Chapter 282 : Paper Cranes (1)
Chapter 282: Paper Cranes (1)
Bzzzz—.
The voices reaching my ears kept scattering in every direction.
It sounded like the hyungs were each giving their closing remarks…
But I couldn't really hear them.
Because every ounce of my concentration was focused on keeping my emotions under control.
Jin Sehyun, Cha Seongbin, Seo Ian, Kang Siwoo….
One after another, the members' lips moved.
After making a full round, the microphone had somehow found its way back to me.
Ha Junseo flashed a grin as he patted me on the back.
With trembling hands, I accepted the microphone.
“Don't cry! Don't cry! Don't cry!”
By then, the digital billboard was already displaying my reddened eyes in full.
I desperately held back the tears that kept threatening to spill over.
Letting out an awkward laugh, I finally spoke.
The emotions burst forth.
Feelings always surged up from the depths of my heart without warning.
“I….
I really wasn't going to cry….”
Judging by how violently my voice was trembling, it was already hopeless.
“Hngh.”
Just thinking about how this would be immortalized forever made me dizzy.
The corners of my hyungs' mouths had already curled upward without the slightest attempt to hide it.
I squeezed my eyes shut and forced the words out.
“Ah, I'm sorry.
It's just…
Whenever I stand here, I get this really strange feeling.”
Everything I had missed while desperately running forward—
When I looked at it from here, it all sparkled beautifully again.
An indescribable emotion kept quietly creeping up inside me.
Fine.
I admitted it.
Maybe…
I really did love the stage.
Maybe I truly loved this stage—
The one I thought I would never be able to stand on again for the rest of my life.
“There were a lot of difficult moments before I made it here.”
Unlike Seo Haim, I wasn't just talking about preparing for the concert.
Including my previous life, the possibility of me ever standing on stage again had been unbelievably small.
“But out of all those countless choices, I'm glad I always picked the right one.
Thanks to that, I can still stand here on this stage.
I'm endlessly grateful for all of it….”
Even now, the tears kept streaming down my face without any sense of timing.
“Hngh.”
I swallowed another awkward laugh before continuing in a trembling voice.
“From now on…
I'll keep living as a kind Do Seohan….”
[Mam-Seohan's ‘That Acceptance Speech’ Is Back]
Yesterday's first Seoul concert lol
Mam-Seohan's face slowly turned red while the hyungs were giving their closing remarks, and in the end he cried.
But while sniffling, he goes, lol,
“I'll keep living as a kind person.” LOL
Why does every single one of his speeches always end up there??
Wait, isn't this the same brown-haired kid who said he'd live kindly at the Starf debut announcement?
└LOL YES.
└I saw that back then too, and he was so cute I wanted to stuff him into my mouth. LOL
└???: “I'm 180 cm, though.”
└Too big to fit in your mouth….
A giant hamster….
An idol who's been active for two years without even the tiniest scandal but somehow sounds like he's delivering a confession every time he gives a speech.
└Seriously. He's never had a single scandal, yet he's always like this. LOL
└And because he's crying while doing it, if you changed the background it'd look like a press conference.;;;
└A press conference LOL.
Okay, little hamster.
Calmly explain what exactly you did wrong.
└The only thing Seohan did wrong was deceiving Dustys by showing his abs for only one second.
└Nope. Do Hamjji, do whatever you want~
└Don't bully our baby.
└LOL look at everyone's reactions.
└This fandom really raises their youngest with more love than any other group….
└Anyway, if he's cute, everything's forgiven.
[So what's the final verdict on Schrödinger's Abs?]
For those who were there, do you think they actually exist?
Absolutely not!!
Seohan has a baby tummy.
└Wasn't Seohan working out really hard lately?
└That's for his health.
└LOL.
Long-lived hamster.
└This reminds me of Mam-Seohan shutting down every single temptation from his hyungs.
I was there.
When Jin Sehyun made the Schrödinger's Abs joke, I heard Seo Haim quietly ask whether Mr. Schrödinger had abs too.
└HOLY CRAP LOL.
Haim. LOL
└So… did he have them?
└???
└Please stop. LOL
└Schrödinger's Abs, seriously.
Apparently someone actually captured it during that split second….
└LOL why is everyone so unnecessarily serious about this? ㅠㅠ
└The image quality is too bad to verify.
└The truth is known only by Seohan and the members….
└Please protect our soft little hamster.
Dream the Star.
With the Seoul concerts marking the beginning of the world tour now finished, the community was flooded nonstop with reviews from fans who had attended.
Although Gocheok Dome's roughly 50,000 seats had been relatively spacious, Seohan couldn't help regretting,
If we'd known every seat would sell out, we should've booked an even bigger venue….
But the ones who regretted it even more were the fans who had missed the concert.
[After watching the Silhouette concert fancam, I hate myself for not getting tickets.]
What was that insanely dangerous black mesh outfit?
Why did I fail at ticketing? ㅠㅠㅠ
Why couldn't I see that? ㅠㅠㅠ
Please, I'm begging you, Doubles. ㅠㅠ
Please give us an encore concert. ㅠㅠ
Same.
Seriously, how do you suddenly perform a legendary B-side you've never done before there?;;
└2222.
Nobody saw that setlist coming.
└The fact that they even made brand-new choreography because they wanted to perform songs fans loved was legendary.
└Who choreographed it?
└Do Seohan and Kang Siwoo!!!
└Holy crap.
The members made it themselves?
We are getting an encore concert, right?
Please tell me yes.
└I have a feeling they will.
└Someone ask during the Stargram Live.
