Chapter 48: Dreaming (6).
While Yoo Yeon Seo was synchronizing her memories and recovering her broken body, the 16th episode of ‘Dreaming’ was aired.
Sihwan realized that his mother in ‘Utopia’ was often found in certain places. Kindergarten, playground, school… All places where children would be.
And every time she saw Sihwan in those places, she secretly wiped away her tears.
“You want to connect to Utopia? Without a subject?”
“Yes.”
“Sihwan, you know it’s dangerous to enter Utopia without a subject, right? Even if it shares the same server…”
“Can you recreate Eunmin’s ideal world?”
Yang Juhee bit her lower lip.
“That’s… possible. Because the data is still there.”
Sihwan lay down on the seat and attached the Utopia connection device to his body. Yang Juhee grabbed his hand anxiously.
“But, you know it’s risky to enter a world that has already ended, right? You might end up drifting…”
“Please.”
Yang Juhee sighed softly and gestured to the staff. The staff helped Sihwan connect to Utopia.
“You know about the bugs lately, right?”
“Yes.”
“Be careful.”
Sihwan searched for Kim Yoonhwa mainly in places where children gathered.
“Mom!”
And after wandering for a few times, he was able to find his mother.
Yang Juhee in reality typed frantically on the keyboard. Sihwan had only a little time left to stay in Utopia.
(Sihwan, the program is weird. There’s no time.)
“I know.”
Kim Yoonhwa knelt on one knee in front of the young Sihwan and brushed his hair.
The grown-up Sihwan stood behind Kim Yoonhwa and spoke softly.
“Mom. Let’s go with me.”
“Sihwan…”
Sihwan turned Kim Yoonhwa around by her shoulder. But Kim Yoonhwa’s gaze was still on the young Sihwan.
Sihwan shook Kim Yoonhwa slightly. His eyes were red. As if he was about to cry.
“Mom, this is not me.”
“My son.”
“Mom!”
Kim Yoonhwa shuddered. The young Sihwan had suddenly frozen as if paused.
“H-how…”
Kim Yoonhwa avoided the gaze of her son who was holding her shoulder. She was ashamed to face her grown-up son.
She had abandoned him to Park Chairman when life was hard. She thought it was a luxury to miss him.
So she escaped to Utopia. She spent her son’s childhood with him, something she couldn’t do in reality.
Then she found out that the real Sihwan was looking for her. She was content with just watching him from afar.
She was sorry for her son who would have to take care of his old mother if she returned to reality.
“I don’t resent you, mom. I don’t think you abandoned me.”
“…”
“So let’s go back and be my real mom. Okay? Not this fake one. Be my real mom. Please?”
Sihwan pleaded with tears in his eyes. His trembling voice sounded desperate.
“Let’s live together for real…”
Kim Yoonhwa’s eyes regained focus. She reached out and touched her son’s cheek.
“Sihwan. My son…”
When Sihwan felt his mother’s warmth and smiled faintly, something went wrong.
“Huh?”
The floor under Sihwan collapsed and a black hand came out of it and swallowed Sihwan.
“Ah, no.”
(No…! Sihwan…!)
Kim Yoonhwa’s trembling voice and Yang Juhee’s scream-like voice were heard.
Sihwan was sucked into the endless darkness and became a ‘drifter’.
‘How many days have passed since I came here?’
Sihwan regained his senses and found himself in his past happy memories.
He ran around recklessly with Park Siwoo, who was the only one who approached him in Park Chairman’s house where he had no place. The memory of playing the piano for the first time and winning a competition…
‘Maybe it’s not so bad to live here…’
Sihwan, who had been agonizing over his dreams and reality, his chairman’s mother and Eunmin’s prognosis, collapsed powerlessly.
“Master.”
And then, Chunbaek appeared.
“Are you going to stay here forever?”
“…Yes.”
“There is no paradise in the place you ran away to.”
“I know.”
Sihwan watched Park Siwoo bragging about his motorcycle from afar. Chunbaek glanced at Park Siwoo and said.
“Do you know what it means to live here forever?”
Sihwan lifted his head and looked at Chunbaek. Sihwan, who had been lost, suddenly came to his senses.
What did I just say? I finally found my mother, but I was lost in the happy memories that the dream showed me…
“You can’t escape even if you know this is not reality.”
“…”
“In this world where there is only false happiness, living without any conflict is not life. You know that.”
“You…”
“As long as the data remains, you can’t even die at will.”
“What are you?”
As Chunbaek spoke, his mechanical expression gradually peeled off and became human.
