"That’s a coconut, right?"

"I think so···."

"Hmm···."

Lee Sion stared at the large coconut hanging from the tree, looking as though she had fallen into thought.

The twitch at the corners of her mouth was the exact expression she made whenever she found something interesting, and it seemed she was planning to take that coconut.

And on the face of the cameraman standing right behind her with a camera in hand, there was a fatigue he couldn’t hide.

'I feel bad for the cameraman.'

Shinyu was just as exhausted, so she understood the cameraman’s feelings better than anyone.

The Ecuador special of Jungle Expedition that Shinyu and Lee Sion had ended up appearing on.

The plan for this Jungle Expedition was to visit the Wao tribe, a traditional tribe of Ecuador, and explore the Amazon.

And—

-The return of a great warrior! The legendary Amazons really did exist!

The Wao tribe, which had declared that it could not accept the Jungle Expedition team unless the team passed the warrior’s trial, had ended up suffering a crushing defeat before it could even reach the third contest.

The Wao tribe had been utterly defeated not only in tree climbing, but in the second contest, the contest of strength, as well.

When the giant man who looked well over 190 centimeters had charged straight in, Lee Sion had simply lifted and thrown the man out of the ring to claim victory.

Shinyu recalled how the oldest tribesman among the Wao had burst into tears and shouted the words gran guerrero when Lee Sion, after confirming her victory, had let out a roar inside the circle.

It was Spanish, so Shinyu hadn’t been able to understand what it meant, but according to the interpreter, the tribesman had been praising Lee Sion as a great warrior.

Bang!

That great warrior was currently smashing open a coconut.

"Unnie! You’ll hurt your hand like that!"

"It’s fine. This is harder than I thought."

As if the nickname Haan-dong Tarzan hadn’t been an exaggeration after all, Lee Sion had gone up the coconut tree like a flying squirrel, dropped the coconut to the ground, then climbed back down and started trying to break it open with the edge of her hand.

Shinyu still lacked life experience, but at least knew that coconuts were not something you broke open barehanded.

What was the difference between a human and a beast?

It was that humans knew how to use tools.

Bang!

But as if trying to redefine the line between humans and beasts, Lee Sion brought the edge of her hand down on the coconut with fierce force.

Crack.

Soon, the coconut that had looked like it would never open split apart and revealed its white flesh inside.

"Try drinking it. Staff too, just wait a little. I’ll crack another one for you."

Then Lee Sion held the coconut out with a bright smile, and Shinyu didn’t refuse the offer.

"It’s sweet!"

As Shinyu drank the water from the coconut split in half, it felt like energy was flooding back into every part of the body.

"Wow···this is completely different from the stuff you get in Korea."

The cameraman, who had also been handed a newly shattered coconut, was staring in amazement while gulping down the water.

Lee Sion looked on at Shinyu and the cameraman with a satisfied expression.

"It was a good thing you followed me, right?"

At Lee Sion’s question, asking whether it hadn’t been a good idea to follow her, the two could only nod.

-Today’s food is something we have to get ourselves.

After the match with the Wao tribe had ended, the Jungle Expedition team had entered the village and been treated to a lavish lunch.

But the program’s policy was that dinner had to be obtained in the jungle by the cast themselves, so afterward the cast split up to gather food separately.

-I’ll go to the jungle!

Unlike the other cast members, who had gone to the river to catch fish, Lee Sion had stubbornly insisted on exploring the jungle, and because of that Shinyu had no choice but to choose jungle searching as well.

After all, anyone would have preferred catching fish in the cool river over exploring a sweltering jungle where who knew what might be lurking.

The reason was that none of the other cast members had readily joined Lee Sion’s team.

And so Lee Sion’s group had entered the jungle and been exploring for three hours now, following a member of the Wao tribe who had come as their guide.

On a nicely paved city road it would have been one thing, but wandering through a harsh jungle with no proper paths was extremely exhausting.

To make matters worse, the difficulty of the jungle search had risen even higher thanks to Lee Sion, who ran around saying let’s go here, let’s go there, as if she had become the real Tarzan.

Even the Jungle Expedition cameraman, famous for having strong stamina because he always had to follow cast members around carrying heavy equipment, was panting from exhaustion.

"This is insane."

Even the native guide who had come along muttered to himself with a worn-out expression.

-What has that person been saying for a while now?

-···That this is crazy.

-Ah.

Even without understanding it, Shinyu had felt like the guide’s words probably meant something along those lines.

When Shinyu quietly asked the interpreter who had come along, Shinyu learned that it was in fact a disparaging phrase.

Anyway, by the time they came across the coconuts after all that wandering through the jungle, the water inside them tasted better than anything Shinyu had ever experienced in life.

And it wasn’t only Shinyu who felt that way.

