Cheonghyeon eagerly accepted side dishes being fed to him, then fixed his gaze on the spicy marinated crab, the braised short ribs, and the garlic bossam. These were dishes even Sikyung and Yoonwoo could not make, so they were foods they had not been able to eat either.
“You want some?”
Hando, who had been watching all of this the whole time, went as far as putting on plastic gloves and picking the meat out of the spicy marinated crab for him, and the PD shouted asking what kind of rule this was supposed to be.
Yoonwoo also joined in and protested.
“No, hyung. We want spicy marinated crab too! What is this? Marinated crab takes days, and we don’t even know how to make it.”
“If you can’t make it, then don’t eat it.”
He diligently picked out the meat and popped it into Cheonghyeon’s mouth, and he also fed him bites of garlic bossam.
“Ah! If it were just bossam, it’d be worth trying, but why is that hyung so good that he even makes garlic sauce too and goes all out, seriously.”
When Yoonwoo whined, Hando glanced at him, then picked up three pieces of bossam at once and stuffed them right into Yoonwoo’s mouth.
“You eat a lot too. You punk who can’t even make garlic sauce.”
Even so, maybe because he got meat, Yoonwoo smiled to himself in a good mood.
Hyung, you could go out and succeed just by cooking.
Cheonghyeon, who had been steadily being fed, also nodded. The dishes Hando had put effort into from the morning tasted even better than the menus at most Korean set meal restaurants.
A little later, all four of them patted their full bellies and slumped limply in their chairs.
“Wow, this is the first time I’ve ever used my brain this hard while eating. What all did I touch? Clam soup and fried eggs, kimchi, seasoned dried squid strips.”
“I think I touched basically all the side dish types. Except stuff like braised short ribs, I have to make everything, even the soup.”
Still, since Hando fed us everything, we all got to taste it. Right?
At Sikyung’s words, Cheonghyeon, who had tasted the most, nodded with satisfaction.
Me, rice.
It was a relief that Hando did not make the difficult mixed grain rice. Just buying rice and water and pressing a button! A cheerful little hum slipped out on its own.
And so, the breakfast that satisfied everyone except the PD came to an end.
After they finished eating, the members each took some rest time. The PD was discussing something with the other staff, and the camera directors were resting too.
‘So can I rest now too.’
When he went into a room without cameras, he saw the members and the manager.
“Cheonghyeon, it must’ve been your first time with cameras running 24 hours like this. Were you okay? People kept moving around too, so it must’ve bothered you.”
“Cheonghyeon hyung looked totally fine. He ate well and even slept well.”
At Yoonwoo’s words, Cheonghyeon nodded. In the past, he had lived in the palace together with hundreds of palace attendants.
Of course, those people existed solely for his convenience, and this was not that, so there were parts that grated on him, but it was not to the point where it bothered him so much, like the manager worried, that he could not live his daily life.
“Even if it’s a bit uncomfortable, let’s endure it for just one week. Cameras are only installed in your rooms, the living room, and the kitchen, so just be careful how you act there. If it gets on your nerves, you can come rest in this room. Did everyone turn off their mics?”
“Yes.”
“Still, you know you can’t just stay on this side all the time, right? Show some of you guys hanging out outside too, appropriately.”
At the manager’s words, Cheonghyeon jerked his head up. The members’ eyes also glittered.
“Huh? Guys, where are you going?”
“To go play outside!”
Avoiding the still-chaotic production staff, the members and Cheonghyeon headed to Cheonghyeon’s room, the largest one.
Cheonghyeon was so rushed he nearly tripped on the way, and Yoonwoo barely caught him and turned on the mic clipped at his waist.
When they opened the door, Cheonghyeon’s room, where only an unmanned camera was quietly rolling, welcomed them. All the members hurriedly took their places and exchanged glances.
‘Ready?’
‘Of course.’
‘Random game?’
‘What a stupid question.’
After about ten seconds of exchanging looks, Yoonwoo was the first to speak.
“In the forest, a rabbit! Bunny bunny, bunny bunny!”
“Carrot carrot!”
“Carrot carrot!”
Since there were only four people, their random game moved insanely fast. In this game where they constantly became the rabbit and threw and snatched carrots from each other with barely a moment to breathe, it brought to mind those musclebound rabbits you might see overseas.
Hearing the noise from the next room, Changsik let out a deep sigh. It was nice that it was wholesome, but did they never get tired of that random game?
Whenever the members had time, they would shout and squawk as they played. Because of the sasaeng fan problem, the company had bought this villa and was using it as a dorm for their artists, and it just so happened that all the celebrities who used to live here had already moved out.
