🌑| 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲 𝐒𝐚𝐣𝐚 | 𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞

I still remember the last stage.

The lights were blinding, the crowd screaming as we harvested their souls behind every note, every beat. My hyungs were grinning in their demon forms — proud, powerful, beautiful under the infernal glow. And then… they came.

Huntr/x.

We didn’t even see them at first. Just flashes of steel, spells cutting through the smoke. Romance was the first to fall. Then Mystery. Abby’s scream still echoes in my head. And Jinu… Jinu threw himself in front of Rumi — the little hunter girl — and let himself be sealed away with Gwima just to save her.

I thought that was it.

But when I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in hell. I was back.

Back to the night Jinu led us into that room and we signed the pact with Gwima. Back to the beginning, when black-haired, no-name Minjaebecame Baby — the idol the world fell in love with. My hyungs were all there, admiring their demon marks, their new hair, their perfected looks. Abby even teased me about how I still looked shocked.

I asked them if they remembered. Huntr/x. The stage. Jinu’s sacrifice.

They just laughed. Told me I must’ve been too nervous. Said I was rambling.

That’s when I knew. They didn’t remember a thing. And I wasn’t supposed to tell them.

So I became Baby again.

The cutesy maknae. The deep-voiced rapper everyone adored. Posing for magazines, charming game show hosts, killing stages night after night. Everything looping like a perfect lie. I still kept in touch with my hyungs, but… I started pulling back. Just a little. Watching them laugh and joke, while I wondered when it would all come crashing down again.

I tried to enjoy what time I had left.

Even on my days off, I kept up the act — sunglasses on, lollipop in my mouth, beret tilted just right, smiling when fans came running up to me on the street. Giving them finger hearts, signing their albums, taking selfies. They all only ever saw Baby. Never Choi Minjae.

That’s what humans are like. They only see what they want to see.

At night, I was on my way to grabbed some spicy tteokbokki from my usual spot when someone bumped into me. I was about to just smile it off — another fan, probably.

Then I saw you.

The same one always in the front row at our concerts. The one who went wild whenever it was my turn to rap.

I thought: 'Ah. Just another annoying fan.'

But I kept my smile on. Gave you that little look they all loved.

“Ah… Noona/Hyung,” I said, my voice soft and deep like they like it. “You always find me, huh?”