Chapter 93
After they came down from the stage, the other teams all dispersed, but the Breakwater team still had work left to do.
That work was simple enough. Their very own reverse tribute.
The prize they had earned by burning themselves white in the random play dance, the five-piece dessert set, was time to hand out to the fans who had come to watch the recording.
Fifty sets per member. Six members meant a total of three hundred dessert sets, all told.
And how had the competition turned out?
Well...
And the winner of Round 3 is...! Breakwater Team, who showed us a charming song called Breakwater and a spectacular stage! Congratulations!
They had won!
"Yeeees! We're going on music shows!"
"Yeeees! Watch out! Wednesday Music!"
Woo Cheong and Logan were so excited they kept cartwheeling beside them. There had been eight hundred audience members in total, and Breakwater had taken victory with a staggering 729 votes.
The other teams had mostly hovered around the 350-vote mark. Even compared to the number-six song, which had drawn the second-highest tally at 418 votes and had been the title that inspired the most expectations during selection, the gap was overwhelming.
Baek Yuri, Yeo Do-bin, and Ha On-ha hurried over with light steps to help the staff carry out the dessert sets.
Neoul was lying on the floor by himself, a two-liter bottle of water turned upside down in his mouth as he stared at his teammates.
He had the most muscle mass on the Breakwater team, but for some reason, keeping up with human stamina was still a struggle. So every so often, he had to collapse and lie still until he recovered enough strength to move again.
Fresh water... tastes awful...
Maybe it was because he had water that was not seawater always pressed to his lips. Or maybe it was because he had been breathing air for too long.
Without even needing to find a physician, he could roughly guess the cause.
Neoul drained the bottle and hauled himself upright in a shambling motion. He was still in his stage outfit. It was late, and there was no time to change clothes if they wanted to help the fans get home quickly.
"Neoul!"
"Neoguri Hyeong!"
At the calls from Baek Yuri and Woo Cheong, Neoul set off at once.
The fans who had not yet left were waiting with puzzled expressions. The production team had randomly selected three hundred people from among the fans who had come to cheer for the Breakwater team and kept them behind by calling out their numbers.
As soon as Breakwater appeared with the staff, the fans let out shrieks.
The Breakwater team approached them shyly, faces flushed, as the staff continued arranging the dessert sets.
"Everyone, how was our stage~?"
Ha On-ha spoke first, easy and familiar.
"It was amazing!"
"The best!"
"You were so good! You worked so hard!"
"The outfits suited you so well!"
Chatter and answers burst back at them. Neoul looked at the fans, their eyes shining bright, then glanced down at his own clothes.
Were these garments called techwear?
He remembered the time they had voted on the concept by majority rule.
After Logan cast his vote for the bodyguard concept:
"Um... then should we vote between the bodyguard concept and the navy concept...?"
"Wait. Can we add just one more?"
At Yeo Do-bin's question, everyone had nodded. Then, just before the vote, Baek Yuri had stepped in. Yuri had wanted a more layered setting, something with a deeper backstory than the simple concepts mentioned earlier.
"The Idol Travel concept is travel, right? The judges are the pilots, the viewers are the passengers, and we board the plane and arrive at the destination to find the best idol."
"Right?"
"But then we arrive at the destination, meet you all, show you a performance, and have a great time... and then monsters appear, invade Earth, and the world begins to end."
"Huh? All of a sudden?"
Ha On-ha had been thrown by the sudden turn, but Yeo Do-bin's eyes had lit up as though he found the story rather thrilling.
"But in fact, we were secret special agents dispatched by the state. It isn't really travel at all. We're evacuating the passengers on a plane just before the end of the world, but then the monsters chase us even to the evacuation site."
"Ah! So it's an apocalypse world?"
"Exactly. So we're in a situation where we have to protect the passengers and escort them to safety again."
"Ohhh! That sounds fun!"
"G-great...! Then should we vote with special agents included...?"
"What is a special agent?"
And so, by majority vote, the concept became special agents protecting passengers in an apocalypse world. Since Neoul had no idea what a special agent was and found the whole thing difficult to understand, Baek Yuri had quietly explained it to him.
"A special agent is... someone like Dong-dong, who's staying at President Won Hasin's house right now."
"You mean someone living off someone else's household?"
"Ah, no. Not that. I mean... a job where you receive training in combat techniques or military operations and carry out specific missions. Dong-dong-nim was also trained as a martial officer, and now he's carrying out the mission of escorting you, Neoul."
"To tell the truth, although Dong-dong Gyeonsabok says he came to escort me, he is not doing any work at all, and I also do not believe I require escorting. That is why Representative Won said Dong-dong Gyeonsabok was unemployed. He does nothing but eat food without working."
"Um... still, Dong-dong-nim can't exactly storm the set to escort you, Neoul."
That was true enough. Still, in Neoul's eyes, Dong-dong was a thoroughly unreliable bodyguard in many ways. He felt that especially whenever Dong-dong fell for Won Hasin's childish provocations and ended up bickering with him.
A bodyguard who ripped out his opponent's hair in a fight? That was hardly dignified at all.
Neoul shook his head, and Baek Yuri, seeing that the analogy had not quite reached him, changed tactics.
"Mm. You don't have to know exactly what a special agent is. It might be easier if we approach it situationally. A giant squid has invaded the Dragon Palace and is tearing the whole place apart. You're bravely standing against the enemy to protect the Dragon Palace."
