Was That a Win?
So this counted as a win?
Fortunately, a mid-roll commercial hit at exactly the right moment, and the viewers' desperate prayers were put on hold until after the break.
At last, the broadcast resumed. The two men who had crept into the hidden room on full alert lowered their guns at the sight of a space emptied of everything.
The two men searched every corner of the hidden room, just as Yoon Jay had done.
"Looks like this is where the hostage was being held."
"They must've taken her out already, right?"
"Mr. Lee Min-gyu, look at this."
"Water marks?"
Come to think of it, there had been a team heading for the pool. Could the instructor have taken them down and smuggled the hostage out himself?
Guns raised, Lee Min-gyu followed the trail of water with careful, measured steps.
Pressed flat against the wall, Lee Min-gyu flashed a hand signal. The soldier trailing behind him moved first.
"I don't think anyone's here."
It was a dead end, pitch-dark, with nothing visible at all.
"The trail just cuts off right here······."
The moment one of the sweeping floodlights washing over the set drifted lazily across their position, Yoon Jay's figure flashed briefly through the darkness — behind Lee Min-gyu, a lethal gleam burning in his eyes.
Yoon Jay had sensed them coming long before, hidden himself in the darkness, and prepared his ambush. He'd even used the fact that he'd gotten wet to set the trap.
Neither of the two men knew he was waiting for them.
"······Ah! Mr. Lee Min-gyu! Behind you!"
The floodlight swung away, then swung back to their spot. Only then did they spot Yoon Jay, and in their panic they scrambled to pull the trigger — but Yoon Jay's body moved faster.
Hit by paint rounds, the two men dropped in one breath and let out rueful laughs.
"How long were you there? At least make some noise, come on."
"······."
"Ha, I really thought I had a chance this time······."
The downed men chatted at him in a friendly, disarming way. But Yoon Jay merely glanced at them and walked straight past. The two left sprawled on the floor exchanged an awkward look.
"Is he always that cold?"
"No······."
Lee Min-gyu stood dazed as if he'd seen a ghost. Those eyes. He'd seen them before. Back then, the man had been wearing a mask, so he couldn't make out the face — but the eyes, he remembered the eyes.
"Honestly, getting eliminated just now was a blessing······."
"What?"
"Nothing."
Ugh, goosebumps. Lee Min-gyu rubbed his forearm.
Where could they be······.
In the meantime, Yoon Jay was already searching the area around the hidden room for the escaped hostage.
At the approaching footsteps, Kang Hajun, Baek Do-kyung, and Nam Chan-hee held their breath — then, recognizing the face, waved their hands eagerly.
"Hyung! Hyung!"
"Over here!"
When he found the three hiding behind the wall, the sharp edge in Yoon Jay's eyes softened, just slightly.
"Whoa — wait, what? Where'd you go in the water?"
"Had a rough time of it. You were waiting here?"
"The darkest place is right under the lamp, right?"
"Is that so? Let's go."
It saved him the trouble of hunting them down, so it worked out fine. Yoon Jay wanted this over with quickly. His waterlogged clothes were unbearably clammy, and the past kept creeping into his mind.
Jung Seung-woo and Choi Tae-yang were shadowing him at a discreet distance. Unable to simply watch any longer, PD Han Kook-young radioed Jung Seung-woo.
(Are you two just going to keep standing there watching?)
"For now, yes."
(What if he just walks right out of here like this?)
He understood dragging things out for the broadcast's sake, but it felt like they were headed for an anticlimactic ending.
PD Han Kook-young's legs trembled. Something was wrong. I never set myself up as an X-Man, did I?
Just then, a staff member pointed at a different monitor.
No way. Kim Ha-on is still alive?
Kim Ha-on was waiting for Yoon Jay on the opposite side.
PD Han Kook-young knew all about Kim Ha-on's ambitions. He'd even egged him on. Ah, now this might get interesting.
"Do you know where the extraction point is?"
"Yeah! It appeared once we solved the last puzzle."
"Good. Stay right behind me."
Three civilians trailed behind Yoon Jay, eyes sparkling. Having used up all their paint rounds, they'd tossed their guns aside without a second thought. Instead, he held a knife, scanning their surroundings — and the sight struck them all over again.
