Chapter 87

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“What is this…”

Ryu Chungwoo muttered while checking the living room, which looked like it had been hit by a balloon bomb, and then stopped. It was probably because he saw a rotating lens between the balloons.

The familiar camera for the reality show had returned.

‘The reshooting was from today.’

Because there was almost no time to stay at the dorm recently, the reality camera used to be there briefly and intensely only when pulling content and then pull out.

‘Activity or daily life content had already been milked too much to the point where it couldn’t be used anymore.’

However, because such a serious appearance was also a first, the members hesitated to enter the living room.

And they discovered a large note among the swaying balloons. How large was it? It occupied a quarter of the living room wall.

[Special! TeSTAR’s 1st Place Commemoration Trip]

“Huh?”
“…Trip?”
“Trip!”

Cha Yujin immediately kicked the balloons and approached the wall. Colorful balloons, clearly taken from the three Pantone numbers selected as the official colors, soared into the air.

“This peels off! There’s something inside!”
“Yujin-ya, you should be careful!”
“Oh.”

Recalling being scolded last time, Cha Yujin put down the note obediently with a slightly discouraged face.

“Yes, let’s check it together.”
“Yes…”

I wondered if there was a need to do this, but for the sake of the broadcast picture, everyone tore off the note together.

“One, two, three!”

Then some kind of giant roulette appeared.

‘…A roulette.’

Just hearing the word made a flashback burst.

However, the members were excited at the smell of serious trip content.

“Wow! What is this?”
“Random choice?”
“It’s written as Trip Bokbulbok!”

As Kim Raebin said, was written in large letters at the top. And the explanation continued in appropriate handwriting below.

“Hmm~ ‘You will turn this roulette together to decide the concept of this trip… TeSTAR’s friendship trip for 1 night and 2 days’! Wow, it’s really serious.”
“I love it so much!”
“S-Should we turn it quickly…!?”

Even Seon Ahyun, who had a bit of no energy, got excited and clung to the roulette. The roulette had a total of 7 slots, with a different theme written in each slot.

[Healing, Mukbang, Adventure, Extreme, Theme Park, History, Fruit.]

“Oh~”

The keywords were filled with only things that were quite distinctive.

‘Healing would be the best.’

Looking at it, it was a schedule where we would go deep into the mountains and live a rural life. It was the most manageable and felt like there wouldn’t be any physical consumption except for housework.

“I want to do Adventure.”
“Healing is good.”
“Mukbang seems like it was put in completely for Moondae?”

The guys who had briefly expressed their own preferences while thinking about screen time soon couldn’t stand it and clung to the roulette excitedly.

“Let’s all grab it and turn it at the same time!”
“Let’s do that. Moondae-ya, you come here quickly too!”
“…Yes.”

Thanks to that, a bizarre scene of the six of us turning the roulette together was caught on camera.

‘Please just go out warmly.’

I muttered my hope and touched the roulette simultaneously with the members.

“Oooooh~”
“It’s turning!”

‘Of course it’s turning, why wouldn’t it?’

They must have turned it with quite a bit of force, as the roulette spun for quite a while before barely coming to a stop.

“Theme park…!”

Regardless of Kim Raebin’s desperate words, the disk passed the purple slot of the theme park… and went to red.

“Oh oh oh!”

And the theme was written in an avant-garde font on the bright red slot.

[Extreme Trip]

“…Extreme?”
“Ah, Extreme!”

Whether Cha Yujin finally realized the meaning of the pronunciation, he smiled and raised both hands high.

‘Cha Yujin likes it?’

It couldn’t be more ominous.

And a short while later, a text message from the production crew arrived on Ryu Chungwoo’s smartphone.

[TeSTAR’s trip theme this time is Extreme~]
[We will serve you with an exciting theme where you can taste extreme pleasure! *^^*]
[※ No take-backs!]

“N-No take-backs…?”
“Uh… uhahaha…”

Whether the intuition honed by survival shows was activated, the members’ complexions began to change.

“…”

I approached the front of the roulette.

“Moondae-ya?”

And I turned the roulette again.

Spinning, the roulette that turned diligently…

Stopped at Extreme Trip again.

… I tried turning it again.

Spinning… Thump.

… It was Extreme.

And the members realized the situation.

“…!!”
“… It’s a scam!!”

For reference, the production crew met the next day and smirked, saying they had to plan the schedule first, so how could they leave all 7 slots possible?

‘These guys…’

I could feel their determination to somehow pull ratings from the trip content.

… Really, I had an ominous feeling.

* * *

[I checked late because of the schedule. Congratulations on 1st place on Music Gayo.]
[Thank you, sunbaenim.]

Replying to the text message that arrived as soon as I woke up in the morning, I felt it was slowly becoming absurd.

Even though I had written in the status message that confirmation was late, messages kept coming.

For reference, the other person was Cheongryeo of VTIC.

‘This guy is really tiring.’

Being a candidate for 1st place himself, there’s no way he checked late.

Of course, someone among the members must have said it on that day. It was impossible that the talk hadn’t come out when the terrestrial triple crown had been blocked for three consecutive weeks.

‘It’s right that he contacted me on purpose to poke at me.’

As expected, a reply came soon.

[I hope you win 1st place faster next time.]

It meant don’t release at the same time and get on his nerves, just avoid it on my own and how good it would be for each of us to take first place.

[Thank you. I hope you have a good day, sunbaenim.]

‘This son of a… I can’t even ignore it.’

I turned off the talk notification for then. I was already feeling like shit whenever I met the division head, and then all sorts of guys were bothering me.

“TRIP! PRE! PA! RA! TION!”
“M-Moondae-ya, luggage… did you p-pack everything?”
“Yeah. Just a moment.”

