Wait for me

Chapter 5 - A Story About Us

Narrated by Chanwoo

I got a last-minute call to film a perfume commercial. I'm so tired; I just want a day off to play video games. But I don't think I'll get one anytime soon. We're in a big mess, and I don't know how I'll concentrate on it if the agency keeps calling me to act.

I arrive at the recording location, it's a park, it smells strongly of perfume, and there are many girls too.

"Hi, Chanwoo, we're glad you came. I know it's last minute, we were going to do this tomorrow, but the sooner the better, right?" a woman tells me. "What you have to do is lie down on the edge of the fountain, pick up the perfume from the ground, spray it wherever you like, and then wait a few seconds. Those girls are going to start chasing you, and you go to the opposite side"—she points to the right side.

-And why are they going to persecute me?

Didn't your manager explain it to you?

"No... I don't remember very well, could you refresh my memory?" he asked, feigning innocence.

-Of course, the perfume is called blind love, so when you spray it on them they fall in love with you, oh and you have to wear bum clothes- he hands me a change of clothes, with an old and dirty appearance.

"Who would throw perfume on the floor?" I ask, confused. This commercial doesn't make much sense.

"That doesn't matter, the viewers will only notice you, they love you, just act, smile and be handsome as always," he winks at me and turns around to talk to a cameraman.

"Being handsome as always?" I muttered in a bad mood, walked towards the changing room trailer and went inside. I changed slowly and finally sat down in a chair looking at the floor.

I miss you, Hyungs, I need you. The last moment we spent together comes to mind; we were drinking, laughing, talking, dancing. What went wrong with that? A knock on the door pulls me from my thoughts.

"Yes?" I reply listlessly.

"It's time, Chanwoo," says the same woman from earlier. I close my eyes. This has to be done. She's right. The sooner the better. I'll be with Jinhwan and June soon. I leave the dressing room and give the woman a smile. Then I do as she says: I lie down on the edge of the fountain and wait for them to start filming.

"Action!" a man's voice shouts. I slowly get up and stand, then turn towards the perfume, bend down and pick it up, spraying a little on my neck. Then I hear the girls screaming to my left, I open my eyes in surprise and start running to the opposite side.

"Cut and stay!" shouts the same voice.

"You did a great job, Chanwoo," the woman congratulates me. "You can leave now, if you'd like."

"Is that all?" I asked, relieved. "It was just one take."

"You do an excellent job," he nods, then leaves me alone.

"Come on, we have to go back to the agency," the manager tells me, grabbing my arm.

-Why?- I follow him to the car.

"We need to review tomorrow's schedules," he replies, opens the back door of the car for me, and I get in. This might take all day. I take out my phone and send Jinhwan a message.

(...)

It's around 5:00 PM, I'm exhausted, I say goodbye to the manager and leave the agency eager to get to my apartment. Then I see some guards holding someone from behind.

-Let me go, I already told you I'm Yunhyeong from iKON

"I don't know what the hell iKON is!" shouts one of the guards.

-It's a music group, we're from YG, please, I need to see Chanwoo, I was told he works here, he, he's a member of our group, iKON, PLEASE- he exclaims, then they throw him to the ground.

"Leave peacefully or we'll call the police," they threaten. Yunhyeong gets up from the ground again and makes a vain attempt to get past the guards.

"We already told you to leave!" they shout in unison. I run over and stop them from throwing him to the ground again.

"Stop, he's a friend of mine, stop it!" I shout, stepping between them.

Are you sure? He seems like a person with mental health issues.

"I'm sure everything he said is true, just leave him alone," I warn them, glaring at them. I put an arm around my Hyung's shoulders and pull him away.

-It's good to see you. I woke up today and everything seemed so strange. I'm living on the second floor of a restaurant, and I don't know when that happened. Do you know what's going on? And why do you work here?

"I'll explain, but we need to get to my apartment," I tell him, and we stop in front of my car.

"Since when do you have a car?" he asks, even more confused.

"Since yesterday morning," I reply, laughing. "I'm just as confused as you are, hyung."

"I just don't understand it. I admit I was happy to know I have a small restaurant, but I feel like something horrible is happening," he says, rubbing his left arm.

"What's wrong?" I ask, taking his arm and lifting the sleeve of his shirt. It looks like he got a scratch when they threw him to the ground. "I'm sorry, Hyung," I apologize. "I should have gotten here sooner so you wouldn't have hurt yourself," he sighs angrily.

-It's okay, it's nothing serious, it'll pass- he pats me on the back.

-Okay, let's go quickly to the apartment so we can talk and get that fixed.

When we arrived at the apartment, we found June lying on the couch. I looked for Jinhwan but couldn't find him.

"Where is Jinhwan?" Yunhyeong asks from beside me.

"I was here, June, where are you?" I go to the bathroom and get the first aid kit. I tell Yunhyeong to sit down and he does, then I start treating his arm wound.

"He's locked in your room," June replies, getting up from the couch. "You're the chef," he says to Yunhyeong. "Nice to meet you, I'm Junhoe," he introduces himself.

"I know who you are, you fool," Yunhyeong laughs. "There you are, Jinhwan, or don't you know who I am either?" he asks sarcastically.

"I know who you are, I'm glad to see you," Hyung said, leaving the room, impressed to see our friend. "But how did you find us? How did you recover your memories? How long ago?"

"Well, first I went to YG and they told me they didn't know who I was, they kicked me out. Then I went to the agency where Chanwoo apparently works and they almost kicked me out until he showed up and saved me"—she looks at me with a smile—"And well, I don't know what you mean by memories, but today when I woke up, everything was different."

"That means the others could recover their memories, right?" Jinhwan asked, surprised and excited.

"I'll explain, Hyung. We've been waking up in this crazy, different world, where we're not iKON, where we have other professions, and we're trying to figure out what's going on," I tell him.

"Another world? Where are the others?" he asks. I finally finish healing him.

"Yes, we're in a parallel world, completely different, and we haven't found the others yet," Jinhwan replies. "But hopefully, soon everyone will remember who they are and come looking for us."

"What if not?" Yunhyeong worries.

The four of us will have to figure out what's going on.

-Aren't we going to look for them?

"Now that there's a possibility they can be themselves again, I think we should look for them, don't you?" I ask them.

"Maybe they should, they already know where Donghyuk is," June reminds us.

-What do you mean, "Donghyuk"? Since when do you call him that?

"I'm not the June you know," he clarifies in a bored voice.

-Oh, I see? But... I'm still glad to see you

"I feel the same way, even though I don't know you," she smiles broadly. "Wait a minute, they recovered their memories on different days, maybe the same thing will happen tomorrow," she suggests, taking out her small notebook and writing something down.

"What are you doing?" Yunhyeong asks me.

I think she's writing a story about us.