Little Pink Starfish

“That’s…”

I trailed off and avoided Rowen’s gaze.

Officially, my constellation was listed on my profile as one who refused to reveal their sacred name. There was precedent for this, so it hadn’t caused much trouble. Still, I’d always figured those close to me would eventually start asking questions.

But no one could possibly imagine the truth—that my constellation is The Star Hated by All… none other than Satan himself.

Rowen might be suspicious of my constellation’s identity, but I doubted he’d ever guess I’d formed a contract with the King of Hell.

Besides, there’s no way he’d imagine that the smooth, ever-present manager who’s been by my side all throughout filming is my constellation.

I could deflect the question in any number of ways. And yet, I said:

“My constellation isn’t really a constellation, in the strict sense.”

I figured it was better to give Rowen some insight.

“A constellation that isn’t a constellation? That’s just wordplay, isn’t it?”

Rowen tilted his head curiously.

“He’s stronger than most constellations, but doesn’t hold any of their authority. So even if Lightning That Whirls Like the Wind speaks for all constellations, it doesn’t apply to mine.”

“……”

Rowen narrowed his eyes and stared into the air.

It looked like he was exchanging thoughts with Lightning That Whirls Like the Wind.

“That’s strange.”

He looked back at me with a faint smile.

“My constellation was never the cooperative type, but I’ve never seen him refuse to disclose information like this.”

It seemed Lightning That Whirls Like the Wind wanted Rowen to stay uninvolved in Aiden’s plans. At the same time, he refused to utter the name of The Star Hated by All.

‘Can’t blame him.’

There was a lot of dangerous stuff tied up in all this. It was obvious the other constellations were wary of Star. Not every constellation was like Traveler from Asteroid B-612, who got along with Star. If I were a constellation myself, I’d be wary too—a being who rebelled against The Savior Who Is One and All, the King of Hell.

But I believed Rowen had a right to know something about Aiden’s plans.

Jeong Hangyeol had been a member of Codess.

Whether he vanished at some point and Aiden took his place, or something else happened—I didn’t know.

‘But they must’ve been teammates once…’

The fact that he’d lived this long not even knowing Hangyeol ever existed—that was just… sad.

“I had a dream.”

Rowen spoke in a calm voice.

“I don’t remember the details well. Dreams fade over time.”

He said he’d seen a man in the dream. A hazy figure, like he might scatter into the air at any moment. And that man had said—

“…That he was going to disappear.”

I’m going to disappear.

That’s what he’d said.

“I think that man was Jeong Hangyeol. Or rather…”

Rowen scratched the back of his neck irritably.

“Hangyeol. I don’t really remember what kind of relationship we had, or even what he looked like, but…”

He murmured that it had made him feel terribly sad.

“So whatever’s going on, I’m not going to ignore it.”

The moment Rowen said that—

Bzzzt—!

The power in the studio began to flicker.

“Don’t be like that.”

Rowen muttered, looking up at the blinking lights.

“I was never the type to follow orders anyway, was I?”

The lights flashed more violently in response. At this rate, the whole building might get struck by lightning.

‘Seems like they don’t get along too well.’

I thought, resting my chin on my hand.

Constellations all had their own personalities, and so did contractors. It was only natural.

Jeong Noeul and Traveler from Asteroid B-612 were like peers. Han Iro and Love Born with Bubbles had a model goddess-and-believer dynamic. Madojin and Mika were like teacher and student. Min Heejae and The Ten Kings Who Rule the Underworld…

‘Come to think of it, I’ve never heard how that one works.’

He must’ve started interacting with the real kings of the underworld after his childhood friend passed on.

‘And me and Star…’

Well…

He’d become so convincingly human lately, we felt more like real-life frenemies than anything else.

That, at least, I could understand.

‘But Aiden… he said he shares affection with his constellation.’

Aiden and The Mother Who Burns Forever were bound by love. A relationship between a human and a constellation? That was hard to wrap my head around.

“Anyway…”

I turned to Rowen.

“From now on, I plan to investigate Aiden whenever I get the chance—with my constellation’s help. I’m also going to gather more information about Jeong Hangyeol. I think the reason we’re even aware of his existence is that the erased parts have already been partially restored. If that’s true, then his body must exist somewhere too…”

Tracking that down would be the first priority.

“I’m going to talk to the Codess members.”

Rowen sighed.

