Chapter 94: Employee Farm Experience (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 94: Employee Farm Experience (2)
I was speechless for a moment.
Reflected in the mirror, my back looked like it had a long, painful history.
A large diagonal gash ran from between my shoulder blades down to the middle of my waist. The parts where the wound had gaped open before healing were clearly visible, as it hadn't closed cleanly.
At this rate, some people might find it gruesome.
Now I understood Jeong Seong-bin’s reaction. It was prominent enough to show through the fabric of a T-shirt.
“It’s really… huge.”
I hadn't realized my back was in such a state.
I’d felt the scar while washing, but since so much time had passed since the injury occurred, I hadn't paid it much mind. Besides, the bathroom in the dorm was so cramped there wasn't enough space to angle my back toward the mirror.
More importantly, I needed to know why this scar, which I thought I’d tucked away, looked like this now.
The fact that I’d been injured remained the same, but if only the shape of the scar had changed…
Shit, is my sister actually alive and well?
No matter how I looked at it, it felt like the sister who had cleaned up the aftermath of the accident had disappeared.
I immediately checked my sister’s status registered in the Welfare Service.
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[SYSTEM] ‘Welfare Service’ Usage History
▷ Relationship: Blood Relative
▷ Health Status: Good
▷ Psychological State: Poor
▷ Others: At work
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I almost tore the system a new one when I saw her psychological state was "Poor," but I calmed down once I saw she was "At work." Right, that’s an act of God.
The real issue was whether I could continue to trust this system.
If it could turn a man’s back into a piece of scrap metal, what was stopping it from deceiving me with a few lines of text?
I’ll endure it for now since there’s nothing else I can do, but just you wait until I catch you in a lie. I’ll crack my own head open, go to the afterlife, and pull an interview filibuster on you, you damn system.
“Hyungs, are you still changing? They said we have to head out now!”
Lee Cheong-hyeon shouted from outside the door.
I told Jeong Seong-bin I’d hide it well before heading out, sent him ahead, and layered two T-shirts over each other.
In the past, Spark rarely did outdoor activities.
I recalled the prevailing opinion being: what’s the point of letting kids who can’t even talk properly in an indoor studio loose outside?
They occasionally performed well on sports programs, but interacting and being active with various people seemed to be incredibly awkward for them.
The problem was that ‘various people’ included their own members.
But things were different now.
Thanks to me hounding them day and night, they had personally realized what a grave sin it was to stand silently in front of a camera and had finally awakened.
As a result…
“I don’t know if I should say this, but you hyungs… your aura is no joke.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Lee Cheong-hyeon?”
“I mean you guys look like you’d be amazing at farm work. So reliable, so sturdy!”
“That’s true.”
“Gi-yeon, you look reliable too…!”
“Huh?”
…None of them would keep their traps shut.
In the midst of it all, they seemed to remember my warning not to let the audio overlap, as their timing for cutting in was perfect.
I watched them chatter away before leaning over to our MC, Jeong Seong-bin, who had been pushed to the corner.
“Seong-bin, they’re being too loud. Should we go stand them up in the field as substitute scarecrows?”
“Please don’t say that, I feel like you’d actually do it…!”
Good grief. Can’t I even tell a joke?
Jeong Seong-bin, seemingly convinced I would actually plant the members upside down in the field, quickly brought the group to order.
“Our first task now that we’ve arrived in the countryside! Preparing lunch!”
Everyone clapped energetically at Seong-bin’s words.
Preparing lunch.
With these guys, out here in the great outdoors?
In that case, there was nothing to think about.
“Let’s make pajeon.”
There was no room for choice. We had to go with something easy to make.
“Pajeon sounds great! What else should we make?”
“Cheong-hyeon, if we can just finish the pajeon safely, it’ll be a success for our skill level.”
I said with a smile, placing a hand on Lee Cheong-hyeon’s shoulder.
My eyes were smiling, but I was dead serious.
If I picked any two of them right now and told them to go pull some green onions from the field, one would definitely bring back an onion and the other would bring back water dropwort.
