VTIC stole my punishment screen time.
“All right~ You two, please come up onto the stage!”
“Aw, what a shame!”
“I feel a little wronged~”
The VTIC guy who had voluntarily stepped on the line and taken the punishment instead of eliminating me, along with his partner, got hit by water balloons while giving perfectly unremarkable reactions.
Looking at something so devoid of character it would’ve been cut down to three seconds if these guys didn’t sell 1.8 million albums in their first week, Big Sejin seemed right that they didn’t have much passion for variety shows.
‘…Which means he didn’t deliberately eliminate himself to get screen time.’
Then was that satisfied look earlier genuinely born from a “desire to look after a rookie idol”?
‘Wouldn’t it be more convincing if it really had been a mistake and he acted like that because he was embarrassed?’
My eyes met Big Sejin’s.
Smiling like a picture, he subtly pointed a finger at himself.
Annoying, but I guess he meant there was nothing we could do about it and he’d actively try to get himself punished next time.
“All right, this next team game is~ Find the Ssanghwa Tea!”
But this strange, ridiculous situation continued in the next team battle too.
“The team of the person who first picks the ssanghwa tea without an egg yolk loses~ Now, let’s choose while dancing along to the music!”
In short, it was a vaguely nineties-style game that combined musical chairs with random chance.
‘This one’s completely luck-based.’
I decided to pass on this one and picked without even thinking about it.
If I happened to lose that way, it’d be funnier.
Of course, probability-wise, my cup was much more likely to contain the damn yolk.
“Ah, Moondae-ssi~ You’re through!”
And that’s exactly what happened.
The ssanghwa tea I’d chosen had an egg yolk in it.
Then the VTIC guys started clapping and hyping me up.
“Oooh~ Amazing!!”
“Wow, how did you get it right so quickly?”
“…….”
Why the hell are you doing this, you bastards?
I gave them a vague answer and moved on, but this wasn’t even openly funny.
It was obviously going to come across as nothing but ambiguous, unnatural warmth.
Eventually, even the MC couldn’t stand it anymore and tried to turn it into a joke.
“No, you two have been giving especially good reactions only to Moondae-ssi since earlier?”
“Ah, hyungnim, you don’t get it~ Successful people are friends with other successful people~!”
“Is that how it works~?”
The VTIC guys waved their hands.
“No, no~ It’s not that, he’s just good!”
“It was impressive that he got it right without even hesitating.”
They would’ve been better off playing along, but instead they denied it in such an ordinary way that the whole picture became awkward again.
I guess they really were bad at variety shows.
But why did that mean they had to troll me?
‘Are they screwing with me?’
I watched them just in case, but they didn’t seem to be trying to provoke me.
‘This is driving me insane.’
And this time, the Marshmallow member got the punishment.
“Watch carefully! ……That’s not an egg yolk, right? It’s canned yellow peach, right?!”
“Aaaagh!!”
The punishment was gosamcha.
Youngrin, who had to share the punishment as her doppelgänger, downed the whole thing in one shot without even changing expression, drawing reactions from the staff too.
‘I’m jealous.’
I’d rather drink gosamcha and spray it everywhere or something.
At this rate, I’d go through the whole shoot without getting punished even once, ending up as a reaction prop and an accessory to VTIC’s screen time.
‘Should I just aim for achievements instead?’
Just as I was considering switching strategies, filming stopped briefly.
“Cut! We’ll reset before continuing~”
“We’ll check your microphones for a moment.”
“Yes!”
It was a short break for maintenance and rest.
“Bathroom.”
“Yeah.”
Big Sejin quietly slipped away following the MC, while I deliberately drank a beverage and waited for my timing.
Then the other side moved first.
“Hello, hoobae-nim~”
“We arrived in such a rush earlier that we couldn’t greet you properly, right?”
The VTIC guys approached with bright smiles.
I’d never even introduced myself to these guys properly before, but social life meant I couldn’t exactly give them a cold look.
“…Yes. It’s been a while, sunbaenims.”
“Ah~ ‘sunbaenim’ feels awkward. Just call us hyung, hyung!”
“Right. Don’t talk to us like we’re that old.”
Before I could even think that an eight-year veteran had some nerve saying that, another feeling came first.
‘Hm?’
These guys…
Why do they seem so awkward?
‘Feels like they should be sweating down their backs.’
They seemed to be trying to speak in a hearty, friendly manner, but I could see the limit of it.
They didn’t have the air of people who’d always done this…
People like Big Sejin or Ryu Chungwoo, the type who were accustomed to winning people over.
They seemed unused to playing the sociable older-brother role.
‘What’s going on?’
For now, let’s answer properly.
“It’s not an age issue. You’re extremely senior sunbaenims, so I can’t just address you so casually…….”
“What do you mean, extremely senior~ Aagh!”
“We’re telling you to relax around us!”
