Waking up at 6 in the morning, the first thing Joon-won did was send Yun-hee a message asking if they got onto the bus yet or not. It seemed like they were still getting on as it took her a while to reply and even sent a picture from her seat. Only after seeing her message did Joon-won start the day. 

He got into his exercise clothes and started jogging towards the gym. He still had the gym membership card and the gym was even nice enough to give him another 2 weeks since he missed the previous 2. The past 2 weeks, he didn’t jog and only did some light exercise in the small hotel room he was given so it felt good for him to jog once again. 

It didn’t take him long to reach the gym. As he went into the gym he noticed it was his train Dong Kun at the receptionist table instead of the usual person he saw. Dong Kun stood up as he saw him and gave him a huge hug.

“Joon-won you are back. I was missing you. With you here I don’t need to train those dumb middle-aged men much.. So how was your shooting? Tell me about it.” 

“Dong Kun let’s go inside and get started. I’ll answer your questions while we are at it.” Dong Kun nodded and went to call another person to take over the front desk as they both went inside to get the usual work done. 

Joon-won patiently answered all of Dong Kun’s questions while he got his workout done and as he was going out the muscular Dong Kun patted his shoulder and said, “You look completely different from the first time you walked in.” 

“It’s all thanks to your help. Alright then, I’ll be on my way.” And jogged back home. He got into the shower before having his breakfast and washing the clothes. He checked the time and noticed it was 8:30, so he sent another text to Yun-hee asking how far they were and if there were any delays. 

[No, we are on track. We will be there on time.] Seeing the reply he sent a quick ok before resting on the couch. As he laid on the couch he realised how bored he was. In the past 2 months he always had something or the other to do whether it was the final exam drama, the Roses drama house or the movie. He never had a day off and now he felt bored because he didn’t have any new hobbies after coming into the world. 

Leaning back onto the couch, he opened the social media app he downloaded a few weeks ago and scrolled down his feed. As he did, he noticed a promotional video and clicked on it. He noticed it was a game he was very familiar with but at the same time he wasn’t. It was chess. He played chess in his old world, but of course it was completely different as it was tweaked with magic. Some of the pieces were different and so he got intrigued as he watched it. 

The promotional video was shot and was about the up and coming world tournament happening in a few weeks. So he went to youtube and looked up the game’s basics. As he did, he went into a rabbit hole as he watched one video after another until the alarm he kept the day before rang. He checked the time and saw it was actually 9:30, he spent an entire hour watching videos on chess basics. 

Standing up, he changed his clothes and got out of the house. Walking down the road towards the group of cabs stationed, he took one of them and went towards the bus station. Compared to the railway station, the bus station was much closer and only took 20 minutes. 

Paying the money he got down and went inside towards the platform the bus would arrive at. As he waited he bought a cold water bottle for them and sat down on the bench, waiting. It didn’t take the bus long to come as it arrived on time. Joon-won stood up and made his way towards the door, waiting for the people to come down.

As he waited by the door and watched people come down, his heart started racing. It was racing at an incredible speed and he slowly started sweating too. He was about to have a panic attack. He never had a family and now he was very near to them, and could see them any second. So this was a bit too much for him. 

Wiping the sweat on his forehead he gulped and heard a familiar sound. He heard this voice many times over the past 2 months but it was through a phone. It was Min-Seok’s voice as he was getting down the bus with a bag in his hand. 

Min-Seok looked the exact same as he did in the video call last night. Rough brown hair with a tinge of white here and there. Clean shaved and proper. Joon-won could see a few of his own features in the man’s face. Looking at him for the first time made him froze and only woke up when he heard Min-Seok call out for him again.

“Joon-won, you came. Wow, you look so different.” And the man got off the bus. Joon-won woke up from his frozen state and walked towards Min-Seok like a robot. He squeezed out a smile and said, “Dad, it’s good to see you. Come give me that. You bring the other bags. Where is Yun-hee?” 

“She is coming down too. Alright I’ll go to the back and ask the driver to take our bags out from the trunk. You stay here and receive your sister, she might panic.” Min-Seok patted him before going to the back.

Joon-won, gulped as he saw Min-Seok walk away before slapping himself. He acted like a complete idiot. This was way worse than the first time he saw Be Hye-Su a few days ago. Looking back into the bus he saw Yun-hee coming down with a bag and went forward to help her with it.

Yun-hee didn’t have brown hair and instead he had long black hair just like him. She was quite tall for her age and gave off the vibe of a next door girl. 

“Come give me that.” And took it from her. Yun-hee looked up with a surprised face.

“Joon-won it’s you. Wow, I didn’t recognise you for a second. Looking at you in the flesh is completely different from a video call.” Joon-won smiled and just brought the two bags to one place before he said to Yun-hee.

“Alright, stay here, I’ll go and help.dad with the rest of the luggage.” And walked to the back of the bus. He noticed Min-Seol among the group of people trying to find their bags in the large bus trunk. He walked front and helped him get out the remaining 3 bags before going back to Yun-hee with him.

Placing both the bags on the ground, Joon-won sighed and asked both of them, “Alright are these all the bags? Any remaining?” Both of them shook their heads and Joon-won took out the cold water bottle he bought for them.

“Alright, drink some water and we can be on our way.” 

Both of them drank some water and Min-Seok said, “Joon-won you look so different from the last time I saw you. It seems like you even grew a few inches. You look fitter and better.” 

Yun-hee also nodded and said, “Right, I didn’t even want to believe that this was real. He looks so different.” 

Joon-won just shook his head and said, “Alright let’s go back now. It’s been an entire year since you guys last saw me, so of course I look a bit different. Let’s talk when he get back home.” And picked up 3 bags. Both of them nodded while taking a bag each as Joon-won led them out of the bus station. 

It wasn’t hard to find a cab and all three of them got in with Joon-won at the front. He told the address to the driver and the cab took off. He looked through the mirror and saw how Yun-hee’s face was stuck to the window even Min-Seok was looking out of the window.

It was the first time Yun-hee ever came to a big city and so everything was new to her. It was the same for Min-Seok too. Even though he came to drop the old Joon-won off the previous year, he stayed only for one day as they left Yun-hee alone back home making him worry, so technically it was even his first time having a clear look of the city. 

The car soon came to a stop, and all three of them quickly got down.

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Note- Guys I am uploading a small filler/short story in the previous duplicated chapter (149) it will go up in a few minutes. So if you are interested check it out. 

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