#024
“Wait a moment.”
Just as they were about to say goodbye to the departing Cheolsu and depart, Lee Yeonwoo suddenly went back into the house as if he remembered something. They wondered if he had left something behind, but since nothing seemed different, that didn’t seem to be the case.
After that, everyone moved in a car prepared by the production team.
“Huh… it’s kind of eerie.”
“Ah, could this be! A courage test…”
“That’s right! We’ll now proceed with a courage test.”
“Eek, I really hate scary things!”
They had received Han Taegu’s request in advance to act as if they were hearing about the courage test for the first time. Perhaps because they were idols, their reactions were excellent too.
Han Taegu held out lottery papers he had prepared.
“There are two A’s, two B’s, and three C’s! You’ll go in by teams like this, and we’ll time you in order of who comes out first.”
Everyone drew one each, and Kang Dojun glanced at Lee Yeonwoo’s paper. It had B written on it. When he unfolded his own paper, the letter C was written largely.
‘…We’re on different teams.’
“Oh, Yeonwoo-ssi. Is it B?”
“Yes.”
“We’re on the same team!”
Jinhyeong tried his best to liven up the atmosphere.
It was a lowly thought, but if he ended up on the same team as the members, he would get screen time on the broadcast, and if he was on the same team as Kang Dojun, securing screen time would be a sure thing.
However, since Lee Yeonwoo was a civilian… he had no choice but to somehow lead the atmosphere himself to get even a little bit on the broadcast.
“Now, now. Coming out quickly isn’t necessarily good, right? Inside the school, there are classrooms with missions written in them! There are three missions total, and if you fail to complete them, please keep in mind that 7 minutes will be added to your time score as a penalty per mission.”
“What? You want us to do missions inside there too?”
“Eek, my heart is pounding.”
Grace enthusiastically reacted to Han Taegu’s explanation. Feeling uplifted by those who listened to his words after a long time, he excitedly continued his explanation.
“The order was randomly decided by our production crew! You’ll go in the order of C-A-B.”
Biyu raised his hand, saying he was C. Grace’s youngest Hanjin also showed his paper with C written on it, and Kang Dojun quietly raised his hand too.
“Then, those with C, please enter. I’ll start the timer!”
“Hyung.”
Lee Yeonwoo grabbed the collar of Kang Dojun, who was about to enter.
“Are you okay?”
Kang Dojun felt no emotion even when watching horror movies, and ghosts weren’t particularly scary to him. The courage test probably wouldn’t be much either, but he was more worried about Lee Yeonwoo instead.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course, go ahead.”
After speaking naturally, he headed toward Jinhyeong, who was on the same team. Seeing this, some disappointment welled up.
‘I should have drawn B.’
How could you draw B in a lottery that was 100% based on luck, but he couldn’t help but regret it.
* * *
“Wow, scary!”
Compared to Biyu, who was mindlessly there when something suddenly jumped out and then came to his senses and pretended to be startled a beat late, the youngest Hanjin seemed to have lost his soul.
They say when people are too scared, they can’t even scream. That was exactly it.
Biyu pretended to be scared while subtly dragging the soul-lost Hanjin along.
“Sunbae-nim, are you okay? PD-nim really…! You designed it too scary!”
He also subtly included praise for the PD while leading conversations with Kang Dojun. Han Taegu, who was weak to compliments about himself, would probably include this scene. Though this was Kang Dojun’s first variety show too, watching Biyu made him suddenly think, ‘He’s good at broadcasting.’
The next mission paper said to bow three times, then find candy in a basket full of walnuts.
“Eek, I’m scared. Hanjin, you do it instead.”
He also took care of Hanjin’s broadcast screen time, who couldn’t do anything.
“Yes… okay!”
Bowing and finding candy was nothing. The two were watching too, and Hanjin smoothly bowed and put his hand into the walnut basket.
“Waaaaaahhhhh! Someone… someone grabbed my hand eeeaaahhh!”
“His screaming is quite loud.”
At Hanjin’s scream that echoed all the way to the school playground, the Grace members waiting for their turn looked a bit flustered.
“It must be really scary.”
“I’m already getting nervous. Right?”
“I know. Aren’t you scared, Yeonwoo-ssi?”
“It’s a bit chilly because it’s nighttime.”
Lee Yeonwoo gave an irrelevant answer to their question.
“I brought an outer garment, should I give it to you?”
