Idol of the Heavenly One - Chapter 35.2
“My stomach hurts.”
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“Yeah. I’m about to go right now.”
“…If you go to the restroom now, you’ll miss the ending.”
“I really have to go now.”
As the stage drew closer, my scary words must have made Joo I-rip anxious, because he told me fine, go carefully. At that, I glanced sideways at Baek Jae-heon. As expected of the man at the center of attention, one of the senior members of Dipper even came out to meet him, put an arm around his shoulder, and pulled him along to the center of the stage while handing him a microphone.
Good. This was the perfect chance.
Just before reaching the center stage, I slipped naturally to the side. Then I went down the stairs leading to the waiting rooms, and as soon as I stepped inside the building, I started sprinting at full speed. Songs last at most five minutes, but with greetings and all, the members would be tied up there for at least ten. In that time, I could steal Baek Jae-heon’s clothes, find something to cover my face, and slip out.
Breathless, I opened the waiting room door to find it completely empty. Everyone seemed to be backstage. What a relief. If the coordi-noonas had been here, I would have been flustered since I had not thought of an excuse.
On the table were water bottles and a makeup kit scattered around, and on the chair lay costumes from earlier tossed carelessly.
I rushed straight to Baek Jae-heon’s seat.
“Please…”
I muttered under my breath as I opened his black bag. Inside, there were not only his casual clothes, but also a mask and a cap. Lucky. I had been worrying about how to hide my face, but with both of these, no one would recognize me.
His casual clothes were an ordinary-looking gray hoodie and a pair of jeans. Since they were his, they were clearly a size larger than mine, but now was not the time to nitpick.
I quickly changed into them, grabbed my phone, and left the waiting room. I opened the emergency exit door right in front and went out.
I was not committing a crime, yet my heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of my chest. Pressing it down, I hurried down the stairs toward the lower floor. There had not been any reports of noise or fire in the news yet. Tightening the mask over my face, I ran toward Arena Station.
Although AAM was not completely over yet, people were already flooding out of the arena in waves.
“A fire broke out at Arena Station after AAM, but because of the crowd, people could not escape and casualties occurred. One of them was a YEARZ fan. So young… what a tragedy.”
I did not know exactly where the fire would start. But from what I half-remembered from my past life, it had definitely been inside the station, in that cramped space where the crowds gathered.
I blended naturally into the sea of people and moved with them toward the station entrance. But there were so many people that it felt like it would take forever just to get inside. There was no room to put one more foot forward, backward, or to the side.
If a fire broke out in this crowd once we were all packed inside the station, it really would be impossible to escape. Thinking of how terrified that young victim must have been made my heart heavy.
I did not even know who I was supposed to save. That meant I should not act to rescue just anyone. What I had to do now was prevent the fire from starting in the first place.
Once I got inside the station, I would need to find a restroom or some other place that was less crowded and check for the source of the fire…
“Ji Myeong-hyeon!”
Huh? Suddenly, my name was called from behind. For a moment, I thought it was a reporter or fan who had recognized me and my heart jumped, but no.
That voice was…
“Kyaa―! It’s Baek Jae-heon!”
“Crazy, it’s Baek Jae-heon!!”
He must have come running from the parking lot. Still in his stage outfit, Baek Jae-heon was out of breath, standing far up the stairs and staring straight at me.
How did he get out already? The music was still flowing inside the arena. And how did he know I would steal his clothes and head toward Arena Station?
“Kyaaah!”
I barely had time to lock eyes with Baek Jae-heon before the people heading into the station screamed and rushed back out, charging toward him in a frenzy. Because of that, the path into the station briefly opened up. I looked back at Baek Jae-heon one more time, then dashed straight inside without hesitation.
“Ji Myeong-hyeon!!”
As soon as I heard Baek Jae-heon’s shout behind me,
Boom!
A loud explosion rang out from inside the station.
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