Ji Hyo gazed at the two dresses which the stylist had given her to choose. A short red one and a long white one. Should her last opening outfit in Running Man reflect her feisty character? Or, should she remind the cast and audience that she was still a lady? She was their Ace so the red dress was more fitting. But that someone ever commented that she was pretty in white.

When Jong Kook arrived at the filming location for Running Man, he could feel the solemnness of the atmosphere. Jae Suk and Suk Jin were already there before him and they were working with the crew on the camera positions and other shooting logistics. When he joined them, his mat-hyungs immediately gave him a hug to welcome him back. Gary and Haha had arrived together next, followed by Kwang Soo. All of them were in their suits.

Ji Hyo was the last to arrive. She walked gracefully towards them in a long white dress with silver strappy high heels. Her hair was tied into a bun with some loose strands framing her face. A tiara would have complete the princess look. The men in the cast and crew turned to gape at her. While she was pretty and adorable in her first episode, she had morphed into a beautiful butterfly in her final episode. She may have lost some of her youthfulness but in its place sophistication was found.

They began the shooting of the opening scene at the entrance of an amusement park. Jae Suk did the introduction for each member using the nicknames that they had earned in the show. Yooruce Wills was in the centre, Sparta Kook on his left, and Race Starter on his right. Haroro stood next to Jong Kook while Monday Boyfriend joined Suk Jin on the other end. He was tempted to place Ji Hyo between him and Jong Kook but the show must go on so he placed Monday Girlfriend between Suk Jin and Gary. Finally, Giraffe was placed next to Haha. Gary played his role and teased Ji Hyo whether she was hinting him for a wedding which caused her to blush furiously and earned him a slap on the arm by her. Meanwhile, Haha tried to bully Kwang Soo to stand further away from him as the latter was making him looked like a dwarf. Kwang Soo responded by saying that Haha had been invited to film the Asian version of the Lord of the Rings where he would play the role of Gimli. The filming cut with the cast’s laughter on Kwang Soo’s last line.

The cast then changed into t-shirts printed with their personalised characters (i.e. the impala, grasshopper, tiger, monkey, penguin, cat and giraffe) and received their first mission to find their guest in the amusement park. If they could not find the guest within an hour, then the victory belonged to the guest. There was no name-tag ripping this round and the winner would get a cash prize and a significant advantage in the next mission. The cast quickly dispersed and conducted their solo search. It soon dawned on them that the task was not as easy as they thought because the amusement park was huge and they had no idea where to look for the guest. To make it be worse, they didn’t even know who the guest was. What if it was Choi Min Soo the terror?

The Easy Brothers naturally formed their team and wandered off together to search for the guest in the animal safari. Haha and Jae Suk met at a junction and they decided to form a team too. Despite their fear for height, they had chosen to take the Ferris wheel so that they could have a better view of their surroundings and hopefully they could spot their guest from there. Jong Kook saw Ji Hyo at a corner and he was about to approach her to form a team when Gary beat him to it. Gary took Ji Hyo for a rollercoaster ride ignoring the mission for a moment.

Being left alone, Jong Kook continued his solo search in the horror house. He strolled absentmindedly as his mind was filled with the images of Ji Hyo and Gary standing together with their suit and white dress. They did look like a wedding couple. And there were images of Ji Hyo running off hand-in-hand with Gary. What used to be normal to him had turned into a sour feeling for him and he didn’t like what he was feeling. Just as he was about to make a turn, an artificial corpse glided towards him and it stopped just a few inches in front of his nose. As he recovered from his fright, he saw a figure standing behind the curtains where the corpse was previously hiding. Without any warning, he lurched at the figure and immediately reached for and ripped off the tag on his back. With the latter’s tag in his hand, he then shone a torchlight at the person’s face and he was pleasantly surprised to see Joong Ki’s face.

The cast was elated to see Joong Ki and everyone went forward to hug him. When the excitement died down, Jae Suk announced Jong Kook as the winner of the first round and that as his reward he could choose his team members for the next round. Jong Kook’s sixth sense told him that the next round could be the Mission-and-Chasers game. He had wanted to choose Ji Hyo so that he could speak to her, but he knew that he still needed to put on a show. Giving up his wish, he chose Gary and Haha as his team mates instead.

