“Seungbeom-ssi, that stalker who was recently following you and got doxxed, is he still stalking you?”
As I traced back the memories of Dalli that naturally came to mind at his words, a community post I’d seen sometime ago suddenly flashed through my mind.
[There was a sasaeng who was pretty famous in the neighborhood. They’re a crazy person who keeps changing their nickname and sticking only to the most popular and good-looking members of the group]
‘They said Dalli used to follow the centers of other groups even before stalking me…….’
It seemed that the “stalker who used to follow me” he was talking about and Dalli were indeed the same person.
I found it funny that, of all things, the two people who had suffered because of Dalli were now in the same place together.
‘Is this inevitable since all the top groups are gathered here?’
When I first encountered Dalli, I did think that he had a really awful, weird smell. But was that really the only thing about him that seemed off? If I started nitpicking every little thing, like his smell, there would be no end to it, so I decided to just ignore it.
“I wasn’t sure when we ran into each other earlier, but now that I smell it again, I’m pretty sure it’s the same scent.”
‘It’s not like he’s some kind of sniffer dog ……. How does he even smell such a thing and remember it?’
The scent could have rubbed off while I was in contact with Dalli, or maybe it came from something I took from him. But normally, scents fade quickly over time—wouldn’t it be even stranger for him to remember it?
‘There probably aren’t many people who have met Dalli in person to begin with.’
“Really?”
I tilted my head in feigned amazement as I answered, then calmly washed the remaining foam off my hands while making a lighthearted remark.
“That’s fascinating. You even know things like that.”
“…….”
“…Could it just be your imagination? Hearing things like that makes me scared for no reason.”
‘Is this enough?’
It was a reaction carefully chosen based on how an average person would typically respond to such remarks.
Since I tended to be less reactive than others when problems arose, responding in my usual manner could have aroused suspicion.
‘I have to hide any connection between Dalli and me as much as possible.’
But despite my efforts, Raize’s center still looked down at me with his head tilted skeptically.
“I once said this in an interview, I have a sharper sense of smell than most people, so I’m picky even about bottled water, and I often remember people by their scent.”
“…….”
“After that interview, I kept noticing a strange scent around me. At first, I thought it was odd. It wasn’t any of the perfumes my members used, and honestly, the scent was quite different from regular perfumes. I even wondered, ‘Would anyone around me really use such an unpleasant scent?’. But no matter how much I looked, I just couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.”
‘Ha……’
As he explained, I started to get a sense of why he was so certain. Realizing that the situation was gradually steering in a direction I hadn’t wanted, I deliberately wiped the moisture from my hands with a hand towel, trying to look nonchalant.
‘…He’s really been causing trouble everywhere.’
“And then, photos of my private life started getting posted on a specific sasaeng account, along with captions like, ‘Did you notice I was here today?’. Don’t you understand what that means? That stalker intentionally created that weird scent, sprayed it every day, and hovered around me. Because he wanted me to notice, remember, and think of him as special. But right now, I smell that same scent on you.”
“Are you implying that the stalker is still around me?”
“Exactly!”
He shouted in a heated tone, seeming a little excited. As his voice echoed through the empty bathroom, I silently listened before looking up at him with my usual impassive expression. At this point, I figured that no matter how I reacted, he wouldn’t even register it.
“I’ve had my fair share of trouble because of that stalker too, but ever since I reported him to the police last time, I haven’t run into him.”
My calm response, in stark contrast to his, caused his upper body, visible through his sleeveless shirt, to flush slightly. He was probably thinking that I was reacting like everyone else who had treated him like a weirdo.
He stood still for a moment, clenching his fists tightly, then lowered his gaze to the floor and muttered in a small voice.
“…Seungbeom-ssi, you probably think I’m weird too, right? People who haven’t experienced it will never understand. Just moving to another place makes me so anxious. I have to check whether that stalker’s perfume scent is there or not. People have no idea how unsettling and miserable it feels.”
“…….”
“Even though we’re competitors, I would never play pranks on a junior who might be struggling with something that once troubled me. So, don’t brush off what I’m saying and listen carefully. That stalker might still be lurking around you, so be careful.”
