I woke up to the light shining into my room. The light making the dust visible showing how unclean the room had been. I stayed there for a while staring at the ceiling.
Two days had passed since the side mission appeared.
Time: 28 days
I knew that the more I waited the less time I would have to work on what I needed to, but I just couldn't get up.
Would doing this be the right thing, what right do I deserve to walk around in another person's body and pretend to be him.
I felt stiff in the bed, unfamiliar with the body I was in, out of place in a home I was not from. All I wanted to do was be engulfed by the bed I was in absorbed into it just so I could feel nothing.
It's not like I died in an accident.
I wanted it, I jumped in front of that truck.
So why did I even care about my soul getting erased?
I brought my hand upward and looked at it, turning it around grasping at the ceiling above.
It was skinny, pale.
I covered my face with it, feeling the coldness it brought. Even though I was moving it, the hand still felt foreign.
I closed my eyes wishing everything would just go away.
[Side Mission]
Mission: Get up and dance!
Goal: Watch a dance routine and copy it
Failure: nil
Time: 2 hours
Rewards: +1 to Dance
Notes: Get up
I opened my eyes after hearing the system's indicator. I stared at it, not reading, just looking at it. I just couldn't shake this feeling I had. Not knowing if doing this would be the right thing.
“Minwoo, I left some food on the table for you, I'm heading out soon for school!”
I heard her voice through the door, a caring soft voice, a trusting one—one for her brother.
I wanted to just ignore it and lay back again, I wanted to just pretend she wasn't talking to me.
But my chest tightened, this girl who was caring for me and calling on me thought I was her brother.
My stomach turned, I got up quickly, the room felt as if it was spinning, I ran out the room, something was coming up.
I rushed to the bathroom and gripped on to the sink, I tried to push it back down but the feeling wouldn't go away, the knuckles of my hands turning white. Before I knew it the nausea hit me full force and just as I was pushing down this feeling it all came up and hit the sink.
Why was I put here?
I looked at the mirror in front of me looking at the face reflecting back vomit on the corners of its mouth, face sickly pale.
“Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down.”
I kept repeating this to myself, trying to calm my nerves and stop myself from feeling like the room was warping.
I turned on the faucet and took some water to my face. I needed to think about this carefully.
Once settled I looked back up.
“Fuck!”
I punched the mirror, shattering a spot on it.
Blood dripping from my hand to the white sink, coloring its white porcelain like a painter painting with red on a blank canvas. It looked weird. Could I say that was my blood?
Next to the reflection of Minwoo I saw myself standing, smiling at me.
The cracks formed right next to my face, now mixing us together.
Then just as fast as it came, it disappeared, leaving me with a trembling hand dripping with blood.
“Minwoo are you okay?”
Sooah came into the bathroom, she looked around at the room and saw the broken mirror and the blood dripping from my fist. She looked at me with that same face she showed when I first woke up.
A scared and worried face.
I forced a slight smile on my face, my heart still beating from what happened. I racked my head on what to say, I couldn't worry her anymore. Then after a slight pause.
“It's alright” I exhaled “I just felt sick. I think I ate something bad, so I came a little too fast and accidentally hit the mirror while vomiting.”
I said while pointing at the sink.
Sooah looked at me, I was unsure if she believed me, but she went past me and bent down to pick something up.
It was a red first aid kit under the sink, she placed it over the toilet's closed seat and opened it, pulling out an alcohol pad and some gauze.
She came up to me still not talking and opened the pad, grabbing on to my hand and wiping it.
I pulled back a bit shocked from the pain.
“Ah!”
She pulled it again back towards her.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Stand still.”
She took the gauze package and opened it, holding the roll with her right hand and my hand with her left. She began to wrap it still not saying anything.
Then once she was done, she looked over to my face.
“Ok, I'll believe you.”
She backed up and showed a small smile.
“You won't get any better just in your room, eat some of the food I left on the table and move around.”
Before leaving the bathroom, she looked over at the glass shards and the vomit in the sink.
“Also, try to clean that up while I'm gone, I'm going to head out for school. I'll be back in a couple of hours.”
It took me a moment before responding, still unsure if she believed my lie or not.
“Yea, no problem. Sorry about the mess”
As I said that she turned around and opened the front door giving me one last look and waving goodbye with a slight smile before leaving.
“See you later Minwoo.”
Silence filled the apartment. I stood there in the living room alone.
Grrrr
I rubbed my stomach, yea I should probably eat some of the food Sooah left before I pass out or something.
