## Chapter 229 – (3)
“This has become quite the spectacle.”
Hannah giggled, shaking our clasped hands.
It had indeed become quite the spectacle.
But I couldn’t help feeling like I was just filling a quota.
You know how in dating shows, there’s always that one person?
The one with barely any presence, but they’re there to make up the numbers.
“…You seem more excited than I am?”
“Just a little.”
I was indifferent, but Hannah was having the time of her life, unable to stop grinning.
Seeing how happy she was, I was glad I agreed to appear on the show.
Still, to put me on a dating show, despite the potential for controversy…
“She really has a strange kink.”
Enjoying seeing me with other women.
Hannah had what you’d call a netorare fetish.
“It’s not just that I like seeing you with other women, Oppa.”
She then revealed her true, honest kink.
“It’s the thrill of knowing that the man every woman desires will always come back to me.”
“Ah…”
“Is it a superiority complex, maybe?”
Hannah smiled brightly.
I nodded slightly at her words.
It was the polar opposite of my own kink, but I could somehow understand what she meant.
A superiority complex.
That’s what led me to develop my own kink.
“Well… I do come back, after all.”
Whether it’s from another world or this one.
I always returned to Hannah.
And I always will.
But—
“Am I really the kind of man every woman desires?”
“Who knows? Your charm might be revealed on this show.”
“…That’s just a filter. That’s all.”
Charm, my foot.
A variety show wasn’t the right place to unleash my charm.
An adult AV, maybe.
That’s where I could really show off my appeal.
Who knows, I might even become the top male actor in the industry?
But a dating show was a different story.
I’d probably just go, take up a spot, and come back.
Hannah suddenly held something out to me.
“…What’s this?”
“You’ll be on camera, so you need to start taking care of yourself. It’s a sun stick.”
“Sun…what?”
I took it anyway.
It looked like a long piece of grass.
“It’s like sunscreen.”
I applied it to my face.
My face looked a little brighter.
“From now on, you’ll be wearing makeup every day.”
“Every day…?”
“I like the makeup you have on today, but we need to experiment with different looks and see what suits you best.”
Hannah’s eyes were blazing.
It was the off-season for me.
Since there wouldn’t be any filming for a while, it seemed like we had plenty of time.
I was the one appearing on the show, but Hannah, who was going to be a panelist, seemed even more enthusiastic.
“I’ll make sure you win.”
“…It’s not a competition, Hannah… What do you mean, win?”
And shouldn’t a panelist be impartial to the contestants?
“Shhh… Just trust me.”
“I do, but…”
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her.
But her eyes were scary.
…It looked like Hannah would be visiting my house every day for a while.
The clothes shopping trip we had planned for today was canceled.
Instead, it was replaced with a shopping trip for men’s cosmetics.
Hannah said that you could buy clothes online, but cosmetics were different, so she prioritized the latter.
And so, I experienced the small ordeal known as women’s shopping.
“We spent two hours shopping, and in the end, we went with the first one…”
“Hey… What’s done is done… Haha…”
Hannah replied with an awkward smile when I said that, sounding exhausted.
I understood, though.
We had to try everything on and compare the colors.
It was inevitable that it would take so long.
Of course, they all looked the same to me.
Still, Hannah had put in the effort to pick them out for me.
I quickly smiled and nodded at Hannah’s words.
“A trip to Hong Kong, huh?”
“Hong Kong, that sounds fun.”
Hannah said in an excited voice, and I nodded.
“I heard they use English and Chinese in Hong Kong, but they probably use Chinese more, right?”
“Hmm… Maybe?”
“I’m a little worried…”
Honestly, I didn’t really care.
I could speak English like a native, and I’d even used Chinese that was more suited for ancient China.
In the Murim world.
“Don’t worry, trust me.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
I was confident when it came to languages.
Thanks to my skills, of course.
Hannah, reassured by my confident voice, hugged my arm, saying how reliable I was.
“Hmm…”
I pretended to be nonchalant, but I was actually very happy.
Hannah showing me affection without caring about what other people thought.
I couldn’t help but feel good.
I was starting to look forward to going to Hong Kong.
In more ways than one.
***
Two weeks passed, and the moment arrived.
“Put the carrier in the trunk!”
Hannah greeted me in front of my house, already in the car.
I put the carrier in the trunk and naturally sat in the passenger seat next to Hannah.
Unlike me, Hannah had a driver’s license.
There were two large carriers in the back seat of the car.
“…You’re really prepared, huh?”
