translation by mourningmoor
A deafening roar shook the ground, and the bus toppled over sideways. The windows shattered, and a wave of heat rushed in.
I tumbled into the corner of the bus with the kids, and shards of glass rained down on us.
Something had definitely exploded. The explosions didn’t stop at one. A second explosion went off, and the overturned bus lurched and slid further to the side.
The pressure was immense.
“Damn.”
Through the haze of black ash clouding my vision, I desperately tried to locate the kids. Then, Roa grabbed my arm.
“Hyungnim.”
What soaked Roa’s hand was blood… I guess.
“Park Roa. Are you okay?”
Roa, holding onto me with both hands, nodded and spoke with difficulty.
“Hyungnim. Quickly, try to stop time or something. Hurry. Do something.”
* * *
I stopped time.
Even Roa, who had told me to stop time, froze in place.
For a brief moment, I hesitated, wondering if I should free just these kids from the constraints of time. If they saw who I really was, I wouldn’t have to explain everything in such a messy way.
But I didn’t. And honestly, I regretted even the moment when I had been about to lay everything bare.
What was I thinking, trying to seek understanding from these fragile beings? I must be insane.
They wouldn’t understand. They’d just feel fear.
Inside the shattered bus, I straightened out the kids who were tangled up and treated their wounds first.
They weren’t seriously hurt. The magic in the piercings had protected them.
Just some cuts and scrapes.
I healed each one. Once the bleeding stopped and the wounds closed, I finally took in the situation outside.
“Bartholomeus, you old bastard.”
I blasted the bus door open and stepped outside.
“Gyuhyung hyung! Director Kim Chanyeong!”
Since time was stopped, they couldn’t answer my calls. But I couldn’t just recklessly restart time either.
I scanned the area to figure out where the explosions had started.
“Damn. It’s the pop-up store. The staff over there”
I rushed inside and saw the chaos that had unfolded.
If anyone was still alive, I could save them.
I don’t remember exactly what I did after that.
I saved as many people as I could.
I prayed desperately that no one would die and did my best.
Just before the third explosion, I restarted time.
“Ichan-ah.”
Gyuhyung stared at me as if he’d seen a ghost.
He must have been shocked. I was supposed to be on the bus, but here I was, holding onto someone in this chaos.
Then the third explosion went off. But it was just loud—there wasn’t as much pressure as before. I had pushed it back with my magic.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Fire trucks, ambulances, police cars—it seemed like they were on their way.
Unable to control my emotions, I hugged Gyuhyung tighter. Director Kim Chanyeong, standing next to him, patted my back.
The tears I had been holding back finally broke free.
* * *
After being transported to the hospital, it was decided we would return to Korea immediately.
The terror attack wasn’t limited to the pop-up store. The concert venue scheduled for the day after tomorrow was also destroyed.
Naturally, the concert was canceled.
According to local news, it was a terrorist attack. A Belgian national, a racist, had been dissatisfied with the large-scale concert of a young Asian boy band and carried out the attack.
That’s a lie.
Behind the terrorist was that old bastard.
The invitation Timothy Gordon had sent me meant this. It was a kind of warning, telling me not to mess around. A retaliation for me destroying his magic circle. That’s what it was.
The one silver lining was that, for such a large explosion, the casualties were minimal.
The local news focused on that and ran with it.
The boy band LIT, the target of the terrorist attack, is safe. All five members are unharmed.
Although they were at the explosion site, they had just boarded the bus when the explosion occurred, resulting in only minor injuries. Their managers are also reported to be safe. One person was seriously injured, but it is said that their life is not in danger.
There were three bombs planted at the scene, but one failed to detonate, preventing greater damage.
There were only two fatalities, both local staff members of the pop-up store.
This terrorist attack is a typical hate crime, carried out by a white supremacist and racist man acting alone. However, authorities suspect there may be accomplices…
The concert, organized to commemorate France-Korea diplomatic relations, has been canceled, and all tickets will be refunded.
After reading the news, I tossed the tablet onto the chair next to me.
Then I buried my face in my hands.
My hands were trembling uncontrollably.
Kim Chanyeong, who had been watching me with pity, quietly comforted me.
“Team Leader Lee Gyuhyung will be fine. You handled it well.”
Gyuhyung is currently in surgery.
This fool wasn’t wearing his necklace. I had told him repeatedly not to take it off.
“Of course he’ll be fine.”
Gyuhyung will be okay.
A sharp shard of glass had pierced his body, and the wound was severe, but he’ll be fine.
