“Mmph…”
With my hand clamped over Bai Shijun’s mouth, all he could manage was a muffled sound.
“Shh!”
I glared at him, warning him again with my eyes.
There was a whole group of people outside looking for him, and this guy still had the nerve to worry about my heartbeat?
And what did he mean, “Your heart’s beating so fast”?
Bai Shijun blinked, probably signaling that he understood. Only then did I slowly take my hand off his mouth.
The second my hand left his lips, he leaned toward me and lowered his voice.
“Seriously, it’s really fast.”
This guy…
I raised my hand again, and he immediately ducked backward.
“Okay, I won’t say anything.”
I felt like he was messing with me. I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. Murder was still illegal, after all.
Especially in a space this tiny. There wouldn’t even be anywhere to hide the body.
Tap. Tap-tap.
The footsteps outside drew a little closer.
“They definitely came this way just now.”
“Did they run over there?”
“Let’s look a little more.”
The moment we heard the voices outside, Bai Shijun and I fell silent at the same time.
I instinctively held my breath.
The next second, I heard the doorknob turning outside.
Click. Click.
My heart nearly jumped straight out of my mouth.
Thankfully, for some reason, the door was locked from the inside.
“This door’s locked.”
“They’re probably not in there, right?”
“Then let’s check up ahead.”
The footsteps gradually faded away.
I finally let out a sigh of relief, but when I looked up—
Bai Shijun was watching me.
“…What are you looking at?”
“You.”
“I know you’re looking at me. I’m asking why.”
“You’re not secretly a fan of mine, are you?”
A faint smile lifted his lips.
Cough, cough, cough.
The question came out of nowhere, and I nearly choked on my own spit.
“W-why are you suddenly asking that?”
“Because you’re weird.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“You’re the weird one.”
“Most people don’t react to seeing me the way you did.”
I couldn’t help rolling my eyes.
“Mr. Bai Shijun, are you maybe a little too confident in yourself?”
Why had the old me never realized what a cocky jerk this man was?
Could the fan filter really have been that thick?
Bai Shijun lowered his head slightly and kept staring at me.
“You feel… like you know me.”
“Probably half the country knows you.”
“You’re different.”
My heart inexplicably skipped a beat.
“How am I different?”
“I don’t know.”
He answered that pretty decisively.
“It’s just the way you look at me…”
“What about it?”
“It’s like you’ve known me for a really long time, but we clearly don’t know each other.”
What was he, some kind of fortune-teller?
I’d been his fan for so many years. Of course I looked at him that way.
Bai Shijun at nineteen.
Bai Shijun at twenty.
Bai Shijun crying so hard after winning his first music-show trophy that he couldn’t get the words out.
Bai Shijun holding out through the final song of his first concert tour even though he’d injured his foot.
Bai Shijun gradually growing from a boy into a mature man after turning twenty-three.
I’d seen all of it. There were even some things I probably knew better than the staff around him now—people who had only known him for a few years.
But so what?
That was all in the past.
“You’re overthinking it.”
I looked away.
“But—”
“You really do ask a lot of questions.”
“Because I’m curious.”
“You’ve never heard that curiosity killed the cat?”
Bai Shijun went quiet for two seconds.
“I’m a person.”
I stared at him in confusion.
“I probably won’t die.”
My expression shifted from confusion to murderous intent.
Then he smiled again.
I finally understood. This man was doing it on purpose.
He’d realized I got irritated when he teased me, so now he thought it was hilarious.
Why was he so childish?
“They’ve probably left by now, right?”
I couldn’t be bothered to deal with him anymore. I turned sideways and pressed my ear to the door. There wasn’t a sound.
I waited another ten-some seconds, and only after confirming that there was truly no one outside did I reach for the doorknob.
I turned it. Nothing happened.
I turned it again. Still nothing.
Bai Shijun stood behind me.
“What’s wrong?”
I kept turning it.
Click, click, click.
The doorknob moved, but the door still wouldn’t open.
“Yin Zhixia.”
“What?”
“Can’t you open it?”
“Stop talking for a second.”
You’re distracting me.
“I was just asking.”
“Asking won’t magically make it open.”
“But didn’t you close it just now?”
I whipped around and saw the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
“So now—”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to say I locked us in here?”
Bai Shijun’s narcissism had gone way beyond anything I could’ve imagined. Who would willingly want to be crammed into a tiny, hot, dark room like this?
“I haven’t said anything yet.”
“Your face already said it all.”
I pointed a finger at his nose. It was a little rude, but this ought to work.
Bai Shijun shrugged and stopped being narcissistic.
I grabbed the doorknob again and shoved it down with all my strength.
Nothing.
