She was still utterly bewildered. All she had intended to do was catch a glimpse of Han Mujin’s face before going home. Instead, she had suddenly found herself talking to him—and somehow ended up bringing him home.

When she had stared at him, dazed by his request to stay the night, Mujin had lowered his head and leaned closer.

“Why? Don’t want me to? Aren’t you my fan?”

He had acted as though letting him stay for a night was only natural, and she hadn’t been able to bring herself to refuse.

No, being his fan didn’t mean she was obliged to let him sleep at her place. But still. Even now, she had no idea what she should have said. Should she have told him she didn’t want to? Or simply said he couldn’t?

‘What was he planning to do if I… lived with my parents?’

While she stood there worrying and chewing her lip, the water stopped and the bathroom door opened. Thankfully, he had put his clothes back on, although he hadn’t fastened a single button on his shirt.

Water dripped from his hair as he emerged and took his place again on the edge of the bed. The only places to sit in the room were the bed and her desk chair. Unless he wanted to sit on the floor, that is.

“You don’t have any alcohol, do you?”

“Uh, no.”

“Ha… I thought you were an adult. Of all people, I had to pick a high school girl.”

Frowning, Mujin roughly rubbed his hair with a towel. Hyeyeon hesitated before finally asking the question she should have asked much earlier.

“Um, but why did you… ask to stay here?”

“Why? You’re my fan. Shouldn’t you be happy I’m spending the night?”

For a moment, his sheer audacity left her speechless.

“I’ll do one thing you want. What’ll it be?”

“…”

He laughed aloud. She had never thought Han Mujin was some perfectly well-behaved model teenager. But this was so, so different from what she had imagined.

“If you want a hug, I can give you one. Oh, but you’ll have to buy the condoms.”

Her face instantly burned. Seeing her flushed cheeks, Mujin burst out laughing again, as though he found her reaction amusing.

“Never had s*x before? I suppose that’s to be expected, given the way you’re just standing there staring.”

She wasn’t sure whether she should feel embarrassed or humiliated. As she lowered her head and bit her lip, he roughly finished drying his hair and flopped onto the bed. His behavior was so far beyond anything she had imagined that her head felt hot. As she touched her forehead, wondering if she had a fever, Mujin casually pulled the covers over himself and settled down to sleep.

“Um…”

“Don’t you know my name?”

“I do…”

“Then why the f*ck do you keep calling me ‘um’?”

“…”

“Are we having s*x?”

“…”

“Don’t wake me up later because you’ve changed your mind. That’ll piss me off.”

S*x. She had never heard anyone use the word so bluntly before. What on earth was wrong with him? Hyeyeon stared blankly at him as he lay there with his eyes closed, as though he owned the place. Maybe filming had worn him out. Or maybe he really did feel at ease. Before long, Mujin was fast asleep, breathing slowly and evenly.

Hyeyeon stood and stared at him until her legs ached. Then she crouched in a corner and buried her face in her knees.

She hoped that when she closed her eyes and opened them again, everything would be back where it belonged. Although she had thought she was too tense to sleep, the strain had exhausted her instead. Drowsiness soon washed over her.

She dozed off without realizing it. At some point, she felt a hand tap her on the shoulder.

“Lee Hyeyeon. Wake up.”

“Mmm…”

Frowning, Hyeyeon buried her face deeper in her knees. There was no one in this house to wake her. Whose voice was that?

“Wake up.”

She felt a hand grip her shoulder and shake her roughly. Still dazed, she lifted her head. Right in front of her was the impossibly handsome face of Han Mujin. It was Han Mujin. Why was someone she had only ever seen on TV standing in front of her? As she blinked blankly, he took the phone that she had kept tightly clutched in her hand, even while she slept.

Without asking, he pressed her finger against the fingerprint sensor to unlock it and tapped in a number.

The phone vibrated.

“Answer when I call.”

“…”

“And if you leak my number, I’ll sue. Just so you know.”

Had he just threatened her? Even after she finally recalled what had happened the night before, none of it felt real. He dropped her phone beside her and stood up.

Looking faintly irritated, Mujin ran a hand through his hair, then picked up the phone that had been ringing for a while and answered.

“Yeah. I’m coming down.”

He left without so much as a goodbye. Even after the door lock clicked shut, Hyeyeon struggled to make sense of the unreal situation. When she checked the time, it was 5:40 a.m.

“…”

If it hadn’t been for the unfamiliar number in her call history, she might have dismissed Mujin’s visit as something she had imagined. She was still feeling dazed. Looking around the empty room, she saw that nothing had changed. Her gaze fell on the rumpled bedding, and she dragged her stiff, aching body onto the bed.

As she lay down, she could still feel the warmth he had left behind. It felt unfamiliar.

Blinking a few times in a daze, she quickly fell asleep. Finally, she felt as though she had returned to reality.

