Summer's Table (1)
The boat rocked far more than expected.
"Wow, So-hyun unnie must've had a rough time with this."
"Right? She gets pretty seasick. And she's a scaredy-cat on top of it."
Just as the two of them figured, So-hyun had arrived ahead of everyone and was sprawled out at the Gaeya-do public health clinic.
"Uuuuugh, everything's spinning."
The original plan had been for An Jun-ho and Han So-hyun to arrive first and film a tour of the island's interior. But the unexpected seasickness left her with no strength to move at all.
Jun-ho, on the other hand, had left So-hyun at the clinic and was currently hiking up toward the old house where the cast would be staying every weekend for the next several weeks.
"Man, this place is really far from the village too. Aren't you thirsty?"
He tried striking up a conversation with the VJ filming him, but got nothing but silence in return.
"Wow. Variety really is just talking to yourself, huh."
After walking a while longer, a gray stone wall came into view. The rusted front gate looked like something a ghost might come crawling out of. Vines had climbed all the way to the top of the gate, giving the place a bleak, desolate air, and the intermittent screech of rusted metal in the wind sounded unnervingly like someone screaming.
"…This is it? For real?"
Jun-ho looked at the production writer who'd followed him up, and she quietly nodded.
The aura radiating from beyond that gate was so intense he couldn't bring himself to go in alone.
"Uh… yeah, no. I am not going in there by myself."
Jun-ho turned right back around and headed for the clinic. He was in the middle of giving So-hyun a heavily embellished description of the house he'd seen when the on-site PD took a phone call.
"Yes, understood."
"Jin-uk and Yeon-woo are about to arrive at the pier."
"Let's go, let's go!"
At the staffer's words, So-hyun bolted upright and headed for the pier with Jun-ho. Waiting endlessly for the boat to come in seemed to ease her lingering seasickness a little.
At last, the boat arrived. The moment Jin-uk, Yeon-woo, and the rest of the staff stepped off, So-hyun went running.
"Yeon-woooo!"
Yeon-woo caught the oncoming So-hyun and spun her around in a full circle.
"Unnie, you can't just come running like that. You're going to fall in the ocean."
Han So-hyun paid his scolding no mind whatsoever and immediately launched into chatter with Son Jin-uk beside her. With the whole group finally together, the energy seemed to come back to life.
"They really are as close as actual siblings."
"What? PD-nim, actual siblings never act like that."
The production team filmed the scene with warm satisfaction, already debating what subtitles to slap on it. Actors really were something else — they made a picture just by existing.
"Hyung, I went and checked out the house we're staying in. It's a total abandoned ruin."
Before anyone noticed, Jun-ho was already tattling away to Jin-uk.
"Jun-ho-ya, never mind that — if we want to eat, we're going to have to catch some fish first."
"Whaaat?"
A haunted house and fishing. Just one mountain after another.
"Alright, everyone, this way please. Time to move out."
Yeon-woo and the others piled into the vehicles the production team had prepared and wound their way up the same twisting road Jun-ho had walked earlier. Before long the cars pulled up in front of the haunted house Jun-ho had scouted, and everyone climbed out.
"This is the place."
When they pushed open the rusted gate, a jungle of vines unfurled before them. The wildly overgrown grass made it clear no human hand had touched the place in a very long time. A path just wide enough for a person had been cut through the middle.
"Whoa, it's a jungle."
"Ugh, do we really have to sleep here?"
Still, once they got inside, the house was in better shape than it had looked from the outside. A little cleaning and the interior would be perfectly fine for sleeping.
That was when the PD set down an assortment of tools and spoke up.
"An elderly couple lived here until about six months ago. The owner has since moved in with their kids in Seoul. The house belongs to the network now, so feel free to tear it apart and remodel however you like."
Clap clap!
Yeon-woo was the first to clap his hands and draw everyone's attention. From somewhere, he'd already found a pair of work gloves and pulled them on.
"I'll start clearing the yard. Could you all go inside and see if there's any usable furniture or tools?"
"Then I'll help Yeon-woo."
Jun-ho quickly accepted a pair of work gloves and put them on too. So-hyun and Jin-uk headed inside to start organizing, while Yeon-woo took a sickle to the vines and began cutting them down.
"Wow, Yeon-woo is seriously fast with his hands."
The writing staff watched in awe as the little jungle vanished under Yeon-woo's touch. Compared to the hellish mangrove forests he'd operated in back in Laos, these vines were child's play. Yeon-woo would pick out the main stems, follow the grain, and shear them clean in a single stroke, and Jun-ho would haul the cuttings out beyond the gate.
After about an hour, a spacious yard had revealed itself. Jin-uk and So-hyun, who'd been sweeping, scrubbing, and arranging the supplies the production team had provided, finally stepped outside.
"Woooow, what? It was this big the whole time?"
"Yeon-woo and Jun-ho must've worked hard. At this size we could even play foot volleyball out here."
With the vines cleared away, the house looked like somewhere people could actually live.
"Anything useful inside?"
"Nah, nothing much beyond what the crew brought. But there's a vegetable garden out back."
"That's a garden the production team planted ahead of time. You're welcome to harvest and eat everything from it."
At the PD's words, Yeon-woo and Jun-ho headed for the garden. Jun-ho stepped into the rows like a man coming home and started inspecting everything with practiced ease.
"We've got cucumbers, and peppers too?"
An Jun-ho was finding vegetables in every corner like it was nothing.
