The Best of Tomorrow - Chapter 1
Oh, shit. I’m late!
As soon as I got home, I rushed into the room and turned on the radio. When I adjusted the frequency, for a while, I heard a buzzing noise, and shortly after, the sound of a loud laugh came out. Listening to the sound, I sat down in a chair and took off my coat.
– Oh, Mr Seon-jae also joined the company with In-hyuk. What was the most challenging moment for you as a trainee?
I turned up the volume of the radio without taking off my socks. It was time for Seon-jae’s voice to make its entrance.
– Ah…… I…um.
At the wavering voice, which seemed to be unable to remember the past, Baek In-hyuk’s voice interceded.
– You may want to tell us about the Gamgam bridge.
– Oh, right! I lost my wallet that day. I finished practice early in the morning, but when I opened my bag, my wallet was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t have any money on hand, and I couldn’t call home because it was too late at night. So I had to walk. It took me near two hours walking from work to home. It took quite a while. All the bad things came at once. I couldn’t listen to music because my cell phone ran out of battery. It was winter at that time, but unfortunately, I had put on slippers that day, and my toes got frostbite.
I burst into laughter when I heard that his toes were frozen.
– As I passed the Gamgam Bridge, the lights of the buildings reflected in the Han River looked…sad, lonely.
– Seon-jae probably cried that day.
– No, I didn’t cry.
– Then, did you cry in your heart?
Baek In-hyuk and the other members laughed playfully at the question thrown at Seo Yoon-jae’s way. Everyone was laughing, but I felt a little depressed.
This is because I couldn’t hear Seon-jae’s laughter. It was a pity that I could not see his face because it was just a radio, but on the other hand, I felt fortunate that I could not see the upset look he might be having right now.
It has already been two years since Seon-jae joined Potato Pancakes. However, fans still hated Seon-jae. They left comments on various sites and dug up a Twitter account to hunt Seon-jae.
Seon-jae couldn’t help but notice that fans weren’t delighted with him entering the group and that they even cursed him for it. Some fans shouted aloud in public broadcasts and fan signing events and, offensive words such as ‘Ryu Seon-jae, get out!’ ‘Ryu Seon-jae, get out!’ could be heard.
Seon-jae’s face, which had been working hard with a big smile, looked exhausted recently. The deputy accounts, who claimed themselves to be ‘Potato Combat Machines,’ wrote speculative articles about Seon-jae’s expression these days and that they might leave him out of the next album.
[I love you, Seon-jae. You’re beautiful.]
I left a comment on Potato Pancakes’ Instagram, where Seon-jae’s photo was posted.
Of course, it was with my second account. A private account that has no followers and only followed Potato Pancakes’ Instagram.
I ‘liked’ the picture of Seon-jae. With the feeling that I wanted him to know that there are so many people who liked him out here.
***
At dawn, I opened my eyes with a frown, woken up by the annoying vibrations ringing continuously. I felt my hand around and picked up my cell phone to check the cause of the vibration. It was Hyun-joo’s message.
[Shocked.]
[What the?]
[For real?]
[Really?]
[Is this true?]
[Wow. What’s going on?]
Even if I didn’t know what was going on, I was anxious. I hastily closed the message window and opened the Internet window.
<Breaking News> Ryu Seon-jae, a member of the Idol group, ‘Potato Pancakes’, is dead!
Ryu Seon-jae, a member of the Idol group ‘Potato Pancakes’, died of severe drug addiction in the early morning of the 30th.
Earlier, a media outlet reported that Ryu Seon-jae was found collapsed down at a hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, at around 6:30 a.m. on the 30th. He was taken to a hospital but was confirmed dead.
<Breaking News> Ryu Seon-jae’s agency declared that rumors about Ryu Seon-jae, who died because of an overdose of drugs, are ‘groundless rumors’.
Actually, he was suffering from insomnia and had been prescribed sleeping pills for a long time. However, the agency said it was ‘groundless’ about a speculative article that estimated his cause of death as a drug overdose.
On the night of the 28th, in Baek In-hyuk’s V Live, a member of his team, said, ‘Seon-jae is sick from a cold these days,’ raising speculation that he died of shock by taking sleeping pills and other drugs together.
My heart was pounding, and my hands were shaking. I sat up on my bed and searched for three letters ‘Ryu Seon-jae’ on a portal site. My heart was beating like it was going to burst, and tears sprang up. Unbelievable articles with the title breaking news were pouring out.
Teardrops fell over the screen, and my vision dimmed. Without even thinking about wiping my tears with the back of my hand, I pressed the dislike button and commented on malicious comments. Jerks! What kind of trouble did my Seon-jae make? What did Seon-jae ever do wrong?
Feeling that my world had collapsed, I wrote a lot of abusive comments on the unpleasant articles that mentioned Seon-jae. Eventually, Twitter’s deputy accounts blocked me and kicked me out of the fan cafe.
Why are you blocking me?
He is dead.
How can you do this?
I looked at Seon-jae’s poster on the wall. It really seemed as if my whole world was turning upside down. The tears continued to flow endlessly, so I wondered how much water was left in my tear glands.
“No way.”
While looking at the picture of Seon-jae closing his eyes in a reed forest, I leaned my upper body against my bed remembering him, and cried out loud.
***
Due to the agency’s official announcement, Seon-jae’s cause of death was revealed. It was a trauma caused by taking cold medicine and sleeping pills at the same time. More than the agency’s announcement, the article written by the reporter was more detailed. It was like he was writing a novel. He described it in detail as if he had watched Seon-jae’s last night before he died.
Ryu Seon-jae, who had suffered from a sudden loss of energy because of cold and flu, had dinner and went out to his hotel room. As soon as he entered the room, he took a shower. Because he disliked the texture of his shower gown, he wore a large hoodie and shorts, put a cold medicine in his mouth that he bought at a pharmacy, and drank a bottle of potion. Then he poured five sleeping pills into his mouth, which were prescribed to fall asleep immediately. This was the last appearance of 23-year-old Ryu Seon-jae.
The article’s comments were filled with criticisms such as ’Did you see all this, reporter?’. Some commented sarcastically and ridiculously, saying, ‘He didn’t like hotel gowns’. Seon-jae’s fans knew that he didn’t like to wear the hotel shower gowns. This was because he often mentioned through V Live that his skin was sensitive and his hives would start to break out.
– This station is City Hall, City Hall station. The exit door is on the left. For customers who want to go to Cheonan or Soyosan in Incheon, please transfer to Line 1 at this station.
I covered my face with a scarf and bowed my head. My shoulders were shaking because I kept crying. Thoughts about reading an article about Seon-jae in the subway flooded my head, and I placed my cell phone in my pocket.
I shut my eyes tight, which were swollen as a result of crying all night long. More tears dripped down and soaked my scarf.