I’m a Genius Idol but my Passive is Sunfish Chapter 46

His image was completely different from the cold look seen in videos and photos. It was the moment she fully understood why fans called him a chick.

 

“But is your last name Baep? It’s my first time seeing that!” 

 

Cheong asked with a bright face.

 

‘Wait… does he think my real name is Baepsae?’

 

Before the fansign, staff had handed out Post-it notes, asking fans to write the name they wanted on the signature and stick it to the front of the album. Baepsae had agonized over whether to use her real name or her social media handle, and eventually chose her handle.

 

Was it her bad handwriting? Or was it just because the member was foreign?

 

“Baep-MH nim!”

 

Huh? A question mark appeared over Baepsae’s head.

 

“Um… it’s not MH, it’s ‘Ssae’. Baep-ssae.”

 

Baepsae tried to correct him gently, but Cheong wasn’t great at hearing.

 

“Baep-ssi? Is it ‘Baep’?”

 

Cheong looked back and forth between the Post-it and her with a fascinated face. Every time he moved, the yellow chick head and wolf ears on his headband fluttered.

 

‘No wonder he was staring at the Post-it for so long.’

 

Should she just be thankful he read it as letters at all? Biting her lip in resignation, Baepsae nodded with a slightly pitying look.

 

“Yes. That’s right.”

 

She decided to be ‘Baep-ssi’ for just a moment. 

 

‘Sorry, Dad.’

 

After some light small talk—she even learned the tmi that Cheong had stir-fried sausages and vegetables for dinner last night—she was able to move to the next member.

 

The next was Baekya. Her first encounter with her bias.

 

“Hello~”

 

“It’s Baekya! A moving Baekya!”

 

‘H-hello.’

 

The quotation marks had switched. But with her rationality completely short-circuited, Bapsae didn’t even notice.

 

“Oh… yes! I’m moving!” 

 

Baekya flapped his arms at his seat.

 

“KYAAAAA!”

 

Screams erupted from the waiting seats. As his body moved, the sprout pin stuck in his hair shook adorably.

 

“T-that incredible thing on your head is…!”

 

“Oh, this?”

 

It was the peach leaf given by a previous fan. The children’s pin sitting atop his pink hair suited him perfectly.

 

“It was a gift.” 

 

Baekya smiled shyly.

 

Baepsae, who was already struggling to stay composed, nearly collapsed.

 

“Whoa…! Are you okay?!”

 

Baekya stood up to catch her arm, but the security guard standing nearby was faster.

 

“Is this what they call a ‘killer smile…!”

 

‘I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.’

 

Her spoken words and internal thoughts had been switching for a while now, but Baepsae didn’t realize it.

 

“T-thank you!”

 

An embarrassed Baekya fiddled with his reddened ears and flipped through the album.

 

“Where should I sign?”

 

“I put a yellow Post-it there.”

 

After passing Minseong and Jihan, Baekya finally found his own photo—the one where he was sitting on the stairs with only one sock on and his knees pulled together.

 

“Oh? You chose this photo. This one is my favorite too.”

 

Baekya began signing below his neck to avoid his face. His hands, gripping the marker, were the definition of ‘slender and beautiful’.

 

‘Even his hands…!’

 

Baepsae instinctively covered her mouth. Every second was a moment of deep emotion.

 

“Is there anything else I can do for you?”

 

Since Baekya was already looking up from below, he leaned forward as per his habit and tilted his head a bit more to make eye contact with Baepsae.

 

“Hrk!”

 

Arrest! Cardiac arrest! Baepsae’s heart rate skyrocketed.

 

“A heart? A peach?”

 

It seemed many fans had asked for hearts or peaches. But the person in front of him was already a battered bird from the previous attack. As Baepsae stood there stammering, Baekya peeked at her and scribbled something secretly on the album.

 

“Please look at it later after you go down, not right now. I hope you like it~”

 

Baekya handed her the album. Taking it with trembling hands, Baepsae was about to use the power of the cheongsimhwan to finally confess her love—

 

“Please move along.”

 

She was cut off by security.

 

‘No! I haven’t said a single word to Baekya yet…!’

 

Baepsae didn’t realize just how much fan-talk she had already blurted out. She looked at the guard with resentful eyes, but the man didn’t care.

 

Hmph. Baepsae moved along, being pushed. She glanced back at her bias’s profile with a face full of regret.

 

“You must be a Baekya fan~”

 

She quickly snapped back to reality at the sound of another friendly voice.

 

“Baekdo is cute, isn’t he?”

 

It was Yooyeon, smiling so brightly that his dimples sank deep.

 

“Yes! So cute! No, I mean… Yooyeon-nim is really cute too—”

 

“It’s fine. I’m more on the sexy side than the cute side. But I can do cute if I put my mind to it.”

 

Baepsae admired how he could deliver such a cringey line so smoothly.

 

‘What is this… he sounds like a flirting male lead.’

 

The man in front of her perfectly matched the image she had imagined. He held out both hands in a cute pose. 

 

“Give it to me~”

 

Perhaps he was a bit embarrassed, as the left corner of his mouth curved up more, revealing a dimple on only one side.

 

“W-what should I give you…?”

 

Dazzled by his face, she began fumbling through her pockets. 

 

‘It’s before payday so I don’t have much money, but should I give him this?’

