In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 277

After Woojoo came back awkwardly, the others also tried their hand at disc throwing.

“Wow…!”

Every time they threw a disc, the dogs ran after it and came back with it in their mouths.

‘I’m pretty good at disc throwing, huh?’ The cast members were pleased with themselves, but the search team leader said to them, “Don’t be so proud.”

“…”

“It’s not you who are good, it’s the dogs. They catch everything, no matter how badly you throw it.”

“As long as it’s not a boomerang.”

“…”

The others chuckled at his diss. Especially Hanjo, who looked ecstatic.

When Woojoo rolled his eyes, the Detection Team leader called out to Junghyun.

“Try throwing Number 9.”

“Yes!”

“You don’t need to be so serious. Just throw it casually.”

“Casually, you say?”

“It won’t go far anyway.”

The cast members showed a ‘huh…’ reaction.

‘I don’t think you know what his casually means,’ Woojoo wanted to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak in this atmosphere.

He just looked forward to the Detection Team leader’s reaction, as he coolly said ‘Go ahead.’

Junghyun flicked his wrist a few times with the disc in his hand, and looked at the search dog Jigu who was sitting in front of him.

“I’m throwing it.”

“Just throw it. The dog can’t understand what you’re saying anyway.”

Woof!

“…Sometimes they do answer.”

Everyone held back their laughter.

It was as if Junghyun was asking ‘Are you ready?’ and the dog was saying ‘Yes, yes.’

Soon, Junghyun threw the disc quickly.

“Ooh…!”

It was very fast.

The search dog also seemed to get excited and started running.

It was like a predator who had been catching mice for fun and finally met a worthy prey.

Right before the dog reached the end of the field and jumped.

Whoosh!

The disc flew over the fence and disappeared like a dot.

“…”

The dog, who had been running happily, stared blankly at the other side of the fence.

Then it looked back at them.

While everyone was holding back their laughter, Junghyun made a sheepish expression.

The Detection Team leader stroked his chin and looked at Junghyun.

“What’s your relationship with Number 8?”

“We’re in the same group!”

“I thought so.”

Then he gave Woojoo and Junghyun a warm smile.

“I’ll give you three minutes.”

“…?”

“Run and get that disc.”

Why him?

“I’ll add 10 PTs for every second you’re late. 180. 179.”

“Aaaaah!”

Junghyun and Woojoo started running.

And when he said that the person who came back late would have to do push-ups as a penalty, Junghyun sped up.

Plop!

“Hey! Kim Junghyun! You…!”

“Sorryyo!”

“Yaaah!”

The camera director who was running with them laughed out loud.

“Nineteen, twenty…”

Woojoo got up after doing 20 push-ups as a penalty.

His muscles had adapted in a few days, so it wasn’t too bad.

He didn’t know why he had to join him in the penalty, though.

It felt like he had been marked by the instructor from the beginning.

“Now, the person who will demonstrate… Stop pushing Number 8.”

“But Number 8 is our ace.”

The instructor shook his head at Park Hobeom’s words.

“Don’t say that. It’s scary.”

“It’s true.”

He was the Bomb Detection Team leader, who gave Woojoo a look of disbelief.

Just because Woojoo threw a boomerang, or rather a discus, wrong, he had to receive such a distrustful gaze.

Fortunately, his evaluation of Woojoo and Junghyun soon changed.

“Good boy, good boy… Aaaah!”

The bomb detection dog, who had successfully detected the explosive, dragged Jo Sohyung, who was playing with him, by the leash.

The squad leader rubbed his forehead as he alternated his gaze between the sand-covered Jo and the excited dog.

“…”

Soon, Jo Sohyung started to scream ‘Watch out for the leash! Watch out for the leash!’ as he ran around the field.

“That’s why we choose handlers who are stronger than dogs.”

Everyone agreed with that.

Woojoo hadn’t experienced it properly, but the dogs’ strength was formidable.

Even an average adult would be immobilized if they made a slight mistake.

No wonder the squad leader and the police officers had muscular arms.

“Let’s see some other trainees.”

He called them, thinking they would be better, but most of them were no different from Jo Sohyung.

They either got pushed back by the dog in a tug-of-war, or confused the dog with a wrong command.

Every time, his eyes softened as he looked at Woojoo and Junghyun.

“Number 8, come out and try again.”

“Yes!”

The training was simple.

They placed a barrel with C4 explosives and let the dogs sniff one by one.

