Chapter 89. A Fortuitous Encounter on Geoje Island
Aran had been going on and on about fishing, so I raided Dae-hun's family storage room before coming here.
To borrow fishing rods.
There were enough to give one each to the members, Kim Jin-hee, and the road manager, with some left over.
Even while quietly fishing, I kept glancing toward the beach.
That was because the person who looked like the producer in charge was PD Na Young-hwan, famous for 〈Five Days Without Sleep〉 and 〈New Journey to the West〉.
Apparently he'd come all the way down to Geoje because, much like Kim Jin-hee, he had a strange fondness for throwing people into water.
It was certainly a tempting connection.
But right now, I needed to focus on fishing.
Filming was work for the members too.
I'd promised to let them rest.
It would feel a little shameless to start selling them for appearances immediately.
Besides, there was already one program that had been more or less tentatively discussed.
I didn't know when it would happen, but that meant I'd already accomplished something today.
The Watflix idol documentary.
Seo Hoe-dong had said it would be done in the style of idol-produced content.
He had probably heard about the documentary we'd filmed with Prime Film during the strike and contacted me because of that.
He must have thought I'd be interested.
I wasn't sure about documentaries themselves, but I was extremely interested in self-produced content.
We already had a few things running.
But when it came to content, wasn't more always better?
Especially since we were about to focus more on individual activities.
We couldn't keep pouring everything into mukbangs and V-Lives forever.
"Dae-hun. When is our Prime Film documentary coming out?"
"Not sure. I should ask them. Probably sometime this week?"
Dae-hun answered while water dripped from his body.
They would've kept multiple edited versions while making the video anyway.
Should I ask them to develop more content for us?
No.
They were probably specialized in filming and directing, not content development itself.
"Oh! Hyung! Got one, got one!"
I quickly reeled in the line and pulled up a fish.
"Looks pretty unimpressive. Is it horse mackerel?"
"Seems like it. Guess they're still biting around here."
The self-produced content we were currently doing was mostly stuff the members treated like rest anyway.
Once the break ended, I should find someone who could plan our own content more seriously.
I dropped the horse mackerel into a bucket filled with seawater.
It thrashed violently, splashing water everywhere.
That immediately drew the members' attention.
"That's a striped jack! It's really good!"
Aran shouted as though she'd just reunited with an old friend.
Apparently not all horse mackerel were the same.
Once Aran said it, I could almost see a gray stripe on it too.
Or maybe not.
Either way, if she said it tasted good, then I should let everyone try some.
Seven people couldn't exactly make a meal out of one fish, but we could at least taste it.
Since we'd just caught it, sashimi would probably be best.
I'd never done it before, but I figured I just needed to knock it out and slice carefully along where the bones should be.
The moment I put the knife in, Aran panicked.
"Oh, oh~! You're going to burst the gallbladder!"
"Gallbladder? What gallbladder?"
"I'll do it."
In the blink of an eye, Aran took the striped jack from me and started preparing sashimi.
She grabbed the fish barehanded, flipped it around without hesitation, removed the bones, and sliced the meat into decent pieces.
If she'd just been a little faster, she would've looked like a professional sashimi chef.
"Wow... Aran, where did you learn all this?"
"Nutube!"
As expected of Blue Moon's resident content expert, Aran.
We were all eating a bite of the sashimi she'd prepared when I noticed a man walking toward us from the beach.
Na Young-hwan.
"Hey. That's PD Na Young-hwan coming over. Na Young-hwan."
"Huh? Was that 〈New Journey to the West〉? I didn't know."
Why was he coming here?
Even without me trying, the connection was rolling straight into my lap.
"Oh! It really is Blue Moon. Hello!"
〈New Journey to the West〉 had ended a long time ago.
The program being filmed on the beach was called 〈Shin Restaurant〉.
It was a variety show where top veteran actress Shin Yeo-sook ran a restaurant.
She developed dishes with other actors in a quiet location and even went out to attract customers.
As expected of something created by variety-show king Na Young-hwan, it was currently one of the most popular entertainment programs on television.
"How did you recognize us from all the way over there...? You're PD Na Young-hwan, right? Nice to meet you."
"I was watching from far away and suddenly saw someone preparing sashimi, so I came over because I was curious. And it turned out to be Aran. You know how to prepare fish too?"
At Na Young-hwan's praise, Aran grinned while holding the knife.
Even when I was deliberately trying to avoid work, opportunity came looking for us.
Was this divine revelation telling me to become friends with Na Young-hwan?
We'd come here to rest, but if the vacation homework was this sweet, I welcomed it.
"We were actually in a lot of trouble just now, and then we ran into Blue Moon. Maybe this is a sign from heaven telling us to keep filming."
"Huh? Is there something wrong with the broadcast?"
"Absolutely."
Na Young-hwan explained.
Until early this morning, the Geoje weather forecast had shown clear skies.
That was true.
I'd checked too.
But the sky had started looking strangely overcast, so he'd checked again during filming.
The forecast had changed to rain.
"We're mostly just cooking inside the restaurant anyway... but as you can see, most of our seating is outdoors. A beach in the rain turns into a wasteland, doesn't it? We won't get any customers."
"That's true."
Then Na Young-hwan began praising Blue Moon's recent activities.
Most of it was about 〈Rebooting〉.
Back when Na Young-hwan wasn't nearly this famous, Victory had once received an offer to appear on one of his variety shows.
The program itself had been entertaining even if it wasn't particularly famous yet.
So I'd thought appearing would've been a good idea.
