The penalty was stolen by VTIC.

"Now then~ You two, please come up to the stage!"

"Aww, what a shame!"

"This is kind of unfair~"

Instead of me being out, a VTIC guy and the other one, who voluntarily stepped on the line and got the penalty, were hit with water balloons with reactions that were not particularly special.

As Keun Sejin said, there seemed to be little enthusiasm for the variety show, seeing the lack of any special reactions that would have passed in a 3-second screentime if not for the fact that they were the guys who sold 1.8 million copies of albums in the first week.

'...It doesn't seem like he lost on purpose to get enough screentime.'

Then did that proud expression of his earlier really come from a sincere 'caring heart for rookie idols'?

'If it was a real mistake, wouldn't it be more persuasive to say that it was embarrassing?'

My eyes met with Keun Sejin's. He smiled like for a picture and pointed at himself.

It was annoying but I couldn't help it and he seemed to mean that he would actively try to get the penalty next time.

"Now for this next match~ find the medicinal herbal tea!"

However, this strange and ridiculous situation continued in the next team match.

"No egg yolks! The team of the first person to choose the medicinal herbal tea will lose~ Now, let's choose and dance to the music!"

In short, it was a weird 90s vibe game that was combined with chair stealing and random choosing.

'This is completely up to luck.'

I thought about passing this one and chose it without much thought. Since it would be funnier like this if I got caught.

"Ah, Moondae-ssi~ Pass!"

And it was done just like that. The herbal tea I chose had yolks in it.

Then the VTIC guys clapped and started inciting.

"Ooh~ That's amazing!!"

"Wow, how did you get it right like this?"

"..."

Why are you doing this, you bastards?

I gave a rough answer and moved on, but it was obvious that this was not overtly funny, but purely awkward and unnatural warmth.

In the end, the MC, who couldn't watch it, tried to make it funnier and put his hand in.

"No, how come you two have been showing such great reactions only to Moondae-ssi?"

"Ah hyung-nim, you don't know anything~ Popular people are close to each other!"

"Is that so~?"

The VTIC guys waved their hands.

"No no~ It's just, he did so well!"

"It was cool how he got it right without worries."

Rather than saving the scene, they denied it, so the picture became awkward again. The fact that those two weren't very good at variety shows seemed to be right.

But why were they trolling me like that?

'Are they trying to screw me over?'

I checked it out just in case, but I didn't feel any signs of provocation.

'It's driving me crazy.'

And this time, the punishment was taken by the Fluffysweet member.

"Look! ...It's not yolk, right? It's canned yellow peach, right?"

"Ugh!"

The penalty was the medicinal herbal tea. Youngrin, who carried out the penalty together as a doppelganger, did not change her expression and drank it in one shot, even eliciting a reaction from the staff.

'I'm envious.'

It would have been nice if I had drunk the sophora root tea and spat it out.

At this rate, I wouldn't be able to get a penalty once and I would end up with just a reaction screentime and being a side character for VTIC.

'Should I rather be active?'

While I was thinking about changing the route, the filming stopped for a while.

"Cut! Let's brush up~"

"Let's check our mics for a moment."

"Yes!"

It was a short maintenance break.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

"Yeah."

Keun Sejin slipped away after the MC, and I deliberately waited for the timing while drinking.

Then the opponent moved first.

"Hello, hoobae-nim~"

"We were in such a hurry earlier so we couldn't even greet properly, right?"

The VTIC guys smiled and talked to me.

They were guys I haven't even exchanged names with, but it was a social interaction where I couldn't look too serious.

"...Yes. Long time no see, sunbae-nim."

"Ah~ Calling me sunbae-nim sounds awkward. Just call me hyung!"

"That's right. Calling us that makes us sound too old."

There was a feeling I had felt at first as these guys with eight years of difference in experience were saying things like this without conscience.

'Hmh?'

These guys... why were they being so awkward?

'It looks like his back is breaking out in a cold sweat.'

It seemed that they tried to talk to me affectionately and kindly in their own way but I could see they were hitting the limit.

They did not feel like the kind of people like Keun Sejin and Ryu Chungwoo who were accustomed to grabbing a hold of people and who were familiar with doing things like this.

It looked like they weren't used to being in the role of someone older in social interactions.

'What is this?'

Let's give them a proper answer first.

"It's not a matter of age. You're a great sunbae-nim so I couldn't carelessly call you..."

"What do you mean great sunbae-nim~ Ueh!"

"You can just be comfortable!"

"..."

Wow, these guys were working hard.

It was more perplexing than when the penalty was stolen earlier.

I was speechless. Perhaps assuming that we came to a tacit agreement, the two guys chattered while exchanging glances. Then one of them coughed and opened his mouth.

"Uhm, variety shows are quite difficult, aren't they?"

"Yes? Yes..."

Without you, the difficulty level would have dropped by two levels.

However, both of them had proud expressions.

"Uh, don't overdo it while filming... If it's hard you can send an SOS. I will help you."

"...??"

"Ah, don't feel pressured! When you have a hoobae later, you can treat them well like this. Don't mind us."

And the two exchanged expressions as if saying 'Oh~ you're talking quite well?' to each other.

This was amazing.

"..."

I put up with the headache and asked openly.

"...Then earlier, you stepped on the line."

"Ahaha! No~ was it obvious?"

"No way, I think this hoobae-nim has a good sense."

"I know right? Anyway... don't worry too much. It just happened by chance~"

...Now I knew for sure.

'These guys did it completely out of goodwill.'

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and that was exactly what happened.

Moreover, the idea they came up with to help was one-dimensional. Even considering that they didn't have much experience in variety shows, it didn't seem like they were the kinds of people who knew how to use their heads.

'I'm afraid they'll be robbed as loan guarantors or in a business scam within 5 years.'