As soon as I turned off the smartphone, clattering noise began to ring out.

‘It’s the filming for the departure preparation…’

It was the start of the reality trip content.

“Is that all?”
“Yeah.”
“Will you be okay?”
“Of course.”

As soon as I came with just one backpack, people here and there meddled, saying wasn’t the luggage too little?

‘It’s for 1 night and 2 days, so what.’

It was a package tour where we would go wherever the production crew told us to.

Wasn’t a change of clothes and dental tools enough?

“What about snacks?”
“What?”
“What about snacks?”
“…… Snacks.”
“Yes!”
“Let’s buy and eat them there.”
“Yes…”

It seemed that within Cha Yujin, my image had become a snack supply officer.

‘I feel like I’ve become a bread shuttle.’

I was losing my mind at the wonderful title I had never even had in high school.

“Now, then… we’re finally going on our first trip~”
“Whoo!!”
“I hope we make many good memories!”

Anyway, the opening in front of the production crew’s camera was done well. Even though they were tricked, everyone’s atmosphere was clearly excited because it was a trip anyway.

‘It was a forced march.’

Because we had run without resting for about two months from the time of preparing the debut album until then.

However, I should have already guessed what would happen from the time the production crew watching such members smirked.

About 3 hours later.

We arrived at a rural village at the foot of some mountain at the edge of Gyeonggi-do.

“TeSTAR members who arrived at today’s first trip destination, congratulations!”
“Whoo!!”
“The scenery is really nice!”

It was a bit hot, but the weather was definitely good. To the members whose complexions brightened at the outdoor activity after a long time, the PD shouted through a megaphone.

“Your first extreme activity is… skydiving!”
“…!?”

The atmosphere froze.

“You see the light aircraft up there, right?”

Dudududu…

A black flying object passed through the blue sky.

“You’re going to get on that and jump off.”
“……!!”

And it became a mess.

“Aaaaaaaaak!!”
“This is completely safe… I am safe…”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“… Is it impossible to give up halfway?”
“Hey, it’s a waste since you even got on the plane~ We already paid for this in full?”
“…”

At the instructor’s relaxed answer, Lee Sejin’s face turned blue.

‘It’s a mess.’

Still, the production crew did give us a last resort.

– If you really can’t jump, you can just come down. Instead, the next course is double!

‘I think we’ll get cursed at by fans for this.’

If someone really couldn’t do it and cried, it was a level where they would get double-cursed with ‘Why are you making an idol reality show pointlessly sadistic?’ and have to announce an apology.

However, such a thing seemed unlikely to happen.

“Now, then, one person jumps at a time!”
“Uwaaaaah!”

It was because these guys were surprisingly all stubborn.

Since they were the guys who had held out tenaciously in that , perhaps it was a natural thing.

Anyway, from Kim Raebin who was muttering alone in the corner to Cha Yujin who was stamping his feet with excitement, everyone jumped off just fine.

The fact that there was an instructor behind also played a part in giving them some courage.

“Now, let’s go!”
“Y-Yes…!!”

Seon Ahyun also jumped off without much trouble.

‘Am I next?’

By some chance, I became the last runner again. The surprise VCR came back to me fresh.

‘Something like this isn’t even scary.’

It wasn’t like I was dying or getting hurt, so what. I just didn’t know the meaning of doing that for that much money.

“Now~ We have to jump together. Take a deep breath.”
“Yes.”
“Ah, this friend has the strongest heart~ Let’s go!”

Whoosh.

The wind pierced my face.

“…… Ha!”
“It’s good, right~?”

It was good.

… I didn’t even think about it.

The blue sky spread out in all directions.

Beyond the blue horizon, mountains and fields stretched out endlessly.

Even though the sunlight pierced my eyes, it wasn’t hot. The wind swirled.

“Now, parachute~”

Thump, with a sense of pressure, my body stopped slowly in the air and began to move on the wind.

It was an immense sense of liberation.

“You ride well! Grab this… let’s push like this!”
“…”

If I had continued to live as Ryu Gunwoo, would I have ever thought of trying something like this?

‘Absolutely not.’

I would have said why jump from the sky for that much money.

But then I was doing it.

And there were too many such things. Achievements, performances, fans, cheers… The sense of living a life.

‘…… It’s strange.’

Whether it was a status abnormality or whatever, it was fine.

Strangely, I liked the fact that I was Park Moondae.

“Now, landing!”

The moment I landed on the ground, the guys who had gone down first laughed heartily and waved their hands.

“Moondae has arrived too~”

… Well, an extreme trip didn’t seem like it would be bad. I smiled and set my feet on the ground.

* * *

Did I say it didn’t seem like it would be bad?

“Now, today’s second extreme experience! It’s~ ‘Invitation of the Haunted House’!”
“Aaaaaaaaak!!”

I decided to cancel that then. The production crew bastards didn’t know moderation.

“Can you see the building in front of you?”
“Yes…!”
“I can see it, but…!”

Several members who were certified as being cowardly were already making crying sounds. The PD spoke excitedly through the megaphone.

“This is a horror experience set managed by the professional horror-making team that visited Korea this time!”
“Uwaaaaah…”
“It’s only open this summer, so you can only do it now!”

This detailed explanation meant… it was a PPL.

Next to me, Lee Sejin muttered with a gloomy face.

“I just had to hold out this summer…”
“…”

Exactly.

“Then everyone, from now on, please divide into groups to enter the ‘Invitation of the Haunted House’!”
“We…! Have bad memories of making groups…!”
“We’ll enter all together!”

… However, of course, it didn’t work at all, and TeSTAR began to divide into entry groups.