….
Once I finished eating and cleaning up the glass shards I sat back down on the couch.
So far, the screen was appearing by itself, so I was wondering if it was going to show up again.
“Can I call it out?”
Then I remembered some of the webtoons I used to read, weren't you supposed to say a phrase?
“System on!”
Nothing
“System!”
…
“To me, my System!”
All that was heard were the dogs outside at the park barking.
“Gahh, I sound like some idiot right now.”
I began to ruffle the back of my hair; this was a little more embarrassing than I thought it would be.
Before giving up I called out once more.
“Status.”
As I said that I felt a sort of vibration pulse throughout my body then with a slight ding, the screen appeared in front of me.
“Huh, I guess that was the one.”
I looked at the front page showing my skill stats
Name: Rae Minwoo (Formerly Joon Seok)
Level: 1
Title: None
Vocal: C
Dance: F
Visual: C+
Talent(s): None
Characteristics: Social Manipulator, Self Loathing
At the top of the screen, it had different tabs two of them were clear, Stats and Missions. The other two however had a lock on them.
“Do I need to level up more to unlock them?”
I looked over my stats, overall, I wasn't super bad, but dance was an obvious weak point.
My vocals and looks were average, I needed to level them up too but for now I should focus on my dancing.
If I wanted to really improve my chances of joining MGM, I had to focus on Dance.
Besides that, I haven't tried singing again since that one time.
I looked over to my Characteristics. I hovered my finger over Social Manipulator and pressed on it to see if it showed anything.
Social Manipulator: You're as good at manipulating others as you are at breathing. Good job!!!
Mhmm, besides the ambiguous sarcastic description I can't really get much off what it means besides maybe that I'm good with convincing others.
Unless it is related to my past.
Then yea, I did have a knack for getting others to follow me and having them do what I wanted.
Having them act for me, or forcing them to do things…
Charisma or manipulation whatever it was, I didn't want to think about that right now.
I moved on to the other Characteristic, Self Loathing.
I paused for a moment before pressing it. I had an idea of what this meant before even pressing it.
But I still wanted to see what it would be.
Self-Loathing: Your hate for yourself will blind you in the worst of moments.
I looked at this overview. Laid back and covered my face with my hands.
I figured it would be something like this but seeing it described in front of me made it seem so much worse.
I sat up again looking at the screen. I looked at the Missions tab and tapped it. The screen switched to different texts displaying the missions.
[Main Mission]
Mission: Debut
Goal: Prove your worth as a trainee and become an Idol
Failure: Erasure of soul
Time: 363 days
Notes: Let's see if you have what it takes, I doubt it
Two days less than before, I really needed to hurry.
Looking over the screen again there was what appeared to be a scrolling bar on the right side.
I hovered my finger over it and dragged the bar down bringing the screen with it until it landed on the side missions' area.
[Side Mission]
Mission: Get up and dance!
Goal: Watch a dance routine and copy it
Failure: nil
Time: 1 hour
Rewards: +1 to Dance
Notes: Get up
One point isn't a lot, but it does add up, and I needed everything I could get for my dance stat.
I grabbed the TV remote and went on MeTube and clicked on search.
“Let's see, let me search for Guy dances.”
As I pressed enter and clicked on the video called ‘Sun Dancing’ I saw a guy holding a sign with ‘Anything helps’ on it.
“Hmm this seems interesting”
The video continued with the man in a car asking a question.
“Hey, have you heard that new song?”
“Let me hear, turn it up”
As the man in the car turned up the music the man outside began to dance.
“Mind if I hit a move?”
The beat dropped as he said this and so did the sign in his hands.
He began to hop into a dance that looked very energetic.
“Pfff–this actually looks pretty fun”
I stood up and began to prepare to emulate what I saw, it didn't seem that hard after all.
Just before I could I sprang back in surprise.
NOTICE: Not this idiot, a choreography, look up KPOP Choreography
I sat back down on the couch and clicked off the video.
“Yea, yea alright.”
I said out loud to the System.
If someone saw me talking to myself right now, they would think I was crazy.
I went back to the search and typed in ‘KPOP choreography’
Hundreds of videos popped up, each one being at least two minutes long. Each one with a group of people dancing them.
I sighed and scrolled through the videos.
“Let's just pick one”
I clicked on a video that seemed to be guys dancing.
The music started and so did the dancers.
And after watching it, I regretted not starting earlier.