When the dog found the right one and sat down, they said ‘Good boy!’ and played with a toy.

“Good boy! Well done!”

With an excited expression and voice, Woojoo handed the training toy to the dog, who quickly bit it.

Woojoo felt a terrible force in his hand holding the toy.

“Well done. Don’t let go of it, and have a little tug-of-war with the dog. Let go when it’s appropriate.”

“Yes!”

He was sweating from his back as he felt how strong he was.

When Woojoo let go of his hand, the shepherd shook his body with the toy in his mouth. Woojoo asked the squad leader, who approached him, “What do I do now?”

“You have to lure him gently with another toy.”

“Like this?”

Woojoo remembered what the police handler did and copied him.

He took out a new toy and shook it in front of the dog, then hid it behind his back.

“…?”

The curious dog followed his butt.

Every time, he moved it around with his hand skills, and the shepherd’s eyes began to change.

Soon, the new toy was in the shepherd’s mouth.

“Well done.”

“Thank you…?”

Thud.

He grabbed Woojoo’s hand.

“You were a fairy after all.”

The squad leader’s eyes turned gentle.

The other officers also showed a curious reaction to Woojoo, who copied their hand movements.

“Did you see that? Do it like Number 8.”

“Yes!”

“Number 8, let’s try something else.”

Woojoo went from being an interesting soldier to an A-class in an instant, and he did various trainings under the instructor’s orders.

The most praised part was the compliment.

“That’s right! Well done, good boy! Well done!”

Every time he praised him with a voice that said ‘You’re the best in the world!’, the dog got excited and jumped around.

“If you praise him like that, the dog will go crazy with joy. Learn from him.”

The squad leader’s words were followed by murmurs.

“I want to get that compliment too.”

“My mom never did that to me either…”

“That would make anyone happy.”

The compliment Woojoo used to cheer up his depressed classmates during training also worked on the dog.

He didn’t know why Junghyun liked that compliment, though.

On the other hand, he also got some criticism.

“Look.”

When Jigu sat down in front of the wrong barrel, he came up to Woojoo.

“Large dogs are smart and cunning. Sometimes they sit anywhere they want, thinking that humans like it when they sit in front of the barrel. But here, you have to firmly say no.”

As instructed, Woojoo pulled the leash and said ‘no!’, but it had little effect.

He didn’t seem very scared.

“Number 8 is good at everything, but he can’t scold the dog. To manage a dog, you have to be strict sometimes.”

He still praised Woojoo for doing well.

The next one to come out was Junghyun, who also received the instructor’s praise.

“Number 9 did well too.”

He did the handler training faithfully, as befitting their guy who didn’t lose to anyone physically.

However…

“What’s this? The dog lost his doll.”

“Did he panic again?”

“Wow, he took it by force.”

It was Junghyun who overpowered the large dog that pulled hard.

When the dog looked up with a disappointed expression after losing his toy, the Detection Team leader and the police officers gasped and approached Junghyun.

They all held back their laughter.

As the first day’s Team 1 members did, the three men touched Junghyun’s arm and showed a curious reaction.

The two police officers nodded and the team leader said, “Number 9.”

“Yes!”

“Go to the hospital.”

Everyone laughed at the same joke as the first day.

The team leader who heard the backstory also smirked. Then he gave a comprehensive evaluation of Junghyun.

“Not bad, but unsuitable. Everything from his attitude towards the dog is good, but…”

Good?

“Right now, the dog is looking at you as the alpha dog.”

“…”

“You have to be human. You can’t be a dog.”

Maybe because he overpowered Jigu, the top dog, the other dogs also looked very polite.

Everyone laughed as Junghyun came back.

Woojoo smiled as the dogs’ eyes followed Junghyun.

That was how Park Hobeom, Junghyun, and Woojoo got a decent evaluation, while the team leader praised someone.

“If I had to pick a handler out of the nine, I’d pick Number 7.”

It was Hanjo.

“No!”

He said firmly to the dog when it was wrong. He wasn’t too harsh like the others, or too weak like Woojoo.

The dog felt ‘Ah! No!’ and accepted it.

“Good! Good boy!”

He also praised well, and his skill in handling the dog was impressive.

The team leader asked Hanjo, who was playing with Jeonguk, “Have you ever raised a dog, Number 7?”

“Yes, I have two retrievers at home.”

“I thought so.”

Thanks to his experience of raising a large dog, Hanjo was flying in the handler training.

His shoulders rose like Everest as the instructor’s praise continued.

