RAT Chapter 4 (Part 3)

And that evening, while traveling, Park Yeoul’s parents were in an accident.

“…Hyung.”

“……”

This time, Jin Yoorim didn’t tell him to cry.

He didn’t say he’d become his family, either. He wasn’t foolish enough to repeat words that hadn’t worked before.

Instead, like a loyal dog trying to comfort its master, he simply sat at Yeoul’s feet, looking up at his face.

Yeoul motioned weakly for him to come closer.

When he did, Yeoul pulled him into his arms.

The moment Yeoul’s forehead touched his shoulder, Yoorim had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

His shoulders trembled from the rush of joy that surged through him.

Finally, he had the place beside him.

Hiding every trace of emotion, Yoorim spoke stiffly, his voice more formal than usual.

“Hyung, I’ll stay here. Try to sleep a little.”

“…Yeah. Thanks.”

And Yoorim really did watch him the whole time, eyes never leaving Yeoul’s sleeping face.

When he woke up, Yoorim wanted to be the first to speak—to tell him he’d stayed beside him all along.

After only ten minutes or so, Park Yeoul opened his eyes.

“Ah. This is new.”

“…Yeoul hyung?”

Jin Yoorim couldn’t tell whether the feeling in his chest was despair—or joy.

Because “Park Yeoul” had come back.

Park Yeoul of the fourth loop died.

This time, it was a car accident.

They said he was hit by a dump truck whose driver had fallen asleep at the wheel, on his way back from a personal schedule.

The truck slammed into his car from behind, forcing it into the guardrail, and Yeoul—who had been sitting on the inside—took the full brunt of the impact.

Considering that he was the only one who died in that crash, maybe it was just that Park Yeoul had the worst kind of luck imaginable.

Jin Yoorim started over.

The fifth loop—failed.

The sixth—failed.

The seventh—failed.

The eighth—failed.

In the ninth loop, twenty-four-year-old Park Yeoul found it strange to see that Jin Yoorim had grown taller than him, but still ruffled his hair with a smile, saying he looked pretty.

And Jin Yoorim failed again.

The tenth loop—failed.

The eleventh—failed.

The twelfth—failed.

The thirteenth—Park Yeoul clung to Eden and cried. He begged them, saying he could only survive if Jin Yoorim and Eden were together.

Words that made no sense.

Both Eden and Yoorim refused. And immediately after, they failed.

The fourteenth—failed.

The fifteenth—Yoorim pretended to date Eden, just in case. Failed.

The sixteenth—failed.

The seventeenth—failed.

The eighteenth—failed.

The nineteenth—failed.

The twentieth—Park Yeoul was murdered by a stalker again.

Maybe Park Yeoul shouldn’t be an idol at all.

The twenty-first—failed.

The twenty-second—for the first time, he reunited with Park Yeoul immediately. Failed.

The twenty-third—he made plans to stop Yeoul from becoming an idol, no matter what. Failed.

The twenty-fourth—he spent the loop trying to figure out why Park Yeoul wanted to be an idol.

And then he realized—next time, he could make him quit.

The twenty-fifth loop.

Park Yeoul came back.

Yeoul: A pure Korean word meaning a shallow or narrow part of a river or sea where the current flows rapidly. In English, it’s “rapids.”

…And then, there’s Park Yeoul, former leader of D.I.Y.

Guys, sorry for the clickbait title, but please don’t curse me out and just listen to what I have to say.
Today is a really, really important day for me, okay???
There’s something I’ve been preparing for years—basically my whole life—and today’s the day the results come out.

People around me kept saying it was impossible. Even my family said, “Well, if it doesn’t work out, you’ll just give up eventually.”
But I couldn’t. I wanted this too much to quit.

And the only person who ever supported me was Yeoul.

My friend said there wouldn’t be many people since they were a “failed idol,” and asked me to come along. That’s how I ended up going to a music show for the first time—and then even to a mini fan meeting afterward.

At that fan meeting, Yeoul said it was the day his dream had come true, and asked everyone what their dreams were.

To be honest, I’d already given up by that point, so I just smiled and shouted mine for fun. But Yeoul actually heard it.

He looked really surprised and said something quietly to the other members, but most people’s reactions to my dream were the same as always, so I didn’t think much of it.

When he smiled and said he hoped all of our dreams would come true, just like his had because of us—it made me realize, ah, this is why people love idols.

He wasn’t even the best-looking one in the group back then. But the way he looked at fans, the way he leaned in whenever someone spoke—

I don’t know how to describe it. He just was Yeoul.

You know how when water is flowing, you just end up staring at it blankly? That’s what he was like.

My friend told me there was another member who was more my type, but I couldn’t see anyone except Park Yeoul.

We were joking about quitting everything and just following them around when they announced they’d be doing a mini signing event. We lined up, and when it was my turn, Yeoul looked at me and said my dream was amazing.

Since I figured I’d never see them again and there was no way he’d remember me, I told him honestly that I’d given up.

Then he gently took my hand and asked, very carefully, if he could ask why.

I couldn’t say anything. People usually asked when I’d finally stop chasing something impossible—but no one had ever asked why.

He touched my hand again to make me look at him, then smiled.

He said he’d thought about giving up too, but decided to try for just one more year—and that because of that choice, he was able to meet me like this.

