Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 256.2
The most chilling thing was…
That all of it was entertaining.
[Long ago they said that whoever captures the stomach captures the heart! A perfect expression for our second round.]
[The next competition is cooking! The candidates will compete to prepare a warm, nutritious lunch for the bride. And the eliminations… oh my, there will be two this time!]
It was fascinating.
Even cruel punishments, when paired with cheerful sound effects and goofy humor, stopped feeling tragic.
The eliminations inside the TV—made safely distant from the viewer—provided nothing more than sweaty-palmed suspense or hollow laughter.
And sprinkled throughout, the seasoning of emotion.
The pang of regret when a surprisingly likable candidate is eliminated. The satisfaction when a useless candidate who kept surviving on luck finally gets knocked out.
The pleasure of judging.
The absurdity and humor of the elimination methods.
The dopamine thrill that numbed the brain’s ethical and moral sensors, preventing them from activating naturally.
“……”
Eun Haje looked at the empty ice-cream cup in her hand and felt a brief shiver.
At some point she had naturally picked it up again, just as if she was watching a genuinely entertaining TV show.
A sharp tingle of danger crawled up the back of her head.
‘Seems high-grade.’
But nothing went wrong. The program flowed like a stream. It didn’t suddenly erupt into reality, nor did Section Chief Lee get brutally killed.
Eventually, five groom candidates were eliminated through various methods, the experiential trainees who supported them disappeared from the guest seats one by one…
And then it reached the finale.
[Only two candidates remain!]
[No. 2 and No. 6.]
The final match.
The camera showed the two groom candidates waving enthusiastically toward it, as if fully immersed in the program.
[This is the last round.]
[The winner will have the honor of walking the wedding road to meet the bride!]
The ceremonial hall had already been fully prepared for the wedding, gentle lighting and piano music flowing softly through the venue…
And then, a final-round challenge befitting the climax.
[The bride’s choice.]
Eun Haje unconsciously leaned forward toward the TV.
The camera turned.
The groom candidates stood at the end of the white-velvet wedding road, facing the officiant’s altar ahead of them.
There was still no one there.
[Now, once the bride steps out herself to greet the groom, the wedding will begin.]
[Whom will the bride choose?]
The camera once again showed the bodies of the groom candidates, full of joy and anticipation, tension and worry all mixed together… then the angle shifted.
A long side shot of the wedding road.
A camera angle that captured the entire venue, with the groom candidates’ profiles lined up on the right side of the frame.
A mise-en-scène[1] that made everyone feel certain they would soon see the bride make her first entrance, walking down the wedding road toward them.
And then.
[We begin.]
With a cheerful cue, a drumroll sounded.
Viewers imagined the bride and watched the screen with eager anticipation.
But…
“……”
o
m
.
.
.
the sound of the screen cutting out static screams black-and-white footage with magenta noise bursting upward strange noises wailing chewing sounds blood a gigantic hand a cut white fingers a blinking black screen fragmented scenes the sound of the groom being pressed and scraped across the floor between the fingers movement a frozen screen a connection an arm slipping out from the left edge
gone
the end
……
……
Eun Haje stood up.
Small drops of red trickled down to the floor.
A nosebleed.
“……”
She lifted her head.
[Congratulations!]
An empty screen.
The frozen camera showed nothing but the deserted wedding road of the ceremony hall.
Strange marks left on the velvet.
[It seems the White Bride was satisfied. Looks like she enjoyed a lovely time with her groom.]
A bright band soundtrack burst forth.
Applause and cheers.
[But many of you must be curious about what comes next.]
[Of course, we can’t skip hearing the final impressions of our last eliminated candidate!]
The ending credits rolled.
Your Perfect Groom :
Be Chosen by the Bride
Production Support / Braun’s Late-Night Talk Show
[We’ll see you next week, in a special corner of the Late-Night Talk Show.]
……
……!
A flash of lightning raced through Eun Haje’s mind.
A ghost story connected to Kim Soleum, a black-and-white broadcast, and then…
The host’s manner of speech.
“…Tuesday Quiz Show.”
She shot upright.
Eun Haje rushed to the phone again and called the agents.
This time with a far clearer purpose.
– Ms. Civilian? There are no unusual reports so far about Agent Grapes’s condi—
“Do you—”
Eun Haje wet her dry lips.
“—know anything about a talk show?”
– …Pardon? 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
“No, a quiz show. I mean… an old-style program on a black-and-white TV. Did Soleum ever mention or hint at anything like that? What’s it again, Braun…”
– Braun?
The agent reacted.
‘So they do know Braun’s Late-Night Talk Show?’
But.
– Are you referring to the plush doll Agent Grapes carries around?
“…What?”
– The rabbit plushie.
Eun Haje remembered instantly.
…That pink rabbit plushie Kim Soleum had started carrying in his front pocket at some point. She had assumed it was an item or something for mental stabilization.
And she had even seen him carrying a similar plushie recently.
– Isn’t that doll’s name Braun?
……
“…!!”
* * *
[Hmph. Not bad for a broadcast thrown together in such a hurry. The ratings were decent!]
– ……
[Mr. Roe Deer, what do you think?]
I looked around the wedding hall.
The few experiential trainees who survived, the blood pooled on the floor, the snapped joints, the scraped marks left by those dragged away.
Braun really had…
‘Completely… wrecked the whole place…’
Ha……
Note/s:
[1] Mise-en-scène – the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play. ↵
Salt Goblin
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