Idol Hides His Military Service

Speed quiz.

The game that came out of Jang Junseok’s mouth was none other than a speed quiz.

‘In a way, it’s a classic.’

One of the games that had been a staple on Korean variety shows since forever, speed quiz was a game where you paired up in twos, with one person explaining and the other guessing the answer.

“Hey, are you really confident about this?”

“Of course.”

I answered confidently to Lee Gahyeon, who was looking at me like she still couldn’t shake her doubts.

‘Fools. Thirty years in my past life, nineteen in this life. How dare you doubt the current events knowledge of someone who’s lived a combined forty-nine years.’

To doubt me was no different from a private telling the company first sergeant he was doing the work wrong—an act of sheer insolence.

– Each team, please select two representatives to participate in the speed quiz!

The moment Jang Junseok’s explanation ended, I immediately volunteered myself.

The role of the person explaining the questions in a speed quiz was important, but it was always the guesser’s ability that mattered most.

In that case, having Gahyeon, who was worse than me but probably second-best on the team, explain while I guessed was the one correct formation.

“Now, would the two representatives from the first team, ‘On the Day of the First Snow’ A Team, please come up to the stage.”

There had been some doubts, but in the end, it was decided that I and Gahyeon would represent our team.

It seemed the other teams had also finished picking their reps, because Jang Junseok called up the first team to play and summoned them to the ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) stage.

“I think we need to figure out what kind of categories the quiz is pulling from first.”

The first participants, standing on stage to play the quiz, had faces full of tension. Just like Gahyeon said now, this was a situation where teams going later had the advantage.

By watching the earlier teams play, we could roughly figure out what kind of questions were coming up, and in the process, we could also figure out how we needed to sync up with our partners. It was a big advantage.

“It looks like they’re going in song order. Our song is ninth, right?”

“Right. There are two teams per song, and we’re A Team, so we’re exactly seventeenth in order.”

Watching the first team’s speed quiz with me, Gahyeon looked extremely nervous.

‘For someone who looks like that, she’s got a surprisingly weak mentality.’

I’d picked her as my partner, thinking she’d be able to handle things more calmly since she was older than the other members, and here she was, this anxious.

It couldn’t be helped.

I would just have to hard-carry.

***

“Ryujin, your hiccup acting was a work of art.”

“···Be quiet.”

“Hic cup! Hiiic cup!”

When someone tells you not to do something, it just makes you want to do it more.

To be honest, leaving Seo Ryujin alone after she’d just finished the speed quiz as her team’s representative would practically have been dereliction of duty.

‘So, um, when your throat catches··· no, no! When every time you breathe, your throat gets caught!’

‘What is that! Ryujin unni, explain it a bit more clearly!’

‘Huh? Uh··· uh! Right, watch closely. I’ll show you myself!’

The prompt word that came up for Ryujin had been “hiccup,” and it must have been hard for her to explain in words.

When a teammate asked her to explain more in detail, Ryujin had no choice but to resort to acting it out.

‘Hhhup! Hhh-upp!’

‘CPR?’

‘No, not that!’

‘Please, just one more detailed hint, unni!’

But despite Ryujin’s efforts, whether because of nerves or because her acting wasn’t sufficient, her teammate didn’t get “hiccup.”

In the end, Ryujin made a big decision.

‘Hiiiii! CUP!’

That desperate expression, miming hiccups like she was one breath away from passing out.

If I’d had a smartphone, there’s no way I wouldn’t have recorded that legendary moment. I couldn’t hold back my smile as I watched.

Even now, having gone over to tease Ryujin, who’d just stepped down from the stage, I was passionately reenacting her performance.

“Stop.”

“Yes.”

But at the look in Ryujin’s eyes as she lowered her voice and glared at me, I had no choice but to lower my head at once.

“You think you’ll do better than me?!”

“Ryujin.”

“What!”

“If someone asks why the sun rises in the east, there’s nothing you can answer except that it just does.”

Smack!

“Ah!”

Apparently, in Ryujin’s world, the sun rises in the west.

The second my words ended, Ryujin’s palm came down on my back.

“Why’d you hit me!”

“If someone asks why the sun rises in the east, there’s nothing you can answer except that it just does, right? Isn’t that so?”

The student surpasses the master.

Apparently, Ryujin’s true talent wasn’t in being an idol, but in studying.

“Lee Sion, it’s our turn soon.”

“I am always ready. Unlike some people I could name.”

Messing around with Ryujin for a while, it seemed our turn was drawing near.

Following after Gahyeon, who had come to get me, I could feel Ryujin’s murderous gaze stabbing into my back. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Apparently I’d awakened martial arts during this training camp.

The main people sending killing intent at me these days were Seo Ryujin, Kim Nayeon, Kim Suyeon, and the person walking in front of me now, Lee Gahyeon.

Lately, the number of participants taking shots at me had been steadily increasing.

“Next up is Lucid Dive A Team. Please come up.”

“Let’s go.”

“Just leave it to me.”

We waited briefly below the stage, and soon MC Jang Junseok called us up.

At his call, I and Gahyeon went up onto the stage and took our positions.

“Right now, the highest number of correct answers in the speed quiz is LOVE:ON B Team’s record of twelve correct answers. Participant Lee Gahyeon, do you think you can beat that?”

“Yes! I’ll definitely beat it!”

“There’s a lot of strength in that answer! I’ll be looking forward to it. Are you ready?”

“Yes!”

“Then, we’ll start right now!”

Flip.

With the end of Jang Junseok’s words, I heard the sound of the sketchbook pages turning from the person standing behind me.

“A movie with dinosaurs!”

“Jurassic Park!”

Ding-dong!

Before Gahyeon had even finished explaining, I shouted the correct answer.

And at the same time, the sound of the correct-answer bell rang out.

