“Ms. Preah, your acting was pretty good today. It couldn’t have been easy, playing a villain for the first time.”
“Thank you, Senior Kim Hanseo.”
She looked at me and smiled.
In contrast to my bland and expressionless face that could hardly be called handsome, she smiled brightly like the dazzling sun.
Preah.
A beautiful woman with deep black hair and mysterious golden eyes.
I, Kim Hanseo — an actor in my mid-thirties, still single and walking the path toward middle age — spoke calmly as a senior and offered her some praise.
It was a compliment that might have sounded a bit stiff or even somewhat arrogant.
But even after hearing such a compliment, she kept her warm smile and instead made a suggestion.
“Senior, if you’re okay with it, would you like to grab a bite downstairs? I have some time before the next schedule.”
“Ah…”
Preah, speaking with sincere kindness.
My gaze wavered for a moment upon hearing her words.
But I quickly opened my mouth in the driest tone I could manage.
“…No, it’s okay. I’ve got another schedule coming up, so I should get going.”
“I see… Alright then. I’ll see you at tomorrow’s shoot.”
“Yes, good work today. Get home safe.”
“Yes, Senior.”
And with that short exchange, I left the filming site.
As if I were running away — as fast as I could.
Trying hard to suppress the pounding in my chest.
“Whew…”
The place I hurried to was my lodging.
There, I opened a large suitcase.
Inside the suitcase — a place I never showed to anyone.
It was decorated lavishly with only one person’s photos and merchandise.
The woman I had just acted alongside, the one who invited me to eat with her.
Preah.
Though she was still inexperienced and hadn’t yet blossomed fully as an actress, she was already a global star as a singer.
Three years in a row at the top of the Billboard charts,Over 100 million followers — a titan in the world of social networks.
Firmly established as a goddess of the Korean entertainment world, a beloved idol singer who had captured the hearts of countless fans.
Yet more than all that dazzling fame, to me, there was only one word that defined her.
Back before she became famous,When she was just an unknown idol trainee named “Lee Sunhwa” — the word that always meant her in my heart.
Bias.
The brightest and most beautiful star among all the countless celebrities.
And today was the day of Preah’s concert.
Thankfully, the concert venue was close to the filming location, so I was able to get there without much difficulty.
With my face hidden behind sunglasses and a mask, and a lightstick in hand, I hurried toward the place.
And then.
“Waaaaah!!!”
“Preah! Preah!”
“Oh, my goddess!”
“We love you, Preah!”
The dazzling stage shimmered under brilliant lights.
The thunderous cheers of the crowd echoed as if tearing the air apart.
But in this moment, to my ears, only one person’s figure.
Only one person’s voice—filled my senses.
“I won’t cry anymore. Even in the face of harsh trials.I will always love you with pride!”
There she was, standing in the center of the brilliant lights,pouring out her heavenly voice.
That voice always made my heart tremble.
Her smile washed away all the fatigue I’d built up over the past few days,like it had never existed.
‘Ah… I feel healed…’
As an actor, I’d faced a string of failures.
The fatigue and dullness they brought.
The hypocrisy and dissatisfaction that had filled my life.
Outwardly I smiled, but inside, I had been rotting, slowly decaying.
And yet, she—my goddess—was the only light and hope in that life.
Because of her songs, I was able to crawl out of the deep pit called “slump.”
Because of her, I managed to carry on this life that I might’ve otherwise already thrown away.
My savior, my idol, the person I considered most precious.
Still, even with this almost religious admiration, I deliberately kept my distance.
Even though, just earlier, acting in the same drama gave me a rare chance to be closer to her.
Because… if you get too close to the sun, you get burned.
To me, she was quite literally a goddess.
But even though I’m forever cast in supporting roles, as a veteran actor, I know how this industry works.
And I know she, too, is just another entertainer.
I didn’t want someone like me getting too close,only to become fodder for those who write ridiculous fantasy stories.
I didn’t want my favorite to suffer because of me.
So I chose to stay one step away.
Not as a senior actor—but simply as a fan.
To just cheer for her as I watched her from the audience, like now.
This is where I belong.
This distance between her and me—is just right.
Or so I thought.
Creak!
“!”
Suddenly, I heard something ominous.
Blessed with sharper hearing than most,I quickly located the source.
I could see it clearly from my front-row seat—the massive stage light that had been shining down on my goddess was falling from the ceiling.
And directly beneath that falling light.
“…No.”
The words escaped my lips without thought.
And with that, I acted before I could even think.
I leapt onto the stage.
Though older, my body was still well-trained from regular workouts.
And in that moment, I felt the deepest gratitude for it.
I rushed toward her—Toward Preah, my goddess,who now had a look of panic on her face.
And then—“!? Senpa—”
CRASH!!!
Agonizing pain exploded in my head.
A torment unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life.
I felt all strength drain from my body.
Ah.
So this is what it feels like to die.
A cold sensation, vividly felt.
Within it, I lost consciousness like a candle being extinguished.
Even so, in my final moment.
