Half the World
I descended the stairs in a precarious slide, nearly slipping with every step, and planted myself in front of her.
“...Huff. ...Hah.”
I steadied my ragged breathing as best I could before speaking.
“...Haah. How could you leave without saying a single word? That’s so cold of you.”
“How did you find me here, Team Leader Seon?”
Then, as if a realization had struck her, she turned to Seok Hyeonwu.
“Manager Seok. I told you not to say anything to Team Leader Seon, didn’t I?”
Seok Hyeonwu dropped to his knees, ready to beg for forgiveness.
“I’m truly sorry, Miss!”
“No, Manager Seok. If anyone sees you like this, it will cause serious problems. I understand your feelings, but please restrain yourself.”
I frantically pulled him back from prostrating any further.
“Still...”
Jin Yeoreum looked down at Seok Hyeonwu with a chilling gaze.
“Manager Seok. Please stand up. I’ll accept your apology.”
Seok Hyeonwu bowed his head as though he had nothing left to say and retreated. His handling of the situation had been careless, but when I thought about it, the entire mess had started because of me. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“So what brings you all the way here? Did you come to blame me for my rudeness? Or to criticize me for the irresponsibility of abandoning the orphanage and running away?”
“You’re not abandoning the orphanage. In exchange for going abroad to study, you received a promise that Jin Kang would provide ample support to the orphanage, didn’t you?”
“...How could you possibly know that?”
It was written in the letter you sent three years later.
“Manager Seok didn’t tell me, so please don’t think of that person.”
“...”
Jin Yeoreum glanced at Seok Hyeonwu again, flinched, and shook her head.
“You’re right. That isn’t a very important story. The support for the orphanage was simply something you offered, so I didn’t stop you. It’s hardly a topic worth lingering on.”
Jin Yeoreum lifted the wide brim of her straw hat just enough to meet my eyes and continued.
“So what exactly did you come here to say? I’m very busy and don’t have much time. I’d appreciate it if you could get straight to the point.”
I delivered the purpose without hesitation.
“Yeoreum, let’s become idols together.”
“...”
After a long silence, Jin Yeoreum finally spoke.
“Didn’t I make my intentions clear in the letter? I have no desire to become an idol.”
She spoke firmly, as if she held no lingering attachments whatsoever. Yet she couldn’t hide the way her eyes trembled—just enough to prove her acting potential was low.
“Becoming an idol is merely a tool for improving my image. And deploying that tool demands far more time, resources, and risk than most people realize. I’ve completed the calculations, and I believe studying abroad is the superior choice.”
“I understand. I think going abroad is a good decision for your life as well, Yeoreum. But doesn’t that conclusion stray far from the original goal of image improvement you set when you first started volunteering?”
“...Are you saying I’m running away?”
I shrugged.
“If that’s how you interpret it, then perhaps it looks that way. It’s true that studying abroad won’t help repair your image, isn’t it?”
I still remembered the way Seok Hyeonwu had spoken of a hundred years.
“Didn’t you declare that you would restore the damaged image you’d caused Jin Kang and your family through your own power? I was genuinely moved. Or did I overestimate your resolve too highly, Yeoreum?”
Yeoreum looked at me with sorrowful eyes, as though the words pained her to hear, and replied.
“Yes, you overestimated me. Whether it was volunteer work or becoming an idol, if an offer to study abroad had arrived, I would have abandoned everything at any moment. That’s how fragile I truly am.”
“No. You wouldn’t have done that, Jin Yeoreum.”
Before the regression, right up until the gate burst open, Jin Yeoreum had quietly protected that orphanage. The period lasted roughly three years. During that time, had there been no offers to study abroad, or better proposals? Of course there had been. Yet Jin Yeoreum had ignored every one of them and guarded that place from a young age. The outcome hadn’t been kind, but I couldn’t dismiss the heart behind it so lightly.
“...How could you know that, Team Leader Seon?”
“Because the Yeoreum I saw was exactly that kind of person. You always pretend to choose the optimal, rational path, but in truth you devoted yourself to the children, to your family, and you never withheld kindness from me, Autumn, or Winter—people you barely even knew.”
I had told her not to expect anything from me, yet I had seen the smile she couldn’t hide whenever Autumn, Winter, and I visited.
She was that kind of person.
“No, I’m not that kind of person. All of it was nothing but image management. Don’t you know that the name Jin Kang follows every action I take?”
“That alone couldn’t make you act the way you did. Only someone with an excessive amount of affection—someone others call a pushover—could manage it.”
