Chapter 270: First Time in Korea, Quiz on the Block (2)
"We should go tour all of them. I’m curious as to what the studios of these large companies look like."
"Jamie, no. Just because we got given business cards doesn’t actually mean they want to give us a tour."
"But-"
"Would the two of you like to play a game?"
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
As he heard the iconic horror movie tag line from the two men dressed in suits who had suddenly appeared, Ari immediately put his guard up and began looking around suspiciously.
Were they going to get kidnapped in broad daylight?
Was a clown or a cursed doll going to jump out and scare him?
Did they want to hold Jamie ransom for money?
Due to the camera crew following the two men, a few people stopped to stare, and some people even whipped out their phones.
".... horror movie? Crazy clown? Cursed doll?"
At Ari’s rapid-fire questions about his biggest fears, Jamie’s face immediately became pale, and he looked as if he were about to run away.
"What? No, no, no. Definitely not a horror movie. The two of you just look very handsome, and we heard your accents, so we approached you. Here, you look hot. Many foreigners aren’t used to the Korean heat and humidity. Have an iced drink." Yoo Jae-bong waved his hand as Choi Soobin offered two cups, but their actions just made Ari even more suspicious.
Hearing their accents and targeting them?
That was clearly the mark of a -
"So, you’re a scammer who targets tourists? Suspiciously offering a drink? Jamie, don’t take food from strangers. What if it’s poisoned? Stop drinking it."
"Even if it’s poisoned, thank you for the drink! It is hot! And don’t worry, my older brothers have been feeding me weird things since I was little, so my body will probably be fine." Since he had already taken a sip of the bitter drink, Jamie properly thanked them while carefully holding the drink away from his body.
"No, no."
Surprised at how suspicious Ari was, Yoo Jae-bong rushed to explain, "We’re not scammers. Here’s our business card. I’m Yoo Jae-bong, and he’s Choi Soobin. We’re TV variety show hosts here to film for our program, First Time in Korea, Quiz on the Block (2). Our show targets foreigners and poses increasingly challenging questions about a variety of subjects, including topics known only to Koreans. If you agree to film with us, you can earn up to 1 million won, which translates to approximately $1,000."
"TV show? A prize? How do I know you’ll pay me?"
Still seeing that Ari looked suspicious but interested, Yoo Jae-bong brought out a thick envelope from his suit jacket pocket and showed Ari the wad of 10000 won bills.
"What do you think? Want to play?"
Seeing the money live and direct, Ari shamelessly changed his tune.
"Absolutely. I would be honored to. Jamie, drink away."
"Didn’t you say it was poisoned?"
"How could these lovely gentlemen poison us in broad daylight. It was a joke. Drink drink."
"But I really don’t like bitter things."
"Chug it."
"But glug glug"
Choi Soobin watched in amusement as the red-haired boy began forcing the blonde boy to drink the coffee before carefully clearing his throat.
"Ahem, shall we go over to the cameras and get started?"
"Sure."
The two of them followed him to stand in front of the cameras and clipped microphones to their clothing.
"So would you like to introduce yourselves. Simple things like name, nationality, age, occupation, and what brought you to Korea. Why don’t we start with you, with the red hair?"
"Sure." Ari adjusted the microphone clipped to his shirt before waving at the cameras, "Annyeonghaseyo. I am Ariel Matisse, age 18. Nationality: French and American. Occupation: high school student. The reason I’m in Korea is that I’m a participant in an idol survival show called Pop Star Academy. Nice to be here."
"Ooooh, a French and American idol in training? Wow! So cool!" Yoo Jae-bong clapped appropriately.
"I knew you were too handsome to be a regular person! You’re just dripping with charm! And you?" Choi Soobin turned to Jamie with a smile.
"I’m James Jones III, but you can call me Jamie. I’m 19. American. My occupation is....musician? I write and produce for others. The reason I’m in Korea is the same as his. I’m part of the Pop Star Academy survival show."
