However, Harin became an obstacle again this time too. Whether she had no sense of balance to begin with, she barely clung to Yuwon’s back and tried to eat the donut with her mouth gaping open, but she kept missing and got hit in the forehead and eyes by the donut doing pendulum motion.
“Ah…! Kyaak…!”
Due to colliding with the donut repeatedly, the sugar powder that fell from the donut in an instant covered Harin’s face. There weren’t many people who could withstand such primitive physical comedy even though they shouldn’t laugh. Jiyoon openly laughed again, and other participants were also laughing with their backs turned, shoulders shaking. The patience of Yuwon, who was holding on from below, was rapidly reaching its limit.
“How long do I have to stay here?”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Harin was almost in a panic. However, the more Harin struggled, the donut, far from entering her mouth, just kept hitting her face. Yuwon, angry to the top of his head, was soon about to throw Harin off. It was unbelievable that this was a dating show made to give butterflies, not a slapstick comedy variety show.
“Kyaak…! Ah…!”
Before Yuwon could throw Harin off, Harin lost her balance first and tumbled into the water. As Harin staggered, Yuwon also lost his balance and plunged below the surface.
“Haah….”
Yuwon, who barely came out of the water, shook his head with a very sour expression. The sight of water streaming down his body like a smooth marble sculpture was beautiful enough to make even heterosexual men stare in awe.
The only one who couldn’t properly appreciate that magnificent spectacle was Harin, who sniffled and got out of the pool. Yuwon seemed to have a lot to say, but as if aware that the moment he spit it out, an irreversible situation would occur, he kept his lips tightly shut.
“Heuuk…. Sniffle sniffle.”
Harin started sniffling alone, but Yuwon, standing beside her, didn’t pay any attention. In the awkward silence, it seemed like she was protesting as if to say ‘I’m crying so pitifully, aren’t you going to comfort me?’ but it was useless with Yuwon.
Eventually, another male cast member standing next to her tried to comfort Harin, but seeing Yuwon’s fierce expression as if asking what she did well to deserve comforting, he eventually turned away. The ambiguous atmosphere made it unclear whether this was a dating show or endurance training.
In that awkward silence, it became Sungjin and Suyeong’s turn. Before starting, Sungjin told Suyeong in advance.
“You don’t have to feel too burdened. I’ll try to hold out as long as possible.”
As he said, he was confident in the role of porter. He had moved heavier furniture, so he could easily bear the weight of Suyeong, who wouldn’t even be 60kg. Suyeong looked at Sungjin with a slightly surprised expression, then nodded.
“Yes, I’ll try to do it as quickly as possible too.”
And soon the challenge began. Sungjin stably carried Suyeong on his back, then strode forward onto the swaying bridge. It was a bit difficult to keep balance because the water surface was rippling, but it wasn’t to the point he couldn’t do it.
Thanks to Sungjin holding out much more stably than other cast members, Suyeong could also eat the donut without difficulty. They were the only ones among all the cast members to get through the mission without any particular incident.
Nevertheless, an unavoidable incident that occurred was,
“Ah…!”
Suyeong, who was lifting her head with effort, momentarily staggered and put her weight onto Sungjin’s shoulder almost as if sitting down. The problem was that the area that collided had a volume that made not only men but even women desperately try not to give attention—her breasts.
It was a situation that surprised Suyeong herself, but Sungjin didn’t react at all. It was natural. Sungjin wasn’t the type who could show sexual reactions toward women to begin with. Far from reacting blatantly, he rather worried about Suyeong. If he had been thinking of acting more convincingly like a heterosexual, it would have been better to show some embarrassment, but being absorbed in the thought that he shouldn’t cause harm, he didn’t think that far.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah, yes!”
Suyeong regained her composure and focused on the mission. As a result, they were the only ones among all challengers who could record a time.
“……!”
“We succeeded first! Wow!”
The record was longer than expected, but what was important was the fact that they took first place.
