Chapter 175: Country Diner (1)

Not even Kang Ra-Eun had expected to come across a situation like this after opening the door. But of course, Je-Woon was likely far more bewildered as the victim. Before even having the time to react...

“Should I show you around the lodge, Ra-Eun?”

Ra-Eun could hear a female staff member from a distance.

Slam—!

Ra-Eun reflexively slammed the sliding door shut. She couldn’t let the female staff member see such a sight. The staff member turned to look at the room with the light on as she approached Ra-Eun.

“Is someone in there?”

“Huh? No, there isn’t.”

“Really? But why is the light on...?”

As the staff member was about to reach for the sliding door handle, Ra-Eun stepped in her way to stop her.

“I-I turned it on just now. I just wanted to look around the room. I’ll turn it off, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“Oh, really? Okay. Come find me after you do that, then. I’ll show you to your room.”

“Thank you.”

The most urgent order of business was to send this female staff member elsewhere. Like Ra-Eun had wished, the staff member went to go speak with the lighting team. Just then, the room door slightly opened and revealed the fully-clothed Je-Woon with an embarrassed look on his face.

“I’m sorry for showing you that, Ra-Eun.”

“No, it’s okay, sunbae. I was the one who opened the door without checking, so there’s no need for you to apologize. It didn’t bother me that much.”

Ra-Eun wouldn’t have been able to even look Je-Woon in the eyes if she had been born a woman, but she had originally been a man. Not only had she looked at her own male body countless times, she had far more experience seeing male naked bodies from using the public bath with friends and the shower room at fitness centers. Hence, she had not been flustered from the current situation. Rather, she was more envious than embarrassed.

‘I knew he had a nice body, but it’s way better than I’d thought.’

Ra-Eun had almost whistled from seeing it, which would have caused Je-Woon to look at Ra-Eun weirdly. Je-Woon had been worried about what she was thinking about, but was relieved after hearing her answer.

“But that aside, why were you changing here, sunbae?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Oh, I made a bet with Tae-Chan after we looked around the diner. The loser had to jump in the ocean.”

In other words, they had been making content. It wouldn’t be much of a TV program if the two of them, who had arrived first, had just been sitting around while doing nothing. Hence, they had made a bet to jump into the ocean to create as much entertaining content as possible. Like Je-Woon had mentioned, he had ended up jumping into the ocean because he had lost the bet.

Ra-Eun remarked teasingly, “I’m glad I at least opened the door after you changed into your underwear.”

Je-Woon had also been thinking the same. He couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly.

“If you had opened it before, I might have called this entire thing quits and gone back to Seoul.”

He was being completely serious.

***

Ji Han-Seok had arrived late due to his company duties. The four of them were finally together at the lodge. There was a wide wooden floor on the lodge’s courtyard where cameras, lighting and various filming equipment were set up. The four of them sat together in front of the camera so that they were all lined up nicely.

Je-Woon, the only one among the four with experience as a host, spoke first.

“This is the first time we've gotten together since learning how to cook from Chef Yoo Seong-Yoon, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I think it’s been a month, hasn’t it?”

Ra-Eun and Tae-Chan, the youngest ones here, answered respectively. There were three men and one woman. Director Choo had told Ra-Eun back when they were deciding on the cast members that they could recruit one more woman if she would feel lonely as the only woman, but she did not mind.

‘Rather, I feel more comfortable around men.’

Not just that, she felt absolutely no sense of alienation since they were all people she knew.

Je-Woon took a large bite of a watermelon slice and talked about something that he had momentarily forgotten about.

.

“We have to run the diner starting tomorrow, but I just realized that we haven’t decided on each of our positions.”

Deciding on roles was important since it might cause miscommunications if they were not given proper individual duties to perform. Ra-Eun had also been thinking the same thing.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

“Han-Seok sunbae and I can cook, so we should handle the kitchen duties. Tae-Chan can manage the floor as a server, and as for Je-Woon sunbae... How about you go back and forth between the floor and kitchen and help wherever needed?”

Ra-Eun expertly distributed duties to everyone using her experience as head of security. The three men had no objections to her perfect role distribution.

“There shouldn’t be much work to do on the floor since it’s only a country diner.”

It seemed more important to have as many people help out in the kitchen as possible. They were not culinary professionals, but amateurs that were working at a diner for the very first time. It would take a very long time for them to prepare the dishes, so it seemed best to assign as many people who could cook to the kitchen as possible to reduce that time.

