Free Web Novel"I knew it."
The beach we reached after driving was unbelievably beautiful.
June, before the weather really started getting hot.
The sunlight was clear, and the sea glittering under it looked like a painting.
Of course, it was still too early to actually go into the water, but just looking at it was healing, maybe?
But—
"Everyone, you can see this pension, right?"
"Yes!"
"This is the pretty pension we prepared for you. Starting with the indoor pool, the soft beds, and all kinds of food—we stocked it full."
What Lee Hakyoon, the content team lead, said wasn’t a lie.
Even to me—whose sense of aesthetics was worse than the other members—this place was definitely pretty.
From the way it looked like a luxury European villa to the way the facilities were all shiny, like it was screaming, I’m newly built! It wasn’t weird at all that the members’ eyes went wide.
"Wow, it’s really pretty."
"Look at this! From fruit to meat, there’s a ton of it!"
"There’s a grill and charcoal for cooking meat too!"
"That’s a real pool."
"What is this, a badminton court?"
Even now, following the filming crew’s guidance and looking at the facilities and everything the production team prepared, the members were getting excited.
But I wasn’t.
Tap.
What I checked was the number of bedding sets.
'Four?!'
Normally, a pension prepared bedding separately based on the number of people staying.
Which meant if there were only four sets—
"Only four members get to stay in this amazing pension!"
They had no intention of letting us sleep easily today.
"What do you mean?!"
Lee Gahyeon finally realized the filming team’s nasty scheme and asked late, but Lee Hakyoon ignored it and kept talking.
"Today’s Iam in-house content! Showdown Trip. Today, you’ll split into two teams and play a total of three games."
Somehow, a game board had already been prepared. It was brought out and set up in front of us, and Lee Hakyoon slid naturally into explaining the games.
I and the members could only stare blankly.
"Through those three games, your meal, lodging, and sea entry will be decided. The winning team will get the cozy pension, a delicious meal, and water-entry viewing, and the losing team will get···."
The rest was left unsaid, but we didn’t need to hear it.
We could see some of the filming crew quietly moving a tent.
That tent was obviously the losing team’s lodging.
Snap.
"Question! I have a question!"
"Yes, Sion, ask."
"You just said we’re splitting into two teams, but we’re seven people. Then isn’t the team with three at a disadvantage?"
"Correct. So this showdown will be played as 3 versus 3, and one of you will be excluded from the showdown and enjoy all the winning team’s privileges in full!"
"How do we choose that one person?"
"You can choose freely."
At those words, the members’ eyes changed right away, and they started scanning each other.
'Now that’s my members.'
I couldn’t forget.
Me and the Iam members here were the warriors who survived a survival show where a hundred people competed.
Just hearing the word showdown had already flipped them into combat mode, their eyes turning crazy, and I was extremely satisfied.
"So how do we pick the one person?"
"Usually in things like this, the leader should represent—"
"Ryujin, do you want to get ninja’d?"
"Everyone, in Korea we have this fine tradition about respecting elders and age order—"
The filming crew’s sweet temptation—only one person gets a free pass—made everyone subtly argue that they should be the one who survives.
But this was already one of two options.
"Let’s leave out the weak and the kids and fight."
"Huh?"
"Today’s the day I finally execute Ryujin-scrub, coward Ryujin, and you, Yuri-the-schemer."
With my words, Shinyu and Yunkyung naturally moved behind me.
"I’m fine sleeping outside. If Gahyeon sleeps outside, she might not be able to wake up the next day, so I’ll yield."
"I’m not that bad, Yunkyung!"
"Gahyeon struggles if she misses even one meal!"
"Shinyu, you’re being considerate, right?"
Since the youngest line refused to take the free pass, Lee Gahyeon naturally got excluded from the match, and she shouted like it was unfair, but that wasn’t important anymore.
"Kids, are you seriously not going to regret this?"
"Yuri doesn’t go easy because someone is young."
"It feels like you’re taking us too lightly."
Seo Ryujin, Ryu Ayeon, and Kurosawa Yuri started banding together against our Liu-Guan-Zhang Trio.
The showdown had basically already started.
***
"The first game is jokgu (foot volleyball) for the meal!"
"Ah···."
The moment Ayeon heard the first event come out of Lee Hakyoon’s mouth, she let out a groan without meaning to.
Shooo-shushuk!
"Is it finally time for Haan-dong Ronaldo to deploy···."
"I’m glad I stuck with Captain!"
"I’ll trust you, Sion!"
Maybe she got excited the moment she heard the event, because Lee Sion started shadowboxing while the youngest line flanked her on both sides like bodyguards.
"Isn’t this way too biased?"
"Yuri thinks this is unfair!"
It wasn’t just Ayeon—Ryujin and Yuri on the same team also seemed to predict it wouldn’t be easy once jokgu got named.