“It’s fine. Oh, they came out. Hyung!”
Biyu supporting the soul-drained Hanjin and Kang Dojun with a relatively fine expression came out.
“Next, Team A, please enter!”
Lee Yeonwoo glanced at Hanjin, who was swaying like a newborn giraffe, then stuck close to Kang Dojun’s side and asked various questions.
“Is it very scary?”
“I was fine but…”
Looking at that person, it doesn’t seem like it.
“What’s the mission?”
“Bow three times…”
“Sunbae-nim! You can’t tell them~.”
Biyu approached friendly and cut off his words. Kang Dojun showed slight displeasure. When Lee Yeonwoo looked up at him with round, gentle eyes, he wanted to tell him everything.
While Team A went in, Biyu and Jinhyeong probably went to take care of the soul-lost Hanjin too, so he called Lee Yeonwoo to secretly explain the inside of the school.
“Put your ear here.”
Lee Yeonwoo stood on his tiptoes to increase his height and brought his ear to him. Kang Dojun lowered his waist slightly and whispered.
“When you enter, go straight up the stairs and start from the second floor. They’ve blocked the hallway with black cloth, so you have to stop by classrooms and come out.”
“Classrooms?”
“Yeah, I counted and there were up to class 7.”
Even though he had told him everything except the missions, Lee Yeonwoo was still maintaining his tiptoe position with his ear pressed against him.
“Is there anything else you’re curious about?”
“No. It’s fine.”
Kang Dojun tilted his head.
“Are you scared?”
“No. I’m trying to win somehow.”
“Ah.”
The winning prize was department store gift certificates worth 1 million won. There probably wasn’t even a department store around here, so what would he do if he won?
Lee Yeonwoo approached Jinhyeong, who was on the same team, with confident steps.
“Jinhyeong-ssi, do you run well?”
“…Excuse me?”
“How many seconds for 100m?”
“That… what?”
Bewilderment filled Jinhyeong’s face at Lee Yeonwoo’s unexpected question. Lee Yeonwoo didn’t give in and explained the strategy he had devised.
“We have to visit 7 classrooms and come out. If we roughly say one classroom’s length is 10m, that’s 7, so 70m. I ran 100m in 13 seconds. How about you, Jinhyeong-ssi?”
“I… probably remember it as 14 seconds.”
Jinhyeong, a nineteen-year-old high school student, answered while vaguely recalling the record he had measured during PE class.
“That’s good. Then even if we take it easy, it won’t exceed 5 minutes.”
So what Lee Yeonwoo was saying now was that as soon as they entered, they should ignore all missions and everything else and just sprint at full speed.
“I heard there are three missions. Assuming we don’t do all of them, that’s 21 minutes added, and even adding 5 to that is 26 minutes. I secretly timed it, and Team C took 28 minutes, and Team A has been over 30 minutes now but hasn’t come out.”
Kang Dojun, who had been listening to Lee Yeonwoo’s words attentively from beside him, couldn’t contain his pride. He was good at calculations and knew how to persuasively express his opinions. He wouldn’t starve to death anywhere.
‘How admirable.’
“…Do you think it’s possible?”
Jinhyeong asked cautiously.
“What can’t we do?”
Soon the sound of Team A coming out was heard, and Han Taegu shouted loudly, “Last, Team B, please enter!”
Lee Yeonwoo secretly checked the time and nodded toward Team A.
“Over 30 minutes. See? We’ll have plenty of time, right?”
“…I’ll try it.”
It certainly made sense. Eventually, Jinhyeong nodded in bewilderment.
“The goal is victory.”
Now that he looked, he didn’t seem to be afraid of ghosts and seemed full of thoughts of winning.
Kang Dojun bent his knee and retied Lee Yeonwoo’s shoelaces.
“Don’t fall.”
He looked worried seeing the band-aid still attached to his fine face.
‘Well, what would a kid who even rode deep-sea fishing boats be afraid of?’
“Ready? After going up the stairs, from the second floor, we run at full speed.”
“Yes!”
Whether he had been influenced by Lee Yeonwoo’s words, Jinhyeong also answered vigorously with a determined expression.
“Start!”
With Han Taegu’s starting signal, footsteps echoed with a clatter, and the two disappeared into the darkness.
Just as a staff member in ghost costume was about to appear at the sound of footsteps while hiding, the footsteps grew distant again.
“What just passed by?”
He hid again and waited for the last Team B to come.
