It was the worst-case scenario.
If she continued to try to stimulate her lost mories through my existence, perhaps her forgotten mories would begin to resurface.
It hadn’t been unforeseen.
To survive, I had boldly used the settings of the original work, but concerns about the long-term consequences lood in my mind. I had just hoped it wouldn’t co to fruition.
But to think that her mories would start to co back so swiftly in just a few days.
“Ah, I see. Sotis mories from our childhood return unexpectedly. Do you recall anything else?”
Rather than figuring out the best way to handle this abrupt situation, I chose to watch and wait for now.
How much do you rember? Spill everything quickly.
“I heard a voice in my dream.”
“A voice?”
“The voice of a mother, wiping my sweat and holding my hand, full of concern.”
She placed her hand over her heart, as though she were trying to imprint this newfound mory deeply within herself.
That’s what all parents did when their children were sick. I even perford my brotherly duties just last night.
I still didn’t have enough information.
If I pretended to know and it differed from her mory, I would quickly be reduced to pieces of Kang Yun-ho.
Was there more? Tell if there was.
My mouth felt dry.
As I waited for her to continue, she spoke again.
“I heard a voice outside. A young boy’s voice.”
No, why! Why did she have to hear that voice! She should have fixated on the mother’s voice!
This was not good.
The owner of that voice was definitely not . If she saw the face of the voice’s owner in her dream, she might start to doubt .
‘You said we were close, so why is there a different boy in my dream?’
What should I say?
‘Sohee, have you been playing the field since you were young? Are you confessing now? No wonder you don’t rember . To you, I was just another guy in the background.’
Saying that would have crawling on all fours starting tomorrow.
Let’s put a contingency plan in place quickly.
“I can’t rember exactly when, but there was a ti when Sohee was ill, and I visited her. Perhaps the brother in your dream was ?”
If the dream wasn’t clear, I’d claim it was .
If she claid it was soone else, I’d suggest that Cheon Sohee also played with other boys.
Sohee, in truth, I was your second choice.
“I couldn’t see the face. I just heard the voice.”
“What did it say?”
“From outside the door, a boy’s voice expressed concern, ‘Is Sohee okay? Please let see Sohee.’”
Huh?
Could it have been this?
“It must have been in the dream. I brought candy when Sohee was unwell. I wanted to give it to her to make her feel better.”
I smiled calmly, reminiscing with a nostalgic tone.
“I think I heard sothing about bringing sothing… But I can’t recall anything beyond that.”
Cheon Sohee furrowed her brow slightly, as though she was trying to rember the dream once more, but she seed unable to do so.
“I was worried about Sohee all night when she was sick and brought candy the next day, hoping it would help her recover her strength.”
“I don’t rember.”
Cheon Sohee slowly shook her head, then quietly closed her eyes, resting her hand on her chest as she treasured the fragnts of mory she had managed to reclaim.
I watched her closed eyes, feeling a sense of pride.
I had aged ten years in a single mont.
I never expected she would construct a mory.
Cheon Sohee, that’s not your mory.
The mory I told you about before you went to sleep was a fabricated one.
‘It wasn’t a recovered mory, but a lucid dream.’
I never anticipated she would create a mory.
The dream she had was likely a kind of lucid dream.
Just like a child who watched a horror movie before bed and then dreamt of the murderer they saw in the film.
Or, akin to college student Kang who obsessed over an idol group, watching their music videos and fancams all week, only to dream about that idol.
Overwheld with emotion, I couldn’t believe that such dreamlike events were happening to . With just one word, I nearly reached the end, then awoke, crying out in despair.
The Heavenly Death Star experienced such a vivid dream.
Last night, she was bound with a strange rope, which must have weakened her ntally. As a result, the fake mory I ntioned while she was half-asleep infiltrated her solid mind.
After hearing my story and falling asleep directly afterward, she dreamt a dream influenced by my actions and words.
My gestures of wiping her sweat and holding her hand must have transford into her mother’s touch, and the story I spoke of into the voice of a young child.
Had it been soone else, they would have dismissed it as just a dream, asserting that no such mory existed. But she, having no mory of her own, mistook even a simple dream for a forgotten past.
I feared it was a major crisis, but it proved to be a significant gain.
“It seems like I’m finally rembering my real brother.”
Her eyes closed for a while, she spoke, savoring the mory.
I couldn’t miss this chance.
Kang Yun-ho was Cheon Sohee’s brother.
It was ti to make my mark.
“I only heard a voice. And you got the candy wrong, too.”
This woman, always so contrary.
It wasn’t wrong. She just didn’t rember it.
Couldn’t she just accept it already?
Had I not ntioned candy before bed but instead rose tteokbokki, would her mory have sparked?
“Sigh. So.”
I let out a deliberate sigh to express my frustration.
“But.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you. For helping rember.”
Unexpectedly, she bowed her head in gratitude—her first words of thanks to .
“No, Sohee, you don’t need to thank .”
Flustered, I watched as The Heavenly Death Star raised her head once more.
“Keep this with you from now on.”
Cheon Sohee offered the rope that lay beside her.
“Sohee, this is ant for your use.”
Why should I keep such an irritating object? I waved my hand dismissively to signal my refusal.
