Chapter 169

Chapter 169

Park Moondae’s appearance on The Past Calls became public knowledge only after the trailer went up. The schedule had been arranged in a hurry, but it was at the earliest date possible.

[(Trailer) TeSTAR and Golden Age become Confucian scholars from Sungkyunkwan Academy? | The Past Calls | EP36 | SBC Culture]

As one might expect, there were a considerable number of fans who were concerned by this. They were worried that Moondae’s appearance would create unnecessary trouble, and their gut instincts borne from past experience told them something wasn’t quite right.

- F*ck, that group again?

- Am I the only one who has a bad feeling about this?

- Just get them to do some wholesome food content or something. They’re busy enough as it is without having to solve quizzes, you sons of b*tches

Many of the fans who were wary of public opinion were already aware that Golden Age was purposefully targeting TeSTAR. Considering Park Moondae’s past, his family history, and the unfortunate circumstances under which he’d been forced to drop out of school, there was no chance the fans were going to enjoy finding out that he was going on a brainy show with someone enrolled at Hankuk University. If there was even a single instance of Moondae being subtly compared in terms of his education, the fans were likely to lose it in an indignant rage.

- I don’t think I can bear to watch it when it airs

- If they try to square up against TeSTAR again, I won’t be able to bear it. I’m going to rile up the public against them somehow

Not everyone’s thoughts were so dramatic, however. Those who weren’t so immersed in fandom and simply enjoyed being casual fans usually came across sentiments like the ones following.

- My god, Moondae looks so good in a hanbok. T_T It’s apparently a Sungkyunkwan student’s uniform… I can already tell from the trailer this is going to be a great episode

- Thank you... I have no words...

- This was very sudden. There was no warning at all, and I love it

- The trailer seems to suggest Moondae plays a large part in the episode. I’m excited

The graduate student who was struggling to get through her rough Master’s program was also seeing many comments like this.

The light of my life... She grinned, her face haggard. She was so grateful that the show was airing at night—she was usually at the lab during the day, even on the weekends.

I get to watch it as it airs! She wanted to bounce on the sofa from excitement, but she lacked the energy. Instead, she sat down quietly and turned on the TV.

“It’s starting!”

The episode began playing on screen.

[※What past calls to them now?※]

The graduate student watched eagerly as the guests took off their blindfolds in the intro segment and the emcee sat down in the monitoring room. She followed Park Moondae’s actions, unable to hide her smile. Seeing him talk and laugh on the screen made everything worthwhile.

I was sad he had black hair for this promotional cycle, but I still want to see him in that Confucian scholar’s uniform! Her calm enjoyment of the show was disturbed in the very next scene.

“So ‘Gap’ and ‘Gi’ work at this Hall of Worthies.”

[※(Shock)※]

“Oh my god!”

Moondae had breezed through the first question.

“What? What’s going on? What’s up with Park Moondae?”

It wasn’t just the graduate student who was wondering this to herself. Her feed of the social media account she’d clumsily made to browse content of her favorite idol was filled with similar comments.

- ??

- The hell?

- Park Moondae, what the hell?

- My idol’s even smart. That f*cking rocks T_T

But there was plenty more to come, as it turned out.

“Hmm. That’s three occurrences of a winged animal, one of a wild animal, two of a sea animal, and then one more of the winged animal…”

“Why don’t we take the one on the third shelf?”

Park Moondae continued to kill it all episode long.

“No way!”

The graduate student gaped at the screen.

The show hadn’t gone out of its way to over-edit anything. As one might expect from the Culture Division, they were maintaining a sophisticated and pleasant, but not over the top, atmosphere.

This made Park Moondae’s solutions that much easier to appreciate, as it highlighted how he was coming up with them on the spot.

“Huh? That’s not supposed to happen, is it?”

“They’re supposed to make a full round of the room before they can solve that…”

“Those in the monitoring room are concerned.”

The obvious way the production team and the emcee were lamenting his incredible show of intellect only added to how amusing the moment was.

“Wow...”

She stared at the screen, speechless. Then her chest began to swell with pride.

I don’t even want to use banal words like “smart” to describe him! He would probably kill it on a proper quiz show where the smartest celebrities gathered! The other guests seemed to feel the same way, and incredulous laughs and exclamations could be heard from all around.

“Moondae, come over here for a second. I need you to be honest with me. You’re a member of Mensa, aren’t you? I’ll keep your secret.”

“Huh? Of course not.”

