Park Moondae’s appearance on The Past Is Calling only became known when the teaser was released.
That was because the schedule had been arranged so abruptly for the earliest possible broadcast date.
[(Preview) TeSTAR and Golden Age Become Sungkyunkwan Scholars? <The Past Is Calling> EP36 | SBC Educational Programming]
And naturally, a wave of anxious under-the-surface public opinion swept through the fandom.
It was concern about needlessly stirring up trouble, combined with intuition born from past experience.
—Ah f*ck that group again
—Am I the only one getting a bad feeling?
—Just get him some relaxing variety show where he goes to good restaurants, bastards, he’s already busy enough and now you’re making him do educational shows too
Among fans who paid attention to public opinion, plenty had already realized that Golden Age was deliberately trying to latch onto TeSTAR.
When they connected Park Moondae’s past, family circumstances, and unfortunate story of dropping out of school, they obviously weren’t going to like seeing him appear on a brainy educational program alongside a Hanguk University student.
Because if the editing subtly compared their academic backgrounds and took a swipe at him, they would be furious enough to lose their minds from the injustice of it.
—I’m too stressed to watch live
—If they try clinging to him again this time I’m not letting it go, I’ll drag the whole thing into public discourse somehow
But not everyone thought about things that deeply.
The opinion mostly seen among people who didn’t stare too far into the abyss and simply enjoyed their fandom lightly and happily looked more like this.
—Holy shit Park Moondae in hanbok is insaneㅠㅠㅠ and it’s apparently Sungkyunkwan scholar robes, the preview alone says masterpiece
—Thank you… overwhelming gratitude..
—Wait this suddenly? This is incredibly sudden but I welcome it wholeheartedly
—From the teaser it looks like Moondae did really well, I’m excited
That was also the side of the discourse being seen by a graduate student currently suffering through an exhausting master’s program.
‘The joy of my life…….’
The graduate student grinned with hollow eyes.
She was genuinely grateful the program aired late at night.
Because she was in the lab even during weekend afternoons…….
‘I get to watch it live too!!’
She was excited enough to want to run around on top of the sofa, but she lacked the energy, so she simply sat down obediently and turned on the TV.
“It’s starting!”
The broadcast began soon afterward.
[What past is calling them?]
The graduate student watched with interest as they removed their blindfolds at the beginning and the MC settled into the monitoring room.
Then, unable to hide her delighted smile, she followed Park Moondae’s every movement.
Simply watching Park Moondae talk and smile was healing in itself.
‘I was disappointed he has black hair for this promotion, but I still want to hurry up and see him in those scholar robes!’
But that composure shattered in the very next scene.
[“Gap” and “Gi” work in the Hall of Worthies.]
[!!]
“Uuuugh!”
Because Park Moondae solved the first problem at terrifying speed.
“What? What’s wrong with him? Why is Park Moondae like that??”
And she wasn’t the only one saying that out loud.
The timeline of the SNS account she had clumsily made for fandom activities was filled with similar posts.
—??
—what is this
—Park Moondae is insane lolololol
—My man is even smart too f*ckㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
But that shock had come far too early.
[Hmm. Bird three times, land beast once, sea beast twice, bird once… I think.]
[How about we bring them the one on the third shelf?]
Because Park Moondae’s performance did not stop for the entire episode.
“Whoa.”
The graduate student stared at the screen with her mouth open.
The broadcast wasn’t using any particularly magical editing tricks.
True to an educational-programming department, the episode maintained a polished but fresh atmosphere that wasn’t overly provocative.
And precisely because of that, Park Moondae’s real-time problem-solving remained intact, making the impact even stronger.
[Uh? Isn’t that not supposed to happen??]
[They were originally supposed to make a full circuit before solving that…….]
[<Monitoring Room in Commotion>]
The staff and MC’s naked reactions and groans at his absurd level of ability helped establish the mood too.
“Wow…….”
The graduate student watched speechlessly.
Then her chest suddenly swelled with emotion.
‘I don’t want to reduce this to the bland word “smart”!!’
Wouldn’t he be perfectly capable of going onto some quiz show where they gathered smart celebrities and becoming the ace there too?
Apparently, the cast members felt similarly, because exclamations and disbelieving laughter burst out from everywhere.
[Moondae, come here for a second. Yeah. Let’s answer honestly. …You’re a Mensa member, right? Tell just me!]
[What? Of course not.]
‘You totally look like one!!’
The graduate student shook her head back and forth.
Why was he answering with something like Of course not when it looked completely believable?
And just as excited as she was, the fans who had worried about his appearance were flooding the internet with posts about Park Moondae’s insane performance, which had exceeded every expectation.
