Chapter 151: A Young Man's Inquiry into Life (Part One)

Entertainment Around Us - No Pop-ups
Story Setting Time: April 2007
Recommended Song: Wonder Girls --- Nobody
Disclaimer: This work is purely fictional. Please do not project reality onto it. Any similarities are 100% pure coincidence!

Due to a throat injury, Lee Ran had declined most talk show appearances for Han, keeping only a few dialogue-light shows on the schedule for the coming week to protect his voice. Furthermore, all music programs for this week had been completely cancelled, with decisions for next week pending.

Today, Han was participating in Park Kyung-lim's newly launched program, "Teenager Exploration Life," alongside the members of SS501. He recalled that when SS501 had just debuted, Lee Hyori had personally brought the five young men to pay a visit to Han. Though they felt somewhat unfamiliar this time while recording together, they were still acquainted.

"Teenager Exploration Life" was a program that studied the actual psychological conditions of adolescents. However, when Han arrived at the studio, he had received zero information.

"Hyung, what kind of program are we recording here today?" Kim Hyun-joong asked with a puzzled expression.

"I have no idea either. They didn't notify us of anything, just told us to come straight here. It's a bit absurd," Han replied, equally clueless.

"Didn't your manager say anything, hyung?" the youngest member, Kim Hyung-jun, asked.

"Not at all. We just came straight here after receiving the recording notice. I originally thought there would be a script waiting, but there's nothing. They didn't even tell us the core theme of the show. Seriously, how are we supposed to shoot this?" Han pouted; the unknown was always a source of anxiety.

"Just now, I quietly asked the director what we were supposed to do," Kim Hyun-joong started, breaking into a somewhat ridiculous laugh. "The director said, 'Just do whatever you want, however you want.'" Having said that, even Hyun-joong found it funny and began to chuckle.

"Unbelievable. That's absurd," Han muttered, a similar sense of emptiness washing over him.

Yet, despite having no clue how the show was supposed to proceed, the recording began anyway.

"Lee Han, please step this way," a staff member called out.

Han still felt completely bewildered. "Hey, why are you calling me so soon? I don't know a thing yet."

"Hyung, go experience it and remember to tell us all about it when you get back," Kim Hyun-joong said. Realizing he wasn't the first to go, his bright smile returned, and the anxiety about what lay ahead lessened considerably.

"What if I get human-trafficked and can't come back? Hahahaha," Han joked before stepping into the small room next door.

The moment he walked inside, the door slammed shut behind him. Pitch darkness.

"Hey, what's going on? Why is it completely black? How am I supposed to walk? Where are the lights? Turn the lights on!" Han immediately began to complain.

A staff member's voice replied, "Just walk straight ahead. There's a door. Push it open and walk through."

"What do you mean, walk straight ahead? It's so dark I feel like I'm going to trip at any second," Han muttered, still finding the whole situation absurd. Why did it feel like they had been scammed by the production team? Nothing was provided, nothing was explained, and now they wouldn't even turn on the lights. Seriously. Despite his grumbling, Han groped his way forward in the dark until his hand met a movable wooden panel—presumably a door. He pushed it open, and instantly, a loud chime rang out. Han looked up, trying to see what had made the sound, but his efforts were futile; it was still pitch black.

Finding the situation utterly ridiculous, Han let out a sudden chuckle. At that very moment, the room's lights flashed on. Han's smile froze for a fraction of a second, before he laughed again at the sheer absurdity of it all. Unfolding before his eyes was the scene of a club, with around twenty women dancing to deafeningly loud, pulsing music.

What on earth is this?

Han was now completely in the dark. What on earth does this program want me to do? Dance with them? Try to chat up the girls? Or find some crucial key figure hidden in here? Or figure out a way to escape? What a headache.

Hesitating for a moment, Han decided he should probably try to figure out what was going on. Matching the beat of the music, he approached a few girls near the entrance. Lacking any experience in chatting up strangers—and genuinely having no clue what the show expected of him—his heart suddenly began to race, leaving him entirely flustered and at a loss.

"Excuse me... um..." Han attempted to ask, but the girls in front of him continued dancing freely, as if they hadn't even noticed him. Han felt terribly awkward, yet he was determined to get his question out. "Excuse me... what is going on here?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt like an idiot—obviously, they were all dancing. He offered an embarrassed, sheepish smile.

