Season 2: Chapter 4. True Nature (1)
What was the reason for your early retirement? He had very much expected this question. Nevertheless, Sang-Hyeon’s lips trembled.
“You know why you’ve become the hot topic now, right?”
Ju-Hyeok’s words passed by in his head.
“It’s because of your story. I told you. That story has power.”
Sang-Hyeon closed his eyes for a moment and steadied his breath.
“All the media contacting us right now are calling you for that story. If you respond to that call, you must retell that story.”
He had to tell them again and again like a machine.
Ju-Hyeok emphasized this many times.
“Later, you’ll become numb to it and it’ll be okay. I believe it will become like that one day. You can refuse it all if you don’t want to do it.”
Ju-Hyeok could only guess the weight on Sang-Hyeon's shoulders, so he said it was okay to not make a major debut.
“Even if you don’t go out to major channels, we can find a way to live.”
That was true. Sang-Hyeon didn’t have to advance to major channels. He could simply do personal streams, which was enough to obtain sufficient income. He could even buy a decent house if he continued like this for a year, but Sang-Hyeon shook his head.
‘So-Yeon would laugh at us.’
With those words, Sang-Hyeon decided to debut on major channels.
'Stop here just because I can make enough? Just because I can’t repeat one story? That would really make So-Yeon laugh.'
Sang-Hyeon knew that Ju-Hyeok wanted him to debut on major channels. No, for him, this was necessary. Not only that, but it would also benefit Ji-Ah.
Sang-Hyeon knew what it meant for others to see his debut on major channels. He wasn’t alone anymore. Others had helped him up to this point.
The CEO of Divers anticipated Sang-Hyeon would fly higher, so he suggested such an advertisement.
Fantasia had been supporting him from the start and Manager Oh also expected something bigger from him. That was why they gave him such special treatment.
Now was the time for Sang-Hyeon to pay them back.
“I had an accident.”
He showed a faint smile while raising his right arm.
“What? An accident?”
“Oh my god...”
“Really?”
As if they promised, the hosts all reacted the same.
“After winning the gold medal at the national championship, I had a car accident. It was quite a famous incident... because it was an auto-pilot taxi.”
“Oh...! That, that accident?”
Han Min-Gu was surprised and looked around at the other hosts.
“Do you remember that accident? When the first auto-pilot taxi came out ten years ago. It was huge in the news.”
The hosts vigorously nodded.
Kim True, a former reporter, asked with more interest.
“Were you the victim of that incident? I was in charge of that incident in the news.”
“Yes. Since then, my right arm... I can still use it for daily activities, but the chronic pain gets severe with anything more.”
In fact, it was a problem with the brain. Such details could be omitted though. It was difficult to explain and he wanted to end the story with chronic pain.
Afterward, Sang-Hyeon explained the story of his struggles living with his grandmother. How he continued to work hard on rehabilitation, but quit everything as he couldn’t overcome the limit of his right arm.
The story continued up to him joining Ah-Sung.
“Oh... You entered with a disabled person quota, but many thought you got there using connections...”
“Correct. At the time, the manager asked which would be better to say, between the disabled person quota or through connections. I chose the second option.”
Sang-Hyeon also explained the reason he chose the alternative.
— Oh...
— He worked in the company because of his grandmother.
— How can he give up the money and big corporation honestly...
— Really, my heart aches.. what should I do!!??
“Ah. Then you had no choice but to lie about your age. Adding two years for military duty.”
“Right. He didn’t want to say he was hired under a disabled person quota. Since he said it was through connections, he had to serve two years in the army.”
“Oh my...”
With this, the reason for lying about his age also came out. Sighs flowed out from the hosts and even from the production team.
— I’m cryinggggg
— Heal his right arm right now!
— Wasn’t the Archery Association supposed to help with this??
— His life was harder than I imagined.
— I just thought he was well off, so he started streaming...
After hearing this story, people who saw or knew about Almond for the first time also showed pity.
'It’s much better than last time.'
Almond felt satisfied with today's broadcast, especially the part where they brought up his past. It was much more natural than when he first brought up the story. He didn’t feel too nervous either. Rather, his mouth moved by itself and the words quickly came out.
