Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: The Food Truck Incident
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“Hello, Seonbae-nim. I'm from N-Pink, we met last time…”
“Oh, Si-ah. I saw you greet us earlier.”
“Ah! Yes!”
It was Seol-ah who recognized Si-ah from N-Pink, who had eaten a lunch box in Answer’s waiting room during the last broadcast recording.
Si-ah looked deeply impressed that her senior from Answer had remembered her.
“You do your best and make it to the top ranks, Si-ah!”
“Yes! Thank you, Seonbae-nim!”
The Answer members watched with a fond smile as Si-ah scurried away.
“Si-ah. If your manager tries to stop you from eating, come tell us.”
“!”
At Seul-bi’s words, Si-ah made a playful face and bowed once more.
“…Unnis. You're supposed to dote on me more than a kid from another team…”
Yi-na grumbled, her lips pouting.
Ro-si chuckled and jumped on Yi-na's back.
“Yi-na-seonbae, I wuv you.”
“See? Look. No one's reacting except Ro-si-unni.”
Yi-na shook her head and pointed at Seol-ah and Seul-bi.
“…I hope you get a younger sister exactly like you someday.”
“Huh? What's wrong with me?”
“…”
“Wow! These unnis, seriously!”
*Clap, clap, clap.*
“We're starting the shoot. Please get in position!”
An assistant director clapped his hands, getting the attention of the cast and crew. The cast members found the suitcases assigned to them and took their places.
Your Girl, having won the right to choose their opponent by drawing lots, selected Answer.
“We choose Seul-bi, Ro-si, and Yi-na from Answer.”
Yi-na, having been chosen for the match, seemed to be scoffing as if to say, ‘So you think I'm an easy target?’
Meanwhile, Mi-ji gave Seul-bi a confident smile, as if to say, ‘Sorry, but you can't beat me.’
Seul-bi snorted at the sight of Mi-ji.
⋮
“You there, the man in the yellow shirt, please call 911!”
Seul-bi said, pointing to a crew member in a yellow shirt.
“You, the man in the blue shirt, please bring the CPR kit!”
This time, Seul-bi pointed to a crew member in a blue shirt.
“Sir, sir, can you hear me!”
Seul-bi pinched the dummy hard and put her ear to its face.
Though it was just a human-shaped dummy made of rubber and plastic, Seul-bi spoke with an urgent expression, as if treating a real emergency patient.
“One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six!”
She placed her hands over the dummy's heart and began compressions with all her might.
“Hands off, stand back! Activating the defibrillator!”
The head-to-head evaluation between Your Girl's Mi-ji and Seul-bi was fierce.
Mi-ji seemed to have perfectly mastered the procedure beforehand, but Seul-bi, with her superior intellect and senses, performed every step flawlessly without a single mistake.
“Wow.”
“Incredible!”
“That feels so real.”
In particular, the dummy's body shook with a loud *thump-thump* sound under the full weight and force of Seul-bi's chest compressions.
“Wow… if that were real, his ribs would've caved in.”
“She's ridiculously strong.”
Seul-bi's performance looked so perfect that most of the cast and crew watching were impressed, and with every passing moment, the faces of the Your Girl members twisted in dismay.
“The winner of the CPR and defibrillator evaluation is… Answer's Seul-bi!”
“Woooah!”
It was such an overwhelming victory that not only Answer but also some of the staff members applauded.
However, Ro-si's Heimlich maneuver evaluation and Yi-na's fire extinguisher demonstration, both hindered by their relatively lower physical strength, inevitably received lower scores than Your Girl's members. Answer lost the match against Your Girl 1-2.
With the match between Your Girl and Answer, the fire safety training evaluations were all concluded.
Not a single team achieved a 3-0 clean sweep, and a separate room assignment draw was held for the winning and losing teams.
“Woooah! The Royal S-s-s-suite!”
Among the four winning teams, including one that advanced with a bye, the first-place room miraculously went to Your Girl.
* * *
“Good work, everyone. The food truck is ready, so please have your meal. We'll have a room check-in shoot in an hour, so please gather again then.”
“Yes! Good work!”
“Good work!”
“It's the food truck!”
