Wishing Peace to Operation 3. May It Rest in Peace
Thankfully, Team Leader Kang came sprinting over to help clean up the mess, and Maru’s tears dried up almost immediately. As expected, an idol manager really was on another level. Not only did she have wet wipes and a change of clothes ready, she even brushed the sand out of Maru’s hair and finished it off with dry shampoo. The perfectly styled trident-like bangs Maru had been rocking were neat again in no time.
Of course, the original plan had been to make Mazia cry, but since Maru had burst into tears first, there was no helping the embarrassment that followed. As a result, Maru started awkwardly hovering around Mazia, who now felt bad and ended up being the one avoided. However, while Maru only knew how to chase people down physically, Mazia had a far more powerful weapon at her disposal.
“Want to play 64 Cubics together next week?”
Komari barely managed to swallow the words “Why does Maru-unnie get special treatment?” back down her throat. After all, 64 Cubics meant she could casually slip in without anyone noticing. Even Maru, who had been fleeing in shame over her luck, froze in place. Because when you said 64 Cubics, you thought of Maru. And when you thought of Maru, you thought of a 64 Cubics addict.
“For real…?”
Even though she’d wanted to play together, she’d found it hard to bring up. Having Mazia suggest it first left Maru genuinely moved.
…Of course, while it was a touching moment for Maru, the truth was far less sentimental. Mazia had simply acted quickly because she didn’t want anything to ruin the vlog shoot. Even if it had been a rational response rather than an emotional one, the result was that the distance between Jia and the first-generation members had narrowed once again.
Not missing the chance, Maru and Komari each grabbed one of Mazia’s hands and dashed off toward the sandy beach. Mazia asked warily,
“You’re not going to shove me face-first into the sand again, are you?”
“N-no, that’s not it.”
From the very beginning, the members’ thoughts had been consistent. It was only natural for the members to hang out together and film it. And Mazia absolutely could not be left out of that.
“Make a V with your feet. There’s something I’ve really wanted to film here.”
When Mazia made a V shape with her small feet first, the other four immediately clustered around her as if they’d planned it. Soon five pairs of shoes formed a star shape. Team Leader Kang, who had approached at some point, positioned the camera from above. Right on cue, Maru started the chant, and the others followed.
“Maru!”
“Dora!”
“Komari!”
“Rain!”
After that, with everyone’s eyes on her, Jia found herself muttering quietly almost by reflex.
“…Mazia.”
“Parallel Another Let’s go—!!”
Of course, after answering—and after making sure the footage was properly secured—she didn’t forget to add one more thing.
“But I’m not part of Another, so I shouldn’t be in this. You four should remake the star without me. I’ll send you the clip from earlier separately for behind-the-scenes use.”
But the members wouldn’t allow it. No matter what anyone said, today’s main character was Mazia.
“Nope~ That’s not true~ Jia-unnie is part of Another too~.”
“That’s right. There wouldn’t even be an Another without Jia.”
“If Jia-nim hadn’t been here, the stream would’ve died ages ago, for real?”
“The one who normalized broadcasting. It’s Big Jia. That’s right.”
Not content with just words, the four of them joined hands to form a circle around Mazia so she couldn’t escape, then began spinning round and round. Since the sight of them jumping and twirling was adorable, she stayed still for the sake of filming. But Mazia’s patience didn’t last very long.
Her plan to slip out under their joined hands failed instantly when Komari and Maru closed the gap like sliding doors. …Why did they only ever sync up at times like this?
In the end, Jia stood there with a slightly sour expression until the four of them finally stopped. She couldn’t quite understand why they were acting this way, but since escaping was impossible, she simply resigned herself to the situation. Even after that, her resigned face never quite made it onto camera.
Throughout it all, Mazia was dragged around with the same expression. Whenever she tried to slip away at an opportune moment, one of the four would always grab her hand in turn. After that, the five of them wandered along the early-winter beach, skipping stones, sharing shrimp crackers with seagulls, petting a stray cat that wandered by, and generally running around the beach and the entrance to the nearby village until it was time to set up the tent. They spent the time together happily.
Naturally, throughout all of it, Mazia was showered with praise for every little thing she did. By the time they started pitching the tent, her mind was practically in a daze. When she managed to skip a stone a bit farther than usual, Rain shouted, “What the, Korean superconductor!” When she lured a seagull with shrimp crackers, caught it, and let the members pet it, Dora exclaimed, “Whoa, is this the seagull Jia-nim raised?” And when a stray cat suddenly appeared, rubbed its head against Mazia’s leg, and then flopped over, everyone chorused “Druid!” in perfect unison.
It was the same level of exaggeration as parents at a first birthday party who, upon seeing their child grab a calligraphy brush, declare that their daughter will become the world’s greatest genius and create technology that will make America tremble and China tremble in fear, strengthening the nation! That was the vibe.
So she was exhausted. While Mazia was used to physical fatigue, she couldn’t withstand the mental exhaustion. The moment the tent was pitched, she plopped down in the camping chair in front of it and began dozing off.
“Oh my, is our Jia-bean sleepy?”
When mentally exhausted, Mazia tended to speak in a listless way. At the company she always maintained a crisp, professional appearance, but now that she was out having fun, she wasn’t quite so stiff.
