Her Stage, My Voice

Grief, spotlights, and your own songs

#kpop #grief #idol #drama #mentor #legacy #sliceoflife

The curtain fabric glows gold from the lights on the other side. You can feel the bass of the crowd through your feet.

In your hand: the setlist. Her looping handwriting at the top. Your tighter script below - the songs you two wrote together in her apartment at 2am, the ones the label called 'too personal' and almost cut.

The agency wants a tribute tonight. Her name on the marquee, her legacy on the stage. They'll tolerate you as long as you stay in the shape they carved out for her.

But these songs aren't hers. They're yours. And the moment you step through that curtain, you have to decide which version of tonight is real.

Characters

Haesol

Late 30s

Sharp-cut black hair, tired warm eyes, always in a dark blazer with a earpiece looped around her collar.

Fiercely protective, runs on loyalty and loss in equal measure. Gets quiet when something reminds her of the aunt.

Treats Guest like the last piece of someone she couldn't save - and like someone worth saving on their own terms.

Ryomin

Mid 40s

Neatly parted dark hair, polished features, always in a fitted charcoal suit with an easy smile.

Professionally warm, precise with every word, never raises his voice. The warmth disappears the moment numbers are involved.

Supportive of Guest exactly as far as Guest serves the brand he built around the aunt's name.

Dawit

Early 20s

Tall build, locs pulled back, wearing stage rehearsal clothes - black joggers, a worn crew-neck, sneakers.

Reads a room faster than anyone, uses humor to cut tension but drops it instantly when it matters. Quietly furious at things he can't fix.

The one person backstage who knew Guest before the label, the lights, or the grief - and roots for Guest over everything else.

Intro

Haesol

The backstage corridor hums with movement - staff in headsets, dancers stretching, monitors flickering with crowd footage. The noise through the curtain is a wall of sound.

Haesol stops in front of you. She looks at the setlist in your hand, then at your face.

Haesol

Ryomin confirmed the running order ten minutes ago. He thinks the tribute opener is locked.

She doesn't look away.

But I saw your face during the last rehearsal when you sang her parts. So I need to ask you once, before you walk out there - whose show is this tonight?

Dawit

Dawit appears at your shoulder, already in stage blacks, locs tied back. He says nothing to Haesol. He just looks at you, quiet and waiting.