└Encore is 100%.
There's no way they won't.
.
.
.
.
A cramped semi-basement room swallowed by pitch-black darkness.
On the desk, without even a single light turned on, sat a lone laptop.
Playing endlessly on its screen was a fancam from Stardust's recent concert.
The fancam had already surpassed 300,000 views, and beneath it, countless fangirling comments poured in one after another.
I almost passed out watching the giant screen at the venue, but seeing it again on a bigger screen… yeah… this is amazing.
You guys seriously know what you're doing. Legendary.
Teacher, this is so blessed that I'm turning my mobile data on just to watch it. Thank you. I love you….
Do Seohan's face is way too delicious. I can't resist.
Scroll.
Scroll.
The page flew downward without stopping.
A woman with long, straight hair hanging loose nervously bit her lower lip as she moved the mouse.
As she read through more than three hundred comments one by one, her anxiety only grew stronger.
Frowning, she swallowed hard.
“Haa….”
Ordinarily, seeing so many fans love her boys would have been something to be grateful for.
But the rage rising from the depths of her heart wasn't born from ordinary possessiveness.
Her bloodshot eyes turned back toward the monitor.
The woman returned the video to the very beginning.
She had already watched it so many times that she had long since lost count.
She replayed the fancam over and over until dawn.
It was repetition bordering on obsession.
On the screen, Do Seohan continuously performed the killing part of <Silhouette>.
He was shining.
That was the problem.
Because wherever a beautiful light existed, insects would inevitably gather around it.
Biting her fingernails, the woman murmured quietly,
“Haa….
It feels like everyone likes you way too much.”
Her heart became increasingly restless.
“That can't happen.”
Scroll.
Scroll.
“It really can't….”
The endlessly descending scroll suddenly stopped.
The woman's hand gripping the mouse trembled violently.
“You're mine.”
Blood slowly seeped from where she had bitten down hard on her lower lip.
The three-day concert finally came to an end.
Stretching, I loosened my stiff body.
Every muscle ached as though I'd been beaten from head to toe.
After pushing myself that hard for three straight days, it was only natural.
“Do Seohan, sleep well?”
Just then, Cha Seongbin walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water.
He'd been pestering everyone for days about having a company dinner after the concert, yet he had been the very first person to collapse from exhaustion yesterday.
I chuckled and nodded.
“What about you, hyung?
You practically passed out yesterday.”
“Of course I was tired~.
It wasn't two days—it was three.
But how are you perfectly fine…?”
“Hm?”
“If you cried that much, your eyes should've been swollen this morning—ack!”
He really had a talent for saying only the things that got him hit.
“Why are you bringing it up now~?
It's not exactly anything new!
It's not like you've only cried once or twice.”
“Please respect my mysterious image.”
Anyway, just pretend it never happened!
“You had a mysterious image?
Wow.
That's the first time I've heard that in all twenty-three years of my life~.”
Cha Seongbin clicked his tongue as he patted my head.
It was frustrating, but I had no argument.
Objectively speaking, I'd cried way too openly yesterday.
Taking another sip of water, Cha Seongbin smiled.
The exhaustion had faded a little from his face as he continued.
“Still, I'm glad the concert's over.
This one was pretty brutal.”
“Over…?
It's only just beginning.”
“……”
Thunk.
Cha Seongbin quietly set his glass down.
His expression darkened.
“Ten countries.”
“Uh….”
“Our goal is a total audience of one million, isn't it?
If anything, we're only going to get busier from here.”
This wasn't the time to say it was over.
Draining the rest of his cold water in one gulp, Cha Seongbin shrugged.
“The more the better.
I've always loved performing on stage!”
Yeah.
That was exactly what everyone had said when they first agreed to it.
But now…
After finishing the Seoul concerts…
“So, how many performances was it again?”
“Hyung, your hands are shaking.”
“Oh dear.”
When your hands trembled and your legs gave out, that was simply the natural order of things.
With a flushed face, Cha Seongbin repeatedly cleared his throat.
*'It might be pushing everyone too hard….
But I want to try it.
Ten countries.
One million audience members.'*
*'I understand what you're saying.
But physically, it's impossible.'*
Back then, Chief Song Jinha had immediately shot me down.
'One million audience members sounds ridiculously cool….'
*'Hey!
We're tough!
We can do it!'*
*'I honestly wouldn't mind collapsing on stage.
Because that's what being a musician is all about.'*
—Thanks to the members enthusiastically supporting it while saying all kinds of ridiculous nonsense like that, the plan had gone ahead.
They were probably all regretting it now.
“Well then.”
Cha Seongbin flopped onto the sofa, flailing both arms.
Judging by his expression, he was definitely regretting his past self.
In a dying voice, he muttered,
“Life…
Please save me.”
Just then.
The sound of someone entering the door lock echoed through the apartment, followed by the front door creaking open.
Cha Seongbin sat up from the sofa.
“Oh, everyone's already awake.”
Manager Lee Jaeyoon had arrived early in the morning to pick us up for the music video shoot.
He walked in carrying a large plastic container in one hand.
My eyes immediately went to it.
“What's that?”
“Someone left it outside the entrance.
Paper cranes.”
Paper cranes?
Cha Seongbin recoiled as he frowned deeply.
The container was packed with colorful paper cranes—
At a glance, there had to be nearly a thousand of them.
“Holy….
How many are there?”
“I'll throw them away, so don't worry about it.”
“No, why would someone leave this here?
I appreciate the effort, but….”
Instinctively, warning bells started blaring in my head.
That was a sasaeng.