Still, the girls gave no response. Feeling extremely awkward, Han widened his eyes, puffed out his cheeks, and pouted, wearing an utterly innocent expression. "Director, what do you want me to do in here?!" he shouted toward the entrance. But given the roaring volume of the music, he guessed his voice couldn't possibly carry through, or perhaps the production crew had orchestrated it precisely this way. Han felt entirely helpless.

An urge to bolt out the door washed over him; his palms were sweating, and he was completely nervous.

"Is the task here for me to dance?" Though feeling gloomy, Han knew he had to keep the show going. Even though he had no idea what the program was about, he tried striking up a conversation with the girls in front of him once more. As expected, they offered no reply.

Han was now in a state of absolute panic. After attempting to question various different people countless times and finding that absolutely no one paid him any attention, Han stood stranded in the middle of the room, feeling utterly helpless. He felt as though he had been isolated; despite the roaring music, nobody cared about him. He was completely on his own island. Good grief, what on earth do you want me to do?!

Just as Han was standing in the middle, feeling utterly depressed, the upbeat music abruptly shifted into a slow jazz tune. The girls who had been dancing in the center of the floor swiftly walked over to the chairs lining both sides of the room and sat down, leaving Han standing all alone in the exact center.

What is this supposed to mean now? Han was even more flustered. He looked left, then right, but no one showed any intention of giving him an answer. Standing in the middle, Han thought carefully and decided it would probably be best to find a place to sit down. Standing out here in the middle made him feel like some animal on display, with countless pairs of eyes staring right at him, looking at him very strangely—and more importantly, no one was saying a single word. What a mess. However, when he walked over to the chairs, he discovered there were no empty seats left; they were all completely occupied. He searched for alternative seating nearby, but every single spot was full, which only heightened his panic. In the end, Han had no choice but to retreat to the center once again. By this time, he felt his muscles growing stiff, unsure of where to place his hands and feet, and his face was beginning to burn.

No one paid attention to him, no one told him what to do, and not a single person spoke to him. It had been two years since Han's debut, and this was the first time he had ever filmed such a program. Awkward, absurd, and bizarre were not even close to describing how he felt right then. He could only stand in place with that innocent expression plastered across his face.

Suddenly, the music switched back to fast-paced club beats. All the women stood up, swarmed back into the center of the dance floor, and began swaying to the rhythm.

After a moment of hesitation, Han reluctantly joined in, moving clumsily to the music. "Should I invite one of the girls to dance with me?" he wondered. Hesitating for a moment, he made a tentative move to invite a nearby girl to dance, but once again, she completely ignored him.

"Are all of these people my antis?" Han asked a bit loudly, his expression rather gloomy. "Why won't anyone answer me?" But everyone just kept dancing their own dances. Beads of sweat were already forming on Han's forehead, and his heart rate was through the roof. What an utterly inexplicable show this was.

就这样... (Wait, English only)

Just like that, with no one speaking and no one cooperating, Han had no choice but to stand alone in the middle of the dance floor, his limbs out of sync, enduring ten extremely awkward and helpless minutes in that room. When the chime rang out once more, the door in front of him swung open. Feeling like he had just seen his savior, Han immediately walked out. Before leaving, after a brief inner struggle, he still turned around, bowed to everyone, and said, "Thank you."

The moment Han stepped out of the room, those twenty-odd indifferent women instantly burst into squeals and cheers. "The young master is so handsome!" "His shy look is so cute!" "How can someone be this adorable?" If Han had heard those words, heaven only knows if he would have passed out on the spot.

Led by his manager, Han headed upstairs to meet Park Kyung-lim.

"Han! You've suffered, you've suffered. How was it? How did it feel in there?" Park Kyung-lim greeted him immediately with open arms.

"Noona, why did this happen? What on earth were we supposed to be doing in there? I was dying of awkwardness!" Han felt as though his face was still on fire.

"Hahaha, watching you from here just now, looking so shy and helpless, I genuinely thought you were the cutest thing ever. Haha." Park Kyung-lim wore a broad smile, clearly charmed by Han's earlier shyness.

Han was on the verge of fainting. "Park Kyung-lim noona, what on earth was the mission? Why wouldn't anyone talk to me or pay me any attention? Were they expecting me to go in there and dance?" He was still completely lost in a fog regarding today's theme.

