Life, Once Again!

After Story 191

“Thank you all for coming today. I’d love to meet you all again. Don’t forget any of your bags when you leave after it’s all done. It will be very chaotic when you leave, so watch out so that you don’t get hurt, okay?”

“Yes!” Ha Yeojung replied loudly.

This was Yoo Jichan’s individual concert. She had been preparing since a month ago in order to come to the concert that was being held in time for his birthday. She applied for a leave from work and called everyone she knew to buy a ticket.

Having come to the concert after all those hardships, she found that it was really satisfactory. If she hadn’t come, she might have cried in frustration.

It was even better because she could see Yoo Jichan as a single artist and not just a member of Alt.

“I hope I meet you again. See you next time!”

“Oppa! I’ll definitely come again!”

Yeojung shouted while making her hands into a cone in front of her mouth. Her friend sitting next to her also drew a heart with her hand above her head. Reacting semi-crazily at a concert was what made it good.

“Everything’s good and all, but I feel depressed when it’s time to go.”

“Me too.”

She left the concert venue while deeply sympathizing with those sentiments. People were rushing over to the train station. She could hear Jichan’s solo album from many places. She smiled because she felt like everyone was enjoying the lingering energy from the concert.

“See you next week.”

“Alright, watch out on your way home.”

After parting with her friend, Yeojung headed to the parking lot. She sat down in the driver’s seat and checked the video and photos she took today. Why it felt like the concert had ended ages ago when it had only been 20 minutes was beyond her.

She let out a soft sigh at the wave of lingering disappointment.

When would Jichan hold another concert? She believed that it would be hard to hold one again for at least a few years. According to Jichan’s official schedule on the official website, he didn’t have any activities as a singer, and his schedule was packed with actor stuff.

While it was fun to watch Jichan becoming successful as an actor, she wished that he would show more of his singing side like the concert he held today.

“My oppa can really win against the trial of time.”

She looked at her own face through the rearview mirror.

“Maybe all the aging he managed to avoid came to me.”

Even the highest-quality photos she took didn’t contain a single hint of blemishes. This guy’s skin was something else.

When Jichan made his debut 10 years ago, she was only in middle school. She never knew that she’d like a celebrity for over a decade.

Of course, right now, she was watching him with the affection of a family member, rather than some passionate love.

“Yes, oppa. I’m on my way out. I’m going to go back now. Are you at work?”

She was on a call with her boyfriend[1] for a while. He was someone who could fortunately understand her fanship.

She drove her car home. After feeding the puppy that greeted her, she took a shower first. She jumped around towards the end of the concert, so she felt sticky with sweat.

Having washed herself, she took out the SD card from the camera and sat in front of the computer. After checking the video footage that she received from an outsourced job and not her company, she inserted the SD card into the card reader.

She used a total of eight SD cards while recording the concert. As she had taken high-quality videos, the total data came out to be a lot.

“It looks like it’ll take some time to edit.”

If this was her company work or an outsourcing job, she would be gnashing her teeth right now, but she opened the video editing program with glee.

She started off by importing the videos and putting audio sources she used frequently into another track.

She had been using video editing tools ever since she was young. She liked drawing pictures with her hands and also liked revealing her fanship with those skills.

Focusing on her hobby, she managed to gain skill, and she eventually even got a job from it. Following an idol changed her life.

She opened the email that Jichan’s agency sent her. In the email were things like recommended video length, audio sources she could use, as well as some other guidelines related to video editing.

“I haven’t been doing this for just a day, you know.”

This wasn’t something she was doing for money. If she was paid directly by the agency, this would no longer be fanship, but an outsourcing job. They were simply providing her with creator guidelines so that no problems would arise regarding copyright when she uploaded the video to Youtube.

There should be loads of people receiving this kind of email. After all, anyone could become a creator these days.

She finished working on one video by adjusting the placement of the watermark.

When she came to, it was already 2 a.m. It took her 4 hours to create a 30-minute video.

“That finished quickly.”