Although VTIC was big enough to have things go smoothly for them, considering that they endured 8 years in this fiery hell of K-pop society, these guys were completely dull.

'...Could it be that Chungryeo replaced the members with these guys?'

If he looked for people who wouldn't cause trouble and were easy to deal with, he might end up with these guys.

Either way, they didn't seem to have any complicated thoughts so I could just cut them off.

"Thank you very much. Still, I will try to do as much as I can. You don't have to be considerate like before."

"Oh?"

The slightly flustered guys pondered for a while before opening their mouths again with embarrassed faces.

"Uhm, actually, I heard some things from Chungryeo hyung."

"...??"

What was this again?

'I'm sure he didn't say anything useless.'

Just as my head was about to cool down, the guy in front smiled.

"Well, Moondae-ssi is really hardworking and a good hoobae, so please treat him well. He said something like that!"

"...!!"

"That's right! But he's not the kind of person to really say things like that."

"Yeah. He has very few close friends... It's amazing that he became close with a hoobae."

We were not close.

"He may seem a bit desolate... but Jaehyun, I mean, Chungryeo hyung is a lot better than people think."

"That's right. He donated half of his payments to the stray dog shelter."

"Woah, he donated half of it?"

"Yeah, I got more freaked out than when I used his payment account."

"He lives like a mountain god but he really likes animals."

The two of them were talking and then fell into a conversation among themselves. Then they came to their senses again and awkwardly got back to it.

"No, how did the conversation go this way? Anyway, since this is also fate, you can tell me if you have a hard time during today's shoot~ That's all."

"By any chance, are you having any difficulties now?"

"..."

Suddenly, I heard so much nonsense that I got distracted.

I mentally punched myself.

'Who cares? Damn it. Come to your senses.'

Whether or not Chungryeo was the guardian of stray dogs, that was his issue. What mattered now was my goal. Currently, it was this shooting.

I chose my words and opened my mouth.

"Actually..."

After explaining the situation I was in, the two of them were startled when I indirectly informed them that I was actually aiming for a penalty.

"Gasp! Is that so??"

"Hey, I'm sorry!"

"Should we steer the punishments to you now?"

"Do you want me to give you the penalty?"

"...It's okay."

Instead, I made a light request, and the VTIC members readily agreed.

"Hey Moondae~"

Soon after, Keun Sejin, who went to the bathroom, came back.

"Were you talking about something good?"

"So-so. And you?"

"Hey, I went to the bathroom so what kind of good things could I talk about~?"

Seeing his grin while answering, he seemed to have been up to something but his mouth was saying something else.

Soon enough, the spoils popped out.

"It's just... somehow our paths coincided so I talked with MC Choi Hosu a bit. We also exchanged numbers."

As expected.

"Looks like you had a good conversation."

"Well, should I say we talked about the direction of our variety show?"

Keun Sejin grinned.

"I told him the two of us would never get the penalty."

"...!"

"So, I guess he'll try to get a reaction out of us by making us get the penalty somehow."

It was great.

* * *

The filming of the second half ended well with the cooperation of several cast members.

'Looks like it came out better than planned.'

Now, it was the matter of editing, but to be honest, I didn't worry too much.

Even if I was the PD I wouldn't cut it out.

"You worked hard~"

"Thank you for your hard work!"

"Ah, it was very great today!"

Anyway, we left the set only after bowing like when we arrived.

And in the car on the way to the next schedule.

After the filming went well, an unwelcome text suddenly came into the quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

"...Sigh."

When I met the VTIC guys, I thought it would be like this for some reason.

It was ridiculous, but in this way, the text content itself looked normal.

'The problem is that he's a lunatic when I meet him.'

After pressing my eyelids a few times, I replied.

And surprisingly, I got a reply after a while.

'Fuck.'

He was saying that whatever I did, it was definitely going to be a disaster and telling me to choose to start over again.

The bullshit of those VTIC punks echoed in my head.

There was no way he was.

All the decent people would be freezing to death if that was the case.

However, I didn't think the VTIC guys were lying. In other words, the case example itself seemed to be true.

'...Let's try once.'

With superhuman patience, I tried replying with the assumption that the other person was normal.

And there was no reply for a long time.

'...Did I step on a landmine?'

However, even if this became a countdown for getting buried alive in the mountains, I would absolutely not go down by myself.

'I will put this bastard into a state of social death too.'

Leaning on my neck pillow, I started to recollect the ideas I had thought of before. It was a bit... like a repetitive exercise to stabilize the mind.

"Hmm."

Then, suddenly, the reply came back.

"...!"

Several tens of seconds passed.

After that, the next text arrived.

"..."

That was the end of the text.

"...Phew."

I turned off my phone and closed my eyes again.

People were so mysterious.

* * *

While Park Moondae was deep in thought in the car, articles were appearing on the Internet.

And soon after, it was revealed which of the TeStar members were appearing.

And after going through all these responses, there was also one person who was relieved.

'There's almost no cursing at Moondae!'

The graduate student was relieved and left the page she was reading. She was a fan of Park Moondae who searched the Internet after being sunk by a wave of English comments on Wetube.

Recently, she was excited because there was a certain atmosphere that looked favourable to Moondae.

Her friend, the homepage master, seemed very uneasy about it but she couldn't understand why.

'Wouldn't it be nice if everyone knew that he was kind and cute?'

Considering the days when she was worried about Moondae seeing the malicious comments, this was a very good look.

'I'm looking forward to the variety show!'

The graduate student laughed and stomped her feet on the bed but could not resist fangirling and connected to Wetube. Then she clicked on a thumbnail that was still on the list of popular videos.

'I'm going to watch it one more time and sleep.'

It was the music video for TeStar's new song.