It felt like he was healing from the praise.

Hanjo was anxious as Junghyun and Woojoo took all kinds of bizarre scenes.

It was good to train well, but this was entertainment after all.

He had a full smile on his face, feeling ‘Finally, finally I got some scenes!’.

“It worked out. Right?”

“Yeah.”

Junghyun and Woojoo whispered as they watched Hanjo run happily with the dogs.

“You did well. Kkyo-o-o-ot! Kkyot!”

The members and the production staff started to giggle at Hanjo’s praise.

Only the team leader and the handlers were like ‘That guy is something else’.

He would probably not be happy when he watched the broadcast later, but the important thing was his happiness now.

He was happy like that. What.

“Kkyo-o-ot! Kkyat-ho!”

Woojoo had to capture that scene later.

In the evening, after the afternoon training.

The Tactical Team 3 members clapped.

“You worked hard today for the training.”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

They all smiled brightly.

It was the moment when the hellish PT and training sessions were over.

“Tomorrow morning, you will patrol the airport with the members of Team 1.”

Woojoo felt a thrill in his chest at the thought of wearing a black suit and a vest and walking around the airport.

“Please also keep in mind that there is a joint anti-terror training at the airport in the evening.”

It was a schedule that they already knew, but everyone was shedding tears.

They hoped they didn’t have to run with gas masks on.

It was a training that involved all the agencies related to airport security, such as airport police, aviation security, customs, and fire department.

The leader of Team 3 clapped his hands and said, “I wish you good luck for tomorrow’s training. That’s all.”

“Thank you!”

With a warm farewell to the members of Team 3, all the training was finished.

Everyone looked at each other and smiled.

“Wow, look at our black suits.”

“Really. Wow…”

“They look similar to what the Special Forces wear, right?”

After rolling and rolling for three days, the color of the black suits had really changed.

“We are veterans now. Haha!”

“Look at Woojoo’s black suit. He’s the most veteran.”

“Puhaha!”

The cast members laughed at Woojoo’s clothes. He wondered what was so funny and looked at the mirror. It was laughable.

“Wow.”

He looked like a real Special Forces member by the color alone, since he rolled the most in three days.

He felt like he heard the laughter of Team 1 members in his ears like a hallucination.

He smiled bitterly and the cast members of Men Go patted his shoulder.

“Woojoo, you really worked hard.”

“You rolled enough for 30 years of reserve duty. You can be proud of yourself anywhere you go.”

“Thanks to Woojoo, we were really comfortable.”

Junghyun and Hanjo nodded their heads.

“That’s right. We enjoyed the ice cream too.”

“And we were comfortable when we showed the demonstration.”

Woojoo felt good when they thanked him warmly.

Yes.

They got a huge amount of broadcast time for their hard work. Woojoo, Junghyun, and Hanjo.

-Kiyahhoo!

When Woojoo looked at him, Hanjo blinked his eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I was just happy that Hanjo got some screen time.”

“Thank you.”

Woojoo smiled warmly at him, who was smiling happily.

After finishing the dinner in a friendly atmosphere.

At night, they watched a Hollywood movie that depicted the fight between a terrorist organization and the police Special Forces.

And finally, Woojoo had a video call with Bae Sangkyung’s younger sibling. They said they recognized them from the Soufflé when they first met.

The camera was watching them when the call was connected.

“Hey. What are you doing now?”

-Ah, you scared me.

She greeted them enthusiastically and Junghyun and Woojoo, who were hiding behind him, smiled.

Bae Sangkyung said with a chubby face, “Didn’t you say you like New Black?”

-Hey, don’t mention our Oppas’ names with that mouth.

Junghyun and Woojoo burst into silent laughter at his firm remark. Bae Sangkyung just said ‘whatever’.

-But, what is this? What is this? Wait, how did you make the call? You’re in the base right now, did you take out your phone? Are you crazy?!

He moved the screen away from his excited voice and said, “I took it out because of the broadcast shooting.”

-Broadcast?

“I came here for the shooting of ‘Men Go’, look.”

Then he handed them his phone. Junghyun and Woojoo made a heart with both hands and shouted.

“Hello!”

-…

On the screen, a person who was eating a sweet potato with a roll on her bangs appeared.

“Hello.”

When they greeted her again with a smile, she opened her mouth blankly.

Thud.

The phone camera spun 360 degrees and fell to the floor, turning dark.

“Hey, are you okay…”

-Aaaaaah!

