* * *

Joo Seunghyun.

The undeniable leader of HALO, a top-tier idol group in South Korea.

Seunghyun, who couldn’t care less about idols, only knew about him because they happened to share the same name.

The absurdity of the situation made his head throb.

The oxygen mask covering half his face felt suffocating.

He raised a hand and removed the mask.

Only then did his mind begin to clear slightly.

“Ugh…”

With a body drained of strength, he forced himself to sit up and reached for the phone resting on the bedside table.

Unlike what one might expect from someone who once dominated the South Korean entertainment scene, the phone was an old model.

Curious, Seunghyun unlocked the screen.

The default wallpaper hinted at the personality of the phone’s owner.

Seunghyun checked the date first and exhaled in relief.

Fortunately, the date wasn’t far off from what he last remembered.

But then, what exactly had happened?

What could have led him to wake up in the body of an idol with whom he shared nothing but a name?

Seunghyun instinctively clenched the phone in his hand.

The screen lit up as his fingerprints unlocked it. Habitually, he searched for the calendar app to check the schedule he used to meticulously organize.

Though the date remained the same, the calendar was completely blank—a stark contrast to what his own phone would have shown.

Switching from daily view to weekly, then to monthly, revealed the same emptiness.

Resigned, he decided to explore the phone since it was already unlocked.

He sank back into bed, but as soon as he glanced at the calendar again, he shot upright.

20×3?

Seunghyun’s face turned pale in an instant.

The calendar showed a date three years in the past.

20×3? Not 20×6?

As if waking up in someone else’s body wasn’t bizarre enough, now it was three years ago?

He blinked repeatedly, but the date remained the same.

Suspecting a system error, he quickly opened the internet browser, but nothing changed.

Searching for “today’s date” only confirmed the shocking truth: it was indeed 20×3.

“…”

Panic set in.

What the hell is going on?

There wasn’t a single thing he understood, and his mind was in chaos.

Waking up in the body of “idol Joo Seunghyun”?

Even someone as uninterested in idols as Seunghyun knew who “Joo Seunghyun” was.

The man was a household name.

His face was plastered everywhere—TV, the internet, and even on billboards in the streets.

However, a few years ago, he suddenly disappeared.

The rest of the members also vanished, and HALO’s activities ceased altogether.

The fall of HALO, once the reigning top-tier group, happened in the blink of an eye.

After that, baseless rumors and jokes about Seunghyun circulated among his acquaintances.

“Hey, Joo Seunghyun. What’s the idol Joo Seunghyun up to these days?”

Looking at the unfamiliar yet familiar face reflected in the window, Seunghyun saw a pale but strikingly handsome man, as if he hadn’t seen sunlight in a long time.

Yet, his unkempt hair and the frail body suggested months without proper care.

The figure looked like a shadow of his former self, with sickness etched across his appearance.

Finally, he started piecing things together.

The isolated ward, the medical devices attached to his body, the pale complexion, and the countless needle marks on his wrists.

The IV drips and pheromone suppressants hanging from the stand.

This wasn’t unfamiliar.

Seunghyun had experienced something similar before: incomplete secondary gender manifestation in a fully matured body—a phenomenon commonly referred to as “delayed manifestation.”

For Alphas, it usually enhanced their physical abilities without much issue, but for Omegas, the situation was drastically different.

Unfortunately, it seemed Joo Seunghyun had manifested as an Omega.

His health must have deteriorated rapidly, unable to withstand the strain.

Beyond the health issues, his group, comprised entirely of Alphas except for him, likely couldn’t continue their activities after his disappearance.

“The group disbanded shortly after the leader went missing, didn’t it?”

For the past three years, the company had evaded questions, citing “personal reasons” for Seunghyun’s absence.

Unlike the other members, who sporadically shared updates, Joo Seunghyun completely disappeared, as if he had evaporated.

Occasionally, rumors about him surfaced, causing a stir in the entertainment world, but there was never an official response.

Curiously, none of the other HALO members pursued solo careers or any entertainment activities, despite being top-tier idols.

So, what stage were things at now?

[Fan Post] HALO’s Joo Seunghyun: Speculations on His Current Situation (Part 8,748)

Searching “HALO” on the internet pulled up countless posts.

Seunghyun clicked on one that seemed fan-written.

The post was from yesterday, with thousands of comments already.

He scrolled through the chaotic thread, skimming the comments with a blank expression, focused solely on gathering information.

“Isn’t it crazy how he vanished without a trace? At this point, it’s material for a crime show.”

“Did the company shut down everything? Then they should at least release an official statement, damn it. Why is there no news at all?”

“It’s so weird how all we get are random blurry photos of them wandering around, but nothing official. What’s going on?”

---

Among the ridiculous conspiracy theories in the comments—secret military enlistment, scandals within the group—the one closest to the truth was speculation that he might be terminally ill.

However, even that theory failed to gain much traction.

But now, something even more unbelievable had happened.

To summarize:

Seunghyun had woken up three years in the past, in the body of Joo Seunghyun, the Omega leader of HALO who had gone missing three months earlier.

‘This doesn’t make any sense.’

Just as he scrubbed his face in disbelief, a voice called out.

“Patient?”

The door opened, and a nurse entered, looking surprised to see him awake.

“You’re awake! How are you feeling?”

“…”

Still dazed, Seunghyun looked up at the nurse, who gently guided him back down and adjusted the disarrayed equipment.

Her hands moved under his clothes to adjust a catheter near his collarbone.

“You’ve been asleep for two days. It’s nothing serious. We recently changed your pheromone suppressants, and it seems the new dose caused a mild shock.”

Her soothing tone clearly aimed to reassure a severely ill patient.

After finishing her tasks, the nurse took the now-darkened phone from Seunghyun’s hand and placed it back on the bedside table.

“Now that you’re awake and your vitals are stable, the visitation restriction will be lifted. Your guardians are waiting outside. I’ll call them in after the doctor sees you. Please wait a moment.”

Guardians? Plural?

Seunghyun nodded quietly.

He had plenty to ask the doctor when they arrived.

Before the nurse could leave, he grabbed her sleeve.

“Um… I don’t remember things very well…”

The nurse maintained a consistently kind demeanor.

“What is it that you can’t remember?”

Seunghyun swallowed dryly.

It was because he was about to surprise this kind nurse.

Feeling a faint twinge of guilt, Seunghyun looked up at the nurse and slowly opened his mouth.

“Everything.”

The nurse’s face turned pale in an instant.

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