"Well, the premise was that you've entered a club and need to blend in, talk to them, or dance with them. That was today's task—to test your social skills and flirting level," Park Kyung-lim explained. Yet upon learning the answer, Han didn't experience any sudden enlightenment; instead, his face fell even further. "So it was testing that? Wouldn't my score be disastrously low?"

"Haha, not at all. You talked to them and danced with them too. Let's take a look at your results." Park Kyung-lim pointed toward the large screen, which finally displayed Han's score: 15 points.

"Whoa, it's actually that high?" Han was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

Meanwhile, Kim Hyun-joong, who was still waiting outside, was utterly bewildered. "Hyung, why hasn't Han-hyung come out yet? Did he really get human-trafficked? Or did aliens abduct him?" The moment Hyun-joong finished speaking, everyone standing around him broke out in cold sweat.

Next up was Kim Hyun-joong's turn. "If I get snatched away by aliens too, you guys better come rescue me quickly," Hyun-joong declared, leaving a trail of stunned expressions behind as he strolled into the room.

Upstairs, Han watched Hyun-joong's performance on the large screen. Seeing Hyun-joong's stiff expression and shy smile when he faced a room full of people dancing, Han couldn't help thinking: *Did I really look that surreal just now?*

Kim Hyun-joong smiled shyly, then walked toward the crowd. Seeing everyone dancing happily, he felt entirely awkward. He kept offering shy greetings to everyone, but once again, nobody gave him the time of day. Hesitating for a moment, Hyun-joong began to move to the music as well, but still, no one paid him any attention, causing his face to gradually turn red.

Suddenly, the music slowed down—jazz time had arrived. Seeing everyone sit down, Hyun-joong panicked, standing stranded in the center with zero clue what to do. He paced back and forth nervously in the middle, and after some hesitation, he finally extended an invitation to one of the seated girls. Rejected the first time. Rejected the second time. On the third try, he actually succeeded! Hyun-joong pulled the girl up to dance a slow waltz with him. Seizing the moment, Hyun-joong attempted to probe the day's mission by tentatively asking, "Your phone number is..." But he couldn't even finish the sentence before trailing off, lowering his head in shyness.

When the fast music blasted back on, Hyun-joong tried his best to shake off his nervousness and busted out moves in the middle of the dance floor, eventually receiving some gradual responses from the girls. Another agonizing ten minutes ticked by, and Hyun-joong bolted out like he was fleeing for his life. Once again, the girls erupted into cheers.

"Hey, why are they like this?" Han clearly looked displeased.

"Haha, the screaming was even louder when you came out," Park Kyung-lim said with a chuckle. "A lot of the people in there are actually your fans."

"Then why didn't they help me out or even just talk to me a little? They had me thinking I was surrounded by my antis," Han complained gloomily.

When Kim Hyun-joong appeared in the upstairs studio, Han walked over to greet him. Hyun-joong's very first sentence nearly caused Han's legs to give out from under him: "Ah, Han-hyung, you're here! I thought you got kidnapped by aliens. So this is where you were."

"What, are you disappointed to see me?" Han said helplessly.

"Not really, I just thought I might get to meet an alien," Hyun-joong replied innocently, completely defeating Han.

Once Han and Hyun-joong sat down nearby, they started chatting away, completely forgetting they were in the middle of a recording. "Hyung, how did you do in there?"

"I was dying of nervousness. I had no idea what I was supposed to do," Han grumbled. "They didn't explain a single thing and just threw us straight in there. Unreal."

"Right? When I first went in, I was so nervous. There were so many people dancing, and when I talked to them, nobody answered. I had no clue what to do," Hyun-joong said, patting his chest as he recalled the tension.

"But you did pretty well later on, didn't you? You even managed to invite a girl to dance. Not bad. I couldn't even manage that, haha," Han said half-jokingly.

"I just bit the bullet and did it. We had a show to shoot, after all. If we weren't filming, I probably would have bolted the second I walked in," Hyun-joong said, laughing at his own admission.

"Haha, good thing you didn't run. Otherwise, if the aliens came to grab you, it would've been much harder to hunt you down," Han joked back.

The two of them chatted away happily, growing noticeably more familiar with each other. As time slipped by, the first segment concluded for everyone, smoothly transitioning into the second phase.

"Park Kyung-lim noona, are you not going to tell us anything this time either?" Han asked with a depressed expression.

"Nope. Once you go in this time, just do whatever you want, however you want," Park Kyung-lim replied with cheerful schadenfreude.

Han and Kim Hyun-joong collapsed in despair.