WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ Incarnation of the Malevolent Star ◈
Chapter 80: Part 1 - Whispers of the Dark Brother (80)
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#80.
Legal Hunter did not name the network variety show that everyone knew.
There was no need to. How many network variety shows could he confidently say everyone knew?
Only two or so would come all the way out to a backwater village like this to film.
To the seasoned rookie idols, either one would have been equally incredible.
“Wow...!”
Sorin, the second oldest, gaped in surprise before asking in disbelief.
“Surely, surely, surely! Is Onik joining that show as a regular member?”
Online streamers were appearing on network television more and more often these days.
Usually, they got their start as guests or panelists, but sometimes they were chosen as regular members from the outset.
For seasonal programs produced by studios affiliated with network broadcasters and released through streaming services, it was not uncommon for streamers to take a leading role on their own.
That decision was not made based solely on each streamer’s talent and ability.
For network broadcasters troubled by ever-declining ratings, drawing online streamers’ viewers over to television was an attractive option.
There was no rule saying network television had to keep surrendering viewers to online broadcasts.
So Sorin was not getting ahead of herself.
The manager and producer, who had only been listening from a short distance away, also flinched, his eyes lighting up.
But Legal Hunter shook his head with a smile.
“Oh, no. It isn’t that.”
“It isn’t?”
“Yes. Our uncle may be doing well with online broadcasts lately, but to those high-and-mighty broadcaster folks, he isn’t even a rookie yet.
“Besides, the age gap between him and the existing members is far too large.”
“Ah. Then as a guest...?”
“Something like that.”
Legal Hunter shrugged.
“Even if the broadcaster offered us something extraordinary, we couldn’t accept it.”
“Why not?”
“It would interfere too much with his studies. If we snapped it up just because the terms were good, my great-uncle wouldn’t let it pass.
“Would it be right for a man my age to get caned? Hahaha!”
“That’s true...”
Sorin nodded in understanding.
“Unlike online broadcasts, you can’t set your own schedule...
“If they filmed even once, he’d have to miss at least two days of school. And if there was a script, he’d need separate time to prepare...”
Yesul, the third oldest, joined in.
“You said Onik would be something like a guest. Something like? What does that mean?”
“For this shoot, Onik will play the Wall of Wailing.”
“The Wall of Wailing?”
“Yes. An opponent the cast members have to overcome in a mission competition. It seems their producer was impressed by Beat Onik! while reviewing possible cast members...
“Ah, isn’t it exciting? Just imagining the despair the cast members will feel makes me full without eating. Heh heh heh.”
“Ahaha...”
Everyone except Onik agreed with Legal Hunter.
No matter what sort of competition it was, they simply could not imagine the extraordinary boy Jo Onik losing to anyone.
Mina, the youngest, had been listening with an expression that said, Maybe? Surely not? Then she deflated like a balloon, letting out a soft sigh.
“I was hoping we might be able to tag along somehow, even for a little while. But that probably won’t happen, right?”
Legal Hunter grinned.
“Showing your faces should be entirely possible, shouldn’t it? But that’s that. Let’s aim for another appearance alongside our Onik for the ladies of Truffle Candy.”
“Another appearance...?”
“Another network variety show, Catch Me If You Can!, has signed a contract with an overseas streaming service and is making a spin-off. Is that right, Uncle? Mm, yes. A spin-off. They’re making a spin-off program.
“The producer over there asked whether our Onik would consider appearing, but...”
“But...?!”
Deliberately pausing, Legal Hunter enjoyed the Truffle Candy members’ full attention.
For some reason, the oldest member, Sera, did not seem particularly stirred by it.
But the other three showed satisfying reactions. They unconsciously leaned forward, clenched their fists, and swallowed hard.
The producer was no exception.
‘Heh. This feels good.’
It felt good, but if he enjoyed it too long, it would show.
He needed to manage his image in front of the older sisters Onik liked.
Legal Hunter stopped drawing it out at just the right point.
“If things go well, I think our ladies might be able to join as a team...”
“R-really?!”
“I hear the spin-off will use a team competition format that is popular on streaming services these days.
