“Ah!”
Hye-jeong slipped, but Junho and Sung-hwan reached their arms out to catch her. Unfortunately, I got there faster and caught Hye-jeong by the waist. The two men looked quite disappointed.
“Thanks, Sian.”
“No problem.”
Did she just say thank you? She really changed a lot these past few days. Then again, she’s not the first girl to start acting nice towards me. Ha-jeong was like that too, when we filmed Jumping Man, Flying Man. I guess it’s just my charm.
“Sian, can you hold my hand?”
“Huh?”
“It’s so slippery here and I keep falling.”
“Oh, okay.”
I took Hye-jeong’s hand. Her fingers were so slender and beautiful.
We walked for another half hour. Just then, we felt raindrops falling on our head.
“Eh?”
We all looked up and all of a sudden, the rain increased.
Whoosh!
It was a rush of rain. In a matter of seconds, there was a downpour! Are you fucking kidding me?
“Hey! The camera!”
The staff, who were with us, immediately ran to cover the camera, while the rest of us ran under a tree. We covered our bags with plastic and immediately donned disposable ponchos.
“Ugh…” Hye-jeong let out with a pout. To be honest, so was I actually. Rain was certainly not welcome at this point. The ground was already slippery and muddy as it is. This was just really bad luck.
“The rain will make the path more dangerous, so we’ll stay here for a bit,” the lobster head producer said.
And so, we waited under the large tree. It was so huge that it actually blocked the wind and rain from us.
“Why did the weather change all of a sudden?” Hye-jeong asked, glaring up at the sky. It was still midday, but it was now dark.
“It really sucks.”
This was annoying. I could feel myself getting more and more annoyed by the second.
Suddenly, I realized that Hye-jeong was still holding my hand. That made me think. Was she? So I asked.
“Hey, Hye-jeong.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you queer?”
“Huh? What’s that?”
Hye-jeong didn’t understand what ‘queer’ meant. So, I rephrased the question.
“Are you a lesbian?”
“What the hell?” Hye-jeong snapped at that. Okay, she wasn’t a lesbian. Then again, why was she so offended? Anyways.
“The rain stopped!” the lobster head producer could not help but shout. Sure enough, the rain had stopped falling. It hadn’t even been five minutes. How could the weather be this flaky? Anyways, since the rain stopped, we were on our way again. And after about an hour, we finally arrived at the Samaran village.
***
“They said ‘Welcome’,’ the interpreter translated for us. Sure enough, everyone seemed happy to see us. Byung-hoon and Junho immediately began to gesture to communicate with the villagers, and the villagers tried to gesture back. From the distance, an elderly Samaran began heading towards us as everyone immediately stepped back. According to the interpreter, this elder was the village chief. He waved to us and we greeted him back. He held out his hand for a handshake, and Byung-hoon shook it.
“Hello, Chief. I am Byung-Hoon from Korea.”
The interpreter translated and the Samaran chief nodded eagerly. Then all of a sudden, he held up his middle finger. We were all taken aback. All of a sudden, the interpreter intervened.
“Oh. Here, the middle finger means you’re cool.”
“Oh~”
Our anger dissipated immediately. And here we were thinking that he was insulting us. In return, Byung-hoon gave a thumbs up.
Suddenly, the chief furrowed his brows, looking rather unhappy. In fact, the other villagers began to look offended as well.
“Here, giving a thumbs up is considered a provocation. It means you’re looking for a fight,” the interpreter informed us.
“Oh! Sorry!”
Byung-hoon hung his head remorsefully as did the rest of us. For some reason, the villagers were holding weapons. It was as if they were just about to leave on a hunting trip…they’re not going to hunt us, are they?
After we finished apologizing, Byung-hoon held up both of his middle fingers and we followed his example. Not long after, the villagers also held up their middle fingers, their expressions considerably more happy now. Everyone that is, except the producer.
“Should we edit this…?” the producer muttered under his breath.
Now that the greetings were over, we immediately began to immerse ourselves in the village culture. Trying one thing after another got old very very fast.
‘Wow, this is exhausting.’
I’m not kidding, but the rest of the cast were reacting as if everything was so amazing and impressive…especially Hye-jeong. She immediately went into girl idol mode and began playing with the kids. She certainly made a nice picture. Byung-hoon and Junho were helping some villagers build houses, while Sung-hwan was learning some hunting techniques. As for Ji-chun, he immediately began to learn more about the traditional cuisine. How about me? I was gutting some fish with some young girls. Oh, and teaching them self-defense.
“What? What do I then?” one of them asked with gestures. I understood what she was asking. She wanted to know what she’s supposed to when a man bothers me.
“You kick them there,” I said, pointing to the crotch area. The girls giggled. It’s not that funny…the kids here sure were innocent, but their clothes were very revealing. No, it didn’t look slutty or anything. After all, it’s just their traditional style, but it was sort of embarrassing to look at. They even told us to take off our clothes but I explained to them we couldn’t do that. Luckily, they understood.
We hung out with the villagers for a while when the main producer walked up to us.