It seems like you are to me! The graduate student bobbed her head eagerly since it seemed obvious to her that he was. Just like the ecstatic graduate student, the fans who’d been worried about his appearance on the show were posting eagerly following his shocking performance.

- Good god. He got another one right

- Am I dreaming right now?

- He’s been solving every problem without even taking time to think LOL T_T. That’s nuts, Moon Puppy!

- Moondae seems to be good at everything but drawing. I shouldn’t have been worried, damn it

- I thought our puppy was only unmatched in singing, dancing, coming up with ideas, and his looks... As it turns out, genius is in his blood

Because Park Moondae went through everything so fast, hardly anything had been cut from the problem-solving segments. If anything, more scenes featuring him had been added.

“The first problem becomes trivial if you use formal logic symbols. May I have a pen? Thank you.”

Park Moondae explained his logic in an interview, giving commentary about the problems that made the episode even more interesting. He was so detailed, that any trolls who’d planned to bash him with claims that it was all scripted or that he’d been told the answers ahead of time were rendered silent.

“I prefer to overlap identical symbols like this. If you do that... there’s always going to be something that sticks out like a sore thumb.”

It was obvious to anyone that Park Moondae had solved the problems himself, and that he understood them on a very deep level.

As the icing on the cake, he even had a backstory that explained why he was so proficient.

“I really like this show... and I’ve been watching it a lot. I’ve tried solving the problems on the show myself and did quite a bit of studying before coming on.”

Park Moondae had been honest when he’d said he studied up beforehand. The real truth was that he’d narrowed down the scope to an amount he could easily memorize, but a gentle mix of truth and lies made it seem even more believable.

He also had a partially truthful excuse about his knowledge of Korean history, which was overshadowed by the logic quizzes.

“Well... I wanted to be a civil servant before I became an idol, so I studied Korean history for a bit.”

Those who knew his story were bound to feel a pang of pity for him hearing this. Given that anyone even remotely interested in Park Moondae knew his story, this statement was genuinely well-engineered—almost to the point of being unfair. As a result, the viewers responded with things like “He’s amazing” and “Oh my god, I’m crying” with crying emojis.

- Moondae, do whatever you want T_T Except retire, of course

- My mom keeps on saying how proud of him she is. At this rate, she’ll fund a scholarship for him

- Thank you for becoming an idol T_T. With his brains, I’d bet he would have aced the civil service exam. An entertainment industry without Moon Puppy? That’s scary to think about

- He’s so smart... and motivated... But he didn’t get a chance to learn... Reality is so cruel!

This turned out to be quite the poke in the ribs for a country with such an infamous educational fervor. A troll couldn’t even dream of starting anything in these circumstances.

Vague comments like “It feels scripted,” “Uh... LOL,” and “That was obviously intentional” still appeared, hoping to get a hate train rolling, but it was of no use.

The show was far too trusted by the public.

- This isn’t run by T1. Why would public television go out of its way to make Park Moondae look good? They don’t have any reason to do that

- The production team’s so confused LOL. This is f*cking hilarious

- The PDs would end the show before trying to fake something. They’re madlads who are all about historical accuracy and don’t even care when some episodes turn out boring LOL

Even if someone wanted to accuse Park Moondae of stealing everyone else’s screen time, there was precious little to support this. Park Moondae almost never came forward except when he was solving a problem. In fact, he let Seon Ahyeon take over in most of the action, skits, and heart-warming scenes.

“Whoa! Yikes!”

“I wish I could do that, too…”

For instance, the way Seon Ahyeon had gracefully and deftly performed a mission where he had to extract the hint without touching the traditional paper and persimmons hanging from the ceiling had been quite impressive. The role suited him better because his movements were neat and measured.

He’s like some kind of magician. The graduate student was certain that a slo-mo version of that scene, enhanced in a million different ways, would appear on her feed in several days’ time. Better still, Seon Ahyeon had managed to deliver a few lines that left a big impression.

“Would you... like one?”

“Uh... um... I-I’m okay— I mean, I’m all right, my good sir.”

A palace official had been staring at the rice cakes Park Moondae had roasted, and Seon Ahyeon had dipped a piece in grain syrup and offered it to him, supporting his wrist with his other hand. Seon Ahyeon had looked as graceful as a classical painting as he did so.

What was more, it was obvious he wasn’t sure if doing so was allowed during filming, making him look extremely cute. The palace official, whose only role was to add to the realism of the scene, had nearly broken character because of him.

