Chapter 45

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“…….”

I carefully removed my hand from the studio apartment’s door handle so as not to make a sound.
I had clearly double-locked it before leaving for the shoot, but coming back, all the locks were undone?

‘The time has come.’

A problem that followed fame: the privacy invasion episode.
It was a problem I had already worried about. I just left it as it was because I had no other solution financially.

‘…For now, there are no important items inside.’

I hadn’t bought much, and I had already packed all my clothes for the shoot, so there was absolutely nothing of value in the studio apartment.

‘Then I should just quietly leave and…’

The moment I thought that far, my smartphone vibrated.

Vrrr!

[Seon Ahyun]

The moment I checked the name on the screen, I realized the problem.
The walls of this studio apartment were like sheets of paper, so there was no soundproofing.

‘I’m screwed.’

I hurriedly moved away from the door.
Then I immediately ran toward the emergency exit.

As soon as I turned the corner in front of the emergency exit and entered a blind spot, I heard the sound of the door opening.

Creak.

I poked my head through the gap and saw the back of a woman’s head as she looked around and went inside.
She looked perfectly normal. The problem was that she was trespassing into someone else’s house, even though I had never seen her before in my life.

Cold sweat trickled down.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

First, I went out to the stairs outside the emergency exit and answered the phone.
The one who called was Seon Ahyun, just as shown on the screen.

-M-Moondae-ya, well… have you not eaten yet?

“I haven’t, but I don’t think now is the time for me to be eating.”

-U-Uh?

“Someone has broken into my house.”

-H- Gasp.

I could hear the sound of Seon Ahyun gasping behind the phone and his parents asking what happened.
Normally, I would have made up an excuse and hung up, but this was not a situation to gloss over just because it was annoying.

‘I should ask them to give me a ride to the police station.’

If I reported it to 112 and a police car was dispatched, it would cause a stir in the neighborhood, and in the worst case, strange rumors might emerge for no reason.
It was the final stage now, so there was no need to give them a pointless excuse.
So I intended to go there myself, explain the situation, and quietly hand them over.

‘I thought it would take ages to call a taxi, but this worked out better.’

-W-Wait. W-We’ll go right now. Come down immediately! W-We have to report…

“I’m going to do it myself. I’m going to the station. I’m sorry, but could you give me a ride to the police station?”

-O-Of course!

I immediately went down the stairs while talking to Seon Ahyun.
I thought I was really experiencing all sorts of things.

* * *

Fortunately, the work proceeded smoothly after that.
Thanks to Seon Ahyun and his parents, who were more terrified than me and rushed to the police station right away, I was able to proceed with the report immediately.

-Pardon? Ah, a woman…

-She is a stranger.

-Ah, I see.

The police seemed a bit indifferent, but they were dispatched anyway.
And here was the whole story that was revealed.

‘I didn’t expect there to be more than one person.’

There were a total of four people inside the studio apartment.
After searching the house together, they were indiscriminately using the tableware and clothes.
It seemed like a few people, who already had a history of stalking other idols, had joined forces, followed me, and then broken into the studio apartment with poor security.

‘I never imagined this.’

I massaged my shoulders with a bitter feeling.
The bigger problem was that the police consistently showed an attitude of not really wanting to arrest them.

‘Was the neighborhood luck bad?’

The four who were caught also didn’t look nervous and kept trying to talk to me while giggling.

-Hey!

-Moondae-ya, can’t you hear me?

-You can hear us. Answer me~

-Park Moondae!

‘It’ll probably be a warning or a fine.’

It seemed like a big problem if I didn’t move out of the studio apartment.

“M-Moondae-ya. Are you okay?”

“Huh? Ah. I’m fine.”

Seon Ahyun restlessly picked up and put down his chopsticks. It was to the point of being embarrassing since I was the one being treated to a meal.
The situation I heard after the work was done was like this.

-W-We were going to eat out nearby, and I thought it would be nice if y-you joined us…

-Ah. So that’s why you called.

-Yeah!

Thanks to that, I ended up joining Seon Ahyun’s family meal.

‘This place is good at galbi.’

I silently put the meat into my mouth. Since I couldn’t sleep, I should at least eat well.

“Goodness, there are really strange people these days. How could they do such a thing…”

“Shouldn’t you contact your parents first?”

Seon Ahyun’s parents were so surprised that they repeated this conversation pattern several times.
Hmm. I pondered for a moment, but just told them the truth.
I had received a lot of help in many ways today and was even being treated to a meal, so I should at least show some sincerity by answering properly.

“There was an accident before… my parents are not around.”

Hup. Looking askance at Seon Ahyun’s father who gasped, his mother asked quietly.

“Is there an adult you can contact separately?”

“None… that comes to mind particularly.”

It was partly because I didn’t know anyone after entering Park Moondae’s body, but ‘Park Moondae’ also had no signs of having a guardian.

‘Looking at it like this, we are really similar.’

It was quite interesting now. I wondered if the similarity in background was among the reasons why I entered Park Moondae’s body.
However, since the atmosphere at the table was sinking like a swamp, let’s fix it first.

“It’s not like this since I was very young. Several circumstances overlapped and it became like this… There are no particular problems in living even now.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Seon Ahyun’s mother smiled instead of making a fuss.

“I see. Since you live alone, you must be busy with many things to do, so thank you so much for taking good care of our Ahyunie.”

“No. I’ve received a lot of help.”

“…….”

At this point, I thought Seon Ahyun would jump up and deny it, but there was no word. Looking back, Seon Ahyun was flipping the meat diligently with his mouth tightly shut.

‘Come to think of it, did he also not know that I don’t have parents?’