"Ooooh, another trainee. I suspected with how handsome you both are and with the guitar, but it’s good to get confirmation. I’m sure you’ll both get lots of calling cards from different agencies. Would the two of you mind performing something for us after the quiz is over? With the guitar?"
"Sure."
"Of course! I would love to!"
"Good, good. Now, before we start, if you could please tell us your strongest and weakest subjects and how much you know about Korea. We can fine-tune the questions that way. Shall we hear from Jamie-nim first?"
"I like music-related subjects and history. I’ve been looking into South Korean music history, but that’s about it. As for weak subjects, anything that’s not music is boring to me, so I will not be good at it." Jamie announced proudly
"Ohhh, a musical genius who writes and produces. How exciting, and you, Ariel-nim?"
Yoo Jae-bong nodded in approval before turning to Ari.
"Anything is fine with me."
"Anything?"
"Any subject from elementary school to high school common curriculum is fine. I haven’t studied anything about South Korea in depth, but I’ve been learning to read it lately and have been doing some reading on tourist stuff."
"Ooooh, you’re very confident." Choi Soobin commented, surprised at the openly confident tone.
Even if they were smart, he was used to students and adults being humble about their skills.
"Ari is really smart. He’s ranked first in his high school and speaks like 4 different languages." Jamie chimed in proudly after seeing that they were doubting Ari.
"Really?"
"Ranked first in your high school?"
"3.5 languages and ranked first in my grade, not the whole school. And I don’t think I’m smart, but I am pretty confident about schoolwork. And Jamie is really, really good at music. If he says he’s looked into it, what he means is he’s learned all the obscure facts."
Choi Soobin and Yoo Jae-bong glanced at each other before smiling.
This wasn’t the first time they had confident foreigners, and in fact, they relished having those types of people since it was a bit of fun to humble them in a playful way before helping them solve the problem.
Of course, only to a certain level since they didn’t want them to win grand prize.
The two took a moment to organize their question bank before they turned back to the two.
"Well, I like the style of the two of you. Very American. Very confident. We’ll start with Ariel-nim and give you something light and easy. Since you’ve been learning Korean, can you list out the Korean numbers from 1-10?"
"Sure. From 1 through 10 in native Korean is hana, dul, set, net, daseot, yeoseot, ilgop, yeodeol, ahop, and yeol."
At the surprisingly natural-sounding pronunciation, the two men gave him a round of applause.
"Correct!"
"Wow, your pronunciation is so good."
"Thank you."
"Then Jamie-nim, a question for you about music."
"Yes!"
"What is a scale in music?"
At the question, Jamie’s friendly smiling face became serious as he began explaining the answer in detail.
"It’s a sequence of musical notes arranged in order of ascending or descending pitch used for composing melodies and harmonies. It can be categorized in many ways, like minor or major scales, diatonic, or even pentatonic scales, which were used in traditional Korean music."
"Wow. How detailed an answer!"
"All of a sudden, he became so studious and even taught me something new. You both are correct and each gains one 10,000 won bill."
"Cool. 98 more to go. Jamie, we need to lock in."
"Aye aye, captain."
Seeing the older boy give out a full salute to the younger one, Choi Soobin and Yoo Jae-bong laughed.
"Then Ariel-nim, since you’ve been looking through tourist facts, when was the Namsan tower built?"
Jamie glanced at Ari expectantly as if he had no doubt he knew the answer, and Ari confidently spit out the answer he had seen.
"They started building it in 1969 and finished building it on December 3, 1971, and then added an observatory in 1975."
The two men glanced at each other in surprise before clapping.
"Correct. You even know all the details for the follow-up question that I was going to ask."
"Thank you."
"Jamie-nim, something with Korean musical instruments this time. List 5 traditional Korean musical instruments."
"Sure. If we start with the stringed instruments, then we have zithers like the Gayageum and Geomungo, we have fiddles like the Haegeum, lutes like the Bipa and Wolgeum, which I really want to get. I’ve prepared my dad’s credit card just to purchase a good-quality one. Sorry, Dad, in advance, but Mom said it was okay. If we move on to wind instruments, then we have the Daegeum, Junggeum, and Sogeum. I actually saw that there was a class to make a Sogeum and learn how to play one, and if I have time, I definitely want to do it. You’re coming right?"