“We will now proceed on a hunting party with the chief. Who’s going?” he asked.
Byung-hoon looked at us and said, “All of us.”
“All of you?”
“Yep,” Byung-hoon said with a firm nod. He added, “An experience like this is important for all of us.”
“Alright. Then, I’ll tell them that all of you are joining.”
“But what kind of hunt is it?” Byung-hoon asked.
“They’re going to hunt warthogs. You should probably meet with the chief before you go, so you can hear more in detail. He says it’s not dangerous.”
“Sounds good,” Byung-hoon replied. He’s been hosting this show for two years. He picked things up quickly and knew what his strengths and weaknesses were. He and Junho joined the chief and had a deep discussion. After what seemed to be an hour or so, we were off to hunt.
***
Byung-hoon began to carve a weapon.
“We’re going to catch a warthog?” I asked.
“Yep. We’re going to go warthog hunting,” Byung-hoon said, looking very excited. Then again, he was always excited at the prospect of a hunt.
“Won’t it be dangerous?” I asked. I glanced over at Hye-jeong, who was still playing with the kids. Warthogs are vicious animals. It could be dangerous for a girl.
“The chief told us that it’s not. Warthogs are too busy running away from people to attack them.
“Oh.”
Well that makes sense. Not to mention, with all the men going. But…wait a minute. If it’s not dangerous, then why are so many people going?
“Are you scared, Sian?”
“No. ”
“Oh. That’s actually disappointing,” Byung-hoon said with an amused smile.
“Still, you should stay in the rear and watch carefully. We’ll show you what a real hunter is like,” he said. He sure sounded confident. Maybe he has experience catching one of these warthogs.
“Have you caught one before?”
“Yep. Season 1. Of course, if it were just us, it’d be dangerous. But remember, we’re getting help from everyone, so it’s fine.”
“I see.”
Oh please. I could probably catch one by myself.
By the time the weapons were ready, it was time to hunt. We all gathered around. The village men had smaller builds compared to the men in our group, but they were definitely not weak. I bet they’re even more physically fit than Sung-hwan, but maybe not as strong. Anyways, soon enough, we were off to find a warthog.
“Sian, do you think it’ll be okay?” Hye-jeong asked, looking somewhat worried. She was holding my hand again. Since when was she so attached to me?
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Look at all the people going.”
Usually, warthogs were hunted in small groups. But this time, with all the cast members and the show crew coming along, there were a lot of people this time around.
“Still. I’m scared,” Hye-jeong said. And not long after, she immediately attached herself next to me. My heart immediately began to flutter.
Suddenly, the elder chief stopped and pointed upwards. There, high up in a tree, was a small house.
“It’s about 40 meters up,” the interpreter translated.
Just looking at it was making us dizzy.
“How does someone build a house 40 meters up…” Byung-hoon muttered in disbelief. He continued to stare at the house. Suddenly, with a grin, the Samaran chief said something in his language.
“The chief wants to know if you think you can make it up there,” the interpreter said.
Byung-hoon gulped. Up until now, he’s always taken up a challenge…and won. But this was…
“Hmm…”
Byung-hoon began to think.
“That’s way too dangerous. You shouldn’t do it,” the producer spoke up by himself. He’s worked on this show with Byung-hoon for two years, so he knew what the man was capable of. But clearly, he thought that this was too much as well.
“Hang on. I’m still thinking.”
And Byung-hoon continued to stare at the house. He gulped once more. He would have to climb a tree 40 meters high. It won’t be easy.
“Is it really that hard?” I muttered under my breath.
Hye-jeong turned to look at me, seemingly horrified by what I just said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I bet I could do it.”
“Jesus Christ,” Hye-jeong said, shaking her head. Then she added, “You’re insane.”
“….”
I’m crazy, huh? Well, I’ll let you know that something that high up was nothing to me when I was training. I’ve jumped down from things way higher than that. 40 meters was nothing. Well…not that anyone would believe me. So, I watched Byung-hoon, wondering what he would say. In the meantime, I was seriously considering trying it as well. I really wanted to, but…if I did, then the public would definitely see me as a freak. Jinwoo would certainly not be happy.
Just then, the Samaran chief said something with a smirk and then, the interpreter translated.
“He said, ‘Are you scared? If you’re too much of a coward to try, you don’t have to try.’”
“What?” Byung-hoon replied. He may not be that large physically, but his ego was the size of Mt. Everest. There was no way he could turn his back on the chief’s challenge after that and he loudly declared that he’ll do it.
“I’ll do it!”
And that’s when I heard it. The staff immediately began to whisper amongst themselves.
“He’s crazy…”
“He really shouldn’t…”
“Please don’t…”
“What if he gets hurt…?”
“I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“What if he dies?”
“Today is turning out interesting, at least.”
And on and on. Anyways, the Samaran chief gave another middle finger, looking very happy with Byung-hoon’s answer. The other Samaran villagers gave their middle fingers as well. And so, we decided to put the warthog hunt on hold and headed for the house that was 40 meters up in a tree.
