Becoming An Idol Wasn’T On My Plan [EN]: Chapter 323

Although it’s called a tour, the nature of overseas stages means VCRs [Video Cassette Recordings, pre-recorded video segments] must be delivered with just visuals, without any spoken language, and there’s limited time for conversation.

So, compared to concerts in Korea, everything is compressed into a shorter timeframe.

That’s why the video director started working with his friend, who turns out to be Ms. Weber.

Actually, this isn’t something I need to worry about directly.

Chae Hamin wiped her hands with a wet wipe before digging into her in-flight meal.

“It’s amazing. Fate really does reach everywhere.”

Then, she enthusiastically tore into the salad in front of her. Fruits, salad, bread—the tray was practically screaming that she was an herbivore.

“I know.”

As Chae Hamin said, what’s more surprising than who we’re working with is the sheer reach of her network.

Julia Weber shared some interesting information during our brief conversation. She mentioned how she first heard about us.

‘Actually, what was it? Uncle? Cousin? Ah, one of the two. Anyway, he runs a restaurant here.’

The place where Chae Hamin and I first dined together, a Wiener Schnitzel [Viennese breaded veal cutlet] 맛집 [matjib, a popular or famous restaurant], and a restaurant where my fans still occasionally post 인증샷s [proof shots, photos taken to prove they visited a place].

She added a brief explanation in German afterward; it was her uncle.

‘He said there’s a handsome male regular at his place who turned out to be a celebrity, and I thought he was bluffing. But it was real.’

“I’m really grateful to that person, too.”

Chae Hamin, with a piece of melon in her mouth, chewed thoughtfully before continuing.

“They even give you service if you say you’re our fan. Apple juice.”

“…I know.”

Actually, I don’t go there as often these days because I’m busy, but I sometimes visit when I’m eating with the members and think of it.

They never asked us for autographs, so I assumed they didn’t even realize we were celebrities.

“This can’t be a coincidence, Dong-hwa.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! She reunited with her ex after watching our music video!”

The fact that a regular at her uncle’s restaurant was an idol piqued Julia’s curiosity.

The internet is convenient, and X-tube [Likely a fictional analogue to YouTube] even more so. Even if you ignore a locked box, you can’t help but glance into an easily opened one.

‘The video is beautiful,’

Ms. Julia said with a faint, bitter smile.

‘I was taken aback because the mise-en-scène [the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play or film] was so familiar.’

As a video aesthetics major, she had a serious occupational habit.

A habit of carefully examining the placement and composition of cuts, the position of objects, the height differences between people—everything.

Although it was a short sentence, I, who knew her originally, fully understood.

What would it feel like to find an old lover’s belongings in a box you looked into out of curiosity?

She said she had no choice but to check the director’s name after watching the video carefully.

Because it was full of the mise-en-scène that a man she used to watch videos with at a cafe liked so much.

A person who accidentally encountered traces of the man who made her learn Korean.

Honestly, I have no idea what that would feel like.

“What do you mean, what would it feel like? It’s fate, fate! Wouldn’t she be excited!”

You’re like a viewer overly immersed in a drama, Hamin.

“Do things like that exist?”

“It wouldn’t make sense if they didn’t, Dong-hwa.”

Of course, I understand why Chae Hamin would say that.

‘Anyway, thanks to you, we got back together. Is this the right word to use?’

Old memories, contact after a long time, then reconciliation, and now she and the person she used to make videos with are married and have founded a company.

She came here to personally check if the first video of the tour is coming out as intended, and if there are any problems with the brightness, etc.

It’s just amazing that a separated couple reconciled and got married just because I was a regular at a restaurant.

“It might be fate. The fact that we met as a group like this is also like fate.”

Chae Hamin fluttered, beaming.

No, it’s a coincidence. The prophecy itself is proving that there’s no such thing as fate anymore.

“…I know.”

“The world is so beautiful when you look at things like this, right, Dong-hwa?”

I don’t know. I’m not sure.

Chae Hamin was used under the guise of friendship, and in one possibility, she was assaulted by a vulgar bastard.

That doesn’t fit the word ‘beautiful’.

“…Yeah.”

Chae Hamin’s misunderstanding might be due to my lack of explanation.

Baseborn.

[Yes?]

Really, I was a bug. Just breathing and living seems to cause problems in the system.

[Of course!]

Baseborn wouldn’t have considered such heartwarming results.

Me falling here is just a systemic error, and Julia’s reunion with her old lover is just a secondary product of that.

I can now see that Baseborn didn’t care about whose life got better.

[Wait a minute! I’m very unhappy that you’re trying to analyze me!]

Wasn’t Baseborn just disgusted by everything?

If there’s a predetermined future, then what was his pathetic life?

So, wasn’t Baseborn’s basic emotion hatred?

Self-hatred is basic, and the world is like a dog. The humans who enforce the rules next to him are annoying, and the possibilities are the worst.

But the result of that hatred is strangely bizarre.

Ryu Iden, Chae Hamin, Lee Hyunjae, Seokjun all managed to avoid misfortune to some extent, and Yoon Sungho, the prophecy, and Junseong are the same. How should I handle this paradox?

I hadn’t eaten even a third of my in-flight meal, but I put down my spoon.

Come to think of it, have I ever worried about Baseborn this much? Usually, I just think, ‘It’s me anyway,’ so this is the first time I’ve thought about it in such detail.

I naturally understood the time I spent worrying about myself as time spent worrying about Baseborn.

“The clouds are beautiful too, every time I see them.”

