Dansol slept badly. He tried to fall back asleep again and again, but he kept dreaming the same dream—being chased by faceless people and falling off a cliff.
They always approached him with kind faces, then swung knives at him. When Dansol turned to dodge the blade, he would always end up teetering at the edge of a cliff before falling.
Dansol knew it. That wasn't a dream—it was his life before the regression. And even now, Dansol was still standing on a cliff where he could fall at any time.
He gently removed Jisu's arm that was holding him, then went outside Chunmonggak. He walked through the island wrapped in thick dawn fog, trying to shake off the remnants of the nightmare.
That was when someone spoke from behind him as he walked along the shore.
"Joo Dansol-ssi."
It was Yiyeon.
If it had been anyone else, Dansol would have slipped away without acknowledging them. But there was no one else around—just the two of them—so Dansol couldn't avoid greeting him.
"...Looks like you came out to work out?"
Iyeon was the type who was obsessively strict about managing himself. He worked out morning and night, and lived on chicken-breast salad.
With beads of sweat dotting his forehead, he looked picture-perfect, as if proving that brutal self-discipline. For Dansol, though, it only dragged up horrific memories.
"I thought I was seeing things."
"Huh?"
"I kept watching because I had something to say to you, but there were always too many people around you. So I thought maybe I'd finally gone crazy—maybe I was hallucinating you because I wanted to be alone with you so badly. But it really is you."
He wasn't wrong. After the fight with Dohyeon, Jisu and Daesu—even Taeoh—took turns guarding Dansol like bodyguards. It kept him from running into Dohyeon, but it also erased every bit of time he had alone, and Dansol had been feeling stifled.
And then to run into Yiyeon like this… They said you shouldn't do things you never do. He should've just stayed in bed like usual.
Dansol regretted it.
"Ah… but I'm kind of cold. I'm going to head back in."
"Sorry."
The words that stopped Dansol mid-step were unexpected.
For a moment, Dansol wondered if Yiyeon somehow knew about his regression. He couldn't understand why someone he'd had no connection with would suddenly apologize. His neck stiffened as he turned his head.
"...What are you sorry for?"
Part of him even hoped Yiyeon was a regressor too. If Yiyeon confessed what he'd done in the past and asked for forgiveness, maybe Dansol could forgive him—just to see—because he was weak like that.
At Dansol's question, Yiyeon dragged a large hand down his face.
"I told Dohyeon that I'm interested in you. So… I think that's why he has more hostility toward you. He's got a childish side…"
"So?"
The way it sounded like he was making excuses for Dohyeon made Dansol answer sharply without meaning to.
"Is that why you were looking for me… to take Yoo Dohyeon-ssi's side?"
"If it sounded like that, I'm sorry. I just… felt like what happened was somehow my fault."
"Hah. I'm a flop idol—why would it be because of Lee Yiyeon -sunbae? I don't care why Yoo Dohyeon-ssi hates me. I hate him too. For no reason."
So that was that. Regression hadn't turned Yiyeon into a different person.
Dansol didn't want to face him anymore.
The past was already sticky and tangled in his head, building into a headache. Dansol turned to head back toward Chunmonggak.
"Why…"
But Yiyeon's resentful voice snagged him again.
"Why won't you give me any space at your side?"
"..."
"Did I do something wrong to you? We don't even know each other. Am I someone not even worth getting to know once?"
Dansol had already given Yiyeon everything in his previous life, so in this life he had nothing left to give him.
Maybe getting involved with him wouldn't necessarily mean repeating the past—maybe that was Dansol's overactive imagination. But what scared him more than Lee Yiyeon himself was the thought of meeting the past version of himself again—the one who did nothing but get dragged around by Yiyeon's feelings.
"Yes. I don't want to. I hate people like you the most, sunbae."
Leaving Yiyeon there on the shore with a wounded expression, Dansol climbed up to Chunmonggak on the cliff.
"Dansol-ssi! Where did you go?"
The one who greeted Dansol—who felt like crying—was Jegal Minhyeok. As if he'd fallen in love with the Filming Island's nature, Minhyeok wandered all over the island all day.
"Ah… morning exercise."
"Of course… early birds get tired. You must be exhausted, Dansol-ssi. You look miserable first thing in the morning?"
"Uh…"
Minhyeok seemed like he didn't care about other people, but he always had a sharp side.
"Since it's fate that we met like this, I'll show you something nice. If you see this, your fatigue will vanish."
Before Dansol could even answer, Minhyeok grabbed his wrist and led him to a secluded corner of Chunmonggak.
In a spot thick with low garden trees, Minhyeok pulled out a big ramen box and carefully set it on the ground.
"What is this?"
"Open it."
Crouched down, Minhyeok smiled innocently. Not understanding, Dansol cautiously lifted the top flap, wondering if it was a prank.
"Whoa…!"
Inside the box were three mackerel-colored kittens.
"Don't touch them. They've got a mom, so we just look for a bit and put them back before she comes."
"They have a mom?"
"Yeah. She always leaves around this time, so I've been forced into waking up at dawn too."
"So… the reason you kept going out every day lately was…"
"Right. Cats have routines. I staked the place out and figured out the timing—right now. You're really lucky, Dansol-ssi. It took me days to figure out, and you get it in one shot."
Dansol couldn't take his eyes off the kittens, ignoring Minhyeok's teasing. Their mother must have fed them so well—each one had a plump belly out, sleeping soundly.
"What are their names? Did you name them too?"
"Yes. Dan-tan. Danbaek, Tansu, Jibang. But honestly they all look the same, so I just call them whatever I feel like that day."
"Haha, what kind of names are those!"
"Why? They're essential for life! Ah—she'll be back soon!"
Swallowing their regret, Dansol and Minhyeok returned the box to where it had been. Even on the way back to the lodge, Dansol kept glancing behind him like he couldn't stop worrying.
"Want to go together again this afternoon?"
"We can see them in the afternoon too?"
"If we bring Churu and toys, sometimes, if we're lucky, they'll stay still. Even if we're unlucky… what, they'll just scratch us."
"Okay! You have to go with me!"
Dansol, who'd looked like he might cry a moment ago, brightened a lot after seeing the kittens. The way he insisted they go together again in the afternoon looked just like a child.
Minhyeok wanted Dansol to keep smiling like that.
When someone with a face that innocent sometimes wore an expression like he was exhausted by the world, it made Minhyeok's chest ache.
If he could, he wanted to hold Dansol, take him in—be the kind of person who could share a blanket and body heat with him until he felt better.
Minhyeok smiled along with Dansol.
Their laughter spilled over the wall.
From far away, someone was watching them.
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