Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Love is all you need
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"Wow, this is so adorable...!!"
Unlike Yumin, who looked puzzled, Chaewon let out a high-pitched squeal and beamed from ear to ear.
She snatched the 'photo' from Yumin's hand and stared at it intently, while Yumin turned his gaze toward Jo Yoona.
"For this mission, you need to find the locations where these six photos were taken, but you have to go in order from first grade to sixth grade, chronologically."
No matter how he thought about it, this was a brilliantly conceived challenge.
Jo Yoona shrugged with exaggerated flair, her voice brimming with confidence.
"If you succeed, your reward will be the nostalgic snack from elementary school that Chaewon mentioned."
"Tteokbokki, right?"
"Hey! Don't spoil it like that—the edit won't have any punch...!!"
Thanks for getting mad on my behalf, Chaewon.
As Jo Yoona flashed a wry smile at Yumin's deadpan response, struggling to keep a straight face, the two began examining the photos they'd received for the mission one by one.
"But seriously, where did you even get these?"
Suddenly curious about the photos' origin, Yumin glanced at the production crew again and asked.
The answer came from right beside him.
"From your house and mine, obviously."
"...Huh? Our houses?"
Pangyo and Bundang aren't that far apart. I went to your place myself and grabbed every photo album with our childhood pics, then picked out a few good ones from yours and mine to hand over to the crew."
"...Wait. Why doesn't that make any sense to me? You came to my house? You?"
Yumin pointed back and forth between himself and Chaewon, laughing in disbelief.
"Yeah. Didn't your mom tell you?"
"Mom and I aren't that close. She might even talk to you more often than me."
Now that he knew the full story, Yumin gave a bitter smile and bowed his head.
He quickly refocused on the photos to tackle the mission.
"Anyway, Min-ah, do any of these scenes ring a bell?"
"...Now that I see them, yeah? But no clue which grade they were."
Chaewon pointed at the photos spread out on the desk one by one.
"This one's the English speech contest, and this is the student council meeting? I don't remember the exact name, anyway."
"Oh, this is definitely sixth grade. The school festival. This is the reading marathon, and where's this? The broadcast room...? Did I ever go in there?"
The two spread the photos across the desk, trying to pinpoint the locations first.
Since all the spots in the photos had distinctive features, the childhood friends quickly figured out where they were, but...
"...I can't tell apart anything except the festival and student council."
Yumin tilted his head with an awkward grin.
The photos captured iconic events, sure, but elementary school activities were pretty much the same every year, weren't they?
Especially since the crew had carefully selected shots that were as indistinguishable as possible to milk more footage.
The production team's lips twitched at Yumin's half-resigned headshake.
"I've got it. The perfect way to crack this."
But Chaewon's utterly confident expression froze their smirks in place.
Yumin, meanwhile, eyed her skeptically.
He blinked at her in a daze.
"What? You can tell them all apart?"
"Nah, I don't remember exactly either. But I've figured out how to track the timeline. Look at these two."
Yumin scrutinized the two photos Chaewon pointed to, half-doubting.
One showed them at an English speech contest in the language lab.
The other captured them in the broadcast room, wearing headphones bigger than their heads, tiny hands gripping the mic as if singing.
"What's the difference between these two, you think?"
"You being good at it in one and bad in the other?"
"Hey! I'm great at English now, okay? I'm in a world-touring girl group?"
"Sorry. ...Hmm, what's different?"
Even staring as hard as he could, Yumin drew a blank, so Chaewon smugly pointed out the key detail.
"See? They're both standing straight, right?"
"Yeah."
"Doesn't the height difference look obvious?"
"That again?"
"I'm saying, is the height gap the same in both photos?"
Yumin picked up the two photos to compare.
"...You're right. It's a little different."
"Heh. Finally getting the point?"
After Chaewon's hint, Yumin paused, stared, then nodded in acknowledgment.
"Come to think of it, I shot up in middle school, while you kept growing steadily?"
"Bingo. The bigger the height gap in the photo, the higher the grade."
"...Huh, Han Chaewon. You're on point today."
"Noona. I've been watching Conan since I was five. I'm a genius."
Ahem, Chaewon puffed up even more, as if demanding praise.
