The Past Is Calling, the show featuring Park Moondae and Seon Ahyeon, was filmed with around five or six cast members together.
And naturally, for stable progression, there was a regular cast member who served as a kind of MC.
‘Ah, I can already see exactly where this is going.’
That was what the veteran variety-show MC thought after checking today’s guests.
‘A massively popular idol and an idol from a prestigious university? No way they pass up that material. They’ll definitely compare them, even if they keep it subtle.’
After hosting more than twenty episodes, he could already picture how the editing would be structured.
Of course, if they compared them too blatantly, they would receive an enormous amount of backlash from the fans of that massively popular idol group, TeSTAR.
And this was, after all, an educational program, so they probably wouldn’t make it too blatant in the first place.
Somehow or another, they would save a few scenes where the TeSTAR member did well, and if that really didn’t work, they would at least edit him to look cute.
‘Man~ But a Hanguk University student versus a middle-school graduate? That’s going to be rough.’
The MC chuckled to himself, thinking the production staff would have their work cut out for them if they wanted to edit the episode into something warm and pleasant.
Then the signal came.
“Ah, they’re coming, they’re coming!”
He shouted toward the camera, then quickly took up his position in a corner of the set.
“When can we take these off?”
“Where are we?”
Six cast members, their entire faces covered with cloth hoods, waddled along according to the staff’s directions.
The MC gave the camera a thumbs-up, got into character, and shouted.
“What manner of garments are those?”
“Waaagh!”
“You scared me!”
“Remove those bizarre things at once!”
“Uh…….”
Amid the confusion, the cast members fumbled around and pulled off their hoods.
Then they looked around in surprise.
“Uh, where are we??”
“Looks like a hanok…?”
“Seems like Joseon, at least.”
The cast members clustered around the people they were actually close with—or wanted to look close with—and whispered among themselves.
The MC focused on today’s person of interest: Park Moondae, who listened to Seon Ahyeon whispering beside him without showing much agitation.
‘He’s calm~’
Black hair, good-looking, composed expression.
The MC absentmindedly had the prejudiced thought that the guy certainly didn’t look uneducated.
‘Idols these days really are good-looking.’
He inwardly nodded as he looked at the blond Seon Ahyeon, then hurried to deliver his line before the confused cast started talking to him and creating extra comedy footage.
“There shall be a great event today, so attire yourselves properly and attend without delay! Then I shall take my leave.”
Mixing modern speech into the historical style, the MC clasped his hands behind his back and quietly escaped through the papered door.
“Wait, where are you going??”
“Hyungnim! Hyungnim!”
“Wow, this show really gives us nothing.”
The door closed firmly behind the bewildered cast.
“Ah~ Another big catch today!”
The MC smoothly tossed out his comment, grinning as he headed toward the monitoring room.
Watching the guests’ awkward antics or successes from there, reacting to them and adding commentary—that was the MC’s actual job.
‘Let’s see~ They’ll probably spend about twenty minutes wandering around cluelessly and talking nonsense so we can get some footage.’
Predicting the usual pattern, the MC dropped into the chair in front of the monitor.
And saw an exception.
[I thought about what the official who looked like the MC said. I think our objective has three steps: find out what the event is, get properly dressed, and attend without being late.]
[Right, right.]
[Maybe because he came from a survival show, Moondae really is~ calm.]
[Then first, we need to get out of this room… It looks like an escape room. There’s a lock beside this door.]
[Oh? You’re right!]
Park Moondae had instantly pushed things forward.
“Wow~ Fast, he’s fast!”
The MC clapped and exclaimed in accordance with his role, but he was flustered inside.
‘What’s with that kid?’
He wasn’t giving the others any time to fool around and search the room.
It was straight to business.
What came next was even more surprising.
[All right, all right. I’ll read it. Listen, everyone.]
A veteran comedian pulled a piece of hanji from a small box attached beside the door and read their first question aloud.
[Ahem. “The six successful candidates are to be assigned to the Hall of Worthies. They are Eul, Gap, Byeong, Mu, Gi, and Jeong. The conditions are as follows.” ……What the heck is this!]
