Chapter 45

Chapter 45

My hand had been poised to grab the door handle, so I quietly took it away so that I would make no noise. I’d double-locked this door before I’d left for filming, but now it was open.

And so it begins, huh? It was a common problem that accompanied fame—the invasion of your privacy. I’d been worried something like this might happen, but I’d had no way of doing anything about it since I was so low on funds.

Well... at least there are no valuables inside. I hadn’t bought that many things, and I’d taken all my clothes with me, so there was nothing of value in the studio apartment. I’ll just quietly go back the way I came... I thought.

Then my phone buzzed loudly.

[Seon Ahyeon]

The moment I saw the name on the screen, I realized I had another problem. The walls were paper thin, and you could basically hear everything going on inside the building from inside one of the apartments.

Oh, sh*t. I scurried away from the door and dashed toward the emergency exit. The moment I’d swung around the corner and hid myself, I heard the door creak open. A girl poked her head out through the doorway, looked around, and went back inside. She looked perfectly normal. The only problem is, she’s trespassing in my apartment, and I have no idea who she is.

I felt sweat trickling down my neck.

This is completely nuts. I took the stairs outside the emergency exit two at a time and answered my phone once I was safely outside. It was Ahyeon, of course.

“M-Moondae, uh... have you had something to eat yet?”

“No, but I don’t think this is the time for food.”

“Huh? What?”

“Someone’s broken into my place.”

“Wh-what!”

I heard Ahyeon gasp on the other end and his parent’s voices asking him what was wrong. I’d have hung up without telling him anything was wrong under normal circumstances, but I was in a hurry.

I’ll have to ask him for a ride to the police station. If I called the police myself and a police car showed up, people around my neighborhood would notice, and it could start weird rumors. The show was close to being over and I didn’t want to take any chances. I planned to go to the police myself and inform them quietly of what was going on.

I thought I’d have to wait around here forever for a taxi to come. It’s a good thing he called.

“W-wait right there. We’re coming! Come down right away! W-we should call the police—”

“I’ll report it to the cops at the police station. I’m sorry to ask this, but could you give me a ride there?”

“O-of course!”

I ran down the remaining stairs, staying on the phone with Ahyeon. Of all the things to happen...

***

Everything went fairly smoothly after that, much to my relief. Ahyeon and his parents, who seemed even more alarmed than I was, drove me straight to the police station, where I reported the trespasser.

“What? Oh, a woman...”

“I don’t know who she is.”

“Uh... okay.”

The police officer didn’t seem all too impressed, but they sent out a team, regardless. Then the details of the crime began to come out.

There wasn’t just one person inside. A total of four people were found in my studio apartment. They’d ransacked the apartment together, wearing my clothes and using the kitchenware they found inside. Each of them had been caught stalking other idols before. This time, they’d teamed up to break into my apartment, which didn’t exactly have the best security.

I can’t believe it, I thought, rubbing my shoulder wryly. The bigger problem was that the police didn’t seem too enthusiastic to actually arrest the culprits.

Not the best neighborhood to have moved into, I guess. The four women had been brought to the station and didn’t seem nervous at all, as they grinned stupidly and tried to get me to talk to them.

“Hey!”

“Moondae, can you hear me?”

“You can obviously hear us. Come on, answer!”

“Park Moondae!”

They’re going to get off with just a warning or a fine. I was in deep trouble if I didn’t find myself a new apartment soon.

“M-Moondae, are you all right?”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, I’m okay.”

Ahyeon looked nervous, picking up his chopsticks, then putting them down again. His family was treating me to dinner and seeing him so worried about me, left me feeling a little embarrassed.

“W-we were going to eat someone nearby, a-and thought you could join us...”

He had explained after everything was over at the police station.

“Oh, so that’s why you called.”

“Y-yeah!”

Which is how I ended up sitting with his family at a restaurant.

This place does some really good ribs, I thought, quietly devouring the meat. Since I hadn’t managed to get any sleep, the least I could do was eat something delicious.

“My goodness, what has the world come to? How could they do such a thing?”

“Don’t you think you should contact your parents and let them know what happened?”

Ahyeon’s parents seemed pretty shaken. They’d already muttered similar things several times by now.

Hmm. I considered what to say for a moment, but in the end, decided to just tell them the truth. They’d helped me out a lot today and were even treating me to a meal. The least I could do was give them a straight answer.

“My parents were in an accident... They’re dead.”

Ahyeon’s father gasped, and his mother glared at him before asking quietly, “Do you have any other family you could contact?”

“No... no one in particular.”

This was partly because it was me in Park Moondae’s body, but I’d found nothing to suggest that he had any remaining family, either.

Another way that we’re similar. It was curious if I thought about it. Maybe our similar backgrounds were part of the reason I’d found myself in Park Moondae’s body. Given the mood at the table was quickly becoming depressing, however, I decided I should try and salvage it.

“I didn’t lose them when I was a child. It was much later. A lot of things happened, you see... I’m doing okay by myself now.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Ahyeon’s mother just smiled instead of making a fuss. “All right. I know there are a lot of things you need to take care of when you live alone. Thank you for taking such good care of our Ahyeon.”

“No, he’s the one who helped me.”

I expected Ahyeon to protest, but he remained silent. I noticed that he was focused on flipping the meat, not saying a word.

Did he not know, either, that my parents had passed away? I realized suddenly that I’d only told the production team, and the show hadn’t mentioned it since. Ahyeon must have been pretty shocked to hear me say it so casually over dinner. He was trying his best not to show it, though.