"Reaaally? It all just looked like weeds to me. I couldn't find a thing."
"I lived out in the countryside until I became an adult. Tended a garden of my own, of course."
And just like that, An Jun-ho became the designated garden guy.
"PD-nim, where are the fishing supplies?"
"There's some gear the old couple used in the shed out back."
The PD pointed toward a ramshackle shed behind the house. Yeon-woo stepped inside, looked around, and decided it was better stocked than he'd expected. A moment later he emerged carrying a trap that still looked serviceable.
"Hyung, unnie — I'm going to go set this trap."
"Huh? A trap?"
At Yeon-woo's call, the others came out from tidying the house.
"Lunch is one thing, but we've still got to eat dinner."
"I want to come too!"
So-hyun shot her hand up and started putting on her shoes.
"Oh, sure — you two go ahead. Catch us a ton!"
Leaving Jin-uk and Jun-ho waving behind them, Yeon-woo headed for the nearby shore with the trap in hand.
"Yeon-woo-ya, where are you going to throw the trap?"
Yeon-woo surveyed the surroundings at So-hyun's question.
"Hmm. The depth's better near the pier, but a boat could snag the line and snap it, and it's too far from the house. We need to drop it somewhere around here."
After looking around for a while, Yeon-woo stopped in front of a gap between the rocks and called So-hyun over.
"Unnie, over here. This spot looks good."
Han So-hyun and the camera director jogged over to him.
"Here? Right here? So I just drop it in?"
Yeon-woo watched So-hyun hold up the trap, then rummaged through his coat pocket.
"Well, ideally you'd bait it with fish heads or chicken guts…"
He pulled out a half-eaten piece of bread.
"Leftover from the rest stop on the way here. Let's give this a shot."
"Bread? Fish are going to swim in for bread?"
"They actually go for it pretty well."
Yeon-woo peeled off the crust, stuffed it into the trap, then spun it a few times and hurled it out into the sea.
"Unnie, the rope."
"Here!"
Yeon-woo took the trap line So-hyun had been holding and wound it tightly around a nearby rock, tying it off. The way he secured the knot was clearly no amateur work.
"Wow, where did you learn all this stuff?"
"Eh, you know. Haha."
Somehow he didn't think "restraint techniques for tying up hostages" was the right answer.
"I wonder what'll get caught. I'm so excited."
"Hopefully something, at least."
Praying there'd be fish in the trap by evening, the two of them headed back to the house.
Meanwhile, with Yeon-woo and So-hyun gone, the remaining members were hard at work stacking bricks to build a traditional fire pit.
"Jin-uk-ssi, have you ever done anything like this before?"
Jin-uk gave the PD a look of pure disbelief.
"Have I ever? Not a chance. I got completely played. This was supposed to be a healing show."
The staff laughed at Jin-uk's grumbling. For all his complaining, though, he was diligently stacking bricks and building air vents exactly as the accompanying expert advised.
"Aigoo, why am I working this hard anyway. Well — gotta feed the kids somehow."
As the eldest brother, Jin-uk simply couldn't let his three younger siblings go hungry, so he threw himself into it.
"Sunbae, we set the trap."
Just then Yeon-woo and So-hyun pushed open the gate and came into the yard.
"Oh, good. The rice and everything's already in the kitchen, by the way. I put a pot on in the electric rice cooker."
"There's an electric rice cooker? I figured we'd have to use a cauldron. That makes things a lot easier."
Yeon-woo surveyed the state of the yard, sorted his priorities, and spoke up.
"Alright then — Jun-ho hyung, you're on garden duty. Take So-hyun unnie and go pick whatever vegetables we can eat right away."
"Okay. On it."
Jun-ho and So-hyun headed for the garden out back with a basket, and Yeon-woo rolled up his sleeves.
"Since hyung built us a fire pit, I'll split some firewood. Take a break for a bit."
"Aigoo, don't mind if I do. I've been bent over doing this forever — my back's about to snap."
Jin-uk stretched out on the wooden platform with a theatrical groan, sprawling flat on his back. The PD wandered over to chat.
"Is Yeon-woo usually the one in charge?"
The PD's eyes lit up at the unexpected sight of the youngest calmly doling out assignments.
"Of course. That kid's no ordinary smart cookie. Our Yeon-woo."
Jin-uk answered without even looking over, still sprawled out in a full starfish on the platform. Lying there feeling the easy breeze, he was already starting to drift off.
Meanwhile, Yeon-woo hauled over the firewood stacked beside the shed and started splitting it with an axe.
Whoosh— thunk. Crack.
Thunk—. Crack.
Under his practiced, rhythmic swings, the logs split into clean, even pieces.
"We've got to get this in slow motion."
"It feels like watching a photoshoot in real time."
It was just a man chopping wood, but the image was so striking that the PD and head writer were grinning ear to ear, already mapping out the edit in their heads.
After the nonstop grind that had started that morning, Jin-uk had dozed off on the platform. Yeon-woo loaded the fire pit with kindling and lit it. The well-dried wood caught almost instantly, and Yeon-woo brought a pot lid out from the kitchen and poured in cooking oil.
Sizzle—
At the sound of oil heating up, Jin-uk cracked open his eyes.
"What the — Yeon-woo-ya, you already got the fire going?"
"Just stay put. First meal of the day, so let's keep it simple — fried rice."
"Whoa, what is that? It already smells amazing."
Just then So-hyun and Jun-ho came over, arms full of vegetables from the garden.