“My daughter, who knows these things, told me that program is struggling with its regular cast growing older.”
Legal Hunter slipped in a quiet boast about his daughter’s competence for Onik to hear.
If he did not want trouble later over hiring family, he needed to keep mentioning it like this.
Mina swallowed again and agreed.
“Ah, yes! That’s true! Catch Me If You Can! was originally a show where the cast ran and ran and ran the entire time, but people have been saying it’s disappointing these days because the members don’t have the stamina they used to!
“The program has become more and more static as it goes on.”
In this country, where everything was growing old, even variety shows lay beneath the shadow of aging.
That was why producers had worked to discover a new generation of entertainers who could carry their programs onward.
But it would not be wrong to say that none had properly succeeded.
Even the program they were discussing had a cast whose average age was nearing fifty.
Legal Hunter spoke.
“My daughter says that one reason they chose a team format may be to scout newcomers.
“She has a feeling they’ll contact contestants who perform well later, regardless of which team wins.
“So the selection standards may be fairly loose.”
“That could be true!”
“If my daughter’s thinking is right, there may be room to work things out when the teams are formed.
“We could use our uncle’s participation, since he’s clearly an unlisted blue-chip stock, as leverage to get the Truffle ladies included as a package.”
A package. Depending on how one heard it, that could sound unpleasant.
But this sort of bundling was everyday business in the entertainment industry.
For unpopular entertainers, it was something they desperately wished for.
Mina quickly grabbed Onik’s hand.
“Onik! No, Mr. Onik! Im Mi-na of Truffle Candy, candidate number four! I know it’s late to say this, but please take care of us!”
Uncomfortable with physical contact, Onik smiled awkwardly and looked away.
“I think Boss will have to work harder than I do, but I’ll work hard too.”
Sera watched his profile closely.
#
After that, Legal Hunter continued laying out a bright, hopeful vision for the seasoned rookie idols who had newly joined the company(?).
As Sorin, Yesul, and Mina listened to the words of their new major shareholder(?), their excitement rose higher and higher.
There were simply so many opportunities where the seasoned rookie idols might be able to show their faces.
For instance, they could serve as accompanying guests during a joint broadcast between Onik and famous chefs who balanced network television appearances with personal streaming.
They could use that as a stepping stone and aim, in the long term, for appearances on cooking programs.
But while such tempting stories continued one after another... Sera’s attention remained more focused on Onik.
It was not that she had not listened to Legal Hunter.
It was not that his words did not make her hopeful and happy.
She was simply concerned about the smile of the boy to whom she owed her life.
To Sera, there was something unnatural in the brightness and laughter the kind country boy showed now.
On the surface, he seemed to be recovering his spirits little by little while greeting welcome visitors and talking with them.
But if she looked closely, she could see a shadow hidden beneath his smile.
The gloomy air the boy consciously concealed out of consideration for others.
‘I wonder what happened.’
Though they had not known one another for long, Sera knew that Onik was a strong child with a straight heart and an unshakable spirit.
Was he not a child who, even while carrying deep pain himself, comforted others in their pain and smiled brightly without a trace of pretense?
If something bad had happened to Onik...
This time, she wanted to offer him words of comfort and sympathy.
If he had worries, she wanted to hear them.
She wanted them to put their heads together and think of a way to solve them.
It did not matter whether they actually found an answer. She knew that the mere presence of someone who would do that could be a great comfort.
If she could lighten the kind country boy’s burden, deepen their friendship and affection, and become someone more meaningful to him...
That would make Sera very happy.
It would make her happier than seizing every sort of opportunity as a seasoned rookie idol.
As the conversation flowed on, time passed until the yellowing sun tilted westward and hung over the mountain ridge.
“Everyone’s hungry, right? Jo Onik Omakase! Tonight, we’re having garlic chive-and-seafood pancakes! I’ll put in lots and lots of cockle meat, mussels, and squid!
“I’ll make a tangy dressed lettuce salad to eat with them! They go together better than you might think!”
Once again, Onik had taken it upon himself to be the chef.
