* * *

When I close my eyes, a white darkness greets me beneath my eyelids.

According to my grandmother, it’s a waiting place before sleep.

After passing through the white darkness, you either fall asleep or enter a dream.

At the edge of the darkness, someone awaited Seunghyun—a small boy.

It seemed like tonight would be a night for dreams.

The child, smiling in a harmonious family, already had striking features despite his young age.

The glistening eyes, faint double eyelids, and delicate contours were captivating.

His pale skin contrasted with his black hair, giving him an androgynous allure.

The cherished child grew into a young boy, slowly taking on the face Seunghyun recognized.

This was the real owner of the body Seunghyun was borrowing—Joo Seunghyun.

From a young age, Joo Seunghyun stood out.

It was natural for him to become a trainee at DW Entertainment, a major agency.

Among the crowded basement training rooms, Joo Seunghyun shone brighter than the rest.

The Joo Seunghyun in the dream was brimming with passion.

Even at a young age, he exuded confidence and unstoppable enthusiasm.

Having grown up in an abundance of love, Joo Seunghyun extended his heart to everyone and cherished every fleeting connection, offering a gentle hand to all he encountered.

But the basement world was ruthless.

Most trainees left the basement with broken bodies and spirits.

The majority failed to debut, leaving voluntarily or being forced out.

For them, failure became a brand.

Many vanished due to rare genetic manifestations.

A stellar trainee manifesting as an Alpha might still be worth the three years of mandatory military service, but Omega trainees were cut without exception, regardless of their talent.

Weak physical health and the potential for scandals made them liabilities.

The people Seunghyun cared for left one by one, branded as failures. Initially, he cried with or for them.

But he couldn’t keep crying forever.

The kind-hearted Joo Seunghyun, who struggled to say no, learned to armor himself with polite thorns in the basement training rooms.

It was a desperate defense to avoid getting hurt.

Three years passed like that.

By then, no one dared underestimate Joo Seunghyun.

He consistently delivered stellar evaluations every month, and his debut seemed certain.

By the time his debut was imminent, an executive personally asked him whom he wanted to debut with.

Seunghyun carefully selected trainees who fit his ideal vision of an idol.

Among them, five, including himself, were chosen as the debut lineup.

Everything was going smoothly.

But one winter, tragedy struck—his parents passed away.

A car accident on a rainy road.

By the time Joo Seunghyun arrived from the basement training room, both were already gone.

Since then, Joo Seunghyun hated rainy days.

Yet he continued to chase his dream of being an idol.

At 18, having lost his pillars of support, he clung to his life with ruthless determination.

Even after his debut was confirmed, he pushed himself relentlessly with extreme self-discipline and training.

He was determined not to leave any flaws for the camera to capture.

Watching this, Seunghyun inwardly clicked his tongue.

“What a stubborn guy.”

At some point, Seunghyun realized he was in a dream.

Despite peering into someone else’s life, the emotions of each moment were so vivid they sent shivers down his spine.

Even in his sleep, his body trembled.

In the dream, Joo Seunghyun made a dazzling and flawless debut like no other.

On the day he wrapped up his debut showcase, the nineteen-year-old Joo Seunghyun stared at a photograph of his parents before falling asleep.

It was the debut he had longed for, yet stepping off the stage left him feeling hollow, as though a hole had been punched through his chest.

It felt like dying, leaving only an empty shell behind.

To survive, he needed to fill the emptiness.

He wanted to stand on the stage again.

Joo Seunghyun filled the void with the overwhelming ecstasy and pleasure of performing, and with the love of his fans.

“I’m starving for love. Love me more. I’ll become even more perfect so you have no choice but to love me. So, love me.”

The lonely smile that passed over his radiant face seemed to speak those very words.

What had started as a goal had now become his reason for existence.

To keep living, Seunghyun stepped onto the stage and stood before the cameras, even if it meant chipping away at himself.

Halo, his group, clinched the top spot on music programs upon debut.

It seemed their rise would continue without any major setbacks.

