Pen and Paper Translations

Before dying, he longed for another chance.

Perhaps that’s why, even though he was sure he had died, it seemed he was alive again.

But… why is this random droplet of water talking to him?

“Am I actually alive, or just crazy?”

Rowoon was surprisingly calm about it.

He had hit his head hard when he fell down the stairs, so delusions were possible.

“But if I’m just seeing things, then what on earth is all this?”

---

[Welcome, user ‘Lee Rowoon’!]

[The heavens, moved by your devotion, perceive your sincerity!]

[Your earnest wish awakens a new divinity!]

[‘Cheong-Hwa’ has been assigned as your guardian!]

With another ding!, a translucent window popped up before his eyes.

Just then, the droplet began to quiver and complain:

[Argh, this outdated system! Why are the notifications popping up later than I do? I kept saying we need an upgrade, but do they listen? No! It’s not like I’m doing this just for me, geez!]

Connection…? Guardian…?

It looked like this new “second chance” was going to be dramatic from the start.

Remaining relatively composed, Rowoon scanned the windows—but before he could fully process them, there was a sudden commotion from another direction.

“Hey, Rowoon? Rowoon! Why are you just sitting there silently when you’re awake? Rowoon! You okay? Do you recognize me?”

The person speaking seemed alarmed by Rowoon’s blank stare into space.

But first…

“Who are you?”

He had vowed, just moments ago, not to bottle up his questions or hold himself back anymore.

It was strange that someone he’d never seen before was acting so close to him.

So he asked directly… and—

“Gasp! D-Doctor! Doctor! Something’s wrong with our Rowoon!”

The man grabbed his chest and cried out like he was having a heart attack.

Hearing the shout, a middle-aged man, who smelled faintly of disinfectant and looked rather stern, approached.

“You’re sure he’s not fatally ill, right? Could this just be some temporary memory confusion because of all the drinking?”

Ignoring the younger man’s panicked behavior, the older one calmly examined Rowoon from head to toe.

He flipped Rowoon’s eyelids, asked a few questions, inspected his head carefully, and even had him stand and walk. Rowoon did everything he was asked without complaint.

After a while, the man seemed deep in thought, then finally brought over a small mirror.

He handed it to Rowoon.

“…?”

Rowoon, bewildered by the reflection, heard the man’s diagnosis:

“I can’t be certain, but right now the most likely condition is…”

“What is it…?”

“Amnesia.”

“Amnesia…?!”

Their exchange was like a skit.

“D-Doctor, he’s not going to die, right?”

“As far as I know, no one dies directly from amnesia.”

“Will his memory come back?”

“In cases of short-term memory loss, it often returns on its own. For now, focus on letting him rest. A thorough examination at the clinic would be best.”

“Ohh, oh no! This is the kind of thing that only happens in dramas! I kept telling him not to hang around those people! I told him to stop going to those parties! He never listens! Aaahhh!”

While the two of them continued their anguished conversation, Rowoon heard none of it.

Still holding the mirror, he thought:

What’s going on?

This… beautiful creature…?

“Is that… me?”

He studied the mirror like someone who’d just gotten a complete makeover from head to toe.

Reflected there was a man who was more pretty than handsome, with a slightly frail, sharp look. He seemed a bit worn out and delicate.

As he gingerly touched his face in the mirror, Rowoon noticed something else.

“Wow… my hands are so smooth?”

His nails were perfectly trimmed and gleaming, without a single chip.
His skin was flawless—no calluses or scars, just silky smooth.

His long lashes fluttered each time he blinked, like little fans.

“Since I almost died, did my body somehow change?”

Someone else answered that question. It was the little droplet that had been circling him.

[Ahem. So, what do you think? Do you like it? This body is something I painstakingly sculpted. It has finally returned to its rightful owner—you. Originally, it was— Gah!]

The droplet twitched suddenly, like it had been shocked by electricity.

[What, that tiny hint is considered a breach of cosmic secrecy? These stiff old fogeys, no sense of flexibility at all!]

It sizzled and flared all on its own before continuing:

[Anyway, from now on, that body is yours. Hrmph.]

Listening to it, Rowoon thought:

“So I didn’t die—I woke up in someone else’s body?”

It explained a lot: the stranger sobbing over him, and the unfamiliar face in the mirror.

[…? You’re accepting this awfully quickly. Aren’t you adapting a bit too fast? I had a whole lengthy explanation prepared for you…!]

But telling himself he’d gone insane was harder to believe than simply accepting he was in a different body.

Plus, Rowoon’s complicated past actually helped him accept it so quickly.
He’d been through so many troubles and scandals that acceptance was all he had left.

No amount of denial would change reality or make it vanish.

“If denial could’ve solved anything, I would’ve stopped my group from imploding a long time ago.”

He never expected all his past ordeals to be helpful in this way.

“Um… Rowoon. Are you okay? How are you feeling? Do you remember anything?”

The middle-aged man who recommended the clinic left after finishing his exam, so the anxious younger man asked gently. His eyes were full of tears, lips quivering. Despite his bear-like physique, he seemed oddly delicate.

“So my name is Rowoon?”

That was what he’d been called several times now.

“What a coincidence, ending up in a body with the same name as me.”

But the man’s reaction was quite dramatic.

“Rowoon, you…! You really don’t remember? You’re speaking so politely…!”

“…?”

“Sniff… I never imagined I’d live to hear you speak so kindly…”

Rowoon wondered:

“Just what kind of person was this body’s original owner to make him react like that?”

“Yeah. Your name is Lee Rowoon.”

“And who are you?”

“Ugh… you just called me ‘Hyung’…!”

The man’s enormous hands pressed against his mouth as tears poured down his face.