Yumin played along adequately, and a satisfied Chaewon dove back into sorting the photos.
"So the broadcast room's earlier then."
"Let's lock in the sure ones first. Student council's fifth grade, festival's sixth. And..."
Chaewon swiftly moved three photos to the side of the desk.
"Honestly, don't we look way too young for the sports day? Like actual babies."
"Yeah, that's a given."
"...How'd this cute kid turn out so tall?"
"Han Chaewon. What do you mean by that?"
Trading jokes that were now routine, the two nailed down half the order.
"The problem child's this one. Reading Golden Bell."
Chaewon waved the photo.
It perfectly framed Yumin solving problems intently and Chaewon cheering him on from the front of the eliminated kids' line.
"Hey, isn't this the one where you got first? Anything coming back?"
"I've gotten first plenty of times."
"...Wow. Why does the truth sound so obnoxious? Forever, after this airs, please give Yumin a talking-to."
"...All I remember is going head-to-head with the sixth graders to the end."
Unyielded by Chaewon's camera glare, Yumin stared at the photo piercingly, then snapped his fingers with a grin.
"Got it. This is third grade."
"What? You remembered?"
"Nah, but look what you wrote on the whiteboard."
"...Third Grade Class 2, Kang Yumin Fighting. Epic."
"How's my eye for detail?"
One hand covered her mouth, the other shot up for a high-five.
Yumin clapped Chaewon's eagerly outstretched palm, then gathered the photos and arranged them chronologically.
"In order: playground. Broadcast room. Library. Language lab. Seohyeon Auditorium. Multipurpose room."
Chaewon shot an expectant look at the crew, but Jo Yoona shrugged with her signature poker face.
"Then just take the camera and head to those spots in sequence."
"You'll tell us later if we nailed it, right?"
"Let's go. I'm curious how much it's changed."
The two stood up.
After hitting record on the phone mounted on the selfie stick...
"Kinda exciting. Like a nostalgia trip?"
"Min-ah! Let's take pics when we get there!"
The childhood friend duo left the classroom, their smiles heartwarming just to watch.
"We're stopping at every spot for over 20 minutes gushing about memories—is this okay?"
On the way to the final sixth-grade location after clearing up to fifth, nearly two hours into filming, Yumin suddenly asked if it was fun.
Chaewon snorted at his random question.
"Hey, Kang Yumin. Every story we've told so far has had the crew cracking up. You think your jump-rope fail on the stairs isn't hilarious?"
"Don't mock someone's noble attempt."
"You told it 'cause you thought it'd be funny."
"...Was it?"
"Nah, I was just choking on secondhand embarrassment remembering your flop. But it'll make the cut."
"Okay. Good enough."
Yumin nodded contentedly.
As they reached the stairs from the fifth floor to third, Chaewon angled her camera forward.
Yumin stretched his arm to fit them both in frame.
Meanwhile, trailing PD Jo Yoona, writer Yang Jaehoon, and the two junior PDs were in a bind.
They had no idea how to edit all this footage.
'Isn't there one boring scene?!'
In the best way possible.
'How do I cut this gold down to 20-30 minutes...?'
Jo Yoona's notes app—full of edit points—was overflowing long ago.
By her count, they already had more than enough for 20 minutes.
Corner within a corner.
At each spot, they'd spill related tales.
Compare changes with the photos, strike the exact same poses for thumbnail gold without being asked...
And even recreate the scenes in unprompted skits.
Those skits were ridiculously high-quality, thanks to 15 years of friendship.
'Gotta tell the boss...'
They'd need to rejig the schedule.
Only 1/5 through filming, no guarantee of sustained fun, so reporting now was premature—but...
Her veteran instincts screamed to revise the format and planning ASAP to capture every bit of magic on camera.
'Haven't felt this excited about a shoot in forever.'
Great call taking this project.
Jo Yoona clenched her fist inwardly as the group reached the final spot: the multipurpose room.
"Whoa. They've really redone this place."
"...Yeah. Unrecognizable."
The two entered, spinning around in shock.
As a multipurpose room, the space wasn't huge.
They strode straight to the stage at the front, and Chaewon hopped up, addressing the camera smoothly.
