That evening, on the way back from feeding the cats with Minhyeok, Dansol and Minhyeok ran into the people returning from grocery shopping. They'd bought so much it looked less like camping and more like moving. Among the piles, he even caught glimpses of rope and an axe—things he couldn't imagine why anyone would buy.
"Sol, are you feeling any better?"
While Dansol was nosing around in curiosity, Jisu walked up first and spoke to him.
Only then did Dansol remember that Jisu had lied to let him sleep more. Feeling embarrassed that Jisu had become a liar because of him, Dansol hesitated.
"Uh… well…"
"Doesn't look like you're better yet. Hyung bought medicine too. Let's go inside."
Before Dansol could get his words out, Jisu took him by the arm and pulled him in, almost like he was snatching Dansol away from where he stood beside Minhyeok.
"Wait… hyung, but did you make up with Jeong Daesu-sunbaenim?"
"Huh? No."
Dansol watched as Jisu and Daesu unloaded boxes stuffed with newly bought items together. He said Daesu was trying to kill him, yet they were already working together—so maybe they really were close enough to patch things up quickly. Dansol smiled and asked,
"But I'm pretty sure I saw you coming in together earlier…"
Sensing that Dansol's gaze kept drifting toward Daesu out in the yard, Jisu lowered his voice as far as it would go.
"Uh… it's because there's a camera. Sol, this is really a secret, but… Jeong Daesu is actually a gangster."
"Huh?!"
"Shh! I'm the only one who knows, so… that's why he acts friendly to me. If word gets out, he'll probably try to kill me first. Sol, you won't tell anyone, right? Yeah?"
"Huh… yes! I'll never… tell anyone!"
Dansol was so shocked he almost hiccuped. Of course, there had been rumors that Daesu—because he looked scary and didn't talk much—was the son of a gangster, the sole heir of the yakuza, and so on.
But the Daesu Dansol had experienced…
He was hard to approach, but he was observant and took care of people. Dansol especially liked his acting. Before the program ended, Dansol had wanted to talk to him about acting at least once.
But for him to actually be a gangster…
Dansol's pupils shook.
After that, Dansol very obviously avoided Daesu.
Especially when Daesu sharpened a knife to cut meat Taeoh had bought wrong, or when he held rope in his hands to thread through hiking boots—Dansol would involuntarily gasp and scramble away.
'I should've avoided him without making it obvious… He definitely noticed, right?'
Daesu wasn't the type to miss Dansol's movements. Even so, he only lifted his left eyebrow.
—Did everyone sleep well?
—As announced yesterday, today we'll be going camping at Majusan, the pride of Chunmongdo.
—Scream! Waaah!
"Waaah!"
Only Jegal Minhyeok's lone shout echoed through Chunmonggak. The other contestants—dragged into camping despite having no interest—looked unmotivated, like people being hauled away. And it made sense: Majusan was a fairly harsh mountain for beginner campers.
Dansol, who had climbed it once before his regression, had twisted his ankle there and ended up in a half-cast for a while.
'Are you okay?'
'Hyung… I'm sorry.'
'You're so light I didn't even realize you were on my back.'
Back then too, Dansol had been with Yiyeon. The memory of Yiyeon sweating buckets while carrying him, yet saying it didn't feel hard at all, flashed through Dansol's mind.
—If we just go, it wouldn't be RO Match Survival, right?
—Take the capsule in front of you and choose your partner to climb the harsh Majusan course with. With Yoon Yeomin eliminated, we'll be splitting into teams of two or three.
As the show went on, Dansol found himself with more and more people he wanted to avoid: Yiyeon and Dohyeon, with all those sticky past emotions, and even Daesu, who somehow felt uncomfortable and scary.
With his eyes squeezed shut, Dansol drew a capsule. Inside was a black slip of paper.
—Han Jisu, Ma Taeoh, and Jegal Minhyeok.
—Lee Yiyeon and Yoo Dohyeon.
—And Joo Dansol and Jeong Daesu will climb together.
—Each team will have a different starting point, ranging from an expert-level course to "neighborhood back hill" difficulty. Course difficulty is random.
Dansol stood there holding the black slip. Who would've thought a black slip would mean his future.
Jisu looked dejected after checking the teams. As for Yiyeon and Dohyeon, awkward air was a given.
—Ah! Our staff have hidden voting slips all along the trail, so think of it like a childhood treasure hunt and collect them!
"Alright, pack up and get in the car by teams! If you want to reach the summit on time, you'll have to hurry, so move, move!"
PD Choi's voice rang out across the set, but Dansol's feet wouldn't move.
"Sol, don't get hurt. See you at the top. And don't get too friendly with that guy."
Jisu stroked Dansol's hair, sounding reluctant.
If he could, Dansol wanted to crawl into Jisu's backpack and hide.
"Hyung…"
"He won't hit you in front of the cameras. Keep your personal camera safe, got it?"
"Yes…"
As Dansol felt like he was being led to a slaughterhouse, a huge shadow fell over him.
His view suddenly darkened. Thinking maybe the weather had turned, Dansol lifted his head—only to find Daesu's savagely handsome face right in front of his nose.
"Cough… S-sunbaenim."
"Let's go."
Daesu slung the bag Dansol was holding onto his own shoulder in one smooth motion and strode toward the car. Having his luggage snatched away, Dansol awkwardly climbed in.
Since it was a mountain on the island, the drive to the trailhead wasn't long. But with Daesu saying nothing, the awkward air made ten minutes feel like a hundred years to Dansol.