***

“Hey. Did you see Han Mujin yesterday?”

“He really was handsome.”

“I heard he’s a total f*cking *sshole.”

“Apparently, Lee Chaeha stayed until the end to greet her fans. Han Mujin just took off.”

“Who does he think he is?”

“Guess he thinks he’s too famous to bother. What a jerk.”

“But seriously, wasn’t he gorgeous? His face was this small.”

“His proportions didn’t even look human.”

Listening to her classmates alternate between insults and admiration, Hyeyeon saved the number on her phone. Wondering whether it really belonged to Mujin, she synced her contacts with her messaging app. A profile picture appeared—one that was clearly a selfie.

‘Is this really Han Mujin?’

No, what on earth had happened last night? Even now, with a clearer head, she still couldn’t make sense of it.

Did he usually ask his fans if he could spend the night with them? Remembering how casually he had asked her if she wanted to have s*x, she felt her face burn. Was that an everyday thing for him? When he was only eighteen? Was he still a student? Her thoughts became muddled.

First, she opened the Mujin fan community and searched through various posts. But she couldn’t find anything that answered her questions.

‘Well, of course. Who would post about something like that?’

Who on earth would post in a fan community, “He asked to stay the night, so we had s*x”? The very idea was absurd. Frowning slightly, she closed the page, but she still couldn’t concentrate on class. She checked Mujin’s number, studied his profile, and wondered for a moment whether any of it was real. Then she decided she must have dreamed it all, only to turn her screen off and back on again.

The teacher’s voice went in one ear and out the other.

How long had she been fiddling with her phone, unable to decide what to do? Suddenly, a message arrived from an unfamiliar number.

[Hello. I’m Han Mujin’s manager. Are you available to talk?]

Han Mujin’s manager? Hyeyeon’s eyes widened. Only after receiving the message did everything begin to feel real. What should she do? What on earth did he want to say? As she frowned faintly, the teacher raised his voice.

“Lee Hyeyeon.”

“…”

“Lee Hyeyeon!”

“Yes!”

Startled, she looked up and met the teacher’s impassive gaze.

“Go stand at the back.”

“Yes…”

She picked up her textbook without protest and went to stand at the back of the classroom. But even there, she couldn’t concentrate on the lesson. What did his manager want to say? It must be about last night. Should she explain that nothing had happened? After all, Mujin had been the one to approach her and ask to stay the night. In the end, she failed to absorb a single word of the lesson. As soon as the break began, Hyeyeon replied.

—Hello.

As soon as she added that she could talk now, her phone rang, as though he had been waiting.

“H-hello?”

She answered, tense with nerves, and an unfamiliar male voice immediately launched into a rapid stream of words.

—Hello. This is Park Jihoon, Han Mujin’s manager. I understand Mujin imposed on you yesterday…

The words flowed so smoothly, without a single hesitation, that they sounded well rehearsed. Did that mean this had happened dozens of times before? Unable to find an opening to speak, Hyeyeon listened quietly.

—If you happened to take any photos without his knowledge, please delete them. And regarding what happened yesterday…

He tried to soften it with polite words, but the message was clear. Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone. Delete any photos she might have taken. Forget whatever Mujin had said. And so on.

—I hope you understand. What did you say your name was?

“Lee Hyeyeon.”

—Right. Hyeyeon, getting involved with Mujin won’t do you any good, either, so…

The man continued at length, saying everything he wanted to say, before suddenly pausing to ask another question.

—If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you? You sound young.

“E-eighteen.”

—…

“…”

—Ha… That crazy bastard.

“Um, I…”

Hyeyeon hesitated before cautiously speaking. It was terribly embarrassing and humiliating to have to say this, but she needed to clear up what was obviously a serious misunderstanding.

“Nothing happened between me and… Han Mujin.”

—…Haah.

“I just wanted you to know.”

“Did Mujin say anything to you?”

“Not much.”

That was true. Once they had arrived at her place, she had certainly sensed that discovering she was a student had thrown off some plan of his. Besides, hadn’t he simply used her bathroom as though he owned the place, then gone straight to sleep?

—Haah.

His manager let out another long sigh.

— “Hyeyeon. Whatever happened, please keep what I told you in mind. I’m not joking.”

“I didn’t take any photos, and I haven’t told anyone.”

Just then, the bell rang.

“My class is starting, so I have to go. Really, nothing happened.”

Explaining to a man she barely knew that nothing had happened between her and Mujin was deeply embarrassing and humiliating. However, it was better than letting him believe otherwise.

She hurriedly ended the call, and as she fumbled for her textbook, she received a message. It told her to mind her own business and pay attention in class.

‘Come to think of it, he didn’t say anything about me having Mujin’s number.’

She remembered Mujin telling her to answer when he called. Would he actually call her? Or wouldn’t he? Of course, she had no intention of calling him first.