Chae Hamin looked out the window and praised the beauty of the vast sky.

I retraced the memories I shared with Baseborn.

On the plane heading to Germany, I never looked out the window. I was too devastated to be interested in the beautiful scenery.

And it’s new and beautiful over Chae Hamin’s shoulder. Right now, I can’t hate that scenery at all. I can’t become like Baseborn.

[Um, I’m embarrassed. Picking me apart like this! There are kindergarteners watching!]

Suddenly, Baseborn felt unfamiliar. He hadn’t felt this unfamiliar even before I knew his identity was me.

Baseborn.

[Yes.]

If I go up, is it definitely going to synchronize?

[Of course.]

Then, what the hell are you teaching those kindergarteners?

[I’m making friends so you won’t be lonely. Do you understand how much I care about you now?]

Let’s consider it logically.

Baseborn’s claim is that ‘when I finish my life and return, it will only synchronize with him.’

In other words, Baseborn’s memories and my memories will naturally link and become one.

[Um, Hamin is looking at you with a worried expression.]

But why are they friends to me and kindergarteners to him? This is like…

“Dong-hwa?”

I closed my eyes. I need some time to concentrate.

I slowly walked through the library and pulled out the relevant files one by one.

All the remaining memories about Baseborn. Slowly.

Since I’m still ignorant of science, let’s just focus on the logic.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

Baseborn said the following when he first explained the secrets of this world to me as a fragment of possibility.

The world is structured in a way similar to how the same entity exists in multiple locations. Only the ones that are destined to be realized among the numerous possibilities are realized, and the rest just wriggle beneath them.

“Do, Dong-hwa?”

If everything is predetermined, then it’s static. Like a sentence already printed in letters, everything is fixed. Frozen and hard.

And Baseborn left the following words in the prophecy incident.

I finally broke the rules. I feel so relieved.

Therefore, it means that it has become an unfixed state. When predicting the future, Baseborn will only be able to know it probabilistically through calculations.

In other words, the fact that it’s impossible for me to warp Baseborn is not a confirmed future but closer to Baseborn’s guess.

Nevertheless, Baseborn used expressions such as ‘impossible’ or ‘vain hope’ rather than discussing probabilities.

It’s reasonable to assume that there is a basis for that.

Ding!

[I advise you to stop.]

And back to the present.

When Chae Hamin was cheerfully picking at the salad, Baseborn declared that he would make friends ‘limited to you’.

That’s a clear separation. He confirms that they are not friends to him.

Baseborn clearly emphasized that I and he are no different and that we will synchronize in the future.

This contradicts the current facts. If synchronization is true, there is no need for distinction.

It’s difficult to see it as a rhetorical expression. The frequency with which Baseborn utters words that distinguish between me and himself is drawing a graph that increases recently.

It’s better to see it as a process of changing language habits to match newly learned facts rather than a joke.

“Do, Do, Dong-hwa, are you, are you sick?”

“No, Hamin.”

“Why are you talking with your eyes closed, it’s scary!”

Therefore, if the fact that we synchronize was not a lie, then there was some change in between, and if it’s a lie, it’s simpler.

Baseborn, tell me honestly, you pathetic bastard. Unless you’re disappearing, you wouldn’t have said ‘impossible’ with such certainty.

[Ha, really.]

In an instant, all the sounds ringing in my ears stopped. When I opened my eyes, the world was frozen. Baseborn, what is this again?

[A child is listening.]

Don’t talk like we’re having a marital fight.

[To be exact, if you have a long conversation with me, there’s a high probability that Chae Hamin will make a fuss and keep asking if you’re sick, so I stopped it for a moment.]

Then, a small screen appeared in front of me. The monitor screen I saw before, flickering a bit, and Baseborn revealed his face.

“Take responsibility.”

“For what?”

“My workload has increased again.”

“That’s right!”

A fox cutely poked its head out from the side. It resembled Lee Hyunjae.

“What should we do when the teacher is on the phone, Hyun?”

“…I know I have to be quiet, but I hate that so much!”

A fox pointing at me with a cotton ball, raising its voice. Its clear likes and dislikes also resembled Lee Hyunjae.

What to do, it’s a bit cute. After 심바 [Shimba] and 봉주 [Bongju, common Korean pet names].

“Is that a real fox?”

“Would it be? Don’t compare them to such inferior creatures. They are my children.”

At Baseborn’s gesture, five animals poked their faces out. Except for the cat, they’re all cute.

“…I can hear you, damn it.”

The cat turned its back, offended, and behind it were a rabbit, a dog, a dinosaur…

“Baseborn.”

“Yes?”

“Are these members the motif?”

“Yes.”

“…Oh my god.”

So that cat is…

“Of course.”

Crazy, turning that poor guy into that.

“Don’t worry. They’re all a bit off their rocker. I’m also taking care to add a little bit of new flavor.”

Now that I see it, Baseborn is wearing an apron that a kindergarten teacher would wear and a name tag that says ‘Teacher Jisaeng’ in large letters.

You crazy, you’re Ji Dong-hwa, get a grip, please. Why are you like this? The fact that I could have become like that makes me feel like I’m going crazy.

Baseborn, with my slightly older face, sent the fox away and sat back as if lying down. The dark circles under his eyes were too dark.

“This is what I looked like right before I left.”

Baseborn, reading my mind and answering immediately. What is he?

“Aren’t these children cute?”

“…Yeah.”

Except for the cat.

“I see. You’re still very different from me.”

Baseborn smiled bitterly.