If Nael had to admit it, everything had been great at first.
After all, getting to participate in Illusionary Realm's group collab was a rare opportunity.
And even rarer—was the chance to team up with Diah.
Even when the Cops & Robbers game actually started, things were still going great.
"Kyaaahhh!! We're on the same team!!"
[ U-Um… yeah… G-Good luck~! ]
Nael had ended up on the same team as Diah.
That alone was enough to make her heart race.
The very idea of running around with Diah made her completely oblivious to chat freaking out about her screams.
Even when the thieves scattered.
Even when she met back up with Diah a few minutes later.
Even when they stuck together, searching for clues.
"I found a walkie-talkie! But… what do we use this for?"
[ C-Can you give it to me? I wanna play with it. ]
From the moment she handed over the walkie-talkie she had found in a hidden chest—
To the moment she heard Diah's excited voice through it—
Everything had been amazing.
[ Over-over, Nael, can you hear me? Over. ]
"Over-over, I can hear you~."
[ Okay, let’s head to the first floor. Over. ]
"Oh my god. TOO CUTE!!"
It was literally cute enough to kill her.
She could already picture what kind of face Haeun was making behind her screen, and that alone gave her chills.
Of course, Nael’s viewers didn’t really get it.
For them, Diah was just a chaotic gremlin, pure and simple.
So no matter how much Nael liked Diah, most people in chat just brushed it off.
[ Look, see? I'm a cop! ]
[ Oh, so Diah was the one who gave away Nael’s location. ]
The moment Diah’s betrayal was revealed.
[ Aha-ha-ha. That was fun, playing thieves with you, Nael. ]
[ Alright, take her away, Officer Cream. ]
"W-Wait a second! No, no, no— I GAVE you my walkie-talkie!! You can’t do this to me!!"
Nael stammered in shock, completely flustered.
[ SENPAI, HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEE—!! ]
[ Life is war, thief!!! ]
As Nael’s avatar was locked in jail, chat scrolled at insane speeds.
At first, she was too stunned to speak.
But then, somewhere along the way—she started laughing.
"Ah… I seriously got fooled… Aha-ha…."
Still, what was done was done.
There was no escaping from jail.
And yet, for some reason… she wasn’t mad.
Maybe it was because she kept imagining Haeun desperately scheming to fool her the whole time.
"Guess I’ll go check on senpai and see how she’s enjoying her life~~."
Even though Diah had completely stabbed her in the back,
Nael honestly didn’t feel too bad about it.
After all… how many people could say they’d been betrayed by Haeun?
That thought alone kept her smiling.
Unlike chat’s predictions, she wasn’t furious at all.
So when she saw Diah attach herself to another thief, Riah, she genuinely cracked up.
[ I can’t see Nael anywhere, unnie… She must’ve been caught by the cops… ]
"OH REALLY? WHO DO YOU THINK GOT HER CAUGHT, HUH?!!"
Watching from spectator mode, Nael continued observing Diah’s every move.
Then—Diah met with Cream, a cop who knew her identity.
And then—she revealed the existence of a second spy.
[ There’s a spy among the cops, too. ]
[ Yep! I’ll go find Officer Hida, and Cream, you go to Officer Yun. The codeword is "pigeon" and "coo coo coo!" ]
Right after, Diah received a baton and grenades from Cream to help her with the mission.
And immediately took off running.
[ Please let it be Hida! Hida, please be the spy—!! ]
"You really wanna see Hida get caught that badly—oh. Well. I guess that makes sense."
Nael was one of the few people who actually knew the truth about Diah and Hida’s relationship.
So she understood exactly why Diah was obsessed with getting to her first.
To them, Diah just looked like a crazed woman hunting her nemesis.
Then—finally, just as Diah reached the building where Hida was hiding—
The grenade Cream had given earlier exploded with a deafening blast, turning Hida’s surroundings into a chaotic mess.
"HEY HEY! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP!! MOVE AND I’LL SHOOT—!"