'This is how you become okay with the past.'
Numbness, that expression was just right for Almond. It felt strange that the painful past became diluted like nothing, but the past would only remain in the past. It should have been like this long ago. It wasn’t a big deal since he said it out loud to everyone.
'I think I’ll get a decent amount of talking in the edited version too.'
Currently, Almond had spoken for about an hour and a half. His talk was about forty to fifty minutes longer than the idol guest In-Ho’s.
There was even more content than that. Almond didn’t know how the editing would be done later, but he talked a lot and felt relieved.
'I did as much as I could.'
Almond leaned back for a moment. He felt quite nervous because it was his first talk show today. Now, all the nerves had disappeared.
When he thought it was time to watch the others talk and pass the time, sobbing could be heard on the set.
"Oh my... Seo-Rin. Why are you crying again?"
The female idol host, Seo-Rin, started crying.
— Is Seo-Rin crying?
— Hey, are you crying? lol
— What the, lol.
Almond was a bit startled at her crying. He didn’t wish for this much of a reaction.
"Uuh... Uuuuu... I’m, I’m sorry."
"Oh my... Hey. Really..."
Han Min-Gu couldn’t say anything and struggled with the sudden atmosphere that went down.
"Anyway, it’s going well now, right Almond?"
"Ah, yes."
Han Min-Gu asked Almond for brighter stories, perhaps to comfort Seo-Rin.
Almond had already talked for over an hour, so he didn’t know what to do.
"Let's talk about the good stories now. This kid is crying as if someone's life is ruined."
"Um... Okay... So..."
Almond started sharing the rest of his stories about how he was laid off at Ahsung and how he started streaming recklessly.
'This story won’t be that interesting.'
From here, it was just a story that any streamer would have. It wasn’t that exciting.
Almond earnestly told the story of how he was doing well now, and the reactions to his streams were quite good since the beginning.
However, everyone reacted differently than he expected.
— Wow!
— Damn, he’s going for what he wants! He tried to buy a capsule with the money he got back from his security deposit for a rented room.
— Crazy
— Wow, I’ve never heard about this story, but there is something wrong with our nut brother!
Viewers found the story quite fun. It was his first time telling everyone how he started streaming.
“Wow. So your right arm works properly in the game, right?” Kim True asked in amazement while shaking his own right arm.
“Yes. There was no problem at all. At first, shooting a bow again was so fun, so I just continued playing.”
“Then, what was the first game you played? You must have played a bow shooting game, right?”
The story went on longer than he thought because the hosts kept asking him questions. To them, the story of a streamer’s beginnings seemed fresh.
“So the first game I played was the Kingdom Age. I purposely chose it.”
— Wow, Kingdom is on a major channel! Almond, you are the hero of Kingdom!
— Kingdom fans must be happy
— He mentioned Kingdom on Evening Wide, lol.
— Is Kingdom even being mentioned right now? Hahaha.
“Kingdom Age?”
“Ah, yes. It's not popular, but it's quite well-known among players.”
“Ah-ha, so you chose a very minor game at first? But did you hit the jackpot with this game?”
“Yes, about that...”
The hosts showed quite an interest when he talked about how he became popular from his first game, Kingdom.
For the first time in the game, Almond had shown everyone the conditions for a perfect shot.
While hearing the explanation, Han Min-Gu couldn’t believe it and widened his eyes.
He asked Almond again, “From the beginning? You suddenly achieved a perfect shot in that game? You discovered something like that?”
“No, I didn’t discover it. A few people already knew and there were rumors. However, it became a widespread fact because I could keep shooting perfect shots.”
“Oh my, the condition for a perfect shot must be...”
Han Min-Gu made a face like it didn’t make sense as he repeated the condition for a perfect shot.
“You only have one chance for a perfect shot and you have to hit right in the middle of the vital spot. If you miss once, it won’t work anymore. Does this make even sense? Can you shoot this anytime you want?”
“Yes, of course. That's how it was revealed.”
“Of course?!”
— Lmao, It's obvious to Almond
— Han Min-Gu is startled by his nut-like confidence every time, lol.
— It is true, so obvious that he can perform such skills!