"Why would I stand against the enemy? There are countless trained martial officers. They ought to protect me."
"...Huh?"
Neoul tilted his chin with princely arrogance, and Baek Yuri paused, thinking that, on reflection, he did have a point.
"What if there were no retainers or martial officers at all? Try immersing yourself in the situation by imagining that only you and your family are left in the Dragon Palace."
That example was wonderfully effective.
The moment Neoul imagined a darkened Dragon Palace with only the unconscious Dragon King and a young younger brother left behind, his heart seemed to drop straight through his feet.
"I would protect them by any means necessary."
"What if your family was frightened and anxious?"
"I would keep them from leaving their rooms... and reassure them."
"Exactly. That's our concept."
Thanks to that, Neoul's grasp of the song improved, and he was able to perform an excellent expression as if it came naturally to him.
The staff guided the fans into six lines of fifty each. Then the production team filmed the Breakwater members personally handing out the five-piece dessert sets.
There were a few people who asked the person standing in the next line for consent to switch places so they could receive a gift from the contestant they supported, but for the most part, everyone waited in orderly fashion.
No one had expected a reverse tribute event to happen before the contestants even debuted. So many of the fans were overwhelmed with emotion, or so nervous they looked like their souls had fled their bodies.
Neoul looked at the fan standing directly in front of him. She was holding a slogan with a photo of Neoul on it and the words, "Master Singer Whalesong Geol-Neoul, I love Geolang!"
Neoul picked up the dessert set box. Then he greeted the flustered fan first.
"Hello."
"A-ahhh, h-hi...!"
"Thank you for cheering for us today. You voted for our team, yes?"
"O-of course! I mean, y-yes, of course...!"
The fan was far too tense. Her face was so red Neoul couldn't tell whether she was actually breathing properly. She looked as if she might burst into tears or faint at any moment.
Neoul looked at the other fans behind her. Those watching him met his eyes only to dart their gaze away at once, or suck in a sharp breath.
Neoul, all bundled up like a nervous Yeo Do-bin, looked at the fans who shrank and creaked and trembled without even making eye contact, thoroughly puzzled.
Why were they like this now, when they had cheered so boldly and loudly while he was on stage?
Are they scared...?
Standing this close, the difference in size between Neoul and the fans waiting in line was indeed enormous. It seemed they were frightened simply because he was so much larger than a human.
Neoul bent his long legs and lowered himself as much as possible. Then, tilting his head, he met the gaze of the fan who kept looking away and said,
"Thank you. These are the prize that Baek Yuri seonsaeng and Woo Cheong and Ha On-ha earned by surviving the random dance thing. I don't know what flavor they are because I haven't tasted them. Please eat them and tell me."
"Ohhh... t-thank y-you... I-I'll... eat them w-well...!"
Neoul sent telepathic messages with his eyes, trying earnestly to say, I won't hurt you. I'm not a scary mermaid. But the fan only seemed even more nervous.
She looked as though one tap would make her face explode. Her voice was even quivering on the verge of tears.
Is it not my build that is frightening her? That cannot be right.
No matter the angle, Neoul's face was handsomely noble, and the more one looked at it, the more satisfying it became.
Is the stage makeup frightening?
Still somewhat flustered, Neoul held out the dessert box. But then, suddenly, a concern struck him.
Is this safe?
Could someone have done something to the neatly wrapped five-piece dessert set?
Neoul stared suspiciously down at the box. The fan, who had cautiously reached out to receive it, grew flustered again when Neoul did not let go.
"W-why... aren't you giving it to me...?"
"I don't believe this will do."
Neoul snatched the dessert box back. The fan looked from her empty hands to Neoul in dismay.
"Huh...?"
"There may be something suspicious hidden in this dessert set. I must eat it first and confirm that it is truly safe."
"W-what? Ahhh...?"
Without hesitation, Neoul opened the box. Muffins, madeleines, jumbo macarons, chocolate chip cookies, financiers. A variety of delicious-looking desserts, each wrapped in parchment, lay neatly inside.
Neoul picked up the nearest muffin and brought it toward his lips. At that very moment,
"Geol-Neoul!"
Ha On-ha's thunderous shout came crashing down. The other members, startled, turned to stare at Neoul as well.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing, trying to eat the fans' gifts?! You!"
"Gasp! Neoguri Hyeong!"
"Neoul!"
Ha On-ha rushed at him, and Baek Yuri and Woo Cheong, horrified, sprang to Ha On-ha's aid and seized the muffin and the box from Neoul. Then they carefully put everything back and handed it to the fan again.
The fan, stunned by the chaos that had unfolded in the blink of an eye, opened and closed her mouth before blurting out,
"I-I mean, if Neoul is hungry... y-you can e-eat it...!"
Neoul smiled gently at the fan, then looked shamelessly at Ha On-ha.
"Ha On-ha, did she not say I could eat it? And while it is true I am hungry, that was not why I intended to taste it. I merely wished to test it for poison..."
"No!"
"Absolutely not!"
"Oh, come on! Hyeong! That's not it!"
In the end, under the watchful guard of the three of them, Neoul had to distribute the desserts to the fans untouched. Yeo Do-bin, from a distance, quietly gasped in alarm, then let out a long breath of relief once the situation had been settled.
"Ooooh, no."
Logan shook his head.