Underneath followed several lines of conflicting conditional statements, beginning with, “If Eul and Gap are assigned to the Hall of Worthies together, then Byeong is also assigned to the Hall of Worthies.”
It was a fairly complex example of the sort actually used in formal logic.
The educational-history variety show was already bombarding them.
“Uahahaha! Ah~ Look at their faces!”
And just as the MC started enjoying the sight of the cast recoiling in horror—
[“Gap” and “Gi” work in the Hall of Worthies.]
[……??]
[R-Really?]
[Yes. And if you put them back in order… it’s Gap, Eul, Byeong, Jeong, Mu, Gi.]
Park Moondae pressed the first and sixth sections of the six-stage wooden locking device at the same time.
The lock released.
[Oooooh??]
[What? What!]
“What??”
It hadn’t even taken three seconds to reach the answer.
The MC stared at the monitor with his mouth open.
He nearly asked the production staff sitting in front of him, Wasn’t that kid from a prestigious university?
“Can you actually solve that just by hearing it once?”
The staff shook their heads and made X signs from various places around the room.
The MC burst out laughing in disbelief.
And screamed internally.
‘You said he only graduated middle school!’
Even the guy on the monitor who was supposedly from Hanguk University was only clapping.
Meaning he couldn’t produce that kind of speed either.
And the same sort of thing happened several more times.
[How about we look around this room for anything else before we leave?]
[That’s a very good idea~]
[Th-This…!]
After searching the room once and discovering a hidden box and another problem, Seon Ahyeon handed the role of reading the choices to the prestigious-university student.
[Then I’ll read it! “The method of hunting birds is to shoot an arrow, and the method of hunting land beasts is to throw a spear. Sea beasts and earth beasts…….”]
It was a logic problem that required some intuition because a little nonsense had been mixed into it.
This time too, Park Moondae opened his mouth the moment he finished hearing the question.
[Hmm. Bird three times, land beast once, sea beast twice, bird once… I think. And if you think of the beasts as the Four Symbols… couldn’t you convert them into the corresponding east, west, south, and north directions?]
[Four Symbols? You mean things like the Azure Dragon?]
[Ahh! I get it! The bird is the Vermilion Bird! Like that?]
[Yes. Something like that.]
Once the excited cast caught on, they solved the lock—which could be pulled up, down, left, and right—in an instant.
[Waaaah!!]
[Hey, Moondae, your brain just keeps spinning and spinning! That’s insane!]
[Thank you.]
“Uh? Isn’t that not supposed to happen??”
On the monitor, Park Moondae bowed as the cast showered him with praise and pats, while the production staff started murmuring at the MC’s words.
“They were supposed to make a full circuit before they could solve that…….”
Meaning he had solved it through nothing but his own intuition and logic, without the feng shui clue or the location clue.
At the PD’s explanation, the MC deliberately threw a fit.
“Hey~ If you cast someone that smart, you should’ve massively increased the difficulty and shown him the bitter taste of educational programming!”
The camera caught the PD slumping in defeat.
The attempt at comedy worked perfectly well, but inwardly, the MC was impressed.
‘Wow~ I guess natural brains really matter more for things like this!’
He was half right and half wrong.
Because Park Moondae on the monitor was actually feeling a little awkward.
‘Hmm. They copied old LEET and PSAT questions.’
He had thought they looked familiar while watching past episodes as preparation.
They had only changed some of the words and added a few stages.
Otherwise, they were the same.
‘Once I’ve solved something before, it stays in my head one way or another.’
That was why he was so much faster.
And even without that, the situation was inevitably advantageous for Park Moondae.
‘If you know formal-logic notation, you can reduce the whole thing to one line.’
For Park Moondae, who had taken an upper-level logic course in his final semester to prepare for the PSAT and had earned a reasonably good grade, it was almost embarrassing.
‘It’d be unfair to compare me to someone who took a leave of absence before even finishing freshman year.’
Park Moondae gave the Hanguk University student a slightly pitying look, then quickly realized he had enough problems of his own.
‘Anyway, things are going smoothly.’
While Park Moondae felt reasonably satisfied, the people around him were busy checking what was inside the box.
[What’s inside??]
The object wrapped in silk was…
a book that looked freshly made.
