Chapter 87
Chapter 87
“What in the...”
Ryu Cheong-woo muttered, trailing off as he surveyed the living room, which looked like it had been hit by a balloon bomb. He likely stopped because he spotted the lenses spinning between the balloons.
The familiar reality show cameras were back.
‘So the re-filming starts today.’
Since they had barely spent any time at the dorm lately, the reality cameras usually only stayed for short, intense bursts to capture content before pulling out.
‘Besides, we’ve milked our promotional activities and daily life content so much that there’s nothing left to use.’
However, this was the first time they had set up something this elaborate, so the members entered the living room with hesitant steps.
Amidst the swaying balloons, they discovered a giant note. It was so large that calling it a "note" was an understatement; it took up a quarter of the living room wall.
[Special Feature! TeSTAR’s 1st Place Commemorative Trip]
“Huh?”
“...A trip?”
“A trip!”
Cha Yu-jin immediately kicked through the balloons to reach the wall. Colorful balloons, clearly inspired by the three Pantone numbers selected as their official colors, soared into the air.
“This peels off! There is something inside!”
“Yu-jin, be careful!”
“Oh.”
Perhaps remembering the scolding he’d received last time, Cha Yu-jin let go of the note with a slightly dejected face.
“Right, let’s check it together.”
“Okay...”
I wasn't sure if we really needed to do it this way, but for the sake of the broadcast, we all peeled the note off together.
“One, two, three!”
A massive roulette wheel was revealed.
‘...A roulette.’
Just hearing the word felt like it would trigger a flashback.
However, the members were excited by the scent of actual travel content.
“Whoa! What’s this?”
“A game of chance?”
“It says ‘Travel Roulette’!”
Just as Kim Rae-bin said, the words <Travel Roulette> were written in large letters at the top. Below that, an explanation followed in decent-sized font.
“Hmm~ ‘You will spin this roulette together to determine the concept of this trip... TeSTAR’s Friendship Trip for two days and one night!’ Wow, this is for real?”
“I love it!”
“S-Should we spin it now...!?”
Even Seon A-hyun, who had been a bit low on energy, clung to the roulette in excitement. The wheel was divided into seven sections, each with a different theme.
[Healing, Mukbang, Adventure, Extreme, Theme Park, History.]
“Oh~”
The keywords were filled with fairly distinct themes.
‘Healing would be the best.’
Looking at it, that would likely be a schedule where we go to the mountains and live a rural life. It seemed the most manageable, with no physical exertion other than perhaps some chores.
“I want to do Adventure.”
“Healing sounds good.”
“I think they put Mukbang in just for Moon-dae.”
Perhaps thinking about their screen time, the guys expressed their preferences for a moment before they couldn't hold back any longer and excitedly crowded around the wheel.
“Let’s all grab it and spin at the same time!”
“Let’s do that. Moon-dae, you come here too!”
“...Yes, sir.”
Thanks to that, the camera captured the bizarre sight of all six of us spinning the roulette together.
‘Please, let it at least turn out wholesome.’
Muttering my wish, I touched the roulette at the same time as the others.
“Ooooh~”
“It’s spinning!”
‘Of course it’s spinning, why wouldn't it?’
They must have put quite a bit of strength into it, as the roulette spun for a long time before finally coming to a halt.
“Theme park...!”
Despite Kim Rae-bin’s desperate plea, the wheel passed the purple Theme Park section... and landed on the red one.
“Wait, wait, wait!”
And there, written in an avant-garde font on the bright red section, was the theme.
[Extreme Travel]
“......Extreme?”
“Ah, Extreme!”
Cha Yu-jin finally realized the meaning of the word and raised both hands with a grin.
‘You like it, Cha Yu-jin?’
I couldn't have felt more ominous.
A moment later, a text message from the production crew arrived on Ryu Cheong-woo’s smartphone.
[TeSTAR’s theme for this trip is Extreme~]
[We will host you with an exciting theme to taste the limits of pleasure! ^^]
[※ No take-backs!]
“N-No take-backs...?”
“Uh..., haha......”
Whether their survival-honed instincts were kicking in or not, the members' faces began to pale.
“......”
I walked up to the roulette.
“Moon-dae?”
And I spun the wheel again.
Spin, spin. The wheel turned vigorously and......
Stopped on Extreme Travel again.
...I spun it once more.
Whirrr... click.
......Extreme.
The members finally realized the situation.
“...!!”
“...This is a scam!”
...For the record, when we met the production crew the next day, they just smirked and said they had to plan the schedule in advance, so they couldn't just leave it to chance and let it land on all seven.
‘These bastards...’
I could feel their determination to squeeze every drop of viewership out of this travel content.
...I really had a bad feeling about this.
[I checked late because of my schedule. Congrats on the Music Gayo #1.]
As I woke up and replied to the text that had arrived in the morning, I found it increasingly absurd.
Even though I wrote in my status message that I’m slow to check, the messages keep coming.
The sender, by the way, was VTIC’s Cheong-ryeo.
‘This guy is seriously exhausting.’
Since he was also a candidate for first place, there was no way he checked late.
One of his members would have definitely mentioned it that day. There was no way the news that their three-week terrestrial triple crown streak had been blocked wouldn't have come up.
‘He definitely contacted me just to be petty.’
Sure enough, a reply came back immediately.
[I hope you get #1 faster next time.]
He meant: Don't release at the same time as us and get on my nerves; just avoid us so we can each take our own #1s.
[Thank you. I hope you have a great day, sunbaenim.]
‘I can’t even fucking ignore him.’
I turned off the chat notifications for now. It’s already annoying enough every time I see the General Manager, and now this weirdo is bothering me too.
“Pack! For! The! Trip!”
“M-Moon-dae, did you... p-pack everything?”
