Chapter 77 — Echoes Beneath Gold
9:07 AM
AUREUS Dorm — Live Broadcast
The stream had settled into a rhythm. Fans were watching the members cook, clean, talk, and tease each other. It was soft chaos wrapped in charm. The kind of day-to-day that made the world feel human.
And yet, beneath it all, a single unreadable silence pulsed.
Jaeheon was still seated.
Same posture. Same calm. Same gaze.
But everything had changed.
Only no one could tell.
No one ever would.
Flashback — 6 Months Ago
The ballroom glowed with impossible light.
Even the stars outside had seemed to dim, as if they knew they couldn't compete. Gold spilled down from chandeliers carved with ancient craftsmanship. Every step taken echoed through marble that had seen generations pass.
Only five families had ever stood beneath that ceiling.
And one of them was her.
He had known the moment she walked in.
Not from the sound—because there was none—but from the silence that followed. Like the world held its breath just to make space for her presence.
She hadn't spoken then.
Not at first.
Not even when she turned and caught him watching her from across the marble floor.
Not even when she walked past the lineage of empire.
Only later.
In the garden.
Under the dark.
Away from the gold.
But no one would ever know what happened after that.
Not his members.
Not the press.
Not the world.
Because no one could.
Some truths were never meant to be spoken aloud.
Now — On the Stream
"Jaeheon-hyung, you haven't moved in like… 40 minutes," Sungchan teased. "What are you doing? Meditating?"
The fans spammed the chat with laughter emojis.
But Jaeheon only glanced up briefly, smile barely flickering.
"No. Just thinking."
Minjae joked, "About lyrics or her?"
The room stilled for half a second.
Everyone laughed to fill it.
Everyone but him.
His voice was quiet, almost casual:
"Does it matter?"
More laughter. Comments exploded.
HE'S SO MYSTERIOUS I CAN'T
"does it matter" HELLO?
the way he doesn't deny it??
this man is hiding a literal novel in his silence
But the truth was — he wasn't hiding anything.
He was protecting it.
And that made all the difference.
Rin's POV — 9:22 AM
There were things about Jaeheon that Rin didn't ask anymore.
Because he'd seen it — that night after the ball.
He remembered the way Jaeheon had returned at dawn.
How he changed his clothes in silence.
How he sat by the window for hours.
He hadn't said a word.
Not about the ball.
Not about the girl.
Not about the garden.
Just one sentence, over breakfast, to no one in particular.
"She's not someone from this world."
No one had dared ask after that.
So they pretended not to notice.
When Jaeheon smiled at his phone.
When he wrote lyrics at 3 AM.
When his gaze grew distant, pulled to something—someone—they'd never seen.
And now?
Rin glanced at him, again.
The smallest shift in Jaeheon's shoulders. The flicker of breath held too long.
She replied, Rin thought.
Not because he knew.
But because he'd been waiting with him, too.
End Scene:
Jaeheon leaned back against the couch, looking at the ceiling.
In his mind, her message echoed again.
"I watched."
It wasn't a reply.
It was a return.
And no one—not even the world watching live—would ever know that at 9:07 AM, while he said nothing, something inside him had finally, quietly, exhaled.