“Wow. We have to see this now.”
In the end, Min-Gu even requested a short video of Almond playing the game. This took another ten minutes.
‘Isn’t it getting too long...?’
At this point, even Almond worried that it was getting too long.
The PD’s expression looked good when he glanced over at the production team. Also, the writers shook their signs and said to keep going.
‘The production team keeps ordering us to continue.’
***
About two hours later, they finally wrapped up the shoot.
“Wow. Good job everyone! The filming was a bit long today.”
Clap, clap, clap!
Everyone clapped for each other.
Roll.
All kinds of shooting equipment that had to leave the set filled the room. Almond went around and thanked everyone with a bow.
“Thank you for today!”
He decided to think of himself as a newbie here and relived those times of diligently doing his waist exercises.
“Good job!”
“Thank you!”
Ju-Hyeok also got up and bowed to the production team. Both of them recalled the old times for a while.
Meanwhile, Seo-Rin came and greeted them. She was probably the only person to come and greet them first.
“Today was really fun. Good job!”
Whoosh.
She made an idol-style greeting with a heart and bowed enough for her hair to fly.
“Thank you. You also did a good job.”
“Almond!”
Lil Grass jumped out from behind them.
“Today was sooo fun! I also stream. Can you invite me?!”
“Ah, I’m not streaming LIL right now...”
“Yup! Of course! Of course! Let’s do a joint stream!”
Whoosh.
Ju-Hyeok suddenly jumped out and accepted the offer on behalf of Almond.
“I am Almond’s manager, Kim Ju-Hyeok. I’ve been a big fan of you, Miss. Lil Grass. It’s an honor to meet you!”
“Oh, really???”
“Yes. I’m enjoying your new single, RPB as well.”
“Wow! Do you want my autograph?”
“Yes! That would be amazing! Can you sign right here...?”
Ju-Hyeok passed her a pen and asked her to sign his phone case.
"Huhh? You want me to do it here?"
"Yeah, of course!"
After signing the autograph, Lil Grass left the set feeling satisfied. She continued to wave at them.
After she completely disappeared, Sang-Hyeon turned to Ju-Hyeok and tilted his head.
"... RPB?"
"It’s short for Real Pussy Bitch..."
"... Oh. I thought it was something in Korean..."
"Lil Grass' singles are always that way."
Sang-Hyeon felt amazed by Ju-Hyeok once again. That guy investigated in such detail.
Sang-Hyeon knew that Ju-Hyeok's music taste was very far from Lil Grass.
"Lil Grass seemed the nicest to you, so I did some more research while waiting," Ju-Hyeok confessed with an awkward smile.
"Well, I’ll keep this though. It looks nice."
Even though Almond didn’t say anything, Ju-Hyeok showed off his phone case as if making an excuse.
"How did you know Lil Grass was the nicest to me?"
"Hmm? I just felt it. Why? Was I right?"
"Well... yeah, you’re right. Let's go home now."
"Sure, okay."
Ju-Hyeok walked toward the parking lot while giggling.
"Yo, today's viewer count was pretty good! It was about 130,000. This is really good for a live broadcast. Usually, it doesn't exceed 100,000."
"Oh..."
"Isn't Supervisor Park going to watch the show when the edited version comes out? It seems like you filmed a lot this time. Lol, it’s gonna be so fun. Hehehehe."
Ju-Hyeok made an evil smile as Sang-Hyeon softly laughed and followed him to the parking lot.
"Nah. Maybe not that much. That person will probably watch the trot (Korean music for seniors) broadcast."
"Trot? Hey, Supervisor Park is only in his forties. You’re too mean to him, haha."
"Really? He looks like he’s in his mid-fifties though...."
Ding!
The elevator arrived while they laughed and chatted.
"Yeah, Director Jang can’t do anything..."
In-Ho was in the elevator and suddenly stopped talking. He was one of the few who left the set early. Now, he was with a manager who wasn’t there before.
Ju-Hyeok started to think quickly.
‘What’s this?’
These two people, unless they weren’t stupidly talking and forgot to press the first floor until now...
‘Did they just come from above?’
They came from an upper floor.