As she looked down at me, shouting and crying—I felt a faint sense of relief at the fact that I had saved my goddess with my own hands.
And just like that, my life came to a perfect end.
Or so I thought.
I wasn’t particularly religious, but I had always believed that when you die, you go to some kind of afterlife—like heaven or hell.
However—The life that followed that death.
It continued in a way completely different from what I had imagined.
‘…How did it come to this…’
The reality placed before my eyes—With each moment I faced it, came waves of confusion and doubt.
In the midst of it all, I looked at her.
The one in my arms—My “favorite” idol’s face.
If I were still my original self, I would never have held her like this.
Never would I have dared to embrace my goddess.
Because I had always believed the best I could do was watch her from afar, full of reverence—Preah, my goddess.
But now,That goddess was right beside me.
So close I could feel her body—Preah’s warm, soft, incredibly delicate body.
Far lighter than I had imagined—so light, in fact, that it made me anxious—And thus even more precious.
And in this moment, she was suckling directly on my body with her mouth.
“Chup chup chup.”
That was the sound of her suckling.
To be precise, she was suckling the large lumps of fat on my chest.
My breasts!
And not just ordinary breasts, but ones that were actually producing milk!
Preah was holding my almost head-sized breasts tightly,diligently drinking the milk that flowed from them.
No… Sunhwa.
For reference, her current age was just three months.
And I.
The one nursing her, this tiny baby who would one day become my goddess.
Was her biological mother.
Chae Sujeong.
A woman with a beautiful face eerily similar to her past life self—so much so that no one could doubt she was Sunhwa’s mother.
The difference being that unlike the somewhat slender Sunhwa, I had rather large breasts.
Currently, I was a 17-year-old high school girl.
But in truth, I was a man who had lived 40 years in my previous life.
And had died at a concert, only to awaken in this new body.
More specifically, I had possessed the body of this woman right at the moment she was giving painful birth to Sunhwa.
It’s been three months since I screamed like mad, overwhelmed by the excruciating pain of childbirth the moment I possessed this body.
At first, it was a huge shock.
A middle-aged man suddenly turned into a high school girl giving birth out of nowhere.
But now, after three months, I’d more or less adjusted to this body.
The problem was that—perhaps because this was more “possession” than “reincarnation”.
I still retained fragmented memories from this body’s original owner.
And over the past three months, I uncovered some heavy truths.
One: the original owner of this body was an orphan who had lost her parents two years ago, and—Amidst barely surviving high school, ended up pregnant after some reckless fooling around with her boyfriend.
Two: that boyfriend had died in a motorcycle accident before he even found out about the pregnancy.
And finally: the baby born as a result—Was none other than my beloved Sunhwa.
The one who would one day become the world-famous star known as Preah.
How could I be so sure, you ask?
First of all, my face in the mirror—resembling my bias—was one thing.
But more than that, my daughter looked exactly like Preah in her childhood photos, the ones still vividly etched in my memory.
Even now, if I looked closely, I could glimpse the radiant future in her tiny face.
More importantly, my daughter had a feature that no one else in the world possessed—something only she had.
The star-shaped birthmark on the nape of her neck was still clearly visible to my eyes.
You might think, “What is this, Joestar birthmark from that manga with the bizarre adventures?”
But in reality, that mark was a well-known fact among her fans.
In fact, some fans even jokingly called her a descendant of the Joestar family because of it.
But jokes aside, her family history wasn’t exactly a happy one.
“Preah said she grew up with difficulty in an orphanage… Maybe that’s why she was especially active in orphanage charity work…”
Her parents had abandoned her at an orphanage when she was still a baby.
Back then, I cursed the woman who’d abandoned my goddess without knowing the full story.
But now that I’d somehow become that very woman, I understood all too well what she had been thinking.
“A single teenage mother still in high school… Sure, she had a little inheritance left by her late parents, but even so, the idea of becoming a mother at that age was something she couldn’t accept.”
In truth, as soon as she found out she was pregnant, she had even considered an abortion.
But by then, it was already too late.
She had no choice but to carry the child to term.
Still, even so—no matter what hardships she faced—she had tried to discard her own child without hesitation.
Just because the baby would be “troublesome” in the future, she was ready to throw her away like trash.
I had no intention of justifying her actions.
And of course, I had no plans to follow the same path she did.
Yes, this baby had once been my bias in a previous life—but even if she hadn’t been Preah , I would never have abandoned her.
It wasn’t planned, but this was still the child I had birthed with my own pain and blood.
No matter how bad the situation was, how could I possibly throw away a child like this?
What’s more, this child would become a world star who would shake the world.
To see her dazzling future again.
No, to help her shine even brighter than before.
I resolved to raise this baby, now suckling at my breast, to be strong and wonderful.
As her mother.
And as a fan who had once worshiped her in my past life.
That’s what I thought.
“…Your daughter is amazing, but… ma’am, have you ever considered acting?”
“…Excuse me?”
Somehow, things started to veer off in a direction I hadn’t planned at all.