In the resort's front yard, two large tents had been set up with folding tables and red and blue plastic chairs.
From a two-ton truck, a dish that looked like a stir-fry was being cooked, sending up clouds of white steam before being placed into rectangular stainless steel serving trays.
“Everything is set. You can start eating now.”
A man in his forties, who appeared to be the owner of the food truck, said as he placed a steaming tray in the middle of a row of seven.
“Awe-some! A food truck!”
As Seul-bi did the Zero Two dance in delight, Choi Yoo-jun joined in.
“Hahaha!”
“Oooh, Yoo-jun-oppa's got some moves.”
Choi Yoo-jun’s dancing made Ro-si and Yi-na laugh in amusement.
“Hey, aren't you artists happy? It's a food truck instead of lunch boxes.”
No matter how good the side dishes in a cold lunch box were—so cold you could lift the entire clump of rice with a single chopstick—it could never compare to a food truck with hot rice, soup, and a main dish.
Lunchtime had begun, but the first in the serving line were the higher-ranking PDs, camera directors, and the head writer, who didn't have to help clean up the set. Behind them stood Your Girl, confidently taking priority, unlike the other groups who were cautiously watching the situation.
“N-Pink, let's go eat.”
“Yes, yes! Please, Seonbae-nim, you go first!”
I called out to N-Pink, who were hesitantly watching the other groups from the side… but perhaps they didn't want to stand in line behind Your Girl.
“Seriously, is that Seul-bi bitch made of horse muscle? How is she so strong?”
“Ugh, so annoying.”
“Putting that aside, don't you think that Seul-bi bitch knew about it beforehand? She seemed way too familiar with it.”
My sensitive ears picked up the irritated chatter of Your Girl's Mi-ji, who had lost to Seul-bi, complaining with her teammates.
I scoffed at Your Girl's baseless speculation about Seul-bi, who excelled in both hardware and software.
“I think those girls are dissing us right now.”
“Yi-na, I've told you to use proper language.”
Yi-na said with a sullen voice, prompting Seol-ah to lecture her.
“If you use words like that so casually, you'll end up saying them on camera without thinking.”
“Ah… our Confucian Girl Unni was quiet for a while there.”
Yi-na shook her head.
“Pfft… I'm sorry.”
At the words "Confucian Girl," Choi Yoo-jun suddenly burst out laughing. His face turned red as he drew the attention of not just us, but the other cast members as well.
“…Did you really think I was a Confucian Girl?”
“Ah! No! I just thought you were a little serious, but…”
As Seol-ah, who rarely showed much emotion, gave off a distinctly hurt vibe, a flustered Choi Yoo-jun stammered.
“No, I mean! That slightly serious side of you is really rare in this industry! It's truly charming!”
“…”
“It's true! I'm telling you, I'm a super, super, super fan of yours, Artist Seol-ah!”
“I'm just kidding-”
Seol-ah made an uncharacteristic joke, and the Answer members shuddered.
“Aargh! So awkward!”
“Unni, don't do that!”
“It doesn't really seem like you were joking…”
When even Ro-si made a strange face, Seol-ah burst into an embarrassed laugh by herself.
“Ah! That's not what's important right now!”
“Why?”
At Ro-si’s question, Seul-bi pointed at the serving trays.
“It's jeyuk-bokkeum, full of that smoky flavor that's hard to find in mass-catered food.”
“Oh! Really?”
The Answer members lined up behind Your Girl with cheerful faces.
Your Girl tried their best to stare straight ahead, pretending not to notice.
“Don't just ignore us. Let's at least offer a basic greeting, shall we?”
At Seol-ah's cynical tone, the members of Your Girl reluctantly turned and gave a slight nod.
“Hey, the Confucian Girl Unni tells *me* to use proper... Mmph!”
Seul-bi clamped a hand over Yi-na's mouth.
The six-compartment stainless steel trays were filled with steaming white rice, jeyuk-bokkeum, spicy anchovies, stir-fried fish cakes, pickled cucumbers, acorn jelly salad, and cabbage kimchi.
“Wow! Yukgaejang!”
“Freaking awesome!”
At the last station where they served the soup, Seul-bi and Choi Yoo-jun rejoiced when they saw it was yukgaejang.