Junghyun and Woojoo both moved away from the phone at the sound of a piercing scream.

As they heard a voice saying ‘What do I do, what do I do!’ at almost 1.8 times the normal speed, Baek Sangkyung took the phone back.

After the conversation between the siblings continued with some distance from the camera.

“Please wait for a minute.”

“…?”

“I’m going to wash my face.”

They burst out laughing.

Three minutes later.

A person in proper clothes appeared on the screen.

Baek Sangkyung snorted at the sight of her transformed into a different person like a fairy tale princess, and they smiled.

-Hi there!

They chuckled as she waved a wand from the other side.

“Nice to meet you, Soufflé!”

-Oh, it’s really you guys. Awesome…

“Why are you crying?”

She put her hand on her mouth and cried, and they comforted her with a smile.

They didn’t have much time, so they had to make the call short.

They knew she was preparing for the art school entrance exam, so they gave her words of encouragement for the tough exam.

As a former trainee for a long time, Woojoo was an expert on how it felt to prepare for something without any promise.

She shouted with a smile that reached her ears.

-I’m going to keep this video as a treasure!

“Well, maybe not until the end…”

-No way. I have to see your faces for generations.

The siblings were both funny, and they laughed at everything they said.

As they finished the call, Woojoo added, “It was hard to make a video call because of the recording schedule, but your brother asked us a favor, so we could do it.”

-Really?

They said goodbye and handed the phone to Baek Sangkyung. She immediately said ‘Oppa… I’ll do well.’ and they all laughed.

He seemed to find it funny too, as he hung up and said, “It’s the first time I’ve heard the word ‘Oppa’ since I enlisted.”

Then he bowed to them.

“Thank you. For everything.”

“…?”

“My sister was depressed every day because of the art school entrance exam, but she brightened up after seeing New Black. She loves your songs and says they’re like her story.”

“Really?”

He nodded.

“She used to look like a corpse every time she went out. I was worried about her. But thanks to you, she seems much better. Thank you.”

“No, thank you. We’re more grateful.”

They smiled at his words.

This was the most rewarding time as a singer.

The fact that their songs could bring a little joy or comfort to someone else.

The fact that they could make someone’s mood better.

That was the best compliment they could get.

“I feel good.”

“Me too. Hyung.”

“Let’s make our fourth album well today, since we got a blessing from Soufflé.”

Woojoo walked and laughed in the garden with Junghyun.

Thanks to the video call with Soufflé, Woojoo had plenty of ideas for the fourth album.

“It feels like I have extra energy, doesn’t it?”

“Me too.”

Then Joonhyun asked Woojoo with a puzzled face, “But Hyung.”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t you think it’s less hard than you thought?”

“What are you talking about, Junghyun? Unlike you, a cyborg, I’m…”

Woojoo stopped as he was about to say it was hard.

He had a point.

The training was tough, but strangely, he didn’t feel exhausted or drained.

It was a strange thing.

Hanjo, who had bulging muscles, collapsed, and Park Hobeom, the ace of Men Go, threw up.

But they two were fine.

They had heard the praise for their stamina almost dozens of times here, but he had never heard such a compliment before.

“That’s weird. Did my stamina improve?”

"What could be the reason?"

"I wonder…"

Woojoo racked his brain for a long time to figure out why his stamina had improved, but he couldn't find an answer.

* * *

Lemon Enter.

In the basement practice room, two idols were sprawled out, gasping for air.

"Ughhh…"

"Uhhh, I miss our Hyungs…"

Rihyuk and Jiho were snuggling like two worms, whining.

‘I'm dying.'

‘It's too hard…'

Then, someone's shadow loomed over their heads like an octopus's tentacles.

"Hey, kids~"

They flinched at the sweet voice.

"No. Is the break time over already?"

"Yup. Let's practice."

"Whaaaaa…"

Bijoo reached out his hand and helped the two younger ones up, smiling.

"The more we're alone, the more we have to do."

"…."

"Woojoo Hyung and Junghyun must be having a hard time in the Special Forces. Compared to that training, our dance practice is nothing."

They nodded silently.

‘Well, if I think about the military training… there's no way the practice is that hard.'

‘Yeah. Our Hyungs are suffering…'

They nodded and started their dance practice.

But none of them knew the truth. How Woojoo's stamina had become good enough to endure the Special Forces training.

‘I have to practice more!'

That was thanks to the burning practice desire of someone who was diligent but easily lost his way.