The seasoned rookie idols answered his words with a rapid burst of seal clapping.
Except for Sera, who had noticed the emotion Onik was hiding, the other three had been excited for a while now and even let out delighted squeals.
Legal Hunter’s wife and the producer each held a camera, recording the scene.
An excited Sorin cupped her hands around her mouth.
“Chef! Your older sister missed your cooking so, so much!”
“Haha. I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations!”
The country boy’s cooking, made delicious through senses beyond the realm permitted to humans, was always exquisite, no matter how simple the dish.
“Sizzle...”
The batter, spread broadly across the pot lid set over the outdoor stove, cooked with a savory fragrance.
The thick pancake, fried almost like a fritter in a generous amount of pork fat, was crisp not only around the edges but in the middle as well, making it especially delicious.
Onik showed off his skill to bring that crispness to its limit.
Crisp outside. Moist inside.
Mina swallowed for an entirely different reason than before and worried aloud.
“Ah, it smells so good! I’m already getting so greedy... But if I eat too much greasy food, I’ll gain weight...”
With perfect control, Onik flipped the large pancake in one motion and smiled.
“You don’t need to worry too much! I’m using a lot of fat, but the nutrients should be surprisingly well balanced!
“I’m putting in that much seafood and garlic chives! It means there’s less flour batter to soak up the oil!”
“Mmm...”
“And I heard pork fat is healthier than it looks! Especially when cooking with high heat like this, it’s much better than vegetable oil!”
“...Is that so? It should be all right, right?”
“Of course! But exercise after eating is essential! Let’s walk and run together later!”
“Exercise... Right, it can’t be helped... If I want to eat something delicious...”
“That’s right! It can’t be helped! You can’t avoid it, so enjoy it! I’ll absolutely! Certainly! Without fail! Make you exercise as much as you ate! Brace yourself!”
“What’s this? Why emphasize it three times? And why tell us to brace ourselves? Brace ourselves?
“Our Onik has become the major shareholder of his older sisters, so is he trying to control what we eat now? Is that it? Is Onik the type who doesn’t feed a fish once he’s caught it?”
“...? A caught fish? Is that how you use that saying?”
“Yes.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“It is.”
“It isn’t.”
“We’re at an impasse. Then let’s settle who’s right with a duel!”
“What’s a duel?”
“You don’t know that? Is this the generation gap?”
“In the name of my esteemed great-grandfather, the righteous assassin and patriot Jo Yang-jin, who fought against the Japanese for half his life, I, Jo Onik, know nothing of those Japanese bastards’ customs.”
“What? You know exactly what it is!”
Even as he traded such silly jokes with a cheerfulness more forced than usual, Onik kept glancing at Sera from the corner of his eye.
He could not help being bothered by her, as she seemed to have been observing him closely all along.
When their eyes met, Sera reassured the boy with a gentle smile in her eyes.
“...?”
Onik tilted his head, then continued cooking.
Onik’s grandfather, returning from the fields, joined them for dinner.
The seasoned rookie idols, who already knew the old man, treated him with great courtesy without feeling uncomfortable.
The fact that he was the elder who had raised Onik greatly increased the members’ inward sense of closeness.
Mina, the youngest, was especially eager to act cute.
“Sir! Say ah!”
“Ho ho...”
The old man was just as kind toward the seasoned rookie idols.
If they were people his grandson, who carried loneliness inside him, considered friends, then they could never be strangers to the old man either.
After dinner, they began exercising with a walk.
“It’s a warm-up! I saw that even just walking within thirty minutes after a meal has a big effect! Of course, strolling lazily is out!
“Like this! Like this! Fast enough that your breathing gets a little rough! Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup!”
Being good at everything physical also meant being good at deliberate slapstick.
Onik swung both arms broadly and waddled in the comical manner of a racewalker. Sorin, Yesul, and Mina followed behind him in a little line, laughing happily.
There were two people who sensed that the boy was still hiding a shadow even amid all this.
One was Sera, and the other, surprisingly... Legal Hunter!
Legal Hunter was a bad adult whose instincts became remarkably sharp in matters involving money.
