The Most Effective Way to Defuse a Bomb (5)

A few days earlier.

Dan Haru and Ju Eunchan had ultimately failed to persuade me.

'And they'd failed to persuade the company too.'

Seo Taehyun's disappearance was already a crisis — no way the adults were going to sit still while two rookies proposed skipping practice to go retrieve him.

If anything, with Seo Taehyun — a legitimately strong debut candidate — gone, the Head of Department on one end and the company on the other both started clamping down on the trainees harder than before.

"Taehyun-hyung… we need to go find him…"

"I don't have the energy to move…"

Thanks to that, the two of them were catching it from both sides — the practice AND the stress — and I did feel a little bad for them. But it wasn't like I had a way to help either.

Chucking a cool wet towel at each of the two life forms sprawled on the floor was about all I could do.

"Hyuung."

"No."

"I haven't even said anything yet."

"Great attitude. Keep it up forever."

"Sooo mean…"

Every chance he got, Dan Haru would turn those big rabbit eyes on me trying to ship me off to Seo Taehyun — not happening. Just commuting from home to Miro was already draining my stamina to zero. I wasn't burning my precious HP scouring some Gangwon-do coastline that was never in my life plan.

"I'm home."

"You're back? Thought you might sleep over."

I didn't really have complaints yet about commuting from home to work, but on nights I barely caught the last train and dragged myself home like this, the urge to move into the dorms would rise out of nowhere.

'Should I just brazen it out and ask Ju Eunchan for rent? Bet it'd be nicer than the dorms.'

Even in the state I was in, picturing a dorm packed with a dozen-plus guys crammed into a not-so-large place made my head spin. Yeah. Leaving home really is hell.

'…Fast asleep.'

When I tried to go into my room, Kang Hawon was already dead to the world. Sleeper-through-anything or not, if I fussed around next to him he'd definitely wake up.

In the end I went with the living room again, spread out the futon I kept in the corner, and lay down.

"Sleeping in the living room tonight too?"

"Yeah, easier this way. Go get some sleep, Mom."

"…Heading out early tomorrow too? I'll draw the curtains."

"I should be able to grab breakfast before I go."

I gave Mom — her face half worry, half concern — a reassuring smile and told her it was fine. I wanted to say something to her, since she looked as worn as I did, but I really didn't have the strength to lift a finger, and gave up.

'Thank god the company has showers.'

The one bit of happiness available to me being able to lie down and pass out the second I got home — genuinely kind of tragic.

But once I'd stretched out on the soft, cool-in-just-the-right-way blanket, I felt like I might actually pass out. Pushing the tangled thoughts aside, I was closing my eyes with real intent to sleep, when—

Flash!

"Seriously — please…"

That tactless notification pane flared up in the middle of the night.

You have unchecked (unreviewed) alerts. Check now?

"Tomorrow. Tomorrow…"

We have no tomorrow!

"Whoever wrote the Korean localization on this thing, seriously…"

The System's stream of increasingly weird bits had jolted me fully awake.

I badly wanted to slap on a sleep mask and pull the blanket over my head — but I remembered brushing off the same alert with 'tomorrow' yesterday, the day before that, and three days ago too, and my conscience twinged.

Reluctantly, I forced my drooping eyes open and started plowing through the backlog.

"What. I already read these."

Not 'read.' It's 'marked as read.'

Complain about the Korean localization once and now it's just chucking Konglish at me?

Between building a mark-as-read feature and bulk-clearing everything, the backlog ran to a truckload. Wow, when was I even going to get through this. Tempted to just ignore it and go to sleep—

"Ah — but I can't stand a red 1…!"

The System has finally seen through the (Fixed) Regressor's habits and feels rather pleased with itself!

The crafty System had apparently updated the UI, and that red circle sitting in the top bar like a live bomb — I could not let it slide!

'I'm the kind of person who clicks through thousands of emails just to make that thing go away!'

So I had no choice but to pull up every alert I'd bulk-marked as read and go through them one by one. A few actually had useful info in them, and I bonus-tagged those with the bookmark feature I'd tacked on while I was building mark-as-read.

…….

Not even reacting anymore?

'This one…?'

Among the plain notification windows, exactly one was shimmering in radiant aurora colors.

As a web-novel veteran of many years, I can officially confirm: this was rare. SS-tier by ranking, top-shelf by category — you could feel it from five thousand kilometers up in a skydive.

'Gotta check this one.'

Heart pounding, I clicked, and sure enough that shimmering color spread through the room like a small universe as the quest window opened.

title: Single Quest 01. 'In Search of a Lost Dream.' The fastest way to untangle a snarled thread is to find where it starts. Become an idol trainee within the time limit. time remaining: 39 days. (Base 60 days) Quest complete. reward: Access pass to clues for tracking the regressions. View the clue? (Y/N)

'Oh — right. I'd completely forgotten about this.'

