Chapter 57 - The Filming of Jumping Man, Flying Man (Part 3)

The bento was close to hitting the asshole in the face – by about less than a centimeter – before I pulled it back just in time. I couldn’t stand the idea of wasting the last piece of ddeok galbi that was still in the bento.

“You’re lucky I like ddeok galbi,” I said before eating that last piece of meat.

“Mmmmm~”

That was good. It had cooled down by that point so it wasn’t perfect, but even then, it was delicious.

“Psycho.”

Jin-hyuk sneered and turned around to walk away. When he was far enough, I picked up one of the quail eggs and aimed it at the back of his head. I wanted to throw a chopstick instead, but that could be fatal. The chopstick would lodge itself in the back of his head and kill him. I had no intention of becoming a murderer, so I decided to throw the soft quail egg instead. Yeah, yeah, I know I’m not supposed to play with my food, but it’s just one egg.

“And…”

He was so far away that he would never suspect that it was me who threw it. I was an adorable and lovely member of an idol girl group, after all.

Swish!

I pelted the quail egg with a flick of my wrist and it flew like a bullet, landing smack in the middle of the asshole’s head.

Thwack!

Bullseye!

The quail egg burst into pieces upon impact and Jin-hyuk cried out in pain as he fell to his knees. It must have hurt a lot, because he didn’t get up. Not that he passed out either.

“Ah…fuck...”

Even with the distance between us, I could hear every word. I smirked as I watched Jin-hyuk stand up and look around, absolutely furious.

“Who was that? Fuck you! I’m going to kill you!”

“It was me, asshole,” I said. Not that he could hear me anyway. He was really far away. Seeing no one standing nearby, Jin-hyuk tilted his head this way and that way, clearly confused and frustrated. In the meantime, I held up another quail egg.

“I only have four...Should I just eat it…or throw it...”

It was a tough choice. But then I remembered that saying.

[If you’re even thinking about doing it, go ahead and do it.]

So without a second thought, I threw a quail egg, but this one missed. So I threw the last remaining three. Miss, miss, and strike.

“Ugh. Two bullseye but three misses.”

Unfortunately, I had no more quail eggs left. Jin-hyuk continued to clutch the back of his head as he sat on the ground, just begging for the ball to be thrown at his stupid face.

“Oh well, it can’t be helped.”

I picked up a pebble.

***

It wasn’t until after 9 AM that everyone arrived.

There were five male idols. For females, there were three, including me, so that made eight. Once we were all gathered, the producer stood in front of us.

“Good morning, everyone.”

This man looked just as innocent, if not more so, than the writer earlier. He looked to be in his mid-30’s and he said his name is Jinsuk Seo. Anyways, he seemed incredibly happy to see us.

“Hello.”

We all greeted. We were all doing our best to make a good first impression. Even Jin-hyuk was smiling happily and greeting everyone with warmth – so much so that I kept forgetting that he was the one who cursed at me earlier. Oh, I wanted to throw that pebble, but I didn’t, because I could’ve really killed him if I had...

“Okay. We’re now going to explain the rules you will have to follow while we film.”

“Okay!” we all replied.

For people who couldn’t even bother to arrive on time, they sure seemed enthusiastic right now. Oh, the five boys were all popular boy group members and they did a lot of activities every year. Basically, they were all high in demand. So does that automatically exempt them from being punctual? And the two other girls. Turns out, they’re also members of popular girl groups. The one who left her bento was named Ha-jeong Yoon and she’s twenty-one, just like me. The other one was thirty...was she an idol...? I mean, a thirty-year old can be an idol too, I guess. Her name was Sohee Jung. She kept going around, pretending to be mature and reminding me that she was older than me. That was annoying. After all, mentally, I am thirty-years old as well. We’re the same age. Anyways, the show producer kept talking.

“We’re going to start with the name tags soon.”

“Already?”

The male idols all looked excited, but surprised. I was, too. I wasn’t expecting them to start this quickly.

“Yes, we always start with the name tags right away. The cast members of the show will split into teams of three, the red team and the blue team. They will go into the library and look for boxes with your names on them. So, for example, if the red team finds the box with Sian’s name, Sian becomes a member of the red team and goes into the library.”

We all nodded in understanding.

“So once we go in, can we start taking name tags off?” I asked, raising my hand.

“No, not yet. You have to wait for all your team members to gather. Right now, there are eight of you. We have six regular cast members of the show. So in total, there are fourteen people, meaning each team will have seven members. If the red team finds four boxes and gets their seven team members right away, they can attack the blue team right away.”

“And what about the blue team?”

“They need to get the rest of their members first.”

We all nodded. If it goes well, the game could end very quickly. So the team that finds four of the boxes faster will have the advantage.

“So do we just wait then?” Ha-jeong asked.