"Wow, hyung, with you doing that it feels so real."
"It is real."
"That's what I meant."
The three of them chattered louder than necessary. Something had seemed off when they'd found Yoon Jay earlier. The heaviness hanging over him hadn't looked like simple over-immersion.
Yoon Jay led the three toward the extraction point, warily watching for any surviving members of Omega Team.
[Bravo 2-3, hostage secured.]
It had been like this back then, too.
Yoon Jay felt the sudden illusion of a dry wind against the tip of his nose. Once his abilities were acknowledged, he'd been deployed on countless operations.
That time had been no different. A mission to rescue the Doctors Without Borders medical staff detained by a terrorist group — and the civilian children they had been treating.
[Get down!]
[Fire!]
Having secured them safely, he and his comrades had come under fire from the terrorists as they made their withdrawal.
Yes — just like the man standing up ahead.
"Haha!"
Kim Ha-on stood triumphantly at the extraction point. The production staff and PD Han Kook-young were gathered around it as well.
"Finally, it's my time to shine."
"······."
"Let me learn a thing or two from you."
Dumping all the equipment he'd scrounged from everywhere and his recovery items onto the ground in a rush, Kim Ha-on gripped a single knife and lunged at Yoon Jay.
Shooting someone's just cowardly, right?
Just as Jung Seung-woo had gotten his moment in the gathering episode, he wanted his own claim to fame — to hog the buzz all for himself.
"Wh-what?"
Hissignature strike was shut down in one move. Kim Ha-on put distance between them again and raised his knife. But even that, Yoon Jay brushed aside with ease.
[Heh, heh-heh······ How do you think we found out exactly where you bastards were?]
[What?]
After subduing the terrorists without difficulty, what had happened next? Right — the sound of an explosion.
Among the hostages, among the children, there had been one the terrorists had planted. A child with a bomb sewn inside his body.
[See you in hell! Detonate it!]
Had the child volunteered? Someone must have held his family hostage — or brainwashed him······ It was an idea no human being should have been capable of.
Then a comrade had spotted the bomb and thrown himself at it, and Yoon Jay had lost his friend.
"GAAAH!"
Kim Ha-on toppled backward, and Yoon Jay, eyes flashing, advanced on him.
That inhuman, savage cruelty — and the comrade, the friend, who had died to it. He could have left the military, in fact. But he had stayed, for revenge.
"Uh-ahh······?"
That expression, overflowing with killing intent and hatred, looked nothing like a guest on a variety show. It looked like a man standing in the middle of a real operation.
At that moment, Choi Tae-yang and Jung Seung-woo, who had only been observing from behind, stepped in.
"Yoon Jay!"
"Hyungnim!"
The sensation of being jumped from behind — Yoon Jay swung his knife. It was a finely crafted silicone blade, but it still hurt plenty if it landed.
"Hey, snap out of it!"
"······Huh?"
After several rounds of standoff like that, it was Choi Tae-yang's shout that brought Yoon Jay back to himself — and into his ears came PD Han Kook-young's cry.
Across Yoon Jay's side, paint smeared thick and wet — the marks where Jung Seung-woo and Choi Tae-yang's knives had cut him.
"Mi-mission complete! Omega Team wins!"
Kim Ha-on, meanwhile, was still completely dazed.
We won?
This counted as winning? Sinking to the ground, Kim Ha-on swallowed hard.
I seriously thought I was going to die······.
If it had been a real fight, they'd all be dead. Anyone who saw that look in his eyes would think the same.
His heart pounding out of control, Kim Ha-on looked desperately at Jung Seung-woo and Choi Tae-yang, who had blocked Yoon Jay. Did they just save my life?
"Th-that was close, huh."
Only after confirming that Yoon Jay's eyes had returned to normal did the tension drain out of Jung Seung-woo. He'd thrown every ounce of his strength into stopping him.
Replica firearms and silicone knives were never going to be a real safety net. Hyungnim could probably have taken on everyone in this room with nothing but a pencil.
"Hooaaah······."
Choi Tae-yang wasn't in much better shape. No, seriously, this bastard's strength is monstrous too. Had he gone easy on me during our old sparring sessions?
