Chapter 164
‘Go back to the beginning.’ Everything first began when we met a drunk-driving truck driver on our way back from a trip together in Sokcho. In my previous life, the truck driver was a despicable human being who insisted until the very end that the deaths of my members were not his fault. Of course, since it was not our mistake, he had no choice but to serve a prison sentence. Anyway, that was what happened in my past life but—
‘What the hell is he doing...in this life?’ Of course, the whereabouts of that truck driver might have nothing to do with the system.
‘But I need to address anything suspicious.’ There was something fishy about this to just gloss over it. Since it was a huge car accident, I thought there must have been one article about it. I needed to find out what that truck driver was currently doing.
“Then shall we think about the title song after we finish recording?”
“Let’s do that.”
“I like that idea.”
“Yes~”
Yeon-Hoon announced the end of the song selection meeting. Then he said, “Tae-Yoon, do you want to work on the lyrics here? I heard this conference room has been reserved for the whole day.”
“Ah...is that so?” I thought that was great, since I needed time to think.
“We’ll be practicing in the practice room down here. Call us anytime if you get stuck!”
“Yes, I got it.”
“I just sent you the accompaniment file via email, so please listen to it while working on the lyrics.”
“Thank you.”
“Fighting!”
“We’ll be working on the choreography downstairs!”
“Writer Bong, please write us some good lyrics!”
The members went out of the conference room, saying they would entrust the lyrics to me. Soon, the conference room became quiet. I turned on the laptop that was provided for organizing the meeting. I entered the portal site and entered the newspaper article page. After entering the article search, I set the date of the accident and searched for articles.
‘...What?’ Without even searching much, the materials that I wanted came out very easily, and the most startling part was the headline of these articles.
[Dump Truck crosses the center line on the Seoul Yangyang Expressway...Driver missing]
Although it was a very simple and clear headline with just the facts, these were intense sentences. I wasn’t surprised that the centerline was breached on the highway; it was the phrase ‘driver missing’ that caught my attention. After searching more related articles, I put the contents together. The information was not much different from what I knew. A truck crossed the centerline and rushed into the wall alone.
‘Where is that bastard truck driver?’ The problem was that the guy who killed my members went missing. It seemed that the driver hadn’t gone missing from the beginning as there were people who pulled the driver out of the truck that was involved in the accident at the time.
[I’m not sure whether he was drunk or did drugs but...he screamed like ahhhhhk and ran away across the highway.]
[I tried to catch him but what can I do...? He ran with all his might even while bleeding from his head as if his life was dependent on it...]
[He ran with all his might, and he headed towards that hill over there.]
The truck driver had run like a madman as if he was high on something.
Sigh... My head hurt. Yeon-Hoon had told me to go back to the beginning, and it seemed that the secret seemed to be related to Sokcho.
‘For the time being, I should look for the truck driver.’ I needed to find that missing truck driver. However, I didn’t know where to find him or where I should even begin.
‘...Even then, I have to do it.’ I couldn’t stand still.
‘I should work on the lyrics first.’ Of course, I needed to get work done as well. I began to write the lyrics while listening to the melodies Do-Seung sent me.
***
After I finished writing the lyrics, I came out by myself. I told my members that I was going to take a long walk to take a breather as I was stuck on my lyric writing. Yeon-Hoon told me it was dangerous and wanted to follow me, but I replied I was not five years old and stopped him from following me. Honestly, I didn’t need to go and find the truck driver today immediately, and the way to Sokcho was far away too.
However, I felt too uneasy just to stay still. This was a matter with my members’ lives on the line, not mine. If I could get a step closer to the system’s secret, I was determined to fly all the way to the U.S., not just to Sokcho. After going to the taxi stand near the terminal, I opened the front door of the closest taxi.
I asked, “Is long distance possible?”
“Where do you want to go?”
“In the middle of the highway heading to Sokcho.”
“...What?”
“If it’s not possible, I’ll look for a different person.”
“Um...I think it would cost quite a lot...”
“I can give it.”
“30?”
“Round-trip 50.”
“Hop in.”
Fortunately, the taxi driver didn’t know me, so I didn’t have to worry about getting recognized as an idol. Since he was also not a talkative person, I could also avoid answering questions while driving there. While leaning my back into the seat, I finished writing the lyrics. I trimmed the sentences, cut down the words, and rearranged them. Frankly, it was not something I should do on my way to find the truck driver, but I needed to move fast.
‘I don’t have the leisure to waste time.’ Both the debut and finding the secret of the system were too important for me to stay still, and I had a high chance of regretting it if I hesitated to act for too long.
Sigh... I pressed my brows from the incoming headache and looked out of the car window. After the accident, I tried not to go to Sokcho as much as possible since even going to its vicinity brought up bad memories in my mind. Yet, in order to find the truth there, I needed to overcome my trauma.
‘I have to go.’
***
Due to my quick thinking, the taxi left around lunch, and I was able to arrive at the place I wanted around 3 p.m. The taxi stopped near the point of the truck crash. It was a place I didn’t want to visit ever again in my lifetime. However, there was a saying that the more you tried to ignore a wound, the deeper it got.
I never wanted to recall that scene again, but ironically, I never forgot about it for a second. I clearly felt this contradiction when I all too easily put in the address of the accident point on the navigation app for the taxi driver.
“What’s a young person like you have business here? Hmm.” The taxi driver seemed disinterested while coming here, but once he arrived at the middle of the highway, he must have gotten curious.
I put the mask and hat closer to my face and answered, “I have something to look for here. Please wait here for two hours. I’ll give you 300,000 won for now, and I’ll give you the rest when I get back.”
