Chapter 59 - The Star Comes Later (Part 2)

Sipko and Yoonhan began to approach us, rolling up their sleeves. I held Ha-jeong close and managed to spin away from the two of them. Yoonhan spun around quickly and ran towards us. I pushed her behind me and reached forward, placing both of my hands on Yoonhan. One went to the name tag on his back and the other on his waist. And I yanked both of them off at the same time.

Rip!

Unfortunately, I ripped his shirt as well.

“What the…” Yoonhan gasped.

He was probably shocked. He had his hand on my name tag, but I had already yanked his off. Both of them. Not to mention his clothes as well. I quickly shoved him aside and ran towards Sipko, who was still standing from shock. He soon came to his senses and tried to back away but I “accidentally” tripped his heel with my foot, sending him flying backwards.

“Ah!”

Then I reached forward and yanked his name tags off.

Rip! Rip!

And I disappeared in a flash, with Ha-jeong’s hand in mine.

[Yoonhan from Red Team. You’re out.]

[Sipko from Red Team. You’re out.]

***

“Why don’t you let go?”

That was me. For some reason, Ha-jeong had my hand in a death grip.

“I’m scared. I don’t want to let go,” Ha-jeong answered.

“Hands get sweaty, remember?”

“It’s okay.”

“What the hell?”

And that’s how we remained holding hands.

“There’s five left, right?” Ha-jeong asked.

Her rudeness from earlier had disappeared. Now she seemed rather content to lean on me.

“Yeah. Guk-jong, Miyeon, Min-joon, Jin-hyuk, and Sohee. That’s five.”

“Do you think we can beat them?” Ha-jeong said, looking up at me.

Oh yeah, did I mention that she was shorter than me? She was 161 cm. I’m 168. She was so small, I just wanted to hug her.

“We have to. You said you wanted the necklace.”

“Yeah, I do.”

We continued down a hallway and came to a door. We opened it and ended up in a large room. Oh, this was the “prison” for the members who were out.

“Oh, hello.”

I walked in holding Ha-jeong’s hand...No, wait. It was Ha-jeong holding my hand as we walked into the room. Suddenly, Yoonhan and Sipko bolted out of their seats and began to shout.

“I’m serious! Sian grabbed both of Yoonhan’s name tags and ripped them off!” Sipko exclaimed.

“Yeah! It was so fast, I didn’t even have time to think!” Yoonhan added, sounding just as loud and frustrated.

The center of the show cast members, Jijin Yoo, shot skeptical looks at both of them. Then he turned to me.

“Sian, is that true? Did you take both of their name tags off?” she asked.

“Um…yes,” I replied with a nod.

Jijin clapped for me, heaping praises on me, clearly impressed. Then suddenly, his face brightened up.

“Guk-jong! Send Guk-jong in.”

The other members began to voice their doubts. How could I beat Guk-jong? Yoo-gwang protested, claiming that it was unfair. Then he patted me on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry too much about it, Sian. Oh! Guk-jong really likes it when a girl acts cute so if you do that, he might let you win.”

“Acting cute...”

Yeah, right. They must be insane if they think I’ll do that…

“Still, how can she win? There’s still five left, including Min-joon and Jin-hyuk,” Jun-man said with a smirk. He was basically saying I had no chance.

Suddenly, Jijin laughed. “You barely lasted a second into this game so what are you acting like a know-it-all for?”

“What? It’s not like I wanted to. Guk-jong just came at me from behind. You think you would have come out of that alive?”

At those words, Jijin smiled in acknowledgement and we all began to laugh. Ha-jeong and I left the prison and began to walk down the corridor again. And from the opposite end, Miyeon and Sohee appeared. Two women against two women. We met in the middle of the hallway.

“Hello, Sian. Ha-jeong,” Miyeon said cautiously. Ha-jeong and I returned the greetings.

“Hello.”

I wasn’t feeling particularly paranoid but Ha-jeong was and she immediately hid herself behind me. Ugh, if she kept this up, I was definitely in trouble. Hey, I’m a guy too. If an attractive, delicate looking woman was clinging onto me, how could I not feel attracted to her? But as I said before, out of the four pleasures in life – eating, going, sleeping, and doing – I can’t do the last one. So frustrating. I want her, but I can’t do anything about it. This was definitely some sort of heavenly curse. The one that really makes it difficult for me is Jia. She’s always clinging onto me, even when we sleep. Sigh...I could feel all these suppressed desires balling up in me. When I die, they were going to find a humongous rice cake inside my body. Anyways, Miyeon began to speak again. The unique female member of Jumping Man, Flying Man. Slender and pretty, but with a strong personality.

“Sian, did you really get Sipko and Yoonhan?” Miyeon asked. By the look on her face, she was clearly hoping that it wasn’t true.

“No.”

I gave her the answer she wanted. This way, they wouldn’t run away.

I even added, “How could I? I’m half their size.”

I showed my skinny arms to emphasize my point. They really were pretty skinny. I mean, okay, they did manage to break Jun-jin’s arms, which shocked the living daylights out of him… Why did I miss him all of a sudden?

“Oh.”