"Huh? We lost? But we made it out?"
"What?"
Only then did PD Han Kook-young turn to look at the extraction point. Kang Hajun, Nam Chan-hee, and Baek Do-kyung were already standing on top of it.
"Ah, so that means······."
"It's a draw?"
Though no one had coordinated it beforehand, the staff and cast all turned to look at Yoon Jay, who stood in silence.
Of course, the broadcast was edited with a deft hand, and it went out to the world as Yoon Jay staging a spectacular rampage before getting caught off guard by Jung Seung-woo.
"Man, that came out great."
"PD Han was saying you should be a fixed cast member too, hyung."
"Pfft, no thanks. I'm too busy watching that kid."
Choi Tae-yang stretched his arms to the ceiling and flopped onto the couch. His phone buzzed with messages from acquaintances — Was that you on Soldiers K? Are you close with Yoon Jay? — and the like.
Yoon Jay hadn't won, but because of everything he'd shown until then, not a single person thought of him as the loser.
Choi Tae-yang snuck a glance at the screen of Jung Seung-woo's tablet and grinned wide. Hey, they're talking about me too?
"Hyung, you have a schedule tomorrow, so get to bed early."
"I should. Good night."
"Yes, sir."
The moment Yoon Jay disappeared into his room, the grins that he'd flashed for the cameras on Jung Seung-woo and Choi Tae-yang's faces stiffened at once.
"Hey."
"What, hyung."
"What do we do if he slips into that state again?"
Since nothing unusual had surfaced during the broadcast, the two had let their guard down a little — so much so that they'd half wondered whether his story about attacking Yoon Do-jun had been an exaggeration.
But going through it once on set and then watching it back on screen made it brutally clear this was no joke. If they hadn't stepped in, Kim Ha-on would have been hurt.
"What do we do? We do our damn jobs and stop him, that's what."
"Ugh, I'm dead."
Choi Tae-yang let his head drop forward.
Three weeks had passed since the film's release. The planned promotional schedule had wrapped, and every piece of content had been unveiled.
Intermission was cruising along smoothly. The moment the soundtrack dropped, it even charted on the music platforms.
People were now locked in debate over whether Intermission would hit ten million admissions or not.
"We did it!"
The moment Choi Su-jin shot up from her desk staring at the integrated box-office network, a great roar went up through the Intermission production office. A scrappy studio that did nothing but music-related films had landed a monster hit.
"We did it!!"
"R-really?!"
The staff of the Intermission production company fell into each other's arms, cheering.
"Yes, yes. Thank you, sir!"
And after a short call with Lee Seo-won, Yoon Dohwa searched for something on her phone.
"Something good happen?"
"Yes!"
Answering cheerfully as the hair stylist ruffled her head, Yoon Dohwa began humming a tune.
"Manager oppa, how do I get flowers delivered?"
"Flowers? Don't tell me······?!"
"No, not that. Something came up that I need to congratulate."
Yoon Dohwa giggled. Whenever his younger siblings had something worth celebrating, Yoon Jay had always sent a gift somehow, some way. Of those, bouquets were what the twins had received most often.
[Who taught you to be this thoughtful? An ex-girlfriend?]
[No. My father.]
[Seriously? You're absurdly good at making a person's heart flutter······ Feel free to teach me sometime.]
[I'm serious, though······.]
And he hadn't even sent them through a manager — he'd delivered them himself.
When the whole group had something to celebrate, he'd looked after the other members too. Watching the members' faces go pink, their manager would click her tongue and mutter, "That man's a real player."
"Oh — don't tell me······ It's about your oppa?"
"Yes."
"Got it. I'll look up the shop for you."
"No! I want to send it myself!"
The Flava manager, who had dutifully sent Yoon Dohwa the link to the regular flower shop, let out a sigh.
She found herself remembering Yoon Jay as she'd run into him at that funeral.
No matter how thick an idol aura rolled off him, actually debuting and making it big was a different matter entirely — and yet there was Yoon Jay, soaring higher with every step, flaunting it for all the world to see.
Ha. I should have locked him in back then, even if it meant offering outrageous terms······.