Chapter 360

Chapter 360

An hour had passed since we’d learned that we’d been robbed of all our coins.

“Oh my gosh.”

Our cozy accommodations were filled with chaos. Raebin, who was the person responsible for drawing the note, sat in the corner drenched in cold sweat.

“The carrots… The carrots…” he was repeatedly muttering. It seemed the shock had been too much for him.

“Uh, so…” Chungwoo said calmly. “That means we have no money at all at the moment.”

When it came time to edit this clip, exclamation marks would no doubt appear over our heads.

These guys are actually shell-shocked.

I crossed my arms and said quietly, “Yes. In other words, we’re broke.”

“B-broke…” Ahyeon said. “How can this sort of thing happen overnight?”

All we had to our name now was a single puppy. The little ball of fur jumped around among the despairing members as if to cheer us up, snuffling and barking. This seemed to help the other’s mood a little bit.

“Well, at least they didn’t take our little puppy. Isn’t that right?”

“Y-yes!” Ahyeon said.

“I mean, he’s still a puppy. There is a real chance it could have happened. We should be thankful. He’s not even hurt.”

Do they really mean that? I wondered if this level of shock was warranted just because a little bit of fake money had disappeared, only to realize that the production team had somehow gotten us to relax completely over the past two years.

It’s just a side effect—

“…!”

Actually, strike that. They got us. The bastards had planned all of this out before being so nice to lull us into a false sense of security. They had wanted us to be completely disarmed before we were met with the shocking truth.

Hell of a way to go about it.

“Huh? Dear me! Why did you have to pick this, of all things? The other one probably isn’t like this at all!” one of the directors had said.

“Then show us the other one so we can see!”

“Oh no, we can’t do that! You might have to draw another one next time!”

“Oh darn it!”

I don’t doubt that both pieces of paper dictated that we’d lost all our coins. I thought of the shameless director’s face and repressed the urge to swear.

You said we could relax, you bastard! No… I need to keep calm. In terms of the show itself, this was where things would finally get interesting.

The relaxation… Well, we had plenty of that already over the past two days. That was how I had to think about this. It was the only way I could think about it. If I let them piss me off, it means they win.

Ahyeon, who’d kept his mouth shut until now, suddenly raised his hand.

“Yes, Ahyeon?” Chungwoo said.

“W-we have some yarn… Would you like me to make something? Maybe we could sell it.”

“Wow.”

“Hmm. I didn’t think of that. I suppose we could do that, since you can make stuff with yarn,” Chungwoo said.

It wasn’t a bad idea. If they were desperate enough, footage of top-tier idols sitting together and doing some kind of manual labor to make ends meet would make for a pretty intriguing and funny sight. But the production team’s scheme was what mattered here.

“Uh… That’s amazing and all… but shouldn’t we find who did this first? That’s what the production team told us,” Bae Sejin said.

Yes. That’s probably what the people on the show want.

“Who? Who stole the money?”

“Well, about that! It is someone who currently lives in this village!” the director had said.

Bae Sejin gulped. “They were obviously saying we had to go find whoever did this.”

“Hmm.”

The members all fell into thought. Moments later, Raebin muttered with a pale look on his face,

“What if the thief tries to hurt us?”

“That won’t do.”

“Yes. Right. It might be dangerous…” Ahyeon said.

You guys are being way too serious about this. Making the audience laugh was all that mattered to the production team. There was no way that they would arrange for anything dangerous to happen.

Big Sejin nodded gravely. “Yes. It could be dangerous.”

And you’ve gotten caught up in the excitement too. I guess you’re happy that some kind of tribulation has finally come up so something interesting will happen on the show.

Chungwoo mediated by saying, “But right now, we need food to begin with… Maybe we should first help with some work and make some coins.”

“Okay!”

“In the meantime, we will look into the matter and see if we can find out who the thief is. I’m sure there are hints somewhere.”

“That’s… that’s a wise course of action,” Raebin said.

I thought it was a good decision. It made it clear we were immersed in the setting, and there was sufficient difference from the happy and carefree way we had gone about volunteering our help the previous day, making the whole situation pretty hilarious.

No, no need to get upset now, I reminded myself, realizing my temper was rising again. In any case, we began to meet with the residents, cameras in tow.

“Hello sir! Do you mind if we continue cleaning the yard for you where we left off yesterday? If you can give us a few coins, we’ll make it like new!” Big Sejin said.

“Huh? No need.”

We were being given shockingly little work.

“…?”

“How many houses have turned us down now?”

“Five.”

This situation had clearly been manufactured.

The old woman we met in the sixth house even tutted at us and said, “Dear me… those coins? I ran out of those as well. Can’t I just give you a little bit of food to eat before you go as payment?”

The production team replied cheerfully, “Sorry, that’s not going to work!”

“Wait, why are you answering for us?” one of the members asked.

“Those are the rules! You know how the system works!”

Sons of b*tches. It seemed that the generosity of the countryside that the production team had so eagerly introduced to us had suddenly dried up.

