Title: I Was Isekai'd With My Wife and Now She's the Final Boss of the Fandom Author: H. Behevras Genre: Comedy, Isekai, Music, Married Protagonist, Parody Tags: #FinalBossWife #MetalheadMC #BoybandHell #TrashIsekaiButActuallyGenius
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Chapter 41: The Ballad That Broke the Internet". Part 2 (The Music Show Backstage Chaos)
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The Royal Music Festival backstage area was a hive of controlled chaos—idols in various states of preparation, makeup artists wielding brushes like weapons, and stage managers shouting directions that nobody followed.
REQUIEM6 had claimed a corner near the catering table, partly for strategic snacking access and partly because it gave them the best view of the ongoing drama.
"She's here," Hyun-bin whispered, peering around a rack of glittery costumes.
"Where?" Taeyang tried to look casual while craning his neck. "I want to see the girl who destroyed our chart position with feelings."
"There," Minjun pointed discreetly. "In the black dress with the—oh my god, she's beautiful."
Autumn stood near her dressing room, looking like she'd stepped out of a melancholy music video.
Her 'sharp, chin-length bob hair' caught the stage lights, and even from a distance, her presence had that magnetic quality that made people stop and stare.
"No wonder she inspired a mystery ballad," Eun murmured. "She looks like she has secrets."
Raiko, who had been trying very hard to become invisible behind a speaker, made a strangled noise.
"Hyung," Jinwoo observed clinically, "you're sweating through your stage makeup."
"I'm fine," Raiko lied through gritted teeth.
"I'm just... warm.
It's warm in here.
Very warm.
Furnace-like, really."
That's when Autumn looked their way.
Her eyes swept across the group with the casual confidence of someone who owned every room she entered, until they landed on Raiko.
Her face lit up like she'd just spotted her favorite person in the world.
Which, Raiko realized with mounting horror, might actually be the case.
She walked over with the kind of purposeful stride that made strong men question their life choices.
"Well, well," she said, her voice carrying that slight huskiness that had made her ballad so devastating.
"If it isn't my favorite boyband."
The ghouls straightened up like soldiers meeting a commanding officer.
"Autumn-sunbaenim!" they chorused, bowing respectfully.
She waved them off with a laugh.
"Please, we're practically the same age. Just call me Autumn."
Then her gaze fixed on Raiko, and her smile turned into something that could only be described as dangerously playful.
"Hello, Ahjusii~ 😉"
The temperature in the room dropped seventeen degrees.
Raiko's brain shut down, rebooted, crashed, and shut down again.
The ghouls' heads swiveled between them like they were watching the world's most awkward tennis match.
"I—what—I don't—" Raiko stammered, his usual articulate aggression reduced to the verbal equivalent of a malfunctioning enchanted mirror.
"Oh my god," Hyun-bin breathed. "Oh my GOD. Hyung, do you KNOW her?"
"More than know," Autumn said with a wink that could have powered the entire venue's lighting system. "He saved my life."
The silence that followed was so complete that they could hear Taeyang's brain attempting to process this information.
"WHAT?!" he finally exploded. "BRO! WHEN?! HOW?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US YOU'RE A SECRET ROMANTIC HERO?!"
"It's not romantic!" Raiko yelped, his voice cracking like a teenager. "I just—she was—there were cigarettes involved—"
"Cigarettes?" Minjun gasped. "Hyung, you shared cigarettes? That's practically a marriage proposal in some cultures!"
"Which cultures?!" Raiko demanded. "Name one culture where cigarettes equal marriage!"
"The culture of my heart," Eun said solemnly.
Raiko grabbed Eun's ear and twisted. Eun yelped.
"Not romantic!" Raiko insisted, moving on to Taeyang's ear. "Just coincidence!"
"Hyung," Jinwoo said, dodging the ear-grabbing assault, "she wrote a song about you being her 'spring after winter.' That's textbook romantic metaphor."
Raiko lunged for Jinwoo's ear but missed as the business ghoul ducked behind a costume rack.
"She also called you her guardian angel," Hyun-bin added helpfully, immediately receiving an ear pinch for his contribution.
"And the line about you 'hearing songs she didn't sing,'" Minjun said, rubbing his already-pink ear. "That's poetry, hyung. Beautiful, romantic poetry."
Throughout this entire chaos, Autumn watched with barely contained laughter, like someone enjoying the world's most entertaining sitcom.
"You know," she said conversationally, "watching you panic is even more entertaining than I imagined."
"I'm not panicking," Raiko said, still holding Hyun-bin's ear hostage. "I'm... strategically concerned."
"About what? Me telling everyone how sweet you were that evening?"
Raiko's grip loosened in horror. "Sweet? I wasn't sweet. I was... I was practically hostile."
"You shared your cigarettes, listened to me cry for an hour, showed me your scars, and told me someone would miss me if I disappeared," Autumn listed off on her fingers. "If that's your version of hostile, I'd love to see your version of romantic."
The ghouls made collective "awwww" noises that sounded like a choir of angels discovering puppies.
Raiko released Hyun-bin's ear and buried his face in his hands. "This is a nightmare."
"This is beautiful," Taeyang corrected, wiping away a tear. "Hyung, you're like... a dark knight. A metal guardian angel. A—"
"If you say 'romantic hero' one more time, I'm gonna—"
Raiko's muffled scream of despair was drowned out by the sound of approaching high heels.
Expensive high heels.
Familiar high heels.
High heels that belonged to someone who was definitely not going to find this situation amusing.
