Chapter 5
I bowed and entered, struggling to calm my pounding heart. A wave of guilt hit me—after all, I had just stepped into a restricted area.
But it wasn’t like I wanted to do this! I just wanted a peaceful autograph like any other fan!
Sure, winning a spot at the fan signing event was thrilling. And for a moment, I even felt relieved thinking I could prevent Nevergain’s mess.
That relief didn’t last long—because I soon realized that being a fan signing winner wasn’t enough to stop anything.
‘Two incidents happen at today’s fan sign event.’
The first was Cha Uk’s attitude disaster.
In my past life, Cha Uk had attended the fan sign with a stone-cold expression and barely uttered more than a robotic “Ah, really?” toward the end.
The video of his blank expression and mechanical signing, along with the infamous “Ah, really?” clip, spread like wildfire—severely damaging his image.
The second incident was the peanut allergy attack of Do Eun-seok.
He had a known peanut allergy, which triggered a serious reaction that turned the event into complete chaos.
I needed to know the situation more thoroughly—and be close enough to handle it.
“First, I need to keep Cha Uk under control.”
Clicking my tongue, I was walking when I heard hurried footsteps. I looked up to see a guy wearing the same staff lanyard as me rushing down the stairs, practically stumbling.
“Hey! Perfect timing! Take these, will you?”
Without warning, he piled drinks into my arms and caught his breath.
“Place these out at the venue and in the waiting rooms.”
“Huh? What? Wait, um…”
Excuse me? Hello? I can’t see anything here!
Before I could protest further, the guy—clearly a staff member—had already sprinted off.
This wasn’t the time to be doing this! I needed to find out where the members were first!
This was not part of my “Fan Sign Crisis Prevention Operation!”
“Ugh. Great.”
Muttering to myself, I still moved quickly. Since I was here under the guise of staff, I decided to just roll with it. Honestly, if adapting to your environment were a competition, I’d win gold—no doubt.
It was smarter to finish the task and get back to my real goal, rather than waste time complaining.
…Or so I thought. The drinks were way heavier than I expected. My arms were already trembling like aspen leaves.
My legs weren’t faring much better—I had to brace myself with every step I took.
As I cautiously moved forward, one of the drinks at the top finally tipped and fell.
‘Crap.’
I barely stopped myself from swearing out loud as I tried to figure out how to pick it up without dropping more. The rogue bottle rolled away and stopped against a large foot.
Desperate, I looked up at my unexpected savior.
“Excuse me. I’m sorry, but could you hand that to me?”
I squeezed out my voice between the tower of drinks, but got no response.
“Hello? Can you hear me?”
“……”
“You’re there, right? Just hand me that one bottle…”
Step. The foot that had been still finally moved.
“Ah! Just place it up here, thank you so—”
Zoom.
“…?”
He walked past me.
Really, just zoomed past.
The guy, completely unfazed, walked right by as if I were invisible.
What the heck? Is he a sociopath?
Stunned, I gawked for a moment before yelling out in disbelief.
“E-excuse me! Is it that hard to hand someone a bottle?”
It’s not like I asked him to carry it all! Just one bottle! Ugh!
I stomped a few steps in his direction—
‘Whoa!?’
A sudden shift in balance threw me off. My knee buckled, and everything felt like it was moving in slow motion.
Crap. I’m screwed.
The precariously stacked drinks all tumbled to the floor. My frantic attempts to catch them failed miserably—I was left holding just one bottle of cola.
Worse, one of the cans I accidentally kicked flew straight toward the guy’s feet.
“Ugh. What the hell?”
The annoyed sigh made me snap my head up—and there he was.
My breath caught the moment I saw his face.
Because he was…
“Ch-Cha Uk!?”
POP!
Fsssssssshhhhhh!
Ssssssshhhhhh! Pshhhh!
When you’re too shocked, you can’t even scream. The cola that had landed by Cha Uk’s foot exploded.
The soda rained down on his face—beautifully made up for the event—and drenched him. I tried to block it, but accidentally knocked the bottle again, making it spray even more violently.
His once pristine white jumper now looked like it had been dragged through sewage.
I shut my eyes tightly.
I want to go home.
“……”
“……”
Just then, a thought flashed through my mind.
“Is this… a dream?”
“……”
“No way…”
“……”
Cha Uk looked too stunned to even speak. But his eyes—those eyes—were absolutely cursing me.
They were practically blazing, like he was about to grab me by the collar. His intense glare was reminiscent of his rookie days. I was… moved. Almost.
Snap out of it. I finally realized how bad this was.
“You okay? Oh no. I’m really, really sorry!”
I reached out with my sleeve to wipe the soda off him, but he harshly slapped my hand away.
“Don’t touch me.”
“…!”
“Who are you?”
His piercing gaze dropped to my nametag.
“An unnamed temp? And why are you speaking informally?”
Ah, crap! I forgot I was pretending to be staff.
“I’m sorry. I thought we were the same age, and I just…”
Wait, why are you doing it too?
Before I could argue, Cha Uk cut in sharply.
“Same age? You’re a minor, and you came in here as a staff member?”
“Oh, that—my sister works as staff and I came in for her. She got food poisoning this morning. You know how that is, right?”
I was rambling now, wildly gesturing as I explained about food poisoning. Cha Uk took a step closer.
“What are you going to do about this?”
He flicked the hem of his soaked jumper in irritation, then pointed to his face and hair.
“I spent all morning on this hair and makeup. What now?”
At this point, I wanted to ask: Hey, reincarnation me, did you come here to stop a disaster—or cause one?
I answered myself: I don’t know anymore.
“I’ll get the stylist right away! The event’s still an hour and a half away, so—”
I was about to dash down the hallway when Cha Uk suddenly grabbed the back of my neck.
“Where do you think you’re sneaking off to?”
With his grip on my nape, I turned my head slowly. Has anyone ever had their idol grab their neck? That’s me.
‘Okay, even if you’re mad, do you really need to treat a person like a sack of potatoes?’
Seeing how pale I went, Cha Uk smirked coldly.
“Do you have any idea how much this costs?”
“I, I’m not sure…”
I looked up and down at his jumper.
I recognized the logo, but couldn’t recall the name. It looked expensive, of course—he is a celebrity.
But… NeverAgain’s only been popular for a year. Surely it’s not that fancy? Then again…
While Cha Uk peeled off his drenched coat in disgust, I quickly pulled out my phone to look up the brand.
‘Ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million…’
“Wh-what?!”
I staggered back in horror. There were two more zeroes than I expected!
In a whisper, I said, “I-I’ll pay for the dry cleaning…”
“That’s not the point. Come with me. Security needs to check your info.”
“What?”
“You say you’re a replacement. How do I know that’s true?”
Oh no. Nothing’s going according to plan!
