Chapter 7: The One Blessed by the Gods

At Jung Min-yu’s question about whether he planned to walk, Shim Eun-chan replied that it was only about a ten-minute walk from the dorm and said it would be fine as he pushed the door open.
But the instant the cold air hit him, regret came rushing in.

Shim Eun-chan was weak to the cold.
Very.
Extremely.
Painfully so.

“…….”

Could he really walk?

It was barely eight hundred meters, yet it felt endlessly distant.

He zipped his padded jacket all the way up to his chin, but it still felt as though the cold was seeping straight into his bones.
Every time he breathed, the tip of his nose felt like it was freezing solid, so he even tried holding his breath—but he couldn’t make it more than a few steps before exhaling again.
It was a truly stupid thing to do, but he wasn’t in his right mind because of the cold.
Watching his pale breath fog the air only made him feel colder.

After hurrying along and barely making it there, Shim Eun-chan pushed open the first-floor door of a small building with all his strength.
At the reception desk, an employee who usually exchanged casual greetings with him widened their eyes in surprise at his sudden visit and welcomed him.
As the employee told him to wait a moment and made a phone call, chatting lightly with him in the meantime, Manager Kim Seon-ju came striding out from inside.
When Kim Seon-ju asked what had brought him here, Shim Eun-chan spoke the words he had already decided on.

“The script that came to me.
I’ll do it, hyung.”

“Huh?
Ah, that one.
That…… that.
Okay.
I get how you feel for now.
I’ll let the CEO know too.
Let’s go.”

Kim Seon-ju answered somewhat awkwardly, and Shim Eun-chan spoke again.

“I’m going to do it.
I know the role isn’t that big, but it’s fine.
It’d be a waste not to do it just because of that, hyung.”

At Shim Eun-chan’s fervent declaration, Kim Seon-ju looked almost taken aback.

He had to do it.
He couldn’t let it slip away.

A Summer Night Where Crescent Moons Bloom Like Sky Flowers would eventually air on NVN, a network famous for distinctive, high-quality dramas, and would go on to achieve a peak viewership rating of 11.2%, ranking fourth among all dramas ever broadcast on NVN.
As a result, not only the leads but even the supporting cast would gain immense popularity.

Shim Eun-chan knew that future.

That was precisely why he couldn’t let this go.

“I really want to do it.
I can do well.”

“Hey, Eun-chan.
Alright, I get it.
Yeah, I’ll talk to them later, so for now go back to the dorm and wait.
No, should I drive you?
Yeah, let’s do that.
Let’s head out for now.”

Something about the way Kim Seon-ju kept trying to usher him outside felt strange.

Looking around the quiet office, Shim Eun-chan asked,

“But… is there someone here, or…… did something happen?”

“Huh?
What are you talking about?
Ah—.
A guest.
We have a guest!
That’s why it’s so quiet, right?”

Shim Eun-chan watched Kim Seon-ju carefully as he dodged the question and opened his mouth.

Why would a guest be a reason to send Shim Eun-chan outside?
Unless it was someone Kim Seon-ju didn’t want him to see, there was no reason to go this far.

“What is it?”

“Huh?
What do you mean, what is it?”

“You know I’m quick on the uptake.
Please tell me.
Is this ‘guest’ someone related to us?”

At Shim Eun-chan’s steady gaze, Kim Seon-ju briefly looked flustered and frowned.
After hesitating for a moment, Kim Seon-ju muttered with a sigh, “Yeah, you guys are going to find out eventually anyway.”
As if he’d made up his mind, Kim Seon-ju tightened his lips and spoke.

“……Hae-min left, and, um, well… it looks like we might be bringing in a new member.”

Kim Seon-ju carefully watched Shim Eun-chan’s expression.

For a moment, Shim Eun-chan wondered if he’d misheard and slightly furrowed his brow.

“……A new member?”

“Yeah, it’s not confirmed yet, but…….”

Perhaps he misread Shim Eun-chan’s reaction—born from the confusion of something happening that hadn’t existed in his previous life—because Kim Seon-ju hurriedly added more.
Shim Eun-chan didn’t miss the way Kim Seon-ju trailed off and briefly glanced toward one corner of the office.

If the new member was here, then Kim Seon-ju’s repeated attempts to lead him outside finally made sense.
Imagining how startled they must have been by Shim Eun-chan’s sudden visit, he could understand the man’s predicament.

As Shim Eun-chan nodded and replied, his mind recalled the fact that the mission count had been five.

There were only four members of B the 1 besides himself, so he’d wondered why the mission count was five.
Was this what it meant?
If so, it made sense.

But because it made sense, it also didn’t.
At the point when Shim Eun-chan had regressed, B the 1 still had only four members.

Did that mean the notification window—or the entity that displayed it—had known even this?