I pulled.
Still nothing.
Unwilling to accept defeat, I pulled twice more.
The door seemed determined to fight me. It didn’t budge an inch.
A very soft laugh came from behind me again.
I rolled my eyes helplessly and turned around.
“What are you laughing at?”
Bai Shijun was leaning against one of the cabinets in the little room, his head lowered as he tried not to laugh.
“Nothing. I just suddenly thought of something.”
“What?”
He raised his eyes to look at me, and the amusement in them became even more obvious.
“How come every time I see you, we’re locked behind a door?”
It took me a moment to process that, but he wasn’t wrong.
“Last time, I was the one who got locked in.” He pointed at himself, then looked back at me. “This time, I got locked in with you.”
I stared at him expressionlessly, unable to see what was so funny.
“Looks like you can’t be my lifesaver today.”
“Why do you sound so happy about that?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty happy.”
“Why?”
What was wrong with this guy’s brain? We were literally locked in here with no way out!!
“Because I’m finally not the only one embarrassing himself.”
I seriously wanted to stuff him into the cardboard box beside us.
“Do you want to figure out who got us hiding in here in the first place?”
“Sasaengs.”
“Exactly. So shut up.”
“But you’re the one who closed the door.”
“Bai Shijun, please move farther away from me.”
“This place is tiny. Where am I supposed to move?”
“You can stick to the wall.”
“I’m already sticking to the wall.”
He gave me an innocent look and pressed his entire body tightly against the wall.
Sorry, but that look worked on twenty-year-old me. Twenty-six-year-old me is completely unmoved.
“Then stick to it harder,” I said without mercy.
“If I stick any harder, I’ll go through it.”
“Then go through it, and open the door for me while you’re at it.”
He couldn’t hold back his laughter.
I had to be crazy. I was actually playing along with his lame jokes at a time like this. I shot him a glare, then crouched down to examine the lock.
“It’s probably just jammed.”
“Can you fix it?”
“No, but it’s still more useful than standing there laughing.”
“I can help.”
“You know how to fix it?”
“Nope.”
I stood up and stared at him in confusion.
“Then how are you going to help?”
“Moral support.”
I couldn’t be bothered to respond. Instead, I pulled out my phone to call someone for help.
Then I looked at the battery. Five percent.
The signal in here was terrible, too.
I moved closer to the door.
One bar.
I raised the phone higher.
Two bars.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for a signal.”
“Who are you calling?”
“The staff. Unless you want to sleep here?”
Bai Shijun glanced down at the pile of cleaning supplies beside him.
“The accommodations are a little rough.”
“You’ve actually considered it?”
I took a breath, and the next second, my phone battery died completely.
Of course I had to be the one to run into a situation straight out of a romance drama. There was no way I wanted to spend the night alone with Bai Shijun.
Just then, a phone started ringing beside us. Bai Shijun looked down, reached into his pocket, and pulled out his phone.
Me: “…”
Him: “…”
We were both silent for three seconds. I slowly narrowed my eyes.
“You have a phone?”
“…Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you take it out sooner?”
“I forgot.”
“You forgot?”
“Bai Shijun, are you kind of stupid?”
He looked at the caller ID.
“Now’s not the time to discuss that.”
I was about to be driven insane by him.
He answered the call.
“Hello?”
A loud voice immediately exploded from the other end.
“Hyung! Where the heck did you run off to?!”
Bai Shijun pulled the phone a little farther from his ear.
“I’m fine.”
“Where are you?!”
He looked up at me.
“Where are we?”
I rolled my eyes. “The storage room behind the staff hallway.”
He repeated into the phone, “The storage room behind the staff hallway.”
There was a brief silence on the other end.
“Why are you in a storage room?”
Bai Shijun glanced at me.
“…It’s a long story.”
I immediately added, “And the doorknob’s broken. We can’t get out.”
He repeated that, too. “The doorknob’s broken. We can’t get out.”
The person on the other end sounded like he was about to lose it.
“Hyung, why have you been picking fights with doors lately?”
I couldn’t hold it in.
“Pfft.”
Bai Shijun immediately turned to look at me.
“What are you laughing at?”
I covered my mouth and shook my head.
“You definitely laughed.”
The voice on the other end sounded even more confused.
“Hyung, is someone with you?”
Bai Shijun looked at me, the corners of his mouth slowly lifting again.
“Yeah.”
“Who?”
I immediately warned him with my eyes: Don’t. Say. It.
He paused deliberately for a second, then answered with a mischievous smile. “Producer Yin Zhixia.”
I rubbed my temples. I could already imagine how much trouble this was going to cause.