I wondered why he kept going on and on about his personal story, but it turned out he was just worried about my safety because of the stalker. Earlier during filming, he had been so aggressive toward me that I had already written him off as annoying, so I just assumed he was trying to pick a fight.
‘During the filming, he acted like he was going to eat me alive, so why the sudden change…….’
After thinking about it more carefully, I remembered that back when I was active as Prism, there was a time when I helped resolve an issue with Raize’s debut stage. I think I said something similar to those kids who went out of their way to insistently thank me back then.
“It’s fine. Rather than visiting me for something like this, just help your juniors if they ever run into trouble later on.”
“…They’re probably struggling with the same things you guys struggled with.”
‘No way, is he still keeping that promise?’
I just said whatever came to mind to send them away quickly, and I was pretty sure I even went on about how annoying it would be if they came back. But it looked like he had completely erased that part from his memory and completely romanticized the whole thing instead.
If this much time has passed, just forget about it. Even the person who said those words has completely forgotten them, so why are you holding onto them and following them so diligently?
‘I’m not some kind of Buddha.’
His intentions were admirable, but this kind of help was only a hindrance to me.
But since I couldn’t say that outright, I hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up to make him lose interest in me.
“I’ll bring up the issue of sasaengs with the company again. I also know what that stalker looks like, so I’ll be careful.”
“That’s good enough.”
Hearing that, he seemed noticeably relieved. He let out a breath and then spoke again in a relaxed tone.
“And this is this, and the competition is the competition, so I hope you don’t get any weird ideas about us going easy on you or anything like that.”
“…….”
Nobody expected anything like that.
Unlike his image in front of the camera, he seemed to have a knack for embarrassing himself in real life. As I watched him with a cold gaze, a notification popped up on his phone, revealing the photo set as his wallpaper.
It was a photo of someone’s hand holding a microphone.
At first, I just assumed he was full of self-love and had set his own photo as his wallpaper. But the moment I took another look at the screen, I immediately noticed something was strange.
‘Hmm?’
The microphone in the photo was Prism’s custom mic. And the thick forearm holding the mic seemed to have a chrysanthemum tattoo clearly engraved on it.
‘…My hand?’
I briefly wondered if he was a Sera, but then shook my head, thinking, ‘Well, even someone who isn’t a fan might just like the vibe of a photo like that and use it’. Just then, Raize’s center, having checked all the messages he had just received, shoved his phone back into his pocket and hurried out of the restroom, saying he had to go.
‘So, he didn’t come all the way here to use the restroom. He followed me just to tell me that.’
As I silently watched his back as he briskly walked away without hesitation, Lee Chise soon walked into the restroom, a toothbrush in his mouth.”
“Ung, hyung, hewwo.”
“…The guy who just left might be my fan.”
At the sudden remark, Lee Chise spat the toothpaste foam into the sink, then raised an eyebrow as if asking, ‘What on earth are you talking about?‘
“Uh, Seonghwa? … He’s not might be your fan, he’s really your fan, hyung. A diehard fan, at that.”
“…….”
“No way, you just figured that out now?”
“…….”
“Goodness, this hyung is so dense. That kid used to follow you around like a little puppy just so he could get you to call his name once. How can you only be figuring that out now?”
‘Ah.’
If he was a Sera, he should’ve told me sooner. I just made a fool of him without even knowing that.
I always treat my fans with love, that was my principle.
“So, what’s his name?”
“Gong Seonghwa.”
“Hmm.”
That’s okay.
We could just start over from the beginning.
Lee Chise chuckled at my belated attempt to remember his name, after all these years since we first met. But whether he laughed or not, I placed my elbow on the back of the guy who was bowing his head while rinsing his mouth and propped my chin up.
“So, where is Nam Yihwon?”
“Ahhh! It hurts! Your elbow feels like a dagger because your arm is so skinny.”
“I’m asking where Nam Yihwon is.”
“Ahhh! He went to the smoking room with Yoo Jay and is refusing to come out. He’s avoiding you, hyung!”
