Little Pink Starfish

<Living with Laureau!>

That was the title of the reality show we were filming.

Today marked the broadcast of its very first episode.

Thankfully, unlike when I monitored the music video release, my condition wasn’t a mess. We’d been running nonstop lately, and since it was the weekend, I finally had a day to breathe.

Until the premiere of Living with Laureau! tonight, the members—including myself—had some rare free time to enjoy ourselves.

Chaeya had gone off to something called the World Snack Expo. Apparently, it was an event where you could sample and buy snacks from all over the world.

He’d probably come back in the evening, arms full of snack bags.

“You’re really into junk food these days.”

I said that as he opened the front door.

<Don’t concern yourself. I don’t get cavities. If anything happens to you, I’ll come flying, so don’t worry.>

He shot me a look like a kid ignoring his parent and zipped off.

‘…This guy.’

It seemed like he was starting to genuinely enjoy living as a pseudo-human.

Han Iro and Madojin spent the whole day out in the yard.

For a plant lover and a bug enthusiast, the yard was a perfect playground.

Even in the middle of winter, the cheerful sounds coming from outside made me peek out for a bit.

“Eat up and grow well. Fernández, Esmeralda, Isabella.”

Han Iro was watering winter plants in the garden.

His plant names seemed to be getting more and more ornate.

As he trimmed branches with garden shears, Madojin nervously called out to him.

“I-Iro…”

He hesitated, then asked while showing him a ladybug:

“…What kind of insect is this?”

“Oh—that’s a ladybug.”

Right, that round, colorful bug was definitely a ladybug.

“They’re tiny, right? But ladybugs are gluttons—they eat dozens of aphids a day. They become adults in autumn, cluster together in winter, and lay eggs in spring before dying.”

…I didn’t know that.

“…That’s amazing.”

Madojin smiled, watching the ladybug on the back of his hand.

“Right? But, did you know your hand smells after touching one?”

“Really?”

He sniffed his hand.

“Yeah. It smells weird.”

He looked sheepishly at Han Iro.

‘…That feels like a grade school field trip.’

I couldn’t help smiling at the scene.

Min Heejae spent his time in the studio, seated at the piano.

It was like listening to a teacher playing at a piano academy.

The sweet melodies would suddenly break into something strange, so I peeked in.

“It’s Ein Musikalischer Spaß—a Musical Joke by Mozart.”

Min Heejae smiled as he explained.

“It’s a deliberately silly piece. Mozart was quite eccentric, you know? He wrote it to mock incompetent musicians of his time.”

He then explained how the music acted as black humor to its audience.

“Doesn’t make any sense to you, huh, rookie?”

He asked.

“…Yeah.”

I scratched the back of my neck.

“Old jokes always land flat. Maybe this one’s not your type of fun.”

Then, resting his chin in his hand, Heejae seemed to think for a moment.

“Why don’t you go see Noeul?”

“Noeul?”

“Yeah. I passed by when I went to get some water earlier—he had that very bored aura.”

He must’ve meant “he looked really bored.”

That was surprising.

Jeong Noeul seemed like the kind of person who could be perfectly entertained with just one Bluetooth earbud.

Come to think of it, I’d just been aimlessly pacing around the dorm too.

‘Maybe… I forgot how to spend downtime.’

We’d been so busy that I’d lost track of how to relax.

Knock, knock.

“Noeul, can I come in?”

I knocked on the door of the room shared by Jeong Noeul and Han Iro.

“Yeah! Come in!”

Came Noeul’s energetic voice.

‘Huh. So he’s not bored?’

I opened the door and stepped inside.

Unlike the precisely divided room of Heejae and Madojin, Noeul and Iro’s room was practically taken over by Iro.

Plants and tidy furniture were harmoniously arranged, and the pile of supplements on Noeul’s desk was clearly Iro’s doing.

“…Ah, that?”

As I peeked at the vitamins, Noeul, perched on the bed, spoke up.

“Iro hyung said if I kept eating just meat, I’d wreck my body by the time I hit thirty. So he gave me those.”

“…Well, he’s not wrong.”

I wouldn’t know firsthand yet, but everyone says that kind of thing.

“So, what’s up, hyung?”

Noeul beamed at me.

“Oh, right.”

I turned to him and said,

“Heejae told me you looked really bored. But seeing you now…”

It really seemed like he hadn’t been doing anything at all.

His phone was charging far away, and it looked like he’d just been lying on the bed.

“Guess you really weren’t doing anything.”

“You don’t have to do something just because it’s your day off, right?”