The first quest — in its way, the starting point of everything. Between the mission bombs that had piled on since, I must have shoved it to the back burner.

Right around here, I got a little tense.

'Usually first-quest rewards run on the wild side. Then again, that last special-reward thing did turn out to be pretty useful.'

'Access clues to track the regressions,' huh. Even the name sounded like something out of a mystery novel—

"Well, what am I gonna do, not check it."

Surely nothing could be more absurd than four regressions. Wide awake anyway, and figuring I might as well, I hit YES without a lot of deliberation. And regretted it.

'Ah, fuck, my eyes!'

A light a good hundred times brighter than the earlier flare detonated in my face. Hit by that massive light in the dark, I squeezed my eyes shut on reflex. Who sets off a flashbang in someone's face!?

And when I'd finally adjusted enough to open my eyes, I was inside someone's memory.

"What. A dream?"

—They said if I bring you in, you're one hundred percent debuting. Let's debut together, Taehyun. Yeah?

And it didn't take much watching to figure out whose memory this was.

"You said this was a clue for tracking the regressions. Why is Seo Taehyun showing up?"

Questions or not, the 'memory' rolled straight through Seo Taehyun's past into his present. Along the way, every emotion Seo Taehyun had felt and every thought that had crossed his mind came through as vividly as if I'd lived them.

But not all of it played from Seo Taehyun's point of view.

—So, are you actually going to send me to Rene?

—Let me check what you've got first.

—……

—Man, kids these days really are something. Selling out a friend and everything.

The evidence Seo Taehyun had meticulously gathered — I watched Cha Minseok hand the whole bundle over to the Head of Department. The Head of Department took the envelope and stashed it deep in the safe at the back of his office.

That was when I finally understood why I was being shown this memory.

"If I had that…. Getting rid of the Head of Department would be twice as easy."

But how? I had no way of pulling documents out of a safe inside the Head of Department's office. Should I put Ju Eunchan on it? — right as I was thinking that,

Currently viewing Seo Taehyun's memory. Relationship with memory owner: amicable. An item from within the memory owner's memory (Seo Taehyun's documents) is available for rental. cost: 1,500 cash (3 days) If the item within the memory belongs to a 'companion,' it may be kept permanently. Rent? (Y/N)

An unbelievable notification popped up in front of me. Wait — so I could pull an item out of a memory right now? And 1,500 cash, and it wasn't even ownership, just a rental. Talk about extortionate pricing.

Either way, I couldn't miss this chance, so I hit YES without hesitation.

And another bright light swept over my vision.

"…Holy moly."

Just like that, I woke from the dream. Seo Taehyun's evidence in hand.

Item from memory owner's memory (Seo Taehyun's documents) rented. The item will automatically disappear once the rental period (3 days) expires. If the item within the memory belongs to a 'companion,' it may be kept permanently.

With a shitty quest attached: to keep using the evidence, recruit Seo Taehyun as a companion.

---

And back again. The Gangwon-do coast.

Seo Taehyun and I were still locked in our standoff, sitting at opposite ends of the platform, staring each other down.

"…Kids these days sure have quiet conversations."

Seo Taehyun's uncle — who'd lit up when I told him I was here from Seoul to grab Taehyun, and had insisted on bringing us drinks — set out fruit and sikhye in the wide gap between us and quietly withdrew.

"…How'd you know I was here?"

"Ju Eunchan and Dan Haru clued me in."

"Ah, shit…"

Like he'd figured as much, Seo Taehyun's lip twisted and he smacked his thigh. Even with that displeased face, though — Dan Haru saying he wanted to debut alongside him must have come back to him — a flicker of guilt drifted across one corner of it.

"But why did YOU come?"

"No way the company was letting Dan Haru go."

"That's no reason to send you either. Since when were we close."

"You think I'm crazy? Like I told them I was coming to fetch you?"

"…Then?"

Back when I'd had an office job, I'd racked up plenty of practice calling in sick to hit concerts. Just talked my way out of it, kid.

…except I couldn't actually say that, so no comment on that question. Shut it and cut to the point.

"I came here already knowing everything that went on between you and the Head of Department."

"……!"

The mouth that had still been muttering discontentedly locked shut on the spot. I saw him about to chew his lip again and reflexively grabbed a fork — he registered the move and hurriedly let go of his lip.

"Hey, Taehyun."

"…What."

"Don't listen to any of that."

"……"

"Whatever that man told you, it's all bullshit."

At my words, something in Seo Taehyun's eyes wavered.