Episode 94. Employee Farm Experience (2)
I was unable to speak for a very brief moment.
My back in the mirror looked like it had been through a great deal at a single glance.
Torn diagonally in a large gash from between my shoulder blades down to my mid-waist, the parts that hadn’t healed cleanly and had gaped open were laid bare.
'At this level, some people would be grossed out, wouldn’t they?'
Now I understood Jeong Seongbin’s reaction too. It had been enough to show through a t-shirt, after all.
"Really…… it’s huge."
I hadn’t realized my back had gotten into such a state.
I had touched the scarred area while washing, but since so much time had passed since the wound had formed, I hadn’t paid it much mind.
Also, the lodging bathroom was so small there was no space to turn my back to the mirror.
More important than that was the question of why the scar I had managed to keep in neat shape had ended up like this now.
The fact that a wound had formed hadn’t changed; if only the shape of the wound had changed…….
'Fuck, is our noona really alive and well?'
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed the noona who had been handling the accident for me in the middle of everything had vanished.
I immediately checked the status of the noona registered in the Welfare Service.
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[SYSTEM] 'Welfare Service' Usage History
▷ Relationship: Blood Relative
▷ Health Status: Good
▷ Mental Status: Bad
▷ Other: At Work
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At the words "Mental Status: Bad," I had almost kicked the system, but upon seeing "At Work," I was convinced. Yeah, that was a force majeure.
More than that, the problem was whether I could keep believing this system.
It had turned a person’s back into a rag, yet did it think it couldn’t deceive me with just a few lines of text?
Since there was nothing I could do, I’d endure for now, but if it got caught lying just once—I’d crack my own skull, go to the underworld, and hold a one-on-one filibuster with you, you system bastard.
"Hyungs, are you still getting changed? They said we have to head out now!"
Lee Cheonghyeon shouted from beyond the door.
I told Jeong Seongbin I’d hide it well and go out, then sent him outside and layered two t-shirts.
* * *
In the past, Spark rarely ever did outdoor activities.
I remember the dominant opinion had been, what was the point of letting kids loose outside when they couldn’t even talk properly in an indoor studio?
They had occasionally been active in sports programs, but it seemed mingling and doing activities with a large group of people had been terribly awkward for them.
'The problem is that their own members count among that large group of people.'
But now, things were different.
Thanks to being worked day and night all this time, these guys had personally realized and awakened to how grave a sin it was to stand in front of a camera with their mouths shut.
And as a result…….
"I don’t know how this’ll sound, but our hyungs are really…… the force is no joke."
"What do you mean by that, Lee Cheonghyeon?"
"I mean you hyungs look like you’d totally crush fieldwork. So reliable, so reliable!"
"That’s true."
"Giyeon, you look reliable too……!"
"Yes?"
……None of them could keep their traps shut.
And yet, as if they hadn’t forgotten the warning to be careful not to mess up the audio, the timing of their interruptions was perfect.
As I watched them chattering away at full blast, I subtly said to our MC, Jeong Seongbin, who had been pushed off to one corner.
"Seongbin, they’re too loud. Should I set them up in the field as scarecrows?"
"You really look like you’d do it, so please don’t……!"
Goodness. Can’t I even crack a joke?
Jeong Seongbin, perhaps thinking I would really plant the members upside down in the field, quickly took control of the situation.
"Since we’ve come to the countryside, the first thing to do is…… prepare lunch!"
Everyone applauded energetically at Jeong Seongbin’s words.
Preparing lunch.
With these guys, and out here in nature?
If so, there was nothing to think about.
"Let’s make pajeon."
Where was the room for choice? We had to go with whatever was easiest to make.
"Pajeon sounds great! And what else should we make?"
"With our skills, if we just get the pajeon done safely, that’s a win, Cheonghyeon."
I put my hand on Lee Cheonghyeon’s shoulder and said with a smile.
My eyes were smiling, but I was dead serious.
