Save a Failed Idol’s Life

Chapter 46 I Didn’t Come to Enjoy the Countryside

“Alright, everyone, take one tray each and move to your assigned rows.”

The village head distributed the trays and assigned each member to a row of corn.

He was speaking in Seoul dialect, since we were from Seoul, but his accent was very thick with the local dialect.

We couldn’t laugh. We all clenched our mouths and hid our faces behind the corn leaves, shaking our shoulders.

“I showed you how to harvest the corn earlier, right? Just follow the same way and harvest all the way to the other side, then come down.”

The cornfield was oddly located on a hill where it could get the direct sea breeze.

It was a popular crop that was sold as corn grown with the sea breeze.

There was no port, just a coastal cliff, so instead of the fishy smell, there was a fresh salty scent in the air.

“The corn has a better life than me. I want to grow up with the sea breeze too.”

Ye-jun fiddled with his sun cap that had a shade to block the sunlight. It wasn’t even noon yet, but the temperature had risen sharply since dawn.

If it weren’t for the sea breeze, we would have been on fire by now.

“Stop talking nonsense and focus on harvesting.”

We all had microphones on, but we knew how this scene would be used.

The working scene would be over in 30 seconds, with us just showing some grumbling.

But we had no choice. Our goal was the performance part that would be broadcasted the longest…

But the farmers’ goal was this.

With that in mind, we put our enthusiasm into harvesting. That’s when we heard a scream from the row that Seong-won was in charge of.

“Ahh-!”

What was that? Did he get hurt? It would be a big deal if he cut his face by accident.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

We rushed to the next row, pushing aside the corn. Seong-won screamed louder.

“No! Don’t come this way! Don’t come! Ahh!”

What’s wrong with him? We all stopped harvesting and ran to Seong-won.

Seong-won was making a fuss, telling us not to come near him, but no one would stay away in this situation.

“What’s going on?”

Kyunghwa asked, squinting his eyes in the bright sunlight, even though he had a shade on.

When we got closer, we saw a huge centipede about 30cm away from Seong-won.

‘Oh… that’s not good.’

The centipede was slightly longer than the longest finger, and it was waving its numerous legs.

“Ack! Go away!”

Seong-won backed away, trying to threaten it with his harvesting tool, but it was useless.

The centipede seemed determined to stick to its path, and it slowly approached Seong-won.

“Ah, why are you coming, go away!”

Seong-won was wondering if he should run to the next row, glancing sideways.

“Yap.”

Seon-woo grabbed the centipede with his bare hand, only wearing work gloves.

“I caught it!”

He could touch it with his hand. Seong-won’s face turned pale.

“Get away, please!”

“Okay! I’ll throw it away.”

Seon-woo lifted his hand with the centipede, as if he was proud of his catch.

‘Wow… that’s big.’

I would have a hard time catching that with my bare hand.

Running a restaurant, there was no better environment for bugs to gather. Especially in the back alley where there was a back door.

I was good at keeping them out, but ‘that thing’ was beyond human imagination.

When I was a novice owner who didn’t know how to use a professional pest control company.

I had to fight a fierce battle with ‘those things’ that were after my precious store.

‘I really suffered a lot back then.’

I wasn’t particularly afraid of bugs, but ‘that thing’ was a special case.

It was lucky if only a few of them came in through the vents or the back door.

If they succeeded in building a great empire inside, my business would be ruined.

At first, I only knocked them out with a tool and threw them outside.

But in a month, I had the agility and courage to rival a professional pest control company.

‘If I don’t catch this, my store will be ruined.’

I ended up catching ‘that thing’ with my bare hand, without even wearing gloves. Later, I switched to using a professional pest control company.

But even I didn’t want to catch something that big with my hand.

“I threw it away!”

Seon-woo came back with a bright smile, after throwing the centipede like a catch ball to the other side of the field.

“You should have killed it!”

“Hey. Killing it is too cruel, bro.”

Guys, please put a ‘bug story’ disclaimer in front of this.

It was probably the only scene worth broadcasting in the harvesting part.

I looked around for the cameraman, and I saw a male staff filming from the corner.

‘I hope it’s edited well and fun for the broadcast.’

I continued the delayed harvesting with a soulless eye.

Soon, the sun was shining in the middle of the sky. It was time for the highlight of the life program. Lunch time was coming.

***

“Here, a feast made with the fresh corn we just harvested! Let’s try it now!”

Kyunghwa and I, who were in charge of the hosting, sat in the middle, and the rest of the members sat around us in a circle.

The relatives of the village head brought dishes one by one and placed them on the table.