“He’ll be fine. The one who’s not fine is me.”
While I was healing him, I used my body to block the blood gushing from Gyuhyung’s stomach. His clothes were soaked with blood, and he eventually passed out in my arms.
I healed the wound, but he had lost too much blood.
I was out of my mind with fear that he might die from excessive blood loss.
“This is nothing. Originally, no one should have been hurt.”
But I couldn’t stop it.
“Because of this body I’m in, because there are too many lines I can’t cross… I couldn’t stop it.”
It was simple.
When I heard the first explosion, I could have stopped time and fixed everything right then. But I didn’t. At that moment, all sorts of thoughts crossed my mind and held me back.
If I stopped time and fixed everything, how would people react to such an inexplicable situation? If I ran around healing the injured, what would people say?
Should I just take our members to safety right away?
If I act now, I’ll have to erase the memories of all these people, right?
If the kids find out who I really am, will I have to erase their memories too?
How much of their memories would I have to erase?
While I hesitated, the situation worsened. And in the end, Gyuhyung got hurt.
“I couldn’t stop it because I was worried about people’s reactions. I hesitated because I was afraid my identity would be exposed.”
I should have just let my identity be exposed. What was I so afraid of that I trembled over such a trivial accident?
“Ha, this is why I wanted to quit.”
How could I become so incompetent?
“In the end, I’ve ended up drenched in the blood of my people again.”
A sigh that sounded like a sob escaped my lips.
Just then, the elevator doors opened, and the members stepped out.
Seeing us sitting in front of the operating room, they rushed over.
“Chani hyung. Are you okay?”
Jaewon, his eyes rimmed red, grabbed me and looked me over.
“Are you okay?”
Jaewon had briefly lost consciousness during the accident. Hanjoon had a tear on the back of his head that needed stitches, Siu had sprained his wrist from falling, and Roa had severe bruises on his neck and shoulders.
The rest of the wounds… I healed them all.
There had been a significant amount of bleeding, but outwardly, they looked fine. Thankfully, there were no scars left.
“I’m fine. They said it’s a mild concussion. But hyung? Your clothes are covered in blood… What is all this?”
I had been wearing a light blue shirt, but now it was stained purple. My hands were covered in blood, and my face was smeared with it.
I looked like a battered soldier who had barely survived a brutal battle.
“It’s nothing.”
I managed to calm my trembling hands and stood up.
Then I spread my arms toward the members.
“Let me hug you all once.”
I wanted to make sure they were safe.
Jaewon was the first to pull me into a hug. Then Roa, his lips quivering as if he was about to cry, quickly came over and hugged both of us.
Next, Siu hugged the three of us, and Hanjoon wrapped his arms around all of us.
No one said a word. We just stood like that for a long time.
* * *
Kang Mina, the Music Q reporter who had arrived in Paris, was horrified when she saw the news.
The people on the news broadcast playing on the airport wall were unmistakably the members of LIT.
“What is this?”
A terrorist attack not only on the pop-up store but also on the concert venue.
Stunned, Mina turned off airplane mode on her phone. There were already several missed calls from the editor-in-chief.
When she called back, the editor-in-chief was in a frenzy.
—Mina, have you arrived?
“Yes. I just got here, but what’s going on?”
—I don’t know the details yet. It’s only been six hours since the incident, and the specifics haven’t been released.
“No, my kids…”
Mina paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and continued.
“Are the LIT members okay?”
—That’s what you need to find out.
The editor-in-chief’s words were like this.
The concert venue and the pop-up store had both been bombed simultaneously, and LIT, who had been at the pop-up store, had also been caught in the accident.
Cars, stores, the streets—everything was completely destroyed, but miraculously, there weren’t many casualties.
The bus LIT had been riding in was completely wrecked, but the members were reportedly fine, so that was a small mercy.
Two people had died in the accident, both local staff members of the store, not Korean nationals.
One person was seriously injured, and from the description of someone large, it might be Team Leader Lee Gyuhyung.
According to witnesses, Ichan had hugged the fallen Lee Gyuhyung and sobbed.
“So that means Ichan is okay, right?”
She hailed a taxi and asked the cameraman.
“Right? I’ll ask my friend who lives in Paris. You should also reach out to your contacts.”
You’re good with connections. What connections do I have in Paris?
Ah, not in Paris, but I do have connections who followed LIT to Paris.
Mina immediately called Juhee.
After a few rings, Juhee answered the phone.
“Juhee, where are you?”
—Mina unnie?
When Mina called her name, Juhee burst into tears on the other end of the line.