Season 5: Chapter 74. Remnants of Ah-Sung (3)
Ji-Ah and Sang-Hyeon could imagine how much Ju-Hyeok had been looking forward to Mixed Nuts' fresh start, but the reality of his excitement far exceeded anything they had been prepared for.
"A, a press article?" Ji-Ah received the shocking news on the way to the rooftop terrace.
Lemon brightly smiled. "
Mm-hm
. You didn't know? A viewer told us after spotting it!"
Ji-Ah was hearing it for the first time.
‘They bothered to put out a press article for a company this small?’
It wasn't even a new company launching. They hadn't built a building, but just moved in. Wasn't a press article for that kind of ridiculous? It wasn’t like they had a dedicated stalker-journalist on the beat. Even if there were, no editorial desk would approve a piece that wouldn’t get any reads.
Ji-Ah looked down at her phone and searched for the article.
‘This is a sponsored article.’
Advertorial pieces had a recognizable format like blog ads.
‘He paid to get it published?!’
She couldn't believe it. What was Ju-Hyeok thinking, paying for a press article over something like this?
‘You're actually out of your mind, Kim Ju-Hyeok...’
Ji-Ah shot a sharp look in his direction. '...'
Then, she couldn't say a word.
Bwahahahaha!
Look at him, talking to PD Jang and Sweet Radish, laughing without a care in the world. Not a trace of worry on his face, only pure happiness could be seen.
‘I've never seen him this happy before.’
When she first met him, he seemed like the cold and calculating type. That side of him was barely visible now. She didn’t know whether something had gotten into her eyes or whether he'd changed.
"Coming through!"
"Oh, right..."
BornToB and the Jang Productions staff streamed past carrying chairs. They stepped onto the terrace and took in the view.
"Wow. Nice weather today."
"Perfect weather for slaughtering a cow..."
Strange banter floated around.
"By the way, I was so disappointed in you, BornToB."
"Huh? Why?"
"I thought you only ever played tank."
"Tank?!"
The Jang Productions staff giggled.
"You've become a full streamer now." Sang-Hyeon came out from behind them, hands full of various greens and plates.
"Oh. Let me take some." Ji-Ah tried to help carry things.
He refused. Honestly, there wasn't really enough to divide anyway.
"No. I've got it. It's nothing compared to Sweet Potato."
"Sweet Potato...?"
Groaning sounds drifted up from below the stairs. "
Ughhh... "...!"
Sweet Potato was carrying an enormous haul of beer, soju, cola, and soda... every kind of liquid imaginable, all at once. Weight-wise, it had to be approaching fifty kilograms.
"Wh-why didn't you split this up?!"
"We split it evenly." "?"
"The number of perilla leaves I'm carrying matched the number of beer cans and soju bottles."
"Did, did you actually count all of that?"
"Yeah."
The ability to count all of that was almost admirable, but applying a one-to-one match like this could only be described as deliberate malice.
— lmaooooooo
— Insane Almondoyle lmao
— lmaooooo
— Absolute lunacy
On Sweet Potato's shoulder camera, the viewers watching through it erupted in laughter.
"S-senior... help me. Just once. That person... I mean, the Lord, he won't help at all,
hahaha...
"Oh, right!" Ji-Ah hurried down and grabbed one of the handles.
Tug.
‘Wow.’
It was absurdly heavy.
Ugh...!
How did... how did this happen to you?"
"Well, I-I lost a bet..."
"What kind of bet do you lose to that person?"
— That person lmao
— Fr lmao
— There's no intimidation stat here~
— The luggage tho lmaooo
The full story was this: When they'd gone grocery shopping, they decided to divide what to carry. Sang-Hyeon said he'd take the greens and vegetables. He said the number of items matched the number of beer cans, soju bottles, and drinks combined.
"When someone says something like that, how could I just let it stand? There's no way! Almondoyle! I said it just like that!"
Sweet Potato staggered under the weight, but continued with great enthusiasm.
"And then he asked if I was confident. Of course, I was confident. Thinking back on it now, I can't even do basic arithmetic. I have no idea why I was confident. I just didn't think he'd actually get the count right."
Sweet Potato apparently hadn't known that Almond was quite strong in math. When Ji-Ah mentioned it, he was shocked.
