GIJS

Chapter 8

To you, a symbol of integrity and nobility

The three girls stared at Gunja with faces as red as tomatoes.

What's going on? They're strangers to him.

They seemed to have something to say but didn't speak. Instead, they hit each other's arms, laughed as if they were going to pass out, and were causing a commotion.

From their laughter, it didn't seem like they were in pain. Should he be the one to speak first?

Eventually, Gunja spoke up.

"Who are you?"

"Eek!"

"Huh-."

Suddenly, bursts of laughter erupted. Gunja almost shouted in surprise. These people had such rapid emotional changes.

In the meantime, one of the girls, pushed forward, finally spoke up.

"Um, is it really you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Eek, haha-!"

"No, why do you keep..."

"Your way of speaking is so funny!"

Since coming to this era, people often laughed at Gunja's manner of speaking. However, even though he tried to change it, it was difficult. It was a way of speaking he had used his whole life; how could he change it easily?

"If you have no business with me, I'll be going."

"No, wait a minute."

"Then why..."

"That Idol Simulation, you were the one who rode the horse, right?"

"!"

Gunja's eyes widened. How did this girl know about that?

"Did you see me that day?"

"No, I saw it on SNS!"

"SNS? What's that?"

"Ha ha ha, this oppa's concept is insane."

"Hey, just tell him!"

The girl took out her smartphone and kindly explained what SNS was.

Though Gunja didn't fully understand, he got the general idea. SNS is a place where many people gather and share stories. The smartphone screen the girl showed him had a photo of Gunja on horseback.

"This is you, right?"

Gunja shyly nodded. To become a topic of conversation for such things was extremely embarrassing.

As Gunja's face reddened, the girls clapped and were delighted. They really did laugh a lot.

"You're handsome!"

"The real-life version is even better!"

"Oppa, are you coming on Idol Simulation?"

"Will you ride a horse again?"

The girls, now that they could speak, started bombarding him with questions. It was overwhelming.

But even amidst the chaos, Gunja answered each question sincerely. They were kind enough to teach him about SNS, after all. They were like mentors to him.

Once the question assault ended, the girls suddenly thrust their smartphones at Gunja.

"Oppa, please take a picture with us!"

Gunja smiled with satisfaction at their request. Although he didn't know SNS, he had learned how to take pictures from his mother.

"I know how to take pictures."

"Ha ha, what are you even saying!"

"Hurry and take it."

Oh, they're not very surprised. This was a rather difficult skill to learn.

Gunja took the camera with a gloomy expression.

What should he take a picture of? A small bamboo grove was visible in the distance.

Click-.

"Oppa?"

"What are you doing..."

"Bamboo symbolizes integrity and nobility."

"Excuse me?"

"It's really nice to look at it whenever your heart wavers."

"Ha ha, no oppa! You need to take a picture with us!"

"Ah-."

Hearing the girls' request, Gunja slapped his forehead. Oh, he didn't understand again.

After guiding them to the bamboo grove, Gunja raised the camera again.

"Alright, I'm taking the picture."

"Um, oppa?"

"One, two, three."

"Excuse me?"

Click-.

This time, he properly set up the girls in front of the bamboo grove and took the picture.

"Here it is."

"???"

"Have a good day."

"?????"

Wanting a picture with the bamboo, a symbol of integrity and nobility, was truly a scholarly mindset.

Feeling that he had done something good, Gunja left with a sense of pride.

* * *

That evening, a post including a photo went up on a large community site.

[Today's Idol Simulation horse-riding scholar meeting lololol (proof included)] [lololol Scholar man is so funny lololol] [His face is ridiculously handsome but his way of speaking is so weird lololol] [He's so handsome I couldn't even talk to him and just stared] [Who is he? omg lolololol] [His concept is crazy lolololol] [Photos] [Photos] [This is the picture the scholar man took] [At first, he only took pictures of the bamboo, but when we asked for one with us, he only took pictures of us in front of the bamboo lololol] [The bamboo looked like it was taken by my mom lolololol]

The sighting report of the 'Ayuksi (Idol Simulation) scholar man,' recently in the news. The short post with two photos already had many comments.

[No way;; don't lie lol] [Who would believe it's proof if you just say it like that lol] [If it's proof, you should have taken it together] [I don't know lololol what are we supposed to do when he takes pictures like that] [But it's really funny in real life lololol] [He took pictures of the bamboo lololol concept is really insane lol] [Isn't he really from the Joseon era? lol] [He came to the audition on a horse, right?;] [Did you see that video? The horse-riding posture is really nice lol] [Oh, I didn't see it, can you upload it?]

The initial sighting post gained credibility as other citizens' reports followed.