“Then how can you state that with such certainty, Team Leader Seon?”
“Because I’m the same kind of person.”
“...Pardon?”
The reason I had come all this way and stirred up such a commotion, the reason I had resolved to recruit Jin Yeoreum despite the path being paved with thorns, was all because of that damned affection.
I didn’t want to watch a fragile, pushover child who resembled me fall into regret.
“Let’s become idols together, Yeoreum. Winter wants to do it with you. So does Autumn.”
“...”
“And of course, so do I.”
Yeoreum’s eyes trembled once more. She hesitated, the words still lingering, but eventually she seemed to steel herself. She looked at me directly and spoke in an icy tone.
“Do you realize how cruel that is? There are things I’ll have to endure if I go through with this, you know?”
Just as Jin Yeoreum said, there were things she would have to bear. She would face backlash. A colossal wave no single person should have to confront.
“The moment people learn I’m debuting, they’ll pour every curse they have at me. They’ll dig up old footage from my childhood, mock me relentlessly, and turn me into a joke. I don’t have the confidence to withstand that.”
It would have been strange if she did. No one in the world could endure such a storm and remain standing.
“You’re right. There will be fierce opposition.”
“Is it even possible to break those people and make them like me? I believe it’s impossible. No matter what I do, those who hate me will continue to hate me.”
That was the torment she had always carried inside.
“Then why did you decide to do volunteer work, Jin Yeoreum? According to your logic, improving your image through volunteering should also be impossible, shouldn’t it?”
“Because some people might change their opinion of me. Even then, there will still be those who keep hating me, but...”
If she already understood that much, it was enough.
“Exactly. We can’t make the entire world like Jin Yeoreum. Even if your innocence is later revealed and it’s proven that you were simply a victim, there will always be people who hate you, Yeoreum.”
“Then everything is meaningless...”
“But even if we can’t have everyone, we can take half.”
That half was what we needed to aim for.
“If half the world hates you, I’ll make the other half lose their minds over your charm, Yeoreum. I’ll turn every single one of them into fans and shields who voluntarily protect you from your flaws, your controversies, and every attack aimed in your direction.”
I had the confidence to pull it off. With the status window and my regression backing me, the difficulty should at least reach this level. Therefore, I would succeed. Without fail.
“I’ll make you the greatest star—one that both anti-fans and fans go wild for.”
A single tear had begun to trace down the corner of Jin Yeoreum’s eye. As if that tear had broken the dam on the emotions she had been suppressing, her overflowing feelings surged forward.
“It’s not something I’ll be enduring alone!”
She finally brought into the open the consideration she had been pretending not to feel.
“It doesn’t really matter if I’m the only one who gets hurt. But if I become an idol, I’ll cause trouble for everyone. Without me, Winter, Autumn, and even you, Team Leader Seon, could succeed so easily. Because of me, you’ll all have to struggle.”
Even in the letter she left three years later, she had continued worrying about us. She had been excessively concerned that staying in contact with her would hinder our success. She had insisted on letters as the only means of communication. That was why she had suddenly chosen to study abroad, and it was the very reason I had decided to recruit her.
That tender-hearted child deserved at least some reward.
“Haven’t I been completely honest about every feeling I have until now? So will you tell me just one thing from the heart?”
I needed to hear the truth she would only speak three years from now—right here, right now.
“Do you want to become an idol?”
Jin Yeoreum wiped the tears from her cheeks and answered.
“Do you really need to hear that? It’s completely irrelevant to the current discussion.”
“No. That’s the most important thing of all.”
“...It’s nothing but an insignificant emotion.”
“It’s an emotion that is everything in itself.”
“...”
Two fresh streams of tears slid down her freshly wiped cheeks.
“I want to do it too! With Winter, Autumn, and you, Team Leader Seon.”
The child who had only ever shown consideration for the name Jin Kang, for family, for the orphanage, and for me, Autumn, and Winter—yet had never lived for herself—had finally spoken her true heart.
That was enough.
“Then face it. Step forward. If you do, I will give you half the world.”
This was a declaration. Even if recruiting Jin Yeoreum raised the uncertainty of success, I would make it succeed without fail. No matter what means I had to employ.
She stared blankly at the hand I offered and murmured.
“You really are a very strange person, Team Leader Seon.”
And then she took my hand.
Even if the bond was faint, even if it was clumsy, even if it was unstable—because we were dreaming the same dream. The liars had gone in circles and finally faced each other.