Chapter 137. A Beauty That Could Bring Down a Nation
Yoo Jong-hak, who had already been having trouble finding ordinary people willing to appear on the show, welcomed the people from Elephant Theater Company with open arms.
Nick Allen's recent appearance had drawn plenty of attention, but they couldn't keep casting celebrities forever.
Most of the people applying these days were influencers or Nutubers trying to boost their own popularity, which made things difficult.
This time, they were genuine ordinary people.
If anything, Yoo Jong-hak liked that even more.
I brought Son Min-woo and the other theater members to one side of the set.
Youngchae had come with me too.
She had skipped practice because she wanted to watch Aran's shoot.
That led to an unexpected first meeting.
Son Min-woo, who had been wearing a sulky expression the entire time, suddenly started grinning from ear to ear.
"You perform plays in Daehangno? That sounds amazing. Invite me sometime."
It was all because of what Youngchae had said.
Son Min-woo had never even played a notable role at the theater company, yet he immediately told her she could come watch anytime.
"Come whenever you want! I really like listening to you sing too, Youngchae!"
"Come on. You probably sing way better than me. Musical actors are all good singers."
"Hehe. Is there any musical you really enjoyed?"
He was exactly like designer Choi Joo-hong.
"Uh... I didn't see it in a theater, but I liked the movie 〈Lululand〉."
"Wow! If you like 〈Lululand〉, you seriously know your stuff. As expected of an actress."
"No. I'm not an actress."
Youngchae used the exact same joke she'd once used on Kim Min-jun.
Son Min-woo laughed so hard he looked like he was about to stop breathing.
This bastard wasn't Choi Joo-hong.
He was Kim Min-jun.
"Hahaha. Right. Youngchae's official job isn't actress."
I tried joining in.
Son Min-woo's expression instantly went dead serious.
"Ah... that wasn't funny."
This little bastard.
"Seriously... Anyway, stop chatting and let's talk business. This isn't exactly the time to joke around. You're third in order. Your faces will be blurred, and even if you accidentally say a name, we'll censor it, so don't worry."
"But if everything is anonymous, does exposing it even mean anything?"
Son Min-woo asked.
"We'll reveal everything later. We need to gather enough momentum first, then explode it all at once for maximum impact."
We'd launch the offensive in advance.
Then deliver all the damage in one blow.
Whether Son Min-woo and the other actors were nervous or not, the filming of 〈Aran, Do You Know or Not?〉, now in its first month, proceeded smoothly.
The previous guest was a university student whose problem was that he loved drinking too much.
"But it's seriously not that I love alcohol itself~ You know what I mean, right? It's more like... getting together with a bunch of friends, eating good side dishes, and making a toast every time we drink."
"Right. That's what makes drinking fun."
"That's my problem."
I'd never actually seen Aran drinking in a big group before.
Even so, she sincerely sympathized with what the guest was saying.
Aran thought carefully before answering.
"Then what if you go with them but don't drink?"
"Ah..."
The student answered.
"Then I don't fit the mood. Everyone's having fun, and it feels like I'm the only one sitting there quietly."
"Then doesn't that mean you actually like drinking?"
"Kind of. But drinking alone is seriously terrible. And being the only one not drinking when everyone else is together is bad too."
The guest tried every possible angle to get a proper solution out of Aran.
In the end, Aran's answer was this.
"May the spirit that prevents alcohol from going down possess you~!"
Aran bounced around before walking over to a small refrigerator placed in one corner of the studio as decoration.
Then she pulled out a bottle.
Its yellowish color looked dangerous.
Aran handed it over.
"If you drink this once, you probably won't want alcohol anywhere near your mouth again. Make sure you write a diary entry before drinking it."
The university student tilted his head in surprise and accepted the bottle.
The words Captain Q glittered beneath the studio lights.
And just like that, Aran successfully defeated bravado with greater bravado, and alcohol with stronger alcohol.
Finally, she brought the former Elephant Theater Company members into the studio together.
At first, all the cameras had made them nervous.
But perhaps because Youngchae had done such a good job relaxing them earlier, they now looked like dazed clowns.
From now on, whenever I recruited actors, I should definitely use the beauty strategy.
Aran looked over the group.
Then her hands began trembling, and she threw rice at them.
"How dare you enter this place! Begone at once! Taaake that...!"
"Gasp!"
The former actors, who had apparently become extremely timid after years of being bullied by the theater company, hesitated.
Then they actually started leaving the studio.
Aran panicked and hurriedly called them back.
"W-Wait, where are you going? That was just the c-concept. Sorry. I had to do it at least once today."
"Ah. I see."
They gathered closely in front of Aran and sat down.
"Let's see. What evil spirit has possessed you this time?"
"It's not exactly an evil spirit. We came here because there's something we finally decided we want to reveal."
The members glanced toward me and Youngchae.
Youngchae clenched her fist and silently cheered them on.
Their faces would never appear.
And once the story broke, Elephant Theater Company was going under anyway.
I gave them confidence with my eyes.
Little by little, they began talking about what they'd endured.
Aran had been listening absentmindedly at first.
Gradually, though, she became absorbed in their stories.
Eventually, she was so affected that she even started crying.
"Huuugh...! They're seriously terrible people! How could they do that? Making you hand out flyers in long sleeves during summer?!"
"That junior couldn't perform in the afternoon show that day. And while he still hadn't recovered his strength, that person started hitting him."
"What's that person's name?! I won't let him get away with this."
They said he was someone versatile who had already become famous through television.
Aran stopped asking after hearing that.
She must have been curious.
But the day his identity would be revealed was still a little ways off.
The previous semifinal between Joo Ho-jun and Lee Woong-jae had ended in Lee Woong-jae's victory.