[I also passed by there today and think I saw it lol] [Seriously? lololol] [Yeah, as I was going through the underground, a super handsome guy was taking pictures with girls in front of a bamboo grove lololol] [I was wondering what he was doing lololol] [Crazy lololol] [Why did he do that lololol] [lololol there must be a reason for it] [He managed to protect his own face though lololol] [Is he coming on Idol Simulation? I'll be really interested then] [He came to the audition on a horse, right? Wasn't Seokuni unbeatable?] [Don't you know Seokuni is a collector of crazy stuff? lol] [Oh, the live broadcast of Idol Simulation is still so far awayㅠㅠ] [But really, he's super handsome] [Since he participated in the general public audition, he might come out as an individual trainee] [Oh, I saw him riding the horse lololol so crazy lololol] [lololol tak tak tak tak tak tak tak tak]

As the 'Ayouksi scholar man' came back into the spotlight, the audition day video was shared again.

The video of Gunja, wearing traditional attire and riding a white horse, galloping.

Despite being a short 40-second video, fans of [Idol Simulation> were capturing the side profile and trying to deduce Gunja's face.

[His side profile is so unrealㅠㅠ he's so handsome] [His nose is insane lololol perfect visual] [But we don't know yet lololol need to see a proper close-up] [Think of those who scam with Instagram photos] [Oh, who wants to go tear down the speed camera in Paju with me? I want to see the scholar man's face properly;;] [lololol so ridiculous lololol]

Kim Seok-hoon, the PD of [Idol Training Simulation> was watching all this viral process with satisfaction.

"So good."

In an idol survival program, the most important thing is buzz. It's even more important than ratings.

High buzz leads to higher advertising rates, successful derivative programs, and ultimately increases the star power of the debuting group.

Early buzz is usually handled by participants with debut experience or those from acting backgrounds. However, it had never happened that a general public participant raised the program's buzz in such an unexpected way.

Especially before the show even aired or before the participants' training began!

"Yu Gunja, you lovable guy."

He was itching to edit and upload the video of Gunja singing from the general public audition. However, doing so would surely spark allegations of favoritism.

Fortunately, curiosity about Gunja grew smoothly without any additional teasers. With this, the general public audition was already a great success. He never expected to draw such an excellent early card.

Of course, he didn't think Gunja would survive until the end. The other trainers thought the same.

He had mastered Eastern-style spear and folk songs, but it was far from idol style. His dance skills were also unverified. He had no experience as an idol trainee. Moreover, a person with such a bizarre gimmick didn't seem likely to get along well with other trainees.

A participant who would inevitably be eliminated while performing the main mission.

So, they should extract as much juice as possible from him early on.

Like Jeong Mun-bok, who had been responsible for tremendous early buzz as the 'Hip President' in another idol survival show.

"Ha ha, then Gunja becomes the 'Spear President,' huh~?"

Kim Seok-hoon chuckled at his own tired joke.

The executive PD decides the direction of the program's editing. Depending on his decision, some participants get more airtime while others are entirely cut.

Gunja had caught the eye of the powerful executive PD.

"Let's see how our Gunja does until the elimination. Got it?"

* * *

While Kim Seok-hoon PD was chuckling to himself with some cheesy jokes.

Gunja was exploring the SNS platform the girls had introduced, specifically the "Twitty" where the bamboo photo Gunja had taken was being widely shared.

"Oh, they posted the bamboo photo!"

Instead of keeping the photo to himself, he shared it where many people could see. Such a proper attitude. If done like this, their own photo albums would end up empty.

"They are truly generous girls."

Gunja still didn't understand the concept of digital photo replication.

While he was browsing SNS for a while, he also came across some posts presumably written by those girls.

[Final summary of the A-yuk-si scholar encounter] [Today was so amazing] [People who don't believe don't have to, lol] [The scholar concept was a bit unique, but he's super handsome] [His proportions are insane and he's so kind lol] [Honestly, at first, I was just amazed to see the scholar, but] [Talking to him, his charm was insane lol] [I'll print the bamboo photo and hang it at home] [When the A-yuk-shi airs, it'll be even more amazing lol]
"Hmmm, what on earth does this mean···."

It was filled with incomprehensible sentences, like something from the late Joseon era or alien language, but he could definitely understand the last few lines.

[We became total fans of the scholar today] [Taught the scholar how to use SNS lol] [If you're reading this, I want to let you know] [Oppa, I love you lol]
"···Fans···."

Fans. Gunja knew the meaning of this word.

It referred to people who support and love someone. He had heard that there was no greater source of strength and support for an idol than their fans.

He had thought he might have fans someday if he became an idol, but to have fans already was surprising.

He felt a warm, tingling sensation in his heart. It was a different feeling from when he received praise from trainers.

"Fans··· fans."

He definitely wanted to meet them again.

Next time, he would make sure to take pictures not just with bamboo but with the four gentlemen of the plum orchid bamboo chrysanthemum.

Smiling at this resolution, a special achievement notification popped up unexpectedly.

[Special achievement unlocked.] ["First Fan" achieved.] [Rewards are given.]

At that moment, an unexpected status window appeared and began spinning around.