Bo Myung used all his might to wake up from the pitch-black consciousness. He didn't know why he was trying so hard to wake up, or if he even wanted to survive, but he didn't want to meet his untimely death in a car accident. The past he endured felt unfair.
Flinch.
He was able to move one finger after much effort. It was shaking, but Bo Myung could feel he was still alive.
Then it got a little easier. He opened and closed his sluggish fingers several times.
'Weird….! Something's wrong!'
A strange feeling, an ominous energy swept over Bo Myung. He wanted to open his eyes and check what was going on as soon as possible. It felt like the hand he was moving wasn't his own.
Flash! He opened his eyes with difficulty.
Bo Myung's eyes stung from the light suddenly hitting his eyes. Sunlight shone through the curtains. Bo Myung rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.
He lifted the hands he was rubbing his eyes with and looked at them. There was no mistake. They were very white and beautiful hands unlike Bo Myung's original hands, which were rough and stubby. Furthermore, they were small.
'What…what is this?'
Bo Myung quickly searched his surroundings. Bo Myung thought that he would be in a hospital bed, but he was in a room at someone's house instead. It seemed most likely a student's room, as there was a desk across from him, and on the wall was a poster of a girl idol group.
'Milky Way? They're such an old group…'
Swing. The door opened as a woman in her early forties entered.
"Hey Do Wook! Why are you having such a hard time waking up? I told you to get up! You're going to be late!"
Bo Myung slowly turned his head toward the woman as stiffly as if he were a newly made but old-fashioned robot.
"You were awake? If you're awake you should respond, geez. Wash up already and get ready for school!"
The woman thought Bo Myung's zoned-out expression was because he was still half asleep and yelled at him. She then hit his back hard enough to make a sound. The pain shocked Bo Myung back to his senses.
"Ugh."
"Wake up already and come out!"
Bo Myung still couldn't understand what was going on even after the woman left.
'What….is this..?!'
The environment was too similar to the real world to have died and gone to the afterworld.
'Is this something like the Truman Show?'
(TL/n: Truman Show is a movie)
No, it was most convincing to say it was just a dream. Still, all of his senses felt so vivid.
Bo Myung headed towards the mirror hanging on the wall with trembling steps.
His height was similar to his real self at around 173 centimeters. But besides the height, everything else was different. The young face, handsome enough to turn heads, the broad shoulders, the firm physique, none of it was Bo Myung's.
'How…how could this happen? This is….'
Bo Myung stuck close to the mirror, almost to the point it looked as if he would fall in, and fumbled over his reflection with his finger. It was an unfamiliar face but sort of felt as if he had seen it somewhere.
'Where the hell have I seen this face before?!'
That thought was brief. He promptly recalled whose face it was. This was Kang Do Wook's face. He had been in a state of confusion, but he was pretty sure that he heard the woman refer to this body as Do Wook.
Bo Myung frantically looked around the room. He checked the name written in sloppy handwriting on the textbooks strewn around on the desk. Kang Do Wook. It was Kang Do Wook. The name was also on the student ID hanging on the chair.
< Chung Dan High 2nd Year Class 8. Kang Do Wook. >
There was an out-of-date flip phone on the end table next to the bed. He quickly opened the flip phone and checked the time and date.
September 13. The date was the same but the year was different. He had gone back exactly 15 years.
'How could this be?!'
Bo Myung's heart began racing.
Bo Myung was currently Kang Do Wook's 18-year-old self.
He took another breath in front of the mirror. He whispered to himself to calm down.
Kang Do Wook was a member of the idol group KK. They stayed in second place behind Seo Kang Jun's group called Man 2 Man, but for a short time, they were very popular.
Bo Myung had decided to support KK which was active at the same time as M2M. If both groups were nominated for 1st place he would text his vote for KK. Bo Myung of the past hoped someone would beat Seo Kang Jun that way.
Unfortunately, nobody could beat Seo Kang Jun or his group.
Furthermore, due to a series of incidents and accidents involving its members, KK's activities came to an end after four years and disappeared.
'But why am I in Kang Do Wook's body?…'
Among the seven members that made up KK, Kang Do Wook was an ordinary member who fluctuated between third and fourth place in popularity. He did draw attention with his handsome face, but his flaw was he didn't have enough talent and was too short to gain lots of popularity on looks alone. He also wasn't good enough to make it as a singer, He was the type of member who didn't have enough talent to have any other appeal besides his looks.
He was at the level of fame that someone might not have recognized him immediately unless they were like Bo Myung, who was interested in this field.
Suddenly, the door opened again and the woman came in.
"What are you doing in front of the mirror?"
He had never seen her face before, but considering the circumstances, she must be Kang Do Wook's mother. Bo Myung hesitantly opened his mouth. He had to make sure.
"M….mom?"
"What is it? Food is ready so come eat. I'm going to work."
"...Yes ma'am."
"Yes ma'am? Why are you suddenly using honorifics? Are you still half asleep?"
"Go…go…go to work already!"
