In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Chapter 115:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 115

Holidays are for Family

The next morning.

It was the second day of filming for the Chuseok Special, and they were busy from the morning.

They were saying goodbye.

They carried the gift baskets prepared by the production team and visited each house to greet them.

“Oh my, why are you giving me this? I’m fine…”

“Hahaha! I have to wear this and show off.”

Grandpa Kang Moonsik laughed heartily as he looked at the clothes with Around the World With Dice’s logo on them.

They were all very happy, and some of them even gave them gifts in return.

Especially the grandparents who raised the black goat Daegil, they gave them a unique gift.

It was ginseng in a box.

“Ginseng.”

“Oh, this is what you fed Daegil.”

Grandpa nodded at Junghyun’s admiration.

“That’s right. This is so effective that he became uncontrollable and his personality turned out like that. If you eat this, you won’t be able to sleep at night. Right, honey?”

“I sleep just fine.”

“…Well, the effect may vary depending on the age. Anyway, this is good for men, very good.”

“Wow.”

The guests were amazed.

As they wondered what expression to make and looked at the distant mountain, a fierce competition began over the ginseng.

Maybe they were more enthusiastic than yesterday’s mission.

And the glory of the winner went to Heysion, a married man of five years.

Maxi smiled.

“Wow… you were in a hurry.”

“Shh, let’s just keep quiet about this. Please!”

The rapper with dreadlocks frowned and everyone laughed.

They finished filming and gathered in front of the village hall again around 11 a.m.

“Hello!”

“Good morning!”

The returning people greeted each other warmly.

It was only a day of filming, but they felt closer because of the hardship they shared yesterday.

Finally, the ending shoot was done.

Oh Hyungseok, a member of Around the World With Dice, looked at the guests’ tired faces and laughed.

“You all worked hard yesterday and today. In that sense, how about we all clap once?”

"Wow…

They all clapped.

“Hey, I can’t do this again if you ask me to.”

“What did you do, Teacher? You just ate tangerines.”

“Hey, you try being our age. Even if the head sends a signal to move, the body doesn’t respond.”

“And you got the third highest pay.”

“Ahem.”

While the members of Around the World With Dice were chatting, the guests laughed or cheered as they filmed the ending.

Woojoo also had a smile on his face.

But in his head, he was thinking of something.

What was it?

He felt like he had forgotten something important since a while ago.

There was definitely something, but it was buried under the bottom of his mind and wouldn’t show up.

What could this nagging feeling be?

Meanwhile, the ending comment was reaching its end.

The PD spoke to the members.

“Alright, you all worked hard today. Before we finish, it’s time to choose the destination for the next trip.”

PD Gu Jaeyong took out two dice.

The dice were made of soft microfiber material and were as big as a human head.

Oh Hyungseok took them and asked, “So, who’s rolling these today?”

“Yes, last night, you all voted anonymously while eating meat. Who was the MVP of the special recording?”

That was right.

“The result is out. There was a guest who received 10 votes from Team C alone and got the most votes. Yes, Woojoo from New Black, please come out!”

Woojoo showed a polite smile to the people who clapped for him.

And with a nervous heart, he walked out.

Hoping that no one would notice anything strange in the PD’s comment.

As if he read Woojoo’s mind like a ghost, their youngest tilted his head.

“Huh? Then, if our team was unanimous, Woojoo Hyung also voted for himself?”

“That’s right.”

“Woojoo, did you write your name too?”

“No, this is…”

“Wow, you were acting so humble until now!”

“No, I mean…”

They all burst into laughter as if they caught him red-handed.

Woojoo tearfully explained, ‘I didn’t think I could do it…’, but it was no use.

Woojoo stood in front of everyone with a moist eye for some reason.

“Can I roll it like this?”

“Yes. See the panel with the destinations? You’ll roll once for the tens place and once for the ones place. The higher the number, the better the place.”

The assistant director held a panel with the destinations written on it.

From 11 to 16, they were places that felt like they would be full of hardship, and from 61 to 66, they were foreign resorts like Boracay or Cebu.

It was when Woojoo was about to roll.

“Uh, wait! Stop!”

Yeo Heeyeon raised her hand as if she remembered something.

“I’m against Woojoo doing this!”

“Her tone is exactly like a father-in-law’s tone, I’m against this marriage.”

“No, you idiot! Remember. He also rolled the dice wrong when we did the basketball mission. Anyway, I’m against it! He’s the type who only uses his body!”

“Puhahaha!”

People burst into laughter at his words.

The PD also chuckled and said, “Yes, I’ll reject it.”