It made me wonder how he figured out so cleverly that I couldn’t follow him to the smoking room with Han Seungbeom’s body.
“He used his head, huh?”
“I didn’t do anything wrong! Why are you harassing me!”
He really had a lot to say, even though he did nothing to stop Nam Yihwon’s rampage and even giggled along with him. I put my full weight on Lee Chise’s back, who was making all sorts of excuses to avoid my wrath, and spoke softly.
“No, I was thinking of making an example of someone and hanging them at the front gate, so no one would dare challenge me again…….”
At those words, he was overcome with fear and squeezed his eyes shut.
Then he pathetically muttered to himself, “Ah, I should’ve just gone to the smoking room and stayed there.”
“What nonsense, you don’t even know how to smoke. It seems like you can endure it, since you keep babbling.”
If it had been the old days, he would have struggled to bear my weight, his mouth clamped shut and his body shaking. But he seemed to handle this body quite well, as Lee Chise held firm without moving, glancing at me through the mirror.
“…….”
As soon as he met my cold, lifeless gaze, he gasped and quickly swallowed his breath, then plunged his head back down into the sink. I stared into those eyes, following them to the end, and spoke quietly.
“Prism?”
“Seven as One, aaaaah!”
“If you want to save your dongsaeng, go catch him and bring him to me. If I go and catch him myself, I don’t know what I might do to him.”
“…Yes.”
.
.
.
After Lee Chise shouted “I love you, Hwon-ah“, and dropped Nam Yihwon in front of me, things started happening.
I calmly looked down at my phone, where those moments were fully preserved.
“…….”
What was playing on the phone was a short video.
At the beginning of the video, Nam Yihwon was kneeling with his long legs neatly folded. A piece of paper with the words ‘I dared to challenge Hyung-nim’s authority‘ stuck to his chest.
Nam Yihwon, who was sweating profusely in front of me, immediately began doing cute dance moves to the beat of a song from a rabbit-concept girl group that started playing.
[Bunny, Bunny, Bunny Chu]
Of course, he was wearing a cute bunny ear headband on his head.
Ah, just to avoid any misunderstandings, I didn’t have a hobby of creating an ominous, seemingly wrongly-made 2-meter bunny with my own hands.
[Love Power, Chu!]
But what could I do?
Since he liked aegyo that much … I had no choice but to make him do it himself.
“We will begin the Grade Evaluation filming! The group with the lowest seniority, please get ready for your performance!”
“Yes!”
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
A Bunny Yihwon for Meow Seungbeom.
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Translator’s Corner:
Re-introducing Gong Seonghwa … the Center of Raize … and the President of Sera, a #SeoYutaeIsTheGreatest truther ….
MY BABYYYY. No, but can you imagine. Prism is pretty intimidating, everyone scared of them. Even their own fans said they’re most beautiful from a distance. And Yutae is the one who looks the most scary of them all. But this one rookie got helped by him once, and started following the scary sunbaenim around wanting to hear him call his name asdfghjkl AND YUTAE DIDN’T EVEN REALIZE HIS EXISTENCE BECAUSE HE’S “THE REST” ASDFHJKL #SeonghwaDeservesBetter
Anyway, since Yutae’s tattoo mentioned, remembered how the flowers on his tattoo are for his mother and Yuseong’s birth date? If we remembered that Yutae, in the middle of winter, said Yuseong’s birthday is “not long ago”, it’s quite likely chrysanthemum is for Yuseong.
Remember back when Yutae recalled Yuseong’s funeral, he described the flowers there as “symbolizing the day you were born”. In Korea, “birth flowers” are decided by day, not months. Each day really has their own flowers. … sadly we didn’t know the color of the chrysanthemum, but the odds are between October 1 (Red Chrysanthemum, 빨강 국화), October 14 (White Chrysanthemum, 흰색 국화), December 9 (Chrysanthemum, 국화), December 13 (Fuchsia/Magenta Chrysanthemum, 자홍색 국화).
In case you guys want to check yours, you can read it on https://creatrip.com/en/blog/8543
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