Idol of the Heavenly One - vanish into fiction

He was responding to the members’ jokes. Some might have said, “That doesn’t count as a response,” but to us, it was a huge change. The Baek Jae-heon we knew would never have even looked their way at such a pointless question. He wouldn’t have answered, and honestly, the members wouldn’t even have tried joking with him in the first place. But lately, things have been different. The members threw jokes at him as if testing him for fun, and Jae-heon actually answered, even if briefly.

Soft laughter rippled through one side of the waiting room, and at its center was Baek Jae-heon. He smiled often. Just seeing the corners of his lips lift made the atmosphere lighter.

At first, I was puzzled. Was he forcing himself to act cheerful to hide his anxiety? Was he laughing on purpose to swallow down the same fear that I felt? That thought crossed my mind.

But watching from up close, I realized that wasn’t it. His laughter wasn’t forced, and his jokes weren’t fake. I could sense that something inside him had truly grown stronger.

His change felt unfamiliar yet strangely comforting. While I trembled in fear day by day, Baek Jae-heon seemed calmer than I was. He looked like he was holding himself together with his own strength instead of breaking down.

And then I realized something.

If Baek Jae-heon had been as shaken as I was, neither of us would have been able to endure.

To be honest, what reassured me wasn’t the locks, the security, or the manager’s warnings. It wasn’t the CCTV or the tightly shut windows either. The greatest comfort of all was Baek Jae-heon sitting beside me.

Even as I bit my lips to hide my unease, whenever he joked around with the members and looked at peace, I could finally breathe. A small crack formed in the wall of my tension, and through that crack, a faint light seeped in.

Late in the evening, even after our schedule ended, we didn’t go straight back to the dorm. We stopped by the agency’s practice room to prepare for the new song. We trained until sweat poured down like rain and sang until our throats felt torn. It was dawn by the time practice ended.

My whole body felt heavy, but at least during that moment, I could forget my fear. Even the pain of gasping for breath and trembling legs felt strangely welcome. But that peace didn’t last long. The moment the lights went out in the practice room and we got ready to return to the dorm, the anxiety came back and swallowed me again.

The underground parking lot.

Everyone was getting into the car to head home, but something about the air felt wrong. The entrance to the parking lot was unusually noisy. Security company employees were rushing down one after another. Their footsteps and the static from their radios echoed through the space.

I turned my head, wondering what was going on. And in that instant—

A gray hoodie.

My eyes widened. Time seemed to stop. My feet felt nailed to the ground. Under the bright light, that figure pushed past the security workers and started running straight toward us.

My breath caught. A crushing pressure gripped my throat, and I instinctively stepped back.

“Stop!”

The manager’s sharp shout rang out. But it was useless. In the blink of an eye, the gray hoodie brushed past me and rushed straight toward Baek Jae-heon.

“Baek Jae-heon…!”

My body moved before I could think. I threw myself forward to block his way. I reached out to grab the gray hoodie, but he was faster. My fingers only grazed the edge of the fabric. I caught nothing but air. The hoodie in front of me closed the distance to Baek Jae-heon in an instant.

I missed it.

A wave of despair crashed into my chest like iron. My mind went blank, and for a fleeting moment, my eyes followed my empty hands.

Then, the gray hood fell back, revealing the person’s face.

Under the bright streetlight, the face that appeared was not the young woman I had expected. It was a middle-aged man.

His face was twisted with rage. Bloodshot eyes glared fiercely, and his rough hand shot forward to grab Baek Jae-heon by the collar.

“You bastard—!”

A violent shout tore through the air, and the parking lot seemed to tremble with it. Everyone froze. The security guards, the manager, and the members—all stood still, unable to move, only staring at what was unfolding before us.

Then, while being held by the collar, Baek Jae-heon, who never once looked away, quietly spoke.

“…Father.”

For a moment, my mind went blank.

Father?

Even though I had heard it clearly, I couldn’t believe it. That single word of three syllables struck through my mind like a heavy blow, cutting off every thought.