I can understand why people call him an angel... The graduate student decided then and there that Seon Ahyeon would be promoted from Moondae’s friend to Moondae’s cute friend in her mind.

In the meantime, the guests on screen were still working together to solve the quizzes in front of them.

“Hey, I think we’re on a roll!”

“This is great! What about you, youngest team member? Why don’t you try your hand at this problem?”

“Right! I’ll give it a shot!”

As Park Moondae had intended, the Hankuk University student from Golden Age participated in the skits and problem-solving. But he wasn’t used to appearing on a show without his group or engaging in conversation, and his awkwardness made things boring.

He wasn’t bad at the problems, but he failed to make the same impact as Park Moondae, who’d swept through them with ease when people least expected it. People had been expecting some skill from him anyway since it had been publicized that he attended Hankuk University so much.

“Wow! Great job!”

“Thank you!”

Banal scenes of this sort were used to drive the episode along. The Hankuk University student wasn’t made a mockery of or worth talking about. In the viewers’ minds, he was just an unremarkable guy who hadn’t done anything to earn his share of the spotlight.

This was the best possible outcome for Park Moondae’s fans. The private communities dedicated to him as well as his fans’ private social media accounts were in a festive mood as a result.

- I can’t say this publicly, but the catharsis!

- This is exactly what happened during Bespoke Singer

- LMAO this is so fun

- Please know your place next time

Golden Age’s agency would usually have tried making subtle comments along the lines of “A megacorporation gets its way again,” but they weren’t making so much as a peep. This celebratory mood regarding the episode was generally accepted as mainstream.

The climax of the whole affair came at the end of the episode.

“This book.”

“Doesn’t this look a lot like a letter from the Korean alphabet to you?”

It was the part where Park Moondae showed off his knowledge of Korean history, quickly firing off an impressive string of deductions.

“Gap and Gi from the Hall of Worthies have brought you the Hunminjeongeum Haerye.”

This scene, accompanied by his calm voice and faint smile, felt like the climax of a drama or a movie. As a result, as soon as it aired a clip of the moment spread across social media and various communities.

[※A fabulous scene from today’s episode of The Past Calls—if you watched it, you know.※]

[※???: Doesn’t this look a lot like a letter from the Korean alphabet to you?※]

[※The satisfying final deduction from The Past Calls※]

Such titles would have usually attracted more trolls than anyone could count, but this time these posts received a flood of likes and quickly began to trend. The reason was simple—they were true.

- The questions and puzzles were so difficult, so I got the shock of my life seeing him solve all of it in one go

- I guess being brainy requires good genes

- The catharsis I felt when everything came together was next level LOL

- I knew he was this kind of guy the moment he made that slideshow about their debut song LOL

- I feel like he’s wasted here. Look how smart he is... The latent high schooler in me is saying he needs to take the CSAT right now...

└ LOL no! Moondae needs to be an idol forever! T_T

Park Moondae’s infamous sad past had come together with this new brainy side, leaving him with even more solid mass appeal. This also meant that things had gone perfectly according to Park Moondae’s plans.

***

That was pretty neat. I set down my phone. It had been a while since I’d had such a clean win, without any unforeseen trouble.

“Hunminjeongeum Haerye! Hunminjeongeum Haerye!”

Eugene was excitedly shouting the book’s name in the next room like some kind of victory chant. This was because the members who were free had claimed they were bored and joined me in watching The Past Calls.

Is this an American thing? Eugene’s pronunciation was on point, too, which suggested that the scene had left a deep impression on him despite his lack of knowledge when it came to Korean history.

“Hahaha!”

Big Sejin, Eugene’s roommate, was apparently having a blast. We were going to reassign roommates soon and make content of it, and there was very little I wouldn’t give to avoid ending up with those two.

In any case, tonight I could finally lay back and relax without having to think about something or other. Ignoring the noise from the next room, I closed my eyes. My body was already beginning to relax into sleep. I was so tired that I probably wouldn’t even need earplugs. I planned to go to sleep a bit early today.

That was when my phone began to vibrate continuously. I was receiving a phone call.

Huh? I wasn’t expecting a call from anyone. I’d blocked all numbers from calling me except for ones I had saved in my contacts, so it couldn’t be spam, either.

“Ha...”

Holding back a sigh, I lifted the phone and held it in front of my face. The name of the caller appeared on the screen.

[Ha Iljoon (Golden Age)]

“...?”

It was Goldie #1, calling at an unlikely hour.