The director was satisfied with this expression change acting, but Yoo Yeon Seo was not and had to reshoot the scene several times.
Behind Chunbaek, men in black suits and sunglasses gathered one by one. They were bugs that occurred in Utopia.
“Don’t act so out of place, master.”
“Chunbaek.”
“Get out of here.”
Chunbaek summoned a gun and pointed it at Sihwan. He looked like he would shoot at any moment.
“Before I force you out.”
Then the bugs rushed towards Sihwan. Sihwan turned and ran.
‘Where should I go?’
He had no time to think. He had to change his direction and head to another way because of Chunbaek who didn’t stop shooting.
Soon Utopia ended and Sihwan’s memory room appeared.
“Dr. Yang Juhee is so good…”
Chunbaek, who was shooting, twisted his body strangely.
Sihwan took advantage of the gap and distanced himself from the bugs that were chasing him.
(Sihwan!)
“Juhee?”
Yang Juhee in reality was not idle either. She was debugging the program and trying to get Sihwan out, typing frantically on the keyboard.
(The program is rejecting…! There are too many bugs!)
“Hold on!”
(I’ll try to block them as much as I can, so get out quickly!)
Sihwan had a question as he got some leeway.
Chunbaek, the artificial intelligence, was always accurate. He wouldn’t shoot so off-target. Never.
‘He’s luring me.’
To whom?
The answer came right away. At the end of the road he was lured to, Kim Yoonhwa was waiting for Sihwan anxiously.
“Mom!”
“Sihwan!”
Sihwan held Kim Yoonhwa’s hand tightly and reassured her.
“Mom. Let’s go now.”
“Okay.”
Kim Yoonhwa, who confirmed that Sihwan was safe, ascended to the light cluster without hesitation and returned to reality. Sihwan sighed in relief. Now I have to go back to reality too… How do I do that?
“Did you send mother to reality?”
“You…”
Sihwan, who was caught from behind, shuddered.
“Follow me.”
“What?”
“There’s no time.”
Chunbaek grabbed Sihwan’s wrist and led the way. Sihwan, who didn’t know why, tried to break free, thinking it might be another trap of Chunbaek, but Chunbaek was stronger.
“There’s one door left to go to reality. I planted a backdoor… Here it is.”
“What are you?”
Sihwan, who stood in front of the white door, pushed Chunbaek’s hand away and glared at him.
“So, are you done with escaping reality?”
“…Yes.”
“Good. Go ahead. There’s no time.”
Sihwan hesitated for a moment and then sighed in resignation.
“Tell me why. Why did you do this?”
He had no other choice anyway, and he felt that Chunbaek wouldn’t do this without a reason, seeing that he lured him to his mother.
Chunbaek looked at Sihwan for a while and smiled faintly. There were complex emotions in his smile, such as relief and joy.
“You can’t be trapped here too, brother.”
“What?”
“Just go. Live your reality.”
Chunbaek opened the backdoor and pushed Sihwan in. The door closed harshly.
Brother, he said?
Sihwan tried to open the door again, but Chunbaek was blocking it and it wouldn’t open. He banged on the door.
“Hey, you!”
He heard Chunbaek fighting with the bugs outside.
Sihwan rolled his eyes and thought.
[Humans are more absurd than what they imagine. A son abandons a senile parent, a father abandons a child.]
[What will happen to the ‘drifters’ in this world if it’s destroyed? Will they wake up forcibly?]
[You thought well.]
Park Siwoo, who became a lab rat for the ‘Utopia’ project by his father, Chunbaek, who subtly led Sihwan to send the subjects to reality.
[You can’t die at will.]
Park Siwoo, who burned in the fire during the experiment. The researchers assumed that his mind was also extinguished as he had no body to return to in ‘Utopia’. But what if he wasn’t?
What if Park Siwoo’s mind remained as data and became a ‘drifter’ in ‘Utopia’? And he wanted to destroy this world to die, that’s why…
Sihwan grabbed his head and laughed bitterly.
“Ha ha…”
Chunbaek, who blinked his right eye habitually, it was Park Siwoo’s habit when he was young.
Why did I notice this now?
“Siwoo…”
Sihwan lost consciousness after enduring for a long time.
-???
-Wow
-Crazy
-OMG
-Wasn’t there a summary post that Chunbaek=Park Siwoo earlier?
-He dropped the hints blatantly
-Ah Chunbaek??
The scene changed after a brief blackout. A man with black hair was sobbing in a white space.
“Mom!”
It was Park Siwoo, who was trapped in ‘Utopia’.
