Minji: "When is the concert?"
Hana asked while arranging her clothes in the wardrobe.
They had just arrived in Busan, and after dorm life, they were now staying in a share house. Everyone had cleaned together, and now they were unpacking their bags and placing their clothes.
"It's a three-day concert — Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday," Minji replied while closing her wardrobe.
She had already sent Sophia and Ruhi to a nearby market to bring food, because no one had the energy to cook.
Hana turned toward Minji and then subtly pointed toward Zoya, who was silently arranging her clothes in the wardrobe.
Minji signalled Hana to relax, then walked toward Zoya.
"Zoya… how is your throat? Does it still hurt?" Minji asked casually, trying to start a normal conversation.
Yesterday, her voice had returned, but she barely spoke.
She had cried herself to sleep at night, and no one asked her anything.
In the morning, she was the first one awake and even woke everyone else up.
Everyone was still confused, remembering the night's scene, but they avoided talking about it.
"I'll also come to Busan… I'm falling behind in my studies," Zoya said suddenly, and then walked toward the kitchen.
On the other side, in Busan, in Yomin's room, Jeon.J was asleep with the house camera video still running on his phone.
Last night, he had listened to Yomin without responding, then ended up lying on his bed and falling asleep there.
But he never let go of his phone, nor turned it off, as if he was afraid he might miss something.
In the kitchen, the moment Zoya entered, yesterday's memory flashed in her mind.
But today she was different.
She was not confused. There was no pain on her face like yesterday.
She went to the fridge, poured fresh juice into a glass, and sat on the chair near the counter.
She held the glass carefully with both hands, as if it were the most precious thing to her.
But inside, she was still in the trauma of last night.
She was not showing it to anyone, but she was still inside it.
She did know that cameras also have microphones attached.
She only wanted to speak. She wanted to tell everything that happened to her, and she wanted to tell the one because of whom Ji-won had done all of that to her.
She imagined him in front of her and started speaking.
In Busan, in Yomin's room, Jeon.J shifted in his sleep, and his phone slipped from his hand and fell. But because of the carpet, no sound was made, Yomin would have woken up.
Jeon.J slowly opened his eyes, feeling his empty hand. He immediately sat up and looked around. He realized he was still in Yomin's room and remembered why he was there.
He looked for his phone and noticed it on the floor. He quickly picked it up.
He remembered that last night he had fallen asleep while talking to Yomin without saying anything.
He got up from the bed, because if Yomin woke up, the questions would start again.
But just as he reached the door, he heard Yomin's voice.
With eyes still closed, Yomin said, "Jeon.J, you didn't answer. We'll talk later."
Then he turned and went back to sleep.
Jeon.J didn't respond and went back to his room.
It was 9 AM. No one was awake yet. No one would wake up before 12.
He placed his phone on the side table in his room, but suddenly stopped.
In the kitchen camera, he saw her.
She was sitting there holding a glass of juice, staring ahead as if lost in deep thought.
Her lips were moving — she was speaking.
Jeon.J immediately turned on the voice.
Now he could not only see her… but also hear her.
"You know what Ji-won did to me…"
Jeon.J was shocked by her words.
He looked through the kitchen camera, but there was no one else there.
So who was she talking to?
Suddenly, she looked directly toward the camera.
And Jeon.J froze.
How did she know he was watching and listening?
Fear started to rise inside Jeon.J.
Who was she… and how was she connected to everything?
But he kept listening.
He wanted to hear everything.
"I met her at university… I didn't even know her properly. I kept thinking… what was my fault? Why does she have enmity with me? Why is she hurting me like this?"
"But you know what she was saying…"
Before she could even finish speaking, Zoya gently pressed her leg with her hand.
The wound was still there, still painful.
"I was unconscious… but this pain brought me back to my senses," she said, her voice trembling.
"She kept saying… 'How can you walk with him? The one I wanted to be with…' That's why she gave me this pain." Zoya still pressed her leg.
"She slapped me so many times… I really felt the pain."
Zoya held the juice glass tightly as tears started falling.
"She said… 'What do you even have in you that he looks at you? Look at yourself… You are nothing compared to me. Why would he ever look at you?"
"She cut my arm… do you know this cut? She gave it to me while I was unconscious… this is my right arm. For a moment, the pain was so intense I felt like I would never be able to hold a pen again… my arm just froze."
"She said… 'Before he ever holds your hand… I will cut your arm.'"
"If her companion had not stopped her… I think she would have killed me."
"She pulled my scarf in front of everyone… she humiliated me."
"Do you know… since then, I have started covering my head… and twice my scarf was pulled off… both times because of you."
