The last customer’s car drove away.
As soon as the filming crew who captured that scene returned to the shop, the official shoot ended.
“Waaaah! It’s finally over!”
That was Kim Bonggeun’s joyful scream as he flopped down flat on the floor.
“Haaaah…”
That was the sound Kang Chaheon, who had been standing just fine until a moment ago, made as he sank deep into a chair.
“Whew! Everyone, you worked so hard! I kept wondering if this could even work, but it really worked, huh? Hahah!”
That was what PD Han said who’d suffered just as much as the cast.
“What? PD Han, you kidnapped us without even being sure?”
“Ah, Mr. Bonggeun. It’s just how I’m saying it.”
“For that to be true, that relief just now looked pretty sincere.”
“Goodness, why are you suddenly talking like you’re weak? We’ve got a ratings cheat key sitting right here! It couldn’t not do well!”
Grinning ear to ear, PD Han threw an arm around Rowoon and Kang Chaheon’s shoulders.
‘The way she’s changing the subject… it really must’ve been an experimental program?’
Either way, the results didn’t look too bad.
At the very least, all the customers were satisfied.
“Why is everyone looking at me like they don’t believe it? I’m telling you, it’s for real! Just airing the part where Chaheon rolls up his sleeves and digs sweet potatoes will blow the ratings past a thousand!”
“True. And the part where Rowoon drags the PD along to dig potatoes will probably get an insane reaction too. You’re not going to edit that scene out, right, PD?”
“Of… course… editing… that scene out… would be wrong.”
After a fierce battle between her producer-self and her social-self, her producer-self seized the victory.
PD Han’s trademark was always teasing and needling the cast in all sorts of bizarre ways.
Of course, she didn’t pull pranks so harsh they made you frown, or deliberately set people up to suffer, so everyone enjoyed it.
But for the cast to turn the tables and get her this time—
For viewers who knew PD Han as the one who was always in the opposite role, that too would be a thrilling point of interest.
“Anyway, everyone worked so hard!”
“Great work!”
“You all worked so hard~!”
“Everyone, seriously, thank you so, so much!”
It had been a forced march that lasted 7 nights and 8 days.
Unlike movie shoots, where you could rest if there wasn’t footage to film.
PD Han’s variety show had a reality component too, so it felt like you were glued to cameras 24 hours a day—meaning you could basically say there was no break time at all.
It had been a hard time for the cast and the crew alike.
And with a large-scale project on the line where they had to welcome customers and make real sales, it was even more so.
“Great work.”
“Oh, come on. Rowoon, you’re the one who worked hard.”
Rowoon also bowed his head here and there, thanking people.
‘It really ends, huh.’
Even up to the moment he was kidnapped on the first day, he’d felt nothing but at a loss about how to do any of this.
Even though the first day of business had been a little touch-and-go, it still felt like a relief that everything had made it safely to today, the final day, without a single accident.
‘They really weren’t kidding when they said people will somehow do it when they’re forced into it…’
There were still some remaining shoots, like the after-party and an episode tomorrow where they wrapped up and left.
But they’d crossed the biggest mountain, so his heart finally relaxed.
“It’s the last day.”
Inside the lodging after everyone had withdrawn, leaving only the installed cameras.
Kim Bonggeun, sitting by the window and staring at the sky, spoke.
“I’ve never seen this many stars in the city. But here, it’s so nice. Just sitting and watching, it feels like the stars are pouring down. I think even after we go back, I’ll keep thinking about this night sky.”
He was naturally delicate and overflowing with sentiment. At Kim Bonggeun’s wistful words, Kang Chaheon recoiled in disgust beside him.
“Hyung, please don’t say things like that to PD Han, okay? If you do, we might get dragged back here again.”
“…Huh? Come on… no way…”
He denied it, but he couldn’t stop his voice from trembling at the end.
“You’ve never heard ‘no way is how people get taken out’? PD Han is totally the kind of person who’d drop us on a deserted island and still have more to spare.”
“…”
The funny thing was that no one could refute that.
“Ah, it’s cold. It should be about summer by now, but it’s still kind of chilly here. Let’s close the door and go inside.”
Maybe he was scared he’d get snagged by an observation cam, because Kim Bonggeun hurried inside like his life depended on it.
“Anyway, everyone worked hard today too. It was only three days, but running a business isn’t a simple thing at all. Seriously.”
“Worked hard? Hyung, you’re the one who worked hardest.”
In a 7-night, 8-day forced march, who wasn’t exhausted?
But if you thought about the intensity of the labor, Kim Bonggeun was undeniably number one.
“Yeah… I did work pretty hard.”
For some reason, Kim Bonggeun’s voice sounded wistful.
“You guys could’ve kept it reasonable, you know. But Chaheon and you, Rowoon… both of you kept taking orders right up to the limit…”
You know what I mean?
No.
Kang Chaheon and Rowoon exchanged a glance.
“Anyway. Come to think of it, people’s reactions earlier weren’t bad. So what do you think. Like I said, it was fine, right?”
“Yes.”
Kim Bonggeun, who had turned Rowoon into a permanent fixture of the kitchen and then shoved him out alone.
Because of that…
[Your Karma Score has decreased by 1.]
[Your Karma Score has decreased by 1.]
[Your Karma Score has…….]
Rowoon could see countless notification windows popping up all at once.
He always felt it, but a scene like this really did have something overwhelming about it.
Direct, tangible evidence of goodwill being poured onto him.
There was no way anyone wouldn’t be happy.
