263 – Half-Leaf
After lightly ripping the watermelon, the difficulty gradually escalated.
The fruit prepared by the production team for the third stage of the grip test was melon, but from my point of view, it was watermelon or melon.
Ah, of course I’m talking about the skin, not the chest.
Damn it!
Unlike watermelons, which have hard flesh, melons are soft. When I cut them in half, the melon juice leaked out.
As I put down the melon, frowning at the stickyness of my palms, the cast members who had been sitting on the couch watching me rushed to watch it.
“Wow, that’s ridiculous.”
“Awesome! Really split.”
“You didn’t split up beforehand, did you?”
From noble mtl dot com
A studio full of admiration, astonishment, and doubt.
Well, it’s not a guru who is active in the back world, it’s not unreasonable to be surprised because it’s a place where only ordinary people gather.
… At the point of thinking like this, I feel like I’ve come a long way from being normal, but do I feel like I’m here now?
The melon was simply used to show off its strength, but the three actresses who appeared in the drama took spoons and ate the flesh inside, probably because the flesh looked quite delicious.
Of course, he wasn’t an MC to miss.
“How does the melon taste?”
“Yes?”
The actress, who was chewing her mouth full of melon at the sudden interview, covers her mouth with a puzzled expression.
Laughter erupted from all directions.
She replied with her face blushing, perhaps embarrassed.
“…Mmm, it’s delicious.”
“Cut!”
At that time, the main PD, who was looking into the camera, gave a cut sign with a satisfied smile.
Then, as if they had waited, the performers relaxed from their shoulders.
“The floor is dirty from fruit juice, so let’s clean up and move on to the next step!”
After shouting like that, he ordered the broadcasting staff and assistant directors next to him to do this and that, and as soon as our eyes met, he approached with a big smile.
“Oh~ Well done~ It was an unannounced test, but I never thought that Kim would do so well.”
“Oh, yes. Thank you.”
“Let’s go like this. Let’s go like this.”
Saying that, the main PD who tapped me on the shoulder soon moved on to meet the other actors.
“Senior, are your hands okay?”
At that time, Nao asked me with a worried expression.
“Well, somehow? It’s my first time doing it, so I was a little worried, but it split better than I thought.”
After I answered and laughed, Nao looked at the back of the head of the main PD who was moving away and said.
“There is a lot of criticism about that PD, being blinded by the ratings. So, if you ask for too much, it doesn’t matter if the seniors reject it.”
“Are you worried?”
“…Of course. I’m a kind junior.”
Saying that, Nao smiled and introduced the other two actresses who were approaching her.
“Senior. Greetings. This is my best friends Miyu and Ayaka.”
“Uzzu, this is Miyu.”
“This is Ayaka.”
I don’t know if all actors are like that, but they both have a lot of personality like Nao.
And the two people who looked like insiders were too high a hurdle for me, an introvert.
“…Hello.”
“Wow, Musher.”
“It looks like you’re looking at the Inwang statue because you look straight.”
Two actresses show off their unstoppable volubility to me, a first-timer.
Nao, the only link, smiled and said to the two of them.
“Your expression is hardened because you are nervous, so don’t worry. The senior is more shy than he looks.”
“…Really?”
Ayaka looks at me in surprise.
Feeling a strange tension, I involuntarily looked away.
“It’s true. It’s so funny.”
“Isn’t it?”
These days, Miyu clings to her stomach while speaking like a high school girl. What’s so funny about it is that she giggled while talking to Nao.
Although they say they are actors, having a conversation with a group made up of all high school girls, I feel a sense of excitement.
I was about to make a strategic retreat by saying, “Let’s have a good talk.” The three actresses, who were doing other things, noticed me like ghosts and surrounded me.
“Hee hee, I can’t go.”
“Please play with us.”
“I hear your brother is so good at fighting?”
I didn’t know anything else, but I couldn’t hear the last words.
“What? Who spread that nonsense?”
Then Miyu and Ayaka both pointed at Nao at the same time.
And Nao, who was pointed out as the culprit, said with a shameless expression.
“Honestly, it’s not a lie, is it?”
Come to think of it, this guy knew about my 1:50 fight with the bikers.
