The Road To Glory [EN]: Chapter 2101

[Bonus] 12. Baegun Island

“What is this?”

PD [Production Director] Namgung was about to schedule ‘Episode 2. Welcome to my trouble’ when he found a KakaoTalk message from a friend.

It was a link to a post that had gone viral on a famous online community.

[I Met My Favorite Singer and Bragged About My Watch, Then Missed My Train]

Namgung PD, who knew where Halo had gone, flinched at the word ‘train.’ Fortunately, people were skeptical.

There was no verification, and even if they had seen him, the writer hadn’t specified the time, so they couldn’t track him down.

└ Assuming this is real, how do you feel right now?

└(Writer) Good… good… damn, I want to kill my past self.

└(Writer) I should have bragged about it on the train ㅠㅠ Then I could have bragged about my watch next to Halo and gotten his autograph.

Namgung PD felt relieved seeing the writer filled with regret rather than resentment.

And that wasn’t the important thing.

He had received a reply to the email he had requested from graduate school.

‘Finally…!’

The attached file must be what he had been waiting for.

He knew that the sound of nature wouldn’t be much different no matter who recorded it.

Still, he hoped there might be some source material here that he could put on YouTube.

The chaotic filming meant that Halo, who was carrying the camera, was wandering around restlessly, and Namgung PD believed that Halo, unlike anyone else, would have a reason for wandering around.

Now, the key was whether Namgung PD, who was just an average person when it came to music, could find something in this file.

Namgung PD paused before clicking the file.

The file was a file, but the email was longer than he expected.

‘Why did they write so much?’

Scrolling down, Namgung PD’s eyes widened at one word.

“Sound exhibition?”

#

“Grandma, I’m home.”

“Oh, my little darling.”

His grandmother, with her finely wrinkled face, patted his butt. Nam Gyuhwan hugged her awkwardly, conscious of the people behind him.

“Grandma, wait a minute. I have someone to introduce.”

Even though Nam Gyuhwan was tall and large, to his grandmother, he was still a runny-nosed kid of five or six.

Well, he couldn’t say anything since he also spoke informally when he met his grandmother.

“Grandma, you haven’t met them before, right?”

Nam Gyuhwan reached out to the people behind him and introduced them.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Hello, Grandma.”

Moon Seoyeon and Han Jinyeong, who had been looking at him with cold eyes at Nam Gyuhwan’s childish behavior, and Han Jinyeong, who had been looking at him strangely, instantly greeted her with polite attitudes. The planning team’s VJ [Video Journalist], who was holding the camera, also bowed his head with the camera.

“Is this your boss? The one you like so much? What was it, Halo? I watch you well on TV.”

She pretended to know, but she didn’t seem to.

It would be difficult to know his recently known name in this rural village with few power lines and streetlights.

Halo greeted her.

“Please call me Noh Haeil.”

“Oh my, it’s nice to meet you. Boss, you look very dignified. We’re meeting for the first time, right? Our puppy is in your care.”

“Grandma…”

Nam Gyuhwan’s grandmother, who lived on a small island in Jeolla Province, didn’t have a strong dialect that was hard to understand.

Rather, she mostly spoke standard Korean, and Nam Gyuhwan later told him that someone who lived in Seoul had moved down around the time he was born.

“I’m always getting help from Nam Gyuhwan.”

“!”

In any case, the embarrassing situation of not understanding the dialect did not occur, and Halo unintentionally moved Nam Gyuhwan.

“Grandma, shall we go inside first?”

“Yes, yes. I’m out of my mind because it’s been a long time since I’ve had guests. Make yourselves comfortable.”

Halo watched the people putting their luggage in the guest room and looked around.

This place, which he had arrived at by taking a train and then a boat, was an island located in Jeolla Province called Baegun Island, with mountains, fields, and quite a few households, though not as much as Geoje Island.

It was named Baegun Island because you could see white clouds all year round.

However, today, unlike its name, it was clear with not a single cloud.

The sea visible from his grandmother’s house was the same, and the air, with no fine dust, was clean.

It felt like his head was clearing.

“Boss, have lunch!”

Halo looked down at the scenery of the village for a long time until people called him to have a late lunch.

They had a late lunch with a table setting of 20 dishes, which could only be described as a feast, and then they sat in a circle in the living room, where a pre-approved camera was installed.

“So, our boss and the kids want to live on the island?”

“Wow, my grandma still speaks Seoul dialect well.”

“I didn’t use much dialect originally~. I’m from Seoul.”

The members stifled their laughter at the natural Jeolla accent. Regardless, Nam Gyuhwan’s grandmother tapped Nam Gyuhwan.

“How long are you staying?”

“Two nights, three days?”

“Only two days? Stay a little longer. If the bosses are busy, can’t the kids stay a little longer?”

Seeing that his grandmother was upset, Moon Seoyeon and Han Jinyeong gestured.

“We’re busy, but Gyuhwan can stay a little longer, right?”

“Yeah, it’s okay to leave him behind.”

Halo chuckled and delivered the final blow.

“Shall we?”

“!”

At Halo’s words, Nam Gyuhwan made the face of Caesar, who cried, ‘Et tu, Brute…!’ [Latin for “Even you, Brutus?” a phrase denoting betrayal by a close friend].

The grandmother, who had been quietly watching their back-and-forth, smiled gently.

She was sad that they were leaving early, but her beloved grandson looked very comfortable, and that comfort seemed familiar.

She seemed to be doing well, even though she had worried that her grandson would go hungry when he said he was doing something she didn’t know well, like partition or something. He was also dressed like a fancy Seoulite.

The grandmother, who had always worried about whether her grandson was being bullied, whether he was eating well, and whether he was being scolded at work, seemed relieved.

She was so grateful, she wondered if she could give them something.