Both its cover and its pages were filled with Classical Chinese characters.
[Ooh, hmm…?]
[No idea. This is nothing but Chinese characters.]
[You’re right.]
[Just in case… should we take it with us?]
[Yeah, yeah. Then Ahyeon can carry it… Shall we head outside now?]
[Yes!]
At that moment, Park Moondae spoke to Ahyeon.
[Can I look at that for a second?]
[Y-Yeah!]
Park Moondae quickly flipped through the book he was handed, then gave a short laugh.
[…?]
[Ah, thanks.]
[All right, everyone. Let’s open the door together!]
[Yes!]
Seon Ahyeon tucked the book back against his chest, and after the cast crowded around the door and counted down, they flung it open.
[Three, two, one—open!]
[…!?]
[…!!]
And froze.
Beyond the door…
was a corridor bustling with palace attendants going back and forth.
[Oh my God, I think this is a palace.]
[They’re all dressed like people I’ve seen in historical dramas…!]
They were finally moving into the next stage.
“Ah~ Now this is going to get fun~”
Just as the MC watching the monitor predicted, the proper skit began.
[A group dressed in bizarre clothing…!]
[Aaagh!]
After leaving the room, the cast was scolded by palace attendants and began scrambling around the enormous enclosed palace, hiding as they went.
[Wow, this is crazy.]
[Shh! Let’s move quietly.]
[Ah, th-this door is open…!]
[Good job, Ahyeon!]
After finding an unlocked door, they discovered clothes inside the room’s wardrobe.
[Oh~ Are these official robes?]
[They look cool.]
They weren’t.
[Are those not the cheonggeum danryeong worn at Sungkyunkwan? I heard you had only just passed the state examination after studying at Sungkyunkwan.]
[This program seriously stakes its life on backstory.]
[Pardon?]
[Ah, it is nothing~]
Through the skit with the palace attendants, the cast realized the clothes they were wearing were essentially a type of school uniform worn by Sungkyunkwan scholars.
Then an official claiming to have been their teacher at Sungkyunkwan informed them that the event they had to attend was a royal one.
[You must hurry into the royal presence!]
[Royal presence?]
[The king. We were supposed to go see the king!]
[Whoa, seriously! That’s it!]
[However, before that… is there not something you must do? Ahem.]
[What…?]
As a form of soksurye, the custom of presenting an offering to one’s teacher in place of tuition at Sungkyunkwan, they procured some small food items, and only then managed to obtain real official robes and move on to the next stage.
“Park Moondae can cook too, huh.”
Watching the monitor while drinking the product-placement beverage, the MC spoke in a tone of complete surrender.
Groans rose from the production staff in various places.
The cast’s progress today was absurdly fast.
If you looked only at the puzzle-solving portions, there was almost enough speed to worry about whether they would have sufficient footage.
Of course, it was entirely Park Moondae’s fault.
But that wasn’t even the most ridiculous part.
Because as quickly as he solved the problems, he was also faithfully participating in the situational comedy so there would be something to fill the time.
[What game did you most enjoy at Sungkyunkwan?]
[What game was it?]
[M-Moondae…?]
It was fairly cute watching Seon Ahyeon panic at Park Moondae’s avoidance, yet still answer earnestly.
‘That guy even makes sure the younger members get their comedy footage.’
Mistakenly assuming Seon Ahyeon was younger, the MC felt both warmth and exasperation as he watched Park Moondae give the skit opportunities to Seon Ahyeon and Golden Age’s main vocalist, sometimes subtly urging them forward.
‘He didn’t win that audition for nothing~’
Anyone could tell the guy was frighteningly quick on the uptake.
[Hmm… What do you think?]
[Uh, hmm. One moment, please. I’ll calculate it!]
For some of the quizzes, he even stepped back to give the prestigious-university student a chance.
But it didn’t have the same impact as Park Moondae’s rapid, accurate answers.
‘Man, wonder how they’re going to edit this~’
The MC clicked his tongue subtly.
Then realized something.
‘Wait, the whole situation has completely flipped, hasn’t it…?’
The production staff had originally expected the prestigious-university student to perform well on the quizzes and planned to secure TeSTAR some warm, cute footage.