Shim Eun-chan forcefully suppressed the doubts welling up inside him and smiled on the surface.
No one in this reality could answer his questions anyway.

Problems that couldn’t be solved had no answers no matter how much you thought about them, and there was no need to agonize over them endlessly.
If brooding could solve things, he would do it hundreds of times over—but this wasn’t that kind of issue.
It wasn’t a matter of will, but of possibility.

“Um, Eun-chan.
Hyung will take you back to the dorm, so should we head out for now?”

“It’s okay.
If I walk at an easy pace, it’s not that far.”

“No, still—”

Now that he understood the situation, Kim Seon-ju’s efforts even felt pitiful.
Maybe because they’d been together since debut, Kim Seon-ju cherished each member individually.
He cared so much that the words If we’re going to be introduced eventually, why not just introduce us now? rose to the back of Shim Eun-chan’s throat before he swallowed them back down.
The agency would have its own timing in mind, so he decided it was better to step out appropriately for now.

As if on cue, the conference room door deeper inside the office opened.

“Then we’ll proceed with that understanding and arrange a proper introduction soon.”

“Yes.”

Behind the manager who emerged first, a tall figure appeared—someone who looked like an entertainer at first glance.
Even Shim Eun-chan, who had grown accustomed to Lee Hae-min’s dazzling looks, would instinctively say don’t joke if someone claimed that face wasn’t an entertainer’s.

His eyebrows were thick and neatly shaped, and his double-lidded eyes were genuinely large and deep.
His nose was so high that it cast natural shadows.
His lips were red and full enough to make you wonder if he’d put something on them, to the point of feeling unreal.
If someone else looked like they’d been smudged over with fingers, Hyun Woo-young looked as though his features had been stamped on cleanly and boldly all at once.

And beyond his face, there were those proportions.
They were so unreal it looked as though someone had edited him with graphic software.

To be honest, the most important thing not just for idols but for entertainers in general was proportions.

Faces could be refined later, and dance or singing could be trained to a certain level, but the one thing you couldn’t create after the fact was proportions.
The man standing before him possessed those proportions to a breathtaking degree.

If someone like this didn’t become an idol—if talent like this couldn’t be debuted—then the agency simply had no business being an agency.

The look on Kim Seon-ju’s face beside him screamed we’re screwed.

“Oh?
Oh??
Oh…… Eun-chan’s here.
What brings you here at this hour?”

Shim Eun-chan saw Team Leader Lee Hyun-jong exchange a silent look with Kim Seon-ju standing behind him.
He spoke calmly.

“I just stopped by to say I’ll definitely be doing the drama.
I figured I’d take a walk too.”

“Uh…… yeah.”

Noticing that Shim Eun-chan’s gaze was fixed on one person, Lee Hyun-jong let out a sigh.

“Well, since it’s come to this.
We’re going to greet each other anyway, so let’s just do it now.
This is Shim Eun-chan, a member of B the 1.
And this is Hyun Woo-young, the new member we’re planning to bring in.
He’s one year younger than you, Eun-chan.”

Just as I thought.

Shim Eun-chan inhaled quietly, reassured that his guess hadn’t been wrong.

He looked at Hyun Woo-young, who bowed his head in greeting after the introduction.

One year younger meant he was twenty years old.

Shim Eun-chan naturally scanned Hyun Woo-young from head to toe.
He knew it was rude, but it was instinctive.
No matter how many times he looked, his face was small and his proportions were insane.
With such long legs to match those proportions, it almost made you wonder if his waist was really supposed to be located there.

With the human catnip effect currently active, Hyun Woo-young—meeting him for the first time—would definitely be favorably disposed toward him as well.

Shim Eun-chan bowed toward Hyun Woo-young.

“Hello.
I’m Shim Eun-chan.
Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Hyun Woo-young.
It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

His voice is good too.

Usually, a person’s speaking voice wasn’t all that different from their singing voice.
Shim Eun-chan could easily guess that if Hyun Woo-young sang, it would be a massive hit.

Just how high are his stats?

The question popped into his mind one after another, like pulling Vienna sausages out of a bag.

Instinctively, he realized that now was the moment to check someone else’s status window.

In a voice so quiet no one else could hear—barely moving his lips at all—he murmured the command.
The moment he finished speaking, a translucent status window appeared above Hyun Woo-young’s head.

[Name: Hyun Woo-young
Star Potential: S
Vocal Ability: A
Performance: A
Appearance: S
Mental Fortitude: S
Traits: Beloved by God (Special Talent/SS), You… like things like this? (Unique Aesthetic Sense/A) — Activated.]

Wow.

A true luck-based character.

The living embodiment of a luck-based character stood right in front of him.

Not just his stat ranks, but even his traits were incredible enough to make one click their tongue in awe.