Idol of the Heavenly One - Chapter 66.1
It was early in the morning, and we were leaving the dorm for our schedule.
Rubbing my tired eyes, I got off the elevator and walked toward the apartment complex entrance. The manager walked ahead while talking on the phone, and the members chatted idly behind him. Then, at that moment, something familiar caught the edge of my vision — a gray hoodie.
My breath hitched. My throat felt dry, as if all the moisture had vanished. My steps froze instinctively. I saw that figure hurriedly hide somewhere inside the complex.
It appeared again.
That was as far as my thoughts went. My mind stopped functioning. My legs moved before I could think. Before I knew it, my body lunged forward as if it were being pulled.
“Myeong-hyeon!”
“Hey, where are you going?”
The manager and the members shouted my name from behind me, but their voices sounded faint. All I could hear was the pounding of my heart and the rough sound of my own breathing.
I ran through the parked cars in the lot, almost tearing through them. I chased for what felt like a long time, but in the end, that shadow never entered my sight again. When I reached the last section of the lot, the hoodie had vanished completely, as if it had evaporated into thin air.
A breath burst out of me.
“…Shit.”
Leaning forward with my hands on my knees, I gasped for air. Cold sweat trickled down the back of my neck.
The members and the manager, who had run over late, hurriedly asked,
“What happened?”
“What did you see?”
Their startled faces surrounded me. I shook my head.
“It’s nothing. I just… thought I saw something wrong.”
My voice sounded calm, but my heart was still pounding like crazy.
That night, I couldn’t fall asleep no matter how much I tried.
In the dark room, lying there and staring blankly at the ceiling, sudden chills ran down my spine, and my heart sank without warning. Then I would jolt up from the bed, almost losing control of myself. I would rush to the front door, terrified that while I was asleep, someone might have slipped inside through a gap I didn’t notice. Grabbing the doorknob, I shook it several times and only after checking the double lock would I finally be able to breathe again.
The fact that our dorm was on the 17th floor gave me no comfort. The phrase “No one would come this high up” didn’t reassure me at all. In the end, clinging to that senseless anxiety, I locked all the windows tight. Only after sealing the room so that no air could escape did I feel a brief sense of relief, but even that didn’t last. My mind kept plummeting into unease.
Whether my eyes were open or closed, that scene refused to leave my head. The afterimage of the gray hoodie passing under the streetlight lingered at the edge of my vision. Even when I closed my eyes, it forced its way into the darkness, and when I opened them, it overlapped with the walls and windows of reality.
“What’s wrong?”
Maybe he was worried about me. In the quiet dawn, Baek Jae-heon spoke softly. His voice was low, calm, and restrained as always, never revealing much emotion. But I could tell he sensed my unease before anyone else.
“It’s nothing…”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to make him anxious too. I couldn’t bring myself to talk about the serious conversation our manager had with the security company at the broadcast station, or the gray hoodie I had clearly seen in the parking lot. If I said it aloud now, he might end up just as restless as I was.
“…”
Baek Jae-heon said nothing more. He didn’t ask again, as if he already had some idea of what I was thinking.
But something about it felt strange. While I was being consumed by anxiety, barely able to take a proper step, Jae-heon seemed to be freeing himself from his own worries over the past few days. As if something inside him had changed.
He seemed steadier.
Whether he was on a radio show, a variety program, or filming content with us, Baek Jae-heon had always kept a distance, observing rather than participating. Even when laughter filled the room, he never really joined in, and when jokes flew around, he reacted a beat too late, somehow out of sync. But lately, he had changed.
“Baek Jae-heon, pick one. Brushing your teeth with chocolate or washing your face with cola.”
“You do it.”
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