Not only the cameraman and interpreter, who were staring blankly and clutching the coconuts Lee Sion had handed out one by one as though they were sacred treasures.

Even the native guide, who had surely eaten plenty of coconuts before, was drinking with a deeply moved expression.

"Wouldn’t it be better if we headed back now?"

The group had been resting for a moment while watching Lee Sion’s coconut-smashing show.

Once they had rested a bit, the cameraman suggested that maybe it was about time to return to the village.

Which made sense. It was gradually getting dark, and even though they had only moved through safe areas following the guide, it could still become dangerous if it got too late.

Maybe because of that, the others all nodded vigorously in agreement with the cameraman’s suggestion.

Naturally, Shinyu was just as exhausted, so Shinyu turned a pleading look toward Lee Sion.

"So we’re not going to see a jaguar?"

Lee Sion let out the question quietly, sounding disappointed.

Ordinarily, Lee Sion would have pushed ahead anyway, but when she was with people other than her group members, she was unexpectedly capable of making sensible judgments.

"Let’s just go around for thirty more minutes, then head back."

Still, perhaps she couldn’t fully let go of her regret, because she proposed that they stay just thirty minutes longer before returning, and the group forced themselves to muster one last bit of strength.

***

"Wow, that fish is seriously huge!"

"This is amazing. Even with just this, tonight’s dinner is taken care of, isn’t it?"

"As expected, Chief Bangman is different! He really caught a fish!"

Kim Bangman was returning proudly with a fish skewered on a stick, while the cast members around him poured out praise.

'There’s something I’ve watched and learned for years now. This much, I can do.'

Bangman’s shoulders swelled at the praise, but outwardly he was trying hard to act calm and not show it.

Catching fish in the river.

This was unexpectedly difficult.

For someone with no experience, failure was only natural, and even for someone experienced, it was common to end up empty-handed if luck didn’t go your way, so it was something that required both skill and luck.

Especially since this wasn’t Korea, but a river in the Amazon, catching fish there was extremely difficult.

First of all, the water was so murky that visibility was poor, and with the water plants and tree roots, it was the worst kind of environment, where if you moved wrong your feet could get caught.

On top of that, the Amazon River was the kind of place where even locals sometimes got into accidents, since dangerous creatures of kinds you still couldn’t identify would appear in the water from time to time.

Even so, Bangman had overcome all those bad conditions and succeeded in hunting a fairly large fish in the end.

Bangman had been leading Jungle Expedition, one of WBS’s flagship variety shows, since its early days, so it was an impressive feat that only made sense because he could practically be called an expert at survival by now.

'Tank God. If this had failed too, my authority as chief would’ve collapsed.'

Even though Bangman was standing in front of the cast as if he had merely done something natural, inwardly he was actually letting out a sigh of relief.

-I won!

That was because, in the warrior’s trial earlier that morning, Bangman had ended up being completely reduced to background scenery.

-You think this is fine to leave as is?

-It’s different from what we planned, but I think this might actually be more fun.

-True. People haven’t liked how Mister Bangman keeps hogging everything lately, so this feels fresh. I think it’ll be good.

Bangman had happened to overhear the PD and filming crew chatting excitedly after Lee Sion, an Iam member and the guest for this Ecuador special, had swept through the warrior’s trial all by herself—the trial that Bangman had originally been meant to go out and dominate.

'Just what kind of life has that kid been living? She’s not even special forces, so why is a girl-group idol that good with her body!'

When Bangman watched Lee Sion climb trees with such speed, he honestly had no confidence that even with all the practice in the world, he could climb faster than her.

And when he saw her fling a gigantic Wao tribesman out of the ring in one move—a tribesman Bangman would obviously have lost to if he had faced him himself—he felt something close to awe.

Even Bangman, who had already spent more than ten years as a comedian, had been so stunned that he could only stare blankly, so it wasn’t strange at all that the filming crew had gotten excited and started talking about how they would edit those scenes.

But separately from that, Bangman still needed to have some kind of moment of his own.

[Jungle Expedition has been boring lately]

"It used to be fun because you could see them struggling to get food and make places to sleep,

but at some point all they do is drag around famous guests and shoot mukbangs.

That damn crayfish was only interesting the first time too. Now it just looks like a big shrimp."

⤷ They scream crisis in the preview! and then it turns out to be them catching mosquitoes. I was pissed as hell

⤷ By now, every jungle or deserted island is predictable anyway

⤷ Once it got popular and famous guests started showing up, they started playing it safe

⤷ fr it doesn’t feel like the early days anymore

⤷ Watching Kim Bangman desperately bust his ass is still fun though

⤷ If even that wasn’t there, it would’ve been canceled already lol

One of the main draws of Jungle Expedition had always been the exploits of Kim Bangman, the man serving as chief, but lately filming had only been happening in places that were too tame, so he hadn’t had any standout moments in weeks, and that had made Bangman anxious.

