The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

[You aren’t permitted to approach.]

[You aren’t permitted to approach.]

[You aren’t permitted…]

I just used Insight as a reflex. The reason for it was nothing big. I simply activated it because it looked like it would hurt; the mechanism was sort of like how a person would curl up instinctively if they thought they would get hit.

Thus, I was astounded by what happened next. It appeared the moment I used Insight almost at the same time the Precognitive Vision was imbued back into me, and that triggered some activation error. Though I was standing on top of the stage just a moment ago, I was standing in the middle of a universe now.

‘This isn’t even funny anymore.’ Since there was a time when I came to a similar-looking space before, I wasn’t too surprised. A long line lay in front of my eyes. It was the cut line that I saw before that had been placed in the middle of the universe. The more I tried to reach it, it seemed to drift farther away so that I couldn’t approach it.

Things were different now because I was able to approach a bit closer to this line. The line that had moved farther away no matter how far I stretched out my hands was firmly standing in its spot now.

‘What in the world is that? What is this?’ I felt confused by the perplexing situation. The only thing certain was that this was a pivotal moment of sorts that even the system couldn’t predict. At this point, I thought the system was like a computer, and at that moment, this computer seemed to be experiencing some kind of malfunction.

I had wondered since before what this long line in the middle of this vast universe was. After thinking of all sorts of possibilities, I supposed that it could be something like a world line. This was my imagination coming from an ex-web-novelist.

This was a long line, made by the intertwinement of large destinies in various worlds. Worlds moved according to this line and removed things that moved away from this line. That was the kind of scenario I would’ve made if I was its writer. It appeared my suppositions hit the mark as I began to see various images and scenes the closer I looked at it. It was as if it was welcoming me.

‘…Is this really a world line?’

The images showed pivotal moments of humanity and included small, daily life moments too. I extended my hand towards the line.

‘…This is insane.’ Though I had just touched it for a second, too much information poured into me. With this, I became certain that this was really the world line. In a sense, this was like an archive that saved all of humanity’s history.

Inside this archive, everything from huge, historical milestones in human history to very trivial moments in life were recorded. The moment I touched it, I stood in the middle of a battleground, sat under the table of one family’s dining table, attended a couple’s marriage ceremony, and witnessed someone’s murder.

Some scenes were so monumental that anyone would consider it a historical event while others felt so menial that I wondered if they would even influence the world line. And now back to the problem: if this long line was the world line, what in the world was that disconnected point?

I walked towards the disconnected point—no, rather than walking in real life, I simply thought about it. Like that, my body which seemed to be a mere fabrication of my thoughts moved in that direction. I stood right in front of the point where the world line broke. And when I saw that point…

‘…What?’ The worldline that had been cleanly organized as one line was scattered all over from that breakpoint. I felt overwhelmed by the worldline which extended out as if it would cover the entire universe. It looked as if a spider web had spread out from it or a crack formed on an egg. I reached my hand towards the area—to the specific point where the line split into different parts.

‘…What…seriously?’ This was the traffic accident that happened on our way back from our trip to Sokcho. There had been too many regressors from that point for the world line to continue as one line. Different strands extended out from that point and I assumed that they must be the various universes that my members had lived. I slowly walked towards it.

Some strands stretched out far and suddenly stopped, and other ones stretched beyond it until they disappeared too. There were also strands where its angles were twisted and turned into very complicated angles. Just by seeing the shape of this strand, I had a good guess of what kind of world that was. Though I was walking between different worldline strands, I felt a similar feeling as walking in a grave.

It felt empty, lonely, and a bit fearful and sentimental. I walked further and stopped in my spot. Among the numerous split parts extending all over the place, there was a strand that looked out of the ordinary.

‘Could it be?’ After the Sokcho traffic incident, the worldline’s strands were spreading all over the place. It wasn’t clumped together but dispersed. Yet, the strand at the very end was eating up a considerable number of strands.

‘No, instead of ‘eating up,’ it’s been forcefully attached.’ The area looked as if someone had forcefully glued other strands to that one strand. I sensed it instinctively then.

‘That’s me.’ I didn’t even have to stretch my hand to see its contents. This was the strand that showed my world. The other strands attached to it were Woon and Do-Seung’s strands.

‘Though I pulled Woon and Do-Seung’s strands to my side, what are all these other strands?’ Besides mine and the strands attached to it, to whom did the countless other threads belong? There were a total of five members in my group; four excluding me. Since I pulled half of the people in this group to my side, I should’ve at least half of the world strands attached to mine. Yet, the strands attached to mine were extremely minuscule compared to the rest of the strands remaining.

