MULTIVERSE | ATEEZ & XIKERS

Left eye 2| Chapter 17

They found Yun Ho and Min Gi in a nearby café. Thanks to the music Jong Ho had prepared beforehand, they were able to woke them up without much trouble. This once again confirmed that it was the members, not Sopro, who were reacting to memories of World Z These "shored memories" are what freed the members from Sopro's control. It would seem that the memories of people close to them awoke emotions buried in their unconscious that fragmented Sopro's control and allowed them to break free.
As soon as the members left the recording studio, they understood why Min Gi had hidden his social media posts. The people who had been sad, crying, and drained by despair were now standing awkwardly, hugging their arms as if insecure in themselves. They were flushed from head to toe Bike Red Humans of World Z and they scurried out of sight like stray cats. They hid behind cars, trees, and buildings, and only stepped out into the open after carefully peering outside. They walked fast, and when they ran into another person, they would let out a small scream and then fide again. It must have been because of this "embarrassment that people began deleting their social media posts. Photos of themselves at the gym, photos proudly taken after passing an exam, selfies photoshopped to be prettier than real-life, posts sharing snapshots of delicious food. The people were embarrassed by these expressions of themselves and either hid or deleted their posts, or deactivated their accounts altogether.

The café Yun Ho and Min Gi were in wasn't far from Jong Ho's recording studio, but it had been surprisingly hard for the other members to find them. At each café the members visited, people were hiding. And so, like playing a game of hide-and-seek, they had to find the people hiding in the café and check them one by one. They found Min Gi first, stomping his feet and hiding behind a sign, embarrassed at all his pictures visible around town. Then they found Yun Ho hiding under a café table.

Hong Joong "It looks like it learned a new emotion...which means it must have also moved to a new person."

Once again, Woo Young had to confess that he had awoken Sopro, and Min Gi and Yun Ho, now aware of the situation after hearing the whole story, turned serious. They had to find Sopro quickly before things got out of hand.

Yun Ho "It feels like something just changed slightly. Do you think it could have moved from 'embarrassment' and onto someone else?"

Come to think of it, the air inside the café had changed. Up until the moment they found Yun Ho and Min Gi. the people's embarrassment had a spoonful of curiosity' mixed in it, as well Now, it had turned into something different than the kind of shy embarrassment you get when you accidentally make eye contact with your crush. The people's faces had turned red, and their breathing had grown heavier. They bit their lips and clenched their fists, looking like they were desperately holding back the urge to run away. It was on emotion that looked like 'embarrassment,' but with an undertone of restraint. What was it called again... Oh! That's right!

Woo Young
"Shame"

That was it. The people were now ashamed.

I feel like I'm dying. I'm so sad. Depressed. Why is this only happening to me? What the hell did I do wrong? It's so painful. It's too hard. I'm lonely. How am I supposed to keep on living like this from now on? I sank into despair and endlessly poured out painful thoughts. Sadness." The feeling of it was so overwhelming that I was at a loss. It was the first time I had experienced sadness. Back when I was alone in that world for so long had I been sad then, too? Had I been lonely, depressed, and distressed? Not once had I thought I was sad back then. Because I had never learned how to feel sad in the first place. But now I feel sad when I think of myself back then.
Upon entering the body I chose, I fell into a deep sea. I wanted to escape this body as fast as I could, but I couldn't find the way out no matter how much I swam. I was suffocating and in pain. I didn't know what 'death' meant for me, but I felt like I truly was going to die. When I struggled to breathe, my body began to shed tears. It wailed as it cried. Then, strangely, the water in the sea where I was drowning began to decrease. Little by little, slowly. The sea of sadness receded like the tide. As the water level went down, I began to see the surface beyond the sea. Light poured in. Maybe to cry is to let the sadness out, like opening a faucet. I thought that if I stayed there any longer. I would surely drown, so I quickly swam out toward the light.
I escaped that body and looked around. I could see a river-It was the Han River. Its water glistened in the scattered sunlight. The river looked like a huge, long dragon. I flew low and lightly touched the dragon's scales. The scales created small ripples, which disappeared and then reappeared. Then, from the other side of the river, I heard a woman laughing. It was a different kind of sound from excited, joyful laughter. I grew curious. I moved in the direction of the woman's laugh.