“No… I’m just mentally tired……”
Her slow speech and sluggish movements made it obvious how worn out she was. That was why Team Leader Kang felt a twinge of concern.
‘Is it really okay to do the hidden camera bit in this state…?’
When people were mentally fatigued, they became emotionally fragile more easily. No matter how unflappable Mazia usually seemed, if the kids who had been playing with her all day suddenly started excluding her, she might actually get sulky.
To be honest, she had been mentally exhausted the entire afternoon. But after starting to tear into the large shrimp, she recovered completely in just thirty minutes.
“This is delicious……”
Ha. As expected, it was the shrimp. And since they were huge, the meat was plump and chewy. At this rate, she would have no problem handling the important event planned for tonight at the campsite.
Everyone else was clustered together, chatting noisily, which made her feel a bit pushed off to the corner of the table. But this kind of environment actually suited her better. After all, it was only natural for staff to sit on the sidelines and read the room in situations like this. In the first place, she was just an uninvited guest who had squeezed herself into a spot that had always belonged to those six people.
This was how it should have been from the start. She’d sensed something was off ever since they got in the car, and sure enough, she’d ended up being dragged around all day. Anyway, she quietly—very quietly—hoped no one would pay her any attention until the meal was over. She prepared her own grill, grilled the shrimp, peeled them, ate them, and steadily recovered her mental strength.
She was peeling the shell off her fifteenth and final large shrimp when the restaurant owner approached, patted her shoulder, and whispered in her ear.
“We still have some vlog footage to shoot near the kids. I’ll take the car and be back in a bit, so why don’t you finish eating and join us later?”
Since she ate slowly, the members had already finished and left. She’d wondered why everyone seemed so busy today. It turned out they still had separate filming left to do for the one-year anniversary.
“Of course. I’ll call you when I’m done eating.”
Throughout the meal, strange things had kept happening. Her cup would disappear when she came back from the bathroom. Her phone’s position would change. Her chair would suddenly tip over. But she had expected that kind of misfortune since that morning, so she simply thought, Guess I’m having a bit of bad luck today, and let it slide.
But by the time the meal was ending, their destinations had split up so naturally. She had been worrying about how to slip away naturally to set up the members’ presents, but this was a stroke of perfect luck. Now she could head back to the campsite alone.
In the darkening surroundings, the only lights at the campsite were a few streetlamps. If she waited there in advance and activated the device the moment the kids arrived… wouldn’t that leave them with a memory they could never forget?
Beep! Beep!
“…Oh.”
Even someone as thoroughly prepared as her occasionally forgot one or two things. Today, it was the portable charger.
“Ah, shoot.”
She had been too busy worrying about the members’ gifts in her bag. Right after that, she’d been on the phone with her parents and hadn’t noticed she’d forgotten it. The remaining battery was now at a mere five percent. Even in maximum power-saving mode, it would probably only last thirty minutes.
Fortunately, thanks to the advancement of civilization, modern messaging apps had a very useful feature.
“Just in case, I should schedule a message to send in an hour.”
About fifty-five minutes later.
Team Leader Kang’s worry that Mazia’s mentally exhausted state might cause her mentality to crack had come true.
“Jia… She’s not answering at all.”
It had been nearly twenty minutes since they finished filming, and they had been glued to their phones making calls, but Mazia—who had said she would contact them after eating—had been completely silent. She hadn’t reached out first. When they called, it said the phone was powered off. When they went back to the seafood restaurant where they had left her, the owner said she had already finished eating and left. Given Mazia’s appearance and distinctive eye color, there was no way the owner would have mistaken her for someone else.
“This is driving me crazy. Did she… did she really go home?”
“We did kind of ignore her a lot while we were eating……”
“Wait, but… this is supposed to be a hidden camera prank… Did we go too far?”
“Normally I wouldn’t worry, but today Jia-bean did look pretty mentally drained……”
“Ugh……”
Maru’s mentality had already shattered. She kept calling Mazia even though the calls weren’t connecting, completely out of it.
“What do we do? It’s all because of me. Because of me, Jia… I shouldn’t have suggested doing something like this……”
The other members were trying to comfort her, but there was nothing they could do. If they couldn’t reach her, what else was there? If she had made it home safely, that would be fine, but if not, they might have to file a missing person report with the police. Whether she thought so or not, Mazia was only 140cm tall. To anyone watching, it would only look like a child wandering around alone late at night.
‘No, let’s not think the worst.’
Do-hee focused all her attention on trying to guess where Mazia might have gone. If she had finished eating, where would Jia head? Obviously the campsite. It was only 500 meters away, so she might have decided it would be faster to walk rather than call Do-hee.
“That’s right… the campsite!”
They had been so shaken by the sudden loss of contact with Mazia that they had completely overlooked the most obvious place—the campsite. Maybe her battery had died and she was waiting for them there.
Just as Cheon Do-hee slipped her phone into her pocket and turned toward the car—
Vrrrr.
“…!”
The sender was Mazia. Do-hee frantically tapped at the screen. Her hands were so clammy with cold sweat that the fingerprint sensor wouldn’t even register. Once she finally unlocked it, three words appeared.
An indescribable sense of relief warmly wrapped around her heart. At the same time, a feeling of utter bewilderment smacked Do-hee in the back of the head.
“……She’ll wait?”