Jamie turned to Ari, who nodded before continuing, "Ah, where was I? Let’s just get to the drums, we have the Janggu, which I also want to buy if I have space, the Buk, which is used in folk music, which is like your country music, Nogo, and the smaller version, Nodo, the Yeongdo, which looks like a toy. Uh, I think that’s 5, but should I keep going?"
The two show hosts stared at the blonde American boy who was listing traditional instruments, some of which they didn’t even know, in shock.
Was this what the American school curriculum was teaching its students?
"No, that’s good."
"Wow! You really know your stuff better than we native Koreans, haha. Here you go."
The two of them were given 4 10000 won bills, which Ari pocketed with a bright smile.
"90 more bills to go. What’s next?" Ari asked confidently.
Seeing the handsome yet cocky smile, Choi Soobin and Yoo Jae-bong began asking questions at a rapid pace.
"Four types of clefs are treble, bass, alto, and tenor."
"Hangeul was created in 1443 by King Sejong the Great."
"The harmonic minor is different from the natural minor because it has a raised 7th degree."
"The constant of gravity, denoted by G, is approximately 6.67430(15)×10−11 m3⋅kg−1⋅s. The standard of uncertainty is 2.2×10−5"
"Hahoe. There are twelve of them in total, but three are missing, right? I don’t remember the Korean names, but it’s the rich noble, a bride, a monk, a clown servant, a scholar, a fool, a concubine, a butcher, and an old lady."
"Correct!"
"Phew. I’m glad I remembered." Jamie wiped the sweat from his brow in relief.
He wasn’t sure when the game would end, but by the looks of it, Ari wanted to win all of the money, which meant he had to try his best.
"Next question!"
After several rounds of questioning and handing over money and another round of Americanos, Choi Soobin and Yoo Jae-bong stepped to the side to regroup.
The two were shocked at the ease and speed with which both boys were answering despite the variety in the questions.
The only thing that was slowing them down was the Korean-focused questions, but even then, the red-haired one was knocking them out of the park as if he had specifically crammed for it.
"This is crazy, they haven’t missed a question yet."
"We have to give them harder questions. Otherwise, we’ll lose all of our money. Or maybe try to rope in a student to make it a competition."
"Okay, let’s do it."
As the questions began getting harder and harder, and the hosts began getting more and more excited and even drawing others to play, a small crowd began to form to watch what was going on and began recording and sharing it online.
Some people were just curious.
- What’s going on?
- Are they foreign idols? They’re so handsome.
- They’re filming Q on Block, but the foreigners are doing really well this time, so they were asking students to go against them.
- ooooohhh wow. Are the students winning? Showing off our fine Korean education?
- No, they’re losing.
Some people stopped because they saw handsome faces and cameras filming.
- Do you think he’ll share the mascara he uses? The shadows his lashes cast on his cheeks are insane.
- Those green contacts are so pretty. It can’t be his natural eye color, right?
- His blue eyes are pretty and sparkly. They match the red-haired ones’ earrings.
- I need to know the blonde one’s hair routine. His hair looks like gold silk, while mine looks like crispy straw.
- I need to know the skin tint and sunscreen he uses. His face is poreless and shiny.
- Does anyone know who they are? Which company are they trainees for? I want to support them!
But the thing about South Korea and its idol culture was that everyone was always on the web sharing information, especially when it concerned handsome people.
- Hey, wait, I think they really are idols. They were spotted at the airport this morning with Golden Generation.
- Really?
- Yes, here’s the video! It’s them, right?
As the video was shared, interest in it grew in addition to the current clips being shared.
And before long-
Pop Star Academy fans woke up to see things trending that shouldn’t be trending.
[Why are Contestants Ariel and Jamie trending in Hongdae, South Korea?]
[Why is Contestant Levi being bashed for harassing and assaulting a fansite owner?]
What the heck is happening in South Korea?