GCSA CH 02

CHAPTER 02

My heart pounded like it had gone mad. My legs felt glued to the floor.

Moon Arin leaned against the doorway, smiling leisurely.

“…Why.”

Even to myself, my voice sounded terrible. I barely managed to speak.

“Why did you do it?”

Moon Arin gave a small shrug, as if to say, So what?

I kept going.

“This. It’s my song.”

“……”

“And not just this! This one, and this too! They’re all my songs…!”

My voice cracked harshly.

After losing my hearing, I hardly ever spoke at length. But this time, I couldn’t hold it in.

“And this medicine. Ever since you gave it to me, calling it a supplement, my hearing started getting worse!”

I grabbed the bottle and threw it.

Whoosh!

Moon Arin simply tilted her head slightly and avoided it with ease.

“Am I wrong? Say something!”

She slowly raised her head. I thought she would at least apologize. Or make some excuse about a misunderstanding.

Instead of apologizing, she smirked. I could clearly read her lips.

“I thought it was something serious.”

“…What?”

“Seol. Please, use your brain. Though, you’ve always been like this since we were kids.”

She spoke casually, fiddling with the tip of her nails.

“So? What are you going to do about it? What do you want?”

“Is that all you have to say? You made me lose my hearing and stole my songs!”

“And I fed you, clothed you, and gave you a place to sleep. Out of the bare minimum of conscience.”

She giggled playfully.

Her face felt unfamiliar.

Was this really the Moon Arin I knew? Or someone else wearing the same face?

The thought was so absurd, yet I couldn’t shake it.

“Seol. What’s wrong?”

But the slight curl of her lips proved this was reality.

“I’m Arin. Your one and only friend, Moon Arin. What’s the big deal over a few songs?”

Her tone was shameless.

“What are you going to do now? Can you even survive without me? You can’t hear. How are you going to make a living?”

“……”

“Oh, composer? Do you think songs just sell themselves? No matter how good your music is, if you sell it, it won’t sell at all. Who would trust you enough to buy it?”

Her baseless insults flowed without hesitation.

Before, I might have wavered and thought, Maybe she’s right.

Only now did I realize it was all nonsense.

I hid my trembling hands behind my back and said,

“…I’ll reveal everything. That they were my songs.”

“Do you have proof?”

“I do. My laptop.”

All the work dates and creation logs were recorded there. They would predate any of her records.

“I’ll give it to the reporters. I’ll expose everything!”

At that moment, her eyes changed.

Like a wolf whose fur bristled at the back of its neck, ready to bite.

“Do whatever you want. The copyrights are already registered, so it won’t change much.”

“You…!”

“And Seol.”

Two steps.

She strode forward until we were face to face.

Her smile disappeared. Her expression hardened. I had never seen her like this.

“Your life right now isn’t so bad, is it? You just write songs, and I handle all the annoying public stuff. It’s division of labor.”

She grabbed my wrist tightly.

“Let go!”

“You’ve been fine with it until now.”

“I said let go!”

“What’s your problem?”

No matter how I struggled, I couldn’t break free.

We pushed and grabbed at each other, our bodies colliding roughly.

Before I knew it, we were grappling, breathing heavily.

“Let go!”

When she finally released my wrist, I thought, Finally.

But the moment I saw her chillingly blank expression, I realized I had flipped another bad card.

Thud.

She shoved my shoulder.

I tumbled backward.

Crash!

A musty smell of dust filled the air.

“Ugh!”

When I managed to open my eyes, the backlight hid her face. Only then did I realize where I was.

The basement storage room.

I felt something wet spreading across my head. Blood.

My vision blurred and spun from the impact.

“W-Wait.”

Even through the haze, I could see her approaching.

I staggered backward.

“Arin. Moon Arin!”

In her hand was a golf club.

A cold sensation ran down my spine.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Seol. We were doing so well.”

She smiled sweetly, blaming me. The gleam in her eyes made my skin crawl.

“A-Are you trying to kill me? Really?”

“Hmm. I thought about it. I don’t think it matters.”

Her face looked the same as always.

“You’ve already made plenty of songs. Even if I retire now, I can live comfortably for the rest of my life.”

“The police will catch you!”

“I doubt it.”

She burst into laughter.

“You don’t have family. You don’t even have friends you keep in touch with. If you die, no one will know. How would the police ever find me?”

I was speechless.

“Even if someone notices something strange, it’ll just end as a missing person report. No body, no case.”

This basement was a space only she and I knew about.

Without clear evidence, there would be no search warrant. And she would never voluntarily open this door.

In that moment, I saw a distant future.

My flesh eaten away by rats and insects, leaving only white bones.

No.

That couldn’t happen.

“S-Save me. Arin. Please…”

I begged, flailing my hands.

Her lips stretched into a wide grin.

“You just have to keep your mouth shut.”

“A-Arin.”

“Then no one will ever know.”

“Please! Don’t do this. Not like this…!”

Before my final plea could even finish—

Thud!

A heavy blow struck my head.

My vision shattered, then went completely black.

The smell of blood mixed with the cold scent of the basement.

And then—

Even the pain faded.

Everything that had tormented me was finally leaving me behind.

My body grew heavy. My breathing shallow.

Without even being able to close my eyes,

I died like that.

***

[ SYSTEM : ALERT! ]

Abnormal death detected! Searching for cause.

Target: Yoon Seol

Cause of death: Searching

[ SYSTEM : WARNING ]

“Downfall by Betrayal” ending – Does not match scheduled ending.

Error Code: #BTR-FAIL-041

[ SYSTEM : NOTICE ]

Restoring error…

Synchronization complete!

[ SYSTEM : ERROR ]

Abnormal termination: Not the scheduled time of death.

Rebooting backup file.

Regression point: 10 years ago

***

I slowly lifted my eyelids.

A strong light pierced my eyes.

For a moment, I squinted like someone seeing sunlight for the first time in years.

I blinked twice. Three times.

The surroundings came into focus.

Warm sunlight poured through wide windows. A cool breeze brushed my cheek, and the faint smell of a heater tickled my nose.

‘Where… is this?’

Then I realized.

It was a café I used to visit often in college. The place where Moon Arin worked part-time.

Right. Moon Arin.

The memory struck like lightning.

The struggle. The fall. The cold basement. The dull pain of the blow to my head.

In my final moments, only one thing filled my mind.

Revenge against Moon Arin.

Hatred for the traitor who mocked me, stole my songs and fame, and finally took my life.

But if I already died, how could I get revenge? Was this the end?

‘Is this… the afterlife? Or just a flash before death?’

Why this café of all places? I hadn’t been here once after I dropped out.

I lowered my head and saw a phone.

“Wow.”

It looked unbelievably outdated. I picked it up instinctively, and the screen lit up with the date and time.

“Huh?”

My breath caught.

The year displayed was from ten years ago.

“What is this?”

It made no sense.

Just then—

“Ah!”

I grabbed my ears and bent forward.

The clinking of coffee cups. Music playing in the café. People chatting and laughing.

Every sound pierced my ears clearly.

‘I can hear.’

The dull sensation from memory was now overwhelming in its clarity.

Then glowing text appeared in midair.

[ SYSTEM : NOTICE ]

Emergency regression procedure complete!

Target: Yoon Seol

Error Code: #BTR-FAIL-041

…What is this now?