At that time, even though it was only the pre-meeting, Cheonghyeon felt completely drained.
Back then he had agreed because he felt sorry about his circumstances, but he should have firmly said to terminate the contract right then.
He had planned to keep quiet this year, end the contract, and go live an ordinary life, but strangely it felt like things kept piling up.
“I need to quit quickly and make a fresh start.”
Since it was on his mind, he searched the internet for civil servants. His straight fingers swiped smoothly across the glossy screen.
The first related search terms that popped up were… hmm.
“Tax thief”
“Iron rice bowl”
As expected, there was nothing different from what he had received in memory from the reaper.
Since they were paid by the state, their pay never got delayed, and their retirement age was strictly guaranteed. Go to work in the morning and get off at 4 p.m.?
In every country, it seems the administrative managers are living the easy life.
He knew that civil servants’ salaries were very stingy. But what mattered to Cheonghyeon was not money.
As for money, the previous Gi Cheonghyeon had already piled up plenty of it.
He simply wanted to belong to some group and do work there in an ordinary way.
A place that needed him because there was work he was responsible for and a job that would not grind him down so much that he could still have his own time.
During his days as a prince living in the Ivory Palace, he did no work at all.
No, no one gave him any work. He would lie on the hammock set out in the rear garden and look up at the sky, tend the garden, read books.
Sometimes he even felt envious of the attendants who had fixed duties.
There, he spent his time just letting it flow by with no particular goal. Ennui does not get resolved. It just piles up and up and makes a person powerless.
Kasas, with horns, called out
A river where gold flows, a mountain where jewels grow
Will you not go to Euopae
Where there are beautiful fairies and sweet food
Will you not go to Euopae
Only you, only you
It is a gift given only to you who have endured all these trials….
Like an auditory hallucination, a song circled around his ears. It was a song that the young attendants often sang when he was in the Empire.
Kasas was a divine beast handed down in legend, and Euopae was the land of the gods.
It was a common folk song saying that hardships suffered in this world are repaid in the next, and it suddenly came to mind now.
A small, old memory flowed out along a melody. Perhaps this place that needed him and acknowledged his existence might be his Euopae.
Of course, he really liked this place, but being a celebrity was too hard a job.
They had to film an entire day for a video that was not even an hour long, and before that he had to stop by the shop to get dolled up.
A year from now I am definitely quitting being an idol.
If the previous Cheonghyeon heard that, he would probably scream, “Are you crazy?”
He rolled around on the bed thinking only that. Rest, how sweet….
“Hyun. Do you maybe want to try doing a V App tomorrow?”
“V App?”
“Yeah. Given the mood, we did decide to postpone the birthday party…. But if your birthday just passes by, the fans will be really disappointed. For this, you do not even have to stop by the shop or anything. Just think of it as comfortably communicating with fans, like a video call, and it will be easier.”
“How long do I have to do it?”
“The timing is up to you. You are just chatting lightly with the fans.”
At the fairly not-bad conditions, when Cheonghyeon readily nodded, the manager suddenly pulled out a phone and a tripod from behind his back.
“What is- what is this?”
“Since today is the 16th, you should do it at midnight going into the 17th. Here, 15 minutes left.”
“Ah, hyung!! You said tomorrow.”
“Once it passes 12, that is tomorrow.”
Apparently expecting he would give permission, the manager ignored the dissatisfied tone and mounted the phone on the tripod.
It was a product from S Company boasting the highest image quality among phones on the market.
Even though the manager himself used a phone from A Company, he had come very well prepared, that much was obvious.
“Cheonghyeon, are you going to just sit like that? You are still appearing in front of the fans, so how about at least putting on a nicer top? Of course, the white T-shirt you have on now has a natural charm, but still.”
Knowing that he was oddly weak to the fans and always browsed the communities at night to watch the fans hanging out, the manager tossed it out there, and Cheonghyeon dashed off to the bathroom.
After washing his face, he tried to style his hair here and there with water like Director Sim had done, but it was no use.
Where did Henry One, Two, and Three all go?
Without Hando, Sikyung, and Yunwoo, getting ready was too hard.
His heart was urgent but his hands were clumsy, and he kept fumbling.
When the manager said there were 10 minutes left, Cheonghyeon gave up on styling and roughly towel-dried his hair. For now, he needed to rummage through the closet and find the coolest top.
When he passed by the manager coming out of the bathroom, he pretended to be calm and said, “Take your time setting up,” but the moment he entered the room he hurriedly flung open the closet door.
“Why are all his clothes these kinds of colors?”
Yellow, sky blue, pink. As he rummaged through, he heard the manager calling, and he quickly grabbed a pink sweatshirt that came to hand and put it on.
“I am going to go shopping first thing tomorrow.”
