ACTSV chapter 2

The reflection in the mirror was strange. The familiar face he was used to seeing was nowhere to be found.

A stranger stood before him.

When he moved his head to the left, the man in the mirror followed. When he moved to the right, the man followed again.

When he opened his mouth wide, the reflection did the same. The shape was identical.

If his own reflection looked unfamiliar, who could he ask about this?

Was the crazy person outside the door actually him?

Or was he dreaming?

Had he been in an accident without knowing it and undergone full-body plastic surgery?

Even as he searched for answers, he found himself mesmerized by the beautiful face of the man in the mirror.

“Wow… he’s pretty.”

The face was so striking it seemed it belonged to someone living in a world alone. If he met such a person on the street, he would surely turn to look again.

He had seen many people with big eyes, but never eyes so moist they looked like they might cry at any moment, like those in the mirror.

They were like the eyes of a deer, no, a cow.

Every lash on both the upper and lower lids was visible, and his skin was so pale it looked like he had never seen the sun.

He slowly raised a hand to touch his cheek.

“Ouch.”

He pinched himself hard, and the pain was real. Moreover, a red mark was left on his cheek.

Even as he gently rubbed the mark with his palm to soothe the pain, the man in the mirror moved along with him.

“…Is this really me?”

Something he had never imagined was happening to him.

Could he have developed a condition where his face changes while he sleeps?

He knew this was nonsense.

He didn’t like to overthink things, but this was too serious to ignore. It was an inexplicable situation.

He raised his hands and examined them. They were so thin that the bones stood out.

Every time he moved his hands, the veins showed through his skin, and his fingers were very slender.

He spread his fingers wide open like a baby playing peekaboo, then closed them again repeatedly.

Puckering his lips, he turned his head side to side and then looked down at his body.

Even his toes, peeking out from his slippers, wiggled as he moved them. The sensation was so vivid.

“It’s me… it’s really me?”

He was definitely moving with his own will. But his body and face were not his own.

“What is going on…?”

His head hurt, perhaps from overthinking.

He pressed his temples with his fingers and rotated them. The headache was so severe that his left eye squinted involuntarily.

He stretched out his arm to hold onto the sink. Instinctively, he knew he could get seriously hurt if he fell, so he moved cautiously.

Gradually, he began to feel better.

Taking a deep breath and lifting his head, the unfamiliar face was still there.

“……Well, you really are pretty.”

Standing close to the sink, he turned his face this way and that in the mirror, examining it meticulously.

Since his appearance had changed anyway, he thought it might be nice to live with this face for the rest of my life.

He was short and looked fragile, but his face seemed to make up for it. Especially, his red lips stood out against his fair skin.

Staring at his reflection, he felt strange.

It was definitely a serious situation, so why wasn’t he worried at all?

He had definitely felt pain when he pinched his cheek.

That meant this wasn’t a dream.

There are lucid dreams where you can move at will, but he had never heard of feeling pain in them.

Besides, the headache that felt like being pricked with needles was real too.

I had read quite a few novels. Usually, in situations like this…

“……No way.”

He shook his head, thinking it was ridiculous. It seemed he had read too many novels.

Having been in here for quite a while, he was wondering when he should leave when he heard the hospital room door suddenly open.

Startled, Jingyeom widened his eyes and stared at the bathroom door.

He was nervous that someone might open the door and come in.

Fortunately, the footsteps got louder and then a bit distant, indicating they were moving away.

“Phew…”

Pressing down on his suddenly racing heart, Jingyeom cautiously moved, taking deep breaths to counter his dizziness now that his headache had subsided. He pressed his ear against the door.

Even though he still hurt, understanding the situation was his priority.

It was Hoonil who had come to the hospital room after being contacted by Jinwoo.

“Sorry. I had a scheduled patient.”

He looked around the hospital room. Jingyeom was nowhere to be seen, and only Jinwoo was sitting on the bed. Moreover, Jinwoo’s shoulders were unusually slumped.

“Where’s Jingyeom?”

“…In the bathroom.”

Jinwoo answered weakly.

Hoonil glanced at the bathroom. No sound was coming from behind the firmly closed door.

Thinking Jingyeom would come out soon, he approached Jinwoo.

“He didn’t recognize you? Are you joking, or is he serious?”

“Yeah… Honestly, I’m not sure.”

Jinwoo looked confused.

He rarely got agitated, so Hoonil started to worry too.

With interlocked fingers, Jinwoo forced out his words.

“I thought it was a joke… But it wasn’t… It wasn’t.”

The image of Jingyeom tightly gripping the IV pole flashed in his mind.

He had never been scared of him, but now he even seemed small and fragile.

“He really didn’t recognize me. How is that possible?”

Jinwoo’s eyes trembled as he looked up.

Hoonil had come with a light heart, but the situation seemed serious.

When he got Jinwoo’s call, he thought Baek Jingyeom was acting up again today. But it seemed that wasn’t the case.

It had been strange. No matter how much Baek Jingyeom acted up, Jinwoo had never asked him for help.