If I picked any two guys right now and told them to go pull green onions from the field, one would definitely bring back onions and the other water dropwort.
Ignoring the dark future I could clearly foresee, I maintained my smile and asked.
"Could we…… perhaps get frying mix or salt or anything like that?"
"Necessary items can be received as much as you want through games with the production crew!"
The PD answered.
At that moment, an ominous conversation reached my ears.
"Seongbin hyung, do we need salt for pajeon? Don’t you usually dip it in soy sauce?"
"Maybe he’s going to use it for something else? Right, Jaeho hyung?"
"I think we put it in when we made kimchijeon last time…… Lee Cheonghyeon, did we put salt in then?"
"Didn’t we put sugar? Does it change between salt and sugar depending on the ingredients?"
I smiled faintly and asked.
"PD-nim."
"Yes!"
"Ingredients…… how much can you give us?"
I think…… we’ll need quite a lot.
* * *
Making six servings of pajeon was an incredibly noisy process.
"Are green onion roots always like this? Is it because it’s eco-friendly?"
"Isn’t that an onion, Jaeho?"
Starting with the single-celled organism Choi Jaeho, who had faithfully pulled up an undergrown onion.
"Didn’t they say we have to build a hearth?"
"Wait, Giyeon'sseu. If we don’t want to do the work twice, we need to carefully choose the position considering the members’ movements and where the wind blows."
Lee Cheonghyeon, using that good brain of his at full power even for something like this, and Gang Giyeon, saying he was right and tearing down all the bricks he had barely managed to stack one layer of.
At this rate, we’d be eating lunch in the afternoon. Around…… 5 PM.
It was a small comfort that Jeong Seongbin and Park Juu’s side was quiet.
Yeah, with five people, at least one of them had to have done outdoor cooking for the world’s balance to be right…….
"Hyung, how much do I have to peel the green onions before they’re trimmed?"
"Iwol hyung, there are three kinds of soy sauce in the cupboard, which one should I bring……?"
"……."
The hell……
Next time, I hoped the production crew would take these guys not to a farming trip but to Boy Scouts or something. A one-day cooking class would be even better.
I answered the guys’ questions one by one and then handed over the work gloves.
"Why the gloves?"
"I’ll do the cooking, so go gather some firewood."
And watching their backs as they disappeared toward the mountain path, I lamented internally.
This was all because I had fed the kids nothing but salad.
I should’ve let them cook a few meals for themselves. Would it have turned out like this?
'It’s not like I can cook anything amazing either, so I can’t say much.'
I scrubbed the cauldron lid that had been placed, as if showing off, on one side of the porch.
Then Gang Giyeon approached and asked.
"Are you going to fry jeon on the lid?"
"Yeah. I think it’ll be better to fry it here than in a frying pan."
"Then should I clean it?"
"I need to season it with oil too, so I’ll do it. What about the hearth? Is it done?"
"Lee Cheonghyeon told me to leave it to him?"
When I snuck a glance at the yard, Lee Cheonghyeon was destroying all the bricks he had stacked, shouting, "This isn’t it!"
"Giyeon."
"Yes."
"Don’t run away to me. Go back quickly and build the hearth."
"……Yes."
Scrubbing the cauldron lid like that for a while, I was reminded of the workshop at Hampyeong Industries.
"A workshop is all about barbecue, isn’t it? Right, Team Leader Jo?"
"Ah, well, of course. Didn’t you prepare all the charcoal and everything too, Chief? We just came here for free. What do they call this in modern slang? Riding the bus?"
The tearful workshop where I made the reservations, checked the market, grilled the meat, and poured the drinks—no one could tell me who exactly was giving them a free ride.
Even then, while Chief Nam and Team Leader Jo drank until they collapsed, I had been outside wiping the iron griddle like this.
If someone asked when I liked best at that workshop, I could say with confidence: when I was wiping the griddle.
Recalling that beautiful memory, strength naturally entered the hand gripping the scrubber.
While wiping the moisture from the cleaned cauldron lid, this time Park Juu came to me.
