Cheat day

Sugar Man (5)

Tuesday.

The Nam-sadang troupe gathered to wrap up “Be Happy.”

As usual, we were chatting while waiting for viewers to join when Ju Ji-seung brought up my photo shoot.

“By the way, Chan-yong’s photo shoot came out, right?”

“Oh no.”

I had tried my best to keep it a secret, so this was awkward.

“Really? When?”

“Today.”

“Look it up.”

“Oh, please don’t.”

“Hey, if you’re an ambassador, you have to promote it!”

Cha Ji-chan, excited to tease me, searched for my photo shoot on the internet.

Photos appeared of me leaning against a railing, with buttons undone, swinging a racket on a tennis court, and lying on a sunbed with my hands behind my head.

It was awkward during the shoot, but seeing it in front of friends made me squirm.

“Ahhahahaha!”

“Haha!”

“Kuhuhuhuh.”

“Don’t laugh!”

└ Hahaha

└ Looks like they picked the wrong model for Lacoste

└ Is he a jointed doll or what? Why does he look so awkward?

└ Even a professional took these?

└ Usually, these are unexpectedly cool, right?

“Isn’t this wrong? This can’t be the A cut?”

Cha Ji-chan asked.

With the atmosphere continuing like this, I knew it wouldn’t benefit me. I had to change the subject.

“Okay, everyone, the reason we’re gathered today is…”

“Wait a minute.”

“Why did you leave your buttons undone?”

“Isn’t this shading?”

As Cha Ji-chan and Baek Woo-jin took turns teasing me, Ju Ji-seung zoomed in on my chest.

“Ah!”

“My eyes!”

“Are you crazy? Why are you zooming in on that?!”

I hurriedly took the photo down, worried they’d find out I was trying to accentuate my chest muscles.

└ I never thought I’d see Ban-chan’s chest zoomed in on like this

└ Gross

└ Hahaha, the muscles look good, though, why?

└ Ugh

└ You should compensate Lacoste

“The clothes from Lacoste are great. It’s just the person wearing them who is at fault.”

Baek Woo-jin kept mocking me until the very end.

He poked me in the side to restrain me and started explaining why we had gathered today.

“Thank you all for participating in ‘Be Happy.’ Today, I’ll announce the final event.”

“Cough, cough.”

“Ah, it hurts my stomach.”

“Stop laughing!”

When I shouted, the three of them either turned their heads away or hunched over, shaking their shoulders.

“Thanks to you all, ‘Be Happy’ is known abroad. Thank you so much. When I inquired with YouTube Korea, as of yesterday, about 1.3 million people had participated.”

└ What?

└ 1.3 million????

└ Isn’t this close to a Guinness record?

└ Wasn’t it only 600,000 just a while ago?

└ It seems to have increased after news coverage and community sharing.

└ It feels even bigger than that, haha.

└ Seriously, lately, I can’t find anything but Nam-sadang profiles on YouTube.

“Seriously, it’s harder to find profiles that aren’t Nam-sadang.”

Not many people comment on the videos.

The comments vary from video to video, so it’s hard to generalize, but in the case of the “Baekban Debate,” there are roughly 1,000 comments for every 1 million views.

So, with 1 million views, there are only about 1,000 comments, which gives a glimpse of the impact of “Be Happy” with 1.4 million participants.

“For the finale, I’ll set a phrase for you.”

Baek Woo-jin stepped forward.

“I thought of several phrases, but the only one that is universally understandable and uplifting is this one, right?”

We all nodded in agreement, encouraging Baek Woo-jin.

“For the next week, please comment ‘I love you’ on videos from other channels, excluding Ban-ya Sik-kyung, Jim-gun, Ban-chan, and Woo-jin-us. If it’s a video you enjoyed, felt moved by, or has a special meaning to you, that would be great.”

“For example, I’ll be commenting on the sleep documentary on the History Channel. I have severe insomnia, but if I listen to this, I fall asleep right away.”

I added some clarification.

“If you write a story along with the link to the respective video in the Nam-sadang community or the two community sites below, we’ll check it and distribute prizes.”

Ju Ji-seung continued speaking, and Cha Ji-chan provided the final instructions.

“The more comments, the better. Your chances of winning increase with the number of comments. However, please refrain from commenting on hateful videos or those that violate copyright.”

When I revealed the list of prizes, the viewers reacted enthusiastically.

Many companies that we had interacted with before or newly connected with had generously provided prizes, so this was to be expected.

└ The prize quality is insane

└ No way, haha

└ Do I have to write exactly ‘I love you’? Can I say ‘I love u’ instead?

└ Just do as we say, come on, haha

└ That’s just embarrassing

└ ‘I love u’ sounds even more cringy, haha

└ What about ‘I adore you’?

“You have to follow the exact wording because we’ll be using a program to select winners. Adding ‘병기’ (a variation) is fine.”

“‘병기’ means you can write both. It’s okay to write both.”

“Please refer to the guide video for more details. An advertisement will also be released.”

“We need to check if our outdoor ads are up properly.”

“Jun-ho said he would check around tomorrow.”

He has to cover various locations across Seoul, so I was worried about Jim-gun’s staff tomorrow.

