An Orange Warning
On the white tabletop, the traces left by the previous contestant—who had drunk and then spat everything back up—still remained exactly as they were.
Carefully avoiding those strangely crime-scene-like black stains, Lee Jae-jin chose a drink, jammed a straw through the lid, and sucked hard.
"Looks fine to me… Wasn't the guy before just overreacting?"
Even after a long pull, Jae-jin showed no particular change, and the people watching him wore expressions of mild disappointment.
"Contestant Lee Jae-jin, are you all right?"
But the MC didn't simply move on; he asked after Jae-jin's condition. Watching carefully, I glanced toward the rear. The production staff were whispering among themselves. So the taste was worse than expected?
"Cough!"
"Wah!"
Judging by the reaction, he had been holding out against something impossible to hold out against. Sure enough, Jae-jin set the drink down with trembling hands as if he had barely managed to swallow it, then suddenly doubled over at the waist. His knees buckled.
"Uwaaagh!"
Watching Jae-jin collapse limply, the next contestant in line let out a scream. The expressions on the faces of the remaining contestants as they stared at the mysterious drink were pure terror.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
"That's anchovy sauce, isn't it? Right? It's anchovy sauce!"
As the protests boiled over, the MC stepped forward to calm the contestants.
"Anchovy sauce? This is a special drink we prepared for the contestants' health. Unlike tasteless, nutritionless anchovy sauce, it's excellent for the throat! Comparing it to anchovy sauce is frankly insulting!"
"Good for your health? Then why is every single person who drinks it collapsing?!"
Someone screamed in panic—it had already claimed two victims.
"That's why it's a penalty, of course. You didn't find the key, did you? Fighting! Still, it's good for your health!"
"Ugh! Ugh!"
Behind the MC's shameless encouragement the penalties continued one after another, people toppling in a steady stream, until the last person remaining was Kwon Do-ha.
Meanwhile I held a carefully chosen mango juice in my hand. As I sucked up the yellow liquid I thought, All this difference in treatment over a single key.
"…."
With a look of complete composure, Kwon Do-ha lifted a cup in which ice still clinked, opened the lid, and drained it in one long pull; the liquid inside disappeared at startling speed.
"Whoa…."
"What is he, an old man?"
"Does he have no sense of taste? Is his tongue numb or something?"
Even though the ice had melted and mixed in, the liquid still looked strangely viscous, yet Do-ha swallowed every last drop without trouble and set the empty cup cleanly on the table.
What's with him?
Having emptied the contents so neatly, Kwon Do-ha smiled at his leisure and locked eyes with Lee Jae-jin, who was only just coming back to his senses. The two of them were on the same team and sharing the same room this round, so they would be stuck together from now on. Why the staring contest?
I clicked my tongue inwardly and took another sip of juice.
"Wow, so we're all civilian contestants!"
After room assignments finished and everyone had taken turns washing the wet off their bodies, the roommates gathered in the living room. Yu Min-seong, who had been unable to hide his excitement ever since learning we had been assigned to the same lodging, poured out the words. He was on the same team as me and in the same room.
I had been seeing his face unusually often this round.
"I totally thought Han-hee was a trainee. You surprised me."
"Is that so."
Same age—nineteen—and assigned to the same room, Yu Min-seong had approached first, saying we should get along as age-mates. Contrary to the impression he had left when he finished 41st and bawled his eyes out giving his comments, he turned out to be quite the talker. Almost draining, in fact.
Once again we had been assigned to the familiar lodging layout—large rooms and small rooms divided around a living room into two-person and three-person rooms. I looked over my roommates' faces one by one. Aside from Han Sang-jin, they were almost all strangers.
"How should we divide the rooms? Han-hee, want to take the small room with me? We're on the same team and all…."
"Ah."
The moment we stepped into the lodging we had to decide rooms, and while everyone was still thinking it over, Yu Min-seong was the first to suggest sharing. Same team, true, but….
Somehow it felt off.
"I work out in the mornings, so sharing a room with me would probably be a pain. If possible I'd rather room with Sang-jin hyung. Is that okay with you, hyung?"
"Yeah, that's fine."
Without letting the sudden flicker of discomfort show, I smoothly slotted Han Sang-jin between us. Meeting my eyes for a brief second, Sang-jin nodded without protest.
"Work out? You even work out? Do you two work out together? Then can I join too?"
Yu Min-seong's voice closed the distance at once, saying he wanted to exercise with us. It already felt exhausting.
"Then the three of us will share a room, and let's turn in early tonight."
Ranking announcement, team matching, and then the water games on top of it. The day had been long enough that everyone agreed to go to bed early. Our team concept meeting was set for nine the next morning, so there was nothing holding us back.
It was still a little early for sleep, but the filming that had started before dawn must have worn everyone out; the moment their heads hit the pillows they were out cold.
"…."
Having been up since dawn myself, I felt the same fatigue and lay down early for once.
And so, on the first night—or rather the early hours—of the third camp, a sharp, prickling sensation in my head jolted me awake and I sat bolt upright.
When I opened my eyes, my vision in the darkness was tinged an unfamiliar orange. What was this? Was this the crisis-detection ability?
The Crisis Detection Traffic Light—the skill I had set aside because nothing had happened while the day's schedule ran its course—came back to me. Orange meant a crisis was about to arrive?
I tensed, unable to tell what kind of crisis the system was warning about, when suddenly my vision shifted to blue and then returned to ordinary darkness. The insistent throbbing sensation scattered as if everything had already passed.
"…."
I waited a little longer, but only peaceful silence filled the room. I swung my feet out of bed. The dizzying sensation that hit me for an instant had already driven every trace of sleep away.