Trying my best to ignore the bleak future I could clearly foresee, I maintained my smile and asked.
“PD-nim, is it possible for us to get things like frying powder or salt?”
“You can get as many necessary items as you want through games with the production team!”
The PD answered.
Just then, an ominous conversation reached my ears.
“Seong-bin Hyung, do we need salt for pajeon? Don’t we usually just dip it in soy sauce?”
“Maybe he wants it for something else? Right, Je-ho Hyung?”
“I think we put some in when we made kimchi pancakes last time… Cheong-hyeon, did we put salt in back then?”
“Didn’t we put in sugar? Does it depend on the ingredients whether you use salt or sugar?”
I asked with a faint smile.
“PD-nim.”
“Yes!”
“How many ingredients… can you give us?”
Because I think we’re going to need a lot.
Making pajeon for six was an incredibly chaotic process.
“Are green onion roots usually like this? Is it because they’re eco-friendly?”
“Je-ho, isn't that an onion?”
From the single-celled Choi Je-ho, who lived up to expectations by pulling an undergrown onion.
“Didn’t we say we had to build a fire pit?”
“Wait, Gi-yeon. If we don’t want to do the work twice, we have to be careful and pick a spot considering the members' movement paths and the direction of the wind.”
To Lee Cheong-hyeon, who used his good brain to the fullest for something like this, and Kang Gi-yeon, who agreed and was tearing down the bricks he’d barely managed to stack.
I had a feeling we’d be eating lunch in the afternoon. Around… 5 PM.
At least it was a relief that Jeong Seong-bin and Park Ju-woo’s side was quiet.
Right, there are five of them, so the world’s balance would only be right if at least one of them had experience with outdoor cooking…
“Hyung, how much do I have to peel the green onions for them to be considered trimmed?”
“Iwol Hyung, there are three types of soy sauce in the cupboard. Which one should I bring…?”
“…”
Well, you see…
Next time, I hope the production team takes these kids to something like the Boy Scouts instead of a farm experience. A one-day cooking class would be even better.
I answered their questions one by one and then handed them work gloves.
“What are the gloves for?”
“I’ll do the cooking, so you guys just go gather some firewood.”
I lamented inwardly as I watched their backs recede toward the mountain path.
This is all because I fed them nothing but salads.
If I’d let them cook a few meals for themselves, would it have turned out like this?
Not that I can say much, since I can’t exactly cook anything grand either.
I thought as I vigorously scrubbed the cauldron lid that had been placed conspicuously on one side of the wooden porch.
Then, Kang Gi-yeon approached and asked.
“Are you going to fry the pancakes on the lid?”
“Yeah. I think it’ll be better than using a frying pan.”
“Then should I scrub it?”
“I have to season it with oil too, so I’ll do it. What about the fire pit? Is it done?”
“Lee Cheong-hyeon told me to leave it to him.”
Glancing at the yard, I saw Lee Cheong-hyeon shouting, “This isn’t it!” while smashing the bricks he’d just stacked.
“Gi-yeon.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t run away to me. Go back and build that fire pit.”
“…Yes.”
Scrubbing the cauldron lid for a while reminded me of the workshop back at Hanpyeong Industry.
—A workshop isn’t a workshop without a barbecue. Don’t you agree, Team Leader Jo?
—Oh, of course. Didn't you prepare the charcoal and everything, Department Head? We’re just along for the ride. What do they call that these days? Getting a free bus ride?
It was a workshop of tears where I was the one who made the reservations, did the grocery shopping, grilled the meat, and poured the drinks, yet I had no idea who was supposedly giving whom a "bus ride."
Even back then, while Department Head Nam and Team Leader Jo drank until they passed out, I was outside scrubbing a griddle like this.
If someone asked me when the best part of that workshop was, I could confidently say: when I was scrubbing the griddle.
As I recalled that beautiful memory, strength naturally flowed into the hand holding the scourer.
While I was wiping the moisture off the cleaned cauldron lid, Park Ju-woo came over this time.
