Chapter 293: Chapter 293
The interview with Doublely ended up requiring four or five retakes.
Probably because they were so close with Ha-eun, they kept tossing out remarks that were... not exactly in line with the truth(?).
"Ha-eun, the public has a right to know."
"I mean, anyone who’s gonna know probably already does. You can’t cover the sky with your hand."
"...Wow, what a team. You’re always bickering in the studio, but now you’re totally in sync just for this."
At least when it came to questions about the new song, they answered seriously without goofing around — small relief.
Still, the scene reminded her a lot of the interview with Song Hyun-min.
Were all singers , or...?
"If the same person shows up at every crime scene, that person’s probably the killer, right?"
"Yeah. If everyone you meet says the same thing, maybe you’re the one with the problem, Ha-eun."
"...This is why neither of you are married."
"What." / "It’s not can’t marry, it’s don’t want to, okay?"
Only after getting in a good jab at Lee Gun-yeol and Lee Jun with her own little finishing move(?) did Ha-eun finally press the action cam’s stop button.
Then she changed outfits and makeup once again, finishing the scenes that still needed to be filmed.
Most of the shooting was done in a set surrounded by chroma key, which felt a bit awkward, but maybe because acting was part of it, it didn’t feel overly tiring.
After all, Ha-eun was an actress.
"Okay, that’s a wrap! Great job, everyone~."
With the director’s OK and a big stretch from Ha-eun, the music video shoot for her new song came to an end.
She changed back into her original casual clothes and stepped out of the set — the sun had already gone down.
Right after that, Lee Gun-yeol and Lee Jun laid out the upcoming schedule related to her new song.
"Since you’ll be performing on music shows when the single drops, take care of your health, alright?"
"Telling Ha-eun to take care of her health might be the most useless advice in the world."
"...Just wait, you two."
Their voices were laced with jokes, but the words themselves weren’t wrong.
Just because she’d finished recording and shooting the music video didn’t mean she had nothing left to do.
In fact, the most important part of releasing a song was promotion, including music show appearances.
No matter how hard you worked on a song, if people didn’t hear it, it was meaningless.
In other words — Ha-eun’s schedule was only going to get tighter.
Even at the Korean set menu restaurant they went to afterward, the talk kept circling back to Pinocchio’s promotional plans.
"It’d be good if you could do a light variety show too."
"Hmm... Let’s get through the Yeryeo University entrance ceremony tomorrow first. I’ll think about it after that."
"Huh? That’s tomorrow already?"
"...I can’t believe Ha-eun’s already a college student."
Anyway, after roughly wrapping up the promotional plans,
Ha-eun returned home in Ju Jung-yoon’s van as usual.
She stepped into her pristine soundproof booth — and immediately went live as Diah.
[Forget the past version of me☆]
"Ah, ah. Can you hear me?"
"You can hear me? Who said you could? Don’t listen!"
"...Kidding~ Smile, smile~"
"I mean... I’m only joking because I like you, you know...? ...Or... do you not like it?"
"Okay, okay. Today’s stream is a singing stream~"
After checking that the chat had cooled off from the flames, Ha-eun pulled up a prepped song list in the top right corner of the stream.
Then she started queuing up the necessary backing tracks.
But most of the songs on the list were ones Diah had sung in the past.
Group songs from the Illusionary Realm 1st gen like Illusion, or her first solo track Bright Days were among them.
The real kicker was — when Diah began singing, it sounded nothing like the Diah they were used to.
The chat, of course, responded in kind.
"At the end of a sunset you can’t quite grasp—♬ we were starting to resemble each other──♪"
"Following the direction the dusk light points to, we go───♪ continuing our own journey────♬"
A so-called cover stream, where Diah re-sang her own past songs using her real voice as Ha-eun.
Now that there was no need to hide her actual vocal skills, she sang with all the shamelessness she could muster.
Of course, once the song ended, she switched back to her usual Diah voice and asked, all innocent, how it was.
She ignored all the chats talking about Pinocchio this, Lee Ha-eun that.
"Well? My singing’s improved a lot, right~?"
[eternalyg d 10,000 won!]
: One more song! One more song! One more song! One more song!
: Hello, Mr. Pino...cchio, really enjoying the music ^^7
[Noeul4 d 10,000 won!]
: You're such a great singer, Mr. Pinocchio haha—wait, am I in the wrong place?
"Oh dear, looks like someone wandered into the wrong stream. Guess I’ll have to kick them out..."
Anyway, the singing stream continued, bouncing back and forth between Diah and Pinocchio.
It was a kind of preemptive shot.
Once the new single drops, it’s going to explode again...
She needed to ease the Noeulis into getting used to the idea of singer Pinocchio’s voice.
Of course, most of them had probably already listened to songs under that name,
but hearing it live on stream was a whole different thing.
So, Ha-eun kept singing in her natural vocals until sleepiness started creeping in.
The stream was so different from usual that the chat even started wondering if today was some special day.
"Mmm, mm-mm. No comment~ No comment~! I’m not telling you a thing~ Just listen to the music~~"
"Ahahaha. I’m not setting up a break, okay~."
Then finally, just as it was time to end the stream, Ha-eun delivered her usual sign-off into the mic.
When the Noeulis nervously guessed she might go on another break, she quickly shut it down — absolutely not happening.
After that, she rubbed her slightly sore neck, stepped out of the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ soundproof booth, Chapters fırst released on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵⟡𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⟡𝓷𝓮𝓽
and flopped right onto her bed, falling asleep in an instant.
The very next evening, she was back in the booth again, streaming and chatting with the Noeulis.
However, that day had also been Yeryeo University's entrance ceremony.
And, on that final day of February, the moment it ended, she and Da-yeon had to flee quickly after being recognized by the surrounding crowd.
[ Hello? Ha-eun, do you have a moment? ]
"Yes? Uh... is it urgent?"
[ Hmm... depends on how you answer. It could become urgent. ]
The call from Ju Jung-yoon came about halfway through her stream.
She muted her mic for a moment, then turned it back on to say she was stepping away briefly for the bathroom.
And right after that, over the phone, came the story of Da-yeon’s guest appearance on the variety show Dinner Together.
[ Da-yeon’s asking for your help. Says she might end up in the ER if you don’t come.]
"...What happened to her?"
[ She nearly fell into the ocean multiple times while fishing, saw a snake while digging up potatoes... it’s been a day. ]
[ She’s holding on, but she’s exhausted. She’s begging for you to come help, even for just one day. ]
And so, Ha-eun found herself awkwardly backpedaling in front of roughly 20,000 Noeulis,
eating her words from just the night before.
She explained she’d likely need to take a break for three days,
then slowly slid her virtual avatar off-screen and watched the chat for reactions.
"Uh, something kinda... unavoidable just came up... right now... ugh..."
"...Ah, ahm... I’m so so sorry but I love you all!!"
[ Diah’s stream has ended. ]
"...Hello. Um, is this the—"
"Yes, yes. I’m in the right place? Glad I found it."
"Here, hand over your suitcase first. Let’s head to the fishing spot. Da-yeon’s already there."
"What the—why are you so startled? You’re the one who called me."
"...H-Huuu... I’ve been through sooo much..."
"Pull! Pull it in, Ha-eun!"
"A trout? That’s a trout! ...Wait. Why is it so huge?"
"Hold on tight! If we lose that, we’re not eating tonight!"
"Uh. It fainted. What do we do now?"