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 42: The Ballad That Broke the Internet". Part 3 (The Performance & Industry Impact)
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The Royal Music Festival's main stage had hosted legends, royalty, and the occasional magical disaster, but it had never hosted someone singing a love letter to an anonymous cigarette-sharing cliff conversation.
Until tonight.
Autumn stood center stage in a simple black dress that somehow managed to look both elegant and heartbroken.
A single spotlight picked out the silver tears embroidered along the hem—a detail that would later inspire three fashion trends and seventeen copycat outfits.
The opening piano notes of "Thank You... Ahjusii" drifted across the venue like a gentle confession.
In the VIP section, music industry executives who'd spent their careers manufacturing emotions suddenly found themselves experiencing actual feelings.
Several had to excuse themselves to "take important calls" that definitely weren't crying sessions in the bathroom.
Backstage, REQUIEM6 watched through a monitor with the rapt attention of people witnessing history.
"She's incredible," Minjun whispered, wiping his eyes. "Look how she's holding the audience."
The camera panned across the crowd—thousands of people swaying in perfect unison, enchanted mirrors held high like digital candles, many openly weeping.
"When I first saw you standing there, in a world that didn't care..."
Raiko felt his throat tighten.
Hearing his own intervention transformed into poetry was surreal and deeply uncomfortable, like watching his diary being performed by a professional storyteller.
"You looked so strange with your heavy stare, but your silence said, 'I'm here.'"
"That's you, hyung," Eun said softly. "She's singing about you looking strange."
"Thanks for the reminder," Raiko muttered, but his eyes never left the screen.
Noona appeared beside him, having finished her "strategic conversation" with Autumn's management team about "proper professional boundaries" and "the importance of not accidentally starting fan wars."
"She's good," Noona admitted grudgingly. "Really good."
"She reminds me of someone," Raiko said quietly.
Noona's expression softened. "Yeah. She does."
They both knew who he meant, though neither said the name aloud. Some memories were too precious for casual conversation.
On stage, Autumn reached the chorus, and her voice soared with the kind of raw emotion that made hardened critics reach for their handkerchiefs:
"Thank you... Ahjusii, for hearing songs I didn't sing. For guarding dreams with broken wings. You weren't a fan, you were my spring... when all I knew was winter."
The audience erupted in applause that felt more like worship than appreciation.
"Holy shit," Taeyang breathed. "She just made helping someone sound like the most romantic thing in the world."
"It wasn't romantic," Raiko said automatically, but his protest lacked its usual conviction.
"Hyung," Hyun-bin said gently, "you literally saved someone's life and then told them someone would miss them if they were gone. In what universe is that not romantic?"
"The universe where I'm married to someone who could kill me with a nail file," Raiko replied.
"Fair point," Jinwoo acknowledged.
On screen, Autumn had reached the bridge, and the emotion in her voice was so raw it felt invasive to watch:
"I don't know if I said enough, before I took my final bow. But if this song could reach your heart... then maybe I'm still here... somehow."
The venue fell completely silent except for the soft accompaniment. Even the technical crew had stopped moving.
"She's talking about suicide," Minjun realized, his voice barely a whisper.
"Yeah," Raiko said quietly. "She was going to jump."
The weight of that statement settled over them like a blanket made of lead.
"And you stopped her," Eun said. "Just by... talking to her?"
"Just by listening," Raiko corrected. "Anyone could have done it."
"But they didn't," Noona said firmly. "You did."
On stage, Autumn reached the final chorus, and her voice broke on the words in a way that suggested this wasn't entirely performance—some wounds were too fresh to fake:
"Thank you... Ahjusii, for clapping when I nearly fell. For never asking me to sell the little joy I had left to tell... You kept it safe and simple."
The crowd was on its feet now, but their applause felt reverent rather than celebratory.
As the song ended, Autumn stood in the spotlight for a long moment, tears streaming down her face, before bowing deeply to the audience.
The ovation went on for nearly five minutes.
Backstage, several idols from other groups had gathered around the monitor, many wiping their eyes.
"Who is she singing about?" asked Tiffany, a member of Crystal Dreams. "I mean, I know it says 'Ahjusii' but... who is he really?"
The REQUIEM6 members exchanged glances.
"Someone special," Minjun said diplomatically.
"He must be," said Marcus from Eclipse Boys. "I've never heard anyone sing about being saved like that."
"Maybe that's what we need more of," suggested Bella from StarGaze. "Songs about real help instead of fake love."
"Songs about people who actually give a damn," agreed Tyler from Thunder Force.
Raiko watched these conversations with growing alarm. His anonymous good deed was accidentally starting a musical revolution.
"Oh no," he muttered.
"What?" Noona looked concerned.
"They're going to want more songs like this. Songs about... helping people. Being decent. Actually caring about each other."
"And that's bad because...?"
"Because I'm the only one stupid enough to randomly save strangers on cliffs! What happens when they all start looking for their own mysterious ahjusii to write ballads about?"
