Night had fallen, and everything grew quiet—so quiet that Joshua could even hear Henry’s steady breathing.
But he couldn’t fall asleep. He knew he should, that he needed to rest and prepare for tomorrow, yet his mind wouldn’t stop circling around the same thoughts.
He remembered his previous world—he only knew that he had died, died in agony, but also escaped from hell.
But what about Henry? How was he... after Joshua had been taken away like that? Was he alright?
Joshua instinctively began scratching at his fingers. He squeezed his eyes shut, retreating deep into his own consciousness. He was afraid that if he continued to think, something uncontrollable would happen again.
He didn’t want to truly become a lunatic.
Inside his Sea of Consciousness, everything was still covered in ice and snow. The cold was unbearable. It should have been the place where he felt most at peace, yet Joshua couldn’t bring himself to like it.
But this time, he noticed something different—the broken shards of ice seemed to have increased, revealing a few more patches of trees. Though compared to the vast expanse of white, the faint touch of green was almost pitifully small.
Joshua frowned and instinctively crouched down, trying to dig near the edge of the ice.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t chip away even a grain of frost.
That shouldn’t be possible—this was his domain. What could there be that he couldn’t control?
Unwilling to give up, Joshua kept prying at the ice, eyes fixed with burning focus as if he could melt it just by staring. The tip of his tongue flicked out, wetting the corner of his lips.
But before he could make any progress, a violent gust of wind tore him out of that world.
He felt as though he had fallen from a great height. Startled, he snapped his eyes open—only to find Henry shaking him.
The first thing Joshua saw was Henry’s face, tight with worry, almost bordering on panic. Henry gripped his shoulders, shaking him again and again, calling his name.
When Joshua suddenly opened his eyes, Henry froze for a second—then, without hesitation, pulled Joshua tightly into his arms.
Joshua recalled the look in Henry’s eyes just moments ago and instinctively felt a pang of guilt.
He patted Henry’s back lightly and spoke in a soft voice, "W-what’s wrong? Henry, are you okay?"
"No matter how many times I called you, you wouldn’t wake up," Henry’s voice came out hoarse, and he made no move to release Joshua from his arms.
Joshua: "..." He knew he had caused trouble again.
He gently pushed Henry’s shoulders. "I’m fine, really. I must’ve just been in a deep sleep. Let me go, I need to get up—if we don’t start getting ready, we’ll be late."
Henry said nothing, but obediently loosened his hold.
Joshua didn’t dare meet his eyes.
He remembered—back in his previous world, whenever he fell ill, Henry would always become strict and overly sensitive, even more than the patient himself.
Joshua hurried off to the bathroom, while Henry sat on the edge of Joshua’s bed, staring blankly at the door that had just slammed shut.
His expression still carried a trace of panic; his heart was pounding wildly.
Lowering his gaze, he finally gave in and buried his face in Joshua’s blanket, taking a deep, quiet breath.
I’m such a terrible person, Joshua... But please, I just want you to live, to be healthy. Why can’t you be healthy? Joshua, why... why didn’t I find you sooner...
"Alright, stop yawning. Open your mouth."
Because Joshua had woken up late, there wasn’t enough time for him to finish breakfast—he’d barely managed two sips of milk. So Luther grabbed Joshua’s piece of bread and, as they walked, kept breaking off pieces and holding them up to Joshua’s mouth.
With a blank, lifeless expression, Joshua opened his mouth and muttered, "I told you it’s fine, I don’t need it."
"You should learn to take better care of your body, Joshua," Luther said matter-of-factly, stuffing another piece of bread into his mouth.
Everyone else in Room 202 agreed wholeheartedly with Luther’s words—except for Leonard, who didn’t really get it.
Sure, Joshua should eat breakfast, but the way they were acting made it seem like skipping one meal would be fatal to him.
Although Joshua was somewhat frail, Leonard still thought his condition wasn’t that bad.
They arrived at the company on time. Elly was already waiting outside; when she saw them, she gave a brief nod, then turned to lead the way, speaking as she walked. "First, we’ll record the song. After that, we’ll move on to filming the MV for the title track."
She led ShineOn into the recording studio, where two producers were already waiting for them. Everyone greeted them warmly.
One of the producers turned out to be Mrs. Emilia—the same advisor they’d worked with during Shining Path.
"This is the line distribution for each member," she said. "You can review it while listening to the song."
The first day of work went by smoothly, and the following days followed the same pattern—recording in the morning, dance practice in the afternoon.
And finally, the day arrived when they had to work on a different kind of content...
"Coming up with a fandom name? You’re seriously leaving that to us?" Justin said, startled.
Elly nodded. "That’s right. You can come up with three possible fandom names, and then the fans will vote on them." After pausing for a moment, she added, "Of course, all three names will have to pass the company’s approval first."
Leonard rolled his eyes. "Then why not just let the company name it from the start?"
Elly couldn’t help but mutter under her breath, "Because we need content. Your official channel is practically growing cobwebs."
Ah, right—just recently, the video of Joshua painting the other members’ nails during their trainee days had gone up.
After all, any footage featuring ShineOn members from Shining Path had already been edited for release.
Once Elly finished explaining everything, she quickly left—clearly not in the mood to endure any more of Leonard’s attitude.
Joshua murmured softly, "A fandom name... that means a name for our fans..."
Lately, Nine had been sending Joshua frequent updates—telling him that many fans were eagerly waiting to have a name, and they were also talking about something called a lightstick. But it seemed like the fandom name would be announced first.
That was, of course, assuming ShineOn could actually come up with a good one.
Suddenly, Joshua felt a light tap on his forehead. He frowned and looked up to see Leonard grinning at him. "Don’t frown. And stop overthinking it—if we can’t come up with anything, the company will just do it for us."
Luther, standing nearby, nodded but quickly smacked Leonard’s hand away. "Only I get to flick Joshua’s forehead, you idiot!"
"Who’re you calling an idiot?!" Leonard snapped back, glaring.
Joshua, caught between the two of them, pushed them apart expressionlessly with both hands.
"Can we be serious for a second?" he said firmly, then turned toward Henry and Justin. "Do you two have any ideas?"
Justin’s eyes lit up instantly. "We’re ShineOn, right? So our fans should shine too! How about... Lumin?"
Before Joshua could respond, Leonard waved a hand dismissively. "Too bland. No one uses basic names like that anymore. It has to be something layered, something with two or more meanings. It should sound simple, but the meaning should be deep—something you have to analyze!"
Justin: "..."
Joshua: "..."
It was the first time Joshua had ever heard Leonard talk so much in one go—and surprisingly, his words actually sounded... "profound".