Park Ju-woo held out a giant basin full of batter and asked.
“Hyung, is this enough batter…?”
“Yeah. Who made the batter? Good job.”
“Je-ho Hyung did.”
Even though he’d struggled, it seemed his experience making kimchi pancakes hadn't gone to waste. That was a huge improvement.
Park Ju-woo didn't leave immediately even after getting my approval; instead, he crouched down beside me.
He pointed toward the scene where Lee Cheong-hyeon and Kang Gi-yeon were shouting and building a fire pit with their mouths.
“Hyung, do you know how to start a fire in a place like that?”
You can’t help but worry after seeing the state of those guys, can you?
I patted Park Ju-woo’s shoulder to reassure him.
“Of course. Just trust me.”
I know how to start a fire and even how to cook rice in a cauldron.
So rest easy and go get the cooking oil.
The pajeon, completed after much trial and error, was excellent.
Maybe it was because it was freshly fried, but it was delicious.
After filming the eating scene, we didn't forget to fry up a few more and hand them out to the staff. When I sat back down to fry more, the kids brought the ingredients over without being told.
Occasionally, Lee Cheong-hyeon would act up, saying he wanted to try making a rabbit-shaped pancake since the surface was so wide, but since it was for the broadcast, I let him do as he pleased.
One of the rabbit’s ears ended up shorter because he failed the flip, but it still tasted good.
The filming continued busily after that.
While Choi Je-ho and Kang Gi-yeon, who lost at rock-paper-scissors, did the dishes together, Jeong Seong-bin and I won a mart voucher from the production team and went grocery shopping.
In the meantime, I don’t know what Park Ju-woo and Lee Cheong-hyeon were doing, but they managed to donate a shuttlecock and a badminton racket to a tree branch.
They were so blatantly snatched by the tree that for a second, I thought it was a hidden camera prank.
After weeding the vegetable garden, a foot volleyball bet with the production team, and writing rolling papers, the day in the mountain village quickly drew to a close.
But that didn't mean the day was over for the celebrities who had come to film.
I thinly sliced the cucumbers Choi Je-ho had picked from the garden earlier and meticulously placed them on the faces of the Spark members, who must have suffered under the scorching sun all day. No matter how I looked at it, I should have been a staff member, not an idol.
“Hyung, I’ll put them on your face, so you lie down too!”
“I’m fine, so nobody move. Every time a cucumber falls, consider it my hard work falling off.”
I’d barely managed to get Jeong Seong-bin to stay down when Lee Cheong-hyeon suddenly bolted up from a distance.
“Hyung, I just thought of something I really want to do!”
At the same time, the cucumbers on Lee Cheong-hyeon’s porcelain-white face tumbled down.
That brat, I put so much effort into slicing those!
However, the cameras were still rolling. I suppressed my anger and asked.
“What is it?”
“A Truth Game! It might be cliché, but it’d be a shame not to do it when we’re in a place like this!”
So you dropped all my precious cucumbers just to say that? You could have easily made that suggestion while lying down.
But I figured the fans would like it. Idol fans tended to want to know even the most trivial things.
Department Head Nam’s daughter had been like that too.
From Choi Je-ho’s height and weight to his favorite shoe brands—that was one thing, but she hadn't been satisfied with just that.
I don’t know what was so charming about the information that Choi Je-ho had ordered a double serving of jajangmyeon and cream shrimp at a Chinese restaurant one spring day in May, but I remembered hearing that the daughter had absolutely loved that "bait" I’d found for her.
A Truth Game would probably yield more interesting stories than that. If not, I could just squeeze some out of them.
“I’m down!”
For once, even Park Ju-woo spoke up loudly, supporting Lee Cheong-hyeon’s idea.
I was trying to recall if Truth Games were a trend among young people these days when Park Ju-woo said with sparkling eyes.
“I, uh, never got to go on school trips and stuff. So I haven't had many chances to do things like this…!”
Ah, Ju-woo.
If you put it like that, I can’t say no…