GIJS

Chapter 92 I'll just trust you.

At the fan's comment that they had found his 'Twitty' account, Gunja tilted his head in confusion.

Gunja roughly knew what Twitty was. Isn't it a social media platform where you can post short messages?

But Gunja had never created an SNS account. Although he had a strong desire to communicate with people, he held back, fearing that he might make a verbal mistake.

However, this fan said they found his SNS account.

Gunja quickly ran through his thoughts. The correct answer was probably one of three possibilities.

First, the fan mistakenly found the wrong account.

Second, someone created an impersonation account.

And third, it was an account used by the 'Yu Gunja' before he was possessed.

"···."

If it's the first case, there's no problem. But if it's the second or third, it's a different story.

If it's an impersonation account, it needs to be found and stopped. If it's the third case, Gunja needs to know the details because he still knew nothing about the original owner of this body, even though several months had passed since he possessed it.

As Gunja fell into brief contemplation, the fan continued to speak.

"But there's nothing posted. It was a private account?"

"A private account?"

"Yeah. What's going on? I'm so curious. I want to know."

"Haha-."

Outwardly, Gunja smiled, but he was actually perplexed. He was just as curious about what information was on that account. For now, he asked the fan to get the account's information for him.

[JaYukoon1215]
This was the username of the account on the SNS. The account Gunja used for Jlive was Yukoonja1215. It was an account created by taking only the date parts of his parents' birthdays, January 12th and April 15th.

Yu Gunja, JaYukoon. The letters were the same, only in a different order.

Seeing it this way, Gunja could somewhat understand why the fan thought [JaYukoon1215] was his account.

"Gunja, what's wrong? Is it an impersonation account?"

"Haha, no. It might be an account I created a long time ago and forgot about."

"Ah-ha."

"Here, please take one."

"Hmm? What's this?"

"It's a mandarin duck, a symbol of love and harmony."

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, it's so cute!"

As soon as the fan received the mandarin duck carving, they turned away, looking excited as if they had forgotten all about the SNS account. But Gunja still felt uneasy.

What kind of person was the original owner of this body?

Honestly, it's something he had always been curious about. He had even asked his parents, but they couldn't give him a clear answer either.

They said that until around the age of fifteen, he was a gentle and obedient child who listened well to his parents. But after that, he slowly became a recluse, and even his parents didn't know much about him during that period.

Of course, Gunja was Gunja. He was a scholar from Joseon, 300 years ago, who loved dancing and singing. But the public couldn't accept that fact. The fans were the same.

Even though the group's concept was set as "a scholar idol from Joseon," fans were still curious.

Not about 'Idol Yu Gunja,' but about what the 'real Yu Gunja' was like.

He often felt it while doing Jlive. When asked about his hobbies, he answered calligraphy and painting insects and plants. But the fans' reactions had a hint of disappointment.

[Not that kind of stuffㅠㅠㅠ] [You don't have to stick to the concept when talking with us!] [We want to know what the real Gunja likes now] [ㅠㅠㅠㅠI kinda hate the company] [Can't they let him be honest during Jliveㅠㅠ]

Of course, not everyone reacted that way. But isn't it always the case that a single negative reaction stands out more than a hundred positive ones?

It was the same during fan signings.

"Gunja, so how did you come up with the scholar concept?"

"Concept?"

"It's so fun and perfect for you, hehe."

"Haha, this isn't a concept."

"Huh?"

"I'm just living the life of a scholar because I was born as one."

"Ah···."

The fan nodded at his answer but had a somewhat dissatisfied expression.

"But at times like this, you can just be honest."

"Pardon?"

"We only have two minutes to talk..."

"Yes?"

"I only have 2 minutes to talk..."

The fan's face clearly showed disappointment as they turned away.

Gunja was confused. Since the audition ended, there had been more opportunities to communicate with fans, making this situation even more perplexing.

Some fans thought Gunja was lying even when he gave honest answers. Although it didn't feel real during live broadcasts, seeing the fan's disappointment in person made it hit harder.

It wasn't that he didn't understand them, but it did bring about concerns.

So, what should he do? Should he lie?

It was a difficult dilemma for Gunja to handle alone. Even though he wanted to embrace the life of the body's previous owner as part of himself, no one remembered that person, which made it frustrating.

However, Gunja always had good friends around to share his worries.

The night after the fan signing event, at the dorm.

For the first time, Gunja opened up to the members about his concerns.

Of course, he didn't tell them everything exactly as it was. Even though they were his colleagues, they wouldn't believe him if he said he had come from the Joseon era.

However, he revealed quite a lot.

He said that he had suffered a brain injury due to a motorcycle accident. As a result, he lost memories from the past few years. And strangely, after the accident, it felt as if a Joseon person's soul had taken over, turning him into a scholar like this.

Even though the story already sounded fantastical enough, the members listened to Gunja's words with serious expressions, perhaps due to his earnest demeanor.