“Yes, we start filming in about thirty minutes so you can just wait here until then. The shirts with your name tags are over there, so you can put them on now.”

The producer pointed out towards some of the staff members who were holding our shirts with our name tags. Name tags. They were large, making them easy to grab, and placed on the bag and on the side. So each shirt had two name tags in total. If you get both taken off, you’re out.

We all walked over to get our shirts. The mics were still off. Probably why one of the guys came over to talk to me. And something told me that it wasn’t just small talk.

“Hi. Sian, right?”

He was tall and broad, and his head was big too. There was no doubt that he was a man. It was this sort of style that women liked. But I’m a guy, so I didn’t like it very much.

“Yes, hello,” I said, giving a quick bow.

“You look even prettier in person. I really wanted to meet you,” he said, doing his best to sound like a gentleman.

If any girl were to see this, they would immediately believe him to be trustworthy. But as I said, I am also a man, so I simply found it irritating. He was giving me the same vibes as Jin-hyuk did.

“Yes, I know.”

“Oh, of course. I don’t blame you for being confident, but you are very pretty.”

“Thank you.”

“I would like for the two of us to be on the same team.”

“Right.”

I reached out and took my shirt. But just when I was about to put it on, this bastard snatched it out of my hands.

“I’ll help you put it on.”

He straightened up to pull the shirt over my head but I took it back from him.

“Put your own shirt on,” I said with a sweet smile.

Sadly, I didn’t have any quail eggs so I had no way of controlling this situation.

“Oh, okay. Anyways, if we end up on the same team, I promise I’ll protect you.”

“Okay~”

‘Ugh, this sucks.’

On the outside, I looked happy, but on the inside, I was cursing. Any more of this and I’d go insane.

“Sian, do you have time tonight? Do you want to get dinner together?” the guy asked again.

“No, I don’t plan on having dinner,” I said with a smile.

The guy just kept going.

“Do you have plans? Or am I making you uncomfortable?”

“Both.”

“Oh, that’s understandable. I tend to have that effect on women.”

He talked as if the reason girls felt uncomfortable around him was because they liked him so much. Jin-hyuk was like that, too. What’s wrong with these guys? Looking over, I could see three guys trying to do the same thing with Ha-jeong. The last one was trying to chat up with Sohee. Boys will be boys, I guess. And since they’re all pretty popular and doing well for themselves, they would be pretty confident. Unfortunately for the three, Ha-jeong seemed incredibly annoyed. Only three guys didn’t seem to notice and they continued to chat her up. I wasn’t particularly fond of her because of the bento incident this morning, but as a man, I felt that it was my duty to protect her. To be honest, Ha-jeong had something about her. How should I put this? Like, she wasn’t that pretty, but the more you looked at her, the more you wanted to see her. Does that make sense?

Without even answering the guy talking to me, I turned to walk towards Ha-jeong. Only that the guy grabbed my wrist. Wow. How could he just put his hands on a woman like that? Did he want to get slapped? I raised my hand to bring it down on his face...but then I stopped myself. Instead, I gently brought it down on his cheek and began to caress it. And in a sweet voice, I said, “Please let me go.”

He must have misunderstood as he suddenly began to blush. Not that I could blame him – I was incredibly pretty. Great proportions. Large, wide doe eyes. And a sexy body. Slender with the round amount of curves. The kind that could bring men to their knees. If a girl like me were to caress a guy like I was, of course he’d misunderstand. My bad. I should’ve just slapped him in the face.

“Oh, of course!”

He let go of my wrist and continued to eye me bashfully. Then he said, “I had no idea you were so direct...haha...”

‘What are you doing?’

The guy only seemed to grow shyer as he looked at me.

“I promise I’ll help you win!”

“You do that.”

I turned away with a toss of my hair and walked towards Ha-jeong.

That’s when the guy shouted, “My name is Min-joon! Min-joon Seok!”

He clearly wanted me to remember it. But the moment I heard it, I took it and deleted it out of my memory.

I approached Ha-jeong. Then, I grabbed her hand and dragged her away from those men. It makes it harder for them if there’s more than one woman present.

“Let’s go over there.”

I seemed pretty cool, if I say so myself. Like a male lead in a drama.

But then..

“Let go. Your hands are sweaty.”

“....”

Ha-jeong really was quite rude. I let go of her hand. Then she began to speak.

“God, this is annoying. Ugh.”

“Are you saying that to me...?” I asked. Surely not.

“I’m talking about them.”

Ha-jeong gestured towards the three guys. I immediately calmed down, though Ha-jeong seemed to look irritated.

“They can’t help themselves. They’re still young and they have a lot of needs.”

“Needs? Are you serious? Why would you say that? Are you trying to make me upset?”

And with that, Ha-jeong turned around and stomped away from me. Wow, even the back of her was pretty.

“Well, I can’t do anything about it,” I said with a mere shrug.