Now that the most important thing on their agenda, role distribution, had been completed...

“Why don’t we go to sleep early today?”

They needed to wake up at dawn tomorrow to procure all the ingredients and open the doors to the diner, so it was probably good to get as much rest as possible.

Je-Woon looked toward Ra-Eun. “I’m sure you’re the most tired among us, Ra-Eun. Get some rest.”

“Oh, right. You came down here right after your film premiere, didn’t you?”

Je-Woon and Han-Seok fluidly changed the subject to Ra-Eun’s film. Ra-Eun was planning on advertising

Shuttered?

as much as possible during her appearance on

?Country Diner

.

Ra-Eun answered with a smile, “Yes, I came here without even being able to remove my make-up from the premiere.”

“Which film was it again?”

“It’s called

Shuttered

. It’s directed by Director Choi Yong-Woon.”

Ra-Eun mentioned simple information about the film, starting from its genre being horror to things like the cast members and such. Since this episode of

Country Diner

was going to be released before the film’s release, she also gave a short introduction to its story without going into spoilers.

Je-Woon shuddered. “I’m trembling. It must be because we’re talking about a horror film in the dark countryside.”

“Oh, yeah. You’re weak to horror, aren’t you?”

Han-Seok and Tae-Chan already knew that Je-Woon was a chicken when it came to horror, but not that Ra-Eun was as well. She was rather happy that they were not aware.

After the short film advertisement, they each headed to their own rooms to relieve the fatigue accumulated during the day. The male cast members used the first floor, while Ra-Eun used the second floor by herself. She changed her clothes, washed her face and finally returned to her room.

“I feel so much better.”

Ra-Eun had never worn make-up back when she was a man, so she never had to do anything like cleansing and such. However, things had changed after she became an actress. She couldn’t afford to skip out on skin care. She had full make-up on for such a long time that she needed to soothe her fatigued facial skin. She took out a face pack that she had packed in her suitcase.

“I didn’t even know how to do things like this in the beginning.”

But now, it had become all too natural. She applied the face pack, opened a window and looked down at the courtyard. The production team got ready to leave with just a small portion of staff members staying at the lodge in case of emergencies.

‘They look quite busy.’

Ra-Eun only needed to appear on camera, but the staff members were different; they needed to prepare everything for the shoot. She had no idea about how hard staff members had it back when she had only been a viewer.

‘I already knew it, but I really have changed a lot from my past self.’

It had been the same when she had come across Je-Woon in only his underwear. Ra-Eun was a little scared about what other changes that her life would bring.

***

Ra-Eun woke up at 5 AM because she had slept very early. There was still time until the shoot began. She couldn’t fall back asleep even if she tried.

‘I guess I’ll go for a jog.’

She had been so busy yesterday that she hadn’t been able to work out. She changed into sportswear and decided to look around the village while jogging.

“Are you off to exercise, Ra-Eun?”

Director Choo had arrived at the lodge as she tied her hair back and was warming up.

“Yes. I’m gonna go for about a thirty-minute jog.”

“Really? Then can a few of our staff members accompany you?”

“I’m gonna be jogging, though. Will they be okay?”

“Yes. Camera Director Kim here is a pretty good runner.”

Kim Jun-Tae, Ra-Eun’s exclusive cameraman, said confidently, “I may not look like it, but I’ve overcome all kinds of trials in the variety industry. I’ve even filmed a chase that no one wanted to do for a week long.”

Chases in variety shows demanded a significant amount of stamina. This was especially true for the cameramen, since they needed to run just as fast or sometimes even faster than the cast members while holding a heavy camera. Jun-Tae was confident that he could easily keep up with a female celebrity’s jog.

Ra-Eun lightly shrugged. “I don’t mind, but please let me know if you get too exhausted. I’ll lower my speed.”

“That probably won’t happen.”

They reloaded the film on the camera. Ra-Eun was still blindingly beautiful early in the morning despite having no make-up on. She lightly exhaled and sped up little by little. The camera director and the small number of staff members also ran at her pace behind her, but ten minutes after running along the beach...

“Pant, pant... R-Ra-Eun... Why is she running so fast...?!”

The initially confident Camera Director Kim and the other staff members were already panting like crazy while trying to keep up with Ra-Eun’s speed. They had come to regret joining her jog.