She yawned and closed the video editing program. She was going to edit the other videos as well, before giving them one final check and uploading them to Youtube.

She moved her sore body and made some coffee. She went out to the veranda to get some fresh winter air before coming back in after sipping some coffee. Sleep left her completely.

She sat down in front of the computer again. This time, it was time to write a blog post.

The visitors of her blog were already nagging her to upload photos from the concert.

She had around 4,000 average daily visitors, and even though it had only been two hours since the date had changed, she had 5,000 visitors already.

She left a post saying that she wasn’t sleeping and also that she would write a short review in the announcements section. She browsed through all the high-quality images and selected a few.

She uploaded the photos, starting with the ones she took on the way to the concert up at the top, and left behind a short impression.

She inserted the photos she took while entering the venue to Jichan’s appearance and even a figure of him singing passionately in the main article.

This was a teaser article, so this was fine. As soon as she uploaded it, she received comments, ranging from simple thank-yous to those that said they looked forward to her proper review tomorrow while asking for more photos.

The reason she didn’t feel a lot of burden despite investing so much time and money into her hobby was because of the interest of other people who liked Jichan. She would’ve been exhausted early on if she edited the videos and written posts wanting compensation.

Thinking that maybe she should do the rest tomorrow, Yeojung yawned.

It was just as she was about to close the folder that the eighth SD card entered her eyes. Right, there was that. She downloaded the video inside that SD card.

This was the first time she shot a guest in a concert in a daze. She played back the video and raised the volume.

After some noise at the scene, the stage with the three people entered the camera frame. As she lowered the camera after shooting Jichan, the focus was all over the place.

She saw a man walking in front of the blurry stage. Meanwhile, the video became clearer.

Up until this point, it was noisy all around. They all thought that this was going to be a chatty and enjoyable atmosphere just like when Lee Haena sang moments before.

The man, Han Maru, coughed into the mic. It was not an action worth much, but everyone became quiet in one go.

-I’m not that good, but I’ll try singing a short one. This is a verse from the musical ‘Colton Wives.’ I’m pretty sure you’ve heard it somewhere before.

She had no interest in musicals, so she wondered what song it was, but she exclaimed in realization as soon as Maru started singing. It was a song often used in commercials, and it floated around the internet a lot. The people around her also seemed to have noticed.

Her impression up until the end of the first verse was that he was rather good, enough not to be insulted even if he grabbed a mic anywhere. But then, her thoughts changed towards the end.

This was acapella. Moreover, as this was Jichan’s concert, everyone’s interest was focused on him as well. No matter how good he was at singing, it was nearly impossible to induce a great reaction. Yet, when Maru’s song reached its peak, the impossible had become reality.

Even Yeojung, a long-time fan of Jichan, focused the lens on Maru. She, who had never missed Jichan for a single moment, only shot Han Maru.

His deep voice that rang in the back of her head spread around in all directions as though any instrumental accompaniment was unnecessary.

When Maru put down the mic and took a deep breath, her mind was also sucked to Maru. That warm gaze as he looked at the audience seats, the natural movement of his hands playing along with the harmony created by his voice, as well as his controlled breathing and expression true to his emotions grabbed her focus.

As she had been following a singer for over a decade, she had a pretty good discerning eye, and in her opinion, Maru was the real deal. That was way beyond what a hobby could achieve.

What surprised her more than that was his use of the stage. While actors and singers could be categorized under the title ‘entertainers,’ their jobs were totally different.

She believed that only experienced singers could make full use of the stage, but Maru had the entire stage under his control as though he had performed dozens if not hundreds of times.

He didn’t awkwardly sing from one spot but moved around slightly in order to communicate his emotions with the audience that surrounded him in a semicircle.

When the song ended, Yeojung felt disappointed. For that moment, it felt like a pity that Jichan’s turn was returning. The stage was that charming.

How great would he be if he sang with proper equipment, accompaniment, and everything? Just imagining it made her excited.

She repeatedly listened to the song that was about 2 minutes long. Maru’s singing style had a totally different taste to Jichan’s.