“Hey! What are you doing? They already passed! They didn’t even do the mission!”
“…Huh? They passed? Already?”
“Get up quickly, we need to chase them at least!”
“Uh… uhhhh. Now? Got it!”
The flustered staff members ran late to chase them, not having had time to scare them, but they couldn’t catch up to the two.
Their speed increased in the unexpected chase,
“…Team B wins!”
With a short time of 4 minutes, even adding the 21-minute mission penalty made it 25 minutes. Team A took 32 minutes, and Team C with Kang Dojun took 28 minutes – it was a fast and clean victory.
Jinhyeong panted and looked at Lee Yeonwoo with respectful eyes. He had long forgotten his worry about not getting screen time just minutes ago, completely forgetting it all at the sight of the prize money.
“…Yeonwoo hyung-nim!”
“I was right, wasn’t I? Then I’ll take half.”
Lee Yeonwoo triumphantly took exactly half of the prize money in Jinhyeong’s hands and approached Kang Dojun to offer it.
“Hyung, please take this. There’s no department store around here, and I don’t think I’ll have use for it. Use it when you go up to Seoul later.”
Kang Dojun stared intently at the prize money he offered.
You did this to get first place?
“It’s for the hair styling fee from last time.”
Embarrassed, he spoke somewhat sulkily and stuffed the prize money into Kang Dojun’s outer garment pocket. If it was styling fee, it would make more sense to give it to Hail rather than Kang Dojun.
“You can use it when you come to Seoul later. Or should I take this and transfer it to your account?”
“Ah! Why make it so troublesome? Then consider it payment for doing housework.”
After saying that, Lee Yeonwoo turned around abruptly and got in the car to go home. Now it seemed like he had planned to pay money as compensation for cleaning from the beginning.
‘He was embarrassed so he made an excuse.’
He followed Lee Yeonwoo into the car and sat next to him.
“Yeonwoo.”
“What.”
He was sitting by the window, only looking outside.
He seemed to be embarrassed.
Suppressing the laughter that was about to leak out, he tapped his shoulder, and only then did he turn his head to look at him.
His white, soft cheek was deeply dimpled by Kang Dojun’s extended index finger. Lee Yeonwoo firmly grabbed his finger, the index finger placed on his shoulder, and said.
“That’s such old-fashioned teasing.”
“I’ll transfer money to your account if you tell me later.”
At Kang Dojun’s continued refusal, Lee Yeonwoo finally sighed and gave up.
“Do whatever you want.”
Kang Dojun stared at his index finger caught by Lee Yeonwoo.
‘Why isn’t he letting go?’
Even after the car started, his index finger remained firmly held by Lee Yeonwoo. He didn’t particularly ask him to let go.
“Hyung, why are you sitting so far away?”
“Didn’t we sit like this when we came too?”
“……”
A small grip was applied to the caught index finger. Kang Dojun stared at Lee Yeonwoo, who had a sulky expression and kept his gaze fixed only forward.
‘Ah, could this be…’
* * *
Grace went to their reserved accommodation, and Lee Yeonwoo and Kang Dojun arrived home.
In the car, he kept holding his index finger, but when they got out, he stuck close to Kang Dojun’s side and walked. Even after entering the house, he followed behind him.
“It’s almost bedtime. Aren’t you going to wash?”
“…I should.”
Lee Yeonwoo, who had played foot volleyball and sprinted at full speed during the courage test, didn’t seem tired at all as he ran noisily to the bathroom even inside the house. Kang Dojun decided to wash after Lee Yeonwoo finished first.
Before putting the pants he had carelessly taken off into the washing machine, he unconsciously checked the pockets.
Something was caught in his hand. He took it out and identified the object.
‘…It’s garlic.’
No matter how he looked at it, it was garlic. One clove of garlic.
What were the effects of garlic? Sterilization, anti-cancer effects, antibacterial action, anemia relief, low blood pressure improvement, and… evil spirit repelling.
Soon the bathroom door opened with a bang, and the fresh Lee Yeonwoo looked at Kang Dojun.
‘It doesn’t seem like he’s been in there long.’
Today his washing speed was much faster than usual. Kang Dojun unconsciously hid the garlic behind his back.
Lee Yeonwoo, without properly drying his hair and with water still dripping, said to him.
“Hyung, want to sleep together tonight? Um… it’s boring to sleep alone, isn’t it?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
