Epilogue Chapter 12 - A Dance with a Dragon (2)

“In other words...”

From what Oh Kang-Woo heard from Echidna, she was supposed to have a joint performance with an idol in the same agency in Australia but that idol was attacked by monsters that came out of a small Gate on her way home. She was not badly hurt thanks to Echidna’s quick actions but was unable to leave her room due to mental trauma.

“You’ve got a no-show, right?” Kang-Woo asked.

“No-show...?”

“Oh, it means you’re short one person.”

“Hm! Yeah! The performance is tomorrow but we’re short one person!”

Kang-Woo could understand why Echidna was so anxious— the performance was tomorrow but a performer was out of commission all of a sudden. Echidna had started the idol gig half-jokingly because she was so obsessed with Japanese idol animes but had grown extremely attached to it.

“Yeah, I more or less get what’s going on,” said Kang-Woo as he grabbed his forehead as if his head hurt. He continued, “But why does that lead to you wanting me to become an idol?”

“Well... Y-You can freely change your appearance, right? So... could you perform in Ahri’s place?”

“What...?”

“Oh, Ahri is the girl attacked by monsters last night! She’s super pretty, cute, and adorab—”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”

‘You want me to sub for an idol?’

“Y-You don’t have to sing! You can just lip-sync it! You just have to go with the flow and dance!”

“...”

‘Even if I can freely change my appearance, she wants me to dress up like a girl and perform on a live stage?’

Kang-Woo had cross-dressed once before but cross-dressing as an idol and dancing on a live stage was a completely different story.

‘Fuck.’

Chills ran down his back just from thinking about it.

He shook his head and continued, “If you can just lip-sync it, why don’t you guys just perform with just one person unaccounted for?”

No one would criticize the idol when she couldn’t perform because of shock from being attacked by monsters.

‘Monsters aren’t something you take lightly.’

Echidna was used to monsters since she had been through countless battlefields alongside Kang-Woo. However, monster attacks would traumatize ordinary people for life.

“Uhh... th-the thing is...” Echidna darted her eyes as if she were thinking of something to say. She snapped her fingers and continued, “A-Ahri has to pay a huge~ breach of contract fee if she can’t perform on stage!”

“Breach of contract?”

Even Kang-Woo knew that one needed to pay a massive penalty if they did not attend a performance with tens of thousands of people coming to it.

“Even so, she has to pay a penalty even if it was because of an unfortunate accident?”

“Y-Yeah! Apparently!”

“What the hell’s up with that stupid contract?”

Kang-Woo didn’t know about their circumstances since he wasn’t part of the industry but trying to make a victim of a monster attack pay for a breach of contract was too harsh.

‘Even Satan would rise from the dead to clap at the impressive evil This is the problem with boomers.’

“Well, okay. I understand.”

“Th-Then...!”

“But still, no.”

It was none of Kang-Woo’s business whether or not a stranger idol needed to pay for a break of contract. However, one could argue that it was somewhat his business since the girl might be close to Echidna.

“Why don’t I just pay in her stead?”

The penalty fee for a breach of contract for a performance that tens of thousands of people were attending was likely astronomical but Kang-Woo was swimming in money. He would rather resolve the matter with money than cross-dress and dance in front of countless people.

“N-No! You can’t, Kang-Woo!” Echidna hurriedly shook her head. “Money isn’t the issue! It’s the fact that she broke the contract!”

“Hmm. You have a point there.”

“Please, Kang-Woo! Perform on stage just this one time!”

“Can’t you... ask anyone else?”

“This is something only you can do.”

Kang-Woo couldn’t understand why only he, who did not even know any idol songs or the names of idols for that matter, was fit for the job.

‘Okay, let’s go through the conditions again. Firstly, they need to have a shapeshifting ability. Second, they need to be somewhat acquainted with Echidna. Thirdly, they need to have the ability to learn the choreography by tomorrow’s performance... Wait a second. Am I seriously the only one?’

He tried his best to think of other candidates but only Kang-Woo fit those three conditions.

“Could you... show me the dance you’ll be doing on stage?”

“Hm! Just a sec!” Echidna snorted and pulled out an iPad from her bag.

Music played from the speakers soon after.

- That emotion melts all hearts, all eyes on you~ Cause you are perfect, the most ultimate idol!

[1]

The song and dance fit Echidna perfectly— the fluttering of an excessively frilly dress, making hearts with one’s hands and winking as they blew a kiss forward. A choreography that was so cute it was almost cringy played on the iPad screen.