As expected, the moment the person on the other end heard Bai Shijun say that, he went completely silent. About five seconds later, his loud voice came roaring through again.
“Why are the two of you locked in a storage room together?”
Bai Shijun pulled the phone away from his ear again.
He looked at me, his eyes clearly saying, See? Doesn’t that sound weird?
I glared at him furiously. This was exactly why I told him not to say it!
“You’d better explain this properly!”
He let out a low laugh.
“She rescued me in here to hide from the sasaengs, and then we found out the door was broken when we tried to leave.”
“Oh…”
That “oh” went on a little too long.
I had a very bad feeling about this.
“Send me your location. I’m coming over now.”
“Okay.”
Bai Shijun hung up.
I crossed my arms and looked at him.
“So what exactly were we doing, spending all that time studying the door?”
“Building our teamwork?”
He was so slick with his words. He was seriously going to drive me insane.
About ten minutes later, footsteps finally sounded outside.
“Hyung?”
Bai Shijun immediately answered.
“Over here.”
The person outside turned the doorknob a few times.
“It really is broken. Hang on. I’ll find someone to help.”
A few minutes later, the sound of metal clinking came from outside as someone worked on the lock.
Click.
I immediately stepped back, and the door finally swung open.
Fresh air, light, freedom—I almost wanted to applaud emotionally.
“Thank goodness.”
I walked out first, with Bai Shijun following behind me. His manager stood in the doorway, and the moment he saw him, he frowned.
“Hyung, you really do have a talent for getting into trouble.”
Bai Shijun pointed at me.
“This time, it wasn’t just me.”
I frowned and spun around.
“Don’t drag me into this. I only ended up here because I rescued you.”
“But in the end, hyung rescued both of us.”
His manager couldn’t help laughing when he heard that.
I glared at him.
“What are you laughing at?”
“…Sorry.”
He immediately composed himself, while Bai Shijun only laughed harder.
I took a deep breath. Why had I felt the need to stick my nose into this mess today?
“I’ve brought your missing idol back.” I looked at his manager. “Please keep an eye on him.”
The manager nodded automatically.
“Then I’m leaving.”
I had only taken two steps when—
“Yin Zhixia.”
Bai Shijun called out to me from behind.
I turned around without saying a word, my expression saying, Spit it out already.
“Thanks. Seriously.”
When he said it, he wasn’t smiling, and his tone was completely normal.
I froze for a moment.
“…You’re welcome.”
“And also…” His lips curved up again. “Next time we meet, I hope it’s not behind a door.”
“Who said there’s going to be a next time with you?”
I didn’t want to keep chatting. This time, I really was leaving.
“Be careful on your way home, Producer Yin.”
Without looking back, I simply lifted a hand and waved.
Even so, I couldn’t help thinking to myself: Why was this guy so unbelievably annoying every single time?
After spending the entire day in a plot straight out of a romance drama, I took a shower, grabbed my laptop, and sat down on my bed.
Naturally, the first thing I did was look at the photos I’d taken that day.
“Kang Minwoo… Kang Minwoo… Kang Minwoo…”
One photo.
Two.
Three.
“This one looks good.”
Mark it.
Next.
“This one looks good, too.”
Mark that one, too.
“Ah… How is that smile so cute?”
Fifteen minutes later, I stared at the more than one hundred photos I’d marked.
What was the difference between marking all of them and marking none of them?
But my ult didn’t have any bad photos, so I kept scrolling.
Then I suddenly remembered what had happened after the SHOWCASE that day.
Bai Shijun…
The emergency exit…
Those horrible sasaengs…
The storage room…
And—
“Your heart’s beating so fast.”
My hand suddenly stopped on the trackpad.
Damn it. Why was I thinking about it again?
I shook my head hard.
“Bai Shijun, get out.”
Get out of my head. Who gave you permission to run in there?
I was looking at Kang Minwoo right now.
Current-ult time only. Former ults are prohibited.
I raised my head, and my eyes landed right on the poster hanging on the wall.
“Our Minwoo is still the best.”
At least he hadn’t locked himself inside any doors lately. Probably.
Satisfied, I flopped back onto the bed.
The next second, I shot upright.
My hat… My hat…
The Kang Minwoo merch hat I’d put on Bai Shijun’s head when I got nervous today!!
And it wasn’t just any piece of merch. It was the limited-edition hat released at the pop-up for Kang Minwoo’s previous album.
It had sold out in limited quantities.
The resale price had now been driven up to nearly three times the original price, and I’d stood in line for two and a half hours to buy it!
“Aaaaaah!”
I launched myself off the bed. How could I have forgotten something so important?!
I immediately grabbed my phone—then froze.
Right… how was I supposed to find Bai Shijun?