Chungwoo smiled incredulously. It seemed the situation was enough to test the patience of even the most forbearing of us. He asked, “So what do we do?”

“Well! We did prepare something for cases like this one!”

Of course, you did. No doubt they’re going to have us do some kind of absurd labor—

“A carrot farm!”

“…!”

This is way bigger than I thought it was going to be.

We were loaded into a bus right away, and after a short ride, we arrived at a green farm situated on a vast plain.

“Wow…”

“It’s so big.”

I had no idea how they’d managed to procure a place like this. Then I realized they’d probably chosen the farm first, before selecting our accommodation and the type of coin to use.

The director grinned at us as he said, “I told you before that each coin is worth an actual carrot, right?”

“Yes, we remember!” Big Sejin said.

“Yes.”

As the members gaped, Raebin spoke up with a relieved look on his face.

Uh-oh.

“Does that mean that we can harvest carrots and exchange them for coins?”

“Oh no. Everyone, these carrots have been planted and raised by others. You can’t just get coins because you harvest them!”

Just as I thought.

Then the director proceeded to make an absurdly unfair suggestion. “First of all, if you can harvest all the carrots from here to there, each person gets five points!”

“Oh god!”

“I’m not doing this!”

“We’re leaving.”

The production team stifled laughter as they witnessed our shock.

What’s so funny?

“Guys, you have to eat.”

The members fell silent. Quickly adapting to the unfairness of the show, they soon overcame their shock and flew into action.

“Why don’t we start there?”

“Okay.”

“I don’t like carrots,” Eugene said.

Even though they grumbled, in the end, they all did their best. I grabbed a hold of the leafy green tops and began to dig, pulling out orange root after orange root.

This is going to make for good footage on the show, at least. We would seem like innocent and diligent young men who hadn’t lost their humbleness and weren’t averse to hard work, even though they had become massively popular.

Or just gullible idiots who never learn. F*ck. It was a good thing either way, but I was still feeling the sting of betrayal. This is like the inland version of that fishing vessel I was imagining.

“Let’s put those in here!”

“Yeah.”

We continued to work, filling a huge basket with the carrots that we’d harvested.

The director picked up the loudspeaker and said, “Remember, this is worth five coins! You don’t get to rest until you pick them all!”

“Ugh! Are you going to take responsibility if we hurt our backs doing this?”

“What did you just say? I think that your payment may be too generous,” the director threatened.

“Sorry.”

Frankly, doing this was not that taxing on our bodies. Compared to the intense practice that we underwent during promotions, this was only a little tiring.

“Get to work!” the director called.

Even so, the mood was intense. We were growing really riled up by the way they treated us like peasants from the Middle Ages or something. It would probably be very interesting content once the editors got done with it.

I understand that, of course. I occasionally paused to glance at the production team with a hurt look on my face as I continued to pull out carrots. The situation was still bearable up to this point, but there was more.

“Here’s your payment!” the director said.

“Yeah!”

“We won’t be eating carrots for a while. I’m not even going to touch any carrot cake,” Big Sejin said.

“Sure, Moondae.”

We then headed to the supermarket so that we could buy ourselves some dinner with our hard-earned coins. There, we encountered a massive price hike.

“Uh… Ten coins will do!”

“…?”

Suddenly, the dalgona was ten times as expensive as it had been.

“Twenty coins for 400 grams?”

“Do you mean to starve us to death?”

The meat had skyrocketed in price as well. Naturally, the members were indignant and ran over to the production team to complain.

“I thought you said there would be no tampering!”

“I assure you, we did not tamper with the prices in any way! Please don’t misunderstand!” one of them said.

Raebin looked like he was about to lose his mind. “Then what’s happening right now…?”

“How are we supposed to know the residents’ reasons? They’re just selling at the prices they think are right.”

I balled my hands into fists. I had no idea who had come up with this idea, but I wished that I could punch them in the face just once.

In the end, we returned to our accommodation with a load much lighter and humbler than we’d gotten used to.

I declared calmly, “Let’s just make some dumpling soup.”

“Oh…”

“Dumpling soup… Okay.”

They still remembered they needed to react for the cameras, which I found impressive.

“Sorry… I am the cause of all this…” Raebin said, despairing since he’d been the one who drew the punishment.

“Hey! Don’t say that! This is all on the director!” Bae Sejin protested. He and the puppy were doing their best to console Raebin.

I stared.

This won’t do. I went up to Big Sejin, who had been setting our haul down in the kitchen.

“We have some flour and butter left, right?”

“Huh? Yeah. We do, but why?” he asked.

“One second…”

I checked on the butter, which we had splurged on the first day. Then I headed back into the kitchen. The production team had given us free time so we could badmouth them. I could probably spend it however I wished.

***

Moondae was making something.

Hmm. Chungwoo had just gotten out of the shower, and he smelled something delicious in the air. He watched from behind as Moondae hurried about in the kitchen.

