Idol of the Heavenly One - vanish into fiction

“Right.”

And the moment my vision was completely filled by Baek Jae-heon’s lips, he answered my question.

“I am on my second life.”

“……”

“I didn’t debut in my past life.”

My eyes quickly darted upward again.

“But I am a recycled rookie.”

I immediately met Baek Jae-heon’s gaze, a smile in his eyes.

He had caught on to my intention and played along, his voice low and subdued as if he had just woken up, and the quiet laugh that resonated through the space tickled at my heart.

Once again my head went blank like yesterday. I desperately wanted to look away, but I forced myself to keep my gaze fixed and my expression composed. Still, the thought passed through me that maybe he had already noticed my face breaking apart.

“How did you know?”

“Wh-what?”

“That this was self-content.”

“Ah, that…”

It was Baek Jae-heon who pulled me out of my dreamlike haze and back to reality. I barely managed to hold onto my faltering mind and open my mouth, but the tremor seeping into my chest could not be hidden.

“The grim reaper…”

“Grim reaper?”

“Yeah, it was just… too much like a grim reaper.”

I did not even know what I was saying. For a moment I felt Jae-heon’s gaze deepen somehow, but I had no energy to respond to that reaction one by one.

“Did the others do this too?”

Rambling, I sat up and looked back toward the man playing the grim reaper as I asked.

“Ah, not yet.”

Unlike the stern tone from earlier, the grim reaper now answered timidly.

“Then… go to the others too.”

Turning my back on Baek Jae-heon, I quickly went out to the living room. I just wanted to get away.

“This is absurd. I’m only twenty years old.”

“See? I told you, not getting enough sleep will kill you.”

“And you are still whining about sleep in the middle of this?”

“Whining? If it were a song, I’d have released an album already.”

I was relieved. I had worried that my part had come out too flat, but Joo I-rip and Go Hee-min were doing their crazy duo act.

Baek Jae-heon and I sat in the living room with earphones plugged in, watching the footage on the infrared camera set up inside. They really looked like a comic double act.

After them, Lee Soonbok and Kwon Ji-hak each had their turn.

Lee Soonbok burst into tears with his whole body trembling, while Kwon Ji-hak muttered nonsense before immediately dozing off again. The camera time was definitely filled.

“I really thought I had died, I was so shocked.”

“I wasn’t surprised at all. I figured it would happen soon anyway.”

“Sniff… it was, it was so scary…”

“This time I learned something. What’s scarier than a grim reaper is sleep.”

When morning came, the members who had regained their senses slowly gathered in the living room in front of the camera. Their faces were still drowsy, but maybe because it was our first self-produced content, no one could hide their smiles. The joy showed more clearly than the fatigue.

“How was it for you guys?”

“Hm?”

At that moment, Joo I-rip asked Baek Jae-heon and me how it had been.

“I knew right away it was self-content.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, I just knew.”

Probably it had not been entertaining. I only cared that I did not come out looking weird on camera, while Jae-heon…

“Baek Jae-heon, how did you wake up?”

Come to think of it, Joo I-rip and Go Hee-min were both woken up directly by the grim reaper, but I was the only one who got caught because Jae-heon had already opened his eyes.

But then… How had Baek Jae-heon woken up first?

“I went out to get some water and ran into them.”

“Ah…”

These days our schedule was so exhausting that when they told us we could rest the next day, I just collapsed without even setting an alarm. There must have been plenty of noise, but I had slept through it all. Jae-heon would have been no different.

But by chance, he had gone out to drink water and run into the production crew. He really was lucky. Some people are just destined for it.

“Thank you for your hard work—”

Before it was even 8 a.m., the self-content filming team quickly packed their equipment and left. It had been a commotion since dawn, but now they said it was real free time. One by one, members yawned and scattered back to their rooms, eager to make up for lost sleep.

Baek Jae-heon and I did the same. We returned to our room, threw ourselves onto our beds, pulled the blankets up to our chins, and got ready to force ourselves back to sleep.

“Ji Myeong-hyeon.”

On the hazy border of consciousness, just as I was about to drift off, someone called my name. In the midst of my fading awareness, a low voice rang out clearly.