'Lee Sion talks big 90 percent of the time, but her athletic sense is real.'
Lee Sion liked soccer to a weird degree—enough to keep running her mouth about how she used to be Haan-dong Ronaldo.
-I mean, come on! Even I could score that!
She’d lie on the living room couch watching overseas soccer at dawn, and whenever she got the chance, she’d lecture the members on why Ronaldo was great.
Compared to the other members, she definitely showed broader knowledge of ball sports, so we couldn’t tell her exact skill level, but she probably wasn’t below basic. That was what Team Ayeon was thinking.
"If I explain the rules of jokgu, it’s a simple game where you receive the ball with any body part except your hands and arms and send it over the other team’s net. Each player can touch the ball only once, and if you touch twice or the ball goes out of bounds, you lose a point. Also···."
While the filming crew explained the rules, the Iam members each warmed up and held quick strategy talks.
"Let’s hold on while sending it to Lee Sion as little as possible."
"Right. But has any of us actually played jokgu?"
"Yuri hasn’t···."
"I’ve seen boys play a few times. Let’s aim for headers as much as possible, and only use our feet when it’s really decisive." ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Ayeon was grateful she’d at least watched the boys run out and play jokgu during breaks at school a few times.
"Ladies first."
Once everything was set and it was time for the match to start, we had to decide who got the ball first.
With a confident face, Lee Sion tossed the ball toward Ayeon’s team and shouted, "Ladies first."
"···You’ll regret it."
"A strong one should show consideration to the weak."
How good was she that she was this confident?
Ayeon swallowed without realizing it, tense.
"Then, should we start?"
"Yes!"
Wheeeek!
With Lee Gahyeon—who got sidelined as the free pass—blowing the whistle in her mouth, the jokgu match, the first game of the Showdown Trip content, finally began.
Bang!
Seo Ryujin kicked hard from the very back of the court and sent a serve, the ball flying over with a crisp sound.
"I’ve got it!"
Shinyu, positioned deep in the opposing court, shouted that she had it and lightly received it off her forehead.
Then Yunkyung followed up, and the ball got kicked right back into the court, returning to Ayeon’s side, where Yuri received it like she was doing shuttlecock kicks.
"What the hell, why are they rallying?"
"I thought they wouldn’t even get the serve in."
"Wow, aren’t they better than most boys?" ƒгeewёbnovel.com
The male staff filming blurted out admiration watching that short exchange.
And it made sense—jokgu looked simple, but it was never easy once you actually did it.
Even among men, it wasn’t rare «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» to see people who couldn’t receive the ball properly even once when they played.
But the Iam members right now, even if a little slow, were steadily sending it over and receiving it again.
"They really do have athletic sense."
At someone’s comment, the rest of the filming crew all nodded.
Not all idols, but thinking about how a lot of them had good athletic sense, what Iam was showing wasn’t shocking.
In the end, ball sports were about innate athletic sense.
"My!"
And after a bit of rallying back and forth, the big chance finally came to Lee Sion.
Shinyu received it, Yunkyung followed up, and she set the ball at a height and position anyone could tell was perfect for an attack.
Seeing it, Lee Sion shouted and stomped, then launched into the air.
"An overhead?!"
The rest of Iam and the filming crew had no choice but to freak out.
Lee Sion’s body in midair looked like she was lying back on an invisible bed, her back facing the ground as she lifted one leg high toward the ball.
She was unfolding, like a picture, the posture of an overhead kick—called the coolest shot in soccer.
Finally, Lee Sion’s foot met the ball Yunkyung had set with a crisp sound, and the opposing team members tensed up and froze—
Ting.
"A shank?"
The ball Lee Sion kicked so stylishly flew off ridiculously and dropped outside the line.
***
"Captain scammed us!"
"Today my condition wasn’t good."
"Sion···."
Yunkyung clung to my clothes, whining that I had to give her back her pension and food, and Shinyu looked at me with pitiful eyes like she couldn’t bring herself to take my side on even this.
"She seriously sucks."
"Sion, didn’t you watch soccer every dawn?"
"It’s because I’m Haan-dong Ronaldo. People said Messi is the best at soccer."
And with Shinyu and Yunkyung, plus Yuri, pouring mockery all over me, I was feeling helpless for the first time in my life.
-Again, out!
I hit the ball at the exact timing, with the exact force. So why the hell was it going out of bounds?
Where did the past-life 7th Division left-foot devil go?
I had been reborn as an angel with two feet who donated points to the other team.
Even when I got so frustrated I tried using my head instead of my feet—
-Does your head have three sides?
I couldn’t understand why the ball still bounced left and right when it hit dead center on my forehead.
So our Liu-Guan-Zhang Trio got completely crushed in the first game, jokgu.