‘This means someone must have regressed thousands—no, probably more times than that.’ I felt goosebumps on my arms and felt curious about the other world lines. Who exactly does this worldline belong to? Dong-Jun? Yeon-Hoon? Or somebody else? It was then a familiar voice spoke.

[You aren’t permitted to approach.]

‘Why now of all time?’ I couldn’t even check the vast number of worldline strands I just passed. I quickly tried to see them but the recovered system didn’t permit me to approach. Again, I began to drift farther away from the worldline the closer I tried to get to it. Then, I felt my whole body fall. I was falling from this universe-like space. Like before, this wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

I watched as the world line drifted farther away from me even to the very moment I fell. If that was the world line and if I sporadically moved closer to it and grabbed all the lines to my side…

‘…Will the missions end?’ I thought I could reach the core of something that the system desired from me. I glared at the world line till the very end. Eventually, I returned to the top of the stage and the system progressed to relay my gifts.

[Return of Precognitive Vision has been canceled.]

[Success reward has been changed.]

[Processing new success reward.]

[Thank you for your patience.]

Though I simply used Insight to avoid the pain, it seemed I achieved a rather big milestone of sorts.

“Tae-Yoon, here is your mike…” Yeon-Hoon handed me the mike. It was then I realized the situation I was in and what I needed to do. Because I had spent quite a long time in the universe and looking at the worldline, I had forgotten what I’ve been doing. We needed to do an encore stage after winning first place in the music show.

‘But this is bad.’ It appeared that the majority of my group members including the main vocalist couldn’t sing properly because they were crying too much. In the end, I took the mike and led the encore stage.

***

While Siren did the encore stage to win first place, a homeless-looking man entered a contactless motel in a remote alleyway at Eunpyeong-gu. The man appeared to be in his early fifties, had a full, long beard, and looked to have thrown anything on for clothes. He normally wouldn’t have been permitted inside an ordinary motel but in a contactless motel with no one at the front desk, he was able to lodge as long he paid money.

The man took the room key and entered the room he reserved. He showered, shaved, took off the clothes he was wearing, and took out new clothes he seemed to have bought from a supermarket. With just that outfit change, the man’s impression significantly changed. He tied his long oily hair tightly backward and cleanly got rid of the beard that had blanketed his whole face.

Then, the man gathered the clothes he had been wearing and other items into a plastic bag. With his change of appearance, it was difficult to discern if he was the same man before and after entering the motel. The man sat at the edge of the bed and pulled out his phone. His phone’s screen was cracked and there was dirt on it, so it was doubtful if it would really work. Yet, after he connected it to a charger and waited a bit, the phone activated.

As soon as the phone turned on, the man immediately went to the internet and searched the keyword:

—Siren

Then, his searches became more detailed and eerie.

—Siren’s company

—Siren members’ personal information

—Siren’s dorm

—Siren in real life

—Siren stalkers

—Siren Bong Tae-Yoon

These keywords felt slightly awkward for a man in his fifties to search, yet the man pulled out a notebook and began to write information on it. The man’s name was Kang Seok-Du. He turned fifty-two this year, and he was the truck driver who almost crashed Siren’s car.

***

Using Insight, I was able to fulfill the main vocalists’ parts quite splendidly. I knew that I couldn’t suddenly sing too well since my members could start to suspect me and my position couldn’t overlap with Yeon-Hoon’s. Yet, this was an emergency so it couldn’t be helped. And if my members questioned me, I could just say that my singing skills improved as we kept doing our activities. Though I had been refraining myself while using Insight to avoid suspicions, I sang my heart out today.

“Tae-Yoon?”

“…What happened?”

“You are performing on your own…?”

My members exclaimed in amazement. Then, from the second verse, my members stopped crying and I was able to put down my mike. With that, we finished our encore stage and came down. Though it had been hectic and full of tears, I could say this for sure—

“We are firrrst!”

“Ahhh!”

“We did it! First place!”

I felt an electrifying feeling take control of my entire body. I wanted to indulge in this feeling a bit longer when the system suddenly intervened.

[Halting Reward Calculations.]

I wasn’t mad because the system was going to give me a reward.

[Canceling Reward.]

[You have received an additional mission.]

[Adding new mission]

[Enter Billboard HOT100 in three months.]

[Upon success, no rewards.]

[Upon failure, Kang Do-Seung and Lee Woon would die and their worldlines would separate.]

“…What?”

My whole body felt instantly cold after hearing about the mission.