Is That Thing Even a Person?

The day Fly World Class 11 finally hit the airwaves.

The moment I got home from training, my mother took me by the hand and planted me on the sofa. When I looked up, I spotted my father filming from the corner of the room with his smartphone.

“...What is this?”

That was about the maximum reaction I could muster at the moment.

“Jae-rim, we're filming right now. Try not to acknowledge the camera as much as you can.”

At my father's words, I sized up the situation at speed, then asked.

“...Am I getting paid for this?”

It was a very important question. There was no reason to agree to extra filming if no one was going to pay me for it.

My father nodded and gave me the OK sign, and only then did I stop minding the camera.

If there's money involved, might as well put in the effort.

In any case, while I'd been out training, the broadcast had apparently progressed quite far — the kids on the TV screen had finished their introductions and were just getting into drills.

...They're pushing me a little too blatantly, aren't they.

The broadcast was airing an edit aggressively centered on me — so much so that I worried viewers watching at home might start forming a grudge against it.

...Well. Doesn't really matter.

Then came the solo interview segment. If I remembered right, a staff writer had caught me during break time after training and asked me a few quick questions.

...But why did that make it into the broadcast? I don't think I said anything particularly entertaining.

The moment I wondered about it—

On the screen, past-me delivered his answer to the question.

...Did I really say that?

Apparently my mind had hit its limit from the endless stream of bratty kids trying to talk to me, and I'd answered the interview in a half-dazed fog — which must be why none of it remained in my memory.

That same moment.

Is that thing a person?

Yoo Min-jung, who had been monitoring Fly World Class 11 just like Joo Jae-rim, erupted into pure, concentrated fury the instant she saw his interview.

“JOO JAE-RIM!!!!”

Thanks to his interview, her own look of utter foolishness had been replayed three times in a row on air.

On screen, she reached her foot out toward a ball rolling slowly toward her, only for it to bounce straight off her face — a strange little tragedy — and there were the other kids, desperately fighting back laughter.

I'm finished.

Forgetting she was even being filmed, the girl collapsed into a full despairing slouch, head in her hands. As far as she was concerned, the career of a future great actress had just ended on the spot.

The ratings for Fly World Class 11 were lower than expected.

There was nothing to be done about it. The number of people watching TV programs the traditional way had simply shrunk.

But the moment the broadcast aired, a single post went up.

The post, titled The Rude Elementary Schooler, spread like wildfire.

Once it came out that this was the star of the "Eul-yong-ta Incident" that had set the communities ablaze in the teaser a few days earlier, curious users sought out the broadcast of their own accord —

— and came back carrying GIFs of whatever scenes they personally found funny.

And among them, a few started running a live thread of the broadcast as it aired.

Then, right at that moment —

the highlight reel of Joo Jae-rim in action finally arrived, and the thread was buried under shock.

Similar reactions spread beyond the forums and across social media, and for a brief moment the name Joo Jae-rim appeared on the real-time trending list before slipping off again.

Perhaps because I carried the memory of centuries spent living as a sports star, I tended to take people's reactions in stride.

My parents in this life, however, were experiencing all of it for the first time, and they spent the entire day glued to their phones. They'd wince at any malicious comment and smile at any that praised me.

You really shouldn't pay that much attention to the comments.

Naturally, as their son, I worried about them for it.

“Son, have you looked at what people are saying since the show aired?”

“No. I haven't.”

I shook my head. My smartphone had a youth-protection app installed that blocked access to social media.

Admittedly, workaround apps existed and were shared freely among kids, but I had no particular desire to jump through all those hoops just to use social media.

In any case, once I made it clear I hadn't seen any of the reactions, my parents handed over their own smartphones.

And in the process, I caught traces of the malicious comments they'd already deleted. In a small gesture like that, I could plainly read a parent's wish that their child come away unscathed.

Well... I honestly didn't much care about hate comments.

People who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are going to hate me will hate me either way.

I knew, after all, that expecting to be loved by every single person in the world was a deep and terrible arrogance. It didn't take nearly as big a reason as one might think for a person to dislike another — human beings were creatures perfectly capable of hating someone to death over the most trivial thing imaginable.

“Jae-rim, take the phone and browse comfortably.”

My parents passed the smartphone over, telling me to take my time with the comments.

Truthfully, I wasn't all that curious about them, but refusing a phone my parents were handing me would have been poor manners.

So I had no choice but to look through people's reactions on the device they'd given me.