Thinking about it, I only told the production team, and it hadn’t been covered on the broadcast since then.
Then he must have been quite surprised, but Seon Ahyun seemed to try his best not to show it.

‘He seems to want that kind of reaction himself.’

Looking at it now, perhaps the reason why Seon Ahyun followed ‘Park Moondae’ around in the early stages of filming also originated from there.

‘Is it because I reacted to Seon Ahyun’s symptoms by passing them off moderately in the first rank evaluation?’

The guess was roughly structured correctly.

‘Well, it’s not an important deduction.’

I shrugged my shoulders and ate more meat. Since there was no other way for now, I should spend today in that studio apartment and find somewhere else to get tomorrow.
However, an unexpected lifeline came down right after the meal.

“Ba-Back there again?”

“Since they were taken away, they won’t come at least today.”

“B-But still…….”

Seon Ahyun and his family, who were horrified by the words that I intended to return to the studio apartment for now, whispered to each other, and I ended up staying at Seon Ahyun’s studio apartment until the next shoot.

“……?”

I didn’t know what it was, but it was a total gain, so let’s shut up and follow.

* * *

Around the time Park Moondae was enjoying the joy of an unexpected residential grade upgrade, people on the internet who had finished the public recording were frantically releasing spoilers.
Because the program was doing so well, at this point, the non-disclosure clause didn’t work at all.
Individually, Cha Yujin was definitely mentioned a lot, but as a team, the team was overwhelming.

-Putting that in the opening, I felt sorry for the next team
-There’s a reason why the ranks are high! They were all so handsome
-I bet the internet will be turned upside down when the stage comes out lol
-Why did Seon Ahyun get cursed? He was so good

There were many people who tried to dampen the mood by saying it was public opinion manipulation by the fans of the participants belonging to the team, but when proof of attendance was uploaded one after another, they quietly left malicious comments and disappeared.
And here was a fansite master of Park Moondae who had been out of her mind all day because neither she nor her acquaintances had won the public recording.
She was the very person who had secretly hidden a camera in the first team match and settled on Park Moondae.

‘Was my personal network this lacking?’

Since she was a participant in a survival show whose fandom had not been formed for long, she had refrained from making friends as much as possible as a named account, and what came back was defeat in the information war.
She clicked on the current popular post with trembling hands.

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[I went to the recording. (Photo included) (361)]

: This was the first time I’ve been to something like this, so I went with a fluttering heart, and it was really worth it just to see Moondae’s face ㅠㅠ

Moondae came out as the first team, wearing a rabbit mask and hanbok. He looked like a character from a fusion fantasy historical drama. He was so cool that I couldn’t resist… and took a quick shot ㅠㅠ

And the saying that stages are all about the broadcast is really nonsense. He was so good that my heart is still fluttering ㅠㅠ

His singing was really at a post-human level and he danced well, too. I don’t know where the kids who keep chanting that he can’t do it are coming from.

I’ll write detailed impressions below!

…….

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She was reading the post word by word, and couldn’t stand the mention of taking a photo and scrolled down rapidly.
Below was a photo of Park Moondae’s upper body wearing a rabbit mask tilted and a durumagi.

“Ack!!”

Park Moondae with blonde hair, wearing a navy durumagi against a black background with shining starlight, was really damn handsome and made her heart sad.

‘Should I… buy the data?’

She muttered, unable to overcome her sadness. However, those who sold data usually sold these things after the broadcast to avoid legal problems.
As she imagined that appearance, which could be seen in the Episode 9 preview at the earliest and the Episode 10 broadcast at the latest, her head spun.

“…Let’s, let’s look at the advertisements…….”

She tried to pull herself together while bringing up a new advertisement draft to be posted before the final episode on the screen.

‘No, but if I use the photo from that time for this advertisement too! It would be great!’

And she accessed SNS while howling again.
Her daily routine of searching for recording reviews continued until the Episode 9 preview came out.

* * *

Staying at Seon Ahyun’s studio apartment provided a life qualitatively different from when living in the studio apartment.
Of course, there was a headache in the middle due to the compensation problem for the damaged entrance door lock with the studio apartment owner.
But that was something that had happened as an annual event even before entering Park Moondae’s body, so there was nothing particularly upsetting.
The intermediate part was sleeping in a room without mold. And the fact that I could sleep without earplugs because of the good soundproofing also played a part.
However, the joy of a noiseless environment was not an advantage I could enjoy today.

“No, I can’t believe you guys were having fun by yourselves!”

It was because Lee Sejin came to play.
Lee Sejin, who was noisy in the same-age group chat saying let’s watch Episode 9 together today, suddenly accelerated when I said I was staying at Seon Ahyun’s house, and eventually broke in from the morning.

“W-Welcome!”

Seon Ahyun just looked happy. It meant that I wasn’t in a position to say anything if the owner of the house liked it.
Lee Sejin entered the living room with a grin and took out a board game he had brought.

…He seemed to have every intention of playing properly.

Vrrr.

“Isn’t that a contact for Park Moondae?”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

I confirmed that the smartphone I left on the table was vibrating.

[Kim Raebin: Hello, hyung. Today is the day Episode 9 airs. If you have time, could we watch it together?]

Well, since we were on the same team anyway, I thought it wouldn’t matter if he joined here.
Since a quiet viewing was out of the question the moment Lee Sejin was here, it would be fine.

“Raebin says let’s watch Episode 9 together. Shall we call him?”

“Huh? I’m all for it~”

“T-That’s good!”

A unanimous vote came out immediately.
I sent a text message to Kim Raebin explaining the situation without much thought.
Then a reply came after a short interval.

[Kim Raebin: Um… Cha Yujin is also here. Would it be okay if we watched together?]

“…….”

Hey, that’s a bit…….