Chapter 107: Am I Out of My Mind?

With a click, the door closed, and soon a quiet silence settled throughout the room.

From the cheers of the fans that had been heard throughout the entire time on stage, to the usual busy backstage noises that constantly poured out, to the voices of the members chattering more excitedly than ever – as the sensations that had been lingering and spinning in my ears calmly subsided, my dazed mind gradually cleared as well.

‘To think the day would come when we stand on stage with our own song… It feels like a dream.’

I wasn’t as emotional as Lee Woo-rim, who had even burst into tears after finishing the first stage of ‘White Night’, but I too had been dazed for a while, wildly tossed about by some unknown emotion.

My mood felt strange – the feeling I had barely defined with a vague expression remained undigested and began stirring up my head again like a low fever.

It was the moment I stopped in my tracks to compose my quickly clouding mind.

“Aren’t you tired?

Do you want to shower first?”

At that moment, Yeo Hyun-tae, who had been walking ahead, suddenly turned his head and asked.

I reflexively shook my head.

“I’m fine.

You shower first.”

He answered that he’d be quick, and I told him to take his time, then walked to the sofa in one corner of the room and sat down, picking up my phone.

I opened a news app, clicked on a random article, and was scrolling through it when I heard the bathroom door close.

Only then did I stop my fingers from repeating their meaningless movements and lower my hand holding the phone.

“Phew…”

I leaned deeply into the back of the sofa and let out a long, faint sigh.

It had only been three days since I couldn’t handle the obvious fact that everyone around me was merely a character and caused a status abnormality.

The next day, I had thought I should end this game as quickly as possible.

And yet today, seeing myself getting excited over another stage felt confusing and pathetic.

…No, did I even have the right to feel this way?

From the moment I first entered this game world and learned that I had to become an idol, even for quite some time after joining Please Take Care of My Idol, I had always lived with the thought of ‘I have no choice’.

Looking back at my past attitude, where I had shown no sincerity or passion, even this current confusion felt like I was deceiving the contestants who had been eliminated from the show because of me, and their fans.

…Of course, they too were all just game characters.

“Ha, please stop it now.”

I rubbed my temples, which were starting to throb again, and shook my head slightly.

Whether I tormented myself by burying myself in my own thoughts or not, this game just flowed according to its set settings.

For several months after entering the world of Please Take Care of My Idol, I had worried and worried about the ‘19+’ aspect, but in the end… well, that’s just how it turned out.

As I thought two days ago, rather than spinning my wheels alone, it seemed better to try anything to end this game as quickly as possible.

Whether it was pretending to be a successful idol, which was beyond my station, or dating a man, something I had never even imagined in my life.

However, there was still one biggest problem I couldn’t help but worry about…

Click-

At the timely sound, I reflexively turned my head.

Through the now-open door, the subject of that frustrating worry appeared.

…Even if I decided to date, who exactly?

As always, it was a trashy thought, but since it wasn’t a matter of liking one of the two and wanting to date them, choosing one person didn’t seem to yield an answer.

Moreover, being in the same team and sharing a room, thinking about the aftermath of choosing just one gave me a headache already.

Then the best option would be to deceive the other and meet secretly, but with those two, that would be absolutely impossible…

My head became complicated again, so I quickly stood up to hide the groan trying to escape.

I took out change of clothes and underwear from my bag by the bed and headed to the bathroom.

Suddenly, Yeo Hyun-tae turned his head and warned me.

“Jae-seo, the floor is slippery, so be careful.”

“Oh?

Okay, aaah!”

Before I could even finish answering, my foot on the tile floor slipped horribly and I let out an ugly scream.

For a moment, I suspected the game’s meddling had struck again like the other day, but seeing my body move normally, thankfully it didn’t seem to be that.

Relieved by that fact, I urgently reached out my arm.

With a loud clank, my body, holding onto the turning doorknob and bracing itself, soon stopped moving with only one knee hitting the floor.

I immediately stood up and let out a sigh of relief.

In the meantime, Hyun-tae, who had come and sat right in front of me, began examining my left leg with a worried face.

As the hem of my pants, which had been covering my ankle, was rolled up, deep furrows formed on his brow.

His gaze was fixed on my shin and knee, which had turned quite red.

“Sorry.

I should have told you sooner.”

“No, this happened because I was careless!

Ugh…!”

Flustered by his unexpected apology, I admitted my fault as if making an excuse.

His hand, reaching toward my leg, soon began carefully touching here and there, as if checking the extent of the injury.

Then, when his fingers touched the area just below my particularly red knee, I let out an involuntary low groan at the sudden pain.

At the same time, looking down at my crumpled face, I quickly opened my mouth.

While I was rattling off more excuse-like truths, his fingers, which had been continuously touching my leg, suddenly brushed behind my knee.

“That was just from surprise.

It really doesn’t hurt that much, hnnngh…”

A groan escaped again.

However, its nature was clearly different from the previous one, and sounded that way, so I just pressed my lips shut and subtly pulled back the leg he was holding.

The fact that he readily let go, even though he would normally have stubbornly held on and checked for more injuries, showed that he too was quite flustered, though his face remained composed.

How on earth was I supposed to resolve this impossibly embarrassing situation?

Unable to find a solution, I hesitated for a long time, then suddenly thought of the clothes in my hand and quickly gestured toward the bathroom door behind me, opening my mouth awkwardly.

“Well, then I’ll go wash up now.”

At my words, he looked at my knee again with a serious face and answered, “Be careful.”

I nodded, awkwardly curving the corners of my mouth into a smile toward him.

Then, making a show of walking very cautiously, I entered the bathroom and pushed the door shut as quietly as possible.

Click – the moment a small sound indicated the lock was fully engaged, I took my hand off the doorknob and covered my face.

Then, along with a deep, endless sigh, a word of self-deprecation mingled quietly.

“…Am I out of my mind?”

***

Thankful for the hot summer weather, I showered in cold water until my mind was clear.

When I came out of the bathroom, the air, cooled considerably by the air conditioner, touched my chilled skin.

Shivering from the cold that instantly spread through my body, I headed toward the bed, then suddenly my gaze shifted to the bed behind it.

At the end of my gaze, Yeo Hyun-tae lay quietly with his eyes closed, just as I had done yesterday.

Funny as it sounded, based on my own behavior from yesterday, I immediately sensed that he wasn’t asleep.

I quietly watched him pretending to sleep for a moment, then started moving again.

“Oh?”

He startled uncharacteristically and even sat up.

I calmly took the spot next to him and laid my head on the empty pillow.

Still looking down at me with a flustered expression, I grabbed his arm, lifted it, and pulled the blanket from under it, opening my mouth.

“I’m cold because of the air conditioner.”

I tried to answer with a brazen attitude, but inside I was quite embarrassed, so I subtly averted my gaze.

Even so, with the flimsy excuse of being cold, I burrowed between the bed cover and blanket, warmed by his body heat, and soon warmth spread through my whole body, and the goosebumps that had risen on my skin subsided.

If I had to say why I lay down in his bed, even doing something somewhat forceful, there were two reasons.

First, though it was just a guess, I wanted to get ahead of him – he would likely come to my bed after I fell asleep, then pretend nothing happened by morning.

And second…

“Yeah, let’s sleep here together.”

Again, it was a selfish, cowardly, trashy act, but it was similar to taking out insurance.

So that, just in case, until I chose someone, I could keep his heart held onto me.

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