So he told me to try for one more year too.

“Just one more year,” he said. “If you think you’ll regret it, don’t stop yet. And… sorry if that sounded arrogant.”

This is the autograph I got that day.

[See you again in a year.JPG]

I asked what he’d do if he ended up disliking me for being arrogant, and he laughed and said, “If your dream comes true, we’ll meet again somehow anyway.”

But I thought, if it could be done in just a year, wouldn’t I have already done it by now?

Honestly, at the time, it felt like a polite answer—nothing special.

But later, my friend told me Yeoul’s parents had passed away before he debuted.

After hearing that, I cried the entire way home.

So I pulled myself together and decided to give it one more year, just like he said. And today’s the day I find out the results.

I can’t report them to Yeoul anymore.

So I just wanted to say this to someone—anyone.

Guys, I really did it. I achieved my dream.

The same people who told me to give up are now congratulating me, saying they knew I’d do it. But all I can think about is how much I miss Yeoul.

Not the people who told me to quit, but the one person who told me to try one more time so I wouldn’t regret it—Yeoul. I miss him so much.

[ParkYeoul_smiling_onstage.JPG]
[ParkYeoul_looking_at_fans.JPG]

↳ Congratulations! But why am I crying…
↳ Same. Me too.
↳ I came here for drama, now I’m a sob story myself… but still, congrats!
↳ Meanwhile, those pictures…
↳ The pictures……………
↳ God, I can’t stop crying.
↳ I kept staring at Yeoul’s eyes in that photo—they sparkle so beautifully. Now I get what people meant when they said they fell for him because of the way he looked at fans.
↳ The way he looked at people—with that face full of love—it just… damn, I’m tearing up again.
↳ And now I’m crying because of this comment; thanks a lot.
↳ “The face that looks at something you love”… ah… why did I discover Yeoul so late…
↳ Same… I found out too late…
↳ Same here…
↳ Same same same… ah…
↳ Congrats!! And wow, I’ve never seen this photo of Yeoul before—it’s so beautiful. Thank you for sharing! Can I save it? There’s no watermark.
↳ (OP) Thanks! Yeah, I took the photo myself. You can use it freely as long as it’s not for commercial use!
↳ Wait—you took that yourself??? It’s stunning.
↳ Congrats!!! And thank you for the photos!!!
↳ I was wondering why a clickbait post like this was trending, and now my eyes are so swollen from crying… I have an interview tomorrow, damn it…
↳ Freeze a spoon! Use a spoon!!
↳ If you’ve got an interview tomorrow, no matter how much you want to cry, just jab your eyes and hold it in; you got this.

↳ㅋㅋㅋ Ah, damn, that cracked me up…
↳ Ah… crying then laughing…
↳ It’s fine! We’re adults!
↳ Hahahahaha no but seriously…
↳ Wow, I just fell completely for him after seeing that photo.
↳ Same.
↳ Damn… me too… hahaha.
↳ Emergency, holy shit…
↳ Yeah same, I was holding it together thinking, “Oh well, at least it ended well,” but then I saw the photo and just burst into tears again.
↳ I went back up to look at the photo after reading the comments and… yeah…
↳ Emergency… emergency… ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
↳ Honestly, I never understood people who said they fell for Park Yeoul later on, you know? It’s not like he was some genius artist or anything. But now, after seeing this photo and reading that story… wow. He was the real deal.
↳ If that kind of thing happened to you, yeah, you’d have no choice. For real.
↳ You’d never forget him for the rest of your life.
↳ And now it’s happened to me too, damn it. I used to be one of those people who didn’t get it, but now I’m already searching his name.
↳ Ah… you said “don’t fall into the river,” but here I am… I got into it late too, seriously…
↳ The more you learn, the harder it gets. Turn back while you can.
↳ I miss Yeoul…
↳ Me too.
↳ I miss you, Yeoul…

↳ Park Yeoul was seriously criminal. Every single self-cam was pure guilt—no escape.
↳ Agreed. Completely guilty.
↳ You said don’t fall into the river… then why make me curious, huhㅠ
↳ Once a stan, always a stan, huh.
↳ Then just watch this one! Don’t go looking for more!
[FlowLikeYeoul.mp4]
↳ Ah.
↳ Wow, can’t believe you brought that one.
↳ .
↳
↳
↳ What’s with the blank comment?
↳ Probably saving the post. But… Yeoul-ah…

↳ I wish this were all just a dream. I wish I could wake up and see Park Yeoul alive, still working as an idol.
↳ With that face and that talent, it honestly made no sense that he never made it big—he should’ve gone half a million sales right from debut.
↳ Sorry… but I’d rather it had been a slow-burn success story. Starting from a failed group but slowly rising, then ending in triumph.
↳ What the hell; are we in dream-fanfic territory now? But even if it is, can we call this a dream?
↳ I don’t care if it’s a dream or not. I just want to see Park Yeoul in person once in my life…
↳ I want to see Yeoul crying after winning first place on a music show so bad…

[Click “View More” to see the next comments.]

To be continued in Volume 2.

Footnotes:

1. A case where a composer sold the same song to two different companies, giving both rights to use it.
2. “Save-scumming”: repeatedly reloading or restarting a game until you get the desired outcome—an exploit.