"Get out."
"Yes…"
PD Choi didn't like overly staged scenes where cameras trailed them obsessively. Because of that, a lot of moments showed the contestants' raw emotions, and those emotional swings often became perfect fuel for malicious editing.
"So… here's the thing. This is actually the shortest course, but it's the roughest. Our camera team will follow only at the beginning, and we'll see you again at the summit. The equipment's heavy, and once the terrain gets too harsh, filming becomes difficult."
The assistant PD added the flimsy excuse and handed a camera to each of them. With backpacks and cameras made to hang from their necks, it finally felt like the hike was really starting.
Dansol tapped his awkward hiking boots against the ground. Before his regression, he'd slipped after stepping wrong on a mossy rock. Determined not to make the same mistake twice, Dansol followed Daesu's chin-jerk and started up.
"Huff… huff…"
It seemed the assistant PD wasn't lying—the slope that started right at the base kept getting steeper. Dansol, who'd been agonizing over what to say to Daesu, almost felt more comfortable now that he didn't even have the breath to talk.
But Daesu was calm, like he was climbing a neighborhood hill, and it felt like he was deliberately matching his pace to Dansol's slower steps.
"Let's rest."
"Haa… yes!"
Thirty minutes in, Dansol was drenched in sweat. Daesu handed him a bottle of sports drink. Startled by the sudden hand thrust out, Dansol's eyes rolled around in panic. His wet forehead and flushed cheeks fumbled helplessly.
"Th-thank you!"
"Did Han Jisu tell you?"
"Hng?"
"That I'm a gangster."
Pfft—! Dansol sprayed the sports drink he'd been holding in his mouth.
When he looked around, the staff who'd been following earlier were gone. With even crows cawing somewhere in the distance, the trail that had felt normal a moment ago suddenly felt eerie.
Daesu's forearms bulged as he retied his hiking boot laces.
"H-how did you…?"
"That guy's always like that."
"Huh?"
After tying his laces neatly into a bow, Daesu approached slowly. He exhaled hard, then dropped to one knee in front of Dansol and started retieing Dansol's hiking boot laces too as he continued.
"Every time I like someone, he says that."
Dansol's brain froze, like a paused screen. More than realizing Jisu had lied, what shocked him was Daesu calling him "someone I like."
Daesu tied the knot tight, just like he'd done with his own shoes, then looked up. Still staring down at the crown of Daesu's head with distrust, Dansol finally met his eyes.
"I'm not a gangster, and I'm not a yakuza's son. I'm the 34th-generation descendant of the Taepyeong Jeong clan. In English, people usually call me Danny. I played American football in school. I graduated college—my major was business administration. My family's all in the U.S., and my parents just run a small company. My younger sister's a pianist, but she also moonlights as my hate commenter. If you see nasty comments on articles about me, don't mind them."
"Huh?"
"I don't talk much because I'm afraid I'll say something wrong, but I'm good at listening. If there's anyone you want to curse out, call me. I'll say that bastard is wrong no matter what."
"S-sunbaenim?"
"I've saved up a decent amount of money too, and I still do two or three projects a year, so you don't have to worry about meals. Also…"
"No—wait. Wait, sunbaenim. Why are you telling me all this…?"
Dansol couldn't understand Daesu suddenly dumping TMI. Daesu had already said more than he had since the show started.
"Sorry… I just wanted you to know more about me than you know about Han Jisu."
Looking embarrassed, Daesu brushed himself off and stood, fidgeting with his earlobe. The tips of his ears were already red.
"I didn't want that guy to lie again and make you misunderstand me. If this was too much, I'm sorry."
Daesu was flustered too. Getting misunderstood because of Jisu's pranks wasn't new. Since Daesu wasn't greedy for people in the first place, he'd always thought it was better not to keep anyone who'd hate him over rumors.
Rather than defending himself, he found it more fun to spread rumors that Jisu was crazy for alphas and make him uncomfortable. Stirring up each other's love lives was a kind of sport for them.
Their tastes overlapped, which was how this all started—but the two of them had never once seriously fought over a single person.
"That's why I don't talk much. But I already did… I messed up."
But this time, it felt different. Seeing Jisu pull something like that with Dansol made Daesu impatient in a way that wasn't like him.
They'd already gotten close after sharing a room, leaving no opening to wedge into—and since last night, Dansol had been subtly avoiding him. Daesu couldn't stand how anxious it made him.
"Let's go up."
With his shoulders drooping, Daesu slung the backpack on again.
At some point, the small items that had been tied to Dansol's bag were now tied to Daesu's. Now that he knew Daesu wasn't a gangster, Dansol found him weirdly cute—someone who had seemed terrifying just moments ago.
He didn't know if it made sense to find someone so much bigger than him cute, but…
"Uh… um, sunbaenim."
"…."
"Thank you."
Looking at Daesu, who was as dejected as when someone had hit him in the face with a ball, Dansol broke into a bright smile.
"I was really scared you might actually be a gangster, so… thank you for telling me first."
Joo Dansol: Sunbaenim, then you don't even have tattoos?
Jeong Daesu: I don't.
Joo Dansol: Wow… I thought you had them somewhere like your back or butt and were hiding them. Then you've never hit anyone before?
Jeong Daesu: Outside stadiums and filming sets…?
Joo Dansol: ....
Jeong Daesu: …The locker room, once.
Joo Dansol: ....
Jeong Daesu: Twice…?
Continue reading up to chapter 40+ at Novelshub.org