episode_0107

Yoon Kwancheol was a meticulous person.

He didn’t trust verbal promises, so why did he go as far as to draw up a contract for me, who was barely twenty years old.

But it was as I had expected. If we had just made a verbal agreement, I felt like Yoon Kwancheol would try to wriggle out of it later by changing his words.

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[Contract]

Min Chaewon and Yoon Kwancheol agree to the following terms by participating in the ‘Pro vs. Amateur’ content prepared by Channel La Rgisimo and subject to evaluation:

– In the event of a tie or Min Chaewon’s victory: Yoon Kwancheol will produce a video apologizing to Min Chaewon and Channel Aclert’s subscribers, and upload it to Channel Aclert.

– In the event of Min Chaewon’s defeat: Min Chaewon will become Yoon Jiyu’s exclusive accompanist. Their duet activities will continue until the day Yoon Jiyu retires from performing.

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I carefully folded the contract that even included my signature and tucked it into my pocket before confidently walking out the front door.

Yoon Jiyu hurriedly followed me and asked in a small voice, “What are you trying to do?”

I should be happy to become her exclusive accompanist. Why are you looking so sad?

“Don’t worry, I’ll win.”

“What if someone like Jo Jinyeol shows up? What then?”

“…Then we’ll tie!”

“Aren’t you too confident?”

Despite Yoon Jiyu’s continuous protests as we walked to the bus stop, dragging her slippers, I held firm.

“Think about it again. There’s no need for this unreasonable contract. Well… of course, it would be nice to have you by my side. I even thought of you as a substitute for the dawn… I wasn’t just taking you along with good intentions…”

Yoon Jiyu being this honest was a rare sight. Even the heavens must be moved to tears.

Suppressing a fake laugh that threatened to burst out, I took her hand.

“It’s okay to lose, actually…”

“…You can’t be serious.”

“If we don’t follow the contract, it’s over, right?”

Seemingly taken aback by my lawless words, Yoon Jiyu’s body leaned to the side.

“You even stamped it…?! Then it has legal effect, right?”

“Y-yes. I’ll run away to Austria. Come find me.”

Surprisingly, I am Austrian. I grinned and drew a V with my hand.

In disbelief, Yoon Jiyu suddenly burst into laughter and sat down on the ground.

Vroom. The bus I was supposed to take passed by the bus stop.

“Wait… are you really going to chase my dad all the way to Austria to force him to sign the contract with your parents…?”

Since I was holding Yoon Jiyu’s hand, I had no choice but to sit down with her, and with my free hand, I gently stroked her head.

“Then you’ll have to whine to my parents. They’ll kick you out!”

“………………”

It was a thoughtless remark, but it seemed to hit Yoon Jiyu’s heart hard.

“That’s… that’s… not what normal parents do.”

Realizing my blunder too late, I waved my hands frantically without even considering a Hitori-chan act.

“N-no. I mean. I didn’t mean it that way!”

Yoon Jiyu couldn’t tear her gaze away from the ground for a long time, a bitter smile on her face.

Drip. A drop of water fell, staining the pavement black.

It was an acknowledgment that her parents were different from others, and her tearful eyes held the sincerity of her humble status.

“To be honest… I’m not sure that even if you beat my dad in this bet, he’ll change…”

“I think the same way.”

“… Is this for real? You didn’t mean it in that way, did you?!”

After getting back at him with a small act of revenge, it came back to bite me in the cheek.

“Ah, ow…!”

“Still… please.”

Yoon Ji-yoo let go of my cheek and instead wrapped his arm around me, pulling me close.

“I hope you realize something from this incident. I hope you win. I hope you, who resembles Dawn, give my dad a taste of his own medicine.”

For the first and last time, I hugged Yoon Ji-yoo, apologizing to my past self.

…It’s not really a bad thing that it was Min Chae-won hugging me instead of Jung Si-woo, but it still stung a bit.

“I’ll give it to you. A good smack on the back of the neck…”

“If you do that, people could die…”

“I-I don’t mean to actually hit you…”

“I know…”

***

End of June. The rainy season.

The weather, which was scorching hot until yesterday, suddenly cooled down, with continuous rain making it undesirable to go out.

I have to go on a pension trip with Si-woo next week, but ever since meeting Yoon Ji-yoo on Monday, the rain hasn’t shown any signs of stopping.

The darn rain is thankfully supposed to stop by tomorrow, Saturday, but the weather during this time is so unpredictable.