It was probably because it was full of appetizing ingredients like meat and bracken.
“Whoa! This place is legit!”
In the still-chilly early spring, the taste of the steaming, spicy yukgaejang was exquisite.
Seul-bi mixed half of her rice into the yukgaejang and put a spoonful in her mouth along with a piece of jeyuk-bokkeum.
“Wow! This is insane, for real.”
Hearing Seul-bi's reaction, the head writer and camera director eating nearby chuckled.
“Wow… but this is actually really delicious.”
Just as Choi Yoo-jun said, the refreshing flavor of the green onions and the deep taste of the beef brisket blended perfectly, rivaling that of a specialty restaurant.
“Eating outside is so delicious. It has a great vibe.”
I chuckled inwardly at the red broth splattered on the corner of Ro-si's lips.
Seol-ah didn't have much of a reaction, but the way she ate—a spoonful of rice with a piece of jeyuk-bokkeum as a base, alternating with other side dishes—looked more delicious than ever.
“Phew… I'm just gonna get a little more.”
Seul-bi stood up, subtly glancing at me.
How could I stop her when she was enjoying it so much?
At that moment.
Suddenly, a warning from my Third Eye activated, and Seul-bi, the trays, the serving containers, and the people just arriving to eat began to glow red.
What was it warning me about?
I stared at the red-glowing phenomena, trying to figure out the problem, and soon I understood.
The serving container for the jeyuk-bokkeum and the less than ten remaining trays, contrasted with the line of people and those still approaching—at a glance, there were clearly more than twenty of them.
“Seul-bi!”
“Huh?”
Seul-bi turned around, looking surprised.
“Come here.”
“…Oppa… we didn't even get to eat properly earlier…”
“Just hurry up and come here.”
“…If you were going to stop me, you should've done it earlier. You already knew.”
Seul-bi grumbled and sat back down, her cheeks puffed out.
“That's not what I meant. I haven't touched my jeyuk yet, so you can have it if you want.”
“…If that's the case, I could have just gone and gotten some myself…”
Without any need for a lengthy explanation from me, the problem erupted.
“Sir! There are no trays over here!”
Hearing the commotion, the man who had been clearing leftovers came running over.
“What… that can't be right… I prepared eighty of them.”
The food truck owner hastily placed about ten round plastic plates next to the trays and began counting the cleared trays and the number of people currently eating.
“Sir! The jeyuk-bokkeum is all gone!”
As the jeyuk-bokkeum ran out, the atmosphere grew tense, and eventually, an argument broke out between the assistant director and the food truck owner.
“Sir! Why is there not enough food?”
“Go ahead and count the number of people! You told me to prepare for seventy, but there must be close to a hundred people here.”
“…”
The assistant director counted the people, tilting his head in confusion.
“You can't do this to me, Director. You ordered for seventy, but I generously prepared for eighty. How could we not run short like this?”
The assistant director didn't answer the owner and instead started calling someone's name.
“Hey! Im Soo-young! Where is Im Soo-young!”
“Yes! I'm here!”
A woman standing at the back of the food line raised her hand and ran over.
“How the hell did you place the order for us to run out of food like this! If you want to starve, you should starve alone!”
“I just booked it according to the numbers I was given…”
She began to get chewed out, bearing the glares of countless people.
“Wow… the mood is intense. If Seul-bi-unni had gotten more food, she would've been branded a traitor.”
“…How did you know, Oppa?”
Seul-bi, who had been grumbling just a moment ago, asked curiously.
“Because there were still a lot of people who hadn't eaten, but not enough trays.”
“…Oppa, you might be…”
Might be?
“Something beyond a genius, like a psychic? Like you look at one thing and the next events all run through a simulation and you get the exact result…”
“Ooooh!”
Answer and Choi Yoo-jun nodded along with exclamations of awe, as if it made perfect sense.
Sorry to disappoint, I'm not that much of a genius. I'm just using a hack.
I gave a bitter smile and looked around, wondering if there was a way to save the person—I couldn't tell if she was a PD or a writer—who was in such a difficult spot.
Isn't it going to give me a 'Save So-and-so' quest this time? I'd like to get a reward.