Ha-jeong gave me a strange look, silently asking me what I was doing. She knew I was lying. I gave her a sly wink. A look of understanding passed through Ha-jeong’s face and she gave a small smile in return.

“Then, how did you get them?”

“Ha-jeong acted all cute so Sipko told us to just go ahead and take their name tags.”

At that, Miyeon snorted.

“Wow, I knew it. He can’t help it when a young girl asks him for anything,” Miyeon said.

I felt a little bad for Sipko at the moment. But just then, Sohee tried to run towards me. Only Miyeon immediately stopped her.

“Sohee, be careful,” Miyeon said. “Sian is really good at fighting.”

“Really?” Sohee asked in disbelief.

Did she really not know? It was all over the news. Then again, if she wasn’t into that kind of stuff, I guess it’s understandable that she doesn’t know.

“You can look it up. We need to be careful.”

Miyeon began to slowly approach me, closing the distance between us. Miyeon Song. She is really strong. It’s completely unexpected from the image she gives off. And she’s a veteran at this game. Perhaps that was why she felt confident despite knowing how skilled I was.

“What’s the point?” Sohee suddenly shouted. She sprinted towards me and I blocked her with my hand to protect Ha-jeong.

Unfortunately, my hand accidentally landed on her chest...I felt really bad but Sohee thought nothing of it and ran towards me again. Because of that, my hand landed on her chest a second time and I couldn’t help but feel happy while also feeling upset. That’s right, I’m a girl. If I was a guy, I probably would’ve been slapped by now, but since I was a girl, Sohee saw nothing wrong with this. I had this perverted thought to take advantage of the situation to touch her even more. But I quickly pushed the thought of my mind and brought my hand down against her stomach and pushed her towards Miyeon.

Whoosh.

She immediately landed on Miyeon and the two fell backwards like dominoes. That’s when we got our chance.

“Ha-jeong, let’s go!”

I ran over to the two of them, who were still tangled on the floor. I rolled them over and grabbed the name tags on their back and hips. I rolled them over and Ha-jeong took their name tags.

Rip!

Rip!

Rip!

Rip!

And then, we were gone.

[Miyeon Song from Red Team. You’re out]

[Sohee Jung from Red Team. You’re out.]

***

“Now there’s three left.”

We were hunting for the other members. Ha-jeong continued to hold onto my hand.

“Hey, Ha-jeong.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you a lesbian? Or bi?”

“No,” Ha-jeong said firmly. She sounded sincere. Or maybe she was just good at lying.

“Why do you ask?” she added.

“Just asking.”

I really was curious. Jia and Christine were like that too. A lot of women were. I had no idea that women were so physically affectionate towards one another. Oh wait, but Christine was a lesbian.

“You ask a lot of things. But anyways, I’m not a lesbian. Are you?” Ha-jeong said, shooting me a wary look.

I laughed.

“Of course not.”

We resumed our search. As we passed the third floor lobby, we looked over the railing and saw two guys cutting through the first floor lobby. Guk-jong and Min-joon. I was so happy that I gripped the railing to jump down…and then remembered that I probably shouldn’t. If I did that, rumors will spread, but it was so frustrating to let them go. I wanted to sneak up behind them and take their name tags.

“Sian, I have to go to the bathroom...”

“Oh, really?” I cooed. Ha-jeong nodded.

Look. She’s twenty-one. I’m mentally thirty. Can you blame me for seeing Ha-jeong was a young, adorable little thing?

“Then let’s go.”

Then, we headed for the restroom.

Ha-jeong went in and I waited outside. I still wasn’t okay with using the bathroom with another girl. But just then, someone came out of the men’s bathroom. It was Jin-hyuk. Didn’t someone once say that one meets their enemies in the bathroom?

“Hi, Jin-hyuk,” I said with a wave. Jin-hyuk smirked at me.

“Hahaha,” he laughed. “So you’re still in the game. I’ve been looking for you. It’s good to see you, Sian.”

He was being friendly since there was a VJ filming everything. He really was a two-faced bastard.

“Yeah. I’ve been looking for you too,” I said with an evil smile.

We began to approach each other. If the camera hadn’t been there, I would’ve thrown him to the ground already. Then again, that would’ve made it too easy and boring for me. That’s when it happened. Ha-jeong came out of the bathroom and grabbed one of Jin-hyuk’s name tags. Jin-hyuk quickly turned around and blocked her. Ha-jeong’s plan had failed. But that’s when I saw the perfect opportunity. In order to go for Ha-jeong, Jin-hyuk had turned his back to me. If you show your back to a predator, you’re just asking for a kill. I was definitely the predator and Jin-hyuk had sealed his fate the moment he turned his back to me. Of course, I didn’t want it to end so easily. So I grabbed the top of his pants and pulled.

Whoosh!

The pants came up completely, giving him the tightest wedgie he’d probably ever experienced.

“Ah! Ah!”

The asshole tried to cover his butt with his hands and pull himself out of my grip, but I was too strong for him. I continued to grip his pants and show off his butt cheeks for the camera.

“Ha.”

Just like that, I slowly reached out and grabbed his name tags, taking them off one at a time.

Rip.

Rip.