"...Wow, something like that really happened..."

"Honestly, if anyone else had said it, I would have thought it was just a joke."

"But it doesn't sound like a lie when you say it, Scholar Hyung."

"Exactly."

"Actually, I've seen something like that before. A person who hurt their head suddenly started speaking Latin."

"Right. There was also a person who became a math genius all of a sudden."

"Maybe the DNA of the Joseon person lying dormant inside you was awakened?"

"Hmm, that could be it."

"Whoa, if that's true, then Scholar Hyung wasn't just pretending to be in character all this time."

"Yeah. It was too intense to be just an act."

As everyone nodded in agreement, Siwoo approached Gunja and gently tapped him on the shoulder.

"It must have been tough."

"..."

"Everyone thinks you're lying."

"..."

"That's what's bothering you, right?"

Gunja nodded.

He thought this was a problem he had to solve on his own. Unlike Gunja, who came from Joseon, the members were all ordinary people.

However, after sharing his concerns, he felt a bit lighter.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"I thought you wouldn't understand..."

He thought they wouldn't understand, but it wasn't entirely the case.

Hyunjae, who had been resting his chin on his hand, slowly began to speak.

"Hmm, probably not?"

"...?"

"Not now, but I used to have a huge inferiority complex. I wanted to be first in everything, and if I didn't get first place in the trainee evaluations, I'd cry all day. Even though everyone kept telling me I was doing well, I would blame myself and regret everything."

"...Really?"

"I told my trainee friends back then, 'I feel like I'm not doing well, how can I do better?'"

"Hmm."

"But when I shared those worries, they all thought I was being insincere. They'd tell me to stop talking nonsense, like what kind of problems could I possibly have. I was being honest, but people thought I was lying."

"..."

Following Hyunjae, Yuchan also spoke up.

"...Me, too..."

"You too, Yuchan?"

"...I-I used to think I was really ugly..."

"Huh? Hey, Ki Yuchan, that's definitely not true."

"...B-but I really felt that way..."

"Really?"

"...I-I thought I couldn't perform on stage...I even wanted to get plastic surgery..."

"Puhaha, aren't you the same age as Yang Jeongmu? You 17-year-olds are full of problems."

"I bet your friends didn't like you."

"...Yeah...I was bullied at school..."

"Oh dear."

"...I started feeling better after going to therapy...and I got even better after meeting Gunja hyung..."

"You must have had a hard time too."

"...I-I'm fine now...I have great hyungs around me..."

Inhyuk, who was starting to get a little teary-eyed, gently hugged Yuchan. After giving Yuchan a few firm pats on the back, Inhyuk let go and added a word.

"Me too."

"Inhyuk hyung too?"

"I wasn't part of a Mexican gang."

"...Oh, I see."

"I wasn't a secret police officer either."

"Aha..."

"But no one at my high school in LA believed me."

"R-really?"

"They kept asking me to report friends who did drugs..."

"..."

"I got fed up, so I performed a K-POP dance in front of the whole school, but all I got was people saying I was trying too hard to hide my identity."

Hearing Inhyuk's confession for the first time, everyone became somber. Once again, Siwoo quietly approached Inhyuk and patted his shoulder.

"It must have been tough for you too."

"...Yeah..."

Though the forms were slightly different, everyone had similar experiences. They had told the truth, but the world judged it to be a lie.

Because they had been hurt, they admitted they had been living with a bit of deceit.

"So, everyone went through that."

"Yeah. I bet it's common."

Hearing his friends' stories, Gunja felt a bit more at ease.

He felt a little guilty about feeling comforted by hearing about his friends' struggles.

This wasn't about taking joy in someone else's misfortune. It was about finding solace in having comrades with whom he could share anything.

"Hey, so stop bottling things up and just tell us everything. Got it?"

"...Yeah, thanks."

"If you hadn't told us, we wouldn't have known. We'd have thought you were just sticking to a concept all along. Honestly, it's pretty unrealistic, but..."

Taewoong scratched his head as he said that.

"Whatever, I'm just going to believe you. That's the simplest."

"...Me too, I believe in you, Gunja hyung..."

"I've been a Gunja believer from the start. My religion is Yu Gunja."

"Haha, Ji Hyunsu, you're such a cultist~"

It was a long conversation, but the conclusion was simple.

First, they decided to share any worries they had with each other from now on.

Second, they agreed to find out who Gunja was during the time he lost his memory.

Just in time, Gunja's private SNS surfaced.

There was an old laptop at the main house. It was probably the one originally used by the body's former owner, Yu Gunja.

After unlocking it using fingerprint recognition, he logged into Twitty. The website showed the account name that the original owner had saved.

[JaYukoon1215]

"!"

As expected, the account the fan found was indeed the one used by the body's original owner!

If he accessed this account, he could probably learn a lot. Even things about Gunja's past that his parents couldn't tell him.

With his heart pounding, Gunja moved the cursor to the password field.