‘Honestly, I was worried a little. But it really was just like Hyung said.’
Countless notification windows that updated just from him greeting people.
Thinking back to then, he felt it had been the right call to take courage from Kim Bonggeun’s words.
It was true that, for a moment, he’d worried because everyone who saw him wore a dazed expression.
[Your Karma Score has decreased by 1!]
But the crisp notification sound that followed immediately soothed that anxiety.
“See? You’re glad you listened to me, right? If you listen to your hyung, you’ll get rice cakes even in your sleep, I’m telling you. Right—ahem. And did you meet that person who said they were your fan?”
“Yes. Thanks to you.”
If other customers’ conversations with Rowoon lowered the Karma Score by 1.
It wasn’t easy to forget the one person whose number dropped by a staggering 20 in a single go.
Rowoon recalled the letter she had carefully handed him before leaving.
The feelings packed inside overflowed and drenched Rowoon.
That careful, precious heart that had lost its owner felt unbearably heartbreaking.
‘There’s someone who treasures and keeps even the one second that could’ve just passed by. Lee Rowoon. What are you even lacking, that you ended up like that?’
He couldn’t understand how he’d gone off the rails.
Separate from the main body’s karma repayment, reading that letter made him think that.
‘If, back in Garion, there had been even one person like this for me…’
Of course, Garion had collapsed because the members caused all sorts of incidents and accidents.
But if there had been even one person who sent him a heart this overflowing.
…Would something have changed?
‘No. It couldn’t have. Unless we regressed to before those guys caused trouble and stopped every single incident that would happen in the future, maybe then.’
But there was no way something like that could happen, was there?
Just like before, he should let go of the thread he kept clinging to like regret.
And anyway.
[Current Karma Score: -1,010,489]
At some point, the Karma Score had dropped into the low one-million range.
Here, Gwiro’s role and the commerical work had contributed enormously.
‘What will happen when this variety show airs?’
Would it swing up and down violently, like it did during the Taewoon commercial?
Or would it move into a steady downward trend?
Rowoon was already looking forward to it.
Of course, to get there, he’d have to wrap up this shoot cleanly to the very end.
Just then, a staff member poked their head out into the second-floor lodging and shouted.
“Bonggeun, we’re going to grab your individual interview!”
“Yes, coming~!”
“Next is Chaheon. Rowoon, please come out last!”
The shoot wasn’t over yet.
The next morning.
“Wow. Why is getting up so brutally hard? Is it because we struggled a bit wrapping up yesterday? Thank god today’s the last day. If it wasn’t, I’d come down sick ten times over. Aren’t you guys tired at all? How can you go out to the fields even on the last day?”
Groaning as he barely got himself up, Kim Bonggeun looked at Rowoon and Kang Chaheon and spoke.
His gaze was one of pure horror, like he’d seen something he wasn’t supposed to see.
The two of them had woken up early at dawn and split off to the neighboring houses, and they were holding armfuls of harvest in both hands.
“It’s the last day, and there isn’t much left. And if we leave, there won’t be anyone to work in the elders’ place, either.”
That was right.
Over the span of just three days, in the vast kitchen gardens next door and next-next door—gardens that might as well have been full farms—they had, in the end, dug up every last crop that had been left abandoned.
Of course, whatever crew happened to be nearby at the time also got drafted and worked to the bone.
The prime example was PD Han.
So where did all those famine-crops they dug up go?
“The elders must’ve been happy. You sold out every single potato and sweet potato.”
This, too, was a sterling achievement Rowoon and Kang Chaheon had pulled off.
Some of it went out as complimentary service, but it mattered even more that everyone who tried that service menu bought armfuls to take with them.
“Then, in that spirit, steamed potatoes for our last meal? …Honestly, I’m too tired to do anything.”
And there was someone else half-sprawled out, saying they were too tired to do anything.
“Next time… we’re doing a farming project. That way people will learn how hard and noble farming really is.”
PD Han, who had been dragged out at dawn by Rowoon and Kang Chaheon and forced through brutal labor, muttered ominously.
“…”
It sounded like she’d just said something terrifying about making celebrities farm.
Surely, she wouldn’t actually do that, right?
Anyway, a meal after labor tasted like nothing else.
They finished even their last meal together, properly, and now it was truly time to part.
“Everyone, you worked very hard. Thanks to your efforts, I believe this has been, and will be, a great help to revitalizing the local economy.”
With the final wrap-up—settling the earnings they brought in and stating they would donate it all—the filming truly ended.
“I’ll head in first. See you all again in Seoul.”
One by one, they got into cars and began leaving the place they’d grown attached to over 7 nights and 8 days.
Just as Rowoon was about to get into his car, PD Han sidled up and asked.
“Rowoon. You’ll come out on our next variety show too, right?”
“…If you promise you won’t kidnap me.”
Rowoon answered with a faint smile, and PD Han clicked her tongue with a face that said she’d failed to reel in her catch.
“Tch. That’s not something I can promise.”
“Then it’s hard for me to promise too.”
“Ah, are you really going to be like this?”
“Yes. I’m going to be like this. If only you hadn’t said earlier that you were going to do a farming variety show…”
“Ah, man. Tsk. That’s a shame.”
And so, the 7-night, 8-day hardcore schedule that began with a kidnapping finally came down.
As always, he’d done his best, so now there was only one thing left.
Waiting.
And a few days later.
[Uh guys (0 people), a teaser for the new variety show dropped and this is insanely out of its mind?]
A post went up on the community where the users gathered.
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