Instead, it had become the exact opposite.
And the prestigious-university student belonged to a group even the MC only vaguely recognized by name, so now there was no reason for the production staff to go out of their way to protect his footage.
On top of that, TeSTAR’s other member, Seon Ahyeon, had such an exceptional face and such elegant reactions that he looked far more like a genuine scholar.
‘Wow. Scary. That’s scary.’
The MC clicked his tongue in amazement.
Park Moondae was clearly giving his junior, the prestigious-university student, chances.
But the other guy simply couldn’t make use of them.
Meanwhile, the cast on the monitor continued racing through the story until they reached the final gate.
Except the gate was already open.
[There is something you must urgently deliver… H-Huh? You already brought it…?!]
[Yes…?]
The object the person introducing himself as an official of the Hall of Worthies had been about to demand that they find…
was the very book they had immediately discovered in the first room.
[No way!]
[Moondae! Thank yooou!!]
[We all solved it togeth—ugh, thank you.]
Park Moondae endured another shower of pats from the cast.
[Could this be the shortest time ever?]
[We’re finishing the shoot while the sun’s still up!! Yay!]
The cast moved forward in high spirits and finally reached the royal audience hall.
And then the hidden quiz revealed itself.
[For what purpose have you come before His Majesty?]
[We were supposed to know that too…?]
[Uuugh…! Everyone, retreat!]
As the cast’s pupils trembled and they began planning a tactical withdrawal—
[I-I’ve been thinking about it.]
Park Moondae whispered to them.
“You again!”
While the MC happily shouted, everyone in the monitoring room waited eagerly for Park Moondae’s next words.
[I think the current king may be… King Sejong.]
[…!]
[Why? Why??]
[This book.]
Park Moondae lifted the book they had been tasked with delivering and flipped through its pages.
Countless Chinese characters appeared.
[Doesn’t this… look like Hangul to you?]
Then Park Moondae’s hand stopped on one page and pointed toward the top.
The first character on that page, which everyone had casually overlooked…
looked almost exactly like “ㄱ.”
[Huh?]
[Wait!]
The cast carefully inspected the book page by page.
The forms were certainly unfamiliar because they looked somewhat different from modern Hangul, but once they looked closely, shapes resembling Hangul consonants and vowels could be found in various places near the tops of the pages.
[Whoa, wait. Then is this Hunminjeongeum?? Is that why it’s King Sejong?]
Park Moondae made an ambiguous gesture with his head.
[Hmm. But they say His Majesty created Hunminjeongeum himself. So it also seems strange for scholars of the Hall of Worthies to deliver it to him. Which means what remains is….]
[What remains?]
[Couldn’t this be the Hunminjeongeum Haerye?]
It was a book explaining the principles behind the creation of Hunminjeongeum and how to use it.
Someone might absentmindedly imagine that a book explaining Hangul would itself have been written in Hangul.
But in fact, it had been written in Classical Chinese.
Because it was introducing Hangul to people who used Chinese characters.
Park Moondae smiled faintly.
[I learned that the scholars of the Hall of Worthies compiled that. So I think we should go in, tell King Sejong that this book is the Hunminjeongeum Haerye, and present it to him.]
That was the correct answer.
“Whoa!”
The MC exclaimed.
The production staff in front of him were making similar sounds.
And the cast inside the monitor was excited too.
[Wow, Moondae, you even know things like that?]
[Whoa!! That really sounds right??]
[The circumstances fit perfectly! No wonder something felt significant when the Hall of Worthies appeared!]
But Park Moondae wasn’t finished.
[And I think there are two people who should perform that role.]
[Huh?]
[Earlier… remember that question where “Gap” and “Gi” out of Gap, Eul, Byeong, Jeong, Mu, and Gi were assigned to the Hall of Worthies?]
[Yeah, I remember!]
Park Moondae nodded.
[I think those might be us.]
[…!]
[The number matches, and the fact that we just passed the examination is the same too.]
Unexpectedly, the backstory clicked into place.
[So I think the two people working at the Hall of Worthies should present this Haerye. If we go by age…….]
Park Moondae politely raised his hand.
[That would be hyungnim… and this dongsaeng.]
[…!!]
