The God of Quizzes
The pre-meeting video for Saebyeol Family went up on the channel at six in the evening with no promotion and no description of any kind.
Comments started pouring in at once, and fans began clipping and spreading the footage everywhere.
Jo Yu-jin, a two-year member of Woo's, had finished her work-study shift for the break and was sprawled on her dorm bed, scrolling through YouTube in search of something entertaining.
Nothing but luxury haul videos. I'm broke right now — what's the point of watching this?
Her thumb kept moving, but everything that came up was either something she'd already seen or something she had zero interest in.
Is the algorithm even analyzing my taste correctly? They say AI tech has advanced, so why is it only recommending boring videos?
Then, mid-scroll, she spotted a freshly uploaded video from a channel she subscribed to.
Saebyeol Family? Pre-meeting?
She tilted her head and tapped it. The video opened with no real explanation — just Son Jin-uk sitting in a Korean restaurant.
"What is this?"
Jo Yu-jin sat up and perched on the edge of the bed.
True to form, a subtitle reading Awkward Awkward floated over Son Jin-uk. One by one, the actors of Saebyeol Entertainment began filing into the restaurant.
Wait, wait — no way…?
And then, on screen, Ryu Yeon-woo walked into the restaurant.
A subtitle appeared at the same time.
These members are going on a trip.
The self-produced variety show Saebyeol Family uploads every Sunday at 6 p.m.
"Aaaah?!"
The dorm door burst open just as Jo Yu-jin screamed, and her roommate came rushing in.
"What! What is it!"
"Huh? No, I just got startled watching YouTube."
"Geez. I thought a cockroach had shown up in the room."
Yu-jin laughed and shook her head.
"No roaches. We fumigated last week. It's not that — Ryu Yeon-woo's shooting a YouTube variety show."
"Whaaaat?!"
Her roommate shrieked.
The one who had signed Jo Yu-jin up for Woo's in the first place was that same roommate — Hong Yu-ri.
The day after the trailer-slash-pre-meeting video dropped, the actors climbed aboard a bus parked in front of the Saebyeol Entertainment building.
Seo Ji-eun boarded first, her steps light and cheerful.
"We're finally leaving!"
"Feels like a school trip somehow. Byeol, you've been on a school trip, right?"
"No! It overlapped with the White Blood shoot, so I couldn't go!"
Jeong Cheol-min looked at Han Byeol with a brief flash of sympathy, then nodded.
"That's just how it is for celebrities. Instead, you get a school trip with us."
Jeong Su-yeon climbed on after Han Byeol, and last of all came Son Jin-uk and Yeon-woo.
From the frontmost seat, PD Joo Hyun-seok twisted around to address the members.
"Everyone, our destination today is Gapyeng."
"Ohhh. Gapyeng's nice."
"I've never been to Gapyeng."
Watching their reactions, PD Joo spoke again.
"Once we hit the highway we'll run a few games, but even though it's close, travel still takes over an hour, so for now just rest and chat comfortably."
"Yes~."
The bus pulled out.
While the actors traded small talk, Son Jin-uk took out his phone.
"Hm?"
He checked a text and let out a snort of laughter.
"What is it, Jin-uk hyung?"
Yeon-woo, sitting beside him, asked. Son Jin-uk turned the phone so he could see.
"Looks like So-hyun watched the YouTube video that dropped yesterday. She just texted saying she wants to come along too."
From the seat behind them, Seo Ji-eun's eyes lit up.
"So-hyun? Senior Han So-hyun?!"
Seeing that spark, Yeon-woo nodded to himself.
Right — Seo Ji-eun's a Han So-hyun stan.
He remembered the awards ceremony, when Han So-hyun had been the one thrown off balance by Seo Ji-eun's friendliness — the girl he'd privately dubbed Little Han So-hyun.
Once Han So-hyun's remaining contract of roughly a year expired, she would be joining them under the same roof.
Then Yeon-woo's phone buzzed.
Hm?
Wondering if it might be Han Hae-un, he checked quickly — and the sender was someone unexpected.
Hm…?
Apparently Han So-hyun wouldn't be the only new colleague joining them soon.
CEO Jeong is going to love this.
Once the bus left Seoul and merged onto the highway, PD Joo's eyes gleamed as he looked back at the actors.
"Alright — once you arrive at the lodging, you'll need lunch. We've prepared bibimbap."
"Oh, bibimbap!"
"I already feel like I'm salivating."
But PD Joo smiled with ominous meaning.
"Everyone would be happy eating bibimbap with every ingredient included, but unfortunately, you'll have to earn them one by one through games."
Seeing Joo Hyun-seok's beaming face, the actors let out the resigned sighs of people thinking, Of course.
"PD-nim's nickname is the Game Demon King, after all. Still, this is within the expected range."
The other actors nodded at Son Jin-uk's words.
Yeon-woo's expression darkened at the mention of games.
They're not going to make us play Halli Galli out here, and I barely watch variety shows — I'm going to be the weak link.
But the game that came out of Joo Hyun-seok's mouth was nothing like what Yeon-woo had expected.
"Alright, a simple general-knowledge quiz. You'll answer in order, and the questions get harder as we go. How do you want to set the order?"
At the PD's words, the light in Yeon-woo's eyes changed.
General knowledge? That I can work with.
Seo Ji-eun naturally claimed the frontmost seat.
