Variety Show Appearance (3)
Variety Show Appearance (3)
085
The "no-fun" smell wafting off Oh Pyo-sik sunbae makes the writers' complexions darken in real-time.
Just before the writer noonas were about to collapse in despair, Kyung-hoon, having grasped the situation perfectly, cut in.
"But I have a question. Didn't you guys spend the Olympic period together?"
"Yeah."
"Then why are you being so nae-oe (distant)?"
"Nae-oe?"
Pyo-sik sunbae looks bewildered by Kyung-hoon's question.
"What's nae-oe? That I'm a Jap?"
"Pfft!"
Everyone burst out laughing at the unexpected ad-lib.
"What. Why, why are you laughing?"
They laughed even harder because it wasn't an ad-lib.
"Eu-hya-hak, eu-hak, eu-hak-hak-hak!"
"Euh-huh, Pyo-sik is seriously daebak."
"No, wait a second. Do you really not know? No, right? You're pretending not to know, right?"
Ho-dong clutching his stomach and bursting with laughter, Hee-chul genuinely chuckling, and even Jang-hoon, who looks suspicious as if he can't believe it.
Ha... as a fellow soccer player, it's really embarrassing.
"Ah, ah-ah~ What, is that what nae-oe means?"
Pyo-sik sunbae, having heard the meaning belatedly, insisted he knew, but no one believed him.
His expression had been too real for that.
"But I'm close with the kids! Right, guys?"
"Doesn't seem like it~ Min-jun, what do you call Pyo-sik?"
"Me? I call him Pyo-sik sunbae."
"Ayy, what is this~ Then it's true you guys aren't close."
"You still call him sunbae? Wow~ I didn't think Pyo-sik was like that, enforcing the senior-junior hierarchy and all!?"
As Kyung-hoon takes Su-geun's cue and teases him, a flustered Pyo-sik sunbae waves his hands in the air, making excuses.
"N-no! Seriously, wow, we're totally close! Right, Min-jun?"
"No, I'm not, sunbaenim."
"...Huh? Hey, hey why are you like this! You're usually super playful!"
"I apologize. Should I get down on my knees like usual?"
"Eu-ha-ha-ha! Min-jun's variety sense is alive! But Min-jun! In our school, everyone is the same age. There's no such thing as seniors and juniors."
At Ho-dong's shout, Oh Pyo-sik sunbae quickly nodded.
"That's right! Just call me by my name!"
"Uh... I don't know about Yoon-hyeok, but with Pyo-sik sunbae, the age gap is too big..."
"Wow? How big is the gap?"
"It's a 10-year gap."
"10 years? That's nothing!! Here, look at how the kids treat me!"
At Ho-dong's chatter, Hee-chul and Kyung-hoon playfully opened their mouths.
"Yeah! We have a 13-year gap with Ho-dong, but we don't call him hyung."
"Right, Ho-dong-ah?"
Thus, Pyo-sik sunbae, who was reeking of "no-fun" and destined for the cutting room floor, unintentionally managed to pop one off, attaching an oxygen mask to the writer team who were on the verge of passing out.
"Name! Yoon-hyeok! Age, 22."
Next was Yoon-hyeok sunbae's turn.
Unlike Pyo-sik sunbae, who had been stiff as a board, the writer noonas were full of anticipation at the sight of him standing naturally in front of the teacher's desk.
"He's handsome."
The whispering voices of the writer noonas reached me.
...Was it just because he's handsome? Well, I suppose Yoon-hyeok sunbae's moderately handsome and neat appearance is something women would like.
Su-geun, reading the admission application written in advance, asked as if puzzled.
"Huh? Yoon-hyeok, you have a sister in the special notes? Is your sister a famous person?"
"Right? She's probably more famous than me?"
"Oh! I'm curious. Who is it?"
Kyung-hoon, who already knew, asked while acting flighty as if hearing it for the first time.
"Yoon Hee-yeon. She's a tennis player."
"Oh-oh! I know, I know!! I know her really well!! The Tennis Fairy!!"
Hee-chul jumped up and showed an exaggerated reaction.
But was Hee-yeon noona that famous?
Of course, even when we first met, she was a prospect the school was paying attention to, and I heard she was evaluated as a rising star in the tennis world, but I didn't think she would be more famous than Yoon-hyeok sunbae, who became an overnight star through the Olympics.
"If it's athlete Yoon Hee-yeon, she's the empress of Korean tennis! Right!"
"They've been calling her that lately."
"Right. I'm a fan of athlete Yoon Hee-yeon, so I know well! Her momentum is amazing lately. She's been flying around since the start of this year, you know?"
I couldn't help but ask at Hee-chul's statement, which made me doubt when he had become a fan.
"Hee-chul, are you by any chance a third-generation fan?"
"Huh!? How did you know? My family has been fans of athlete Yoon Hee-yeon for three generations."
I realized my mistake after making the joke, but Hee-chul, being well-versed in online communities, accepted it smoothly.
Almost became 'Yeong-chul'.
"Guys. Ho-dong here has a look that says he doesn't know?"
However, the moment the other members who didn't know this joke looked bewildered and the atmosphere died down, Su-geun cut in exquisitely.
"Oh? Really? Ho-dong, do you really not know athlete Yoon Hee-yeon?"
At Kyung-hoon's question, which he quickly picked up, Ho-dong grumbled exaggeratedly.
"Ayy, what are you talking about~ I know her too~ She's the Tennis Fairy!! You know, like, she won a match and stuff."
"Oh, that's right. She won the Korea Open and had good results at the Australian Open just before."
"Seriously, athlete Yoon Hee-yeon's momentum is no joke lately. Her skills have fully blossomed, huh?"
"I think so. Strangely, my sister's potential exploded about half a year ago. When I asked her why, she said she ate something good, but even when I asked what she ate, she just laughed."