“True. But it felt out of character for you…”

I shrugged.

“Now that I think about it, I’m not really doing anything either. Just wandering around.”

So…

I sat down in a chair.

“Want to do something together?”

“Not really feeling up for anything.”

Noeul muttered, flopping back on the bed.

“…Why are you acting like a sulky teenager?”

I said, folding my arms.

“Hmm…”

Noeul stared at the ceiling for a moment, then sat up.

“There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Do you still talk with Chaeya in your mind?”

That came out of nowhere.

I tilted my head.

“Not as much as before. Since he started walking around in human form, we don’t have many one-on-one moments like during CYB. Plus, we share a room now.”

“I see.”

Noeul nodded.

“Don’t you feel… kind of empty inside?”

The moment I heard that, I realized what he was trying to say.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen The Traveler from Asteroid B-612 in a while.

I’d been too busy to notice. But The Traveler was, like Chaeya, a Constellation capable of manifesting physically.

“Don’t tell me…”

I did some mental math and asked:

“The Traveler can’t descend anymore?”

“Yeah.”

Noeul answered readily.

“Ever since the fight with Enoch. I haven’t seen the prince since then. We can’t talk anymore either.”

Instead, he hears a voice near his ear:

<Constellation ‘The Traveler from Asteroid B-612’ is attentively listening to your conversation.>

He said, shrinking his shoulders.

“I heard it’s because the Constellations don’t see the need to keep monitoring me. That trying to protect you from Enoch using Abrilah’s power earned me their trust.”

“So now you’re just a regular contractor with your Constellation, huh.”

It was true that our cases had been unusual.

Chaeya still wasn’t fully reinstated as a Constellation, and The Traveler had only been allowed to descend in order to monitor Noeul, as Abrilah’s reincarnation.

Now that there was no need to monitor him, he had returned to a standard contractor relationship.

I thought back to the few days when Chaeya had been gone to the Celestial Realm.

Without that voice murmuring in my mind, things had felt strangely hollow.

Noeul must be feeling the same.

“Well… I’m glad I’m no longer under their watchful eyes.”

Noeul scratched his cheek with his finger.

“But I don’t know. It doesn’t feel all that great. I’ve been able to stay distracted because we’ve been busy lately…”

“But with all this free time, these thoughts sneak up again.”

He muttered, looking down.

“Ever since I learned I was Abrilah’s reincarnation, I’ve always had the prince with me. We joked around… I watched him draw sheep on paper…”

“It must feel like your friend turned into a god.”

I said without thinking.

“…Ah.”

Noeul looked up at me, surprised.

“That’s exactly it.”

I thought as much.

Even The King of Hell had stuck to me as a fly throughout CYB, forming a sort of reluctant bond.

For Noeul, The Traveler from Asteroid B-612 wasn’t just a Constellation—he was a friend who knew everything about him.

That friend was now just watching him from far away, out of sight.

No wonder it felt like his friend had become a god.

“Your Constellation was the main character of a fairy tale.”

Before I could even finish the thought, the words tumbled out.

“Fairy tales are usually read by kids. As we grow up, we stop reading them. The Traveler was a case of a fairy tale character gaining faith and becoming a Constellation.”

A character from a children’s story became a Constellation through belief.

It sounds absurd—but absurd things happen all the time. Like…

“Isn’t it strange how we never forget the fairy tales we read as kids?”

Not only do we remember them—we understand their deeper meanings as we grow.

Almost as if the world of the fairy tale grows with us.

I shared my thoughts with Noeul.

“So maybe the reason it feels like your friend became a god… is because you turned into someone truly remarkable, too.”

The Traveler from Asteroid B-612 had grown into a full-fledged Constellation watching over Noeul.

And Noeul, no longer an object of caution, had matured as Abrilah’s reincarnation.

They had both grown since their first meeting.

“…Maybe.”

Noeul gave a wry smile, brushing his hair back.

“I’m still not sure how much I’ve grown since I met the prince.”

“You haven’t grown much taller, at least.”

“I’ll be taller than you eventually.”

I chuckled and shrugged.

I was a little scared of that day coming.

“Thanks, Eunyul hyung. That helped.”

Noeul smiled and stood up from the bed.

“I still feel a little empty… but I feel a lot better now.”

“…That’s good.”

I gave him a faint smile.

“Everyone—!!”

Just then, Han Iro’s voice rang from the living room.

“Let’s get ready to monitor!”

It was time for the reality show to air.

“Shall we go?”

I asked Noeul.

“Yes!”

He nodded with a bright smile.