“…….”
Wow.
These guys are really trying.
This was even more bewildering than when they stole the final punishment from me earlier.
I was rendered speechless.
Apparently taking that as tacit agreement, the two exchanged pleased glances while chuckling among themselves.
Then one cleared his throat and spoke.
“Ahem, variety shows are pretty hard, right?”
“Pardon? Yes….”
Without you guys here, the difficulty would’ve dropped by at least two levels.
But both of them looked proud.
“Uh, don’t push yourself too hard during filming…… If you’re struggling, send us an SOS. We’ll help.”
“…??”
“Ah, don’t feel pressured! Just treat your own hoobaes well later. Don’t worry about paying us back.”
And now the two of them were exchanging looks that said, ‘Oh~ That was pretty smooth, wasn’t it?’
Unbelievable.
“…….”
Holding back a headache, I asked outright.
“……Then earlier, when you stepped on the line.”
“Ahaha! What~ Was it that obvious?”
“No, I think this hoobae-nim is just perceptive.”
“Right? Anyway, don’t… worry too much about it. It just kind of happened~”
…I know for sure now.
‘These guys did that entirely out of goodwill.’
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and this was exactly what that looked like.
On top of that, their idea of “helping” was painfully one-dimensional.
Even considering their lack of variety experience, they didn’t seem like the type who were particularly good at thinking things through.
‘Feels like they’ll get cleaned out within five years after signing as someone’s guarantor or falling for a business scam.’
Even if VTIC had grown up smoothly, they were remarkably bland for people who’d survived eight years in the blazing hellscape of K-pop.
‘…Did Cheongryeo swap these guys in?’
If he’d been searching for members who wouldn’t cause trouble and were easy to manage, I could see how he’d end up with people like this.
Anyway, they didn’t seem to have any complicated ulterior motives, so I could just brush them off appropriately.
“Thank you very much. Still, I’d like to try as much as I can on my own. You don’t need to accommodate me like you did earlier.”
“Huh?”
The slightly flustered guys thought for a moment, then spoke again with awkward expressions.
“Hmm, actually, we heard some things from Cheongryeo hyung.”
“……??”
What the hell is this supposed to mean now?
‘He didn’t say anything unnecessary, did he?’
Just as a chill started crawling over the top of my head, the guy in front smiled.
“No, he just said Moondae-ssi works really hard and is a good hoobae, so we should treat you well! Stuff like that.”
“…!!”
“Right! But that hyung seriously isn’t the kind of person who says things like that.”
“Yeah. He barely has any close friends either… so it was surprising that he got close to you.”
We’re not close.
“He might seem a little cold as a person… but Jaehyun—no, Cheongryeo hyung is actually a much better guy than you’d think.”
“Right. Did you know that hyung donates half of what he gets in every settlement to stray-dog shelters and stuff?”
“Whoa, half?”
“Yeah, I saw him using his banking app once and nearly freaked out.”
“He lives like some mountain hermit, but I guess he really does like animals.”
The two drifted into a conversation with each other.
Then, realizing what they’d done, they awkwardly pulled themselves back out of it.
“No, how did the conversation even get over there? Anyway, since meeting like this is fate too, if anything gets hard during today’s shoot, just tell us~ That’s all.”
“Anything difficult right now?”
“…….”
I’d suddenly heard so many absurd things that my head was spinning.
I punched myself mentally.
‘Who the fuck cares. Get a grip.’
Whether Cheongryeo was the guardian spirit of every stray dog in Korea or not was his business.
What mattered was my current objective.
This shoot.
I chose my words and opened my mouth.
“Actually…….”
After I roughly explained the situation I was in and indirectly told them that I’d actually been aiming for the punishments, both of them jumped in shock.
“Gasp! Really??”
“Hey, sorry!”
“Should we start piling punishments on you now?”
“You want every punishment?”
“……No, thank you.”
Instead, I made a small request, and the VTIC members readily agreed.
“Hey, Moondae~”
Right after that, Big Sejin returned from the bathroom.
“You have a nice chat?”
“More or less. You?”
“Hey, I went to the bathroom. What kind of nice chat would I have~?”
He was grinning as he answered, so clearly he’d accomplished something too, but his mouth was saying something else for the moment.
Sure enough, the trophy soon came out.
“It’s just… our routes happened to overlap, so I talked with Choi Hosu MC-nim a little. We exchanged numbers too.”
Of course.
“Must’ve been a productive conversation.”
“Well, you could say we discussed the direction of our variety career?”
Big Sejin grinned.
“I told him the two of us would absolutely never receive a punishment.”
“……!”
“So now he’s probably going to do whatever it takes to punish us and get reactions.”
Excellent.
Read only on MUGEX
The latter half of filming ended well, with the cooperation of several cast members.
‘Looks like it came out even better than planned.’
Now it was a matter of editing, but honestly, I wasn’t too worried.
