| Episode 107. Wrapping Up the Work (2)
‘No wonder they said they’d gotten enough footage for the broadcast.’
Once it goes through editing, video is lucky to retain half of what was filmed—forget half, even ten percent can be hard to salvage.
And this was content about rookie idols gleefully riding amusement park attractions?
No matter how they cut it down to only the entertaining scenes, it wouldn’t even reach ten minutes. And a minute and thirty seconds of that would probably consist of my own golden moments.
But now they were talking about surprise content.
It was a decent twist. It was even highly relevant to the music video, wasn’t it?
‘Never in my life did I think I’d end up saving Park Juwu at an amusement park.’
The only combination of Spark and an amusement park remaining in my memories was the nighttime live performance at an amusement park, where Spark had filled in for a famous rapper’s opening act.
That live performance had been unforgettable in many ways.
It couldn’t have been easy to sing passionately in front of an audience that barely even cheered for the members. Still, that was a matter of their professional spirit, so I’d set it aside.
Everything had been terrible: the audience’s indifference toward the idols brought in as bait singers, the inadequately prepared tracks, and the shoddy sound system.
Compared to that, things were much better now.
Their careers were actually shorter now than they had been then. Go figure.
“You didn’t tie our Juwu hyung to something like a Viking, did you? He might pass out!”
Lee Cheonghyeon made a fuss. As if the production crew would do something so atrocious. If they had, then starting tomorrow, Park Juwu would have to use foundation in the same shade as mine.
“If you don’t rescue Mr. Juwu soon, that might happen.”
“What?!”
“So everyone, focus! You have to go play with Mr. Juwu!”
The PD clapped his hands, gathering our attention.
Right. We couldn’t leave our main vocalist all by himself.
* * *
The rules were simple.
First, find the hint notes hidden throughout the amusement park.
Second, everyone had to gather at Park Juwu’s location by the time limit of 8 p.m. to succeed.
It was currently 6 p.m. It seemed like we had plenty of time, but considering the crowds and the size of the park, it might turn out to be a tight schedule.
“Before we look for the notes, why don’t we discuss how we should search?”
Jeong Seongbin spoke up first. After making him lead group meetings for several months, he had gotten quite smooth at it.
Kang Giyeon, Choi Jeho, and Lee Cheonghyeon then offered their opinions one after another.
“Wouldn’t it be better to split into teams? It seems inefficient for all five of us to move together.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to have more eyes looking, rather than split up and miss something?”
“That’s true, but we have to gather together in the end to clear the mission anyway, so it might be better to stay together.”
Mm-hm. Good attitude. I didn’t really need to step in.
If I just stood there with my arms crossed, nodding along and listening, then did whatever the others suggested….
“Then, just in case, should we start at the entrance and go around together? Let’s be thorough so we don’t miss anything!”
…I could already see Park Juwu waiting alone at the amusement park until eight at night before going home, you idiots!
Thinking of Park Juwu standing there all alone and dejected in this amusement park as vast as a boundless ocean, I felt tears welling up from tear ducts I’d thought had already dried out.
Swallowing a sigh, I stopped the guys who looked ready to sprint toward the entrance at once.
“Wouldn’t it be better to look around the inside of the amusement park first? What do you guys think? How about splitting into two teams, with each one checking the attractions and the rest areas?”
“Would that really be better?”
“Yes. Your opinions make sense too, but we have a time limit. We can read a few notes first and then decide whether we need to find all of them or only some.”
Usually, a lot of dummy hints were hidden in case the participants failed to find the real ones, so we probably didn’t need to locate every single hint.
The production crew surely wasn’t expecting us to find them all, either.
“Then how do we contact each other in the middle of it? We don’t even have our phones.”
Choi Jeho pointed out something very important. It was also the question I’d been waiting for.
“Let’s use a courier.”
“What?”
“We’ll agree in advance on how each team will move, and have one person keep going back and forth between them.”
“Isn’t that too harsh on one person?”
Kang Giyeon asked, flustered.
But it was fine. I would be the courier!
That way, I could leave the important task of finding the hints to the members while checking the progress of both sides myself.
Most importantly, I’d appear a little less on camera. My screen time at this amusement park would be more than adequately filled by Kim Iwol screaming his head off.
“Let’s decide fairly with rock-paper-scissors. We can’t make you run around by yourself, hyung.”
“Seongbin, what was the second virtue of an idol?”
“Being good at our main job.”
“That’s right, isn’t it? Then who do you think has the best stamina in our team?”
Jeong Seongbin couldn’t argue with that.
“I’ve memorized the whole park map, so let’s split into teams, quickly decide our search routes, and then scatter.”
The guys answered energetically. The great expedition to find Park Juwu had begun.
* * *
The first discovery came from the team of Lee Cheonghyeon and Kang Giyeon, who had headed toward the attractions.