And to this bad adult, his young business partner was a matter involving money himself.
Of course, that did not mean he saw the child he had known since childhood as money alone.
It only meant that since becoming business partners, he had begun watching the boy closely with an eye for money too.
Keeping the camera in mind as he copied his young partner’s manner of walking, Legal Hunter smacked his lips in regret.
‘Tsk. I thought bringing over the older sisters he likes would improve his mood a little. But he still seems just as gloomy.
‘Should I simply ask him outright? Ask what he’s so worried about.’
Likewise, Sera looked for an opportunity to speak with Onik alone.
‘Meeting separately late at night again... Mm. If I get into the habit of meeting him that way, someday it could lead to trouble. Someone might misunderstand.’
It had been a joke, but had Mina not said something like that before?
Secretly meeting a boy ten years younger on a late moonlit night. Was that not dangerous?
Even if it was a joke, she must have had at least some possibility in mind.
The unexpected was what got people.
And in the dark underbelly of the entertainment industry, people got caught in such things quite often.
To put it bluntly, what if Sera quietly went out late at night, and one of the members woke up to see her empty bedding?
They could not help thinking, ‘Huh?’
‘But asking through a messenger app feels a little... It’s probably a serious matter for Onik.’
If it were something he could answer through messages, he would have told her long ago.
They were friends, and they exchanged messages almost every day.
While wondering how to arrange the right moment, Sera found a method during the run that began shortly after.
‘I can run until the younger girls drop out on their own, then suggest that Onik and I keep running together! I can say that I want more exercise!’
It would be difficult. Besides, she was not the member with the best stamina in the group.
The lead dancer Sorin had better endurance than Sera, the main vocalist.
‘It’s all right! I can make it work through willpower!’
Every experienced rookie idol had a fierce determination that did not show on the surface.
It was a determination that flowed like blood from layered disappointments and the wounds those disappointments left in their hearts.
The other members would not push themselves to run desperately enough to draw out that determination.
For the others, it was only exercise after dinner. They had no reason to cling to it with all their strength or burn with competitiveness.
‘...Though I’m worried about Mina.’
She was not worried that the youngest would run through to the very end through sheer grit and guts.
She was worried because Mina had eaten so enthusiastically earlier.
Had the kind country boy not said that he would make them exercise exactly as much as they ate?
Unfortunately, her worries became reality.
Stone walls, thickets, and clusters of flowers passed beneath the streetlights along the country road.
After running along that road for a little over half an hour, the seasoned rookie idols were drenched in sweat and panting heavily.
Meanwhile, the country boy alone was mysteriously fresh and dry. With his fists on his hips, he put on a cheerful act.
“The other older sisters can go in and rest now! But Mina has to run more!”
“Why?!”
“I told you! I said I’d make you exercise as much as you ate! A man’s word is worth a thousand pieces of gold! You may have eaten as you pleased, but exercise is different!”
“You’re so mean!”
“I’m not being mean! If you neglect exercise and gain weight, you’ll suffer later!
“Every drop of sweat you shed now will spare you a bucketful of pain in the future! So get up, warrior!”
“Uwaaaah!”
“No whining! Run, Sister!”
“I don’t want to!”
“Gaining weight or exercising! Which one do you hate more?!”
“I hate both!”
“Then there’s no helping it! I’ll forcibly tow you! Hyah!”
“Older sisteeers! Save meee! Onik is kidnapping meee!”
The extraordinary country boy snatched Mina’s wrist. It was a masterful Seizing Hand Technique that gave her no chance to evade.
Mina tried to sit down and resist, but it was impossible.
The force with which the country boy pulled her by the wrist was far beyond what an ordinary seasoned rookie idol could withstand.
So when Onik ran, Mina had no choice but to run as well.
Sorin and Yesul were ready to call it a night.
Whining that they were tired, exhausted, wanted to wash up, and wanted to rest, they trudged toward the clan head house.
Looking down at the stream trickling beside them, Sera came up with a small scheme.
‘Should I stay here, rest a while, then say I’ll run again?’