"Ok. Make sure to eat before you leave."
"Ok."
She shot a suspicious gaze at Bo Myung, no, Do Wook, who was squirming, and then she hastily left for work.
He went to the kitchen and as he ate the food prepared on the table, Bo Myung tried to remember every detail about Kang Do Wook that he could.
He had seen a talk show that Kang Do Wook was on. He remembered that Kang Do Wook was an only child, that he grew up rich with two professors as parents, and that he received full support for his idol activities.
Watching the broadcast, his tone always seemed laid back with not much to say. It was as if there were nothing he lacked.
Bo Myung washed up and wore the uniform to go to school. The last time he had worn a uniform was over 10 years ago. This was someone else's uniform no less.
Come to think of it, he didn't even know where the house was located. He wasn't sure he could even find Chung Dan High School.
"Huu….."
A deep sigh came out automatically.
Even though he would later become someone who was only a celebrity in name and barely active, Kang Do Wook had lived a life on a different level than Kim Bo Myung, who had never received the spotlight or love or affection.
Even his life before he debuted was different from Bo Myung's. Take this room and house for instance, Bo Myung had never lived somewhere so spacious and comfortable.
Maybe space time became twisted from an accident, or maybe the souls got switched. There was nothing he could be certain of, except that he has now become Kang Do Wook.
Why did it have to be Kang Do Wook, who was a member of KK that started the same time Seo Kang Jun's M2M was active?
'Yes. Why of all things?'
Bo Myung clenched his teeth.
This might be an opportunity. No, this was an opportunity.
It might be that the opportunities he was never given in his 33 years of life came pouring all at once. Yes, this was a lucky chance.
His lucky chance to live a new life!
***
Luckily, there was a bus stop near the house with a bus that goes to Chung Dan High School. It was hard to get rid of the guilty feeling of using someone else's money when he paid the bus fare with the card in the wallet that was in his pants pocket.
Anyway, he made it to school and somehow found his way to the 2nd year Class 8 classroom. On his way, several students greeted him so he had to appropriately reciprocate their greetings. They may be young students, but it was still awkward to casually greet complete strangers.
As soon as he entered the classroom, a student probably 180cm tall with a bulky frame put their arms around his shoulder. Bo Myung instinctively cringed and barely stopped himself from dodging.
"Woah, Kang Do Wook. You came early for once?"
Bo Myung looked at the clock hanging in the classroom and couldn't help but be suspicious. 8 o'clock was cutting it too close to class time to be considered early. He could deduce Kang Do Wook's typical school life.
"You went hard yesterday so I thought you wouldn't show up until the end of first period."
"…went hard?"
"Are you saying two bottles isn't going hard? Bastard."
'…..isn't he a second year in high school right now?'
He was definitely a high school junior.
(TL/n: High school is 3 years in Korea)
To think that he was drinking and partying… It was surprising compared to Bo Myung's school days. Although if you think about Seo Kang Jun's group that used to bully him in middle school, it wasn't surprising. Could it be that Kang Do Wook was a bully too? Bo Myung felt nauseous for a second.
'No, I don't know yet. It could be possible that I just didn't know about it, but Kang Do Wook never had a harassment controversy.'
Bo Myung checked the name tag of the person snickering in front of him. Yoon Jin Sung. He seemed like a close friend of Kang Do Wook.
Bo Myung's elementary friends scattered when they got to middle school, and in middle school he was an outcast, so the concept of a friend was obscure to Bo Myung. Nobody knew Bo Myung at the high school he transferred to after a big bullying incident, but his mind was already too damaged for him to form deep friendships. He made some friends in college, but that was different from a childhood friend.
A close friend. Bo Myung never had one, but he wanted it more than anyone so it felt like he knew a lot about it. A playful and comfortable mood without reservation.
Yoon Jin Sung interlocked their arms and led him so Bo Myung was able to find his desk without difficulty.
"Umm. Hey Do Wook, here."
A female student approached him and held out a can of soda. Lee Ji Hye. He quickly checked the name, but it was hard to understand the reason for the drink.
"…What's this?"
'Ah, I didn't mean to say it so rudely.'
Internally, he was Bo Myung but because he was Kang Do Wook on the outside, Kang Do Wook's uniquely dull yet indifferent tone slipped out.
"It's for you. Just because!"
Lee Ji Hye blushed and scurried back to her seat.
"Bastard, it must be nice to be popular. What's there to like about a pretty face."
Yoon Jin Sung grumbled like it was a regular occurrence.
"How about Lee Ji Hye? Don't you think that she's the prettiest girl in the class?"
"…Not really."
Of course Bo Myung could tell Lee Ji Hye was pretty even after just seeing her briefly. However, he didn't even know how he came to be in Kang Do Wook's eighteen year old body, as thirty-three years old Bo Myung inside. He was in no situation to rate a seventeen year old girl.
"Whatever, you lucky bastard!"
Yoon Jin Sung sat down at his desk while beating his chest out of frustration.