“Um, Hyung… Please calm down.”

He tried to soothe him, but it only made things worse.

“Huhhhnng…! You’re being so sweet about it…!”

When Rowoon even offered him a tissue, the man gasped so hard he nearly fainted.

Eventually, after a wave of sobbing, he introduced himself as Park Hyungwoo, Rowoon’s manager.

“I’m… an entertainer?”

With this kind of face, you’d expect him to be famous, yet Rowoon didn’t recognize him at all.

He asked simply out of curiosity, but—

“Rowoon, please don’t take this the wrong way. You’re a highly promising actor. You prefer building your career from small roles upward. You’re a hardworking actor who values a solid foundation, right? Y’know, a lot of top stars start from the bottom and build up their acting skills and reputations—makes for a more dramatic rise. Shooting to stardom like a comet also means disappearing just as fast, right? But you, Rowoon, by steadily building your filmography—”

His manager unleashed a flood of comforting words without taking a breath.

So, he was an entertainer, specifically an actor.

“But why haven’t I ever heard of him…?”

Surely Rowoon would have remembered hearing about someone with his exact name, yet this was his first time.

Still, he decided not to press further—he didn’t want to trigger another big meltdown from this manager-hyung.

“No matter how I ended up with this chance, I should quietly figure out the details myself first.”

And more importantly…

“Hyung, I’m hungry. Is there anything to eat?”

He needed to fill his stomach first.

Rowoon had decided he wouldn’t go hungry anymore, and he asked with a bright smile.

---

“What a strange house—there’s literally no food, only alcohol.”

His curiosity about this body’s owner grew.

Luckily, the manager took responsibility for feeding the now-amnesiac Rowoon.

“You’re… really willing to eat that?”

“Yes. Is that a problem? Is it too expensive…? If so, I can settle for the regular version…”

“No, that’s not it… Are you sure you want a convenience store lunch box?”

The manager’s reaction was weird after Rowoon simply answered a question about what he wanted to eat.

“Is it too indulgent?”

But if this was his first meal after escaping death, he might as well treat it like a special occasion.

“Yes. It’s a limited edition collab with a big food brand. It’s super fancy and there’s a lot of food in there. Sure, it’s pricey for a convenience store meal, but everyone says it’s delicious—”

“Okay, you don’t have to explain. I’ll go get it.”

“Great! Oh, and could you get donuts if they have them? A famous donut brand made a collab with real dairy cream. They’re a bit pricey too, but—”

“I’ll buy out the whole convenience store if I have to.”

The manager—seemingly swayed by Rowoon’s enthusiastic explanation—left with a strangely determined look on his face.

He soon returned, arms loaded with the fancy lunch boxes and desserts Rowoon had only ever dreamed of tasting before.

Thanks to that, Rowoon had enough food not just for tomorrow, but the next few days.

The manager teared up again, mumbling:

“The kid who wouldn’t eat anything less than a Michelin two-star meal…”

It sounded odd, but Rowoon didn’t care. He was just happy, with a huge stash of first-rate food.

“Being brought back to life is great—I finally get to eat my fill.”

While the manager stepped away to make some calls, Rowoon bit into a donut he’d never dared buy until now, because it cost as much as two lunch boxes.

“A second chance really is the best.”

Just then, the droplet drifted over to him.

[Is it tasty?]

“Yes, the cream practically melts in your mouth. It’s amazing.”

[I expected you to be disoriented for a few days, but you’re adapting quickly. That’s good, I guess…]

“Once everything’s already happened, what good is worrying?”

[Well, you’re not wrong. But aren’t you at least curious how you ended up in this body?]

It seemed to be prompting him, so Rowoon politely asked,

“How did this happen to me?”

[Hm, it feels like I’m fishing for questions, but oh well. In simple terms, I owed you a debt.]

“You owed me? But this is the first time we’ve met, right?”

[Not the current you, your previous life!]

“Oh, got it.”

[Geez, I can’t tell if you’re clueless or just super chill… Tsk.]

It clicked its tongue, then continued:

[The favor you did for me was so great, I could never fully repay it. Anyway, I received your kindness and needed to return it. I had to, so that I could… bleep bleep do something else in the future! Dang it, they’re censoring me again! These rigid old geezers!]

Rowoon couldn’t catch some of what it said, but judging by how annoyed it was, it was probably stuff he wasn’t supposed to hear.

[Anyway! The point is, I had to repay you. I couldn’t let you die, so I rushed to transfer you out of your body before your death. You really don’t need to overthink it. You just need to live well in this new body!]

So evidently, Rowoon’s past life had done something good, and this droplet was returning the favor.

Suddenly, the droplet grew serious.

[But there’s a problem.]

“What is it?”

[Technically, it wasn’t yet your time to die. But you were about to die anyway, so I hurriedly borrowed power from others. Well, more like sponsorship, but that’s semantics…]

“Uh…?”

[And so… yeah, you have to pay that debt back.]

“I do?”

[To save you, I had to use up all the goodwill I’d painstakingly stored away. I was short on power to begin with… ugh. Did you have to go dying right now? If you’d lasted a few more decades, I wouldn’t have been forced into taking on sponsors!]

Rowoon felt a bit wronged.

“Um, Droplet—sir?”

[Address me as Cheong-Hwa.]

“All right, Cheong-Hwa. What happens if I don’t repay it?”

The shimmering droplet abruptly froze in midair.

[You die.]

“Pardon?”

[You’ll die.]

“Uh… sorry?”

[Both you and I will vanish together, hand-in-hand, gone forever.]

“…”

Wait, hold on.

He’d just barely survived, only to die again?

“Is this for real?”

---

Kyaaa—