He didn’t even want anyone sitting next to him right now. If a situation arose where everyone was reluctant to sit, he felt like he’d want to die even more. Because that was something Sungjin had experienced throughout his childhood.
“Now that everyone’s gathered, one, two, three, standby-, cue!”
As notified in advance through the script, a guidance voice flowed from the announcement speaker.
[The first night on the island has arrived. How did everyone spend today?]
The first to speak was a male participant who seemed to have had a quite satisfying day today.
“It was very good. Meeting such good people like this, and having delicious food in a wonderful scenery.”
His name was… Park Muncheol, was it? He was the person who introduced himself as a startup CEO. He vaguely remembered a history of graduating early from some science high school and entering a prestigious university or something. From the outside, he was a person living the life of a perfect victor.
So it was natural that there were many people around him. Among the participants who had initially shown interest in Lee Yuwon, there were several who switched their route to Muncheol, surprised by his uncooperative attitude.
“It was fun, right?”
“Yes. Thanks to Yeonjin.”
Harin, who had been Sungjin’s partner, was also desperately trying to strike up a conversation with him somehow. To Sungjin, this whole situation just felt like trials and tribulations.
People like Muncheol were the type whose energy got sucked out just by being in the same space. Because they mainly wanted to shine their own value by using timid people like Sungjin as sacrifices and stepping stones. It was the same now.
“Oh, Sungjin, you haven’t said anything since earlier, are you okay?”
This was probably an intentional situation, all the way to pretending to look after other people while shining a light on Sungjin, who was sitting in the single seat with a subtle smile. To show off ‘me with leadership that encompasses everyone,’ unlike that silent loser sitting there.
Sungjin, barely mustering his last bit of strength, smiled and answered.
“Ah, yes. Haha. I tend to enjoy listening to other people’s stories, so I wasn’t talking about myself.”
Even though Sungjin tried to deflect appropriately, Muncheol was persistent.
“You’re not upset because of us earlier, are you?”
“What? No, not at all. Ahaha.”
“Harin came over to our side, so you were alone in the backyard the whole time, Sungjin. We had so much fun, but I was worried you might have felt left out being alone the whole time.”
You crazy bastard. Then shut your mouth. Sungjin gritted his teeth inside. Why does he have to emphasize that in front of all these people and try to capture it on camera once more? He was clearly trying to give a jab while pretending to be considerate.
Sungjin barely took a deep breath secretly.
“I’m fine. It wasn’t that difficult of a task.”
Let’s stop this now and talk about something else. Sungjin didn’t want to fight with Muncheol. It was a competition where it was obvious he would lose no matter what. The other side was already a victor who had formed a group, and he was a loser who couldn’t even make his partner happy and sent her away to others, so what was there to compete about?
Yeah, I know you’re great, so please stop paying attention to me. He tried to let it pass with that hope, but Muncheol didn’t stop.
“If it bothers you at all, feel free anytime….”
Ah, this fuck…ing bastard. The moment Sungjin couldn’t hold back his cursing inside, someone intervened between the two.
“Well… I don’t think you need to worry about it that much.”
The owner of the voice was Lee Yuwon, who had been sitting with his arms crossed with an uncooperative expression the whole time. Why you now? Sungjin swallowed a scream inside. However, Yuwon looked down at Muncheol with an expression that was calm to the point of being slightly arrogant, smiling as if looking down on him. That appearance felt terrifyingly beautiful, like a scene from a movie or pictorial.
“What…?”
The moment a flustered Muncheol made a stupid sound, Yuwon let out a deflating laugh and sneered.
“I was with him in the backyard earlier. It was my first time chopping firewood, so Sungjin taught me directly.”
Then he looked at Sungjin as if to show off and passed the arrow.
“Right?”
Uh… if we just look at the objective facts, it’s not wrong. Yuwon joined when the work was almost done, and he didn’t really teach him properly either…. But in this situation, it didn’t seem like a good response to cling to trivial details and deny it. Sungjin nodded with a bewildered feeling.