He gestured at Woojoo as if to roll the dice, and Oh Hyungseok, who was standing next to him, asked him seriously with a snort, “Woojoo, are you…”

“Yes.”

“A bad roller?”

“…I’m not a bad roller.” Woojoo answered, shaking his head. “I practiced a lot.”

“Dice?”

“Yes, I got a lot of curses for rolling the wrong one last time. If I add up all the curses I heard from my siblings, I could live until I’m two hundred years old.”

“Wow, your siblings were mean.”

Oh Hyungseok tried to console him with those words, but the others teased him with one-liners based on that.

Then their kids got angry.

“When did we curse at you? Don’t spread baseless rumors.”

“Don’t lie, Rihyuk. I remember every precious word you said.”

“I didn’t really do it.”

“Jiho, don’t you remember? ‘I’m never going to be on the same team as Hyung in Blue Marble.’ And Rihyuk said, ‘The probability of not choosing six is five-sixths, but it’s amazing how he chooses that one.’”

“…”

The two siblings became silent, while the other guests smiled.

Woojoo left them at that point.

Woojoo ignored Junghyun’s pure admiration, saying, ‘Wow, Hyung. How can you be so bad at it?’ and Bijoo’s subtle sigh in his breath, saying, ‘Don’t blame yourself.’

Woojoo continued.

“So I practiced rolling dice along with shoveling.”

“You practiced that too?”

“Yes, it’s my first time on a variety show…”

“PD-nim, let’s invite this guy again for another special. He looks like he would practice netting fish if we do a fishing special.”

“I’m confident.”

Woojoo burned with determination, looking as if he would do anything they asked him to, and the PD smiled and said he would consider it.

After finishing that talk, it was finally time to roll the dice.

“Okay, let’s see how well you practiced.”

“Yes, I’ll try sixty-six Hawaii.”

“You’re ambitious. Alright, let’s go sixty-six!”

“Can I… roll it once before that?”

Woojoo asked for the PD’s permission and rolled the dice as a trial.

Using his mimicry ability, he controlled his muscles.

He had simulated it by writing numbers on the leftover clothes boxes he ordered at the lodging, and it worked here too.

“Oh! You got a six for real.”

And then, for the first ten’s place in the real game.

“Wow, you got a six again!”

“…That’s amazing.”

“Do you think rolling dice is something you can practice?”

Once again, a single digit.

Woojoo pretended to hesitate for a moment before rolling the dice.

As expected, the result was 6.

The guests were amazed, and the members of Around the World With Dice rushed over, surprised by the sudden destination of Hawaii.

“Wow!”

“Woojoo, let’s go to Las Vegas special!”

“Hyung, let’s go to Macau too!”

Woojoo ignored the weird noises that he heard in between.

***

“Thank you for your hard work!”

Woojoo bowed 90 degrees to the other celebrities and the staff who were busy carrying the filming equipment or moving around.

Woojoo was excited when he was filming, but it was time to go back to being a rookie.

Somehow, the scene was exactly the same as before the opening, but the reaction was different.

“Oh, hi. You did well.”

“You guys worked hard too. Have a safe trip.”

The staff who had worked with them greeted them calmly, and they exchanged numbers with the celebrities from Team C.

“If you have any questions about rap, just ask me on chat. I don’t know much about your skills, but I can help you with recording mixtapes.”

“Let’s exchange numbers with me instead of this old man. I’m pretty.”

“Woojoo, do you have a phone? Call me when you need a body.”

They came to them first and asked for their numbers.

It was a noticeable change.

They were the ones who didn’t even look at them at the opening.

Woojoo didn’t know if they liked them as human beings or if they saw their potential after watching what they did today, but it was a good change.

They said goodbye to the people they had filmed with.

They watched the managers who came from Seoul greet them happily and get in the car, and they sat down at the pavilion in front of the village hall.

“Ah, when are they coming? Really, I want to go back to the dorm and rest.”

“Me too.”

“I hope they come soon.”

While the younger ones were lying down and chatting, Woojoo was still thinking hard about something.

What he had forgotten.

“By the way, who’s coming to pick us up? Hyung, did you say the director is coming?”

“No, not Seokhwan Hyung, but Minki Hyung…”

And then, the keyword Seokhwan Hyung reminded Woojoo of something.

“Ah!”

It was the dream he had last night.

The black and white ballroom where color appeared when someone entered, and the pigs played the violin. That melody.

It was the clue for their album work that he had forgotten in his memory.

“Hyung.”

Woojoo came to my senses when Bijoo tapped his arm.

“What’s wrong, Hyung?”