“I’d suspected something was off with Aiden for a while. He started acting so different from the person we used to know. Probably because…”

“Because at some point, he really did change.”

“Yeah.”

Rowen gave a bitter smile.

“I’ll talk to the others about Hangyeol. Maybe they’ll recognize the name too. Maybe someone remembers him more clearly than I do.”

“If I find out anything, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks.”

After nodding, Rowen paused a moment.

“If, for whatever reason, Hangyeol wanted to disappear…”

He muttered in a quiet voice.

“…Would bringing him back still be the right thing to do?”

He honestly didn’t know.

Resurrecting the dead is often used as an example of a miracle. The dead are not supposed to return. That used to be a fundamental truth of the world—but that changed when constellations began appearing more directly in the human world.

The dead could return.

It was still a miracle, of course—but people had come to accept it as a real possibility.

But there was no guarantee it would be beautiful.

During the days of hunters, there were necromancers who revived the dead and used them in battle.

‘Necromancers, I think they were called.’

The revived were not what people imagined when they thought of miracles.

‘They were brought back just as they were when they died.’

In other words, they made corpses move.

It had stirred ethical debates back then—but hunters needed numbers, and the debate fizzled out. War always tramples some sense of ethics.

Even now, it was a topic that came up in academic papers and TV debates.

Still, strictly speaking, making a corpse move again was a miracle.

And gates opening out of nowhere—those were also miracles.

So I answered Rowen’s question:

“If it’s the right thing to do, it’ll be a miracle. If it’s wrong, it’ll be a disaster.”

Rowen smiled at my reply.

“Yeah, probably.”

Whether it was a miracle or a disaster depended on the judgment of the resurrected Jeong Hangyeol.

But before that, there was one thing we couldn’t overlook.

‘What happened to the people who lost fragments of their souls?’

That had to be figured out first.

Jeong Hangyeol’s soul had already been fragmented and used to form many other souls. So the one being brought back wasn’t exactly Jeong Hangyeol’s soul.

It was more like piecing together fragments from other people’s souls to reconstruct Hangyeol’s form.

Explaining reincarnation theory to Rowen would take too long at this hour.

‘Besides…’

This wasn’t something Rowen could really help with anyway.

What was certain was this:

Aiden didn’t seem to care if others were broken, as long as he could revive Jeong Hangyeol.

---

Ryu Eunyul and Rowen talked late into the night.

By the time they got back to Rowen’s place, it was already past midnight. Eunyul, worn out from filming, fell asleep as soon as he washed up and lay in bed.

Rowen simply lay there with his eyes closed.

He felt like he’d have the same dream again if he fell asleep.

It frightened him. As he reflected on the dream, the feeling that dominated him was unmistakable fear.

‘Why?’

Rowen questioned his instincts.

‘Why am I afraid?’

You’d think meeting someone you missed—even in a dream—would make you happy. But all Rowen felt was fear.

“…Haa.”

He exhaled and sat up.

He walked through the dark bedroom and out into the living room.

‘What a mess I’ve gotten pulled into.’

He sat on the couch, thinking.

He slowly went over everything Eunyul had told him. Aiden was trying to bring back the erased Jeong Hangyeol with the help of a constellation, and the reason Rowen could now recognize Hangyeol was likely because much of him had already been restored.

‘Sounds like a joke.’

It would’ve been easy to dismiss it as nonsense, but the voice echoing in his ear confirmed it all.

[Constellation Lightning That Whirls Like the Wind warns you.]

[You must not get involved.]

‘Then that means this really is something big.’

He pouted inwardly.

Lightning That Whirls Like the Wind was usually an arrogant, carefree constellation. If even he was issuing warnings, then everything Eunyul had said must be true.

Why did Codess disband?

That question suddenly surfaced.

He remembered a lot of reasons. Everyone was tired of group activities, and they were all starting to dream of bigger worlds—

‘…I think we agreed to end things there.’

But if even that memory was false, what could he believe?

If memories of a person could be entirely erased, then something else must have filled that empty space.

‘If…’

If the reason Codess disbanded had something to do with Jeong Hangyeol—what then?

‘I don’t know.’

Rowen curled into himself.

‘I just wanted to keep making music…’

Now he wasn’t even sure if it was right to go on doing that.

He’d stayed behind even after the rest of Codess stopped singing…

‘…Feels like I’m the only one left behind.’

Thinking that, Rowen bit his lip.