On top of that, with quiet talk already starting to circulate that this restructuring season might bring in a new program to replace Jungle Expedition, it was the kind of period when the show needed a strong impact. So Bangman had worked with the PD to prepare the event called the warrior’s trial.

The original purpose had been to create an impactful scene of Bangman facing off evenly against a native tribe on the tribe’s home ground, then winning in the end.

And Bangman had even rehearsed the whole thing in advance with the Wao tribe, like a fixed match.

But all of that had gone up in smoke because of Lee Sion.

Which was why, in order to make sure he had a moment during the dinner-preparation segment this time, Bangman had worked hard to swim directly into the dangerous waters of the Amazon River and hunt fish with a spear.

In the end Bangman had succeeded in hunting, with a single spear, a fairly large fish, though he didn’t know its name.

'At most, all they’ll have gotten in the jungle are some coconuts or something.'

Bangman had been worried that Lee Sion might follow him to the river, but when she had instead said she was going into the jungle herself, he had no choice but to feel relieved.

After all, the things you could get in the jungle were mostly no more than tree fruit like coconuts or a few other fruits.

Ordinarily even getting that much would be difficult, but thinking of Lee Sion’s tree-climbing skills, Bangman assumed she would at least bring back something.

Still, no matter what it was, it lacked impact compared to this fish Bangman had personally caught.

"Oh! Looks like the jungle search team got back first."

Bangman’s group returned to the Wao tribe, striding proudly back with the fish slung across Bangman’s back.

It seemed the jungle team had arrived first, because there was a noisy crowd of people gathered.

'What is this?'

The moment Bangman saw it, he felt an ominous premonition for no clear reason.

At most, the jungle team should have brought back some fruit or a few coconuts, so why were there this many people gathered?

With that ominous feeling, Bangman’s steps quickened before he even realized it.

Then, at last, Bangman’s eyes landed on Lee Sion, holding up a crocodile as big as her torso like a championship belt.

***

"Do you know what Hitler says when he’s being picky about food?"

"Hitler being picky about food?"

"Yes!"

At Ryujin’s question, the host tilted his head and sank into thought, trying hard to guess the answer.

The other panelists also started throwing out different guesses and discussing among themselves, apparently trying to solve it too.

'Today’s the day I finally shake off the boring image!'

Watching that scene, Ryujin was making a firm vow to herself.

Today in History, an educational program.

Among educational programs, it was a fairly popular one—a show where each week a single historical topic was chosen, and the host and panelists talked about it.

Usually, programs like this tended to be so serious that they became pure sleeping pills, but this one was also famous for feeling fairly variety-like thanks to the host, an entertainer with a comedian background, who was good at tossing in ad-libs here and there.

And Ryujin had become the first guest to appear on Today in History.

[If you’re one of the Yours who thinks our Ryujin is gonna be less fun than the professors, upvote]

"The PD of Today in History is seriously evil.

No matter how boring Ryujin is, she’s still an idol, and now they’re dead set on publicly burying her variety skills."

⤷ Isn’t that overdoing it? Ryujin’s actually pretty funny when she’s on variety shows with the members

⤷ That’s just because of Lee Sion

⤷ Iam’s variety sense is high even if you exclude Lee Sion in the first place, and the one who drags the average back down is Seo Ryujin

⤷ Everyone who watched the Agbaek live broadcast knows

⤷ Stop lying, who actually watched that?

⤷ Everyone who watched five minutes of the Agbaek live broadcast knows

Ryujin had been the only member among Iam to get sold off to an educational program at the Iam auction.

And afterward, the humiliation Ryujin had to endure was beyond words.

Ever since the live broadcast during Agbaek, the nickname boring had clung to Ryujin like a tag.

Personally, Ryujin had been able to tolerate the nickname Sluggish Ryujin, and even the nickname the company’s hunting dog.

But the nickname boring alone was something Ryujin absolutely could not stand.

'The preparations are perfect.'

This week’s topic on Today in History, the show that selected one topic each week, was World War II.

In order not to go on the air looking ignorant, Ryujin had spent the past several days staying up all night digging up related material and studying on her own.

But that alone hadn’t felt like enough, so Ryujin had even prepared a killer joke.

"I seriously have no idea. What exactly does Hitler say when he’s being picky about food?"

When neither the host nor the panelists could guess the answer to the quiz Ryujin herself had given, and they finally asked what it was, Ryujin felt that the moment had at last arrived.

"Well, it’s this···Fascism! I’ll have pasta!"

Ryujin’s words echoed emptily through the studio.