I guess that’s the way he wants other people to react to him, then. Maybe that was why Ahyeon had latched onto me early on in the show.

I acted like I barely noticed his stutter during our first evaluation. I felt like I was on the right track with this assumption.

Not that it matters much. With a shrug, I ate some more meat. Since there was no immediate alternative, I’d spend the night in my apartment and start looking for other options tomorrow.

Once we’d finished eating, however, things took a turn for the unexpected.

“Y-you’re going back there?”

“Well, the police took them into custody, so they won’t come back tonight, at least.”

“B-but still...”

After I revealed my intention to go back, Ahyeon and his family huddled up for a short private conversation. When they were done, they offered to let me stay at Ahyeon’s apartment until the next day of filming.

I hadn’t seen the offer coming, but it was a sweet deal that I had no reason to refuse.

***

While Park Moondae was enjoying his sudden housing upgrade, the audience who’d gotten to see the team battle were uploading spoilers to the internet left and right.

Because of how popular the show was, all the nondisclosure agreements in the world were ineffective at stopping them from sharing information ahead of the broadcast. Cha Eugene was the single most talked about contestant, but as a team, Moon Rabbit was single-handedly the most popular.

- How could they start the team battle with them? I felt sorry for the other teams

- There’s a reason they’re all high-ranking contestants! They’re so good-looking

- I’m willing to bet the internet will go crazy when the footage goes live LOL

- Why are people bashing on Seon Ahyeon? He was damn good

Many people tried to play off all the positive comments, assuming the Moon Rabbit team’s fans were just trying to give their biases a PR boost, but as more and more accounts from people in the audience were uploaded, these malicious comments were slowly buried.

The owner of Park Moondae’s biggest fan account was also reading through all the fan accounts, having spent the day sulking because none of her friends—or herself, for that matter—had succeeded in securing a ticket to see the recording.

It was the same person who’d snuck a camera into the first team battle and consequently fallen in love with Park Moondae.

Do I really have so few friends? Because Park Moondae was a contestant with relatively newfound fame, she’d tried not to socialize using her fan account, so people would take her more seriously as a resource for his fans. The result, however, was she didn’t know anyone who’d gotten into the recording who could tell her what happened personally.

She clicked on the current most popular post with a trembling finger.

========================

[I was in the audience. (Photos included) (361)]

I’ve never gotten into one of these before and I was really excited. Just seeing Moondae’s face made the entire thing worth it! T_T

Moondae was on the first team, and he wore a rabbit mask and traditional Korean clothing. He looked like a character out of a historical fantasy series. He looked so good, I couldn’t resist... I took a few pics T_T

And anyone who claims the editing is what makes him look good, you guys are wrong. My heart’s still racing from seeing such an outstanding performance.

He sings like he was born to do it and dances well, too. I have no idea why people are saying he can’t dance.

I wrote up a detailed account of the whole thing below!

[...]

========================

She read through the post carefully, but when she saw mention of photos, she couldn’t help herself and scrolled all the way down to the bottom, where she found an upper-body shot of Park Moondae—rabbit mask perched on his head at an angle, wearing a robe.

“Oh my god!”

Moondae, with blond hair and a navy robe draped around him elegantly against a black, starry backdrop, looked so goddamned handsome that she wanted to cry.

“Should I... buy some pics?” she muttered, suddenly sad. But even paparazzi usually only sold their photos after the episode aired, so they could avoid potential legal problems. She would get to see him perform in the trailer for episode nine, at the earliest, or on episode ten, if she was unlucky. The prospect left her dizzy.

“The ad... I’ll just work on the ad...”

She opened up the window with the design for a new ad that she planned to have put up before the final episode, and tried to calm down.

But wouldn’t it be nice if I could use a photo from the performance for this ad? With another sigh and a groan, she opened up her social media app again. Her search for good fan accounts continued until the trailer for episode nine was released.

***

Living in Ahyeon’s apartment was, qualitatively, a completely different living experience. Of course, there had been some trouble with the owner of my old apartment when it came time to move out, regarding the busted locks.

Such disputes had been a yearly occurrence even before I ended up in Park Moondae’s body, however, so I wasn’t even upset. What mattered was that I could now sleep in a room without any mold. It was also perfectly soundproofed, which meant I could sleep without needing to use earplugs. The quiet was not something I would get to enjoy today, however.

“Hey! You guys have been enjoying yourselves without me!”

Big Sejin had come over. He had suggested in the group chat that we should watch episode nine together today. When he learned that I was staying at Ahyeon’s apartment for the time being, he marched himself straight over to join us.

“H-hey. Welcome.”

Ahyeon’s only reaction to all this appeared to be happiness. He was the host, so I couldn’t complain. Big Sejin strolled into the living room with a grin, brandishing the board game he’d brought with him.

I guess he really plans to have a good time today.

Bzz.

“Park Moondae, that’s your phone, isn’t it?”

“Oh, yeah.”

I saw my phone buzzing on the table.

[Kim Raebin: Hello. Episode nine is airing today. If you have the time, can we watch it together?]

We were on the same team, so I supposed there was no problem inviting him over. With Big Sejin here, I would be getting no peace and quiet today, anyway.

“Raebin wants to watch with us. Should I tell him to come?”

“Huh? I’m all for it!”

“S-sounds good!”

Looks like no one minds. I sent Kim Raebin a casual text explaining the situation, and his reply arrived quickly.

[Kim Raebin: Uh... Cha Eugene is with me. Can he also come?]

Kim Raebin, are you serious?