“Everyone, this event is about giving love to other people, like YouTubers or YouTube subscribers.”

“Come on. Honestly, we’re just doing it to win prizes.”

“…That’s true. If you want a prize, don’t leave hate comments; just write ‘I love you.’”

Trying to add more meaning felt unnecessary, so I just told them to leave positive comments instead of negative ones, which the viewers actually appreciated.

***

The final event of “Be Happy,” ‘I love you,’ was introduced in videos posted on each Nam-sadang channel after the joint broadcast.

YouTube also helped promote it separately, taking significant care to run outdoor ads in places like bus stops and subway stations.

With the prizes supported by various companies, the impact of ‘I love you’ far exceeded our expectations.

It seemed that the good prize lineup contributed to this: 1,000 three-month YouTube Premium coupons, 500 3,000 won Kakao Page vouchers, 3,000 10,000 won cultural gift certificates, 2,000 spicy galbi stews from Ottogi, 2,000 spicy chicken with cilantro mayo, 200 pairs of Sketches sneakers, 100 Berry Watch 6 devices, and 100 Berry Phone V24s.

On the day the event started, the Nam-sadang fan homepage experienced 900,000 daily visits, causing the server to crash.

After hastily solving the problem, the traffic continued to increase, and within three days of the event starting, there were already 170,000 submissions for ‘I love you’ and stories.

Meanwhile, the server continued to crash.

It was hard to predict the number of participants, so we had requested cooperation from two famous domestic communities, which effectively handled most of the work.

“Wow. This is terrifying. So scary.”

“Told you so. Wasn’t I right?”

Baek Woo-jin lifted his chin and puffed out his chest.

He had been confident in this event, insisting that we collaborate with a community that had a large server during the preparation process.

Even though we were uncertain about it at first, we couldn’t help but acknowledge Baek Woo-jin.

From the perspective of the community operators, it was an opportunity guaranteed with traffic and promotion, so they responded surprisingly quickly and even helped create the event board and organize the posts, for which we were extremely grateful.

“Thank you so much. What would we have done if we had to sift through everything ourselves?”

“Exactly.”

“We help others, and in return, we receive help. Right?”

“Absolutely.”

Agreeing with Cha Ji-chan’s words, I logged into YouTube and clicked on any random video.

└I love you

└I love you. I drive long distances often, and thanks to Owl, I never have a dull moment. Thank you.

└Thanks to Jun, I always gain a new perspective on international affairs. I’m really enjoying it. I love you.

└Thanks to Seulgi, I’m keeping my desire to go camping in check. Love you!

└I love classic movies. I get to enjoy this great film for free while having a beer on the weekend. Thank you. I love you.

“There’s a channel for Korean classic films too.”

It’s a large channel with over 800,000 subscribers, featuring complete films like “A Beautiful Young Man: Jeon Tae-il.”

At first, I thought it was a copyright-infringing channel, but it turned out to be an official channel operated by the Korean Film Archive.

There are videos that upscale old movies to 4K or HD quality, making it enjoyable to watch.

“Oh. Hye-rin said she wants to thank us and treat us to a meal.”

While looking at the comments, Ju Ji-seung mentioned news from Yuk Hye-rin, a participant in “Praise for Korean Food.”

“Is it going well?”

Baek Woo-jin asked with excitement.

“It sounds like it from what she said.”

“Cool. Hyung Boo also contacted me to say thanks. He said he’d give us rice at a discount if we order late-night side dishes.”

“Ha ha. We should pay the full price.”

“I still have my protein quota left for today. Speaking of which, let’s go.”

“Yeah. I’m busy starting next week and won’t have time, so let’s go today.”

“Hey, aren’t we busy too?”

“I told you I’m the MC for a cultural program.”

“That’s right. Baek Woo-jin has hit the big time.”

“It’s not a pilot or a short series; it’s a regular slot.”

“Do you think a guy who loves to talk can listen to others well?”

“Absolutely.”

Everyone chuckled at Baek Woo-jin’s bravado.

“Chan-yong, do you have time?”

Ju Ji-seung asked.

“Yeah. I need to eat dinner since I’m going to be on the radio at night. It’s not just anything; it’s Yukhoe (raw beef).”

“You’re really impressive.”

“Hyung?”

“I’m fine since I have an early schedule tomorrow.”

“…That’s strange.”

“What’s strange?”

Feeling a peculiar sense, I said it was odd, and everyone looked at me.

“It’s weird that even though we started a company together and are working together, it’s hard to find time to eat together because everyone is busy. We’ve grown closer, but it feels like we have fewer opportunities to gather comfortably like we used to.”

Cha Ji-chan pondered for a moment, then nodded.

“Living busy lives is better. For people like us, if we fall behind, it can be endless. It’s nice to have coffee and meals together once in a while amidst all the chaos.”

“You’re lucky. You’re not busy.”

“You brat.”

As Baek Woo-jin teased the relatively free Cha Ji-chan, he was quickly overpowered.

Seeing him tapping out while caught in a headlock reassured me amid the busyness, thanks to the enduring camaraderie of the Nam-sadang.