She couldn’t point out who exactly, but there were some unpleasant stares mixed in the crowd.
Iromi reflexively narrowed her °• N o v e l i g h t •° eyes, then remembered she was in front of the camera and relaxed her expression.
‘...Is it because of that?’
Iromi recalled the day not long ago when her former agency’s CEO had shown up.
Back in her idol trainee days, that man had completely destroyed her self-esteem and snuffed out her debut. And now he had come back, bragging about how well his company treated their actors.
It wasn’t like Iromi was going to sit there and take it.
“You didn’t get the hint when I blocked your number back then?”
“Hey, you’re still going to be working in entertainment, so don’t act so stiff. You think that buzz you got’s gonna last? Even if your song does okay, you’re a one-hit wonder. You’ll flash and fade. You’re not like Nayeon who made it all the way to S-Rank, y’know?”
The way his voice had cracked, whiny and nasal, still echoed in her ears, making her shiver in disgust.
‘What the hell does it have to do with you.’
Keeping her face neutral, Iromi stepped out of the storage building.
Bringing up Nayeon’s name had been deliberate. He probably thought Iromi still had an inferiority complex from debuting in the same group as her.
That dark emotion she couldn’t help but raise her head to—it felt like a burden she would carry for life.
At least she’d gotten praise for expressing those tangled feelings richly through her music.
‘Forget it, Queen-Romi. That jerk’s always been scum.’
Just as she was resetting her mindset—
VROOOOOM—!
Screech!
The sound of brakes erased all the gloom in an instant.
The kids on the bikes had come back—towing a cart loaded with a full tray of 30 eggs!
“Why—why’d you buy those?!”
Startled, Iromi asked, as Woojoo and Guru parked their bikes and answered one after the other.
“...If we bring eggs, we have to say goodbye to Mama.”
“Yeees. An’ Gwu don’ wike hawf-made chickies. We gotta eat safe eggsies.”
“Pipit.”
Mephisto, who often got mistaken for a plump baby chick, nodded along even as he gulped down egg dishes like it was nothing.
“Half-made chickies...? Oh, I get what you mean...”
Even Iromi, being from the countryside, had had a few of those incidents. The kind where you accidentally cracked open an egg with a half-formed chick inside.
“...Yeah, that is pretty horrific.”
“Euuugh.”
“Eeek.”
“Pip.”
The two kids, one woman, and one chick all shivered together.
“So that’s why you bought them?”
“Yeeeng!”
Iromi burst out laughing and grabbed the kids’ hands.
Guru pulled the cart toward the stove, and Kazuki, who had been fanning the fire, let out a loud laugh when he saw the clearly store-bought eggs.
“Guru-chan, you wanted eggs that baaad!”
“So we were allowed to buy ingredients?”
Before anyone noticed, Jurim had gotten up and was lazily approaching.
Guru quickly hid the cart behind her and shook her head.
“Pee-pow who din’t wowk don’ get eggsy.”
In the end, Jurim had to help Kazuki crack the eggs.
And while everyone was busy preparing dinner in a warm, cheerful mood—someone was smiling silently in the background.
As the first day came to a close, a man who had infiltrated the shoot as an assistant staff member waited until nightfall to start moving.
The cast and crew were all sleeping like the dead, but he couldn’t afford to be careless.
He’d confirmed Jurim had left, but there was still another S-Rank Hunter remaining. Even if this was the production industry, he couldn’t let his guard down.
The man silently sprayed a colorless, odorless sleep-inducer into Kazuki’s room and opened the door where the cast’s belongings were stored.
Creak—
Inside the vacant room, suitcases and bags were clustered together.
Finding his target, he hurried over and was just about to open one of the suitcases—
When the flowerpot Guru had brought was sitting on the windowsill, catching the moonlight and faintly emitting magic.
Magic?
There was no way an acorn should be growing like that.
The plant had only one long stem rising above its sprout leaves, and a single acorn seemed like it might pop off the top at any moment.
Suddenly, his hand moved on its own toward the flowerpot. A surge of curiosity to check what it was had taken hold of him.
But then—
Whoosh—
The stem dodged his hand like a bowstring snapping.
It dodged?
When he reached out again in the direction it had moved—
Whoosh—again, the stem bent away.
That wasn’t all. The plant that was dodging his hand started trembling all over.
The moment the irritated man reached for the mound of dirt where the roots protruded—
Something small, white, and round popped up from the soil and bit his hand.
CHOMP!
“Ah! Shit!”
He gasped and yanked his hand back.
...Did it just bite me?
Tiny beads of blood welled up on his hand.
When he checked the pot, whatever had emerged had already retreated back into the soil.
His anger flared instantly. Just as he grabbed the whole flowerpot in his thick hand—
“You’re nawt ‘posed to touch that......”
The drowsy, dragging voice belonged to a child.