The person who made a special appearance as Park Siwoo was Park Minwoo, who filmed ‘White Tiger’ with Yoo Yeon Seo. He showed his anxiety by trembling his chin.
“Brother!”
He shouted loudly, but there was no answer.
He wandered around the white space in panic and stared blankly at the huge light cluster that filled one wall.
Then he reached out to the light and was sucked into it. The light expanded greatly and filled the screen with white.
The black-haired Park Siwoo disappeared without a trace.
Instead, the person who appeared there was silver-haired Yoo Yeon Seo,
Chunbaek was born.
Park Siwoo became Chunbaek.
He approached Sihwan to find clues to destroy the program in order to escape from ‘Utopia’.
He thought he could return to reality if he destroyed the program.
[The hospital where he was burned down.]
[They couldn’t even find his remains…]
But when he realized that he had no body to return to, he was frustrated.
He lost his motivation and changed his mind when he saw Sihwan. He couldn’t live here forever.
He caused bugs in ‘Utopia’ on purpose to get out of this world and face a complete death.
“…Why did brother connect again?”
When the destruction of ‘Utopia’ was imminent, a variable occurred.
Sihwan, who connected without a subject, was struggling to find his mother.
There was not much time left to destroy this world, but still… Chunbaek decided to play the villain on purpose to save Sihwan and Kim Yoonhwa.
“Dr. Yang Juhee is so good…”
And in the process, the destruction of ‘Utopia’ became impossible. It was because Yang Juhee’s skill to stabilize ‘Utopia’ was so excellent.
“Dying is out of the question… Ha ha!”
He felt like living here with his brother, but he changed his mind.
Chunbaek pushed Sihwan into the backdoor. He thought it was enough to have himself here.
Sihwan barely returned to reality through the backdoor and fell asleep for several days.
He woke up and got up from his seat, and luckily, his body and mind were fine.
“Utopia was barely stabilized. There were people who were being treated, so we had to preserve their minds.”
“…Yeah. You did well.”
“I’ll be busy stabilizing the server for a while.”
“What happened to Chunbaek?”
Yang Juhee shook her head with a sad expression.
After that, Sihwan sued Park Chairman. He had evidence that he used ‘Utopia’, which was supposed to be for the recovery of the patients, for his own selfish desires.
Naturally, Park Chairman of Garam Global Holdings also faced public criticism. His mother, who was brought out of ‘Utopia’, was receiving tender care from her daughter who didn’t know the situation in a foreign country.
The person who had lived as a vegetable for 10 years and returned to reality opened a restaurant with his family. His expression looked endlessly bright.
Eunmin, who finally realized the absence of his parents, clenched his teeth and devoted himself to rehabilitation therapy. To stand on his own.
(The data is severely damaged.)
Park Chairman lost his authority over ‘Utopia’ at the end of the hearing. ‘Utopia’ was separated and promised transparent operation.
Sihwan became the representative of that place.
As the scenes of the subjects living their own realities one by one appeared, Yang Juhee’s voice narrated.
(It’s impossible to open the file, I can’t recover it…)
(…I see.)
The screen gradually darkened and the scene changed with an alarm sound. It was Sihwan’s bedroom that was seen in the first episode.
Sihwan didn’t have nightmares anymore. He got up from the bed with a light movement, washed in the bathroom, and dried his wet hair with a towel.
“Echo, today’s schedule.”
(Today morning, you have a new employee interview. You have an appointment with Dr. Yang Juhee at lunch. And…)
Echo recited the schedule in a flat voice, and Sihwan, who changed his top, chose a watch and said.
“What’s the weather today?”
The screen focused on the black electronic device on the desk. It was the PPL of ‘Ego’, the artificial intelligence speaker of Juseong Electronics.
“Echo?”
It worked well these days, but it’s broken again… Sihwan sighed softly and tapped the speaker.
“…What?”
Sihwan sighed at the speaker that didn’t seem to turn on and turned around to finish changing his clothes.
He thought he should buy a new speaker.
The screen focused on Echo again, almost obsessively. And suddenly, there was a change in the speaker that didn’t move.
The speaker rebooted with a vibration and a blue light blinked once and twice, then suddenly changed to a white light and blinked once more.
Sihwan, who was changing his clothes, turned his body. His face, which was close-up, opened his eyes wide as if he couldn’t believe it.
All the sounds stopped and only Sihwan’s trembling breathing was heard clearly.
He couldn’t believe it at first, then he felt relieved. And he was so happy that tears welled up in his eyes. When Sihwan smiled brightly…
Dreaming
The drama’s logo appeared and the show ended.
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