—Holy shit Park Moondae got another one right
—Am I inside my own dream?
—He keeps solving them the second he hears them lololㅠㅠㅠ are you insane Park Moondoggy!!
—Seriously what can Moondae not do besides draw f*ck I worried for nothing;;
—I… thought our puppy was only a genius at singing dancing face and ideas but apparently he was actually just a genius
In fact, because Park Moondae had progressed through everything so quickly, they hadn’t even cut much from the problem-solving sections.
If anything, more had been added.
[The first problem is actually simple if you organize it using formal-logic notation. Um, could I get a pen… Thank you.]
In his interview, Park Moondae explained his method of solving it, supplementing the question-explanation footage that would have been included anyway and making it more interesting.
The explanation was detailed enough that even people looking for a reason to criticize him couldn’t bring themselves to say things like, The script is way too obvious, or They must’ve told him all the answers beforehand.
[I personally find it easier to combine identical symbols no matter what. Then like this… you get one that doesn’t fit and sticks out.]
Anyone could tell Park Moondae had genuinely solved it himself and completely understood the answer.
And as the finishing touch, there was even a backstory prepared for why he was so good at it.
[I like this program… so I watched a lot of it. I also studied quite a bit on my own while thinking about how I should approach the questions.]
Park Moondae frankly admitted that he had worked hard preparing for the program.
Of course, the truth was that he had simply narrowed down the likely Korean-history range for this episode and made it easy to memorize.
But mixing in enough truth made the whole statement sound even more sincere.
He also added a reasonably truthful explanation for his Korean-history knowledge, which had been overshadowed by the logic puzzles.
[Actually… before I became an idol, I studied Korean history too because I wondered whether I should become a civil servant.]
For anyone who knew Park Moondae’s circumstances, it was a statement capable of making their chest ache slightly.
And since anyone with even a little interest in Park Moondae already knew those circumstances, it was almost unfairly well-shaped as a comment.
Thanks to that, viewers’ reactions were filled with good boy, oh no, and crying emoticons.
—ㅠㅠㅠMoondae do everything you want except retire
—My mom keeps muttering that he’s such a good kid, she looks ready to send him a scholarship
—Thank you for becoming an idolㅠㅠ civil servant… wow with that brain he probably would’ve passed right away, thinking about an idol industry without soft-rice-cake Moondoggy is actually pretty terrifying
—Such an intelligent.. purposeful young man too.. being denied the opportunity to learn.. what a lamentable reality!
It was because the national obsession with education had been poked directly in the ribs.
The atmosphere was so overwhelming that even manufactured bait accounts would have felt awkward trying to say anything.
Now and then, vague comments like Feels staged, Hmm lol, and They planned this appeared, desperately trying to become ignition points.
But they didn’t stand a chance.
The program already had too much credibility.
—It’s not even a T1 affiliate, why would a terrestrial network rig a show just to hype Park Moondae? lol they have no reason
—The production staff themselves were completely caught off guard lolol f*ck this is hilarious
—This show’s PD is the type who’d rather let the episode fail than fake anything, they’re obsessive about historical accuracy too, so sometimes when an episode fails it becomes irredeemably boring but these educational-programming maniacs stay stubborn anyway lololol
And even if someone tried changing the angle to He’s hogging all the screen time, there wasn’t much evidence for that either.
Outside situations where he was solving problems, Park Moondae didn’t particularly step forward.
For skits, action scenes, or heartwarming moments, he instead pushed Seon Ahyeon to the front.
[Whoa! Waaaah!]
[I wanna try something like that too….]
For example, watching Seon Ahyeon gracefully and nimbly complete a mission where he had to retrieve a clue from the ceiling without touching the hanging hanji or persimmons was fairly entertaining.
His movements were so clean that it suited him even better.
‘He looks like some kind of immortal.’
The graduate student was certain that within a few days, every slow-motion, heavily edited version of that scene would appear on her timeline.
On top of that, Seon Ahyeon had also managed to make the small bits of conversation entertaining.
[Would you… like one?]
[Ah, ah. I am fine… No, I-I am quite all right.]
A palace attendant had been blankly staring at the rice cakes Park Moondae had cooked.
Seon Ahyeon dipped a piece in grain syrup, supported it with his other hand, and offered it politely.
The result was practically a painting.
The expression on his face, transparently revealing his inner conflict over whether he was allowed to do this during filming, even added cuteness.
Even the palace attendant, who was supposed to be an NPC there to establish the atmosphere, almost forgot their duty and let their real personality burst out for a moment.
‘Now I get why his nickname is Angel….’