“I’ll only use it when I’m with you.”
“Huh.”
Do you want to live? Keep it to yourself. I find it botherso. Was that what she was saying?
“Keep it until your mories of return.”
“I wish your mories of would return quickly.”
I reached out for the rope with a reluctant expression, making a comnt I didn’t an.
“ too… I wish that too.”
Cheon Sohee handed the black rope, looking up not at my hand but at my face.
Was it an illusion because of the dazzling morning sun?
For so reason, her smile, beaming with the joy of finding precious mories…
It seed as if it was smiling at .
Ti passed since then.
Cheon Sohee’s gaze toward softened considerably after the day she was tied with the black rope.
The fake mory must have caused so emotional changes in her heart.
I wondered if deepening the fake mory with the black rope could lead to a dramatic improvent in our relationship. I tried it a few tis, subtly, but soon stopped.
Unlike the first day when she was tied up, there was no effect from the next day as she was not ntally disoriented. Plus, there was the fear that continuing might actually trigger her real past mories.
Honestly, it was a bit disappointing.
If it were possible, I would have added clichés like promising to enter Sungkyunkwan together when we grew up, saying she would be happy, or changing the sad ending of Sohee’s story to a happy one and exchanging a token of promise.
Although just one fake mory had a good effect.
Since that day, she still had so wariness toward , but she wasn’t as sharp in every matter.
As we spent more ti together, there was a slight change in our relationship.
“Yunho, order this.”
“Yunho, follow .”
Cheon Sohee’s way of calling was promoted from ‘you’ to ‘Yunho’.
She still didn’t acknowledge as her childhood friend, but there must have been sothing uncomfortable about continuously calling ‘you’.
Thanks to the improved relationship, the tension had eased, and it was no longer like walking on a tightrope every day.
“The Joseon storyteller is here!”
“Here to listen again!”
“Hurry up and get up there!”
As my relationship with her improved, my work as a storyteller beca smoother.
Though it wasn’t the huge success of the first few days, it had settled into a stable routine without major setbacks.
It seed there would be no need to return to the shabby hut where rain leaked in and mice scurried over my head as I slept.
During one of my storytelling sessions, an interesting event unfolded.
“Storyteller, you’re handso up close. Take this.”
A beautiful woman clad in silk garnts complinted Hamurin’s tale and handed money.
“Co to my side every ti you co down.”
The woman flashed a flirtatious smile and pressed more money into my hand as I was about to go back to the stage.
There was no reason to decline.
“You speak well.”
“You’re tall.”
“Your body looks impressive up close.”
Her whispers were audible to , even though they were soft.
The woman continued to lavish with flattering comnts, and since she also continued to offer money, I had no reason to refuse and accepted it each ti I ca down.
“That’s all for today’s story. Thank you!”
“Wowwww!”
“That was fun!”
After finishing the story and acknowledging the audience, I stepped off the stage.
‘Where is Sohee?’
Finding her was always a challenge since she vanished every ti.
“Young Master.”
While I was searching for Cheon Sohee, the beautiful woman who had spoken to earlier approached.
“Ah! You were the one who complinted earlier. What can I do for you?”
Being addressed as ‘Young Master’, a title I seldom heard as a Joseon, often being mistaken for a Goryeo servant, was quite gratifying.
Although she wasn’t as stunning as Cheon Sohee, the fact that such a beauty showed interest in prompted to reply with a smile.
“Could you perhaps tell today’s story at my house?”
The woman invited with the sa smiling eyes she had before.
“Ah! Are you inviting to a feast as a storyteller?”
Was there a feast at so rich family’s house? Performing for a wealthy household would have been a great welco.
“No.”
The woman suddenly ca right in front of , close enough to embrace if I stretched out my arms.
Maybe it was because of the height difference, with my head being a whole head taller. A pleasant scent of perfu wafted from her head.
“What?”
“Hehe. I wanted to invite you for a personal reason.”
The woman gave a seductive smile and then gently scratched my chest with her finger. The feeling of her fingernail grazing my chest was strangely pleasant.
Oh.
Was this, by any chance, what I thought it was?
“Miss, if it’s because you have elderly parents who need…”
No, snap out of it. Such good things didn’t happen so easily.
No matter how seductive a woman seed, to , they were all decent and modest ladies.
She then placed her finger on my lips, which had been tracing my chest.
“You’re cute. But, I don’t have parents.”
Really. Was it that?
Such a thing was happening to ?
“Miss, you’re giving the wrong idea.”
It was the first ti in my life to et a woman who pulled in so aggressively right from the start, and it was confusing.
“It’s not a misunderstanding… Hehe. If it’s too much, how about dinner with ?”
Dinner sounded good.
Instantly, I envisioned the first step towards dating, marriage, and even parenting with this beauty.
First, choose a nice place with a quiet ambiance for dinner, order food that doesn’t make much noise, start with light jokes, and then begin the first step of getting to know each other.
If the mood was still good, then it was ti for a second round.
Intentionally choose a place with dim lighting, have a drink, a touch, another drink, maybe a waist grab,
And if the mood was really ripe…
“Yunho. What are you doing right now?”
My pleasant fantasy shattered with the cold voice that ca from behind.
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