Jayble came to HS’s fanmeeting venue for the stage they were going to share.
He almost headed for the green room, but using the excuse that he didn’t want to sit with bright-eyed baby singers, he went to the sound booth that looked down over the stage.
“Oh, Mr. Jayble….”
When the HS camp spotted him, they sprang up in surprise to greet him. He waved them back down to sit.
The HS camp knew the new song being unveiled today was a collab album the two had made together.
But they didn’t know the two of them would be participating as vocalists, so in their eyes lingered the doubt, “Were they really this close?”
Right.
They hadn’t expected him to come personally watch HS’s fan meeting.
It’s not like I can tell them…
Pretending not to notice the suspicious looks, Jayble sat down.
Kyaaaaaaaaa—!
An enormous cheer made him turn his gaze to the stage, where some silly bear paw was swishing through the air.
Wiggle, wiggle.
Fans are, well, fans.
Wiggle, wiggle.
They screamed even for a half-hearted little bit of footwork(?).
— Hey, ho! Mommy Bear!
From the gesture like he was slicking back his hair,
— Hey, ho! Brother Bear!
to folding his arms like a cool guy and bobbing,
— Hey, ho! Baby Bear
to pressing bear paws to both his cheeks (helmet) in the so-called bbuing-bbuing1 pose.
— Hey, ho! Our family is happy!
The man—presumably HS—wearing bear-paw gloves was doing a truly half-hearted yet oddly detailed “choreography.”
Click, click—!
Flashes flared nonstop from the fan seats as cameras framed the bear-paw man clowning around.
Seriously.
Is that really HS? Seeing as no one would know who it was because of the helmet anyway, could he have hired a stand-in?
— Baby Bear loves Mommy Bear and Brother Bear more than anything in the world.
Just then, as Jayble was hawk-eyed at HS—
“I wuv Mommy Beaw and Bwother Beaw the most tooo—.”
A cute kid’s voice piped up nearby.
Whip!
The voice’s owner, a little girl, burrowed into the arms of a man she’d never met and rubbed her cheek against him.
‘Ha… da… cute… so cute….’
Jayble suppressed the urge to take that kid and make a children’s song on the spot.
“Fwame-mark Man, I wuv you the most too—.”
His ears perked at the tiny mouth forming the words.
Flame-mark Man?
He turned back to the stage thinking it must be some trendy cartoon character—only to see HS in a helmet emblazoned with a flame mark.
Wait… He’s Flame-mark Man?
Are the kid and HS close? Well, if they’re here together, they must be.
A niece, maybe?
Watching the chubby cheeks jiggle as the kid stuck up a stubby thumb and lisped “Fwam-mark Man izh the besht!”
For the first time, Jayble felt a desire for that childish helmet with the flame mark on it.
Hey, ho—!!!!!!
As the fans chanted “Hey, ho” in unison, HS’s little clown show came to an end.
But Jayble’s attention was fixed entirely on the helmet HS had on. On the way in, it had looked like they were selling them at the merch booth….
Think there’ll be any left?
Struck by an idea mid-mull, Jayble slipped straight out of the sound booth.
At that very moment, HS whipped off the bear paws and shot one arm straight up toward the sky.
“E—Etchis!”
Paper Doll’s “A.N.P” challenge was about to begin.
The fan meeting was heading for its final stretch, with only the long-awaited new song reveal left to go.
Meanwhile, in the green room, Jayble and HS were having a secret little pow-wow about the closing finale stage.
Backstage, Ahn Jiho, Jung Arin, and Kim Bomi were loosening up with tense faces, getting ready to take the stage.
And in the sound booth, the HS camp and the siblings Dojun and Dohee waited brimming with anticipation for the stage to begin.
“For those invited to today’s fan meeting, I imagine this is the moment you’ve been waiting for most!”
Center stage, the MC worked the room in a taut voice, ratcheting up the fans’ expectations.
Sure enough.
Sensing what was coming next, the fans screamed themselves hoarse in response.
Kyaaaaaaaaaaa—!
The MC nodded, satisfied, and continued.
“That’s right. We’re going to unveil HS’s new solo album here, for the fans only!”
Then, like a master of push-and-pull, he hushed the excitement in a heartbeat with a smooth “Shhh—!”
“Before that, there’s something we need you, our fans, to observe. Since it hasn’t been officially released yet, you’ll need to ensure nothing gets leaked, right?”
From the fan seats came shouts of, “Of course!”
“Please refrain from all filming and recording and keep it only in your eyes and your hearts.”
After a beat, the MC added:
“You’ve all come here out of love for HS—this much you can keep, right?”
As expected, “Yessir—!” rang out strong from the seats.
Soon.
The MC flipped a cue card and adjusted his mic.
“Then let’s unveil the long-awaited solo album tracks! Please enjoy yourselves to the fullest!”
With that, as he walked off, the lights on stage went to black.
— Tok, tok.
Suddenly the sound of heels rang through the speakers.
The fans buzzed—maybe HS was going to come out himself?
Flash!
A spotlight fell center stage.