“All right~” The taxi driver noticed I didn’t want to say anything more and didn’t ask me more questions. I left the taxi driver behind and headed to the hillside.
‘That’s...it still hasn’t been repaired.’ Although the center line that the truck breached had been restored, the recessed wall had not been repaired yet. If we hadn’t stepped on the accelerator back then, that dent wouldn’t have been on the wall but the vehicle we were in. It gave me shivers just thinking about that. I crossed the guardrail and went into the wilderness. I thought it would take about 30 minutes to get to the hill over there, so I had to walk diligently.
***
At Only One’s dorm, Kang Hyun-Sung scanned the recent incidents that involved Hwan Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk. Frankly, he had been wondering a while ago why Bong Tae-Yoon was just watching his members get one-sidedly beaten up like this. If it were the Bong Tae-Yoon he knew, Bong Tae-Yoon would never let this slide.
It was to the extent that Kang Hyun-Sung wondered if Hwang Jun-Kyul and Yoon Dong-Hyuk continued to say shady comments, he should step forward and say a word or two. However, seeing what happened now, he thought Bong Tae-Yoon must have had a plan all along.
“Wow, Hyun-Sung. My throat is super sore right now. What if I can’t sing tomorrow?”
“Don’t be a baby.”
“No, it’s for real.” Only One Kim Ju-Hyun said in a joking tone.
Only One was currently recording their debut album. It was a five-song mini album, and the song collection and producer selection had already been completed, and the recording had begun in earnest. Today was the first day of recording.
“Ice cream is the best for a sore throat? You think so too, right?”
“If you want to look sluggish by yourself in the teaser shoot on Friday, go ahead.”
“...I’ll just take out the ice and eat that.”
“Good idea.”
While Kim Ju-Hyun soothed his swollen throat with ice, the rest of the members began entering the living room one by one.
Yawn. “I'm tired.”
“I think I’m more nervous because we’re recording our song.”
“But I’m looking forward to it.”
Kang Hyun-Sung looked at each member of Only One one by one. He developed a sense of camaraderie with them after coming out on The Showcase 2 together, and they also became much closer while moving agencies and going through the entire litigation process together.
“Hyun-Sung! We’re going to church together this week, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I tell my dad?”
“Yeah, but I’m just going to listen to the service in the back seat and go.”
“Of course~ If you sit in the front, it’ll interfere with the service anyway.”
“Yeah, then let’s go to church together on the weekend.”
Park Young-Ho, a super Christian, worked hard to evangelize Kang Hyun-Sung several times, so Kang Hyun-Sung decided to go to church with him one or two times because of how hard he worked. Only One had now entered an internal period of stability. There was no one who was distracted, and all the schedules were also within Kang Hyun-Sung’s sights.
As the group settled down stably, Kang Hyun-Sung’s eyes headed slowly outside the group; towards a group that inevitably overlapped with Only One—Siren. At the same time, he thought of Bong Tae-Yoon, the maknae of Siren. His thoughts about them were both positive and negative, but one thing was for sure.
‘I wonder if he’s doing well.’ Bong Tae-Yoon’s current status was always within Kang Hyun-Sung’s interest.
***
It has been three hours since I climbed the hill. The time was well past 6 p.m., the sun was already setting, and the temperature was also falling. Fortunately, it was still May, so even if the temperature dropped, it wouldn’t be very cold. However, the real problem was something else.
‘As expected, he’s gone.’ I looked at the highway from the middle of the hill, and the taxi that had been parked there was gone. Since the two hours I promised him had already passed, it was natural that he would be gone by now. I didn’t know if he left an hour ago or just recently, but regardless of the case, he was gone.
‘I should have...gotten my driver’s license.’ I was completely isolated on this random hill. Frankly, I had come up here recklessly, but I didn’t really think I could find the missing truck driver as there was nothing that told me he would stay on this hill. Furthermore, the witnesses just said he ran in this direction, and no one said he was hiding here.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected to find the truck driver today.
‘I need to find at least one clue.’ I needed to find a clue leaked by the missing truck driver, and I planned to find him by just this clue since I could infer in which direction he moved from that clue. Then, after specifying some of the bases that seemed to be the best places to hide in the direction he escaped, I planned to go search for him around there.
Although it was a reckless plan, I thought, ‘If I use Insight, it might work out somehow.’ I thought that if I narrowed it down to a few more places and got a few more pieces of evidence, I could somehow find the decisive last piece with Insight. In other words, to achieve the purpose of coming to this mountain today, I needed just to get one clue that the article might have leaked.
‘Since it’s been a few months, did I come too late?’ However, it was unreasonable to think that there would still be a clue left here. Wind, rain, and even snow had come down during this time, and I didn’t know where and how important clues could have been swept away. I was planning to go back before it got darker, but an unfamiliar structure caught the corner of my eye.
“...What?” After looking around this hill for three hours, I could tell that it was not a place managed by someone as there was no trace of people. However, what caught my eye was clearly man-made.
“...It’s a trap?” It was a trap for catching animals. The moment I thought that truck driver might still be here—no, or might have at least hid here for a while—
Swoosh-
I heard someone’s cautious footsteps approach me from behind. When I swiftly turned my head around and checked the figure, I murmured, “...Crazy.”
A man with frazzled hair, worn-out clothing, and trembling eyes filled with fear appeared into view. Although his appearance could be mistaken for a homeless person, I could never forget his face. How could I forget the face that insisted our members’ death were our own faults and stabbed my heart a thousand times over?
“...I found him.” I hadn’t know where to even start looking for this guy, but he rolled right in front of me with his own two feet.
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