And just like that, we lost lunch made of fresh East Sea seafood, and had to sit there watching the other members eat sashimi and spicy fish stew right next to us.
After the meal, the production team—like they hadn’t forgotten this was travel content—walked us around the natural scenery near the lodging and let us look around, but—
-This local specialty originated in Gangneung and is made using seawater. What is it?
-Chodang soft tofu!
-Ding-dong-deng!
In the middle of moving through downtown Gangneung, they ran the second game through quizzes about local spots, so even while sightseeing, we had no choice but to engage in fierce mind games.
Basically, I had more social experience than the members, so I fought hard, but Yunkyung and Shinyu didn’t have the years for these kinds of region-related quiz questions.
And on top of that—
"Yuri, how are you better at these quizzes than Koreans?"
"Yuri watched Home in the Country every day at six to learn Korean!"
"Truly, the value of the broadcast fee!"
The foreign worker Kurosawa Yuri—how did she even know all of Gangwon Province’s specialties?
She put on a terrifying performance and hard-carried the second game.
Because of that, those villains were already acting like they’d won, even though we still had the last game left.
I couldn’t just watch it happen.
I had to show them that justice was alive in this world.
Now the only thing left was the third and final game, for sea entry.
"Iam Showdown Trip! The final match is thigh wrestling!"
"Thigh wrestling, that—"
"You’ve probably done it at least once or seen it. It’s a game where you use your thighs to close or open the other person’s thighs."
Thigh wrestling.
It was a game that showed up on variety all the time, so everyone knew how it worked without much explanation.
"You decide the order by team, and you go until you lose. You can choose the order freely."
Two chairs were set down, and the game prep got finished in one smooth motion.
"Captain, what do we do?"
"I go first. It won’t even get to you two."
"Don’t posture again. Maybe not Yuri, but Ryujin and Ayeon are human weapons!"
"That’s right! Those two look skinny, but it’s all muscle!"
When I said I’d go first so they shouldn’t worry, Yunkyung and Shinyu looked genuinely concerned.
'Those two really are monsters.'
I knew too that Seo Ryujin and Ryu Ayeon weren’t normal.
Maybe because they danced brutal choreography every day, but their thighs were solid enough that the word sturdy just came out automatically. Yunkyung and Shinyu couldn’t handle them.
"That’s why I have to do it."
So I had no choice but to do it.
If not me, then who?
The motto my seniors had used in a slightly wrong direction floated up in my mind.
Now it was my turn.
"Come on!"
Sitting down in the chair, I beckoned for the Ryujin-scrub, coward Ryujin, and schemer trio to come at me.
"I’ll handle Sion at my level!"
Yuri-the-schemer came out first.
It looked like they were using Yuri as a throwaway card to drain my strength and check my power.
"Kwaaaah!!!"
"Die!"
In thigh wrestling that started with my attack, I didn’t go easy and twisted Yuri’s legs with everything I had.
Yuri let out a scream that shouldn’t come out of an idol’s mouth and collapsed.
"Did she get taken out?"
"But Yuri was the weakest among us."
Ryujin wasn’t flustered watching Yuri sprawled on the grass. She sat in the chair next and pressed her thigh against mine.
"This one starts with Sion attacking too. Ready?"
"Yes!"
At the start signal from Lee Gahyeon, acting as the referee, thigh wrestling began again.
"Kkieeeek!!!!"
"This is for Yunkyung!"
"Captain!!!"
Ryujin came out like she was confident she wasn’t Yuri, but in the end, she screamed the same way and rolled around on the grass.
"Sion’s thighs are steel!"
"Ryu Ayeon··· stop that demon···."
Once two out of three got taken out by me and couldn’t even stand properly, the final boss, Ryu Ayeon, finally realized how serious it was. With a stiff face, she sat in the chair across from me.
"You’ve got nothing but brute strength."
"No, no, no. I’m smart and strong. Like Guan Yu."
Finally pressing thighs with Ryu Ayeon—
'She’s different, alright.'
It wasn’t for nothing that she practiced with stamina that rivaled mine. Unlike those two small fry, the pressure was insane.
"Ugh···!"
"Give up!"
My thigh trembled, shaking. Maybe because I smashed the first two too fast, I must’ve spent more strength than I realized.
Meanwhile, Ryu Ayeon, still fresh, forced me to give up, but—
"Captain, you can do it!!!"
"We believe in you, Sion!"
Hearing the youngest line cheering for me so hard, I couldn’t give up here.
"Ryu Ayeon··· what’s my name?"
"What? Are you losing it from being tired? Your name is Lee Sion, what else?"
I nodded at her answer.
"Yeah. I’m Lee Sion. I’m not someone who knows how to give up."
Fwoosh!
I squeezed out the last of my strength and spread my thighs—
"Ah··· no!"
"Yes."
Ryu Ayeon screamed and fell onto the grass.