— Vil, Vil, Villain
With a devil’s-whisper voice, Ahn Jiho appeared.
“Gasp!”
At the sudden arrival of The Moon’s leader, fans clapped hands over their mouths.
‘That—can’t be—!’
With his restrained yet intense performance and husky low midrange, HS’s fans were laid flat, helpless.
Right.
Since this had to be something HS prepared for the fans, they should cheer hard out of respect. They were not looking away.
HS, I’m sorry!
Soon the fans were chanting “Ahn Jiho!” in unison.
In an instant the hall had turned into Ahn Jiho’s solo fan meeting.
And that wasn’t all.
After another blackout, under bright lights, out came Jung Arin, famous for her unusually large female fandom.
— If it’s for you, I can do anything.
Her signature voice, fresh yet pure, made listeners feel healed without trying.
“Wow, to hear Jung Arin live….”
With a calm yet lively song, fans waved their hands and drank in Jung Arin’s voice.
Even just that would have been a feast for eyes and ears….
“W-what is this?”
Next came Kim Bomi, a powerhouse dance vocalist.
“Uh, uh?”
Fans let out breathy little laughs, as if they didn’t even have the strength to be surprised anymore.
“This is what ‘the form is insane’ was made for….”
Right now, in this moment…
HS’s fans were all thinking the same thing.
This isn’t a fan meeting….
Isn’t “mini-concert” the right word?
After HS’s clowning and the string of guest stages, the fans had screamed and gasped on repeat and were left spent.
“Haa….”
It was such a packed, generous fan meeting that they wondered if it was really okay to see and enjoy all this without paying a cent.
Right.
Jin Miso felt like even if they told her to leave right now, she could walk out with no regrets.
After a long fangirl life endured with not a crumb of bait, the payoff had finally come.
HS…
She clutched the helmet printed in the center of the T-shirt she was wearing (bought today).
You really are the best!
But why was this blackout so long?
With Kim Bomi off, it should have been time either for the next singer’s stage or for HS and the MC to come out for closing words….
“W-what’s going on?”
For several minutes the hall stayed sunk in pitch black.
“Power outage?”
Anxious murmurs bubbled up and quickly filled the hall.
“Try turning on your phone flash.”
Phone flashlights winked on here and there—and then went dark again.
— ♬ ♬ ♬
Suddenly, singing came out.
Another guest singer?
As Jin Miso’s eyes adapted to the dark, two silhouettes came into view.
— Everyone curses me; they call me the bad one.
A reddish light poured down softly over one person’s head.
— But that’s your standard, isn’t it.
She caught sight of HS’s signature helmet with the flame mark.
HS is rapping himself?
People clapped hands over their mouths and then couldn’t even breathe, blinking with eyes like saucers.
Unlike the fans, HS calmly let the rap slip out along with his breath through the slightly open slit of his shield.
— What do you know about me that you’re flapping your mouth? Everyone’s got their reasons.
Jin Miso slapped her own cheek hard enough to make a crack.
N-not a dream.
Fighting the urge to capture it with her camera, she brushed her hair behind her ear.
— Yeah, I move for money and live for money. So what?
Just to hear HS’s voice even a little better.
Then from stage right, a bluish light spilled down, and the silhouette of another man wearing a helmet with a flame mark appeared.
“Huh?”
What on earth? Was HS using some kind of shadow-clone technique? Jin Miso looked back and forth between two HS’s, hands clapped over her mouth again.
Ah….
Judging by the build, the one on the right was probably HS….
Then…
Who was the one on the left?
— That’s why I’m singing this with this guy, isn’t it?
Leaving the unanswered question behind…
— Listen up: this is a duet of Mozart and Salieri.
The man on the right—presumably the real HS—brought the mic to the slit in his shield.
— In just one year my life changed far too much.
Then a mid-low voice stroked the eardrums softly, like whipped cream.
— The standards that once pointed at me now swing toward others.
The fans were simply dumbfounded, struggling even to grasp what was happening.
— Someone will curse me; that’s only natural. If need be, I’ll play the villain.
From the body alone, you could tell the one on the right was HS and yet they couldn’t erase the doubt,
Is that really HS?
— Fine, I’ll be me and live only thinking about me.
On the other hand, if it really was a song HS was singing, they wanted to carry it away into their ears without a speck of noise.
— And still, you’re at my side—those names engraved in my heart.
He carried the chorus in a gentle vocal then…
— I couldn’t say it; the word “too much” is embarrassing to speak. But I think you know.
Facing each other, the two started walking toward dead center.
Thump, thump—
The melody slowly faded with the sound of their steps.
— That I’m grateful to you.
In unison they finished the last line, then turned their bodies slightly for a side-on ending pose.
Then at the same moment, the two removed their helmets and showed their profiles.
“….”
For a heartbeat a dousing silence fell.
Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!!!
In an instant, the hall turned into a madhouse—HS’s sudden face-reveal had attacked the crowd.
T/N: This chapter is: Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa! Aaahhh! Hahaha!
- The “bbuing-bbuing” pose is a cute, playful gesture in K-pop and Korean culture, often associated with aegyo (acting cute). ↩︎
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