow

"Hyung! The practice room is this way" Lee Suk calls out

"I know," he answers as the door begins opening up, "I've got something else to do. See you around Suk!" He answers with a smile as he presses the button to the second highest floor.

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