“Wow, Cheonghyeon hyung was right.”
“Seriously. I guess someone who’s done military service really is different.”
The moment the loudspeaker announced that both teams’ flags had been planted, the members clicked their tongues as they watched the Special Forces soldiers sprinting straight toward East’s camp.
When the game starts, three from the attack unit will come to our camp. They’ll try to end this game within thirty minutes, before the attack unit and defense unit switch. So if we can just hold out for those thirty minutes, we’ll be fine.
From the start, we’ll go with three on defense and one on attack. But the spot where the flag is planted can’t be guarded by more than three. Hando and Sikyung hyung will guard the flag, and Yoonwoo, you defend by yourself. And I’ll go to receive the supplies.
But I won’t actually receive the supplies. I’ll stay hidden and keep shooting. The important thing here is that Hando and Sikyung hyung give all their bullets to me.
Seeing the Special Forces soldiers waiting for the supply unit from far away, at a distance where bullets couldn’t reach, they could understand Cheonghyeon’s words perfectly.
Hando and Sikyung held empty guns and cheered Cheonghyeon on with all they had.
The Special Forces team, seeing Yoonwoo defending alone, also shared their guesses with each other.
“Are they doing three attack and one defense too?”
“No. I can see two by the flag. Three defense, one attack. Looks like they’re trying to defend the flag as much as possible instead of going for treasure. For now, wait until the bullets come in. Once we really go into the mountain, the side up higher has the advantage. When Yoon brings the bullets, we go up then.”
But Yoon was going out of his mind from Cheonghyeon’s nonstop shooting.
He hurriedly radioed headquarters where the production team was.
“PD! Are the number of bullets you handed out as the basic set different for each side?”
“The basic five rounds are the same for both teams.”
“No, ha… that punk, no. That person already fired six.”
When he was in a close fight with him, Cheonghyeon had clearly fired four shots, and when Yoon hesitated in surprise at how he fired without conserving ammo, the fifth shot hit Yoon’s body.
He got hit with a five minute wait, but he was sure he could catch up.
But Cheonghyeon did not receive supplies, and before Yoon’s waiting time even ended, he planted another shot into Yoon’s bulletproof vest.
Yet even at Yoon’s frustrated voice, headquarters did not respond.
As the five minute wait was about to end, Cheonghyeon aimed his gun at Yoon again.
“Cheonghyeon! You’re not taking supplies? I mean, you’re not going on the attack? We came all the way down the mountain! Right now Younghwan hyung is guarding the flag alone!”
Cameras placed everywhere filmed them diligently.
Then, when the seventh rubber round fired from Cheonghyeon’s gun hit Yoon’s bulletproof vest, the radio call they had heard countless times from headquarters came through.
“Kim Yoon, five more minutes of waiting!”
“Why isn’t that bastard Yoon coming?”
“Looks like they’re fighting at the supply point so the other side can’t take supplies. Should we just go up without him?”
“No. They have three on defense and we only have two. If we get pinned up there with not enough rounds, we’re done. We still have enough time before the attack defense rotation. Let’s wait.”
But even as time passed, Yoon still did not come, and the Special Forces attack unit grew anxious.
“Damn it! What the hell is he doing still? Gyeongjun, let’s go check the supply point.”
“Yes.”
When they hurried to the supply point, Yoon was sitting there leaning against a tree, and Cheonghyeon was using the muzzle of his gun to scribble on the ground.
What on earth was this situation?
“Hey, what are you doing?”
When they pointed their guns at him, looking bewildered, Cheonghyeon smiled faintly and spoke.
“You know the attack unit can’t attack the supply unit, right?”
Just then, a staff member beside them spoke.
“Ten seconds until the waiting time ends.”
Cheonghyeon stopped scribbling, crawled forward on his knees, and fired a thump into Yoon’s vest.
Yoon’s black bulletproof vest was already stained yellow in blotches.
The staff turned the hourglass over again and said blandly.
“Five more minutes.”
“No, if he’s fired this much, doesn’t that mean he already received supplies?”
Speaking with a bewildered face, Staff Sergeant Choi Junggi’s eyes went wide as if he had realized something.
“Whoa, wait. Hey. East’s defense unit has no bullets right now. Run!”
As Cheonghyeon watched them run, he quickly grabbed bullets and rations from the side.
At that moment, an announcement rang out from the loudspeaker.
“East, supply successful at 2:21 p.m. As of this time, all members of East’s supply unit are now converted to the attack unit.”
At the voice echoing out, the Special Forces team turned back for a split second, their steps slowing, and in that instant Cheonghyeon fired at both of their bulletproof vests.
If they waited for five minutes from now, they could attack again starting at twenty six minutes.
The time left was only four minutes.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Cheonghyeon smiled and nodded, then, seeing the other members doing it, quickly asked the other side for a handshake.
When he saw Changsik glaring with his eyes wide from far away, his head already started to hurt.
I just want to live as a rude celebrity….
The game ended with East’s victory.
In the following attack defense rotation, Yoonwoo, now part of the attack unit, shoved all of his bullets over to Cheonghyeon, who was on defense.
And the other two attack unit members worked hard to find the treasures and won.
It was the second plan Cheonghyeon had proposed.
To use the same method as Cheonghyeon, the Special Forces attack unit also concentrated their bullets onto Younghwan.
But they failed neatly against Cheonghyeon’s scheme.
While Yoonwoo appeared swinging an empty gun around, pretending to be fooled, and tying up Younghwan’s feet, Hando and Sikyung were diligently searching for treasure.
