Chapter 93. The Sentry Who Repaid the Favor
[“We Tour the Country on the慰問 Train” — Heartwarming Stories About Trending Group Blue Moon Keep Pouring In]
[What Did the Sentry Receive from Jin Youngchae During Blue Moon’s慰問 Train Performance...? Shocking!]
[Yoon Young-doo, Chairman of the Hoengseong Hanwoo Street Merchants’ Association: “The Blue Moon Effect Increased Store Sales by 30% Compared to Last Year”]
The results were incredibly effective.
People were saying Blue Moon should become ambassadors for Korean beef, or that they wanted a top-tier junior like Youngchae assigned to their unit.
Especially the story about Youngchae bringing a cup noodle to a sentry after even filling it with hot water moved countless people to tears.
Youngchae was flustered, saying she'd simply brought the entire thermos over and the story had somehow gotten distorted.
But whether she'd personally poured the water wasn't the important part.
The point was that the guy who received the cup noodles had been so touched that he'd gone around telling everyone about it.
The fact that we hadn't accepted appearance fees also became known.
I even ended up doing a written interview about it, though I decided not to brag too much.
If you showed off your good deed too obviously, people noticed.
-Q: We heard you didn't receive a single won in appearance fees for these performances.
-Do: The members really wanted to attend regional festivals and慰問 Train events, but it was difficult to get bookings on short notice. So we simply went without an appearance fee.
-Q: Why do the members enjoy regional performances so much?
-Do: I'm not sure. Maybe because the schedules aren't too demanding and they feel closer to the audience. So whenever our schedule has room, we'd like to participate in events like these.
Afterward, the fandom went crazy.
People demanded military bases be opened to the public, or asked us to hold an entire traveling concert tour.
I'd love to.
But there would be no more events for now.
We'd planted enough seeds.
Doing more regional festivals and慰問 Train events would only give diminishing returns.
It was time to think about other activities.
"What? Those bastards are completely insane! So what did you do? What did they say when you complained?"
Dae-hun suddenly raised his voice while talking to someone on the phone.
"Really? Anyway, good job. Thanks for telling me. We'll avoid that place too from now on."
The moment Dae-hun ended the call, Jin-hee asked what it had been about.
I was curious too.
"What was that call?"
"Ah. A friend of mine works at another agency. He said one of their artists appeared on 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉 this time."
〈Tribe of the Jungle〉?
Come to think of it, I'd completely forgotten about that.
There had been two things mentioned.
The fake act in front of engineering students.
And the incident involving 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉.
"Apparently that show does some really nasty evil editing. If someone frowns because they're exhausted, they edit it to look like they're angry. My friend said their artist took some damage from it this time."
Evil editing...
Jo Chae-won had exactly the kind of personality that could be destroyed by evil editing.
And now I was hearing that 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉 actually did it.
"Do you think Jo Chae-won has already filmed her 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉 episode?"
"If it's airing soon, probably. She posted 'so exhausteddd' on PeopleStar a couple days ago too."
Then it was close.
That earlier PeopleStar post wouldn't explode without some kind of trigger.
It looked like this 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉 episode was going to be that trigger.
And it really happened.
A few days later, the episode of 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉 featuring Jo Chae-won aired.
The internet caught fire.
-[Complete Summary of Jo Chae-won's Nuisance Behavior in the Latest 〈Tribe of the Jungle〉 Episodeㅡㅡ (Long Post)]
Just that one episode alone was practically an atomic bomb.
If this was all the result of editing, then the PD in charge shouldn't be called a devil.
He should be called the Hand of God.
The producer probably got angry too and put in extra effort.
Jo Chae-won climbed onto Kim Byung-min's little folding stool while still wearing her shoes.
She accidentally dropped another cast member's glasses into a stream, but instead of going in to retrieve them, she merely grabbed a branch and poked around from the edge.
Whenever they encountered a puddle, she insisted on being carried by someone.
She also remained fully made up throughout the entire shoot.
The scale of the hate comments under that post was ridiculous.
It looked like everyone was projecting annoying people from their own lives onto Jo Chae-won and relieving their stress.
Still, I didn't know whether this would be enough to remove her from 〈Jo Mi-won Snack Bar〉.
I'd wondered the same thing myself.
Would someone like that really cook for other people and even wash utensils covered in other people's saliva?
A huge number of comments were saying the entire show had to be staged.
But I didn't receive any notice saying the program had been canceled.
So I stayed in endless waiting mode until Na Young-hwan contacted me.
Eventually, the first filming day of 〈Jo Mi-won Snack Bar〉 arrived.
"Ah, Blue Moon did such a wonderful thing recently! I grew up in the countryside too, so I know exactly how it is. When a famous celebrity visits a rural town once, people there talk about it for months!"
"Hahaha. We simply did what we should."
So that was why they were pushing ahead with the broadcast.
Even though Jo Chae-won was getting criticized, Blue Moon was the first guest.
Apparently they wanted to take the risk and see if that could carry the episode.
The Blue Moon members came in behind me.
Jo Chae-won, who had been talking with her manager off to one side, hurried over.
"Oh my~! I saw your Hoengseong trip! You must've worked so hard. Was climbing the mountain difficult?"
"Huh? Ahaha. We didn't climb any mountains. We went comfortably by car!"
While Jo Chae-won and the members chatted pleasantly, her manager quietly took a photo.
Apparently they wanted to use Blue Moon's friendship with her to restore her image.
It was an obvious strategy.
Still, I would've appreciated a heads-up before taking the picture.
That part was a little disappointing, but...
Fine.
I'd respect it.
When things got difficult, it was easy to feel like everyone except you was your enemy.
I decided not to poke at her nerves and to be generous.
The filming location for Episode 1 of 〈Jo Mi-won Snack Bar〉 was near Hoegi Station.
Two universities stood right next to each other, so the neighborhood was practically half air, half college student.
The food truck itself was enormous too.
Calling it a food truck was almost wrong.
It was basically a food trailer.
The front section sold tteokbokki and fried food.
The rear section sold chicken skewers and shaved ice.
Jo Chae-won was in charge of cooking the tteokbokki and fried food.
Serin served customers in front of her.
Aran and Anna were in charge of chicken skewers and shaved ice.
Youngchae served in front of them.