“Of course.”
Unlike the trip to Japan, this trip was going to be longer, so it made sense.
“The resort is on a very unique island.”
“…Do you know where it is?”
“Ah, the contestants don’t know, do they?”
Hannah then gave me a playful smile.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I almost let it slip.”
Her teasing tone was so cute that I laughed along.
I didn’t have any information at all.
It seemed that the panelists and MCs were given all the details, unlike the contestants.
Well, it couldn’t be helped.
We were in different positions.
“I can’t tell you where it is, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
“…That sounds like…”
It sounded like the other contestants had something to worry about.
Surely not?
Even on a weekday afternoon, the road to the airport was a little congested.
“Come to think of it… We might run into some of the other participants at the airport.”
“That’s true… You’d be able to recognize them right away, wouldn’t you?”
“No, I don’t know the participants very well either.”
It seemed that panelists didn’t know everything.
Well, that was probably for the best, so that their reactions during observation would be more genuine, which would make the show better.
As Hannah said, it was highly likely that all the other participants had also been given tickets for a flight around this time.
If there were any Koreans on a flight at the same time as us today.
And if they were even somewhat famous.
‘There’s a high chance they’re a participant or a panelist.’
With that thought in mind, I couldn’t help but look around the airport even after getting out of the car.
Hannah was doing the same, hiding her face with sunglasses and a mask, occasionally lifting her sunglasses slightly to look around.
To see if there was anyone she recognized.
“Um… Let’s go to Gate 7 first.”
We left our carriers with an airport employee and quickly went through the departure procedures.
Thanks to Hannah, who had traveled abroad many times, the process went smoothly.
She was reliable as always.
We entered the airport gate with plenty of time to spare, passed through the duty-free shops, and arrived at the waiting area.
“There’s no one here.”
“I guess not.”
The people we had encountered so far had been too ordinary.
At least, there were no celebrities that the two of us recognized.
Could it be—
“Did they even account for this?”
If, like us, the participants were trying to recognize each other before the official start.
If they had given us tickets with different flight times to prevent that.
Then I would be speechless.
“Hey… Surely not…”
“They’re renting out a resort, after all…”
“…You said they even rented out an island.”
That hypothesis seemed more and more plausible.
However, the flaw in that hypothesis soon became apparent.
Swish.
The person in front of us raised their phone.
Reflexively, Hannah put on her sunglasses and covered her face, but the phone wasn’t pointed at Hannah.
It was pointed further behind her.
“Huh?”
I turned my head in that direction, and the first thing that caught my eye was a tall woman.
And her proportions.
The proportions created by her small face and tall height were captivating.
Her expression and eyes, which seemed almost determined, gave off an aura that was hard to approach.
It was clear that she was no ordinary person.
“…Where have I seen her before?”
I felt like I had seen her somewhere.
I usually only watched the same people on TV or YouTube.
So there were only a handful of people whose faces I recognized.
If I did recognize anyone, it would probably be celebrities related to Hannah.
But this woman somehow looked familiar.
“Wow… Could it be…”
Hannah, standing next to me, covered her mouth and looked surprised.
I whispered to Hannah.
“Who is she?”
“…Is it really her?”
“…Huh? What is it?”
Hannah turned her surprised expression to me and looked even more surprised.
Was it so surprising that I didn’t know who she was?
Was she that famous?
“Is she a famous celebrity?”
“No, she’s not a celebrity… Well, she is now, but… If you say she isn’t, then she isn’t…”
She was using honorifics.
That was a little strange.
She didn’t look that old.
“She’s a dancer. A really famous one.”
“Ah…”
Then it made sense that I wouldn’t know her.
That’s what I thought, but at the same time, I had another thought.
Why did I feel like I had seen this dancer before?
Was she a backup dancer for a famous singer or something?
“You know that really famous dance survival show from a while ago?”
“Ah.”
That’s when I remembered.
The show that had been incredibly popular for a while.
I didn’t watch it because I didn’t really like or know much about dancing.
Even so, I had seen this woman.
Even though I didn’t watch the show, I couldn’t help but come across some of her videos or shorts due to the numerous community posts and YouTube videos.
It was one of the hottest shows in Korea at the time.
Hannah must have enjoyed watching the show, too.
She was looking at the woman with admiration in her eyes.
“Oppa.”
“Yeah?”
“You absolutely can’t let her take you away.”
“…Take me away from what?”
“You know what I mean.”
…I thought I knew what she meant.
I gave an awkward smile and looked at the woman.