We wanted to participate in the cooking process, but the pride of the elders was no joke.

‘Hey, don’t interfere with the adults’ work and just rest quietly. You kids need to save your strength.’

We were curious about how they made the dishes, but the elders only let the professional reporters interview them.

We were kicked out and told to rest.

‘This is really treating us like laborers.’

I waited quietly, sipping the fan wind and feeling bitter. Maybe it was because it wasn’t the city.

It was cool even without air conditioning, lying on the porch and feeling the sea breeze.

After about 30 minutes of cooling down, it was our turn to work again.

“Corn rib soup, corn pancakes, corn rice, corn porridge, and even corn steamed buns for dessert! The elders in the village prepared various corn dishes for us!”

My personal preference was the corn porridge.

The porridge that had a similar feeling to rice pudding with milk looked sweet and savory at the same time.

“Well then, it wouldn’t be fun if we just ate, right? Let’s start the corn snatch game now!”

I worked hard all morning to eat this. Just let me eat a little.

Everyone must have had the same thought in their heads, but anyway, this was also entertainment.

“Ugh, just let me eat.”

Ye-jun stabbed his thumb upside down toward the ground and complained.

“Then, let’s hear a word from Oh Ye-jun, the first contestant, before we start.”

Kyunghwa ignored his protest and continued his job as an MC.

All I wanted was to try the corn porridge as soon as possible. I glanced at Seon-woo and thought, damn, he must be drooling.

He looked like a puppy that heard ‘wait’ with a snack in front of him. His expression was pitiful.

And there was Son Seong-won, who looked at him with disdain. It was amazing that they gathered such colorful kids together.

“Ah, I’ll work hard and not leave even a single grain for this guy. I’ll eat it all by myself.”

“What are you talking about?”

Seong-won, who was ‘this guy’ to Ye-jun, twitched his eyebrows. 

The game started with Ye-jun’s provocation, and the atmosphere heated up.

It was a noisy meal time as usual.

***

After finishing the meal, it was time to work again. 

The field we worked on earlier was the village head’s field. 

The field we were going to start now was the field of the oldest elder in the village.

They said that the villagers helped each other with the field work. But maybe because he was old, the weed management was not well done.

So the corn kernels were a little better than the previous field.

“Hey, Oh Ye-jun, stop messing around and focus.”

Ye-jun stopped picking corn and suddenly peeled off the husk and looked closely. Kyunghwa finally scolded him.

“Look at this. This was eaten by a bug.”

Ye-jun ignored Kyunghwa’s words and pushed the bug-eaten corn to Seong-won next to him.

“Ah, you crazy… Go away!”

Damn, Son Seong-won. He must have wanted to say ‘crazy’ until the end of his chin. Fortunately, he avoided the disaster of continuing the sentence after ‘crazy’.

“Ah, why. Just look at it once.”

“Look at what? Go away!”

In the end, Seong-won ran away with his tail between his legs and Ye-jun quickly followed him. The camera lens pressed them hard.

“Ah, I’ll look at it!”

Seon-woo naively threw away his farming tool and chased after the two. Eventually, Kyunghwa raised his voice.

“Stop it, all three of you. Don’t you come back?”

Finally, Kyunghwa picked up a corn that had no commercial value and hit Ye-jun with it.

It seemed like he did it on purpose.

Ye-jun rolled around on the soft ground with a thud. A burst of laughter erupted.

‘They are young in reality, but. At times like this, they are really like elementary school students.’

But compared to fighting with each other as if they had no regrets even if they broke up right away… This was obviously much better.

Yeah, just get along and don’t fight. It might be a good thing in the long run, but for now, it was a matter of my life and revenge.

The camera that was filming the noisy guys turned to me.

“?”

I reflexively opened my eyes wide and pointed at myself with my hand.

The PD nodded and asked me.

“Are you not going, Ise?”

It seemed like he was asking why I was working hard alone when everyone else looked like they were having fun.

“If the kids play, I have to work at least one.”

Chuckling, I threw the corn in and decided to make friends with him as I had a chance.

“Do you want to try picking with me, PD? It’s not hard.”

“Uh…”

The PD, who had a sullen expression, was caught by me and came over. 

He held the camera with one hand and picked the corn with the other.

“Wow, you’re good at it. PD, you have really good arm strength. Do you do any strength training?”

“Uh… I go to the gym a little…”

“Wow, that’s why. You look like you have a better body than the idols.”

Before I knew it, the PD who was caught by me helped me with the harvest. 

Time passed faithfully and soon it was time for the performance.

It was time to go back to my idol job.