CH 26

I looked directly at him and asked, “How close do we need to get before you tell me?”

“Sorry?”

“You and me. How well do we need to know each other before you tell me?”

Then Woorim grinned and answered like he was waiting for this question all along. “As close as Yeonseon.”

I had expected this answer, so I felt all my energy drain in an instant. Of course.

I came to the realization that Woorim was younger than both me and Yeonseon. I tried to recall the name of Woorim’s group. Unfortunately, my knowledge wasn’t broad enough to encompass the name of an unpopular idol group. Plus, even if I somehow remembered the group’s name, I wouldn’t be able to know how old Woorim was anyway.

Maybe he was four or five years younger.

He looked younger than Yeonseon, who died at the young age of 25. Thinking about his age made me more depressed, so I couldn’t say another word while in the elevator. Finally, we reached our final destination.

* * *

The shoot was scheduled for approximately one week.

Not everyone could use the same room during that period, so the staff and the cast each had their own rooms on the topmost floor of the building. All the floors below the top floor were sets designed for the show, so the staff members warned us not to roam as we pleased.

There were eight cast members including me—along with their managers and other agency staff—and the filming crew. Initially, I was unsure whether all these people could use one floor, but surprisingly, it was possible. The building seemed quite long from outside, but now that I was inside, I thought the house was even longer than I had imagined. It was to the point that I could stand on one end without seeing the other end of the hallway. It was as long as the corridors of the school I attended when I was younger.

The elevator brought us to the middle of the top floor, in a wide hall-like space. In that space was a large table with chairs, a few vending machines, and whiteboards like those one could see in lecture rooms. The rooms along the hall, opposite each other, were the kitchen and pantry. The pantry had a week’s worth of food and water, while the kitchen had various cooking tools and appliances.

As soon as we got off the elevator, we were given a key and a gift with our names on it. The filming crew members’ rooms were at the west end of the hall and the east end had the cast members’ rooms.

The keychain was prettier than I expected. I thought they would give us keys with a simple tag that one might find in a gym or a locker, but they handed us a keychain with a four-leaf clover charm as if wishing us all good luck. My thumb brushed over my name and room number on the keychain.

One staff member wearing a baseball cap firmly on their head knocked on the table, bringing our attention, then said, “First, you can take all your baggage to your respective rooms… Then we’ll double back by 2 p.m. Some of you have already heard, but the cameras will start running when we explain the rules. You must be starving, so if you want to eat something, there are packaged lunches in the kitchen. I hope you enjoy those.”

Most people were probably very hungry, considering our travels started early in the morning. It must have been the best news they heard today, so a few people looked visibly brighter. Among those who came up first, some were already eating their lunches. Judging from the lunches, the options must have been either a tonkatsu combo or a bulgogi and rice lunch combo.

Despite the large table and chairs in the hall, nobody was eating there. All the staff also carried their lunches to their rooms. I understood why after I heard the next announcement.

“Oh, just to let you know, this hall and all the lower floors are set up with cameras and CCTV cameras. The only rooms not being recorded are your individual rooms, so please keep this in mind and act accordingly.”

And here I thought that they didn’t bring a lot of cameras… They came here in advance to set up all the cameras. Even though nobody was watching in real-time, it wasn’t that nice to hear that all our daily actions would be filmed.

I was reminded of the time my mother installed a bunch of surveillance cameras when I was younger.

I picked up an iced coffee and tonkatsu lunch and went to my room. I was staying in room 105. Normally, one would expect to find a room in the hundreds on the first floor, but it looked like the numbers were all assigned arbitrarily for filming purposes. As proof, the room next door was room 305.