[ "Wait, why is that part in Korean?" ]
Then, from Diah’s mouth came the codeword:
[ "Uh… um, coo coo coo." ]
[ "SPY CONFIRMED!!!" ]
[ "W-Wait! You weren’t a thief?!" ]
[ "I’M A COP, YOU THIEF!! GET BACK HERE!!" ]
The moment Diah confirmed Hida was a spy, she immediately swung her baton and started chasing her down.
Meanwhile, Hida, sprinting for her life, shouted back provocatively:
[ "STOP! DON’T RUN!!" ]
[ "Your accent’s so bad I can’t even understand you, Officer~." ]
[ "I’LL FIND YOU AND KILL YOU!!" ]
[ "Awee powdyu an keeew!!" ]
[ "ARGHHH!! GET BACK HERE!!!" ]
"They’re seriously having the time of their lives. Don’t you think?"
With that, Diah and Hida’s ridiculously loud chase continued—
"GOT YOU, YOU OLD HAG!!"
Hida was finally caught, knocked out by Diah’s baton.
Not long after, Cream arrived with her police car.
[ "Got a spy here! A very BAD spy grandma!" ]
[ "Hey, hey! Quit calling me grandma!" ]
[ "What else am I supposed to call a grandma, huh?!" ]
Even while Hida was being hauled away, Diah wouldn’t stop teasing her.
And at this point, Diah had completely dropped her act as a thief.
There weren’t many thieves left, anyway.
But among the few that remained—
BEEP BEEP! THE SAFE HAS BEEN UNLOCKED!
[ "Wait, hold up—THE SAFE IS OPEN?!" ]
Someone had cracked the code after gathering enough hints.
BEEP BEEP!! THE JEWELS HAVE BEEN STOLEN!!
[ "Whoever it is, STOP THEM!!" ]
[ "Yuna! Officer Yun!! Where are you?!" ]
Ocean, completely solo, had stolen the treasure and tilted the game in the thieves’ favor.
Cream and Diah panicked.
"No way… Did Ocean just…?"
Even Nael, watching from spectator mode, was stunned.
The entire game was in total chaos now.
[ "THERE! GO, GO!! STEP ON IT, SIS!!" ]
[ "IT’S A MOUNTAIN, I CAN’T DRIVE THERE! GET OUT AND RUN!!" ]
With that, the final chase began.
Even the spectators started hyping it up like sports commentators.
The outcome of the game was decided by mere seconds.
Her wave-like, sky-blue hair.
Her sparkling blue eyes.
Her ocean-themed white-and-light-blue outfit.
[ "Yay~! I won~~!!" ]
Ocean bounced up and down on the ferry, giggling to herself.
There was no actual prize for winning.
But honestly? Just winning was enough to make her this happy.
That said… history has a way of repeating itself.
Because among Ocean’s fans, the ‘Poseidons’—someone sent in a very familiar donation challenge.
[ "T-TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND…?! WAIT A SECOND—" ]
LUX_Ocean: You all suck.
Every single Illusionary Realm member’s chat erupted.
Nael, and the rest of the group collab participants, couldn’t help but be impressed.
With that, discussions about Illusionary Realm’s chaotic collab and Ocean’s god-tier gameplay filled online communities.
The total viewership across all the participants' streams broke records.
But for Haeun, utterly exhausted from the chaos, none of that mattered anymore.
"Alright, see you all next time~! Bye-bye~!"
After saying her final goodbyes to her chat, Haeun stretched her sore body and finally stepped out of her soundproof booth.
And as she headed toward the living room—
She had expected to see Sungyoon and Nayeon chilling with Baekseol.
But instead—Baekseol was still all alone.
The moment Baekseol saw Haeun step out, she immediately sprinted over.
"Ughh, okay, okay! I’ll hold you!"
Seeing how lonely Baekseol must have been, Haeun quickly picked her up.
Only then did she finally head back to her room.
After setting Baekseol on her bed, Haeun reached for her phone.