Startled, he turned around.
Guru was standing in the doorway, rubbing her eyes.
Yaaawn—she asked,
“Mister, whatcha doin’ dere?”
“Oh, uh? Just looking for something...”
He adjusted his cap and stood up, chewing his gum.
“It’s super dark in here.”
“I can see fine.”
“I seee. Did you find it?”
“Yeah, yeah. I found it, I’ll be going now...”
He quickly scanned the area for signs of others and tried to leave the room—when he felt a small hand tugging on his pants leg.
“Misteeer...”
“Uh? What?”
“Gwuu wanna go to the bathwoom. It’s too dawk an’ scawy.”
“O-oh, really?”
“Yeeeng...”
“Won’t your dad be back soon?”
Guru drooped her eyebrows.
“Gwuu weawwy gotta go.”
“...Alright, let’s go together.”
Nod-nod.
Guru grabbed the man’s hand.
Her dad had gone out and hadn’t come back, and she couldn’t hold it in anymore after searching for him.
‘Where’d Daddy go.’
As she followed the man outside, she looked around for her dad.
Lately, Jurim had been acting strange.
Even when Guru recharged his mana, he’d just sleep all day. Then sneak off at night. Even today, when they were out in the mana-thick countryside, he was the same.
Lounging around all day without working—this was just an extension of his recent behavior.
She hadn’t expected him to be like that even in front of the cameras.
‘Daddy’s amazing.’
In many, many ways.
‘...But.’
Guru glanced up at the man’s face beneath the cap.
Wasn’t he one of the assistant staff?
‘How’d this Mister know Daddy wasn’t here?’
Maybe they’d crossed paths earlier? Guru opened her mouth to ask.
“Mistee—”
“We’re here. Go on in.”
“Ah!”
She entered the tall bathroom alone and shivered at the chill inside.
“Mister, are you dere?”
“I’m here.”
“Okayyy.”
When she finished and stepped back outside, the man was already fixing his cap and walking briskly back toward the house.
Guru scurried to follow.
‘It’s suddenly cold again...’
As she rubbed her arms against the chill and chased after him, a lightbulb went off in her head.
If Daddy ran into the Mister earlier—maybe he knew where he went?
“Mister, did you see my Daddy earlier?”
“...What?”
“Why’re you asking that?”
Why does he look so scary all of a sudden?
“U-um, I was just curious.”
“You ask a lotta questions.”
“Do you know where Daddy went?”
“No idea.”
Rustle—
Just then, a sound came from the garden.
Guru and the man both turned toward the vegetable patch.
They opened their mouths at the same time.
“Daddy?”
[“...Chunchun?”]
“Hm?”
Chueng?
The quick pronunciation and accent sounded foreign.
“Mister. Are you fwom another country too?”
“Which country? Japan?”
Hmm, didn’t sound Japanese...
“If not, which othew country?”
As the questions kept coming, the man looked down at Guru with a face even stiffer than before.
After a pause, he spoke quietly.
“Guru.”
“Yeeeng.”
“I heard this place has ghosts.”
“Ehh...?”
Why’d he say something so scary all of a sudden? Guru stood there slack-jawed, her hands held tightly at her chest.
“It’s cold right now, isn’t it?”
Guru gave a small nod.
“I heard from the village chief. There’s a ghost around here that keeps stealing veggies and fruit.”
Ghost...? Stealing?
Guru imagined a terrifying white face and hunched her shoulders up.
Even though she was one of the braver ones in the Chick Class, that didn’t mean she wasn’t scared of dark places and spooky things.
For kids like her, Teacher Jungyoon at Saebom Preschool had once said—
“M-Miss Jungyoon said there’s no such thing as ghosts...”
She mumbled.
But the man just gave a slow, creepy grin.
“Then why do you think it’s so cold right now?”
“Eep!”
Guru jerked her head around, looking frantically.
Luckily, nothing was there, but the darkness was so thick, something could easily be hiding.
“So be careful of ghosts, alright?”
The man said, satisfied at the sight of stiffened-up Guru, then brought her back to the room.
Click—
The door closed, and in the silence, Guru crawled under the blanket.
Mephisto and Veilach, who’d been sleeping, stirred when she returned and nestled up beside her, falling fast asleep again.
Guru hugged them tightly to her chest and rolled her eyes around.
She had a feeling she wouldn’t be sleeping tonight.
An owl’s cry echoed in the distance.
The man pressed something on his watch and sent it, then crossed his arms, looking impatient.
Soon, his watch blinked with a reply.
As he checked it—
A figure crept stealthily across the field.
Black eyes that didn’t reflect light darted around, scanning the surroundings.
Grrrgle—
While watching everything unfold from behind a tree, wary of the man, the creature took a bite of a carrot it had swiped from the vegetable garden.
Crunch—

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