1 Chapter 1

It is still night time when Yuan awakens from his slumber. He takes a deep breath to calm himself down. It's always like this whenever he has this unusual dream. At first, he did not mind it, and thought that it was just another of his weird dreams after his long working hours. But then, this dream kept recurring on the exact same date of every month since his return to South Korea. And it is always the same. 

The dream starts with him sitting in what appears to be a throne room.  He gets that impression because of the large amount of people kneeling in front of him in the large room, which makes Yuan think he must be playing the part of some king or emperor.

He can hear the faint murmur of people all around him. The person whose body he is in does not seem to be interested in any of the surrounding conversations, ignoring everyone around him. His gaze is fixated on a certain young man, who kneels down beside one of the generals. The young man is wearing a white robe. Some of his hair is tied up to form a bun, and he wears  a hair ornament that Yuan somehow knows signifies his status as royalty. 

The problem is that everytime he tries to focus on the young man's face, the blurrier it becomes. It is as if some mighty deity is refusing to allow him to remember the young man. 

After some indeterminable amount of time, the young man will raise his head and say, "Your Highness." And the dream ends just like that. Yuan will then wake up with an enormous feeling of sadness and longing without knowing who the person is that he had feelings for.

Yuan turns on the light on his bedside table. He is never able to fall back asleep again after he has this dream. He usually plays games or just browses his social media until morning comes and he has to do whatever is on his schedule for that day.

The young idol reaches for his phone to find something to do. He logs into his gaming account and discovers one of his group mates is still playing PUBG. 

Yuan joins as soon as his previous game ends.

"Yuan, why are you awake at this hour?" Ji Hun's voice echoes through the speaker.

"Hyung, did you forget what date it is?"

There's a brief silence before Ji Hun answers, "It's the fifth, what's wro…" He trails off as if he finally realizes something. Ji Hun continues, "Still having the same dream?"

"Mn."

"Have you tried other methods?"

"You know I've already tried everything, Hyung. Seeking professional help, even taking sleeping pills. Nothing worked out," Yuan answers while still focusing on the game they are playing.

"There must be something that you haven't tried. Have you tried hypnosis? Maybe it is related to your past life."

Yuan smirks. when his character kills another one of his opponents. "I don't believe in past lives, Hyung. It's all mumbo jumbo to me."

"But what if it is real?"

Yuan suddenly feels irritated. He doesn't know why, but the topic about past lives seems to have agitated something inside of him.

"Are we going to play or do you want to keep talking until morning?" he asks.

"Fine. Fine, I'll accompany you," Ji Hun relents.

They play multiple games together until Ji Hun finally logs out, claiming that he can't stay awake much longer.

After his friend leaves, Yuan also logs out from the game. He decides to check his messages and schedule for the week. 

Besides the usual recording for their group's variety show, there's also a few photoshoots and a recording for Youth Idol. The latter is a survival variety show to form a girl group. He sighs, knowing very well that at one point, he will be doing their choreographed dance theme. It's not that he hates cute dance choreography. He knows he can nail any theme that they throw at him. Yuan knows his capability when it comes to dancing, but the cutesy theme brings him back to his early debut year, when he had to be the cute loving maknae. If he could choose, he would burn all the remaining evidence of that time. 

Yuan checks all the mentors that he will be working with. Sean, the former member of a popular boygroup, CLOUD10, will be acting as the host or 'The Producer' as they call it on the show. There's a senior actor and singer, Min-seok who will be in charge of composing and writing the songs. Yuan will be mentoring all the dance parts alongside Seung Min, another veteran actor, singer and dancer. The singing portion will have two more coaches. One is Su Yeon, who is an experienced singer. She was once a member of a girl band called Rainbow. Yuan heard of the group, but never listened to their hit song, probably because they debuted way before he was even born. The other vocal coach is a rookie singer from China, Li Yichen.

Li Yichen

Somehow the name sounds familiar. Something clicks when Yuan reads it.

Feeling curious, Yuan starts to look for some of the singer's performances. He finds out that even though Yichen is still considered a rookie, he has gained a lot of fame in a short time. His fanbase multiplies every time he performs. It is not only due to his singing ability, but his popularity comes from a good personality. He is known as a friendly and polite person, unlike Yuan, who tends to be timid around people. Yuan's lack of public speaking skills has given him the reputation of a cold personality.

He watches one of Yichen's performances. He auditioned as a survival contestant on a talent show and emerged as one of the winners, even though he was already 24 and the eldest of the group.

"He doesn't look that old though," Yuan thought. His face has a youthful look. With those big doe eyes, his cute plump cheeks, those lovely pink, kissable lips, Yichen is the most beautiful person that the idol has ever seen. Even in his line of work, he is surrounded by many beautiful men and women, but no one can compete with Yichen's beauty.

The moment he hears the singer's voice, Yuan feels his heart ache. He knows that it is not because of the sweet ballad that the singer is singing. It is certainly a love song, a very gentle one, not the bitter ones that he usually likes. But there is this longing feeling, a sadness that creeps inside his heart. It is the same way he always feels when that annoying dream ends.