"She pulled my hair and said… 'Do you even know? He was physically with me… and then he left me.'"
"What do you think? Do you really think he would ever choose a girl like you?"
Her words… and the wounds she had given… both were filled with pain.
Zoya ran her fingers over the glass and whispered…
"I will keep praying for you… always. Maybe for as long as I live, I will continue praying for you."
Zoya's voice had softened completely now, fragile yet painfully sincere.
"I'll pray that the true light finds your heart… and I'll pray that you always stay happy with Minji."
A faint smile appeared on her lips, but it carried more pain than peace.
"Maybe our paths were never meant to meet… so how could they ever separate?"
She lowered her gaze toward the glass in her hands.
"Ji-won was right."
"How did I ever imagine a global idol inside my small world?"
"You're a global star… and I'm just an ordinary girl trying to survive in this world."
"How did I even dare to think like that?"
She let out a quiet breath.
"But you know something… these thoughts didn't start now."
They She was slowly reaching the point of confession now.
Her words had started to blur together, emotions breaking their rhythm, but she kept forcing herself to put them back together… speaking slowly, clearly… as if every sentence carried a part of her soul.
Silence surrounded her.
A heavy, almost unreal silence.
It felt as though even the walls around her had gone still… listening carefully to every word leaving her lips.
As if the entire world itself had paused for a moment—
only to hear what Zoya was saying.
Because her words…
They were meant for the owner of that black empire.
"They started the very first time I saw you."
Zoya's words shocked Jeon.J.
He suddenly sat down on the sofa placed in the middle of his room, his eyes still fixed on the screen.
These words were not new to him.
Every day, he heard confessions like this.
People loved him. Admired him. Dreamed about him.
So why…
Why was this confession affecting him differently?
What was so new about it?
What was so different?
He couldn't understand it himself.
For a moment, it felt as if everything around him had stopped.
The silence… the air… even time itself.
Like a scene from a movie—
Except this was happening in his real life.
He was a global star.
And she…
She was just an ordinary girl.
An ordinary girl with ordinary features.
She didn't have the pale white skin that Korean girls were praised for.
Yet something about her kept pulling him toward her.
Something he couldn't explain.
Something deeper than appearance.
And for the first time in a very long time…
Jeon.J found himself unable to look away.
The voice of Zoya echoes.
"I didn't know what songs you sang… I didn't know how well you danced… I didn't know how many people loved you… or how rich and famous you were."
"I only saw your humble nature."
"And from that moment… I started praying for a true light for you."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"Every day, on social media, I watched your fans increase day by day… especially girls."
A weak laugh escaped her.
"Yes… I used to get jealous. I still do."
"But even then… I kept praying for you."
"I lived a difficult life… but among all those hardships, one thing always gave me peace."
"Praying for you."
"Watching you."
Her fingers slowly traced the cold surface of the glass.
"I wanted to study abroad… that's why I applied for China."
"Because I knew the truth."
"For ordinary people, reaching a global star… taking a selfie with them… getting an autograph on a shirt or hand…that alone is considered the luckiest moment of their life."
"But I…"
Her voice cracked slightly.
"I was imagining an entire life with you."
"And for someone like me… that was impossible."
"For the world, it would only sound ridiculous."
A small broken smile touched her lips.
"Look at me… even you would laugh if you heard the things I used to imagine."
Then she looked down again and whispered—
"Do you know… later I found out you were born in '97…"
"And I'm from '95."
"As if all the other differences weren't enough… even the age difference became another wall between us."
Jeon.J dropped his head into his hands.
Confessions like these filled his inbox every single day.
Wherever he went, love followed him.
Someone always confessed through a fan sign, a letter, a comment, a trembling voice in a crowd.
Some women confessed while standing beside their husbands.
Some even did it while holding their children's hands.
Then why…
Why did this confession feel different?
Why was this affecting him like this?
He rubbed his face in frustration, unable to understand the strange restlessness building inside him.
It was just another confession…
wasn't it?
But the more he listened to her voice, the less ordinary it felt.
In the kitchen, Zoya spoke again.
Softly.
Slowly.
"Do you know what love is for me?"
The moment those words left her lips, the air around her seemed to grow heavier.
She was reaching that point now—
the point where hidden feelings stop remaining hidden.
For a moment, she looked down at the juice glass in her hands, her fingers trembling slightly around it.
Then she smiled faintly.
A painful smile.
"Love… for me… was never about having someone."
"It was never about touching them… or making them mine."
Her eyes slowly filled again.
"Love for me was praying for someone without them knowing."
