“Are you a student?”
Sungjin knew from the intonation, attitude, and the clue he’d just heard who the protagonist of which keyword was, but he asked pretending not to know for the sake of progression. Then Sina answered with her head held high confidently.
“Yes, I’m attending N University Law School in New York.”
“Wow~. That’s impressive.”
Sungjin felt cold sweat flowing down his back as he gave the reaction she would hope for. He could see Sina’s shoulders rising as if telling him to hurry and do more. In any case, he needed to draw out some amount of footage here for the next savior(?) to appear, so Sungjin threw out the next question while reviewing the guidelines the writers had set before filming started.
“Isn’t studying hard? That’s amazing.”
When Sungjin added the conventional compliment, Sina smiled with a slightly proud expression.
“What do you mean. You just do it if you do it. You said you were Yoon Sungjin earlier, right?”
“Ah. Yes.”
The fact that she ignored Yuwon, who had instantly embarrassed her, and chose Sungjin as her conversation partner was so blatant that he didn’t even think it was petty or cheeky. Rather, that confident attitude combined with her assured expression was funny.
“Ah, I….”
While Sungjin lightly continued the conversation, Yuwon just sat beside him with his arms crossed, staring intently at Sungjin. Please cut here now and bring in a new person, please.
This painful moment was roughly resolved after another intense character appeared as the next participant.
“Wow! It’s Lee Yuwon! Wow! Kyaa, hello! Wow!”
Ah, this person. Sungjin recognized him immediately upon seeing him. He’s incredibly famous on all SNS platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and everything. He was a gay influencer and broadcaster whose live streaming eloquence was so tremendous that even people who didn’t know the queer scene well would have seen his clips.
Among people who broadcast primarily targeting that viewer demographic, many took on excessively sensational concepts or concepts difficult to advance to the mainstream, making it hard to appear on media like this, but he maintained a line that could work for general viewers too, so he was receiving good responses all around.
“Oh my, wow, you’re really so handsome. Hyung is really handsome too!”
From his voice tone, which was considerably high-pitched for a man unlike Yuwon or Sungjin, the atmosphere quickly became noisy.
“Ah, you… Nice to meet you! I’m Im Jiyoon.”
“Yes, nice to meet you. I’m Kim Sina.”
After the strangely awkward greeting ended, new faces continued to rush in one after another. As people gradually increased, there were new introductions and greetings, so it was hectic.
Thanks to that, there was no more time to worry about Yuwon, but his persistent gaze didn’t withdraw and remained fixed on Sungjin.
‘Why… why is he acting like that?’
Unlike his initial expectation, Yuwon seemed uninterested in the other participants. No, it wasn’t that he seemed that way—he actually just wasn’t. Even when greeting, it was only a few words, and he didn’t even give other participants a glance. Naturally, there was no proactively initiating conversation first either. Even when someone extended their hand for a handshake, he just stared blankly, and only sat down when the other party felt embarrassed and withdrew their hand. At this level, even for a celebrity, he’d be branded as a villain. I can’t understand what he’s thinking at all.
Sina, who had been Yuwon’s first victim(?), seemed conscious of Yuwon at first. However, after confirming that he maintained that stiff attitude not just toward her but toward all participants, she completely turned her back on Yuwon as if she wouldn’t care.
Only Sungjin, who witnessed that incident(?), continued the conversation while sweating profusely and being conscious not to create a strange atmosphere with the other participants.
“Wow, that’s amazing. That’s a field I’ve never tried challenging, so it seems so fascinating.”
While the participants showed off their accomplishments one by one, Sungjin repeated reactions like a machine. Wow, that’s cool! Amazing! Everyone is such attractive people! As he continued to respond while matching variations, all twelve people gathered in one place.
Finally, the time for full-fledged self-promotion had arrived. From here was the real start of the crisis.
***
About two hours later, Sungjin was chopping firewood alone in the backyard. Thwack, thwack. Each time Sungjin lifted the axe, the well-dried firewood placed on the stepping stone split in half and gradually piled up to one side.
‘How did it come to this?’
Next to Sungjin, only a few observation cameras were installed emptily. From the front of the building, far from the backyard, came the sounds of various men and women bursting into laughter as they chatted.
“Whew….”
Standing alone vacantly, Sungjin lifted the hem of the group t-shirt he’d changed into for easier work and wiped the sweat flowing down his forehead. The firewood Sungjin had to split still had more than half remaining.
This is harder than I thought. More precisely, the splitting itself wasn’t that difficult, but it required concentration to aim, so it didn’t seem like it would end as quickly as he’d thought.
“……”
Before lifting the axe again, Sungjin took a deep breath in and out and finished wiping the sweat that had flowed down below his chin.
So how did this happen, you ask.
[From now on, you will perform the first mission in pairs for a week of life on the island. We will match partners to perform the mission together.]
After all participants arrived at the meeting room, each participant stood up in order of arrival on the island and introduced themselves. Starting with Lee Yuwon who arrived first, Sungjin, Sina, Jiyoon, and other participants each presented brief backgrounds about themselves and their appeal points.
Of course, Yuwon was insincere this time too. As if showing Sungjin, he glanced down at him and spat out curtly.
‘I’m Lee Yuwon. I work as a model.’
The other participants’ reactions to his intense introduction were enthusiastic, but Yuwon himself didn’t seem interested at all.
‘Hello, I’m working as a researcher at N Electronics….’
Subsequently, revealing that he was employed at a foreign company alone among impressive people was very embarrassing for Sungjin. He’d never thought there would come a day in his life when he’d be ashamed of working at YUCAN, but since everyone without exception was boasting impressive educational backgrounds and careers, his own career looked too shabby.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t just show a completely unconfident appearance, so Sungjin also tried his best to plant a good impression.
‘That’s impressive.’
‘Really?’
‘Wow….’
‘Really?’
To show that he was listening attentively to others’ words, he endlessly spouted out reactions as if rotating them. Whether that strategy worked well was difficult for him to judge, but he could confirm it soon with the partner matching results.
After the self-introductions ended, all participants secretly designated their desired partner decided based on first impressions alone. Here, participants who confirmed mutual interest were matched with top priority, and those who didn’t were matched randomly.
What Sungjin chose was the person with the fewest words and quietest among the six female participants. Had she said she worked as a flight attendant and was taking a short break? He liked her calm and composed atmosphere.
Of course, Sungjin didn’t have romantic interest in her, but the other female participants were people who were scary even to volunteer to be partners with.
‘Hello! I’m Choi Yeonjin working as an academy instructor in XX-dong.’
‘Hello, I’m Seo Yunchae working as a resident in the XX department at XXX University Hospital.’
‘Working as an XX expert in the XX field….’
They weren’t just what you’d call strong-willed. This level of energy must be necessary to survive in that amazing industry. To the eyes of a timid loser like Sungjin, they were people who looked like a pride of lions.
That said, was there someone among the men that Sungjin could comfortably choose as a partner? That wasn’t the case either. They too were all types that fundamentally didn’t match or fit with Sungjin.
There was an explanation that you didn’t necessarily have to apply for a partner only to someone you had sexual interest in, so you could apply in the meaning of friendship, but he didn’t particularly want to do that. He was worried that it might look like he chose a man because he was gay.
So in the end, Sungjin’s choice was someone who, at least based on first impression alone, was someone he could be less scared of. And fortunately, Sungjin successfully became partners with her.
Does this person have interest in me? The worry like counting chickens before they hatch colored his mind for a moment, but seeing the reaction of the person who became his partner, Sungjin was immediately relieved.
‘Ah.’
She kept glancing at where other participants were standing, as if she had someone else who caught her eye.
