Sungjong

Of all the variety shows that I could be on, this had to be the one that landed on my schedule. When Byunghun (or L.Joe, whatever he wants to be called) drove me to the set, I had no urge to question what was going to happen. But once I sat down and saw the layout of the show, I realized it was a couple show. The program, called "Battle of the Lovers," was a newly aired series in which couples go head to head to see which one could win, according to the MCs. Right when hearing that introduction, I almost gagged. How am I going to pull this off?

I took a good look at the cast for the show. There were seven other couples, for a total of eight teams. The hosts were two fairly handsome men, Kim Seyong and Chae Jinseok. Seyong had an immense, outgoing aura in contrast to Chaejin's reservedness. They seemed like they didn't want to be here like Sungyeol and I, but they kept their feelings hidden well from everyone else.

Before starting off, Seyong went around to each couple and told them to introduce themselves. I could see how lovey dovey and cute the couples tried to act in front of the camera, and I doubted that most of them were real anyway. They did it just for the fans and the viewers, as I saw the general lack of interest. Once the MC reached Myungsoo and Doyeon, Doyeon started to yap annoyingly right off the bat.

"Here we have the famous acting couple, Myungsoo and Doyeon!" Seyong started off. I could hear a lot of screaming and cheering from the studio audience.

Doyeon immediately clung to Myungsoo's arm. "Thanks for having us here, Seyong. We were sooo excited to hear that we could come on this new show. It looks like it'll be tons of fun!" Her praise for the show before it even started gave me nasty shudders. 

Seyong seemed uncomfortable speaking to Doyeon, so after her statement he immediately nodded and halted any further questions. He stepped over to where Sungyeol and I sat. "Sitting with us here is our first male couple! Our viewers must have already seen the headlines about the news, so can we hear about your relationship?" he began, this time sounding a bit more exciting.

"Well Sungjong was the head designer of my new clothing brand, 'The Chaser.' He did an amazing job on it, and I was proud of him too. Then, things kind of just happened..." Sungyeol responded.

"And how did you get put onto the project, Sungjong?" Seyong asked. For a brief second I was frozen in place, trying to come up with an answer. However remembering that it was variety, I knew that people could choose to believe if it was actually real or not.

"One day, the CEO gathered us in a room for a special announcement, and I had no idea what it was about. Then Sungyeol came in out of nowhere, saying that he needed to decide on a person to choose for his project. He went around the whole room, looking at each designer closely then when he came over to me, he immediately chose me." It was a bit paraphrased differently, but the main idea was still there.

"So you're saying that Sungyeol chose you based on looks?" The MC continued.

"Yes, that's exactly right." I said with a laugh.

Sungyeol turned a deep shade of red, and Seyong began to pester him about it. "Lee Sungyeol! Is this very embarrassing for you to bring up? Kissing people without knowing them fully? Hmm?" The whole audience and cast began cracking up at the pushiness that Seyong was showing, and Sungyeol hung his head down in humiliation. It was nice to hear people actually paying attention to us for once.

After finishing the mental attack, Seyong pinched my cheeks and headed back down to the central stage. Chaejin seemed a bit ticked at his subtle action for some reason, so I kept my eyes on them throughout the beginning of the show. I could see them give each other longing looks, brush against each other, and do a lot of hidden skinship just within a five minute span. If they were a couple, then they looked extremely adorable together. How ironic is it that the MC's are also together on this show?

After the lengthy introduction, the competition commenced. The first event was a bride-carrying event. The men had to carry the brides through a complex obstacle course while the brides sang karaoke (I assumed that I was the bride). It sounded completely absurd to me, but I told myself that we needed to win in order to help out Infinite Corp. However I still had some worries. It wasn't that my singing voice was poor, since it was actually not bad at all - it was the fact that I feel bad for Sungyeol. The course seemed pretty strenuous, and I didn't want to weigh him down. But no matter what, we were definitely going to the end on this show, as long as Sungyeol and I gave it our all. 

We were the first couple to attempt the course. The horn rang, and Sungyeol began running around the cones with me in his arms. The song that I received was Lee Hyori's Bad Girls, and I was determined to do the song justice, even while in an uncomfortable singing position. I looked up at Sungyeol while I was singing (I already knew the lyrics by heart) to see that same determination in his eyes too. The rest of the obstacles whizzed by, until we reached some large acupuncture mats. Sungyeol's face scrunched up in pain, and his grip on me started loosening.

"Oh! It looks like the Sung-Sung couple is slowing down at the acupuncture mats," Chaejin commented.

My voice started g