"Raiko," came Noona's voice, crisp and clear as a winter morning and twice as dangerous, "what exactly is happening here?"
The backstage area fell so silent that they could hear the main stage performance three rooms away.
Raiko slowly lifted his head from his hands to find his wife standing behind him, arms crossed, wearing the expression of someone who'd just walked into a very interesting conversation.
"Noona," he said weakly. "I can explain."
"Can you?" she asked pleasantly. "Because what I just heard sounded like our new friend here wrote a love song about my husband's secret rescue mission."
Autumn, who had been enjoying the chaos up until this moment, suddenly looked like she'd just realized she was standing next to a sleeping dragon.
"Oh," she said in a much smaller voice. "You must be... the wife."
"I am indeed the wife," Noona confirmed, her smile sharp enough to cut glass. "And you must be the girl who's been calling my husband 'ahjusii' in a way that suggests you find him... charming."
The ghouls slowly backed away from ground zero, forming a protective circle around the catering table.
"I—" Autumn started, then seemed to realize that any explanation would only make things worse. "I should probably—"
"Stay right there," Noona said sweetly. "I'm very interested in hearing about these romantic words my husband apparently whispered to you on a moonlit cliff."
"THERE WERE NO ROMANTIC WORDS!" Raiko exploded, shooting to his feet. "I barely talked! I mostly just listened! And it wasn't moonlit, it was like... Red dusk! Maybe! I don't remember! It was almost dark!"
"Mmm," Noona hummed, studying Autumn with the intensity of a scientist examining a particularly interesting specimen. "And you felt inspired enough by this non-romantic, barely-talking encounter to write a ballad about finding your 'spring' in his presence?"
Autumn, who had clearly decided that honesty was her only survival strategy, nodded mutely.
"Interesting," Noona mused. "And now you're here, calling him pet names and making the ghouls think he's some kind of mysterious romantic hero."
"It's not like that," Autumn said quickly. "I mean, yes, he saved my life, and yes, I wrote a song about it, but I'm not—I wouldn't—I respect your marriage completely!"
She paused, then added in a rush: "Also, your skincare routine is clearly superior to mine and I have tremendous admiration for your fashion sense and general aura of terrifying competence!"
Noona blinked.
The ghouls held their breath.
Raiko prepared for his funeral.
Then, slowly, Noona's expression shifted.
"You know," she said thoughtfully, "I do have excellent skincare habits."
"The best," Autumn agreed fervently. "I've never seen skin that flawless. What's your secret?"
"Hatred," Noona said matter-of-factly. "I moisturize with the tears of my enemies."
Autumn's eyes lit up. "That's... actually brilliant. The salt content would be excellent for exfoliation."
"Exactly!" Noona looked pleased. "Finally, someone who understands the scientific approach to beauty."
Raiko watched this exchange with the dawning horror of someone realizing that his wife was about to adopt another chaotic person into their lives.
"Also," Autumn continued, clearly sensing an opening, "your husband's advice about not trying to please everyone literally saved my life. You married a very wise man."
"I married an idiot," Noona corrected, but her tone was fond. "But he's my idiot, and apparently he's your guardian angel, so I suppose I can share."
"Share?!" Raiko squeaked.
"Not like that," Noona said, shooting him a look that promised they'd discuss this later. "I mean share his inexplicable talent for finding broken people and accidentally fixing them."
She turned back to Autumn. "But just so we're clear—the teasing stops now. He's married, you're grateful, and that's where this story ends."
"Understood completely," Autumn said, nodding seriously. Then, with a return of her earlier mischief, "But I can still call him ahjusii, right? It's technically respectful."
Noona considered this. "As long as you do it in a way that doesn't make him sweat through his stage makeup."
"Deal," Autumn grinned.
Raiko looked between them with growing alarm. "Are you two... bonding? Over my suffering?"
"Yes," they said in unison.
From the catering table, Jinwoo muttered, "I'm already designing the merch for this friendship."
Raiko sank into a nearby chair and accepted his fate.
Somehow, his good deed had resulted in his wife gaining a new protégé and him gaining a permanent source of public embarrassment.
"At least," he muttered to himself, "it can't get any worse."
The universe, as always, took this as a challenge.
Over the venue's sound system, the announcer's voice boomed:
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our next performer—Autumn, with her chart-topping hit 'Thank You... Ahjusii'!"
The backstage area erupted in applause.
Autumn winked at Raiko one more time before gliding toward the stage entrance.
"Wish me luck, Ahjusii~ 😉"
And as she disappeared into the lights and music, Raiko realized that his anonymous good deed had just become the most public, most musical, most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to him.
Which, considering his track record, was really saying something.
"I'm never helping anyone ever again," he declared.
"Yes, you will," Noona said, patting his shoulder. "It's your tragic flaw."
From the stage, Autumn's voice floated back to them, clear and beautiful and utterly devastating:
"When I first saw you standing there, in a world that didn't care..."
Raiko buried his face in his hands again.
This was going to be a very long night.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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Author Note
Ah, yes. Welcome to backstage hell.
Somewhere between snacks, costume racks, and stage lights that could double as small suns, our hero discovers that saving a life can have… unintended side effects. Namely: public embarrassment, awkwardly intense fan interactions, and your wife deciding she wants to mentor the person you accidentally inspired with your heroic presence.
Raiko's definition of "good deed" is rapidly evolving into "personal humiliation." And yet… it's kind of beautiful chaos.
Next up: the performance itself. Where charts, hearts, and dignity all collide under one spotlight.
— H. Behevras
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© 2025 H. Behevras | First published on Royal Road
Do not repost without permission.
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