"I'll go first!"
She was so brazenly confident that no one could object.
"Th-then I'll go second!"
In the end they settled on an order starting with Seo Ji-eun and ending with Yeon-woo.
"Yeon-woo, you've got to nail yours. I've watched a lot of PD Joo Hyun-seok's shows, and the last question is always some absurd difficulty level."
Yeon-woo nodded at Son Jin-uk's warning.
With the order decided, PD Joo spoke up.
"Alright — first question, for a fried egg!"
Ding—.
Ding—.
Yeon-woo waited for his turn, ready to answer whatever came, but his turn never arrived in the first place.
"Aaaah, I've never even heard of Reykjavík. Capitals are my weakness…"
Seo Ji-eun covered her face and buried it in her knees.
Jeong Cheol-min, who had considered himself fairly solid on general knowledge, fared no better.
"What kind of general knowledge is this? So what even is Jungkkeokma? Chinese joint-cracking massage or something?"
"…It's 'What matters is a heart that doesn't break.'"
In an instant the bean sprouts, the sesame oil, and the spinach were all gone.
"So all we've got left is gochujang and rice…?"
Son Jin-uk asked with a face of pure defeat, and everyone nodded.
Watching them, Yeon-woo stroked his chin.
Hmm. Honestly, rice mixed with just gochujang would be fine — but for entertainment value, this is the moment to push hard.
Yeon-woo stepped forward with a resolute look.
"What matters really is a heart that doesn't break. PD Joo, let's go big."
"Oh? Going big how?"
"We'll put the gochujang on the line. In exchange, I'll take five questions."
"Five questions by yourself? You know that if you lose the gochujang too, all that's left is plain rice?"
PD Joo's eyes lit up.
Actors who ate lightly in the first place — how much could bibimbap ingredients really matter to them?
He could sense that Yeon-woo was deliberately raising the stakes for the sake of a good show.
But there was also someone who took bibimbap very seriously.
"Y-Yeon-woo. Not the gochujang. How are we supposed to eat plain rice?"
Jeong Cheol-min had never been anywhere near the light-eater category, and even now his stomach was growling.
Yeon-woo grinned at him.
"Teacher, don't you know me? I never lose."
Reading the moment perfectly, PD Joo jumped in.
"Excellent! The actor team stakes the gochujang, the production team stakes every remaining ingredient — one full match. Question coming right up."
Cue card in hand, PD Joo's eyes gleamed as he asked.
"What is the capital of the Republic of Fiji, an island nation in the eastern Melanesia region of Oceania?"
"Suva."
The answer came out mechanically the instant the question finished. Son Jin-uk shook Yeon-woo by the shoulder.
"Is that right?! That wasn't just him swearing, was it?"
How could he not know?
He had spent months undercover hunting the leader of a Ponzi-scheme cult who had fled to Fiji, and once come within a hair of a firefight near Nadi International Airport.
PD Joo looked back and forth between the cue card and Yeon-woo, then opened his mouth.
"…Correct."
Yeon-woo nailed the next two questions in a row as well.
Two questions left.
Suddenly the writers scrambled to pull something out and pass it to PD Joo.
Seo Ji-eun, who had enough variety-show experience under her belt to recognize the move, raised her hand with wide eyes.
"Wait wait?! Are the PD and the writers bottom-dealing right now?!"
But Yeon-woo only smiled.
"It's fine. Bottom-dealing at the gambling table is a skill too. Come at me."
"For a second there he looked less like Ryu Yeon-woo and more like Pierre Choi…"
After checking the cue card the writer had handed over, PD Joo's face took on a triumphant glow.
This difficulty is honestly over the line. Once he misses, we can just give them the gochujang and spinach as a freebie.
Then PD Joo opened his mouth.
"Even if someone is poisoned by potassium cyanide — the infamous deadly toxin — there is a method of detoxification if only there is time to act. That method uses—"
But before the question had even finished, Yeon-woo spoke with a perfectly calm, unchanging expression.
"Sodium nitrite. There is also a method of injecting sodium thiosulfate."
"……"
While PD Joo sat in silence, Son Jin-uk spoke up.
"Sodium what…? I don't even understand the question."
PD Joo looked at the cue card. The answer written there was sodium nitrite.
He had no idea what the thio-whatever Yeon-woo had mentioned even meant.
"…Th-that's correct."
"Whoa. What? Do all Hankuk University students know this kind of thing?"
"Well. High schoolers learn chemistry too."
Son Jin-uk tilted his head.
"You're a liberal arts major. Economics, right?"
"Ah, as a hobby…"
Son Jin-uk shook his head slowly at Yeon-woo's answer.
But for Yeon-woo, countermeasures for every kind of poison were the most basic of basic knowledge.
And among them, potassium cyanide is a classic among classics. Practically retired from active service by now.
Inside that bus, Yeon-woo alone nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Then PD Joo pulled the cue card from the very bottom of the stack and, refusing to give up, opened his mouth again.
"Ah — one question still remaining! There is a model of a rotating or non-charged black hole calculated from a metric named after this person. Among black hole models, it forms a spherically symmetric—"
"The answer is Schwarzschild. Karl Schwarzschild."
PD Joo, who hadn't even finished reading the cue card, dropped his head.
"Correct…"
"After all, bibimbap just feels incomplete if even one ingredient is missing."