“Wow, we’re first!”
That’s a relief. Sungjin was sincerely grateful that he hadn’t become a burden. If he had failed to keep balance and dunked Suyeong into the water several times, he would have felt too sorry to even raise his head, but far from such a mishap occurring, they succeeded first. When Suyeong held out her hand, Sungjin smiled broadly and gave her a high five.
“Wow….”
Amid the congratulations and envy of other cast members around them, Sungjin and Suyeong moved to the special waiting seats prepared for first place. Now it was time to sit comfortably and watch the struggles of the remaining losers.
‘I’m really glad I wasn’t a burden.’
While Sungjin patted his chest in relief, Suyeong quietly looked Sungjin over. It was true that compared to other male cast members, his specs and job were lacking, but Sungjin’s visuals weren’t inferior. His personality went without saying even more. Unlike other male cast members who had been boasting and showing off since yesterday, Sungjin just silently did his work.
He was also good at physical labor. Of course, there seemed to have been a slight accident, but that was between the male cast members, and in Suyeong’s view, his overall impression was definitely that of a good and sincere person.
Sungjin seemed like a so-called boring good guy. What would be popular with women would be men like Muncheol who could be a definite trophy or celebrities like Yuwon.
However, as someone to seriously date, she thought there was no one like Sungjin. Anyway, she had more than enough money herself, and especially these days among young female consumer layers on SNS, influencers who went around with good-looking men who were economically lower in rank were more popular than influencers who dated rich men lacking in appearance.
‘Besides, earlier….’
Suyeong recalled the minor accident that occurred when she slipped just now. Even though that happened, Sungjin didn’t give her chest area a single glance. It was a reaction opposite to other male cast members who blatantly stared as if their faces were on her breasts.
Of course, it was true she was confident in her breasts, and it was true she showed them off to attract attention, but wasn’t it a different problem to only stare at someone else’s breasts throughout the entire conversation?
Suyeong was tired of idiots whose mouths hung open and only stared at her breasts when she wasn’t even going around naked. Sungjin was at least the only one among the men she met here who looked at her face, not her breasts, and worried about her kindly.
Yuwon was out of the question from the start. That bastard seemed not to recognize her existence at all, let alone her breasts.
‘Well… for now, it might not be bad to have some time to talk with him.’
While Suyeong was having some misguided delusion, Sungjin himself was making desperate efforts not to steal glances at Yuwon’s naked body.
As expected, he must manage it hard because he’s a model. His body was too good. He learned for the first time that white skin could feel not fragile but rather sacred under the sunlight. Even though he knew that entity was a scary person who could send him plummeting into the abyss, his gaze kept going there.
He was a top model and someone who worked overseas, so it wouldn’t be strange to have a tattoo or two, but Yuwon’s body was like a pure white canvas. That matched terrifyingly well with his noble yet coy face.
While Suyeong and Sungjin were sitting together yet thinking different thoughts, Yuwon glared at the two with fierce eyes. He couldn’t understand what was so good that they were sticking together giggling like that. It was disgusting to see him shamelessly acting like a heterosexual when he was someone who could get hard and even come in the hands of a man he just met.
Yuwon glared at Sungjin without giving even a bit of attention to Harin, who was shrinking beside him while reading the room. He wanted to quit this ridiculous proceedings right away. However, the reason he couldn’t was….
‘You. Don’t half-ass it saying you’re not interested in the date ticket, work hard. Who knows? Someone else might like Sungjin and take him as their date ticket partner.’
It was because of what Yurim had said provocatively when he called Yuwon before assembly time.
Of course, Yurim didn’t say it truly thinking Sungjin would become a popular guy either. The female cast members’ interest was already focused on male cast members with better jobs.
Among the people gathered here, Sungjin had the most insignificant job. There was Harin, who was practically unemployed, but considering Harin’s SNS follower count, she should actually be seen as an influencer, and Sungjin wasn’t such a celebrity.
