"Sion, is this how I’m supposed to do it?"

"Y-yeah···."

"Oh, so that’s how it works. This game is really easy."

The bright expression of one girl, and in complete contrast, the expression of another girl who had shriveled up.

'Kaella’s actually really good.'

Kim Youngsu, newly appointed as the head of SY’s content team, watched the scene and couldn’t hide his admiration.

-Haan-dong tour? Isn’t this KJ trying to screw us over?!

Before today’s content shoot, Youngsu had actually been in a pretty bad mood.

And understandably so. The day-off content for Kaella they had originally planned had somehow been corrupted into a Haan-dong tour.

But just as ratings were skill for a broadcasting PD, for people like Youngsu who planned YouTube content, views were skill.

From that standpoint, just having Lee Sion appear practically guaranteed views, so regardless of what the original concept had been, Youngsu had no choice but to accept the Haan-dong tour Lee Sion had proposed.

VYNNIA’s YouTube channel had already failed to get much of a response so far, despite how ambitiously SY had backed it.

In a situation like this, if Youngsu stubbornly insisted on his own plan being ignored, the one who’d get thrown out would be him.

'That can’t happen.'

As someone who had originally been a PD at a major YouTube channel before moving over on better terms, Youngsu had no intention of giving up such a stable job.

So from one angle, it might have been humiliating for him as content team lead, but despite his complaints, he was still filming Lee Sion’s Haan-dong outing content.

However—

"Sion! Get your head in the game! I’m ganking right now."

"Uh··· no, I mean! Right now I—"

"What are you doing? Throw something!"

"Yes, ma’am!"

Right now, he was completely satisfied.

'This is better than Garosu-gil!'

At first, just as Kaella had suggested, Youngsu had planned to go to some trendy hotspot and film ordinary content like cafés, mukbang, and shopping.

But after coming to Haan-dong and filming Lee Sion and Kaella, he realized just how stupid that idea had been.

If they had done that, it might really have ended up as the kind of predictable self-made content only fans watched.

Starting with the elementary school Lee Sion suddenly introduced as a landmark because she had graduated from it, and then every place they passed, with Lee Sion introducing the incidents and accidents she had caused there as though they were great heroic achievements.

Every single story sounded suspiciously lacking in credibility, but somehow, once you started listening, they pulled you in.

And that wasn’t all.

This time, saying she would show them her hideout, she suddenly led Kaella and the filming crew to a PC bang and started playing Legend of Valley.

'But she’s unbelievably bad.'

Lee Sion’s original goal had clearly seemed to be teaching Kaella how to play the game, but before anyone knew it, the relationship had reversed and Lee Sion was being bossed around by Kaella.

-Sion, are you intentionally not taking those things called minions?

-···No.

-Then let’s try paying a little more attention and getting them. Hitting the other side is important too, but from what I can see, I think taking minions is important in this game. You get money when you hit them, right?

-···Yeah.

Even now, whenever Kaella said something to Lee Sion, Sion followed her orders like a new recruit with discipline drilled deep into the bones.

Youngsu was flustered, and Lee Sion too seemed flustered by Kaella’s unexpectedly strong gaming skill.

"That was more fun than I expected."

"···Yeah."

"Do you want to keep playing?"

"No, should we start heading out to eat or something?"

"Oh, right. It’s already lunchtime."

Once the game wrapped up like that, Lee Sion, her lips sticking out just slightly, suggested they move on to the next place.

"What’s the best place to eat here?"

"Hmm··· the place I recommend is the giant dumpling shop."

"Giant dumplings?"

"Yep. One costs 1,000 won. Very good value."

"It is cheap··· but do we really have to eat that right now?"

"You have a picky palate."

By now it was well past noon, so after leaving the PC bang, Kaella and Lee Sion started discussing what to eat for lunch.

'She’s eating again?'

Youngsu clearly remembered what had happened earlier at the PC bang after Lee Sion heard that SY would be covering all the expenses for the day.

She had put on a full-blown mukbang show.

She ate so fast it was unbelievable. One bite of a hot bar, then click-click on the keyboard.

One forkful of ramen, then click-click on the mouse again.

The whole sequence in the middle, taking a sip of her drink while ordering new food, had been so smooth it almost looked like Asura from legend, the one with six arms, had overlapped over her.

How else could you explain the staff watching Lee Sion’s mukbang unconsciously swallowing hard and rubbing their stomachs?

Even Kaella, who was famous for barely eating, had ordered a cup ramen and finished the whole thing.

But even after eating like that, as though it still wasn’t enough, Lee Sion scanned the street with razor-sharp eyes, and it seemed her radar had finally detected a restaurant.

"There’s a snack cart next to that building over there. That place is excellent."

"A snack cart?"

"Yeah. They sell tteokbokki and fried snacks, and the prices are shocking. You get three pieces of fried food for 1,000 won."