“I forgot to tell you something. It’s about our next track work…”

Woojoo briefly explained the dream he had last night.

It was because of the story he heard from Jiho.

They all burst into laughter when he told them the content.

Especially Bijoo, who held his stomach and laughed.

“What kind of dream is that, Hyung?”

“No, it sounds funny when I say it like this, but you’ll think differently when you hear the melody.”

“But, Hyung.” Junghyun said seriously, “You said it was a pig dream.”

“That’s right.”

“Then shouldn’t we buy a lottery first?”

“Right, Hyung. Didn’t you see any numbers or anything? How many times did the grandmother celebrate her birthday on the banner?”

“…Is the lottery important now?”

“We can use the album budget after we win the lottery.”

“Oh? That’s true.”

Should he really buy it?

If it was a lottery dream, he could make Kim Deoksoon happy.

Bijoo tilted his head and said, “I think it’s a sign that the song will be a hit.”

“I think so too,” Rihyuk agreed, and everyone looked surprised.

“What’s wrong with you? I thought you would say that dreams are superstitions.”

“I don’t believe in that kind of thing, of course. But I do believe in the composing ability. Think about it. When we made Something, Fireworks, or Night Sea. We always said they were hits when we heard the melodies.”

“That’s true.”

“That means there’s a high chance that this song will do well too.”

He was right.

Of course, Woojoo didn’t make the melodies for the first two songs, but he felt intuitively that they were good when he heard them.

As his thoughts reached that point, the expressions of his brothers became serious.

“Hyung, can we hear the melody once?”

“Wait a minute, I called Seokhwan Hyung last night. It should be there.”

Woojoo rummaged through his phone.

He also used an app that automatically recorded, so he could easily find the file with yesterday’s date.

He skipped the conversation part, lowered the volume, and played the part where the melody came out.

A soft humming poured out a monotonous melody.

“Wow.”

They widened their eyes and Woojoo said, “How is it, good right?”

They nodded their heads and were about to say their opinions.

His phone, which had the volume turned up to the max, let out an absurd line.

A drowsy voice, drunk with sleep.

-Seokhwan Hyung, I’m sorry. I’ll buy you a pork cutlet.

Woojoo sighed briefly as he blinked and saw his younger brothers laughing hysterically.

“…Fine, go ahead and make fun of me.”

“Pffft! I want to hear this again. This is hilarious… Huh?”

The youngest, who was holding his phone, gasped.

He seemed surprised by the letters that appeared on the screen.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hyung, look at the name of the person who answered the phone. Doesn’t it say ‘Jo Gyuhwan’?”

“What?”

It felt like someone hit him in the back of the head with the handle of an axe.

Woojoo felt his chest churn as he took the phone.

Jiho was right.

Instead of the three letters that should have been Yoon Seokhwan, there was the name Jo Gyuhwan.

“Hyung, does that mean you called the boss last night?”

“…It seems like it.”

There was a moment of silence.

Only the sound of crickets from somewhere filled the space between them.

“…”

And then, without any warning, the members burst into laughter.

Woojoo just smiled warmly as he watched them.

He seriously considered it.

Should he just kick them out and do the next song solo?

***

A Japanese restaurant near the HBS building in Sangam-dong.

Bzzz-

A message from Woojoo that said [I’m sorry…] was ringing on the screen, but no one was looking at it.

They were all focused on the sound coming from the phone.

-Seokhwan Hyung, I’m sorry. I’ll buy you pork cutlet.

The people who were seated laughed at that.

One side was the production team of HBS MTV’s reality show, and the other side was the production director of Lemon Entertainment, Jo Gyuhwan, and the manager in charge, Yoon Seokhwan.

The PD of HBS picked up a shrimp tempura and laughed.

“He’s really something, that Woojoo.”

“Yeah, he’s hard to control sometimes,” Yoon Seokhwan replied as he picked up a sweet potato tempura.

While the people from the broadcasting station and the management company were having a pleasant conversation, Jo Gyuhwan, who was quietly holding a glass of alcohol, asked, “So… what do you think of our proposal?”

“It’s great, amazing,” the main writer said as he ate some corn cheese.

“We actually only confirmed the format, but we were still having internal meetings about the details. We can’t refuse such a good offer.”

The PD and the writer, who had skimmed through the A4 bundle that Yoon Seokhwan had handed over, asked to summarize the story.

“So, you want to dedicate one corner of this reality show to show the process of New Black preparing for their second album? Starting from the part where Woojoo came up with the melody for the track.”

“Yes, everything from start to finish.”

The staff of Lemon Entertainment nodded and said, “We think it will be a very good story.”