Chapter 87

Chapter 87

“What on earth?” Chungwoo muttered, trying to see through the balloons filling the living room. Then he stopped, probably having spotted the cameras that were peeking out from between them. The reality show cameras were back.

So filming is resuming today. Because we’d spent so little time in the dorm recently, the cameras only reappeared for short periods of time when necessary.

And they’ve already put out too much content about our promotional cycle and everyday schedules, there’s nothing more they can make from that footage. But because they hadn’t expected to find something so dramatic waiting in their living room, the members hesitantly ventured inside.

We found a large poster on the other side of all the swaying balloons. It was so big that it covered at least a fourth of the living room wall.

[Special! TeSTAR goes on a trip to celebrate winning first place]

“Huh?”

“A trip”

“We’re going on a trip?” Eugene asked, kicking away some of the balloons as he approached the wall. The colorful balloons bobbed around in the air, obviously chosen to reflect our three official colors. “Hey, this is meant to come off! There’s something behind it!”

“Eugene, be careful.”

“Right.” Eugene looked a little put out, perhaps recalling the scolding he’d gotten the last time he’d acted rashly. He gently let go of the paper. “Let’s check it out together.”

“Okay...”

I didn’t see why it was necessary, but we removed the large poster together for the camera’s sake.

“Three, two, one!”

Behind it was a gigantic roulette wheel.

What? Roulette? The sight of it gave me unpleasant flashbacks, but the other members just seemed excited to be getting their first whiff of some proper travel content.

“Wow! What do we have here?”

“A random picker wheel?”

“It says here, Random Travel Roulette!” Raebin read out the large words that were visible along the top of the wheel. Below was an explanation in a smaller font. “Uh, let’s see... ‘You’ll be using this roulette to decide on a theme for your trip... It’ll be a two-day TeSTAR getaway!’ Wow, this sounds like a pretty big deal!”

“I love it!”

“Wh-why don’t we spin it now?”

Even Ahyeon, who’d seemed worn down, excitedly rushed over to the wheel. There were seven slices, each one with a different theme written on it.

[Relaxation, mukbang, adventure, extreme, theme park, history, fruit.]

“Wow!”

The keywords all sounded pretty interesting.

I think relaxation sounds best. We’d probably get to experience a few days of country living deep in the mountains somewhere. It would be the easiest form of content creation and we’d likely have nothing harder to do than some basic housework.

“I hope we land on ‘adventure.’”

“Relaxation sounds nice.”

“Mukbang… They must have included that just for Moondae.”

Each of them expressed what they wanted, for the reality show’s sake. Then, unable to contain themselves any longer, they clung to the roulette.

“Let’s all hold on and turn it together!”

“Sounds good. Moondae, come over here!”

“Okay...”

A strange scene ensued in which six of us all spun it at the same time.

Please let it be one that seems pleasant, at least, I thought to myself as we spun the wheel together.

“Whoa!”

“It’s spinning!”

Of course, it is. It’s meant to spin. Apparently, we’d put a lot of strength into it, since it took a while for the wheel to stop.

“Theme park!” Raebin cried urgently, but the purple segment for the theme park slid past the pointer and it stopped... in the red.

“Huh? What!”

A wild font depicted two words on the red surface.

[Extreme travels]

“Extreme?”

“Oh, that kind of extreme!” Eugene cried, throwing his hands in the air with a smile.

Eugene seems happy about it. That was not a good sign at all.

Moments later, the production team sent a text to Chungwoo’s phone.

[TeSTAR’s theme for this trip will be extreme travels!]

[Double the excitement, double the fun! (Smiling emoji)]

[*No backing out now!]

“N-no backing out?”

“What... Hahaha...”

The members all turned a little pale, the same senses they’d honed during their time on the survival show tingling.

I approached the roulette.

“Moondae?”

I sent the wheel turning again. It spun for a while and stopped... on the same segment. I repeated this, and the result was the same. Slowly, all the members began to realize what had just happened.

“Hey!”

“It was rigged!”

When we met with the production team the next day, they grinned at us, explaining it had been unavoidable since they had to make the preparations in advance.

Son of a... I could feel the determination coming off them in waves—they were going to boost their viewer ratings using this new chapter in the show. I had a very, very bad feeling about it.

***

[I heard the news late because of our busy schedule. Congratulations on getting first place.]

[Thank you.]

I saw and responded to the text message I’d received as soon as I woke up in the morning. It was starting to feel a little ridiculous. He kept texting me, even though I’d written on my profile that I didn’t check my messages very often. I was referring to Cheongryeo from VTIC, of course.

This guy is really tiresome. His group had been in the running to win against us. There was no doubt in my mind that one of his members had told him on the day of our win. Of course, someone would have talked about it—their three-week-long winning streak had ended because of us.

I think he’s just trying to make me feel uncomfortable. As expected, I got an immediate response.

[Hopefully, you can reach the top even more quickly next time.]

He was saying we should avoid having our promotions overlap with theirs next time, so as to not step on each other’s toes.

[Thank you. Have a nice day.]

Goddamn it, it’s not like I can just ignore his messages. I turned off my notifications for the time being. It was hard enough to put up with the asshole who was the head of our agency. Why’d this guy have to bother me like this, too?

“Are! You! Ready! It’s travel time!”

“M-Moondae... D-did you pack your things?”

“Yeah. Just give me a moment.”

The dorm was suddenly filled with noise the second I’d turned off my phone.

