Now a free man, Yoo Chang-seon, no, civilian Yoo Chang-seon.
What he wanted to do the most after being discharged was…
See his parents?
Nope.
Travel with friends?
Nope.
Get a girlfriend?
That’s impossible anyway.
What he really wanted was to meet Ha Ye-rin in person.
Upon being discharged, he immediately pondered ways to actually meet her, but of course, it wasn’t easy.
At first, he looked into showcase tickets, but the competition was fierce, and scalper prices soared into the millions.
Next, he thought maybe he could meet Ye-rin at a concert, but there was no way the newly debuted Rookies would have a concert schedule out yet.
Having been a novice about idols until he could find a way to meet Ha Ye-rin, Yoo Chang-seon was slowly losing hope.
Then one day, while digging through Rookies-related social media, he stumbled upon information about audience tickets for a music show.
However, even this was determined by lottery among an enormous number of fans, so he applied with half-hearted desperation.
And… he won.
Wowwwww-!!
When he first heard the news, he was thrilled to the point of jumping, but winning didn’t mean the end of his troubles.
[Recording Time: 5 AM.]
“…Huh?”
When he heard ‘recording’, he suddenly thought of the name of that map in a video game.
But it wasn’t that kind of recording.
It was the so-called pre-recording.
He found out that the live show starting at 5 PM couldn’t have all the idols appearing live, so they pre-recorded it at the set before that.
Thus, to see Ye-rin, he had to head to the broadcasting station at the ungodly hour of 5 AM.
Of course, just because it was 5 AM didn’t mean he could just show up whenever he wanted.
“Aah… I’m tired… Why do I feel like I’m on night duty even after being discharged…?”
Private Yoo Chang-seon woke up at 2 AM and managed to arrive at the broadcasting station around 3 AM…
Crowd noises.
Buzzing.
“…What is this?”
Contrary to his expectation that he’d be among the first fans to arrive, the broadcasting station was packed to the brim.
Approximately 200 fans had been awarded tickets.
All fans wanted to see Rookies up close.
Yoo Chang-seon had no idea fans had been queuing since the night before for a 5 AM recording.
He stood there in a daze, lining up behind the crowd for the audience tickets.
By the way, to attend as an audience, several preparations were needed, the most representative being proof of pre-order for Rookies’ album.
After going through various confirmations with the staff regarding his receipt and ID, he finally obtained his audience ticket.
Finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, Yoo Chang-seon looked around.
Everyone there was a fan of Rookies… and most of them were women.
This was a stark contrast to his initial assumption that there would be many male fans since they were a girl group.
‘They all seem like crazy fans…’
If there were this many people for a girl group, how many women would be swarming for a boy group?
Yoo Chang-seon couldn’t understand why idol fans strived so much.
No matter how much they dedicated themselves, idols wouldn’t date them, so what was the point of losing sleep just to see them for a moment?
To him, everyone there seemed like fools wasting their effort.
Of course…
He was one of those fools too.
Feeling tired from being up so early, and overwhelmed by the crowd…
“I got Yoo-jung’s photocard this time!”
“Wow! Where did you get that?!”
Most of the female fans whispered among themselves, casting side-eyes at the few male fans…
“Excuse me, but…”
“…Yes?”
“You’re too tall, so even though there’s no height restriction, tall people usually get assigned to the edges.”
“…What?!”
Being tall meant losing a good spot…
Anyway, Yoo Chang-seon’s rising fatigue and frustration were beginning to hit hard.
‘…Ugh, this is awful. Should I not come next time?’
Sure, he couldn’t give up on liking Ye-rin, but did he really need to see her in person?
He could just watch her on his phone in a comfy spot at home.
As he sighed, vowing to not go to such places again…
‘Ah, I’m sleepy…’
Just as he started to doze off, a voice rang out.
“Huh? She’s coming!”
Gyaaahhh-!!
“What… what?! Is she really coming?”
Yoo Chang-seon, dozing off, suddenly jerked up at the piercing screams of Rookies’ fans.
The advantage of being on the edge was being able to see the members as they went up on stage closely.