 

As if possessed, she pulled out her wallet and placed it in Yooyeon’s palm. He tilted his head.

 

“Um… is this a gift? An allowance?”

 

At Yooyeon’s words, Baepsae finally realized what she had handed over. 

 

“Ack! My wallet!”

 

Victimized by his demonic charm, she tried to take it back, but the self-proclaimed Sexy Man quickly pulled his hand back. Baepsae’s eyes shook.

 

Suppressing a laugh, Yooyeon mischievously offered a deal. 

 

“Let’s do this. Trade this card wallet for what’s in your hands right now.”

 

It was the album she was clutching dearly, signed by Baekya.

 

“Otherwise, I’m going to buy snacks for Baekya with this~”

 

Baepsae’s hand, which had started to hold out the album, returned to its place. A sudden thought occurred to her: it might be okay to give him the wallet.

 

“Do you want to keep it?”

 

“…I’m sorry. I’ll just sign it and give both back.”

 

Very few people could win a war of words against Yooyeon, but she had managed that difficult feat.

 

“I will make sure Baekdo gets snacks no matter what, so please, just take it…”

 

“You really can keep it though.”

 

Now that her tension had finally eased, Baepsae laughed at the pleading Yooyeon and took back her album and wallet.

 

With the security guard telling her to move, she finally encountered the last member.

 

“Hello.”

 

Jihan, who looked as nervous as the fans, smiled with his eyes and took the album.

 

“I guess you like birds.”

 

It was a very straightforward question. Should she say she liked them or not?

 

(TL note: Jihan said this because Baepsae actually means sparrow. She picked that name because her first impression of Baekya is a sparrow, not because she actually likes bird.)

 

While hesitating, Baepsae looked up and met Jihan’s eyes. He was looking at her with a face full of pride, waiting for an answer. As the owner of the coldest impression after Cheong, he was actively following the company’s advice to speak first and smile as much as possible since this was a place to meet fans directly.

 

“Uh… yes. I like them.”

 

“They’re so cute. ‘Baepsae’ is that one, right? The white, round one.”

 

“That’s right!”

 

Jihan made a small circle with his hands, saying he’d seen them on TV.

 

The ‘animal talk’ continued. She didn’t know it, but it turned out Jihan’s favorite programs were animal documentaries. 

 

“I watch them almost every day before bed.”

 

Baepsae had a rational suspicion: ‘Isn’t that just because animal documentaries and the national anthem are the only things on TV when you get back to the dorm after a schedule?’

 

Still, she nodded vigorously. If he were a friend, she would have told him to shut up, but was it the power of his face? Or his voice magic?

 

As DASE’s only rapper, Jihan’s voice was low but had a power that made people listen with its clear diction and sweetness.

 

“See you next time then.”

 

With Jihan’s farewell wave, she finally stepped down from the stage.

 

Goodness. ID Ent.’s planning was incredible. 

 

‘That was the most fulfilling 15 minutes of my life.’

 

Hugging her precious album and the gift she prepared for Baekya, she basked in happiness. As she walked back, feeling an adrenaline surge, she suddenly stopped.

 

Huh? Gift?

 

She had frozen up the moment she saw her bias and forgotten the most important thing.

 

“Ack! My gift!”

 

She still had the yellow paper bag she’d failed to hand over.

 

Flop.

 

She slumped to the floor with a miserable face. She hadn’t intended to cry, but tears welled up in her eyes. 

 

‘I really wanted to give him this…’

 

Baekya, who happened to have an empty slot in front of him, spotted her first.

 

“Oh?!”

 

The peach opened his eyes wide and grabbed the security guard’s arm. 

 

“Over there, that person collapsed!”

 

He remembered her. The fan who had staggered while getting his signature.

 

At his words, the members’ gazes turned toward the floor, and the waiting fans all looked at Baepsae.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

As security and staff approached to help her up, Baepsae firmly refused. Though they were too far to be heard, the three of them exchanged quite a long conversation. A skeptical-looking guard returned to the platform, not helping her, but carrying the character-printed paper bag.

 

“Is that person okay?” 

 

Baekya and the members asked with worried voices.

 

“Well… she said it was because of this.”

 

A yellow object was handed to Baekya.

 

“…A doll?”

 

It was Pika-chu.

 

Had she been struck by a thunderbolt from it? Baekya, the sunfish who didn’t understand why she would collapse because of this, looked back and forth between the fans and the doll.

 

Meanwhile, Baepsae returned to her seat. Watching the situation with an ecstatic face, she covered her mouth once more. She’d heard the story that Baekya was scouted while eating a ‘Pika-chu Cutlet’ at a snack shop in front of his school, and she found the story so cute that she couldn’t function for days…

 

‘To see those two in one frame with my own eyes.’

 

Baepsae felt she could die happy now.

 

At that moment on the platform, Baekya pulled out the doll and tilted his head while looking at his yellow friend. Same rodent family. On the red ribbon tied around the doll’s neck, letters were written.

 

[PIKA]

 

“…Pika?”

 

The doll, the head tilt, and Baekya. With that perfect trinity, another casualty occurred.

 

Thanoss, who had just finished his conversation with Cheong, suddenly clutched their heart. 

 

“Call 9-1-1…!”

 

The villain was screaming. The ultimate villain who had half-stripped Yooyeon’s clothes in the live broadcast had been defeated by a hamster using only two syllables.