Park Juu held out a huge basin full of batter and asked.
"Hyung, is the batter good enough like this……?"
"Yeah. Who made the batter? Good job."
"Jaeho hyung."
He had struggled, but it seemed his experience making kimchijeon hadn’t gone to waste. A remarkable leap forward.
Even after my permission was given, Park Juu didn’t go back immediately and squatted down next to me.
And he pointed at the sight of Lee Cheonghyeon and Gang Giyeon shouting their heads off and "building" the hearth with their mouths.
"Hyung, do you know how to light a fire in something like that?"
Even you can’t help but worry after seeing how the kids are doing, huh?
I patted Park Juu’s shoulder to reassure him.
"Of course. Just trust me."
Because I know how to light a fire and cook rice in a cauldron.
Go back at ease and bring some cooking oil.
* * *
After various twists and turns, the completed pajeon was excellent.
Maybe because it was freshly fried, it was delicious.
After filming the eating scene, I didn’t forget to fry one for each of the staff members. When I sat down to fry more jeon, the guys brought the ingredients on their own.
Occasionally Lee Cheonghyeon would act up, saying that since the griddle was big anyway he’d try making rabbit-shaped jeon, but since it was a broadcast, I let him do as he pleased.
Because he failed at flipping it, one rabbit ear came out short, but even that tasted good.
After that, filming proceeded busily.
While Choi Jaeho and Gang Giyeon, who had lost rock-paper-scissors, washed the dishes amicably, Jeong Seongbin and I pried mart coupons from the production crew and went grocery shopping.
In the meantime, Park Juu and Lee Cheonghyeon had somehow each offered up a shuttlecock and badminton racket to a tree branch.
They had been so openly robbed by the tree that for a moment I thought it was a hidden camera prank.
After pulling weeds in the garden, making a foot volleyball bet with the production crew, and writing on rolling paper, the day in the mountain village quickly grew dark.
But that didn’t mean the day was over for the celebrities who had come to film.
I thinly sliced the cucumber Choi Jaeho had picked from the garden during the day and neatly placed them on the faces of the Spark guys, who must have been worked to the bone under the blazing sun all day. No matter how I looked at it, I should’ve been a staff member, not an idol.
"Hyung, let me put them on your face too, so lie down!"
"It’s fine, so nobody get up. Think of each falling cucumber slice as my hard work falling away."
I had just managed to lay Jeong Seongbin down like that, and this time Lee Cheonghyeon sprang up from afar.
"Hyung, there’s something I absolutely have to do right now!"
At the same time, the cucumber fell plop from Lee Cheonghyeon’s jade-like face.
Lee, you little shit. I put so much effort into slicing those!
But the cameras were still rolling. I held back my anger and asked.
"What is it?"
"Truth game! It might be cliché, but if we don’t do it when we come to a place like this, it’s disappointing!"
You dropped my blood-like cucumbers on the floor just to say that? You could’ve suggested it well enough while lying down.
The fans would probably like it. Idol fans tended to want to know even things you’d wonder, 'Are they really curious about such trivial stuff?'
Chief Nam’s daughter had been like that too.
From Choi Jaeho’s height and weight to his favorite shoe brand—fine. But she hadn’t been satisfied with even that.
I didn’t know what was so charming about the fact that Choi Jaeho had ordered extra-large jajangmyeon and cream shrimp at a Chinese restaurant on a spring day in May, but I remembered hearing that the daughter had really liked that bait I had found for her.
If it was a truth game, I reckoned more interesting stories than that would come out. If they didn’t, I just had to squeeze them out.
"I’m in!"
For some reason, even Park Juu raised his voice and supported Lee Cheonghyeon’s opinion.
I was trying to recall if truth games were trending among young kids, when Park Juu said with sparkling eyes.
"I-I’ve never been on school trips or anything like that. I haven’t had many chances to do things like this……!"
No, Juwoo.
If you say that, I can’t exactly refuse…….