Western food? I thought he said something about dumpling soup. Moondae was as meticulous as ever, always aware of the camera angles and making sure that the cooking process was caught perfectly on film.

He is so calm. They were in a situation that would have made anyone upset, but he silently worked toward practical solutions. It was times like these that Chungwoo was reminded that Moondae was older than him. He carefully padded into the kitchen.

“Do you need anything?” Chungwoo asked.

“I’m almost done. It’s all right. The others helped me as well.”

Moondae opened the air fryer. A delicious smell wafted out, and a batch of yellow cookies came into view.

“Would you like to taste one?” Moondae asked.

“Oh,” I said.

They’re cookies.

Eugene appeared out of nowhere. “I want one!”

“Careful. They’re hot,” Moondae said.

Eugene put one in his mouth, blowing air out of his mouth and giving a thumbs up with glowing eyes. Chungwoo realized something.

He’s going to sell the cookies. It wasn’t a bad idea. The members didn’t want to return to the carrot field, so they were sure to like it as well.

“These are amazing,” Chungwoo said.

“That’s good to hear.”

Chungwoo marveled both at the taste and the brilliance of the idea. I’ll watch him and help him when we make bigger batches.

The idea didn’t see fruition, since Moondae put more than half of the cookies into a container as soon as they had cooled a little bit and said, “The others are going to make the dumpling soup… Chungwoo, come with me.”

“Me?”

Where are we going?

Moondae took him with him and headed to the village hall, where many people had just finished dinner.

What is he thinking?

“Hello, everyone,” Moondae said.

“Oh! You kids are the stars from Seoul, here to film something!”

“We have cameras along with us today as well. I made a little something. They are very soft and perfect to eat now since they’re fresh,” he said.

“My goodness, you shouldn’t have!”

Moondae gave out the cookies generously. The elderly residents seemed glad to have found an interesting diversion.

Chungwoo played along, not sure what was going on. Moondae even went on to talk about Chungwoo.

“You see this guy here? He won a gold medal at the Olympics as an archer. Do you remember?”

“Goodness gracious!”

“Yes, I think I do remember!”

“Hahaha!”

Chungwoo laughed, giving out handshakes and massaging some of the elderly residents’ shoulders, but he still had no idea what Moondae was up to.

“Why don’t I sing a song for you?”

“Sure thing!”

Moondae even sang some trot and danced to “POP★CON” like an entertainer working for hire.

“…?”

Chungwoo grew even more confused, but he played along and even sang a song himself, before answering any and all questions the residents asked him.

I’m sure he has a reason for doing this. When the mood was ripe and the elderly residents had lowered their guard, Moondae got down to business.

“About these bottle caps. Did the people from Seoul say anything about them today?”

“Oh, those!”

The camera director seemed taken aback, but Moondae was finally able to uncover the truth.

“Well, you see…”

***

“So you promised a state-of-the-art massage chair to the ten residents who have the most carrot coins.”

“…!”

I had gathered the members after explaining the situation to them, and we were now speaking to the production team on the porch.

The director seemed to avoid my gaze for a moment, only to mutter shamelessly, “Wait, how did you hear about that?”

“Gosh darn it!”

“So it’s true!”

“How could you do this to us?”

The members rioted.

Even Ahyeon was red in the face. “Y-you told us that we could sue you if the show wasn’t relaxing…!”

“Huh?” the director said casually. “All right. Sue us!”

“…!”

“I mean, come on. These coins are not actual currency. They’re just bottle caps. I’m not sure that you’ll get anywhere.”

“Gosh darn it!”

Bae Sejin shuddered with rage, gritting his teeth and muttering, “We won’t forget this…”

“Sir, this is all going to come back to you one day.”

The director seemed to grow a little bit uncomfortable at this, since he hurriedly explained, “Guys… You shouldn’t blame this on me! Someone is absolutely responsible for stealing your coins!”

“…!”

“If you can find out who did it, you will get all your coins back, and we will also give you a bonus! One hundred coins!”

“ R-really?”

“Of course! What makes you think we would lie?”

Because you lied to us already. I took a deep breath.

All right. This is going to make it more fun for the audience. TeSTAR had already grown used to the production team’s shenanigans after being hoodwinked by them several times. So this was the right way to go forward if we wanted to make the show intriguing and fun.

And seeing us desperately searching for the criminal and doing our best to please the residents… That’s bound to be entertaining, too. So why am I so upset? I don’t like the fact that somebody outmaneuvered me. This isn’t entertaining for me at all.

“M-Moondae? Are you okay?” Ahyeon asked.

“Yeah…”

I’d made up my mind.

The director said, “Go find the culprit!”

Late that night, well past midnight, when the production team had all retired, leaving only their cameras behind, I quietly passed through the front door. I wasn’t alone, of course.

“Uh, Moondae?” Raebin was wearing a sweatsuit and followed me hesitantly. “May I ask why you wanted me to come along?”

“Get a shovel and come with me.”

“…?”

“We’re going to harvest carrots.”

Just you wait, production team.