For a moment, Park Jung-woo doubted his own ears.
Well, wasn't that obvious?
In this world, on the very day of one's birthday...
And right before parting ways, no less—who would say such a thing?
"What?"
Jung-woo asked again, dumbfounded.
He couldn't think of anything else to say here.
Jung-woo wasn't the only one flustered.
The cameraman filming the two of them, along with PD Shin Young-woo, were also utterly bewildered.
Huh? Birthday?
"Yes, it's my birthday. Then, I'll be heading out first. Thank you for your hard work, everyone."
Bowing deeply, folding at the waist.
Anyway, the atmosphere was already wrapping up, so greeting and parting like that was normal, but...
"No, no, no, w-wait!!"
"Please wait a moment!"
"?"
Seo-yeon merely tilted her head at the sudden chorus of the cast members trying to hold her back.
***
It was bewildering to have people suddenly grab me, but they didn't hold me back for long.
They just bought a small cake and had me blow out the candles once. That was all.
For some reason, Jung-woo kept stomping his feet with a dissatisfied expression, but he didn't say anything else in particular.
"Oh my, my daughter. What kind of presents did you bring home?"
Upon returning home, her mother, Soo-ah, wearing an apron, said with wide eyes.
"They gave them to me because I said I was leaving."
"Is that so?"
It seemed she was surprised that I had received so many gifts.
Well, I can receive some gifts too.
'I'm just a bit like that at school.'
Even though I look like this, when it comes to social life, I'm someone loved by my superiors.
'Ah, come to think of it, I didn't get to check how the video was filmed.'
Unlike dramas, variety shows had no spare moments to check in between.
I was going to check it once at the very end after everything was done, but I completely forgot.
'It can't be helped.'
Variety shows air quickly anyway.
It'll probably air next week or the week after.
"Seo-yeon! You have to blow out the candles!!"
Her mom's shout came from outside.
I usually spend my birthday with my family.
Not because I don't have friends, or because Lee Ji-yeon had other things to do.
It's absolutely not because of such trivial reasons that I end up spending it with my family; it's just naturally how it is.
"Our daughter is now really seventeen."
Soo-ah lit the candles with a deeply moved expression.
The flickering lights caught my eye.
The sight of four family members sitting side by side at the square dining table.
It was a scene I saw every year, yet it always felt fresh to me.
Suddenly, what I saw in Daejeon a while ago came to mind.
The woman walking while holding the hand of a little girl.
There were no traces of 'me' there.
Actually, I already knew because I had checked once before.
'Because I was born anew.'
So that my existence wouldn't become two.
I didn't know the reason, but it was probably something like that.
The face of the woman holding the girl's hand was something I had only seen exactly once.
"Seo-yeon?"
Mom looked at me with questioning eyes.
In front of the dark dining table where the lights had already been turned off, I saw the illuminated cake.
"..."
The loss of the past.
Perhaps I now knew what kind of heart Cha Seo-ah had when she looked at others.
Because I had been averting my eyes from it, that pain struck me even more strongly.
But.
"It's nothing."
I shook my head.
And blew out the candles forcefully.
Along with the applause of my family.
Watching the last candle flame die out, I closed my eyes.
The past me and Joo Seo-yeon are different.
That person is now a stranger who has no connection to me.
Naturally, that existence will have no influence on me.
'However.'
Opening my eyes, I smiled softly.
At the people looking at me.
'Someday...'
Even if it's not
I hoped that someday they would come see a movie I act in even once.
I had such a small wish.
That was all.
***
Anyway.
My birthday wasn't the only important thing today.
That was because.
'Lamiel's first stream!'
For some reason, Lamiel's first stream was scheduled for today.
[Joo Seo-yeon, happy birthday]
I checked the KakaoTalk message from Lee Ji-yeon, who had sent a gift while contacting me right at twelve o'clock last night.
Naturally, there was no mention of Lamiel there.
A message no different from what I'd been seeing for over 10 years.
"Mm."
Seo-yeon stared at it quietly, then turned on her computer.
She had even switched out her speakers to watch Lamiel's stream today.
'Could that mage come out too?'
Even so, they wouldn't appear together from the very first stream.
While thinking that, she also felt anxious.
No, it was a question why she even started streaming in the first place.
The sorrow of not being able to ask, because asking would be like swallowing the red pill!
Besides, it wasn't like I could say anything about Lee Ji-yeon's private life anyway.
I calmed my boiling words and waited for the first stream to begin.
Naturally, there were hardly any people waiting.
Thirty people.
No, for a first stream.
Having thirty people waiting is seriously an incredibly high number.
Honestly, I thought it would just be me, but to think there were thirty.
As soon as that notification rang on her phone, Lamiel's first stream began.
[Hello.]
The first thing heard was a refreshing voice.
The voice Lee Ji-yeon often let me hear.
And it was the exact same tone I frequently heard in my past life.
A composed, calm voice.
'The mage isn't here.'
I finally felt relieved watching the video.
If that mage had appeared today as well, I would have immediately gone to the voice acting academy.
[I am Lamiel. My race is Harpy...]
At the word 'Harpy', chats started coming up.
The number of people, which was only thirty, stopped after increasing by exactly five more.
It wasn't a corporate VTuber, so in a way, it was expected.