"Wow, that’s really cheap."

"Right? I owed that place a lot back in my student days."

Following Lee Sion, the filming crew soon arrived at a fairly large snack cart in an alley between buildings.

"Auntie!"

"Oh my, isn’t that Sion? Why’s it been so long! I heard you became an idol! It’s hard enough just seeing your face now!"

"A lot happened in the meantime. Nothing going on these days, right?"

"Nothing much. Ever since you chewed out all those punks who used to smoke here, trash like that doesn’t even come near the place anymore."

"I have to protect my own territory. Oh, right! I came with a friend today, so give us the usual."

"Your friend’s pretty too. Sit here and wait a bit, I’ll fry up a fresh batch for you."

"Yesss."

After casually chatting with the owner of the snack cart, Lee Sion naturally took a seat, with Kaella sitting beside her.

"The fried snacks here are cheap and good. Auntie’s generous too, you know?"

"Yeah, it looks that way."

The snack cart owner accepted the request for "the usual," which at first glance almost sounded like entitled behavior, far too naturally, while Lee Sion, as if this were her own living room, lounged with one arm draped over the table and casually scooped up fish cake broth to drink.

'Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?'

Watching the entire sequence, Youngsu was briefly reminded of some character from a drama, wearing a fedora and a suit while the tails of a coat billowed behind.

He had so many questions, but since he couldn’t cut in, all he could do was watch.

Then, after swallowing his curiosity and waiting a little, tteokbokki, sundae, and all kinds of fried snacks were set down in front of Lee Sion and Kaella.

Gulp.

Since they had just been made, steam rose off them in thick curls, naturally stimulating the appetite.

"The filming team should eat too. There’s seating inside, so go ahead and sit down. Since you came all the way to Haan-dong, I should treat my guests properly."

"That’s right! These young people have to eat too. Sit here! I’ll get your food right out."

Even Mount Geumgang is best after a meal.

Normally, since they were filming, Youngsu would never have put down the camera no matter what, but this time, he decided to accept the offer.

***

"The bookstore is huge!"

"One of Haan-dong’s prides."

Since I was in an extremely good mood after eating a proper hometown meal for the first time in a while, I decided to specially introduce Kaella to Yeongdong Bookstore.

Yeongdong Bookstore, the large bookstore in the basement level of the building, wasn’t somewhere I personally liked very much, but it was pretty popular with girls.

Starting with cute stationery, it sold all kinds of writing supplies, books, and even music albums.

Sure enough, I remembered my friends liking it, so I introduced it to Kaella too, and she was happily looking around from place to place, completely absorbed in shopping.

'What a shame.'

Since CEO Kim Sanghyeok and Producer Raon had begged me not to bring up any episodes unsuitable for broadcast, there were a lot of stories I had kept hidden.

For example, the Hail-Cheolsan War during my Hail Elementary days was a perfect example.

For some reason, Hail Elementary sat in a place that was truly a battlefield of blood and sweat. Neighboring it was Jinseong High, and across the road from it were Cheolsan Elementary and Cheolsan Middle.

-This is Cheolsan Elementary territory!

-Wherever I go is Hail Elementary territory.

The fierce, milk-scented war between Hail Elementary and Cheolsan Elementary over regional dominance.

When they got pushed back by the guards under my command, they had cowardly called in reinforcement from their older brothers at Cheolsan Middle, so it had been quite a hard-fought battle. Thinking back on those innocent memories made me nostalgic.

And after that, the Haan-dong Unification War that broke out in middle school because of that bitter grudge was practically a movie in itself.

I wanted to tell Kaella those stories too, but they definitely weren’t the kind of stories you told in front of a camera, so I held myself back.

"Sion! Look over here, our albums are here too."

"Ohh."

Kaella’s voice pulled me out of my brief immersion in old memories.

She was making a big fuss saying our albums were there, so when I headed over to her, I saw our albums on display in the music section.

"Looks like we sold more."

"No we didn’t! It’s basically the same!"

"Hmm··· next time we’ll beat you by double."

"What? Next time we’re going to win!"

There {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} really was a reason my settlement check had been so fat.

Compared to the other albums, the remaining quantities of Iam and VYNNIA albums were noticeably lower.

Sadly, there were slightly more LYNX albums left than ours.

"Please don’t edit this out. Be sure to air it. Are you watching, Esther?"

Since I couldn’t miss an opportunity like this, I recorded a mocking video message for Esther, the leader of LYNX.

"Come to think of it, aren’t you busy?"

"Hm?"

"I saw an article saying your comeback schedule was out."

"Oh, yeah, I really have been busy lately with recording and choreography."

"And you still came out for this?"

I nodded at Kaella’s words.

'More accurately, I escaped.'

Preparations for our comeback were steadily moving forward.

Ever since the new song, "Black Pearl," had been completed, starting with recording— 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

-This choreography is something I got from an acquaintance in the U.S. The demo alone cost 100 million won, so everyone give it your all while learning it.