In a daze, he whipped his head around, looking for Ha Ye-rin.
And then…
Wow-.
In his blurry vision, it was as if one person was shining with their own light…
‘Ah…’
He found the girl glowing in bright white light.
The star who had been with him during his military service…
His eternal star.
Ha Ye-rin.
Choked up.
Seeing her in real life made him feel like he was about to tear up.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she walked past him, the few seconds feeling like an eternity…
But…
‘Oh no…!’
Time that he wished would never end was flying by.
For a moment, he was dazed, and Ha Ye-rin was heading toward the stage.
In a panic, he opened his mouth, trying to say something to her.
“Y-Ye-rin…!”
There he faced a dilemma.
What should he call her…?
“Ye-rin.”
That felt too casual and rude.
“Ye-rin-ssi.”
That felt too formal and stiff.
‘S-So how should I call her…?’
Brush.
While he was lost in thought over something trivial, Ha Ye-rin was passing by.
Yoo Chang-seon ended up calling her whatever popped into his head.
“Y-Yeah, Ye-rin-chan…!!”
And then regretted it.
Damn.
“Ye-rin-chan” – what kind of a nickname is that, not even a proper weeb!
He never imagined that watching a little anime post-discharge would lead to this kind of snowball effect.
As he felt immense embarrassment, his face turned red.
Stop!
‘…Huh?’
…A miracle happened.
Ha Ye-rin, heading for the stage, momentarily paused at the sound of his “Ye-rin-chan.”
Spin.
She turned her body around…
Smile.
And with a small smile, she waved at him.
“……!!”
Fans of Ha Ye-rin would know.
How precious her small smile was.
And… how beautiful it was.
“……”
There is a famous line in poetry.
“When I called his name, he came to me and turned into a flower.”
I always thought it was just a metaphor…
But when Ha Ye-rin smiled and waved at him…
“……”
…He turned to stone.
Frozen in place, forgetting even how to breathe.
“Puhah…, haah…”
It wasn’t until one minute and thirty seconds later, when he could no longer hold his breath, that he regained his senses.
“Haah…, haah…”
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
He felt his heart racing wildly with hyperventilation, realizing.
‘This is why everyone comes to see idols…’
The feeling of seeing an idol he had only seen through media in real life was… electrifying.
It felt like seeing a character from his favorite manga or anime in reality.
“Ha Ye-rin-!!! Ha Ye-rin-!!!”
Having regained his composure, he cheered for Ha Ye-rin on stage, pledging even greater loyalty to her.
*
The recording time was at 5 AM.
Before that, we had to finish all the preparations, including outfits, hair, and makeup, so our day started at 1 AM.
Even I, who was confident in my stamina, found it challenging.
“Aahhh…, hmmm…”
Especially Seo Yoo-jin, with low stamina stats, was nearly dying.
The other members also showed signs of fatigue from the tough schedule, but…
Wowww-!!
“……!”
“Wow, even this early in the morning… everyone…”
We were able to regain our spirit upon seeing the fans gathered early in the dawn.
Later, I heard that fans had been queuing up at the broadcasting station before we even woke up.
Among them, some even seemed to be…
“Y-Yeah, Ye-rin-chan…!!”
‘A Japanese person…?’
There was someone who looked like a foreign fan.
Feeling genuinely grateful, I waved at the foreign fan and headed up to the stage.
Since it was a pre-recording, we had plenty of time on stage.
Most of the fans in the audience waved the light pink lightsticks that symbolized our Rookies since Na Ah Ah, creating a feeling as if we were having a solo concert.
Don’t come any closer!
This is the distance between you and me!
“Don’t come-!!”
As Lee Hye-jeong began singing the first line, a loud cheer erupted from the audience.
I was momentarily stunned but soon realized what was happening.
‘The cheering method.’
It was the fan cheer method I’d seen in other girl group music show clips as part of my prep.
I had wished Rookies could have something like that…
It seemed they had already created a cheering method not long after the release of [Secret Girl].
Feeling so thankful for that, a genuine smile kept blooming on my face.
It seemed today’s Sky Demon Enchantment would have a truly astounding effect.