…That was until Kwon Yooju and Cheon Yijeong both manifested as Alphas shortly after debut.

The three-year hiatus during the Alpha members’ mandatory military service was devastating to an idol group’s lifespan.

The members were thrown into turmoil, and Joo Seunghyun felt immense pressure.

The more suffocated he felt, the more tightly he wore his mask.

He poured everything into raising Halo to an untouchable level.

For five years after their debut, Seunghyun overcame countless challenges to reach the pinnacle as South Korea’s top idol.

He thought he could finally enjoy his fans’ love in peace.

But then…

The dream advanced both slowly and swiftly.

At the late age of twenty-four, Joo Seunghyun’s life was utterly shattered when he manifested as an Omega.

Watching his despair, Seunghyun felt a pang in his chest.

Following this, Halo’s members, wracked with guilt, were unable to continue their entertainment activities.

Joo Seunghyun attempted extreme measures multiple times, but somehow gritted his teeth and held on.

Once, someone saved him.

“Live.”

That day, he had been about to jump off a rooftop railing.

Someone grabbed him, dragged him to the ground, and growled through clenched teeth for him to live.

It was a short comfort, but the desperation in that voice clung to Seunghyun and carried him through another three years.

In the end, he left alone for the sea.

Seunghyun, watching Joo Seunghyun in his dream, clenched his teeth.

The memories had come rushing back too late.

Seunghyun remembered that sea.

He didn’t know why he had forgotten it, but it was there that he lost consciousness and woke up in his current body.

It was a night when late autumn rain fell, and the sea was jet black.

Joo Seunghyun stared blankly at the ocean, then slowly removed his shoes and stepped into the waves.

His stiff, frozen body waded deeper into the icy water, pushing against the waves.

Each surge threatened to knock him over.

And then…

Seunghyun, who had only been observing from a distance, suddenly found himself thrust into the dream.

The body that had been immobilized as if bound now moved freely.

The water lapping at his feet was chillingly cold, sharpening his senses.

Without hesitation, he plunged into the dream. Just like that fateful day at the sea, he moved to save the dying Joo Seunghyun.

It was a reflexive act, without reason.

“Got you!”

Seunghyun’s fingertips caught the hem of Joo Seunghyun’s clothes.

But the waves were too strong.

No matter how sturdy or powerful Seunghyun was, escaping was near impossible.

The more they struggled, the more the waves pulled them into the deep.

In the end, both sank into the ocean together.

How Seunghyun could see Joo Seunghyun crying underwater was a mystery.

The desperate fight for life ended in resignation, and water filled his lungs.

As his vision blurred, Seunghyun saw Joo Seunghyun’s tears through the haze.

“Save me.”

Joo Seunghyun wanted to keep being an idol.

He wanted to be loved, to stand on stage.

He wanted to live.

But the perfection people adored in Joo Seunghyun was gone.

No matter how he thought about it, no one would love him as he was now, broken.

Terrified, he had run away, yet he despised himself for wanting to return.

Even so, Joo Seunghyun sobbed, saying he wanted to live.

“Please, save me.”

He pleaded with Seunghyun.

‘Save me.’

Tears seemed contagious; soon, Seunghyun was crying too.

It felt as though the seawater filling his lungs was being expelled as tears.

No matter how he blinked, his stinging eyes wouldn’t clear.

Saltwater and tears mixed indiscriminately, burning his vision.

Refusing to give up, Seunghyun hauled the man in his grasp upward.

“Puhah!”

Breaking the surface, Seunghyun gasped, the taste of blood on his tongue as sharp air filled his lungs.

“Aagh!”

But before they could catch their breath, another wave crashed over them.

The raw terror of death and pain swallowed Seunghyun, and darkness consumed the world.

Even so, he didn’t let go of the hand he held. Why, he didn’t know.

A crushing weight bore down on his chest, his waterlogged body trembling violently.

Seunghyun sank deeper and deeper into endless darkness.

Deeper…

And then—

“Hyung!”

“…”

“Seunghyun hyung!”

The sound of someone calling jolted Seunghyun awake.

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