As if the company had fully made up its mind, they had even brought in choreography worth a full 100 million won, and we were in the middle of learning it.

How shocked I’d been when I first heard the price.

But once I saw the choreography, I understood without meaning to that it really was worth that much.

For Black Pearl, which had become a single song by combining two tracks, the choreography too had been built with a fresh structure where the feeling shifted dramatically by part.

Not only were there movements tailored to the story of the lyrics, taking into account the lyric writing Shinyu had attached, but the talk about showing difficult group choreography this time clearly hadn’t been an exaggeration, with relentless irregular movement paths and rapid formation changes.

-The song itself has a complicated structure, so the choreography also mixes straight beats and offbeats. It has to snap quickly, then connect into the next part.

Each movement was so fast and precise that even the slightest mistake showed immediately, so it was choreography that demanded tremendous mastery.

Thanks to that, for the last few days the dorm had been little more than a place for me and the Iam members to wash and change clothes, while we spent most of our lives in the practice room.

"I think Ryu Ayeon has finally gone insane."

"Ayeon?"

"Yeah. There’s madness in her eyes these days."

Of course, if that were all, I wouldn’t have gone so far as to use this shoot as an excuse to run away.

-Shinyu, should we do this part one more time?

-Can we rest just a little—

-Ending it with can we means that wasn’t a suggestion.

-Aaaagh!! Save me, Sion!

Ever since the choreography was revealed, a demon had been living in our practice room.

'To think I’d lose on stamina.'

Even in my past life, I’d been confident in stamina, enough to finish a march without once taking off a full combat pack, but Ryu Ayeon in madness mode had surpassed me.

Not because Ayeon had better stamina, but because Ayeon was exhausted too and still just got so excited by dancing that Ayeon couldn’t contain it.

If Raon hadn’t held things back, Ayeon might have danced for twenty-four straight hours without even eating.

Anyway, Ryu Ayeon in that possessed state was hard for even me to handle.

Making us practice brutally, I could somehow endure.

-Lee Sion, let’s go get Im Yunkyung.

-Huh? Yunkyung said Yunkyung was going to the bathroom.

-It’s been over four minutes and thirty seconds since Yunkyung went. That’s desertion.

-···

At first, even I had immersed myself in practice under the great cause of putting on a better performance, helping Ryu Ayeon drag back members trying to escape.

'At this point, they’re at the limit.'

As far as I could see, the members’ fatigue had piled up to the breaking point.

-Let’s squeeze Jaejun into this vacation.

-Jaejun, sir? Did something happen?

-The look on this kid’s face is bad. A little fresh air will probably help.

One of the most necessary stats when you were a company commander was knowing the timing for when to tighten and when to loosen the reins.

No matter how important the mission, if you rolled people nonstop without giving them a break, accidents happened instead.

Proper rest was necessary at the right time.

Which was why today, with tears in my eyes, I had no choice but to come out after helping the members tie Ryu Ayeon to a blanket in the dorm.

-Today I’m not doing anything. I’m just going to sleep.

-I want to go to the sauna.

-I’m going too!

Thanks to that, the other members had been granted a sweet time of rest.

Even now, I vividly remembered the expression on Ryu Ayeon’s face before I left the dorm.

-Why··· do you hate practicing? Practicing makes you better, and that’s a good thing!

-You’ve lost the human heart, Ryu goblin.

After Seo Ryujin got possessed by the spirit of no-fun, now Ryu Ayeon had gotten possessed by the spirit of practice.

At this rate, the dorm’s feng shui had to be bad, and I was starting to think I ought to find a really powerful shaman sometime soon.

"I’ll buy that for you."

"Huh? No, you don’t have to."

"Now, now. If I invite a guest to Haan-dong and don’t even treat them properly, people will say, 'Did you come from Seoul or something?'"

Anyway, while I was lost in thoughts about comeback preparations, I realized Kaella had finished shopping and was holding an armful of things, so I paid for them instead.

"Thanks. I’m really going to use these well."

"Pay me back big later."

Once the Yeongdong Bookstore tour was over too, it was about time to start wrapping things up.

"Then should we go to a café for the last stop?"

"There’s a Starbucks just a little farther ahead. Let’s get a drink there and call it a day."

"Where on earth did you learn to talk like that?"

"What’s wrong with how I talk?"

"···Nothing. Let’s go."

Kaella seemed like she had something she wanted to say, but then simply headed toward Starbucks with me.

'This place used to be pretty rough back in the day.'

We cut into a side alley for a shortcut, and the wild Pokémon I used to run into here all the time came back to mind.

Before I conquered Haan-dong, there had been quite a few punk groups hanging around in alleys like these, shaking people down.

But now it was still early, and it wasn’t easy to run into people like that anymore, so surely there was no way we’d actually cross paths with any.