The note the youngest members found near the exit of the bumper cars read:
【Why do sparks fly from the ceiling of the bumper cars?
Difficulty: ★★★★】
“Was this a quiz show instead of a hint?”
“Yes. We got it right, and they gave us this.”
Kang Giyeon then held out another note to me.
【Go to the aquarium!
Difficulty: ★★★★★】
The location written on the note was the aquarium, situated deeper inside the amusement park than the bumper cars.
If we looked at the hint and answered the question correctly, it told us where the next note was hidden. Depending on the difficulty of the question, the destination it revealed would be closer or farther away.
It was an interesting setup. This would let them control the timing to some extent.
But….
“You got this right?”
“Yes. Lee Cheonghyeon did.”
I read the question one more time.
It seemed to have been a short-answer question.
When I glanced at Lee Cheonghyeon, he winked and said,
“Hyung, I’m the designer of the Goldberg device at Bul-Ti High School, remember!”
“Right. You’re the best.”
I gave him a thumbs-up, then ran off to share the good news with Choi Jeho and Jeong Seongbin.
Ah, let me correct that. I also rode the little train once along the way.
The two of them were waiting for me in front of the honey-butter corn stand where we had agreed to meet.
“What’s with the balloon?”
Choi Jeho pointed at the helium balloon tied around my wrist.
“Cheonghyeon tied it to me. He said the courier needed to be easy to spot from a distance.”
“For goodness’ sake.”
While the two older brothers exchanged such pointless nitpicks, Jeong Seongbin approached us.
He, too, held a white note in his hand.
“Hyung, we did find a hint, but….”
【What is the unit used to measure the sweetness of corn, fruit, and the like?
Difficulty: ★★★】
“Brix.”
“Oh, Iwol got it right!”
“Huh? It’s correct?”
Jeong Seongbin, who had been turning his head back and forth between me and the PD, belatedly began to clap.
At this point, I was starting to wonder if Hanpyeong Industries had intentionally made us search for sweet holiday fruits every year during the holidays.
【Go to the churros stand!
Difficulty: ★★★★】
“Aren’t there tons of places selling churros? I think I saw several on the way here.”
Choi Jeho frowned as he examined the note.
“The kids’ destination is the aquarium, so we can rule out every stand in the opposite direction.”
“What kind of question did they get there?”
“A science question.”
At my answer, Choi Jeho exchanged a glance with Jeong Seongbin.
I could almost hear their conversation.
Something along the lines of: ‘Are you confident in science?’ ‘No.’
Let’s just pray they don’t ask us to calculate the concentration of sugar water at the churros stand.
* * *
The grand quiz extravaganza disguised as a treasure hunt continued for about another hour.
Fortunately, instead of calculating the concentration of sugar water, the question at the churros stand asked what caused dust explosions. Thanks to Jeong Seongbin, who watched the news frequently, they were able to make it as far as the cotton candy stand near the aquarium.
But without a doubt, today’s MVP was Lee Cheonghyeon.
That kid had achieved the remarkable feat of answering a five-star question at the aquarium.
‘What was the question?’
‘The scientific name of white coral.’
‘And what was the answer?’
‘Corallium konojoi!’
I was genuinely curious. How on earth had Lee Cheonghyeon memorized the scientific name of white coral?
It seemed I wasn’t the only one wondering.
‘How did he get this right? We made that question specifically so they’d get it wrong.’
After Lee Cheonghyeon racked his brain for five minutes and finally remembered the answer, every member of the production crew was stunned.
The person in question, however, remained completely unfazed.
‘I read The Slippery Sea Creature Encyclopedia really hard when I was little.’
‘You must have read it really hard….’
We gave him a round of sincerely admiring applause.
As a result of all that effort, the five of us combined the hints we had obtained from the aquarium and the churros stand and made our way to the amusement park’s central garden.
“The final hint must be somewhere around here, right?”
“Probably. To be honest, I thought this would be the final destination.”
Kang Giyeon said awkwardly as he watched Lee Cheonghyeon look around.
It was past seven, and the surroundings had already grown dim. So I had also expected Park Juwu to appear from somewhere in the garden, scattering flower petals of triumph.
‘It seemed like they wanted to stretch things out a little, but… did it really have to be this complicated?’
It seemed the production crew hadn’t considered this segment to be a simple mission meant merely to fill airtime.
That much was clear from the difficulty of the questions, as well as the fact that solving a mission only revealed the next location, while the notes themselves still had to be found manually.
That was why I’d even taken the time to ride the little train along the way, hoping to drag things out a bit.
I hadn’t expected them to account for every conceivable contingency by giving us quizzes more difficult than anything one would normally see on a variety show.
As a result, we were now combing through the garden with barely any time left before the deadline.
That was when it happened.
“Found it!”
From far away, Choi Jeho shouted.