Chapter 55: A Sense of Destiny

["Ordinary Colleague Relationship"]

Having just finished his livestream, Lim Shouxia saw the message sent by Yoo Jimin. He rubbed his head, feeling both amused and a little uneasy, as if disaster were looming.

Yet, he hadn't lied during the broadcast.

He and Shin Yuna were indeed just ordinary colleagues; they hadn't even exchanged contact information.

Still, it seemed that someone had been silently watching his livestream the whole time without a word. But didn't Yoo Jimin notice his newly dyed hair?

His golden hair swayed slightly as an awkward expression appeared on his face.

"What's wrong?" The manager noticed his artist's strange behavior, frowning in curiosity.

Wasn't he just smiling foolishly a moment ago? How did he look distressed in the blink of an eye?

Was the food not to his taste, or was something else the matter?

"Hyung, I dyed my hair a new color today."

"I know, I watched you dye it."

"Doesn't the new color look good?"

"It looks great, quite striking. What's wrong, are there malicious comments?"

The manager scratched his head. He had accompanied him throughout the entire broadcast and constantly monitored the fans' comments. For a rookie of this standing, there were hardly even any anti-fans. Could someone have possibly escaped his watchful eye?

"Not malicious comments." Lim Shouxia shook his head, popped a piece of sweet and sour pork into his mouth, and gave a bored stretch. "I was ignored."

"Ignored?"

Actually, without the manager telling him, Lim Shouxia knew his new hair color was quite eye-catching, and most of the comments in the live chat room were compliments.

It was just that a certain girl happened to ignore his conspicuous hair, placing her entire attention on that ordinary colleague of his.

"Maybe people's attention wasn't really on your head."

Although puzzled, the manager didn't dwell on it. He patted the young man's shoulder and cleared away the leftover food.

Soon, it was the night of New Year's Eve. That unlucky soul, press-ganged into service by MBC, hadn't even managed to step off the stage when a stage-management error caused him to come face-to-face with Shin Yuna, who was standing on the elevator platform.

Seeing Shin Yuna in a long white dress walking towards him with large strides, Lim Shouxia took a deep breath, met her gaze, and tried hard to maintain his expression, attempting an awkward yet polite smile.

When a person's luck turns bad, sometimes it really seems endless.

Drafted unexpectedly by MBC to fill in a spot, and now suffering a minor stage mishap—fortunately, their professional competence was solid enough to keep the audience from noticing the stage crew's blunder.

However, none of this really mattered anymore.

It was foreseeable that, owing to their previous collaborations and this brilliant save during the stage accident, his and Shin Yuna's names would be trending again.

Ordinary colleague relationship...

Recalling the message sent by a certain someone that day, Lim Shouxia covered his mouth, still desperately wanting to laugh.

Today... was he going to receive another text message from the girl, dripping with sarcasm?

"What kind of destined fate is this!"

Staring at the pile of discussion posts on the forum, Yoo Jimin felt her lungs were about to burst with anger.

With the live broadcast of the MBC Gayo Daejejeon today, the forum was naturally flooded with threads discussing the lineup and program arrangements.

This was entirely normal; whenever a large joint concert took place, the forum would be filled with talk concerning the stage performances.

What truly annoyed Yoo Jimin was a post titled with the atmosphere of a K-drama destined romance.

If you want to talk about K-dramas, talk about K-dramas properly; what on earth was the point of posting those animated GIFs of those two staring into each other's eyes on stage?

What destined fate? It was clearly a stage accident caused by a blunder from the stage director!

Though she knew that the two of them most likely, as Lim Shouxia had said, were merely ordinary colleagues, seeing descriptors like "destined," "well-matched," and "top-visual CP" plastered all over the forum still irritated her to death.

She had warned him long ago.

A newly debuted artist should take things step by step, not constantly look to take shortcuts like hyping up a CP for popularity.

As a result, it was as if she were talking to a brick wall—stage collaborations, pictorial shoots, and tonight's scene which fans were calling fated...

She harbored a lingering sensation of having her position usurped by someone else.

Lim Shouxia, currently backstage at MBC, had no idea that despite doing absolutely nothing, he had already been severely criticized in Yoo Jimin's heart.

The year-end scapegoat was sitting in the shared waiting room with his seniors, looking with embarrassment as the seniors from ITZY and Stray Kids celebrated.

Are you people from JYP always this crazy?

No, you can be crazy all you want, but don't drag me into it. Today's eye contact really was just an emergency reaction to a stage mishap; there was no gossip-worthy angle whatsoever.

"Shouxia, do you want to come out and celebrate with us later?"

"We're calling Yuna and the others to join us today."

Bang Chan patted the man's shoulder. Although the outcome of the last gathering hadn't been ideal, with Shin Yuna keeping an eye on him this time, this guy wouldn't end up getting drunk again.

"No thanks, hyung."

"I've made plans with my family to ring in the New Year together at home."

It would have been fine if Shin Yuna hadn't been mentioned, but the moment her name came up, Lim Shouxia knew what this crowd of thrill-seekers was planning. Besides, he had already promised Yoo Jimin they would ring in the New Year together, so he certainly couldn't break his word.

"What a buzzkill..." Bang Chan glanced at Shin Yuna, who was passionately chatting with her teammates not far away, noticing the child's occasional glances toward them, and shook his head helplessly.

It was evident that Shin Yuna harbored some favorable feelings for him.

It was just a pity that Lim Shouxia didn't seem to realize it, and furthermore, he had another girl by his side willing to help him home when he was drunk. It was hard to imagine this romance going anywhere.

"Destined fate?" Shin Yujin looked at the post title on the forum, resting one hand on Hwang Yeji's shoulder while laughing so hard her mouth wouldn't close.

Just who was this troublemaker who loved to watch the spectacle? Not only did they push both of their names onto the real-time search trends, but even a hot post on NAVER was riding the coattails to become an independent keyword.

Still...

As a witness and even a semi-participant in the whole affair, she felt that particular term was used rather brilliantly.

Initially, when seeing the elevator platform beneath Shin Yuna's feet slowly begin to rise, everyone had been startled, even feeling the pressing anxiety that they would be trending immediately due to a stage disaster.

As it turned out, they did trend indeed.

Yet it was a positive trending topic, driven by the pair's miraculous reactions on stage and the atmospheric vibe captured by the director's camera cuts.

The two of them genuinely looked like something ordained by the heavens.