“Ah, yes. Yuwon helped me together.”
In fact, Yuwon was closer to hindering than helping, but he wanted to answer in a direction that Muncheol, who wanted to frame him as a loser with no one to get along with, didn’t want.
When Sungjin agreed with his words, Yuwon added with a quite satisfied face for some reason, as if to say “see?”
“So… you don’t need to worry that Sungjin is being excluded or anything like that.”
Somehow it became a situation where Muncheol and Yuwon were having a battle of wills with each other. Muncheol showed a subtly uncomfortable look, as if he didn’t like Yuwon interfering, then acted a good-natured face again and spoke.
“Really? That’s a relief. Thank you for telling me. I’m relieved too.”
There, Yuwon didn’t stop and added one more comment.
“I don’t think you need to worry in the future either. Unless you’re interested in Sungjin or something.”
At those words, the atmosphere became strange. Didn’t it seem like he had marked Sungjin as his own?
Muncheol was the CEO of a startup that provided investment-related securities app services. Even though it was a startup, it was an extremely conservative industry. There would be people everywhere who disapproved of appearing on this kind of broadcast, so there was no way he could openly say he was interested in a man on a dating show where same-sex final matching was possible. That side was truly an industry where being homosexual could be a fatal risk.
Muncheol immediately backed off in surprise.
“Ahaha, it’s not like that. Anyway, it seems like you two have become quite close, so I’ll just cheer you on.”
Only then did Yuwon seem satisfied and snorted. So did Lee Yuwon just cover for me? Sungjin was bewildered.
What briefly lifted the settled silence was the notification sound heard from the speaker.
[We hope each of you had an enjoyable and meaningful time. Then, from now on, we will start the first night’s Heart Searching.]
At the same time, the screen of the smartwatch distributed in advance by the production team sparkled on their wrists.
[To whom will you deliver your heart?]
It was a notification from the app installed for filming progress. When he clicked the sparkling icon to activate the notification, a list of targets to whom hearts could be delivered appeared next. Cute dot graphics that seemed to mimic each person’s appearance were drawn divided into two pages.
“Wow.”
“Cute~.”
“Oh….”
People who checked the watch screen each let out short exclamations. Among the twelve-slot list, there was also an area where a gray broken heart was drawn instead of a person icon.
[If there is no one you want to give today’s heart to, please activate the gray heart icon.]
“……”
[Then please deliver your heart within 30 seconds from now.]
Along with the speaker’s guidance, the remaining time was displayed on the watch screen. He could see the seconds decreasing in real time.
Uh… Sungjin was flustered by the sudden request. He had never even thought about who he should give it to until now. He thought they’d at least give him some time to think, but his fingers froze because he was suddenly pushed from behind.
Who should I give it to? When selecting his desired partner, he naturally planned to give it to Harin, but the plan went awry when she withdrew from the mission. Since he couldn’t give it to a man anyway, he had to randomly choose one of the remaining five people excluding Harin.
‘Uh….’
Sungjin hesitated for a moment, then just before the 30 seconds ended, urgently pressed the gray heart without realizing it in his panic. At the same time a popup appeared saying the selection was complete, an ending sound rang from the speaker.
[The first night’s selection has been completed.]
Then a notification message appeared informing each person of the number of hearts they received. Of course, only some people received that notification.
“Oh.”
The first to react was Muncheol.
“It says three people sent hearts to me?”
At that confident voice, everyone’s attention focused on Muncheol.
“Wow….”
Starting from that moment, everyone’s reactions diverged. Although it wasn’t publicly announced who received how many hearts, only eight people checked their watches momentarily.
Sungjin’s watch remained quiet without any reaction. Well, since I didn’t make a choice myself, there’s nothing to regret, but Muncheol’s confident expression was a bit irritating. It seemed Yuwon felt the same way.