[Yes? Ah, you thought I was an angel? As for why I'm a harpy... well.]
It was an ambiguous answer.
As fitting for a first stream, it was a bit awkward, and a brief introduction of the character 'Lamiel' was given.
Why she was a harpy.
Roughly explaining what kind of setting it was.
Everything was identical to the Lamiel I knew in my past life.
The character Lamiel was set as a harpy who couldn't sing.
A character who came out into the world because she was curious about the human world.
That was how the setting was supposed to be.
[I saw a certain notebook a long time ago. It probably flowed in from the human world.]
Lamiel said.
The character named Lamiel. Talk about her RP (Roleplay).
[That notebook contained stories about the human world. This outfit, these clothes were also drawn in a friend's notebook.]
However, Lamiel's following words were different from the setting I knew.
There was no setting about not being able to sing either.
A notebook.
A setting that didn't exist in the past life was added.
And, that notebook was.
"Joo Seo-yeon."
Elementary school.
Lee Ji-yeon, who became my classmate, saw the notebook I was scribbling in during class and said.
"Why did you doodle so much?"
"..."
Doodles, she says.
I hadn't really been doodling.
It was, so to speak, writing about my past life.
'My memories.'
The visual media I watched in the past, and various web novels and comics.
I could remember those vividly if I tried to recall them.
Like a 'rerun'.
I could bring up the memories of that time whenever I wanted, and related articles and news also came to mind, but...
'About VTubers.'
I had to purely rely on my own memory for that.
As time passed, even if I tried to remember it like the past, it didn't come to mind vividly.
It gradually faded.
Because that's just how human memory is.
Of course, I didn't know at first.
Because it came to mind as vividly as other memories.
But as time went by, I felt the difference.
I felt it fading little by little.
The reason I could recall it so vividly until now was simply because I liked it that much.
So, I occasionally jotted down the memories of that time in a notebook like this.
Settings about Lamiel.
Clothes or personality. Things like that.
There was no grand reason.
To be honest, I didn't really care about my past life self.
I just didn't want to forget the things I loved.
"...Hmm."
When I didn't say anything.
Lee Ji-yeon looked at my notebook and said.
"Is this not an angel but a harpy? What's a harpy?"
"...?"
"I'm curious about what you wrote so passionately."
Lee Ji-yeon said so.
Since she was a child, I figured she was interested in the drawing I made.
'Lamiel's setting does have a fairy tale vibe, after all.'
I casually told her about Lamiel.
In the first place, I didn't even know that Lee Ji-yeon and Lamiel were the same person back then, so I didn't think much of it.
Originally, I had forgotten about it until now.
[I came out into the world to find the owner of that notebook.]
Lamiel said that and smiled.
[These clothes are that signpost. A signpost to find the owner of the notebook, my friend.]
I quietly watched her speak in a calm voice.
I felt a strange, stirring emotion in my chest.
The deep stirring in my heart that I felt earlier when blowing out the candles with my family.
[The reason I came out into the world today is because it was that friend's birthday. Yes? Ah, you're saying that alone makes it hard to find my friend?]
Lamiel covered her mouth and laughed with a classic grace.
That appearance was not Lee Ji-yeon's, but Lamiel's very self.
[No.]
Lamiel declared.
[Probably, my friend. Um, the owner of the notebook has a quite persistent personality. So they'll find me soon. Or, perhaps, they might be watching me even now.]
Lamiel, having said that, gave a brief glance at the chat and smiled softly.
[Happy birthday.]
At Lamiel's words as she spoke with a wink.
I was completely stunned.
***
"Wow, the PV came out really amazing, didn't it?"
Producer Cha Dong-jin said, rewinding and watching the video several times.
Currently, the remaining filming was also reaching its conclusion.
Considering the date the filming started, it was literally finished in the blink of an eye.
The GH Group side was also pleased with the fast progress.
"We hid Cha Seo-ah as much as possible in the PV first."
"Yes, this much is just right."
They briefly showed the face of the convenience store part-timer, but.
It didn't overlap with the killer running in the rain.
Wearing a raincoat made it hard to specify the gender, and if you only looked at the chase running in the rain, the masculine image was rather strong.
"This is a double, right?"
At the words of Team Manager Kim of the PR team, Cha Dong-jin shook his head.
"No, Actor Joo Seo-yeon filmed all of this."
"Wow, I heard the rumors, but it's real? To run this well..."
At Team Manager Kim's words, Cha Dong-jin smiled awkwardly.
'They'd probably faint if they knew this was a reshoot too.'
And because it was too fast.
Even if I told them the truth, they probably wouldn't believe it.
"The PV is being released tonight, right?"
"Yes. That's right. The one hanging in theaters will be, four months from now."
"That's fast."
"First of all, there's no need to use CG, so the work will be finished quickly. Until then, we plan to focus on promotion."
It was truly a satisfactory statement.
Because there weren't many cases where things progressed this smoothly after filming a movie.
"There will be quite a few actors who stand out with this movie. Especially..."
The two said so, without explicitly mentioning who it was.
However, the person that came to both of their minds was probably the same.
Joo Seo-yeon, in the role of the murderer Cha Seo-ah.
The star who would likely bring a storm in this
The returned little starlight.