Chapter 137
After the wooden bench collapsed while we were sitting on top of it, we ate on the floor.
“We should always use the instruction manual before doing anything from now on,” I said.
“...Yeah.”
“...Haha.”
“Yes~”
Both Yeon-Hoon and Woon promised to follow the instruction manual when they had to make anything from now on. From then on, the broken pieces of the wooden bench became a safety hazard so we weren’t allowed to approach them anymore. Someone even drew a circle around the area and even stuck a piece of paper that said, ‘Be careful!’. Then, after we all ate dinner together and watched the TV in the living room, we fell asleep immediately.
The second day passed without any big incident too. We just woke up in the morning, cooked soybean paste soup, and ate breakfast. Then, in the afternoon, we played jokgu[1] with the ball the staff gave us.
“Ahhh!”
“Yeon-Hoon, you are going to rip a muscle in your leg at that rate.”
“It won’t!”
Yeon-Hoon, who had little athletic ability found it hard to keep up.
Psh!
“....”
“...Oh my god.”
One big incident did occur in the middle of the game which was Dong-Jun ripping his pants. He had stretched out his legs far beyond normal to reach a ball high in the air and land a strike.
“Ahhh! Nobody look!”
“Hahaha!”
It was my first time seeing Dong-Jun appear this flustered. He quickly grabbed the top of his pants and ran back into the room. Soon after that, we all prepared lunch and ate. We had some alone time after that, and for dinner, we finished eating dak-bokkeum-tang from yesterday. Then, as it became dark, I planned to make a fire for us to watch when Woon, Dong-Jun, and Yeon-Hoon looked at me in shock.
“...Tae-Yoon, what are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Put that down this instance.”
“...?”
Gasp! "Tae-Yoon! How could you do such a cruel thing!”
“...Tae-Yoon?”
“We need some wood to make a fire. Can’t we just use these broken pieces of wood?”
It was all because I was planning to use the broken pieces of the wooden bench as kindling. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com
“Leave our Benchy alone!”
“You are heartless!”
“How could you think to do something so cruel?”
All three people looked at me like I was a bloodthirsty psycho, but anyone could see that they were the abnormal ones. Unfortunately for them, Do-Seung had already taken a good amount of ‘Benchy’ and after stacking its pieces into a pile, lit it on fire with a blow torch.
“Don’t worry. It’s burning up really well.”
“Ahhhh!”
“Benchy! Benchy!”
“...Please meet someone with more handcrafting skills next time...” That was how Benchy became a good firewood for us so that we could do some fire meditation. Then, my members and I lay the blankets over us and sat outside to stare at the fire.
‘This is nice.’ I wished that time would just stop like this. This was the sort of life that I had always yearned for.
I never wished for huge success, a great amount of money, fame, or countless trophies. Though those would’ve been nice to have, it didn’t matter to me much even if I didn’t have them. What I truly wished for was a normal life with my members such as eating tasty food, chatting about various topics, sleeping when night came, and growing old together. This moment made me think that I would be able to live like that if we continued like this.
[Record 500,000 sales on the first week of album release within the year 2022.]
[Upon success, you will progress to the next mission.]
This was the side story of The Showcase 2’s Siren’s reality program. I soon saw the title <Siren, Time to Recharge!>
“Ohhh!”
“What isn’t that font used in the show, ‘I Am a Natural Person’[2]?”
“Yeah.”
“It looks fun.”
I simply chewed on my rice with mackerel meat without saying anything. I was hopeful about this show too.
‘Though this is my opinion as a cast member, I think it will be more fun than Only One’s reality program,’ I recalled the reality program I saw in my past life with Only One, and I thought we would have more funny moments.
At that time, I remembered Only One’s reality program being more shocking than entertaining because of how much money they used, and they failed to draw much attention to the show. Overall, I thought our show would be funnier than theirs, and we could aim to get more buzz than Only One did. In a situation where we needed to get 500,000 sales within the year 2022, this was also a good opportunity, and an interesting reality show could be a good start for our debut.
Considering how even that uninteresting Only One’s reality show drew in quite a good amount of views in my past life, I knew The Showcase 2’s first act had quite a big influence and effect. Anyways, the start of the show began with us gathered at the entrance of the mountain and looking around our surroundings in bafflement. Most idol reality shows started with ‘Wow~! but we showed a completely different response.
—...Where are we?
—...A mountain?
“Hahaha! We looked that astounded?” Dong-Jun burst into laughter while looking at the TV screen.
—A daily-wear hanbok?
—Wow, we have to wear this?
—Ohh...
Then, we came out after changing into our clay-colored, daily-wear hanboks.
“Why did they suddenly turn on sad music?”
“Hahaha!”
“Our reality program is fun.” Rather than a true reality show, it was edited more like a variety and entertainment show.
‘This is good.’ This was the better direction to take to draw in more issues and attention. I went to Bluebird to see the responses by then.
—Hahahaha, seriously? These guys, haha
—Look at how soft our baby peach looks while wearing a brown village, daily-wear hanbok
—Even a daily-wear hanbok can’t hide our black cat’s pecs
Reply: So true...
It seemed the fans were enjoying the video. Though some complained that we were going through too many hardships, it was better than getting no response. Since living in this place wasn’t even that uncomfortable, this was preferable to staying in a high-class villa to pull in more audiences. As I continued to monitor the feeds about us, something else caught my eye.
—This is insane. Only One terminated their contact with TH Entertainment?
Reply: ??? Not just Kang Hyun-Sung but all of Only One???
Reply: Seriously?
“Ah.” I quickly clicked on the link and was directed to an internet article.
[Only One terminates contract with TH Entertainment.]
[Only One, the pre-debut boy group of TH Entertainment, terminates their contract with the company. This is a very unusual case where all the members of a pre-debut terminate their contract at once...]
I read through the entire article, and the purpose of this article was revealed in its last line.
[There is great interest in which company Only One will choose now.]
‘It was a promotional article,’ I realized. I thought about how we needed to reach 500,000 sales and to do so, we needed to succeed the most among the groups who debuted this year.
‘...But at this rate, the spotlight could be taken from us.’
If we had taken away Only One’s fame in the beginning, it was now Only One's turn to do the same to us. This was the sort of world the entertainment business was, and no one could blame them for doing so. In normal times, I would’ve wholeheartedly congratulated them on their contract termination and wished the best for them in their future endeavors.
‘This is driving me crazy...’
Yes, with Woon’s life on the line, we couldn’t lose to anyone.
1. A sport that combines aspects of soccer and volleyball ?
2. Name of a famous Korean TV Series about people who leave behind their stressful city life and live amid nature. ?