“Matches, buy matches!”

“Little Match Girl?”

Ding-dong!

Gahyeon and I kept racking up correct answers at high speed, and I could hear exclamations from Jang Junseok and the other participants watching.

“What the, they’re crazy fast!”

“Look at Lee Sion, she’s answering before she even hears the whole explanation.”

“I think Gahyeon’s just really good at explaining!”

This was it.

All the exclamations ringing out around me and Gahyeon.

‘My life wasn’t a waste!’

All those countless variety shows I’d watched up to now.

They were what was turning me into the queen of speed quiz.

So this is why people say there’s no such thing as useless learning.

“The thing right under my eyes right now!”

“Dark circles!”

Ding-dong!

Of course, it wasn’t just me doing well.

‘Gahyeon, damn it! You were serious too!!’

Our blazing pace was only possible because of Gahyeon’s help, as she used even her dark circles to the fullest, exposing them as-is as she explained desperately.

“Lucid Dive A Team, that’s an astonishing pace! They’ve already beaten the previous record of thirteen correct answers!”

Waaaah!

Overwhelming results make you forget you’re competing.

Before I knew it, everyone—Jang Junseok and the other participants alike—was completely absorbed in watching our speed quiz.

“So··· s-so like, a soccer player!”

“A soccer player? A bit more detail, unni!”

But then the first question came up that Gahyeon couldn’t explain properly.

It seemed like it was from a field she didn’t know very well; just “soccer player” made it way too hard.

‘But if the subject is some soccer player, that means it’s someone everyone would know. In that case, it must be··· that person, right?’

There was no way I could just sit there. Not if I wanted to keep my title as a devoted variety-show viewer.

The broadcast station wouldn’t have lost its mind enough to put in someone like Didier Drogba, so we could narrow down the answer sheet.

“Park Ji-sung!”

“Ah··· no! So like, a foreigner! Right, the best soccer player in the world!”

So it wasn’t Park Ji-sung?

But the correct answer was already out.

If it was the best soccer player in the world, then there was only that man—no, that god.

“Ronaldo!”

Buzz!

At the same time as my booming answer, the wrong-answer buzzer rang.

I couldn’t help but doubt my own ears.

‘Ronaldo isn’t the correct answer?’

Something was deeply wrong here.

Ah.

Only then did I realize my mistake.

Full name.

Just “Ronaldo” might not count as correct.

“Cristiano Ronaldo!”

Buzz!

Had everyone lost their minds?

How could there possibly be any “best soccer player in the world” besides Ronaldo?

Either Gahyeon had misread the question, or whoever wrote it was wrong. No—this whole world was wrong.

“Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro!”

Buzz!

“No, that’s not it, Sion! It’s shorter! Two syllables, it’s two syllables!!”

With the wrong answers piling up, Gahyeon hurriedly tried explaining again.

Two syllables?

Don’t tell me··· was that dwarf’s name really the correct answer?

‘I can’t do this··· this is unjust!’

There was only one best soccer player in the world, and yet they were forcing me to say a wrong answer right now.

“Remember, last time··· right! The World Cup! He scored a lot of goals at the World Cup!”

Stop.

Gahyeon··· are you trying to say my big bro is a loser who didn’t score a single goal in the World Cup finals?

I wanted to run off this stage full of unbelievers that instant.

But,

“Unni! You can do it!!!”

“We believe in you, Sion unni!”

“Unni! You can get it right!”

Below the stage, my teammates were looking up at me with desperate expressions, cheering me on.

And across from me stood Gahyeon, looking anxious and flustered, clearly thinking our failure to answer was her fault for not explaining well.

“···Me···.”

“Oh! That’s right! It starts with ‘Me’, Sion!!!”

Even now, I didn’t know if it was right for me to let these words leave my mouth.

But the faces of my teammates, all staring at me, and Gahyeon’s desperate expression kept flickering before my eyes.

‘I’m sorry, big bro···.’

Inside, I spoke to Ronaldo, who was probably somewhere far away in Spain right now, kicking a soccer ball.

– It’s okay, Sion-bbippi. As long as you believe in me, I’m the best soccer player in the world!

And the Cristiano inside me answered my prayer.

Just this once, puking dwarf.

“Messi!”

Ding-dong!

At last, the sound of the correct-answer bell rang out.

***

“Lee Sion, you were amazing!!!”

“Gahyeon unni, Sion unni, you two are the best!”

“I knew the two of you would pull it off!”

“Our team is in first place!”

The moment the speed quiz ended, our team members were hugging each other like we’d just won the entire show.

I still had some guilt left over about betraying my one and only god, but seeing my team so happy, I couldn’t help thinking I’d done the right thing.

“But how are we going to decide our performance order?”

After basking in our victory for a bit, it was time to decide the order.

“Normally, going first is the best move, but···.”

“But?”

“For our song, leading off the show is a bit much.”

“Right, definitely···.”

At Suyeon’s words, all the team members nodded.

If it were the original “Lucid Dive,” that might have been one thing, but the new “Lucid Dive,” passed through Shinyu’s rearrangement, had a completely different vibe from the original.

“It’s pretty sticky, right?”

“Yeah.”

It did feel like there was a high chance the audience would find it overwhelming as the very first performance.

“But our song stands out too much to just slip it into the middle, either.”

What Gahyeon said made sense too.

We didn’t know what songs would be placed before and after ours, but if pure concepts or upbeat dance tracks got slotted around us, it would be no different from suicide.

“In that case, there’s really only one spot left, isn’t there?”

“Huh?”

Listening carefully to everyone’s opinions and thinking it over my own way, I’d come to a single conclusion.

“Let’s take the last slot.”

“What?!”

“Huh?!”

At my words, my teammates answered back with something like a scream.