She had almost called Nayeon, but—
[Mom] - Your dad’s too scared to go home.
[Mom] - We’re just gonna eat out.
[Mom] - Order something tasty~
Haeun stared at the messages, thinking.
After that wild collab, she was definitely exhausted.
She wasn’t sure if she could stay awake long enough for delivery.
So, in the end, she just whipped up something simple from what was already at home.
Halfway through eating—
Baekseol appeared under the table, clawing at her feet again.
"…You wanna sit on my lap?"
"Ohhh, you really do. Alright, come here~."
Sure enough, Baekseol ended up curled up on her lap the entire time she ate.
And even after she finished—
Even as she prepared to sleep—
Baekseol kept following her.
"Hey, I’m going to bed now. Gonna turn off the lights, Baekseol."
"…Ugh, what do I do with you…."
Even after Haeun lay down, Baekseol didn’t budge.
So, in the end, she gave up and lifted her onto the bed.
"Fine, fine, you can sleep with me tonight….
As sleep slowly took over, Haeun patted Baekseol’s fur.
She drifted off to dreamland.
“Wait, did you just say… Lee Haeun?”
Inside one of the smaller meeting rooms at High Entertainment, a major entertainment agency—
Singer Song Hyunmin, one of the participants for Start Again, was momentarily taken aback by the familiar name he had just heard.
“I mean, sure, she’s technically a singer, but….”
“Then what’s the issue?”
“No, it’s just… after Veterans and everything… Isn’t her image still more of an actress?”
It wasn’t that he doubted Haeun’s singing ability.
After all, he was one of the many singers who had witnessed firsthand how she dominated the stage as Pinocchio in the Infinite Challenge Music Festival.
But considering the recent massive success of Veterans, in which she played Lee Yeseo, and The Sunshine, where she starred as Kim Junghyun—
She already had multiple defining roles that solidified her reputation as an actress.
“You think she’ll fit in…?”
“No, I mean, with me… and Leo hyung, too….”
Hyunmin couldn’t help but feel a little worried about whether Haeun would blend in naturally with the other singers on Start Again.
Even now, all he could picture was Lee Yeseo from Veterans.
"I heard she has a good personality, though… Hmm…."
From the moment he first heard that Haeun would be joining Start Again—
To the moment they met at Incheon Airport before their flight to Portugal—
Even after finally landing in Portugal after a long, exhausting flight—
"What the hell am I supposed to talk to her about…?"
Hyunmin hesitated to approach her, still unable to shake the intimidating aura of Lee Yeseo.
Still, since they had to film the opening scene of the show, he had no choice but to stand near Haeun while waiting.
“Oh, sorry! Are you okay?”
A local boy had accidentally bumped into him.
The kid snapped something in Portuguese before stomping off down the street.
Haeun’s gaze suddenly sharpened.
Without a word, she placed her black suitcase in front of Hyunmin—
And took off running.
Roughly ten minutes later—
“…Huh? Why do you have my wallet?”
“That kid swiped it when he bumped into you.”
Haeun returned with the same boy—
Except now, he looked absolutely terrified as he stood beside her.
She pulled out her phone, using a translation app to say something to him.
Meanwhile, the kid shuffled forward hesitantly, his eyes locked on the ground.
Hyunmin was completely lost.
But for some reason, his gaze flickered toward the kid’s wrist—slightly red and swollen.
"Why does his wrist look like that…?"
“So, what do you want to do?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Haeun gestured directly at the kid with her index finger.
The boy flinched, visibly trembling, his head dropping even lower.
“He’s a pickpocket. If you want to settle this cleanly, we should call the police.”
“Ah, uh… Hyung, what do we do?”
“I… I have no idea….”
Everything about this situation was just completely insane.
The fact that Haeun had sprinted off to catch a thief—and actually caught him—left Hyunmin at a total loss for words.
“Hyung. Be honest. Is this a hidden camera prank…?”
“Dude, I have no idea…!”