Once Mina had completed the rest of her exercise, she could simply run more with the boy from then on.
But such a little scheme was only possible in a safe big city like Seoul.
“...”
When she looked up, even the last light of twilight had disappeared.
The country road beneath sparsely spaced streetlights was dark and bleak, making it a little frightening to remain there alone.
The occasional barking of dogs also made her think of the threat of feral dogs.
Sera had heard about feral dogs when she first met Onik.
In truth, no feral dogs had appeared in the village lately.
The frightening boy had been stirring through the mountains and fields during his frequent hunts, and he had not made a special exception for the feral dogs.
But Sera did not know that.
In the end, she had only one choice.
She considered putting off her conversation with the boy until another time, but she felt as though she would not be able to sleep tonight if she did.
‘It would feel like I was neglecting Onik that much, too.’
It was obvious that something was worrying him. If she delayed offering a hand simply because her body was tired, what kind of true friendship would that be?
Her feelings toward the kind country boy could not be so trivial.
Tempering her resolve, Sera quickly caught up with the two ahead of her.
Mina, who had been dragged along with a tearful face, turned around brightly when she saw Sera.
“You came to save me, Sister!”
“No, I came to run with you!”
“What? Why?!”
Onik, who had been distracting himself with exercise and self-loathing while towing Mina(?), also turned toward Sera in confusion.
“...? Sera, you can stop now, though? You ate moderately earlier too!”
“I want to do more! It still doesn’t feel like enough!”
“Mm, if that’s what you want! But you have to eat more than usual tomorrow morning! If you exercise more than you eat, your body will suffer!”
“Yes! I understand! Thank you for worrying about me!”
Another forty minutes passed before Sera finally managed to create the opportunity she wanted, almost truly collapsing from exhaustion.
In the middle of their run, which covered every corner of the village, they had dropped Mina off in front of the raised main gate of the clan head house. Then Sera had asked the boy leading them to run a little farther, leaving only the two of them at last.
“Hah... Haaah... Onik, let’s... rest here... for a little while...”
Exhausted, Sera dropped onto the bare ground.
Dirt clung thickly to her sweat-soaked pants, but she did not care whether her clothes became dirty.
Onik tilted his head once, then squatted down before her.
“Are you all right?”
“Mhm. If I rest a little... I’ll be all right...”
Then Sera looked up at the sky.
Starlight scattered densely across it reflected in her eyes.
The night sky looked warmer and more beautiful simply because the kind country boy was there with her.
‘I’ve come back. To this place.’
Whenever the twenty-three-year-old idol had looked up at the murky night sky over Seoul in the meantime, she had missed the sky she had gazed upon beside this deep-hearted, warm boy.
Even as she breathed hard in utter exhaustion, Sera felt warmth rising in her chest.
If she said she had collapsed because she ran and ran until she had no strength left...
No one would find it strange if she returned a little late.
Her breathing gradually slowed and steadied.
As she thought carefully about how to begin a new conversation, a sudden mischievous urge came over her, and she smiled teasingly.
Still smiling, she looked at the kind country boy and asked,
“Onik. Your older sister smells a lot right now, doesn’t she? I’ve sweated this much.”
The boy reacted as if he had been struck.
“Ugh... Wasn’t that attack over this afternoon?”
“It’s not an attack. When I think about it, maybe it’s not so bad that Onik can smell and remember his older sister. It’s very... embarrassing, though.”
“Sister. Please. Please forgive me now. I was wrong earlier...”
Onik squeezed his eyes shut in distress.
He had remembered the strange preference of a police uncle he had seen at the township police substation.
Even as a joke, being treated as someone with tastes similar to that uncle was hard for the boy to endure.
“Forgive you, forgive you...”
Muttering to herself, Sera softened her teasing smile and said,
“I’ll forgive you if you tell your older sister why you’re feeling gloomy, what has had you worrying all day today.”
Onik opened his eyes and looked at Sera as if to say, Huh?
Footnotes:
“Duel” is a joking reference to the Japanese franchise Yu-Gi-Oh!, where disputes are settled through card duels.
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