I thought it was quite heavy-handed when I saw that it was still not known that I was the same person as the man in the video until now, almost half a year later, but I never thought I would have told all my friends around me.
However, I couldn’t admit it easily after coming this far, so I pretended not to know.
“Sorry, but not everyone with big muscles is a good fighter. If that were the case, bodybuilders would dominate all world fighting competitions.”
“Oh, yes. My dad told me before, but the real masters have slim muscles.”
Miyu nodded her head in agreement, and Ayaka, who was next to her, agreed.
“I saw it in a magazine, too, and I heard that that’s real muscle.”
Okay, that’s it. I feel a bit out of breath now.
But Nao, who has a consistent muscle fetish, seemed displeased with the reaction of these two people, so she crossed her arms and murmured.
“It’s stupid to say that really cool muscles are strong muscles that look good and taste good through bodybuilding-style exercises.
I couldn’t hear it all because he spoke so fast, but it seemed like he was subtly blaming two friends for not knowing each other.
“Ha ha…”
Watching Nao, who had fallen into her own world, gave me goosebumps and wanted to run away.
However, the broadcast recording resumes at an astounding timing, as if they were not going to allow escape even if they didn’t know anything else.
I prayed in my mind to God and Buddha, whom I hadn’t usually looked for, to help me finish today’s recording safely.
***
After the floor was cleaned, the recording resumed again.
As expected from the development of step 1 apple, step 2 watermelon, and step 3 melon, the fruit in step 4 was pineapple.
“What~~~!”
“Impossible! How could you use your hands to split that in half!”
“This was really bad!”
Seeing the level of difficulty suddenly rise to the point of being a bit too much, the actors all started to protest against the PD’s treatment.
However, since this is my first time appearing in a variety show, I thought it was strange that I stayed still, so I calmly decided to take on the challenge of splitting a pineapple.
Of course, the result was quite obvious.
Damn it!
“The unexpected pineapple split in half!”
“…Is he a god?”
“Kim Yoo-sung Punch! Kim Yoo-sung Punch!”
The actors who are now half-inspired and shout my name with Nao.
Of course, it’s not like they’re genuinely rooting for me, but it felt better than I thought to become the main character and ‘take over’ all the spotlights, even for a moment.
Anyway, perhaps thanks to the quick breakthrough of the 4th stage, the pineapple, now only the last 5th stage of the grip test is left.
And the identity of the fruit selected in the 5th step is—
“No, how do you split a coconut with your bare hands?”
“This is a guy who eats with an ax even in the local area.”
“Kim-kun has done enough, so now don’t overdo it and rest.
“Okay.”
I untied my wrists with a soulless reply.
Of course, I did not give up and decided to try splitting coconuts with my bare hands.
Because it’s human psychology that if someone tells you not to do it, you want to do it more.
“Huu- then we’re going?”
First try.
I was thinking of starting with my fingers in the rind, as I did earlier when I halved watermelons and melons.
But as expected, the reputation of the coconut that the stone was broken after hitting it did not go anywhere. Even my fingers, which lightly bend a few coins in half, could not penetrate the coconut shell.
‘This isn’t easy.’
If you put yang qi on your fingers as usual, you can easily penetrate it, but this is a defeat at the point of using qi in the first place.
So I thought about how to split a coconut in half using pure muscle strength, and I soon found the clue.
Coconuts, a tropical fruit, are usually brought across by boat, so these are very minor scratches that appear to have occurred during transportation.
But there was already enough room for two fingers to squeeze through.
“Huh!”
Let’s use strength in earnest, the forearm muscle, deltoid muscle, and biceps muscle swell to a great extent.
It may seem funny to others that you go to great lengths just to split a fruit in half, but at least it made sense to me.
“No way!”
Someone watching the situation muttered in disbelief.
Damn it!
A hard coconut shell that slowly begins to crack at my fingertips.
If there wasn’t even a gap for a finger to squeeze through, it’s only a matter of time before the coconut is split in half as long as a finger has already dug into the shell.
Damn it! Blasphemy!
Cracks gradually grow, and finally a coconut is split in half coolly.
As a result, the transparent coconut juice inside was once again drenched on the studio floor, but who knows?
I just split a coconut with my bare hands.
I coolly lifted the halved coconut shell over my head and gave a winner’s smile.