Park Moondae smiled faintly as he pointed to the oldest cast member and the youngest cast member.
In other words, the Hanguk University student.
By now, the monitoring room could only respond with pure admiration.
“That’s seriously impressive.”
[You’re a genius.]
[You’re giving me too much credit. Honestly, I may just be overthinking it.]
[No, no. That’s right. This is definitely right. My instincts are telling me exactly that.]
Just as the cast said, it was right.
‘Wasn’t that supposed to be something they only figured out after failing once, getting a ton of hints, and barely putting it together? And they could’ve just moved on without knowing it.’
“You even know all that Korean history? Good grief.”
The MC was fed up with Park Moondae for even avoiding the final nerve-racking question-and-answer sequence, but either way, he hurried to get dressed.
It was time.
“All right, let’s head down~”
He brought along staff dressed like a procession of court officials and headed toward the royal audience hall.
Right on cue, the cast had made up their minds and was passing through the entrance.
“Gap and Gi of the Hall of Worthies have come to present His Majesty with the Hunminjeongeum Haerye.”
“…Enter.”
“Yes!”
The cast cheered and hurried inside.
Then they saw him.
The MC sitting on the royal throne.
“You have arrived.”
“Uuuugh!!”
The MC triumphantly threw the cast—who had entered carrying the Hunminjeongeum Haerye—into complete confusion.
“Hyungnim! No, King Sejong!”
Then, when the bewildered oldest cast member accidentally called him King Sejong, captions appeared—
[※Sejong is a temple name, bestowed after death.]
[Extreme spoilers]
—and with that final joke, the filming came to an end.
“Most excellent!”
With Park Moondae’s deduction confirmed as correct.
Read only on MUGEX
“Wow~ You were incredible!”
While wrapping up the shoot and exchanging greetings, the MC patted Park Moondae’s shoulder.
“Thank you.”
Park Moondae smiled and bowed his head.
The MC glanced between the Hanguk University student and Park Moondae.
‘There’s no comparison.’
It was practically guaranteed that the broadcast would preserve Park Moondae’s avalanche of answer footage and enormous contribution.
And Park Moondae had already considered the side effects that would come with it.
“Th-The shoot was fun!”
“Yeah.”
I nodded.
It had been a very productive use of time.
Seon Ahyeon smiled.
“M-Moondae… You’re good at Korean history too.”
I shook my head.
“No. I studied beforehand.”
“Wh-What?”
I meant exactly what I said.
I had studied beforehand.
“I watched some of the previous episodes.”
I had watched about five episodes properly.
For the rest, I used a slightly different method.
First, I made a table of the roughly twenty-five previous episodes of The Past Is Calling, organized by title and synopsis.
Then I excluded those topics and selected notable remaining events from Korean history that fit similar question-setting patterns and came from periods not covered in the most recent three episodes.
‘The creation of Hangul and the June Democratic Struggle were the strongest candidates.’
After that, I just had to memorize all the achievements and events from around those periods, down to obscure details.
‘If you narrow the range down that much, this kind of thing is manageable.’
I had plenty of experience memorizing absurdly specific knowledge while preparing for the civil-service exam.
Besides, I still remembered quite a lot of the Korean history I had studied before.
“Y-You worked really hard…. Y-You were seriously amazing!”
“Thanks. You did well too. You were good at finding things. And you were good at the skits.”
“N-No…, that was because you!”
“What did I do?”
While we traveled in the car, Seon Ahyeon and I continued chatting casually.
Then, after arriving at the next filming location and just before rejoining the group, I quietly slipped toward the restroom.
“I’m going to stop by the bathroom for a second.”
“Sure, okay~”
“O-Okay!”
But instead of going to the restroom, I headed toward an enclosed area behind the parking lot.
Then I called the company.
‘It’s time.’
Today’s shoot was scheduled to air late at night this very weekend.
I intended to deal with it before then.
The rat.
“Yes, hello.”
Wondering if I was calling the Operations Team?
No.
“This is the Management Department, right?”
The Management Department.
The department that had the Operations Team underneath it.
“Could I arrange a meeting with the department head?”
Wasn’t the most effective way to deal with something like this to send it directly to the highest-ranking person involved?