Sometimes, Jinwoo would call him in a panic when Jingyeom pretended to be sick, but that was only because he wanted medical help.

When Jinwoo had said over the phone that Jingyeom didn’t recognize him, Hoonil had thought it was an odd way to be bothered.

“Jinwoo…”

“They said the test results were fine. Then why…”

Jinwoo’s face twisted as if he were about to cry.

Finding it hard to watch, Hoonil closed his eyes tightly for a moment.

Jinwoo always tried to act stoically, believing it was wrong to be more upset than the patient.

The only person who could weaken Baek Jinwoo was Baek Jingyeom.

Baek Jingyeom knew this and used it well. Jinwoo was always the one being taken advantage of.

Baek Jingyeom was precious, but so was Baek Jinwoo. He didn’t want either of them to get hurt.

Hoonil placed a hand on Jinwoo’s trembling shoulder.

“If something was wrong, I would have told you first. The valve was working well, and there were no abnormal sounds. His immune system was a bit weak, but everything else was normal and there were no issues.”

The test Jingyeom had undergone today was a routine check-up he had every six months.

He hadn’t been eating well lately, which weakened his immune system a bit, but everything else was fine.

If there had been any problem, Hoonil would have told Jinwoo first.

Jinwoo knew this too. But seeing Jingyeom’s behavior earlier, unease was creeping into his heart.

Hoonil tightened his grip on Jinwoo’s shoulder, the pressure calming his tremors.

“Don’t get scared over something uncertain. I’ll talk to Jingyeom when he comes out.”

Listening to their conversation from inside, Jingyeom blinked repeatedly.

The handsome man in the hospital room seemed to be ‘Jinwoo,’ but his voice was so shaky and pitiful that he almost got caught up in his emotions.

From their conversation, it seemed the person who just came in was a doctor. And the ‘Baek Jingyeom’ they mentioned seemed to have a weak body.

‘Jinwoo?’

The name sounded familiar. He closed his eyes tightly, racking his brain to recall.

“…Ah.”

Jingyeom’s eyes widened. He thought he had heard the name somewhere before.

‘Isn’t that the name of the character from “Gray”?’

The novel “Gray” was a popular high-rated BL tragedy. He was one of its avid readers. The name of the main character’s older brother was the same as his.

Baek Jingyeom was born with a weak body and frequently collapsed, tormenting the main character Baek Jinwoo. Then he meets the main character Tak Wonbeom and falls in love with him.

He wasn’t a particularly likable character, but since it wasn’t about him, he enjoyed reading it.

“…No way.”

It must be a coincidence.

It wasn’t a common name, but it wasn’t so rare that it couldn’t overlap.

He tried to brush it off, but a scene from the novel flashed through his mind.

‘…Baek Jingyeom dies. The scene I read yesterday was where he dies. Tak Wonbeom has his men bury him!’

Of course, he wasn’t the Baek Jingyeom from the novel, but he couldn’t help feeling a chill and scratched his arm nervously.

‘It can’t be.’

Jingyeom turned his head left and right, wanting to stay longer but feeling it was time to leave. He carefully opened the door, trying to make no sound.

Unexpectedly, the hospital room door also opened.

“…Huh?”

Startled, Jingyeom looked up.

He saw two large men. Both were so tall he had to crane his neck to look up at them.

In an instant, his gaze locked with the man in front of him.

‘Wow… he’s handsome!’

He had the sharp look of someone you’d want to bow and apologize to if you bumped into him on the street, combined with a very sturdy build.

Taller by a head than Jingyeom, he exuded a dangerous aura that made it clear he wasn’t to be messed with.

As Jingyeom looked up at him with his lips slightly parted, the man frowned.

The cold look in his eyes made Jingyeom’s shoulders hunch instinctively.

The man hadn’t done anything but frown, yet Jingyeom felt like a herbivore facing a predator.

Unconsciously, he took a step back and shifted his gaze quickly, meeting the eyes of another man standing behind the predator-like one.

This man had a bright, refreshing presence, like flowers blooming in spring. Despite his gentle appearance, there was an oddly dangerous air about him.

He raised an eyebrow and smiled, a smile that seemed to invite one to smile back, yet it gave Jingyeom chills. He was just as tall as the first man, so Jingyeom had to look up at him too.

Both of them were captivatingly handsome, each with looks that were hard to ignore.

What on earth is this place?

The brief silence was broken by Hoonil.

“Why are you here again?”

Unlike when he spoke to Jinwoo, his tone was harsh. Soohyuk, who had been staring intently at Jingyeom, turned his head.

“Mr. Tak suggested coming, so I played chauffeur.”

“You’ve got it tough, Soohyuk. You’ve got plenty of money, why don’t you just take a taxi? Why does he keep using you?”

“I live off of him. I have to earn my keep somehow.”

Soon, Jinwoo also stood up.

“Director…”

Familiar names rang in Jingyeom’s ears.

Wonbeom.

Soohyuk.

And the Jinwoo he had heard earlier.

He finally grasped his situation. It seemed impossible, but…

‘Did I transmigrate?’