"Looking at them from far away… and still feeling happy."
"Wanting light for them… even when your own life feels dark."
Jeon.J slowly lifted his head.
His eyes remained fixed on the screen.
Zoya's voice grew quieter now, but every word hit harder than the last.
"You know… people think girls like me fall in love with fame."
"But I never cared about your fame."
"I cared about the way you smiled at people…"
"The way you bowed your head politely even after becoming so big…"
"The way your eyes still looked lonely even when millions loved you."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"And maybe…"
"…that's where I lost myself."
Jeon.J's breathing slowed.
Something inside him felt strangely tight.
Not because of the confession—
He had heard thousands of those before.
But because for the first time…
Someone was not talking about the star called Jeon.J.
She was talking about him.
The person hidden underneath everything.
"Love… for me… was never about staying awake with you all night."
Zoya's voice softened, almost dissolving into the silence around her.
"It was about waking up in that part of the night… when the sky feels overflowing with unseen blessings."
"When the whole world is asleep…"
"…and it feels like the Someone are waiting for someone to gather everything being poured down in that moment."
Her fingers tightened slightly around the glass.
"And in my heart…"
"…I always imagined us standing there together."
"Quietly collecting all those blessings side by side."
No noise.
No fame.
No crowds screaming your name.
Just peace.
Just two souls standing beneath an endless sky filled with mercy and light.
"For me, love was never loud."
"It was soft."
"It was sacred."
Her eyes drifted somewhere far away now, as if she could actually see the place she was talking about.
Love for me, "I wanted to walk beside you in a place filled with white light…"
"A place where millions arrive carrying exhausted hearts…"
"…and leave feeling lighter."
"I wanted us to walk slowly together there…"
"No cameras."
"No guards."
"No stage."
"Just us moving forward among endless blessings and quiet tears."
Her breathing trembled slightly.
"And then…"
"…I imagined standing beside you between two hills under the burning sun…"
"Tired…"
"…yet still walking."
"Again and again."
"Not because the path was easy…"
"…but because some journeys are too sacred to abandon halfway."
A tear slipped from her eye.
"That was love for me."
"Not holding your hand because the world could see it…"
"…but walking beside your soul toward something pure."
"I… want to meet you beyond this world…"
Zoya's voice was barely above a whisper now.
"In that place where all souls return…"
"…where everything hidden in this world becomes visible."
She paused, breathing shakily.
"Where every heart is gathered…"
"But only those who carried true light inside them…"
"…will recognize each other."
A faint, painful smile touched her lips.
"And maybe…"
"…in that moment… there will be no fame, no distance, no names."
"Only truth."
"Only souls… standing as they really are."
She lowered her gaze to the glass in her hands.
"That's why I keep praying for you…"
"That you find that true light… while you are still here in this world."
Her voice softened further.
"For me, love was never about wanting to own you."
"It was only about looking at you… with respect."
"With a quiet belief… that you are meant for something pure."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"And love for me… is also this…"
"To take care of myself in this life…"
"So that if we are ever meant to be seen again…"
"…I am not just a broken memory."
"But a soul that learned how to live."
…But—
A faint, wounded smile touched Zoya's lips as she looked directly into the kitchen camera.
"Everything… ends here."
Her voice was soft, almost peaceful, but there was a strange finality in it.
"Take care of yourself…"
"Goodbye."
Zoya whispered her name at the end—like a closing prayer—then slowly stood up.
She left the glass exactly where it was.
Untouched.
As if even that moment was no longer hers to hold.
On the other side of the screen, Jeon.J didn't move.
Not at first.
His hand was still frozen on the edge of the phone.
The video kept running… but his mind had already stopped processing it.
"Goodbye…"
That word didn't feel like an ending.
It felt like something breaking.
Slowly… quietly… permanently.
His breath turned shallow.
For the first time, the global star Jeon.J didn't feel like a star at all.
He felt like someone who had just heard a voice slip away from a place he didn't even realize he had started depending on.
His fingers tightened around the phone.
"Zoya…"
It came out without sound at first.
Just lips forming her name.
Then again—stronger.
"Zoya…"
But the screen didn't respond.
The kitchen was empty now.
Only the glass remained.
Still standing.
Still there.
His eyes stayed locked on the empty frame of the camera feed.
A strange pressure built in his chest—something unfamiliar, something uncomfortable.
Not admiration.
Not curiosity.
Something closer to fear.
Because this wasn't like the other confessions.
This didn't feel like an obsession.
It felt like letting go.
And that—
He didn't know how to respond.
To be continued...
Regards
ZK