Idol of the Heavenly One - Chapter 20.2
“When you speak, let your words be better than silence.”
“…Hmm.”
It did not seem like my words would be better than silence, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.
After my teaser was released, twenty-four hours later, the music video teaser went up, and a week after that, the music video for our debut song, “AGAINST TIME,” was released.
Messages from relatives and friends poured in all at once. Most of them were congratulatory texts saying they really had not expected me to actually debut.
[Mother: Myeong-hyeon, congratulations, I am so, so proud of you!]
[Father: Our son, you make me so proud. That little baby of ours has… see more]
[Younger sibling Ji Young-hyo: Oppa! There’s already a line of people asking me for your autograph!]
[Big Aunt: Myeong-hyeon~ Our dear Myeong-hyeon~]
.
.
.
[Shim Kyu-jin: Ji Myeong-hyeon! No, Ji Cheonmyeong! Congratulations on your debut!]
[Lee Jong-seok: Hey, Ji Myeong-hyeon! Don’t forget me now that you’ve debuted!]
In both my past life and this one, I had never received this many messages. I could not say I disliked it. In fact, it felt closer to pleasant. Was I someone who liked receiving this much attention?
After replying to each message, I typed my own name into the search bar. On blogs, there were still more posts titled [Meaning and Chinese Characters of “Ji Cheonmyeong” and His Age] than posts actually about me, but the news articles had my name plastered all over them.
Most of them were just articles introducing YEARZ that happened to include Ji Cheonmyeong among the member names, but still, it felt surreal.
“This room too! We are going to the shop at 2 a.m., so sleep while you can—”
“Yes.”
Our manager hyung was going around waking each room, telling the guys to sleep, and then opened our room door and said that as well. Tomorrow was our first debut stage, on “K-Music Pop,” which could be considered the very first of the music shows. In other words, starting tomorrow, I would truly be Ji Cheonmyeong, stepping out into the world.
“Hm? Where’s Jae-heon?”
“I don’t know.”
I had no idea what Baek Jae-heon’s routine was. I always came in only when he would already be asleep, went straight to sleep myself, and left quickly in the morning, so I had no idea what he normally did or where he usually was.
“Alright. Myeong-hyeon, go to bed first.”
“Yes.”
The manager hyung seemed to check the other rooms and even the bathroom before stepping out, calling someone on the phone when he did not find Baek Jae-heon. Thinking that a grown boy could surely make his own way back, I decided to get a glass of water before going to bed.
“Hm?”
As I was getting water from the purifier, I noticed the balcony door slightly open. It was December, so the weather was cold. Who had left it open? I stepped toward the balcony to close the door.
“…”
But there, leaning on the balcony railing and looking down, was Baek Jae-heon. Oh, so he had been here all along.
“Baek Jae-heon. Manager hyung is looking for you.”
It was the first time I had spoken to him in a while. I passed on the message and thought maybe this would be a chance to loosen up the awkwardness a little.
“…”
Baek Jae-heon turned his head toward me.
“…You have something on your mind?”
I had only ever received school violence reports, never actually done counseling, but I asked anyway. Well, if it was about human relationships, maybe I could offer some advice as someone with much more life experience.
“…Yeah.”
I had not expected him to agree so readily. Normally, I thought the first thing out of his mouth would be “No,” which was why I even asked. I was thrown off.
“Ah, uh… right. So, what’s bothering you?”
I tried to act as though I was not flustered and asked what was troubling him.
“You’re what’s bothering me.”
“What? What?”
I was so startled I nearly cursed. I had expected him to say something like worrying about his middle-school-syndrome tendencies, or anxiety about the upcoming debut, but me?
“You keep doing things I don’t expect.”
“…Me?”
“I don’t know who you really are, and I have no idea what you’re thinking.”
Was he always this eccentric? Or was his middle-school syndrome acting up in full force? I could not understand why he kept saying these strange things. Who I was was simple: a man who died at fifty, reincarnated, and was now legally registered on Government 24 as nineteen-year-old Ji Myeong-hyeon. As for what I was thinking…
Ah! Wait. Could it be that he was thinking…
“Hey… I’m not gay.”
“…”
“Actually, let me take this chance to say it clearly. I am really not gay.”
“…”
“It’s just that I have never seen a guy as good-looking as you in my life, so I have no immunity to it, but I swear I’m not gay.”
So that was what he had been asking about. Whether I was gay or not. And whether I liked him.
Yeah. No wonder he seemed conflicted. How much must he have been worrying that one of his own group members might be gay, or worse, might like him? I could completely understand that feeling.
“Ha, I see.”
“See?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, good. We’ve cleared that up, right?”
Baek Jae-heon gave a faint smile and nodded. I let out a sigh of relief. It was really fortunate that at least some of the misunderstanding had been resolved.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