The grandmother got up from her seat.

“Then let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“If you’re going to live on the island, you have to meet the island chief.”

The grandmother, who was even more proactive than Nam Gyuhwan, grabbed Halo’s hand and left the house.

The people followed the grandmother in a daze.

The most urgent was the VJ, who was about to fly a drone to film the village scenery.

“Wait, just a moment.”

The VJ hurriedly picked up the camera and chased after them.

Halo followed his grandmother and turned his head.

Below the bumpy road, there were colorful single-story houses and the blue sea. The harbor was lined with ships, and there was a clean beach.

“Wow.” It was definitely a beautiful island, enough to make the VJ unconsciously exclaim, and too good to stay for just a short time.

Also, “Are you doing well?” “Is Grandma a guest?” “Where are you from?” “I heard they’re from Seoul, people from Seoul.” “Oh my, you’ve come from so far away.”

Seeing the people they met on the street greeting them kindly, he could tell that the island was open to outsiders.

“Wow!”

“Hyung [older brother/male friend], where are you from?”

Whether they were adults or children.

It was a very lively neighborhood.

At that moment, something caught Halo’s eye.

He saw something that was alien to this liveliness.

Compared to the other children who approached without fear, a child with rather shaggy hair was leaning against a stone wall, watching them.

There were no guardians around, and the child seemed used to being alone.

It wasn’t like he was being bullied, but rather.

Their eyes met briefly and then passed.

“Grandma, how much further do we have to go?”

“We’re almost there.”

Halo didn’t think deeply.

Soon, they arrived at the house of the chief, with its blue roof.

The grandmother cleared her throat in front of it.

“It’s time for him to be lying down, so it might take a while.”

She meant that he was taking a nap.

Nam Gyuhwan nodded as if he was used to it, and his grandmother banged on the door.

“Is the chief here?”

The iron door creaked and made all sorts of noises.

The grandmother, who didn’t expect him to come out, was about to knock on the door again.

Suddenly.

The door burst open, if someone hadn’t come out.

“Ahem, welcome. Welcome to Baegun Island-.”

“Oh my!”

“Oh my! Why is Grandma here?”

The grandmother withdrew her fist, which she was about to punch with, and stepped back. The chief, dressed in a sparkling hanbok [traditional Korean clothing], was surprised in turn.

“I came to introduce my grandson.”

“Grandson?”

“Didn’t I tell you last time!”

The chief was startled by the grandmother’s roar.

“Whoa, whoa, Grandma, calm down.”

The chief squinted as if trying to find the grandmother’s grandson.

“Did Gyuhwan come?”

He couldn’t not recognize him.

Nam Gyuhwan had been the largest since he was a student, and he looked just like his father.

The chief was happy to see Nam Gyuhwan, but then he discovered the other members behind him.

He knew Grandma’s grandson had one grandson and one granddaughter, but there were strangers he had never seen before, a boy with a guitar, and-. Behind them was a camera?

“Then, hmm, no, perhaps, did you come from a broadcasting station?”

The chief asked, using awkward standard Korean again. What broadcasting station? He wondered if they mistook him for a broadcasting station because of the camera, but the grandmother asked first.

“What broadcasting station?”

“The broadcasting station said they would send someone to me. Isn’t that right?”

“Broadcasting station? Did Grandma perhaps say that?”

The grandmother shook her head.

Then she got angry, saying that she must have misunderstood the filming as a broadcasting station.

The chief tilted his head, thinking, broadcasting station, right? Or not? He nodded when they explained in detail that they were filming content for YouTube.

“Ah, then I must have misunderstood. So, this person is a famous singer.”

He was sure the broadcasting station said someone was coming. The chief scratched his head, wondering if he had misheard, and nodded. He had dressed up so diligently, thinking he would be on TV, but it seemed like he had done it for nothing.

The chief threw off the cumbersome manggeon [traditional Korean headwear] and rolled up his sleeves.

“People from Seoul, come in.”

The chief gestured, saying he would introduce the village.

The only map of Baegun Island was in the chief’s house, and the introduction of the island would start there.

“Island life is nothing special.”

But if they really wanted to, he would give them work to do. The grandmother glared at the chief from behind.

Worried that he might give her grandchildren difficult work.

The people gathered in front of the map.

Ahem. The chief cleared his throat and tilted his head once more.

“No, but the broadcasting station really said they were coming.”

“Just explain it.”

“Grandma, calm down. Okay.”

The chief scanned the members.

Except for Gyuhwan, they all looked like city people, so pale that they didn’t seem like they could do any hard work.

“Do you guys do any housework?”

#

And an hour later.

It seems that the saying that the sun sets early in the countryside is not a lie.

They took the wrong boat, went back, and finally set foot on the harbor after taking the last train.

The time when people were crowded had passed, and they had started to go home, so they were briefly lost in the sunset beach.

“Is this really Baegun Island?”

“Even if it’s not, I can leave tomorrow.”

“Ha.”

Na Hyeju, the PD [Producer-Director] of the terrestrial broadcasting station MNC, sighed. Writer Do Minhee, who came with her, also looked exhausted.

“Could he really be in a place like this?”

“We have to believe he’s really there.”

They had already been through too many places, so there was no certainty. But they had to find him.

She couldn’t miss the opportunity for her debut, which had finally come during a chance hiatus in variety shows.

“Our luck couldn’t be any better.”

“Are you talking about the timing? Everyone made a big fuss about bringing Tae Yang, but they couldn’t.”

“That’s just how it is. The current hiatus is just because all the pilots we tried failed.”

“To say that, there seem to be more than two idiots who said they would bring Tae Yang. Well, let’s just say that. That’s not the important thing.”

Do Minhee nodded at Na Hyeju’s words.

“Let’s hope there’s a real genius here.”