But it never happened.
Victory had only recently started gaining attention at the time, and Nam Won-soo practically foamed at the mouth whenever variety shows were mentioned.
I could have ignored him and forced it through.
But I hadn't thought there was any urgent need, so I didn't push.
And now I was Blue Moon's manager.
With Blue Moon currently one of the biggest issues in the idol industry, Na Young-hwan had every reason to want them.
In fact, it looked like he was trying to cast them on the spot.
If we appeared now, I could repay him a little for turning down his old offer.
"We're thinking about borrowing another nearby location and doing some luck-based games instead. But as you know, all of our regular cast members are actors. Even if we play games, there's a good chance it won't be very entertaining... So I was wondering if you'd be willing to appear. You need somewhere to hide from the rain anyway, right?"
I checked my phone.
There really was rain in the forecast.
"Then we'd better pack up quickly! We caught a few fish. Want to try some?"
Na Young-hwan laughed as he accepted the sashimi Aran handed him.
Maybe the members knew I wanted a content planner.
They were practically lobbying Na Young-hwan themselves.
"Hello! We're Blue Moon!"
We walked to the place Na Young-hwan had told us about and found a large floor-seating restaurant.
Apparently they'd rented it in a hurry.
The rain started pouring down the exact moment we arrived.
If we'd been even a little slower, all of us would've ended up like Kwon Dae-hun earlier.
Inside the restaurant, four famous actors were sitting awkwardly in different places.
The most famous was veteran actress Shin Yeo-sook.
Then there was actress Jo Chae-won, who had drawn attention from the moment of her debut thanks to her tall frame and striking features.
Lee Seo-jun, who specialized in dramas.
And Park Seo-ho, who acted across all kinds of genres.
They were all so famous that seeing them gathered together somehow looked strange.
Though I already knew they were filming a variety show together.
"Oh my~! It's Blue Moon, the hottest group these days! Nice to meet you~."
Jo Chae-won ran toward the members and shook hands with each of them.
She even brought up Aran's stint as a one-day MC on 〈Live Song Contest〉.
Either she had a great memory or she was genuinely interested in our girls.
"Are we starting filming right away? No, right? We caught a few more fish. Let's eat those first!"
Aran immediately started preparing sashimi again.
While she worked, the members and actors chatted.
With the sound of rain outside, it almost felt like we were on a school trip.
Of course, there was no way to waste footage of Aran preparing sashimi while the actors and members talked.
Na Young-hwan seemed to agree, because the cameras all started rolling.
"Actress Shin Yeo-sook, you recently attended a famous film festival too, didn't you?"
"Oh, please! Anyone can attend. Seo-ho and Seo-jun are the ones doing incredibly well. Seo-ho had a ten-million-viewer movie, and Seo-jun's dramas keep doing well too."
Shin Yeo-sook brushed off my flattery and praised her younger colleagues instead.
Then she noticed Aran slicing the fish and suddenly clapped her hands.
"Come to think of it! Chae-won. Didn't you say you're appearing on 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉 soon? Once you go there, you'll have to catch and eat even minnows. You should learn how to prepare sashimi from Aran while you have the chance!"
"Ahaha... I guess so."
Lee Seo-jun, who had been listening, asked,
"Chae-won, are you okay handling fish?"
Jo Chae-won shook her head.
"Oh, I... get kind of scared about killing living things and stuff. I feel sorry for them."
Hey, hey, hey!
If you say that now, what does that make Aran, who's currently stabbing a striped jack with a knife?
Everyone seemed surprised by Jo Chae-won's comment.
For a moment, silence fell.
"Ah! Of course I eat fish and beef and everything! Hahaha. Sometimes I just get hung up on weird things. Aran, you're strong and cool!"
"Thank you, unni!"
Everyone made thoughtless comments from time to time.
I decided to let it slide.
Just as it felt like we'd nearly run out of things to chat about...
"All right. The rain suddenly changed our filming plan, so we're going to do a luck-based game right here. Since things have turned out this way, let's at least have fun before heading home."
"What game?"
Na Young-hwan began explaining the game.
Hearing him explain rules in person instead of through a television screen felt strangely surreal.
"The number of our regular cast members happens to match Blue Moon's members exactly, so we've decided to split into teams. We'll do a celebrity-name quiz and a song-title quiz."
"And the rules?"
"Each team gets one roulette wheel. You write penalties on it, then the losing team spins."
The roulette wheels were completely blank.
From Blue Moon's perspective, we'd write punishments we wanted the actor team to receive and hand them over.
Then if Blue Moon lost the game, we'd spin the actors' roulette and receive one of the punishments they'd written for us.
"Can ours have prizes instead of punishments?"
"Prizes?"
I made a suggestion.
"Things like getting our song played on the broadcast."
"Ah. Then for Blue Moon, you'd either receive a punishment or win a prize. Sounds good."
PD Na Young-hwan.
I didn't expect this from you, but your instincts seemed surprisingly poor.
Did he really think the actors could beat Blue Moon?
I wasn't sure about Serin and Youngchae.
But we had Anna and Aran.
Anna, who was knowledgeable about almost everything.
And Aran, who was unrivaled when it came to practical everyday trivia.
"Let's get started quickly. Fill up the roulette wheels. The actors write punishments, and Blue Moon writes rewards."
"Yes~!"
Bzzzzt.
Just as the members and actors put their heads together and began filling the roulette wheels...
What had to come finally arrived.
I lifted my phone and checked the screen.
A new text message had arrived.
It had been a while.
Another spam message.