"This is where Yumin and I did the sixth-grade school festival. As you can see, it's small, so they split low and high graders for separate events—that's what I remember."
"No idea how many times I've said it, but this stage feels so tiny and weird now."
"Right? They didn't renovate or anything...?"
"We just grew a ton. No clue what we even did to end up this big."
The two surveyed the room from the stage.
Lost in nostalgia, they wandered silently for a bit.
The crew quietly filmed their wistful faces, not missing a beat.
Chaewon let out a soft sigh and patted Yumin's back to lighten the mood.
"We gotta do it here too, right?"
She grinned, showing the photo.
Yumin eyed her and the photo reluctantly.
"Remember what we sang?"
"The Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love.' Believe me if I say I vaguely recall the choreography?"
"...Han Chaewon. Don't get hooked on using the show as an excuse to make me do weird stuff."
Sensing something off, Yumin frowned, but Chaewon shot back earnestly.
"Yumin-ah. It's me, Han Chaewon. I'm pure as driven snow. I swear, it's not just for kicks."
"......"
"...Okay, maybe a tiny bit. But I really do remember the moves?"
Chaewon confessed under Yumin's suspicious glare.
"You can't back out now after nailing everything else, right? You know the show too well for that."
Under her relentless push to get him onstage, Yumin shot pleading looks at the crew.
Having never prompted skits themselves, they found the appeal awkward—but...
"This'll be hilarious."
"We'll sing along too."
"This scene's probably been rewatched the most."
"Absolutely. No question."
The crew, having clocked Yumin's subtle craving for fun, thumbed up and piled on.
"......"
Yumin gawked back and forth between Chaewon and the crew.
He squeezed his eyes shut, dazed, then...
"...Pros work for pay. I got paid. I'm a pro...."
Muttering self-hypnosis, he swallowed a laugh.
Seeing her childhood friend's resolved face, Chaewon beamed approvingly—then yanked his hand and hooked pinkies.
Yumin's eyes widened instantly.
"......What?"
"See? We're holding hands here. We stuck to the couple concept—boy-girl pairs showing sweet moments during the song."
"......Did we?"
"We did! I still remember everyone whispering excitedly when the idea hit, then getting super into picking partners."
"Puberty peak."
Right, now he remembered—.
Yumin chuckled, ducking his head.
His eyes misted with memory.
"Funny thing? Only the sixth graders went nuts during this. Other grades and parents watching just chilled, but our class lost it."
"Afterward, we got all that 'You two dating for real?' and 'Stop PDA' crap."
"Looking back, it was just sticker-photo poses, but man, it felt so embarrassing and thrilling. Real nostalgia."
Chaewon's bowed head let her hair fall forward.
She glanced sideways with a smile, tucking it behind her ear.
Anyway—.
"Min-ah, know the lyrics?"
"...First verse, roughly."
"Hum if you need. They're similar anyway; you'll catch on."
"...Gonna hold hands the whole time?"
"Why not? Nervous?"
"Nope."
"Then we're good."
Chaewon bumped shoulders, closing the gap.
Yumin gave a faint smile and a small nod.
She hit play wordlessly, and the familiar melody flowed.
"Love, love, love."
Chaewon's clear voice led the first line, Yumin matching her cute gestures seamlessly.
Embarrassing to start, but savoring the moment...
A subtle tremor in their endlessly pure voices as they sang.
One. Two.
The crew started clapping along.
Verse by verse. Even repeating lyrics, they traded lines.
"Love is all you need."
Harmony on the final chorus, eyes locking.
Yumin couldn't hold back his embarrassed laugh and tried to bolt—but—.
"All you need is love."
The song kept going.
Chaewon gripped his hand; Yumin looked flustered.
Finish it, Min-ah—.
A split-second eye contact, but her stubborn, endearing face made him turn slowly.
Crew clapping and singing in rhythm, reveling.
His heart raced like back then, with hundreds watching.
The illusion swelled—everyone staring, just like that day.
Tension. Then joy.
"All you need is love."
Yumin's conflicted face lit up in a flash.
His tone and delivery transformed from the first verse.
They layered harmony on the lead-in; the crew belted after.
The song built to its peak.
"Love is all you need."
A heart traced overhead.
Then or now, the height gap made it endearingly dorky.