Honestly, she didn’t know much about Han Maru. She had only heard that Case Number 0 is interesting and did not actually watch it herself. Detective stuff wasn’t a genre she liked after all.

An actor she had no interest in had attacked her in an unexpected place with a totally unexpected charm.

Yeojung, who had liked a single singer for a decade and only superficially knew about other celebrities, now had a different seed sprout in her.

When she came to, it was 5 a.m. In that time, she had watched the first two episodes of Case Number 0 and looked up Han Maru on the internet.

Her desktop was now filled with photos of Han Maru. She had already downloaded the document and the episode of Hot-blooded Youths that Maru had stood out in.

As soon as she listened to the narration of the documentary, she thought back to him singing in the concert. His voice had to be something he was born with. No, it must be a voice that went under frightening management.

Yeojung opened her editing program again. She grabbed the mouse with her zombie-shaky hands and clicked on the timeline with hazy eyes as she edited.

The editing didn’t take that long. She didn’t add any effects or subtitles and only adjusted for the shakiness of the camera and the color temperature. She intended to transmit Maru’s pure charm as is.

“I didn’t know I’d get into a traffic accident at this age.”

She got hit by the car known as Han Maru.

Yeojung let out a sigh. The sun had risen. It was 8 a.m. Sleep had long since left her. She would probably pass out after eating lunch.

She created a new messageboard in her blog. She created a category for Han Maru right under Yoo Jichan. Then, she uploaded the video she just edited and put a link in her blog post.

-Starting today, I’m digging Han Maru.

After her first post, she had breakfast. After exchanging messages with the friend she went to the concert with yesterday, she checked the blog. Her visitors showed interest in the newly created messageboard.

Some asked who he was, and some said that they knew him well. Whether they knew him or not, there was one thing in common.

-He’s a musical actor, right? His singing is really good.

-He’s totally different from the Maru I know. He’s good enough to release an album.

Everyone praised Maru’s singing skills. She felt like a trader who had just transmitted a new form of culture.

She felt proud when they liked him. This was why she couldn’t stop her fanship. She felt excited when she saw that other people liked the same thing she did.

The view count on her Youtube video was also rising step by step. Around 100 people watched the video. Although there were no comments yet, there were ten people who pressed the like button.

“Guh, I’m dying.”

She felt a wave of drowsiness after 11. She just brushed her teeth before falling down on her bed.

For a brief moment, she thought that she had to turn off the computer, but then didn’t bother. She didn’t want to do anything other than breathe.

When she opened her eyes again, it was going past 6 in the evening.

While she had totally wasted a Saturday, she didn’t have any regrets. She found a new celebrity that made her fanship tingle.

She watched another six episodes of Case Number 0. This was the first time she focused so hard on a domestic drama, not to mention a detective one.

After watching episode 8, she felt that she shouldn’t have watched it. How was she supposed to wait until next week?

She browsed through the interviews that Maru did on the internet. The interview from ‘Movie Road’ was detailed, which she liked.

“Can’t I get anything from the indie movie?”

The indie movie, which was practically Maru’s debut piece, was unobtainable. Only the creators probably had it.

She fidgeted with her toes. There was something she wanted to get as much as Jichan’s new album.

Just as she was looking into Han Maru, she got a flood of notifications from her Youtube account, even though she had yet to upload Jichan’s video.

She tilted her head and opened a youtube window. She went to the creator’s tab and checked what it was.

The video she uploaded of Maru was rising rapidly in view count. It was nearing 50,000 now.

She couldn’t tell what this was about. As this was a channel that mainly dealt with Jichan’s videos, other videos shouldn’t be chosen to be trending.

She went to her blog to check. That was the source of it all. There were over a thousand comments under that blog post.

“What’s all this?”

Yeojung blinked in a daze. She then got a notification that she got an email. When she opened it, she saw that it was from the web portal.

-Regarding main post selection.

It was a notification that her post would go up on the so-called ‘main page.’

[1] She calls her boyfriend ‘oppa.’