“Y-You want me to do this?”

Kang-Woo felt nauseous as he imagined himself performing the choreography. He would look like someone else but he would know that it was him doing the motions.

“No! Never!”

“Don’t worry! You can do it!”

“It’s not a matter of whether I can!”

Kang-Woo fervently refused, making Echidna teary-eyed. She carefully pulled on his clothes and hugged Kang-Woo.

“Ngh.” Kang-Woo wavered as he stared at the weeping Echidna. “E-Even if you make that face...”

“Kang-Woo... you really can’t?”

“Anything but this...”

“Are you... sure you can’t?” Tears trickled down Echidna’s cheeks as she looked up at Kang-Woo.

She continued sorrowfully, “Kang-Woo... do you remember... back when we first met?”

“Well...”

He remembered— how could he forget? Echidna was rejected by others simply for being a demonic dragon and was hunted down for something she didn’t do. All she could do was wait in her large lair for her father who would never come back, devoured by unbearable solitude.

“Back when I could only read in that lair by myself... I could never have imagined that I would be loved by so many people.”

“...”

“I thought everyone would hate and fear me for being a demonic dragon.”

Echidna smiled faintly and cautiously grabbed Kang-Woo’s hands.

“But everything changed... after I met you.”

Echidna realized the joy of being loved by someone. She realized the happiness that came from the fact that someone treasured her. She realized that she was not alone in this large world.

“After meeting Kang-Woo, Seol-Ah, Yeon-Joo, Lilith... Balrog, Uncle Tae-Soo, Si-Hun oppa, and...” Echidna named everyone she had grown close to. “I realized that... I wanted to change.”

This was why she had suddenly decided to become an idol. She wanted to tell her past self that she had changed proudly.

“Echidna...”

Kang-Woo patted the weeping Echidna’s head. She tried her best to smile brightly despite crying. Her smile was full of happiness, unimaginable from her back when she was summoned to Earth, covered in wounds.

“I’ve gained so many people who love me after I became an idol.”

“...”

“I... want to make this performance a success no matter what. I want to show my precious fans who come to see me... the best performance ever.”

“I...” Kang-Woo sighed deeply.

‘Dammit.’

He couldn’t bring himself to refuse when Echidna was begging him so desperately. He pulled on his hair as he twisted and turned.

He finally made up his mind and remarked, “Alright, fine. I’ll do it. Happy?”

“R-Really?”

Echidna approached Kang-Woo, her eyes sparkling.

“But I have a condition.”

“Condition?”

“Don’t tell anyone that I’m disguising myself as that... Ahri, was it?”

Kang-Hyun had been with Kang-Woo when Echidna arrived to meet him but as the quick-witted child he was, Kang-Hyun took the elevator up to go home on his own. Hence, only Kang-Woo and Echidna knew about this.

‘If my wives ever find out about this...’

There would be chaos.

‘It’d be a problem in and of itself if Yeon-Joo and Lilith were to find out, but... the biggest issue is Darling.’

Seol-Ah had begged him back when Echidna had just started getting popular in the idol industry, to dance in an idol costume. Of course, he refused on the spot.

‘Her eyes back then were... dangerous.’

She had peculiar tastes— she loved it when she put dog ears and a tail on him and even tried to make him suck on a pacifier.

‘If Darling ever finds out I cross-dressed and danced on stage...’

An entire room would be dedicated to pictures of him on that stage. No, she might even get her hands on the costume he wore somehow and make him wear it in bed.

‘It’s more than possible... for Darling.’

Kang-Woo loved Seol-Ah to death but her twisted fetishes were difficult to accept sometimes.

‘In any case, I can’t let Darling find out.’

He would rather have Yeon-Joo find out than Seol-Ah. She would tease him to no end at first but Kang-Woo also had many ammunition to use against her.

‘I can’t ever let the kids find out either.’

Kang-Woo had his pride as a father. He might force the Demonic Sea to go berserk and kill himself if his children ever found out he had dressed up as an idol and subjected himself to the cringingly cute choreography.

“Hm! I won’t tell a soul!”

“Huuu... Okay.”

With that, the king of demons who had devoured the seven princes of Hell and stood at the pinnacle of Hell had turned into a cross-dressing idol in the span of a single spring day.

1. This is the beginning of the chorus for the song

Idol

by YOASOBI. ☜