Careful not to wake the two people sharing the room, I slipped out and closed the door behind me.
In the dim pre-dawn light I poured a glass of water, drank it, and sat on the sofa lost in thought. From the moment the orange warning appeared until it turned green again, I had done nothing to change anything. Which meant….
Someone else must have resolved the approaching crisis.
Not knowing specifically what the crisis had been left me frustrated. A safety accident? Maybe a fire risk that security had spotted in time—something like that was possible.
I turned it over for a while, then shook my head. Sitting here worrying wouldn't let me learn anything or fix anything.
Maybe I've just gotten too high-strung.
Lately I had been thinking too much about useless things. Ever since Song A-seong handed me that photograph of my mother.
"…."
I swallowed the sigh that rose and went back into the room. Already four in the morning. Not much sleep left. Morning exercise was coming soon; for the sake of my stamina I needed every minute I could get.
I tried to force sleep that refused to come. It was useless.
"Hah, hah, hah."
I was doing a light loop around the lodging when heavy breathing closed in from behind. A quick glance showed Yu Min-seong trying hard not to let the gap widen too much. Seeing how desperately he was working to keep up, I decided there was no need to go easy on him.
He seemed to be putting too much into the warm-up, but then again, cardio was always the hardest part.
I nodded and picked up the pace. I needed to finish the run quickly; there was a lot left to do.
"Ugh—wait—up!"
"You can keep up."
Chasing Han Sang-jin, who was running at a steady pace ahead, I took two more cool-breeze-filled laps and then grabbed the chin-up bar set up to one side. Pull-ups. One by one, until a tingling burn ran from my palms all the way up my arms and across my back, yet my mind felt lighter for it.
When your head is a mess, nothing helps like working your body to the bone.
"One more."
"Hup!"
"Really just one more."
"Ugh."
"Last one for real."
"Aagh!"
At the start of the workout Yu Min-seong's chatter had never stopped; now he was sprawled out making only groaning noises. From the third time "just one more" was repeated, the look he gave me was pure resentment.
"Don't… we… have to meet soon…?"
"Yeah. Let's go wash up."
Watching the morning sun begin to rise, I hauled Yu Min-seong to his feet. He was already swaying; his stamina had clearly hit bottom. Had he burned everything here?
"It's only been fifty minutes. Why are you this wiped out?"
We had run maybe ten or twenty minutes and done a few sets of exercises, that was all.
With a full schedule and practice still ahead, Yu Min-seong already wore an exhausted expression as I led him back into the lodging.
After a quick tidy-up we grabbed a simple breakfast in the dining hall and headed straight for the practice room.
"Ah, Han-hee hyung, you're here?"
"Yeah. You're early. Min-hyeok hyung's here too."
"Welcome~."
The moment I stepped into our assigned practice room, Song A-seong and Han Min-hyeok greeted me. They had said they were rooming together.
"Hello."
"Yes, hello."
I exchanged greetings with Yu Min-seong, who trailed in awkwardly behind me, then checked the time. Almost nine.
"We'll start the meeting once everyone's here."
Legends never die. Our team had been assigned to remix one of Yuri's signature tracks, but we still needed to discuss exactly which song to pick and what concept to reshape it into.
"Sorry we're late!"
"Nah~ you made it right on time."
Kim Seong-min and Jo Min-jun arrived one after another, and the moment the clock hit nine, Min Ho-su burst into the practice room, completing the full seven-member team.
"Shall we start with song selection? Anyone have a good idea?"
Yuri had so many signature songs that choosing one was no easy task. Anything too kitschy or too iconic would be a problem. Comparison with the original was inevitable, but there was no need for that comparison to be brutal.
"Nothing?"
The atmosphere made it clear no one was volunteering easily. Awkward. Truthfully I didn't have many clear ideas either. I had been studying older idol tracks first, so I didn't even know all of Yuri's hits by heart.
"What about Rose Moon? It seems like it would suit the weather these days."
Among the people still deliberating, Kim Seong-min was the first to speak up.
"It has a dreamy feel, so if we pull it off well it shouldn't be bad. The gender-swap angle alone already gives it a different color from the original. And since it's June, a title that means the full moon of June works nicely too. The track itself is solid."
"Doesn't sound bad…."
Jo Min-jun carefully nodded along with Seong-min's suggestion. Rose Moon. I knew the song as well—the title track of Yuri's third mini album, with a bouncy melody that somehow still wrapped around you in a gentle, lingering way.
"In my opinion Rose Moon's melody is so unique that arranging it won't be easy."
Song A-seong, who had seemed deep in thought, shook his head and voiced the opposing view. Seong-min immediately shot back.
"We're not rewriting the whole thing. Is a unique melody line really a problem?"
"The original is excellent, but our job is to change that color. No matter how you rework Rose Moon, it's hard to break its frame."
"A remix doesn't mean we have to change everything. If comparison is unavoidable anyway, wouldn't it be better to pick a distinctive song, add some variation, and bring out its character?"
"You're not wrong, but that doesn't mean we can afford a downgrade."
I had expected it from the moment things stayed quiet at the start, but they clashed right on cue. Kim Seong-min smiled thinly and asked Song A-seong,
"Then does hyung have a song he'd recommend?"
"I think I'm Your Hero would be good."
I'm Your Hero. One of the few movie OSTs Yuri had ever sung. A-seong spoke as if he already had a clear plan, laying out his thoughts step by step.
"When you think of June, something comes to mind, right?"
The more A-seong spoke, the more Kim Seong-min's smile—which had started out bright and indulgent, as if he were simply waiting to hear him out—began to change. I felt like clapping.
"Nice."
It was a solid enough idea to wipe out every last bit of fatigue.