Chapter 178

This courage test mission was actually just like Gao Yan said. It wasn’t particularly special, as long as you weren’t scared.

As long as you weren’t scared.

But if you were, then it became something absolutely terrifying.

Just how terrifying….?

Well, even the contents of the first clue Jae Ha hyung and I picked up from the hand that grabbed our ankles said it all:

<The idol training facility where you’ve been singing, dancing, and preparing for the stage!

This place, as you may already know, was once a long-abandoned factory repurposed into a training center.

(If you didn’t know, well, now you do! ^^)

Trainees.

Have you ever been down to the basement?

The B4 level you saw when you first visited was locked with a massive iron padlock, and even our staff had a hard time getting in.

And what we found there… was something we’d rather not have seen.

They said this was a food factory, but all we saw were mannequins stacked to the ceiling. ▷Continued in clue #2>

They didn’t just throw in some ridiculous story and say, “Okay, now be scared.” They wove the current setting into it, a seamless bit of storytelling.

I’d been through this before, so I knew it was all a big fat lie, bright red and fake.

But this time… something felt different.

Like something had fallen on the way to the second clue, and that something looked a whole lot like filming equipment. That hadn’t happened before.

“I’ll go check real quick.”

“…Mm.”

So then there was only one conclusion I could come to.

That really was a fallen camera.

The important question was: how did it get dropped?

Each clue station in the courage test had its own camera to film the trainees reacting from a third-person angle.

But this… this camera wasn’t at a clue station.

So either the production team dropped it while moving it… or…

“Chunyong, what is it?”

“Uh, well.”

I crouched down and picked up the object, slightly damp from the grass, clicking my tongue.

Just as I expected, it was a piece of equipment.

More precisely…

“…It’s a camera.”

A handycam.

“……”

Jae Ha hyung’s eyes cooled instantly. Not scared, just focused.

As if tracing through what this meant.

I shook the grass from the device and quietly asked him.

“Hyung… what number is your handycam?”

“Oh, mine’s… number 11.”

The one I was holding was number 12.

And the one we’d just found was labeled 10.

The logic was easy.

We received our handycams in entry order, so naturally, they started at number 1.

Which meant this one belonged to Liu Wei.

When I didn’t respond right away, Jae Ha hyung stepped closer, checked the number himself, and fell into silence.

I couldn’t help but be bothered.

From the start, sending those two into the woods as a pair had felt like a bad idea. And now, one of their cameras was lying here on the ground?

There were a lot of possible explanations.

But none of the ones I could think of were good.

“…Should we call the production team?”

For Jae Ha hyung, who always prioritized filming, to be the one to suggest that… well, that said it all.

“Hmm. I don’t know.”

Calling the staff and saying we’d found another team’s camera?

Not a bad move, on paper. 

Probably the most ideal decision a trainee could make.

But if this really wasn’t a big deal?

If Liu Wei and Li Ming Shen had just gotten freaked out and accidentally dropped their camera while running?

Then calling it in with the production crew would basically kill any remaining footage for me and Jae Ha hyung.

Judging by the way hyung’s face slowly darkened, he was realizing that too.

Meanwhile, Gao Yan would probably be arriving at the first clue any minute now.

We had to make a decision.

Then.

“…Ah.”

Jae Ha hyung let out a small, awkward sound, his voice tight.

I blinked wide and turned to look at him.

That wasn’t a voice he used on camera. Ever.

And then I understood why.

Because something had just started dropping, thud thud, onto my cheek too.

“…It’s raining. Out of nowhere.”

Jae Ha hyung hated the rain.

I didn’t know the exact reason, but at the very least, I knew that.

We’d lived together, after all. If I didn’t even know that much, I’d have no business calling myself a real teammate.

“Yeah, right? The forecast said it’d be clear today… it must be a sudden shower. Haha, Star Shooters, we’re filming in the rain now….”

Watching Jae Ha hyung waving at the handycam, doing his best to hide the fact that he hated the rain, made a lot of thoughts run through my mind.

The first was: “Wow. He’s really giving it his all.”

And the second was….

We need to deal with this. Fast.

I slipped off the hoodie I’d been wearing and handed it to him as I quietly began to speak.

The raindrops had thickened, cold drops slapping against my bare arms, but whatever. That was the least of our worries.

“Hyung, here. Put this on.”

“Huh? Oh…”

Jae Ha hyung’s eyes went wide as I handed over my hoodie, mid-sentence with his handycam.

Those dark pupils looked like they wanted an explanation, but whatever. That could wait.

It’s not that important, so let’s deal with what’s important right now, Jae Ha hyung.

“Also, I’m seriously asking now.”

Are you…

“Are you… easily scared?”

It was a vital question.

I wanted to know if he’d be okay to handle jump scares? Could he walk calmly past a cluster of mannequin props without flinching? Could he stay steady if one of them suddenly moved?

It would’ve helped if I’d watched his courage test segment on the Targeting Star WeTube Blue Channel ahead of time, but I hadn’t, so now I had to ask.

“Um… not sure.”

Looking a little unsure, Jae Ha hyung hesitated, then slowly took the hoodie from me.

“…Kind of?”

“Great.”

I grabbed the map we’d left hanging and held it up to the handycam, switching to a cheerful broadcast tone.

“So I was just looking over here… See that fork in the road ahead? There’s another path that way, but there’s an X marked on it, right?”

“…Yeah, looks like it means we shouldn’t go that way?”

He hadn’t quite picked up on my intent yet, but he was quick on the uptake and matched my tone for the camera, playing along.

“But don’t you think it’s weird, hyung?”

“What is?”

“If we really weren’t supposed to go that way…”

“They wouldn’t have put it on the map.”

“……”

I leaned in, voice theatrical. Jae Ha hyung finally got it.

Producer Joo Cheol Yeong really was a genius.

He knew someone would take the path marked “Do Not Enter.”

[Targeting Star MISSION TIME] A strange encounter on the forbidden path?! Lee Chae Hyuk & Tsubasa

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