"Wait, wasn't that made up? Like the Smart Young Man thing?"
— lmaooooooo
— lmao what
— There's been so much fabrication he can't tell anymore lmao
— This too is part of Almondoyle’s strategy
— Like the Smart Young Man lmaooo
"The Smart Young Man isn't made up either."
Tug!
The bag suddenly got lighter. Ju-Hyeok had cut in.
Ji-Ah looked startled. "Oh... I could've taken that..."
"No. I've got it." Ju-Hyeok pulled Ji-Ah's hand off the handle and moved the bags with an almost frightening amount of force.
Whoa!
" Sweet Potato was practically getting dragged along.
Ju-Hyeok’s strength was genuinely surprising. The bags that had felt impossible to lift arrived at the table in no time.
"Wh... thank you, sir!" Sweet Potato used honorifics before he knew it.
— Is this organized crime lmao
— Sir!
— Where has this walnut been living lmao
— Physically he really is superior tho lmao
— Actually scary lmao
— Makes sense, a real shut-in would faint if this guy was their boss
"Thank you for coming, Sweet Potato. Enjoy the food." Smiling warmly, Ju-Hyeok patted him on the shoulder.
‘Make a great impression and recruit them all.’
He thought he was making a good impression to recruit the streamers, but this was a profoundly mistaken belief. Ju-Hyeok’s nature was simply too different from streamers to have any idea what actually went through Sweet Potato's head.
"This company is... genuinely terrifying."
— lmaooooooo
— lmaooooo
— lmao fr
— What are you supposed to do when the director is also jacked?
— Are they running 24-hour overtime shifts?? lmao
— Graduated from Ah-Sung, tall AND strong, what the...
— Too much main character energy...
Sweet Potato glanced between Ji-Ah and Ju-Hyeok and muttered to his camera, "Do you all think I maybe... got a little too close to Ji-Ah earlier...?"
He thought that something was going on between those two.
— lmaooo nobody knows
— How would we know
— Male territory intimidation
— Probably yeah
— Watch yourself
— He's a little jealous~
— You're going to the barbecue next and getting sent to the Fertile Lands
Like streamer, like viewer, SweetPotato's audience thought along the same lines. Ju-Hyeok’s sheer overwhelming presence had made it impossible to read the bag-carrying as just a simple favor.
"God, damn it! I just lost a bet. That's literally all I did!" Sweet Potato grumbled and started trying to recount the greens and drinks.
Unfortunately, he had been a music school graduate. Math had long parted ways with him.
‘I... I don't get it.’
Honestly, he didn't even fully understand how Sang-Hyeon's count was correct. He'd just been embarrassed to admit he couldn't count and caved.
— lmaooooo
— Why did you start counting and then stop lmao
— The head-scratching is genuinely so funny lmao
— The Smart Young Man is the Smart Young Man, clearly next to this guy lmao
— This is what Gold average looks like
"Potato Servant! Get over here and carry some more of this!" After a moment's dallying, Sang-Hyeon's command came down.
— The Lord lmaooo
— Potato Servant lmaooo
— Potato Servant lmao
— He went back to Potato Servant lmao
— Yu Sang-Hyeon
"Oh, y-yes, sir! My lord!"
With everyone busily going about, one person awkwardly stood and fidgeted in the middle of it all.
‘What am I... supposed to do. Didn't these people just meet? Why is everyone so comfortable?’
Macaron, aka Kim Ji-Hu, had no idea what to do with himself. He drifted back inside from the terrace. Maybe he could help with something in there. He headed toward the kitchen. People were clustered around watching something.
"Alright! Slicing the sashimi!"
Pang had brought fish he'd caught himself and was now killing them right in front of everyone.
Flop. Flop!
The fish thrashed and writhed to get away.
Smack!
Thwack!
Thud!
Pang stunned them in an instant.
"YEAAAH!"
Clap clap clap.
The audience applauded.
"You stun them like this before working on them. Much safer. Got it?"
— lmaooo nice
— Showing off your skills, brother
— Taking it out in one shot here too!
— I'm so proud of Pang
— He killed it! (literally)
His viewers were thrilled while Macaron was scared.