Heh.

Ah. This one's a little funny.

And among them, there were quite a few comments with a sense of humor that hit my tastes dead-on.

“Thank goodness. Looks like he likes it.”

“Right? There's a smile on his face.”

Han Hyomin and Joo Sang-hyun quietly watched their son, who had begun chuckling at the comments.

To anyone else it was the same blank, indifferent face as always, but as his parents, they could feel that he was enjoying himself.

Their son, who always wore that expressionless look, finally seemed to have brightened up a little, and the couple was delighted. As they watched him, they turned to each other as if fated to do so, and burst out laughing at the same time.

It felt like being transported back to those passionate days long ago.

Well, since we're here... how about number two tonight?

In that instant, a spark ignited in Han Hyomin's chest.

That evening, the dinner table was loaded with an impressive lineup of foods famed for their, ah, vigor-restoring properties.

“Jae-rim, how about the three of us sleep together tonight? It's been a while.”

Surveying the menu laid out on the table, Joo Jae-rim turned away from his father's pleading gaze.

...I should get to my room early tonight.

After Fly World Class 11 aired, becoming famous overnight was only natural.

For kids my age, appearing on television meant exactly that.

“Jae-rim, I watched the show you were on. I had no idea you had that kind of talent in you!”

What I had not imagined, however, was that even the teachers would react.

Apparently the program's buzz was far bigger than I'd anticipated.

If I'd known this would happen, I never would have gone on.

That day, I bitterly regretted my television appearance.

“Jae-rim, want to hang out with us after school today?”

Kids I had never seen in my life kept approaching me at school.

“...Sorry, who are you exactly?”

When I asked, genuinely not knowing, they'd answer with an awkward expression that they were so-and-so from my class.

This repeated itself all day long, and the sighs came in an endless stream.

Why does everyone assume that sharing a classroom makes you friends? Wasn't this a flaw in the very structure of society? Personally, I believed the biggest culprit was the way teachers drilled us to "get along with your classmates" simply because we shared a room.

In any case, the emotions and thoughts I experienced that day were simple ones.

...Ugh, damn it. I want to drop out.

In my heart of hearts I wanted to go straight home and tell my parents I'd like to try this thing called homeschooling —

— but I held myself back, because one wrong move and I could see it now: a counseling-show appearance under the title We're Worried Our Son Has No Friends His Own Age.

While Joo Jae-rim suffered through elementary school, the production company behind Fly World Class 11 was in full festival mode.

True, the premiere's ratings hadn't been anything special — but the online buzz had driven up the show's mentions across the internet.

I knew it. He's a goldmine.

Receiving word of the program's performance, the main PD's thoughts drifted to Joo Jae-rim's face.

Fly World Class 11 had already caught the wave.

To keep the conversation from dying down, the production team kept dropping behind-the-scenes footage onto Nutube.

The most popular videos were, unsurprisingly, the ones featuring Joo Jae-rim. The team released a generous trove of his training clips and everything that had been cut purely for time.

People in the football world, too, began putting out reaction videos about the football genius who had appeared out of nowhere.

“Folks, every single professional club is in absolute chaos right now, I'm telling you! Everyone's asking who this prodigy on that show even is. This is the real deal! A once-in-a-generation talent has just emerged in Korea!”

The football genius boy who had appeared out of nowhere kept spreading even after the broadcast aired.

“PD Hwang, what do you think about scaling the show up a little more?”

“Scale it up how, specifically?”

“Having them train and play matches with famous clubs overseas.”

Apparently sensing a smash hit after the premiere, the OTT platform made an aggressive proposal, and the show's overall format was overhauled.

Instead of playing against Korean professional youth teams, the cast would now train and compete against the youth teams of prestigious clubs abroad.

Then, a few days later.

PD Hwang Hyun-woo briefed the cast and their parents on the changes.

And that day—

What kind of bullshit is this?

Joo Jae-rim showed the most dramatic reaction he had displayed since the day he was born.

I couldn't hide my bewilderment at the sudden format change. Overseas filming had never been part of the plan.

While I was still sorting through my feelings—

“Whoa. So we're going to Spain?”

“No way!!”

“Does that mean we get to see Lamine Yamal?!”

“Of course we do! Tung tung tung tung tung tung!”

The kids went berserk at the news of the overseas shoot.

...And I'm supposed to travel abroad with these kids.

My head was already starting to ache.