They say that when you die you aren't even able to feel the pain that comes with it, your mind is too focused on either living, or keeping you numb enough to make death painless.

  Well, that wasn't quite right. The impact from the truck to my body, the bones breaking and fracturing, and the slow wait till everything faded to black, I felt everything.

  And then, after I thought I was dead, I woke up. My body felt horrible with pressure all around it, my head felt as if it was about to explode. I looked down at myself and lifted my shirt.

  My stomach was filled with bruises and burn marks. I sat up and grabbed my head. I don't know where I was right now but how would I have tiny burn marks all over my body from a truck crashing into me.

  “Ah shit!”

  I blurted, as I tripped over my bed linen, I got up and covered my wrist with the sheets of the bed I was on.

  I hadn't noticed before but when I grabbed my head I felt a warm liquid on my ear. Blood flowing from my wrist, I wrapped the linen around it and got up.

  I don't know why I was bleeding, but I needed to head to a hospital.

  I walked towards the door, one step, two steps, three. Each step I took the colder and colder I got.

  I clenched my teeth and forced forwards. My head became unbearably dizzy. I reached the door and twisted the doorknob.

  “Fuck why won't it open”

  I looked down. It was locked.

  ‘Oh’

  I twisted the lock and opened the door. The light coming into the dark room blinded me. As my eyes adjusted, there in front of me was a young girl who looked panicked.

  “Who—”

  It was as those words left my mouth that the world seemed to turn sideways.

  ‘Wait am I falling’

  Then the familiar darkness engulfed my vision again.

  “Minwoo please wake up!”

  The girl sounded panicked. But why did she call me Minwoo? I only knew one Minwoo in my life, and he couldn't have been next to me.

  I couldn't focus on what she said, my body felt freezing, my body and organs felt like they were shutting down.

  I needed to wake up, my head pounding as I forced my eyes open. A white, fluorescent light was above me lighting up the room I was in.

  I looked at my wrists, both of them covered in what looked like bandages, to my right my arm pierced by two needles one containing iv fluid and the other blood from a blood bag.

  To my left was the young girl, she had fallen asleep in the chair next to me. She looked sad, with tear marks on her cheeks.

  I still didn't know what was going on, as thoughts filled my head about what happened after the crash and who this girl was, something surprising happened.

  “What the Fuck—”

  [System Notification]

  Name: Rae Minwoo (Formerly Joon Seok)

  Level: 0

  Title: None

  Vocal: D+

  Dance: F

  Visual: C+

  Talent(s): None

  Characteristics: Social Manipulator, Self Loathing

  Stolen story; please report.

  Current status: Trash deserving a horrible death. You were given a second chance to right your wrongs, don’t waste it.

  I reached out to this screen in front of me. My hand shaking as I did. As I tried to touch the texts my fingers passed right through.

  Was it not real?

  I hadn’t paid much attention to the name at first but as I reread it again my throat felt like it was clogged.

  Name: Rae Minwoo (Formerly Joon Seok)

  My stomach turned.

  No, No, No.

  I forced myself to stand up from the bed I was on, pulling the needles from my arm. My heart beating in my head.

  I had woken up the girl that was next to me, I didn't pay attention to her, only to the bathroom that was in the hospital room.

  Current status: Trash deserving a horrible death. You were given a second chance to right your wrongs, don’t waste it.

  The words repeating in my head.

  “Minwoo?”

  I kept walking, not registering what the girl was saying. I felt lightheaded and all I heard was a ringing in my ears.

  “Please don't be true, please—”

  Pressure building up near my eyes, As I reached the handle of the door to the bathroom I looked down. My hand was shaking as I slowly turned the handle.

  Forcing myself to go into the room I stepped towards the mirror head still facing down, stopping in front of it. Hands gripping onto the sink

  And then I looked up.

  As I saw my reflection in the mirror, a face I once knew back in school, the face of the one whose life I ruined, the same pathetic face I once hated, now with hollow eyes. It was him.

  Minwoo

  I don't know if it was because of the blood loss or because of this shock but once I saw his face again, I felt my stomach brewing, before I could cover my mouth vomit spewed from it right into the sink.

  I wiped my mouth.

  The person whose school life I made a living hell was staring right at me.

  I wasn’t Joon Seok anymore.

  I was the person who quit school because of him.

  I was Rae Minwoo.

  As different thoughts filled my head of why this was happening and what was going on, as if reading my mind that screen appeared once again.

  [Main Mission]

  Mission: Debut

  Goal: Prove your worth as a trainee and become an Idol

  Failure: Erasure of soul

  Time: 1 Year

  Notes: Let's see if you have what it takes, I doubt it

  Erasure of soul? Becoming an Idol, what was this thing even talking about.

  I clenched my hands into a fist, nails digging into my palms.

  This must be a punishment.

  I know I was a bad person but was I bad enough to have my soul erased?

  This chance I've received was nothing more than a delay of death.

  The screen changed once more, new texts forming on it.

  Tips:

  This system is based around what best suits you.

  Think about it as a game.

  You have the ability to level up based on completing missions and tasks.

  So, try your best.

  A game? I've never played a game where my life was on the line.

  I didn't have lives; I didn't have save points and there was no restart.

  If I failed this objective, that would be it, I would be gone forever, and if what the screen said was true my soul would be gone, what would that mean?

  If I was still living as Joon Seok I would have been laughing by now. What crazy idiot would even believe something like this, something that came out of a comic.

  But I couldn't laugh. I wasn't Joon Seok anymore, I was Rae Minwoo.

  One year to become an idol. I've never paid much attention to them besides bullying Minwoo as he watched them in class. Could I actually become one?

  No, it wasn't a question of if I could, I had to.

  I turned around from the mirror, as I walked towards the door the girl that had fallen asleep suddenly grasped me wrapping her arms around me.

  Her grip felt tight, almost like someone holding onto something they were afraid to lose. She was shaking whilst holding onto me. I should have shoved her off but for some reason I couldn't. Although I had no idea who she was, I felt sad when looking at her.

  “Minwoo— please” Her voice in a sob. “Don't ever try to leave me like that again.”

  The moment I heard these words leave this girl's mouth I felt a weird sadness that I've never felt. It felt like she was someone close to me, but who. As she continued holding on to me I felt tears forming.

  I shoved her off me and looked at her. She had tears running down her face. I shakily let out a sigh and put my arms on her shoulders.

  “I'm fine kid.”

  She looked at me confused. It was probably because I called her kid. I had no idea what her name was or who she was to Minwoo, I would ask that later but right now I needed to ask something first.

  One year is all I had and if it was based on my stats alone, I wouldn't make it as an Idol.

  I looked at the girl again in the eyes.

  “Hey… how do I become an Idol?”