‘That fish... kind of looks like me.’
The stunned fish seemed uncomfortably familiar like a new hire just brought in. Stunned like that and then...
Swoop!
Being processed without hesitation. The person doing it was even smiling while the fish was skinned alive and sliced into fillets. Then, the beautiful plate of sashimi was completed.
"Ta-da~"
— Skills improving every time lmao
— Isn't he the star of this party?
— lmaooooo whoa
— That's legit now lmao
About thirty minutes passed. Finally, everything was ready. A crowd of people settled around the table. Macaron, some way or another, ended up sitting among them.
‘Yesterday, I was in my room... Insane... Isn't this way too much stimulation...’
If every person he'd seen in the past three years were added up, this gathering would still beat that number.
"Macaron. Here." Ji-Ah came over and held out a can of beer. "Have a drink?"
"Ah..." Macaron's face went as red as if he'd already been drinking.
‘Sh-she's my boss.’
This was the first time he'd seen her face in person. The one person he'd actually communicated with. The one who'd made him feel understood. And she was prettier in person than he'd expected. Not a flashy celebrity kind of pretty, more like an everyday, ordinary pretty.
‘What are you thinking, Kim Ji-Hu. Get yourself together! You're just overwhelmed by stimulation.’
Though honestly, right now, Macaron would probably find anyone attractive.
At his strange reaction, Ji-Ah asked once more, "You drink, right? We're going to make a toast."
"Yes! Yes!"
About three seconds after Ji-Ah's warning, Ju-Hyeok stood up from his seat.
"Alright~!" He raised his glass like the Statue of Liberty. "Everyone is streaming right now, yes?"
Normally, he’d tell people to turn the streams off. However, Ju-Hyeok held firm that the streams be kept on at all times today.
"Yes~!"
"We certainly are!"
The streamers answered in a chorus. Sang-Hyeon also switched his stream on and propped up a portable camera.
Ju-Hyeok met eyes with Sang-Hyeon. "Thank you all for being here for the beginning of Mixed Nuts."
Similar reactions poured in from every streamer's chat simultaneously.
— lmaooooooo
— Whoa the energy lmao
— Insane lmao
— This is the most social moment I've ever witnessed in livestream history...
— This is a real company dinner
— Is this... Ah-Sung?
Almond's stream, which just went live, had it even worse. — ? — ???
— What?
— A dinner?
— lmaooooo
— PTSD warning video
— Is he the CEO?
— Wait the title said Knight Order bonding lmao
Whoosh.
Before delivering the toast, Ju-Hyeok placed the walnut hat on his own head.
“He’ll probably do a toast chant,” Ji-Ah whispered a warning to Macaron in advance.
This was a kind of jump-scare alert for the faint of heart. What was so scary about a toast chant? Kim Ju-Hyeok would probably never understand that question for his entire life.
"The toast is to LHC!"
"Ohhh!"
PD Jang and Pang lit up. They were right in that demographic.
"Let's become (L)eaders who enjoy (H)ardships and (C)hallenges!"
"Let's become LHC!"
Clink!
Every streamer present had the same thought.
‘On that day, humanity was reminded...’
‘A great wall... There was a great wall.’
‘I... had been living in a world like this.’
Company dinners, a part of society they hadn't been privy to. It probably felt like this. And yet, how right they'd been to stay out.
‘I couldn't do this.’
The full blast summer sun energy of the ultra-social corporate world... Those without immunity felt a bone-deep, tingling pain.
— lmaooooooooooo
— lmaooooo
— LHC! lmao
— lmaooo
— Honestly, at this point I'm just a fan lmaooo
— This is it~
— Millennium vibes, I'm dying
— lmaooooo
— The streamers all went completely silent lmaooo
The real problem started here.
Ahhh!
"Oh, that's good."
"Hit the spot!"
Everyone threw back a drink.
"Now then, there's someone here at our company for the very first time today, isn't there?"
Even Ji-Ah hadn't seen this coming from Ju-Hyeok.
"Ma! Ca! Ron!"
“YEAAAAAHHH!”
A thunderous round of applause rang out. Every eye in the room turned to Macaron.
"We'd love to hear a toast from Macaron!"

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