They’re filming us getting ready to leave for the trip... The reality show’s travel arc was commencing.

“Is that it?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure that’s enough?”

“Of course.”

Seeing that I had nothing but my backpack with me, a bunch of the other members bombarded me with questions.

It’s just two days. The production team would handle organizing everything we needed for the trip. All I needed was clothing and a toothbrush.

“What about snacks?” Eugene asked.

“What?”

“Snacks.”

“Snacks...”

“Yes!”

“We can buy some after we arrive.”

“Okay...”

Eugene seemed to now regard me as the supplier of his snacks.

What am I, a delivery boy? I’d never been made to do anything of the sort, even during high school, which had been an experience rife with bullying for me. I didn’t know what to think.

“Now then... We’re finally going on our first trip!”

“Yay!”

“Hopefully we can make lots of great memories together!”

Regardless of my new role as snack provider, we’d completed the opening scene for the episode in front of the cameras just fine. Though we’d been tricked, everyone seemed happy regardless that we were able to go on a trip.

It’s been rough, to be sure. We hadn’t had a proper break since we’d begun working on our debut album, which was about two months ago. We should have guessed what was in store, however, as the production team grinned widely at us.

Roughly three hours later, we arrived at a small village located at the base of a mountain, close to the edge of Gyeonggi Province.

“Congratulations, TeSTAR! This is your first destination!”

“Wow!”

“The scenery is so beautiful!”

It was a little hot, but other than that the weather was perfect. The members all seemed thrilled to be outdoors again after such a long time. The director shouted at us through a loudspeaker, “Everyone, your first extreme activity for the trip is... skydiving!”

We all froze.

“Do you see that small plane up there?”

We heard the sound of propellers and a dark object flew overhead, slicing through the blue sky.

“You’re going to jump from that plane.”

Chaos ensued.

“Oh my god!”

“This is completely safe... We’re safe...”

“Hahaha!”

“Can we just give up?”

“Oh, but that would be such a waste! You’re already on the plane and it’s all been paid for!” responded the instructor in a relaxed tone.

Lee Sejin’s face turned slightly green.

What a mess. The production team had left us an out, however.

“If you really can’t jump, you don’t have to, but you’ll have to give it 200 percent at our next destination!”

The fans are going to be pissed. If any of the members ended up crying, the fans would demand to know why an idol reality show was being so cruel. The production team would probably have to issue a public apology. Not that such a thing was likely to happen.

“Now then, each of you will jump one by one!”

“Aaaaah!”

They were surprisingly tough though. Maybe I should have expected as much since they’d managed to stick it out all through the infamous Idol Inc. In any case, nobody seemed to have trouble jumping in the end, from Raebin, who’d been crouched muttering in the corner to Eugene, who’d been jumping up and down with excitement the whole time. Having an instructor jump with each of us probably gave them confidence as well.

“Here goes!”

“O-okay!”

Ahyeon also jumped without a problem.

So it’s me next? I was up last again. One of the surprise video segments from Idol Inc. came to mind.

This isn’t even scary in comparison to that. I wasn’t likely to get hurt or die from it, so what did it matter? I didn’t see the point in paying so much money to jump out of a plane, however.

“Now then! We need to jump together. Take a deep breath.”

“Okay.”

“Looks like you’re the bravest of the lot! Let’s go!”

Whoosh!

The wind buffeted against my face.

“Hah!” I gasped.

“Nice, isn’t it?”

It was nice. I hadn’t been expecting it. The blue sky surrounded me, and mountains and fields unfolded endlessly, stretching toward the horizon. The sun burned my eyes, but it wasn’t hot. The wind blew past me at a furious speed.

“Deploying the parachute!”

There was a dull flapping sound as our bodies hung suspended in midair. Then we slowly floated down, riding the wind. The feeling of freedom was intense.

“That’s good! Now take hold of this... and push like this!”

I wondered if I’d ever have considered doing something like this if I’d continued to live my life as Ryu Gunwoo.

Of course not. I would have been unable to understand why anyone would pay for this sort of thing. And yet, here I was, doing it. This wasn’t the only time I’d felt this way. The sense of achievement, the performances, the fans, their cheers... I felt so much more alive after having experienced all of them.

How strange. I suddenly didn’t care about my status abnormality.

Oddly enough, I liked being Park Moondae.

“We’re about to land!”

The others who’d landed before me laughed and waved as soon as my feet touched the ground.

“Moondae made it!”

Well, maybe this trip isn’t going to be half bad. I smiled as I walked on land once more.

***

Forget what I said about this trip not being so bad.

“Now for our second extreme activity! It’s titled, ‘An Invitation from a Haunted House!’”

“Oh my gosh!”

Scratch that. The production team didn’t seem to know when to quit.

“Do you see that building ahead of you?”

“Yes...”

“We do, but...”

A few of the members known for being easily scared already looked terrified. The director sounded thrilled as he shouted instructions through the loudspeaker.

“It’s a haunted house run by a professional horror production team!”

“No...”

“It’s going to be open this summer only, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

Such a detailed explanation could mean only one thing—this was a sponsorship.

“So we wouldn’t have had to do this any other year...” Lee Sejin muttered glumly beside me.

You make a fine point.

“Now then, please split into teams before you enter!”

“We... we don’t have fond memories of dividing into groups!”

“We’ll go in together!”

The production team refused to allow this, of course, and so we started forming teams.