The graduate student promoted Seon Ahyeon from the Moondae’s Friends folder in her head to the Moondae’s Cute Friends folder.
Meanwhile, the cast continued solving the scenario warmly on screen.
[Our atmosphere is pretty good, isn’t it?]
[Good, good! All right, shall our maknae try one too?]
[Yes! I’ll solve it!]
Of course, exactly as Park Moondae had prepared for, Golden Age’s Hanguk University student received some footage in both the puzzles and skits.
But because he was stiff from being unused to solo appearances and talking alone, it wasn’t particularly entertaining.
He performed reasonably well during the problem-solving portions, but naturally, it didn’t have the same impact as Park Moondae solving everything at lightning speed from the very beginning when nobody had expected anything.
They had emphasized the information that he attended Hanguk University beforehand, so people already expected at least that much from him.
[Oh~ Good, good!]
[Thank you!]
They were scenes on that ordinary, flavorless level, doing little more than keeping the broadcast moving.
As a result, the Hanguk University student was categorized by viewers as neither so badly humiliated that he became a target of mockery and unnecessary controversy nor anything more than bland enough that someone else stole all the spotlight.
For Park Moondae’s fans, it was the best possible outcome.
Their private communities and SNS were practically in festival mode.
—I can only say this here but this is so damn satisfying
—Ended exactly like it did when they tried it with my fave before lol
—LOLOLOLOL this is so fun
—Next time please pick your battles before stretching your legs~
Normally, Golden Age’s agency might at least have subtly encouraged a narrative of major corporation bullying.
But because they were as silent as the grave, the atmosphere settled into accepted consensus without any backlash.
And the climax came at the end of the episode.
[This book.]
[Doesn’t this… look like Hangul to you?]
It was Park Moondae’s parade of Korean-history knowledge and deductions.
[Gap and Gi of the Hall of Worthies have come to present His Majesty with the Hunminjeongeum Haerye.]
Combined with his calm delivery and faint smile, the scene came out convincingly enough to look like the climax shot of a drama or movie.
As soon as it aired, it was clipped and uploaded across all kinds of SNS platforms and communities.
[Best Scene Every Viewer of Today’s <The Past Is Calling> Will Agree On]
[??? : Doesn’t this look like Hangul to you?]
[Park Moondae’s Chilling Final Deduction Scene on <The Past Is Calling>]
Normally, titles like those would have attracted enough bait to explode.
Instead, they received enormous agreement and became popular posts almost instantly.
Because they were simply, plainly true.
—The difficulty was insane but him getting it in one shot seriously gave me chills
—Guess brains really are something you’re born with
—Watching everything click perfectly into place was ridiculously satisfying lolol
—I knew this would happen ever since Park Moondae took the lead making that PPT for their debut song lolol
—It feels like such a waste because he’s so smart… the Korean high-school senior inside me is telling him to take the CSAT even now…
└LOLOLOLOLOL no Moondae has to stay a K-idol forever!ㅠㅠ
The image of Park Moondae’s unfortunate past, which had once carried a weakness with it, was being transformed into something more multidimensional by the addition of intelligence.
Meaning Park Moondae’s plan had been carried out without a hitch or unexpected variable.
Read only on MUGEX
‘Clean.’
I lowered my smartphone.
“Hunminjeongeum Haerye! Hunminjeongeum Haerye!”
From the room next door came Cha Eugene’s excited voice, chanting the phrase like some kind of cheer.
The members who had no schedules had gotten bored and monitored The Past Is Calling together.
‘An American habit?’
His pronunciation was accurate too.
Apparently, even to Cha Eugene—who knew next to nothing about Korean history—the scene had made a fairly strong impression.
“Uahahahaha!”
Right on cue, Big Sejin, Cha Eugene’s roommate, burst into hysterical laughter.
The roommate-reassignment content was right around the corner.
Please, just don’t let those two get paired again.
“Whew.”
Still, anyway…
It had been a while since I had a night where there was nothing left to calculate.
I dullly ignored the noise from the next room and closed my eyes.
The feeling of relaxation was dominant enough that I probably wouldn’t even need earplugs.
I planned to sleep a little early tonight.
That was when it happened.
Bzzzz— Bzzzz—
My smartphone began vibrating continuously at a steady rhythm.
A call.
‘What?’
There shouldn’t have been anyone who would call me.
But I had my phone set to block calls from numbers that weren’t saved in my contacts, so it couldn’t be spam either.
“Ha….”
Suppressing a sigh, I picked the smartphone back up and brought it in front of my face.
Naturally, the caller’s name was displayed on the screen.
[Golden Age — Ha Iljoon hyung]
“……?”
What the…
Goldie #1 was calling me in the middle of the night.