Huh? Half a year ago?
What happened then... I think the time I first met her was around then.
'Surely, the "good thing" isn't my semen, right?'
Nah, it couldn't be. Have I been watching too much Hitomi?
That eating semen improves athletic performance... what kind of absurd delusion is this.
Anyway, hearing Hee-yeon noona's name makes me want to see her suddenly. She said she'd be resting in Korea for a while... I wonder if I can invite her over.
"But my sister is a fan of this guy."
It's already been 2 hours since filming started.
Maintaining a higher tension than usual made me tired quickly.
The initial excitement faded, and as I was spacing out due to the encroaching fatigue, gazes suddenly converged on me.
What, why?
"My sister is really the type who has no interest in men. No, I'm not joking, seriously. You know that type. Why, people who are so focused on their career or work that they don't care about trivial things. My sister is exactly that style, so she really had no interest in men. But lately, she's going crazy over Min-jun. Every day, it's Min-jun this, Min-jun that, asking if there's any news... it's annoying as hell."
"Wow~ So the Tennis Fairy is a fan of Min-jun right now?"
"And a hardcore fan at that. Her phone background is a picture of Min-jun, and she doesn't even care about her brother's transfer, but she looks up all of Min-jun's transfer rumors. She's incredibly devoted."
Jang-hoon, who had been listening carefully to Yoon-hyeok sunbae's remarks, suddenly opened his mouth,
"It's because he's handsome, as expected. Handsome. I tell you again and again. For men, nothing else is needed. You have to be handsome."
He asserted lookism.
Hee-chul burst into laughter at those words.
"Jang-hoon-ah. Then what about Yeong-chul?"
"Huh? Yeong-chul is... ah, damn it, I don't know!"
"Why are you only picking on me~!"
Just as Yoon-hyeok sunbae's turn was ending.
"Then, the last question. There's something I'm really grateful to Min-jun for, what is it?"
Hmm... grateful to me.
What could it be.
I had absolutely no clue and was thinking hard, and it seems Jang-hoon noticed.
"Hey. It looks like even the person involved, Min-jun, doesn't know?"
"Oh? Really? Min-jun, you don't know the answer to this?"
"Hmm..."
"Ayy~ He doesn't know. Forget it, pass!"
"No. It's not that I don't know."
"Then what is it?"
This... I really don't know.
I blurted out that I knew, but I don't even have a clue.
"I do know... ah, there are just too many things Yoon-hyeok would be grateful for, so I don't know exactly which one it is."
So I chatted appropriately, and everyone liked it.
"Eu-hyak-hyak-hyak! Min-jun is quite the slippery eel."
"Hyeok-ah! He says there are too many things so he doesn't know?"
"...Suddenly, I think I forgot too?"
After a couple of nonsensical answers popped out, Yoon-hyeok sunbae started his story.
"Min-jun was extraordinary from the moment he first joined, you know? Whenever new students join the club, our coach always puts them in one team and makes them concede goals on purpose. Shall we call it a unique initiation ceremony? For example, the defense makes an absurd mistake, or the goalkeeper fumbles the ball and lets it in, so they concede a goal."
At Yoon-hyeok sunbae's words, I suddenly remembered the first day I joined.
"Huh? Wait a minute... Ah~ what! Don't tell me that was rigged!? No wonder they were really like... chicks. Haha."
"Eu-ha-ha-hat! Min-jun is angry!"
"Wow, I think I just heard something strange? Chick what? Chick~ what did you say?"
These hyenas. They're biting down as if they've been waiting for it.
Anyway, to think that amateur-like defense was rigged. No wonder it made no sense.
"Wait, wait. Hyeok is talking. Let's hear more. So?"
"They say that's the coach's unique way of evaluating players; he watches the player's reaction when they concede an absurd goal, right? A newly joined freshman concedes a goal in an absurd way, but still performs well? Then that means they have a strong heart. The coach's theory is that such a player will perform well in big games. But that was exactly Min-jun."
"Oh-oh~ Min-jun performed amazingly, huh?"
"Right. And he was flying around so much that he was going on a rampage against the 3rd and 4th-year seniors. I think, at that time, he scored a goal with a solo dribble breakthrough from the half-line, or something like that. Watching that, I felt it right away. Ah! This guy is different."
Hmm... was there such a meaning?
Come to think of it, it sounds roughly correct. Since I was young, I didn't get nervous even before big games, and thanks to that, I used to perform better than usual among players whose bodies were stiff with tension.
"Wow~ As expected! Min-jun was the genius type, huh?"
Ah, from here on, it's the script.
Although Yoon-hyeok sunbae's story earlier was an ad-lib, the story was pre-planned: to induce the narrative that Min-jun is a genius while talking about me, and then reveal that I was actually a hard worker.
"He's a genius. A total genius."
...Huh? But this isn't the script?
He's supposed to say I'm a hard worker, not a genius.
"But I said earlier, right? That there's something I'm grateful for. At first, I thought Min-jun was simply a genius. You know. A freshman playing with 3rd and 4th years, I really wondered if this is what a difference in talent is."
"I know. I know. When I was an active player, I went to the US to watch the NBA, and I felt it right then. There really is a gap in talent. The more you know, the more you see it, you know?"
As expected of a former athlete, Jang-hoon responded actively.
Ah, the genius image isn't bad either... but the initial plan was the hard-worker image.
Yoon Da-ye's judgment was that if the genius image were added when I'm already outstanding in both ability and appearance, it could create a sense of alienation from the public.
That's why I even asked to exclude introducing me as a genius when coordinating with the writer noonas in advance.
...Will this be okay?
I glanced at Yoon Da-ye, who was watching from among the staff, but her expression was indifferent.
Hmm... well, it'll be fine.