The Special Forces defense unit had no bullets, so they could not attack, and because Hando and Sikyung kept shooting them into the waiting state, they could not even radio Younghwan.
In the end, in round two, the Special Forces could only watch East rummaging around in their front yard.
Once Younghwan grasped the situation, he ran straight for East’s camp, but there, a merciless bombardment from Cheonghyeon, who had a pile of bullets, was waiting for him.
At the exact moment Sikyung found the last treasure, the game ended with East’s victory.
“Cheonghyeon hyung! You’re seriously so cool!”
When Yoonwoo shouted and lifted Cheonghyeon up in his arms, Cheonghyeon smiled proudly and gave the camera a pretty smile.
Is that why they call it comradeship.
He felt like he would never forget this moment, hugging and celebrating victory together, for the rest of his life.
Cheonghyeon’s eyes curved into round crescents.
Meanwhile, Ihwa was biting down on her nails.
It was because Cheonghyeon’s text that had come at dawn did not feel normal.
“Ihwa noona, could we meet for a moment?” 04:45 a.m.
He looked like he was doing fine when I watched the reality broadcast yesterday, so what happened? There wasn’t any bad talk on the community sites either….
The reply she sent saying of course, still had not been read, or maybe he had not been able to check it, because there was no response.
She had heard there was reality filming today, so maybe he was too busy to see it, or maybe it was nothing serious.
Maybe it was just a message he sent since he happened to wake up early.
But the fact that he was a changed Cheonghyeon, not the Cheonghyeon she had known, kept bothering her.
She had believed that absurd story about souls switching because she had seen things over the past six years.
How could it make any sense that someone who lived as an unknown for six years would suddenly catch people’s eyes in his seventh year and gain this much popularity.
As Ihwa stared at her phone, a coworker tapped her back and nodded their head.
It was time to go into the meeting.
“Kwon Ihwa! Get it together. What’s with you today?”
“Ah… ah, I’m sorry!”
The senior who scolded the dazed Ihwa sighed again and continued the meeting.
A little later, when the meeting ended and that senior came over, Ihwa spoke first.
“I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for. What’s going on? Why do you keep spacing out today? Is it a guy problem?”
“It is a guy, but he’s a kid, a kid. Sunbae, please counsel me. Yeah?”
“Slacking off is nice. Let’s go to the rooftop.”
A little later, on the rooftop, after silently listening to Ihwa’s story, the senior summarized it briefly with a face like they had heard something bizarre.
“So you know two little punks. You were close with the one called A, and he went abroad. And there’s another little punk, B, who knew A together with you, but he doesn’t seem to be opening his heart to you. But at dawn today he suddenly said he wants to meet you? What, do you do volunteer work or something? Like… at an orphanage?”
“It’s kind of weird, but that’s basically right.”
“Hey, this is one hundred percent something happened to B! Where is it? I’ll go with you and get the full—”
“Ugh! Stop making it so obvious you’re a social affairs reporter. The boss, no, the director there is a really nice person too. Anyway, I’m worried to death something happened. Since we’re meeting, I think he’ll tell me the details then… ugh.”
“Well, you won’t know until you meet. Are you going to that orphanage place? Want me to go with you?”
“Go with me for what. We’re meeting at his place.”
“Oh. Where?”
“It’s that Hannamdong Riverview Town you know. Around there. Ah! Don’t lead me with questions! It’s seriously not that kind of problem.”
“He’s a kid and he has his own place in Hannam dong Riverview Town…? Are you sure the volunteer work isn’t him volunteering with you as the target?”
Ihwa lightly ignored the senior’s skeptical question, chugged the rest of her coffee in one go, then tossed the can into the trash.
“I’ll focus properly this afternoon. I’m going down first!”
At that time, Cheonghyeon, unlike what he showed in the survival game earlier, was showing an unimaginable side of himself in every game that followed.
“Hyeon hyung! Is that running? Hyung!”
The members, already across the finish line, called to him desperately, but Cheonghyeon trudged around the track with a face flushed red from exertion.
Under the pretext of an endurance test, the PD had suggested a long distance run, but right now Cheonghyeon had not even one gram of stamina left.
Cheonghyeon walked a little more, then finally stepped out of bounds and headed for the shade.
When the camera directors following him zoomed in on his face, Cheonghyeon forced out the words.
“I’m forfeiting… forfeiting….”
When Cheonghyeon flopped down in the shade, the members hurriedly stuck a straw into an ion drink and put it to his mouth.
Cheonghyeon, like an exhausted bee sucking up sugar water, said nothing and only slurped the drink, sip sip.
Once this week’s broadcast ended, he thought he should immediately create a few SNS accounts and manipulate public opinion that survival was not that great.
He should push the narrative that it would be better to do something like last week, just playing with a springy frying pan….
While making plans for public opinion manipulation, Cheonghyeon lay in the shade, only sipping at his drink.
Seeing him lying on the ground without strength, Changsik, who remembered Cheonghyeon struggling in the morning with what looked like aftereffects of memories returning, grabbed the PD like an overprotective parent and shook him down mercilessly.
In the end, at Changsik’s strong appeal, the PD said they would focus on indoor games in the afternoon and wrapped up the outdoor shoot.
The staff, exhausted under the blazing late spring sun, secretly gave Cheonghyeon a thumbs up behind the PD’s back.
Cheonghyeon too, slumped on Changsik’s back as he carried him, quietly raised his thumb and headed for the pension.
After opening the window and laying Cheonghyeon down so he would not get heat exhaustion, Changsik left the room.
It felt like he would have to press the PD once more, so that even the afternoon games would not be run in a way that was too hard.
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