“Yeah. Just a second.”
As soon as I turned off my phone, a clattering noise began to echo.
‘I guess we’re filming the preparation for departure...’
It was the start of the reality travel content.
“Is that all?”
“Yeah.”
“Will you be okay?”
“Of course.”
When I showed up with just a single backpack, people started nagging me from all sides, asking if I had too little luggage.
‘It’s only two days and one night.’
It’s a package tour where we just go wherever the production crew tells us anyway. Aren't clothes and a toothbrush enough?
“What about snacks?”
“What?”
“What about snacks?”
“......Snacks.”
“Yes!”
“Let’s buy some there.”
“Okay......”
It seemed that in Cha Yu-jin’s mind, my image had become that of a snack supplier.
‘I feel like I’ve become a bread shuttle.’
I couldn't wrap my head around this wonderful title that I’d never even held in high school.
“Now then... we’re finally going on our first trip~”
“Whoo!!”
“I hope we can make many good memories!”
At any rate, we did a good job with the opening in front of the production cameras. Even though they’d been tricked, everyone was clearly excited just because it was a trip.
‘It has been a grueling run.’
We’d been running without a break for about two months, from the preparation of the debut album until now.
However, I should have guessed what was about to happen from the moment the production crew started smirking at the members.
About three hours later.
We arrived at a rural village at the foot of a mountain on the outskirts of Gyeonggi-do.
“Congratulations to TeSTAR for arriving at today’s first travel destination!”
“Whoo!!”
“The scenery is really nice!”
It was a bit hot, but the weather was certainly beautiful. As the members' faces brightened at the outdoor activity for the first time in a while, the PD shouted through a megaphone.
“Your first extreme activity is... skydiving!”
“...!?”
The atmosphere froze.
“You see that light aircraft up there?”
Vroom, vroom...
A black flying object passed across the blue sky.
“You’re going to get on that and jump.”
“......!!”
And then, chaos ensued.
“Aaaaaaaah!!”
“This is completely safe...... I am safe......”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“...Is it impossible to opt out?”
“Oh, come on, it’d be a waste since you’re already on the plane~ We already paid for all of this.”
“......”
At the instructor’s nonchalant reply, Lee Se-jin’s face turned a sickly shade of blue.
‘What a mess.’
Still, the production crew did offer a final lifeline.
—If you really can’t jump, you can just come back down. Instead, the next course will be doubled!
‘They’re going to get so much hate from the fans for this.’
If someone actually cried because they couldn't do it, the backlash would be at a level where they’d get cursed out for "making an idol reality show unnecessarily sadistic" and have to issue an apology.
However, that seemed unlikely to happen.
“Alright, then, one person at a time!”
“Uwaaaaah!”
Because these guys were surprisingly tenacious.
Since they were the ones who had gritted their teeth and survived Idol Inc., it might have been a given.
Anyway, from Kim Rae-bin, who was muttering to himself in a corner, to Cha Yu-jin, who was stomping his feet in excitement, everyone jumped just fine.
The fact that there was an instructor behind them probably helped give them some courage.
“Alright, here we go!”
“Y-Yes...!!”
Seon A-hyun also jumped without much trouble.
‘Am I next?’
Somehow, I ended up being the last one again. It brought back memories of the Idol Inc. surprise VCR.
‘This kind of thing isn't even scary.’
It’s not like I’m going to die or get hurt, so what does it matter? I just didn't really see the point of spending this much money to do it.
“Alright~ we have to jump together. Take a deep breath.”
“Yes.”
“Ah, this friend has the strongest heart of them all~ Let’s go!”
Whoosh.
The wind whipped against my face.
“......Ha!”
“Great, isn't it~?”
It was great.
...I hadn't expected this.
The bright blue sky stretched out in all directions.
Beyond the blue horizon, mountains and fields unfolded endlessly.
Even though the sunlight stung my eyes, it wasn't hot. The wind swirled around me.
“Alright, parachute~”
Thump. With a sense of pressure, my body slowed down in mid-air and began to move along with the wind.
It was an incredible sense of liberation.
“You’re doing great! Grab this... and let’s push it like this!”
“......”
If I had continued living as Ryu Gun-woo, would I have ever even thought about doing something like this?
‘Absolutely not.’
I would have asked why anyone would pay that much money to jump out of the sky.
But here I am, doing it.
And there were so many things like that.
Achievements, performances, fans, cheers...... the sensation of living a life.
‘......It’s strange.’
Status effects or whatever, it didn't matter.
Strangely, I liked being Park Moon-dae.
“Alright, landing!”
The moment I touched down on the ground, the guys who had gone down first laughed and waved their hands.
“Moon-dae has arrived too~”
...Well, Extreme Travel might not be so bad. I stepped onto the ground with a smile.
Did I say it might not be so bad?
“Alright, today’s second extreme experience! It is~ ‘Invitation to the Haunted House’!”
“Aaaaaaaah!!”
I take it back. These production people don't know when to stop.
“Do you see the building ahead?”
“Yes......!”
“I see it, but...!”
Several members, who were certified cowards, were already whining.
The PD chattered excitedly into the megaphone.
“This is a horror experience set operated by a professional horror-making team that visited Korea recently!”
“Uwaaaaah......”
“It’s only operating this summer, so you can only do it now!”
This detailed explanation... meant it was a PPL (Product Placement).
Beside me, Lee Se-jin muttered with a gloomy face.
“So we just had to endure this summer......”
“......”
Tell me about it.
“Now then, everyone, please divide into groups to enter the ‘Invitation to the Haunted House’!”
“We...! We have bad memories of making groups......!”
“We’ll all enter together!”
...But of course, that didn't work at all, and TeSTAR began to divide into entry groups.