But I can’t just cancel the pension trip. Even if we don’t go swimming, we still have to have a barbecue party and play the piano by the charcoal fire. Why? Because Si-woo wants to.

And honestly, I want to as well. I’ve never had the experience of sitting on the same piano bench with the person I like and playing the piano by the charcoal fire. Honestly, I’m looking forward to playing the piano by the charcoal fire more than any other activity we’ll do that day.

“Hello! Wow, amazing. Are you Ms. A?”

“Hello. I’m Aclerct….”

“Wow, it’s really you. Look at this. You look exactly like in the videos.”

“We’re your real fans. We watch your videos all the time.”

“T-thank you…”

Anyway, today, before the weekend, is the day of the meeting with the L’arcisimo editing team.

It’s been a while since they proposed it, so if I were to say now that I’ll do it, they might ask, ‘Who are you?’.

Min Chae-won seems like a woman with a lot of sins. The people from the L’arcisimo editing team were also fans of Chae-won. It’s like they’re all fans of Aclerct if you take one step further.

“First, will you come this way? What kind of tea would you like? Something warm? Or something cold?”

“I got a bit wet from the rain… and the air conditioning is cold, so just a warm cup of tea, please.”

“Should I also get you a blanket? Since the whole building has central air conditioning…”

“Please.”

“Would green tea be okay for you?”

“Yes.”

I sat alone at the table, covered with a blanket for a while, like in a newly built apartment in Shindochi without any infrastructure.

As I waited quietly, I could hear the staff chatting outside.

Feeling a certain rhythm, my fingers moved involuntarily.

Tap, tap, tap.

‘If it were my past self, wouldn’t I arrange it like this?’ I thought, as my fingers continued to tap on the table in succession.

All I could hear was a hard sound, but in my head, a complete piece was being played. It wasn’t a bad melody.

Suddenly, a song I had heard from the future came to mind, and my fingers began to play the song that existed in the future.

Playing a song that I didn’t fully remember, it naturally blended with the next song, similar to how my playing style had changed.

Unknowingly, I was copying Jung Si-woo’s style.

‘Wait.’

Suddenly, a question popped into my head.

The black tower I had built up in a mess. Or the playing self that had turned completely black, which I called the paint bucket, had experienced a complete destruction.

After that, my playing was completely rewritten based on Chae-won. So now, my world of self is gradually being dyed in pink.

‘Is my playing right now… very much like Jung Si-woo…?’

It’s fascinating. I destroyed the concept of Jung Siwoo’s performance, yet Jung Siwoo’s performance is still possible.

Since my past self has merged with me, is that why it’s possible? It can’t be. I completely erased everything related to performance from my memories of nearly 20 years. I shouldn’t be able to perform.

However, even now, I can follow Siwoo. I should only be able to follow the performance he showed me, but naturally, all styles of performance come to mind as if I’ve always done them. I don’t know why.

Although the accumulated performance self has been destroyed, the ability to copy remains. So, am I now able to copy even my past self’s performance?

If Yoon Jichang heard this story, he might have said something like, ‘The endless loop may suddenly cause a simulation algorithm to explode…!’ or ‘The world may become entangled, causing causality and order to collapse!’ Of course, that’s the kind of thought Yoon Jichang would have. I was considering a different possibility.

The possibility that Siwoo’s performance self has not been destroyed but still remains within me.

Did I really destroy it? In fact, what I destroyed at that time was something else, and maybe I’m just mistaken.

Even Professor Baek Jung-eon mentioned the word ‘Ban-ha-chak,’ which he used to only say in front of Siwoo, in front of me.

If you look closely, my performance at that time was not completely different from Siwoo’s, but rather implied that it originated from Siwoo’s performance.

A sense of anticipation suddenly rising to the surface of my mind. The hope for a changing future for Siwoo excited me.

‘If it wasn’t completely destroyed but a process of fusion and recreation of the self……’

Even a man obsessed with the piano, who can’t let go of everything he has.

Perhaps, soon we can cross the wall and move into a new territory.

Siwoo lives and breathes inside me, just as the little Min Chaewon we exchanged when we were young lives and breathes inside Siwoo.

‘Wait a minute.’

Could it be… that’s why?

When Siwoo’s heart feels uneasy, the color of his performance fades.

Perhaps, is it because the tiny Min Chaewon wriggles in our hearts due to our relationship?