When Jae Suk urged him to choose another member to make the numbers in both teams even, he was tempted once more to ask Ji Hyo. Instead, he asked the production crew whether it was necessary to have same number of members in both teams. When their answer was negative, he asserted that he was confident that his two kid brothers would be sufficient to see him through in the next round. Gary and Haha were proud of his trust in them and they silently understood that this was Jong Kook’s way of telling them that nothing had changed between them despite the previous session in his house. On the other hand, Ji Hyo could not help but feel disappointed that he didn’t choose her. “Didn’t you say that we make the best team? Am I not even good enough to be in your team now?” she began to question.

Jong Kook’s team left in a car with him in the driver seat. During the car ride, the trio made small talk boosting that they would bring the other team down today. They even sang a song together with Gary rapping in it. Meanwhile, in Jae Suk’s MPV, the other team were busy catching up with Joong Ki.

Their next venue was a building in a university and Jong Kook’s sixth sense was right. As the winner of the earlier round, Jong Kook could choose to be the mission team or the chasers and he chose to be the latter.

The mission team had to find five items within one hour while the chasers had to eliminate all members of the other team before they completed their mission.

The three brothers tied the bells onto their shoes and got ready to ambush the other team in the building. Soon after, the entry of the other team into the building was broadcasted and the countdown timer started.

Just as his luck would have it, Suk Jin walked into a meeting room where Haha was hiding just five minutes into the game. Haha had heard him approaching and quickly switched off the lights. When Suk Jin walked into the dark room, Haha sprung from behind the door and ripped off his tag. “Suk Jin OUT!” When the cast heard the announcement, all of them could picture in their mind that Suk Jin had just announced “Race Starts” at wherever he was now. The feeling was bittersweet for it was so familiar and yet this would be the last time it would be said.

As Jae Suk was waiting for the lift, he saw something with the Running Man sticker hiding in  a plant-holder. He took it out and became the person to find the first Running Man pod. In his moment of triumph, the lift door opened and out came Sparta Kook. Yooruce Wills ran for his life. He quickly got into the staircase and run downstairs. Jong Kook gave chase and called for reinforcement via his walkie-talkie.  Gary who was on the first floor ran up the stairs. Being sandwiched by Gary and Jong Kook, Jae Suk could not escape and his name-tag was ripped off by Jong Kook. “Jae Suk OUT!”

Jae Suk joined his old pal in the jail. He gave his hyung a big bear hug. It was his way of expressing his gratitude to this hyung who had set aside his pride to become the weakest member in this show so that he could help to mentor and look after the juniors.

While the chasers were hunting for them, Ji Hyo, Joong Ki and Kwang Soo managed to find one Running Man pod each. The mission team now had four out of the five pods and they had another ten minutes to go.

Kwang Soo ran into Jong Kook in an open area and he put up a strong struggle. He was about to overpower Jong Kook when he tripped on his own long legs. Jong Kook was holding Kwang Soo’s tag and it tore off from the latter’s back as he fell. Jong Kook was momentarily stunned at Kwang Soo’s power display. He realised that if the show were to continue, Kwang Soo could have overtaken him as the most powerful player in the very near future. After all, they had an of almost a decade and he was not that young after all. Kwang Soo was secretly glad that his hyung had won in this last episode. “Kwang Soo OUT!” The old-time jailbird trio had all gathered.

Joong Ki and Ji Hyo continued their search for the last pod. As they were about to turn into a corner, they heard the terrifying sound of the bells. Ji Hyo swiftly slides herself into the nearest tutorial room and hid under the tutor’s desk in the dark. Both Haha and Gary saw Joong Ki running away and gave chase. As Gary passed the room which Ji Hyo was hiding, he could somehow sense her presence. He always thought he could smell her scent. 

Gary opened the door of the dark tutorial room and he had spotted Ji Hyo’s shoes under the desk that very instant. He gently closed the door and stood facing it with his both hands on each side of the door frame. He contemplated for a short while and then he began to rap while waiting for Ji Hyo to force her way out.