Gritting his teeth, Cheonghyeon took his seat in front of the camera. On the wall, who knew when it had been put up, there was a small banner and balloons that read “HAPPY B-DAY Cheonghyeon!” They really came prepared.
3, 2, 1, ding!
Whether it had been scheduled in advance or not, the V App started the moment it hit midnight, but Cheonghyeon, flustered, just stared blankly.
Hyung, you have to explain how to do this!
He rolled his eyes around and looked at the screen, and question marks poured up in the comments from fans.
Then, as if everyone grasped what this surprise V App was, they flooded the comment window with “♡To our beloved Cheonghyeon, happy birthday♡.”
His cheeks, already flushed from the hurried prep, turned even redder as he saw the incoming comments. He cleared his throat a few times shyly and opened his mouth.
“Uh, um. Thank you for celebrating my birthday.”
He said he was calming down, but his voice trembled slightly.
Overwhelmed by a sudden rush of emotion, at first he did not even have the presence of mind to properly read the comments. The speed at which comments were going up was also very fast.
The manager had also given him a heads-up that bad comments could show up, so he did not have to read them at all.
He said he would leave a list of questions where the camera would not catch it, and that he could answer as if that question had come up in the chat.
But after he settled down a little and looked at the comment window, what was written there was heartfelt worry for him, love and care.
Since he was not particularly good at spinning stories anyway, rather than trying to lead into something, he decided to simply answer the questions the fans were posting in the comments.
“Favorite food? I have not eaten enough varieties to argue likes and dislikes by category, but for now, japchae. The japchae that Hando made a few days ago was really delicious. I had not realized it, but it seems I really like japchae.”
“Ah…. Americano is really not for me. That does not mean I like drinks that are too sweet. The sweetness level of fresh fruit juice seems to suit my taste best.”
Then he flinched when he saw one of the comments that came up.
[Our baby talks like a foreigner who learned Korean properly at a language institute ㅠㅠ lol The way you enunciate each word is so cute]
Although it was quickly buried as countless comments went up, a bead of sweat ran down Cheonghyeon’s back. These sharp people….
As he read a few comments and interacted, this broadcast quickly became familiar to him. He chatted with the fans, losing all track of time.
“What would I have done if I had not become a celebrity? Ah, actually, when I retire from the entertainment industry, I want to try being a civil servant.”
At that, the comment window exploded in an instant.
People wailed about whether he was retiring from being a celebrity, saying things like they had just become a fan yesterday and why was he talking about retiring today, and the fans clamored so much that the stream briefly lagged.
“Of course I am not saying I am retiring right now. I just thought about what I might want to do if a day comes when I set down the job of being a celebrity, and I found I wanted to be a civil servant. People should live while working, and in that case, I thought a civil servant might be good since personal rest time is guaranteed.”
Then, just like when he first turned on the video, strings of question marks continued.
Foreign fans did not seem to understand what he meant and only sent hearts in succession.
Well, it probably meant they would support him no matter what.
Then fans who seemed to be office workers posted comments one after another.
“Let us protect the dreams and hopes of a baby who debuted at 19 and does not know anything about the ways of the world.”
“A civil servant with guaranteed personal rest time? What kind of cyanide that is good for the body is that supposed to be.”
“Is he not just saying in a roundabout way that he is not going to retire,” and so on.
Seeing such comments pour in that fiercely, Cheonghyeon was flustered. He had researched it well on the internet, so was it not like that?
“But work–life balance…. I mean, work–life balance…. Civil servants get off at 4 p.m….”
As he continued, fans who seemed to be civil servants flooded the chat with comments like a torrent.
“A civil servant’s day starts at 4 p.m.”
“Did you search on N Portal? The civil service exam sites advertise like that to lure job seekers.”
“Civil servant is the name for slaves legally worked by the country.”
“A job with truly guaranteed work–life balance is being a building owner,” and so on, the outcry went on.
In the end, thinking he would have to look into it properly again later, he changed the subject.
True, if someone said celebrities only film for the one hour they appear on TV, he would probably also be writing comments this earnestly.
Gently soothing the fans, he shifted his words.
“Otherwise, I want to experience college life. Spend a day enjoying myself while writing a report at a cafe, and when exams approach, study all night and in the morning, ask the professor questions…”
Before he even finished speaking, this time university students posted comments like crazy.
“What is this? Is my Strawberry-Love-Angel-Baby-Fairy picking a fight with college students on the verge of the new semester?”
“Spending a day enjoying yourself while writing a report, in what country’s language is that, my schooling is too short to understand.”
“In the sentence ‘study all night when exams approach and in the morning ask the professor questions,’ I hate every single word,” and so on—the comments poured in explosively.
It seemed he had changed the subject the wrong way…
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