Even if I were the PD, I don’t think I’d cut this.
“Thank you for your hard work~”
“Great work today!”
“Ah, today was really great!”
Anyway, only after bowing and greeting everyone just as thoroughly as when we’d arrived did we leave the filming set.
And then, in the car heading to our next schedule.
An unwelcome message abruptly intruded on the quiet, peaceful atmosphere left by a successful shoot.
[VTIC Cheongryeo sunbaenim: I heard you met the guys during filming today.]
[VTIC Cheongryeo sunbaenim: How was it? I imagine they were helpful^^]
“……Whew.”
I’d had a feeling something like this would happen when I met the VTIC guys.
Ridiculous as it was, viewed like this, the actual contents of the text were fairly normal.
‘The problem is he’s a lunatic in person.’
I rubbed my eyelids a few times and sent a reply.
[Yes. The sunbaenims helped me. Thank you.]
Unexpectedly, some time passed before a response came.
[VTIC Cheongryeo sunbaenim: I’m glad they were helpful. Wouldn’t you like to try promoting again with even better teammates too, hoobae-nim?]
‘Fuck.’
Why does everything with this guy always end up at “die and start over again”?
The VTIC guys’ nonsense echoed through my head.
—Jaehyun—no, Cheongryeo hyung is actually a much better guy than you’d think… than you’d think… than you’d think….
Like hell he is.
What a ridiculous thing to say, as if every decent person in the world had frozen to death.
But it didn’t seem like the VTIC guys had lied.
In other words, the examples they’d given themselves were…
Probably true.
‘…I’ll try this exactly once.’
With superhuman patience, I assumed for once that the other person was normal and attempted a response.
[I don’t want to. And having to keep hearing things like that is extremely stressful in itself. I’m already near my limit just from thinking about the mission.]
[It’s extremely difficult for me, so I would like you to stop.]
For a long while, no reply came.
‘…Did I step on a land mine?’
But even if the countdown to me being buried alive on some remote mountain had started, I absolutely wasn’t dying alone.
‘I need to make this bastard socially dead too.’
Leaning against my neck pillow, I started refining the plan I’d come up with before.
It was a little…
Like repetitive manual labor done to calm the mind.
“Hmm.”
Then, abruptly, another reply arrived.
[VTIC Cheongryeo sunbaenim: All right.]
“……!”
Several dozen seconds passed.
Only then did the next message arrive.
[VTIC Cheongryeo sunbaenim: I’m sorry.]
“…….”
That was the end of the messages.
“…Whew.”
I turned off my smartphone and closed my eyes again.
People really were impossible creatures to understand.
While Park Moondae sat lost in thought inside the car, articles were gradually appearing online.
[Choi Hosu’s <Saturday Party> Brings a Star-Studded Lineup… From VTIC to TeSTAR]
[TeSTAR’s Variety Outing? <Saturday Party> Filming: “Please Look Forward to It!”]
—Whoa VTIC TeSTAR
—So glad it’s not a simultaneous release this time and they’re just appearing on variety together
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋ seriously
—Cheongryeo and Park Moondae were seriously funny on Ilchin… I want to see them again, wonder if those two appeared
And before long, it was revealed which TeSTAR members would be appearing.
—Moondae and Big Sejinnn
—Ah it’s Moondae I love this so muchㅠㅠ
—Saturday Party, finally the day has come when I can promote TeSTAR to my mom!!
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ congratulations
—Why Lee Sejin; shouldn’t Cha Eugene be the one appearing?
└Maybe because he’s the variety member?
└What do you mean “variety member,” that’s something he should earn for himself. It’s ridiculous that sixth place gets on variety first, he doesn’t know his place. If we’re considering recognition and buzz, shouldn’t first and second place obviously go first?
└You’re acting like your life depends on one variety show
└You’d think we personally shoved him onto the show
—Moondae, fighting!ㅎㅎㅎ
And there was someone who finished reading all those reactions and sighed in relief.
‘There’s barely any hate toward Moondae!’
The graduate student relaxed and left the page she’d been looking at.
She was a Park Moondae fan who had started searching the Korean internet after nearly drowning beneath a tidal wave of English WeTube comments.
Lately, there was clearly an atmosphere of people viewing Moondae favorably, so she felt excited.
Her fansite-master friend seemed quite uneasy about it, but the graduate student didn’t really understand why.
‘Isn’t it good if everyone knows Moondae is kind and cute?’
Compared to the days when she’d worried Moondae might see hate comments, this was practically paradise.
‘I can’t wait for the variety show!’
The graduate student smiled and kicked her feet against the bed.
Unable to contain the fan feelings surging up inside her, she opened WeTube.
Then she clicked a thumbnail that was still sitting in the trending videos rankings.
‘I’ll watch it just one more time before bed.’
It was TeSTAR’s latest music video.