I can always feel your presence and smell your scent.  
I can smell your eagerness for flight now.  
The day of departure has come. 
It's hard for me to say goodbye to you when I don’t want you to go. 

I just want to hold you, keep you here for another minute, for another hour, for another day.
But you will leave anyway. So, you should just go.  
I will keep your memories, your feelings and your burdens.

You can go freely. You can go swiftly.  
Go towards your dreams knowing that you can always wake up here.
I’ll stay put here. I will freeze here with my heart, with my mind and with my soul when your warmth is gone from me.

My love, please go now and soar freely in the vast blue sky.

In place of the ringing bell sounds, Ji Hyo heard Gary’s suave rhythmic voice instead. She slowly crawled out from the desk. She sunk into one of the chairs to listen to his words. She could not bring herself to betray Gary this last time but she was the Ace and she had a role to play. She opened the door and looked pleadingly at Gary to let her off.

Acting on instinct, Gary caught both her hands firmly in a flash. So many times he had let her go, yet each time it was a real and fresh struggle for him. He could not refuse her. He did not want to betray his team. He wanted to hold her a little longer. And this time he wished he could hold her forever and that time would freeze.

Haha chased Joong Ki but lost him. Both Jong Kook and Haha continued to hunt for him relentlessly. They finally found him at the other end of a long corridor. Both of them garnered their speed and ran after him. Joong Ki quickly ran into the nearest room and he caught sight of the last pod. He managed to grab the last pod just as Jong Kook pulled at his shirt. “Mission Team WINS”

Upon hearing the announcement, Gary let go of Ji Hyo’s hands and extended his right hand to her.  She took his hand. They went together to meet the rest for the last mission. This was the last Monday they would be spending together as the Monday Couple.

After they had gathered, the mission team was told to open their Running Man pods. In the pods, they found the black tags with the name of each mission team member sew in golden threads. The PDs gave them a choice of ending the show as such or to have a One-Chance challenge so that the Chaser Team could have their golden name-tags too. If they lost the challenge, they would be punished together. The mission team opted for the One-Chance challenge without any hesitation, as predicted by the PDs.

The cast gathered at a famous Seoul night market. They were given two pieces of long planks. On each plank, there were eight loops. The cast was supposed to put their foot through the loops and walk together using these planks from one end of a street to the other within ten minutes. They had up to ten tries.

They failed on their first try. They had tripped multiple times and had barely covered a third of the required distance in the ten minutes. They began to do better on their subsequent tries. While the team had certainly made Joong Ki felt welcome and accepted, he could not help but felt that the team had grown much closer since he left and they had a bonding he could not penetrate through. With a glance or a look, it seemed that the team members would already know what the other person wanted.

By their fifth attempt, the team managed to coordinate their moves in perfect synchronisation. With Jong Kook leading the team, they began to move towards in their finishing point in good time. Jae Suk and Haha even encouraged the people along the streets to join them in their procession. The mood soon turned rather festive with the cheering from the crowd and people walking behind them. While the PDs were worried that the team had succeeded much faster than they had expected, the festive procession should be able to make up for the needed screen time. 

The team then gathered in a restaurant setting for the closing screen. Jae Suk invited Joong Ki to speak first. Joong Ki said it would have been one of his greatest regrets if he didn’t have a chance to participate in Running Man again and he was grateful that he was able to participate in this final episode of Running Man. Jae Suk, Kwang Soo and Ji Hyo gave him a big hug.

“Ji Hyo, you are still coming to my studio on Friday, aren’t you?” Gary shouted across as Ji Hyo made her way away towards her waiting transport.

“Yes, I will be there!” she replied with a light smile and a wave. They may not be Monday Couple anymore, but she would still be appearing as a guest in his upcoming concert and she needed to practice her songs with him.

Jong Kook looked at their interaction with envy and uneasiness. He used to be able to shout words across to her too but it seemed as if his tongue was too thick and his throat was too dry whenever he tried to speak to her today. He also caught Gary’s gaze following Ji Hyo until she had left in her transport.

As Jong Kook was watching Gary, Suk Jin watched three of them and shook his head.

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