Jinwoo looked up from his enchanted mirror, where he'd been monitoring social media. "Actually, hyung, that might already be happening."
He turned his screen toward them. The trending topics were a mixture of heartwarming and terrifying:
#ThankYouAhjusii - 2.3 million posts
#WhoIsAhjusii - 1.8 million posts
#BelikeAhjusii - 1.2 million posts
#AhjusiiChallenge - 900K posts
#RandomKindness - 750K posts
"What's the Ahjusii Challenge?" Raiko asked with the tone of someone who really didn't want to know.
"People are trying to randomly help strangers and then post about it anonymously," Jinwoo explained. "It's actually... kind of beautiful? But also completely chaotic."
He scrolled through examples:
"Anonymous person paid for an entire coffee shop's orders in Autumn's honor."
"Someone left encouraging notes in every library book at Tealandia University, signed 'From Your Ahjusii.'"
"Group of teenagers spent their weekend visiting elderly homes, calling themselves 'The Ahjusii Squad.'"
"Mysterious donor gave a year's worth of groceries to a struggling family, with a note saying 'Someone would miss you if you were gone.'"
Raiko stared at the screen. "They're... using my words."
"Your words are helping people," Noona pointed out.
"My words are creating a social movement based on a conversation I had with a suicidal stranger while sharing cigarettes on a cliff," Raiko said faintly. "This is insane."
"This is beautiful," Eun corrected. "Hyung, you accidentally taught an entire kingdom how to care about each other."
From the main stage, they could hear the announcer calling for REQUIEM6 to prepare for their performance.
"Speaking of which," Hyun-bin said, "how are we supposed to follow that? She just performed the most emotionally devastating song in the kingdom's history."
"Same way we always do," Raiko said, standing up and straightening his jacket. "With controlled chaos and the power of friendship."
"And eyeliner," Taeyang added helpfully.
"And eyeliner," Raiko agreed.
As they walked toward the stage entrance, Autumn appeared, having just finished her post-performance interviews.
"Ahjusii!" she called out, her face still flushed from the emotional high of performance. "Did you watch?"
"Unfortunately," Raiko replied, but there was no real irritation in his voice.
"What did you think?" she asked, and for a moment she looked less like a confident performer and more like the scared girl he'd met on the cliff.
Raiko considered his answer carefully.
"I think," he said finally, "you turned a very simple conversation into something that's going to help a lot of people."
"Good," she said, smiling that radiant smile that had probably launched a thousand fan accounts. "That's what you taught me to do."
"I didn't teach you anything," Raiko protested. "I just... listened."
"Same thing," Autumn said, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek quickly. "Break a leg out there, Ahjusii."
She disappeared into the crowd before anyone could react.
Raiko touched his cheek, where a perfect lipstick print now decorated his stage makeup.
"She kissed you," Eun observed.
"On the cheek," Raiko said quickly.
"In front of everyone," Minjun added.
"Platonically," Raiko insisted.
"While calling you by a pet name," Hyun-bin noted.
"It's not a pet name! It's a respectful title!"
"That she made sound flirtatious," Jinwoo concluded.
Raiko looked around desperately for support and found only Noona, who was watching him with an expression of amused resignation.
"Noona," he pleaded. "Tell them it wasn't—"
"It was sweet," she said simply. "Annoying, but sweet."
"See?" Raiko said triumphantly. "Noona understands that—wait, what?"
But there was no time for further discussion.
The stage manager was gesturing frantically for them to take their positions.
As they walked into the lights and the roar of the crowd, Raiko realized that his life had just gotten exponentially more complicated.
He'd gone from anonymous metalhead to accidental idol to unwitting inspiration for kingdom-wide kindness movement.
And somehow, he was okay with that.
Even if it meant spending the rest of his career explaining that no, he wasn't romantically involved with every person he'd ever helped, and yes, sharing cigarettes with someone having a mental health crisis was just basic human decency, not courtship.
The crowd cheered as REQUIEM6 took the stage, but Raiko could swear he heard a few people shouting "Thank you, Ahjusii!" mixed in with the usual fan chants.
He was never going to live this down.
And honestly? He was starting to think that might not be such a bad thing.
As the opening notes of their song began, Raiko caught sight of Autumn in the wings, watching with pride and mischief in equal measure.
She mouthed "Ahjusii~ 😉" one more time.
Raiko rolled his eyes, stepped up to his microphone, and screamed his heart out.
Some things, at least, never changed.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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Author Note
I'm not even deep in the idol scene. I just saw one MV, fell in love with one girl, and never recovered.
I didn't even recognize her in the next video. That's how this started.
So no, this isn't a takedown of the entire idol industry.
It's just one guy's emotional overreaction turned into a webnovel arc.
And somehow Autumn is now the avatar of vengeance. Oops.
— H. Behevras
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© 2025 H. Behevras | First published on Royal Road
Do not repost without permission.
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