It was truly fortunate that no one lived here except East. If that were not the case, there would have already been complaints from residents about the noise, over and over again.
Was it the beginning, when they started by teaching Cheonghyeon random games he probably would have played in his school days, in order to bring his memories back?
The members used “bringing Cheonghyeon’s memories back” as an excuse, and whenever they had time, they played games.
At first, even Cheonghyeon had been lukewarm, saying there was no way memories would ever come back from something like that, but now even he played with fire in his eyes.
It was the one moment when the quiet guy, the one whose thoughts you could never read, showed the biggest emotional ups and downs.
‘If you play games that much, shouldn’t even memories you never had appear….’
Hoping they would not say they lacked people and drag him in again, Changsik closed his eyes, using the members’ game noises as a lullaby.
The one who lost this battle was Rabbit Yoonwoo. The brown hair he had taken the time to set was now a mess, like a poodle’s. But still looking excited, Yoonwoo raised his voice.
“I am ground, introduce yourself! Go!”
“I’m Yoonwoo!”
“I’m Cheonghyeon!”
“I’m Hando!”
“I’m Sikyung!”
“I am ground, from now we start!”
“Hando seven!”
“Hando, Hando, Hando, Hando, Hando, Hando, Hando.”
“Sikyung three!”
“Sikyung, Sikyung, Sikyung!”
At the noisy sounds, all the camera directors headed to Cheonghyeon’s room. Watching the game being played at tremendous speed, all their faces red, even the PD clicked his tongue.
“Wow, if you played a drinking game with this, you’d never get to drink.”
At that, maybe because his focus got shaken, Yoonwoo let out a snort of laughter. Cheonghyeon did not miss that moment and attacked Yoonwoo.
“Yoonwoo six!”
“Yoonwoo, Yoonwoo, Yoonu, nyungn, nyun, aah!”
The hot energy and tension that had filled the room loosened in an instant because of Yoonwoo’s mistake. The members laughed excitedly, grabbed Yoonwoo, and started tickling him.
“Ah, wait. Ah! Directors, ah, director! Please save me, ahahaha, aah!”
Maybe it had become painful beyond just ticklish, because Yoonwoo screamed while panting for breath.
“One more round!”
A little later, when the mood settled down a bit, the PD smiled and spoke.
“No, back at breakfast, I thought you were really quiet kids. Totally not, huh?”
“The PD talked to us in the middle and it was so funny that I lost. I usually don’t lose!”
“Then who usually loses?”
At those words, all the members’ gazes turned toward Hando.
“Ahem. I, uh, don’t lose every single day.”
At Hando’s awkward words, all the staff burst out laughing.
“But this is really unexpected. I honestly thought Mr. Cheonghyeon would be the weakest at games like this.”
“Cheonghyeon? Cheonghyeon hasn’t lost even once. He doesn’t fall for tricks, and even if we all team up and attack him together, he usually doesn’t lose. This guy is seriously a random game master.”
At Sikyung’s words, the PD’s eyes sparkled. With a gaze that stared straight at Cheonghyeon while he muttered, “Oh really?”
Cheonghyeon felt an ominous feeling inside, but he smiled and nodded.
It was one of the few talents he had found after coming to this world. He forced himself to hide his proud expression and subtly puffed out his chest.
“Alright, games are over. Now let’s go grocery shopping. But if all of you go, it could draw a crowd, right?”
The members nodded slightly, as if that part bothered them too, and the PD grinned.
“So! We’re going to send one person each to the market. Time limit is thirty minutes! But!”
But what? Looking at the members’ faces as they stared wide-eyed, waiting for what came next, the female staff standing behind the PD let out exclamations like, “Oh my god,” and “That’s insane.”
Even they, who must have seen dozens and hundreds of actors and idols, could not help constantly blurting out admiration in front of East’s tall, bright looks.
Watching the staff’s reactions, the PD gave a wicked smile and stated the condition.
“However, if you get recognized as East, you’re out on the spot! You can only pay for the food you’ve picked up until that point.”
Isn’t that too much?!? As the members protested, the PD added even more conditions, as if he were teasing them.
“And shopping time is not thirty minutes per person. The three of you share thirty minutes total. If all three of you get eliminated in one minute each, it can end in under three minutes too. If the first person lasts thirty minutes and shops, the other two will not be able to shop at all today. Using only the ingredients the three of you buy like that, you must recreate exactly the table of dishes Mr. Hando prepared.”
Hearing the growing list of conditions, the members seemed to decide negotiating with the PD was impossible, and they quickly gathered their opinions.
“PD, then what about what Hando fed us? Shouldn’t Hando have to cook too?”
“Mr. Hando is excluded from preparing dinner. Only Mr. Sikyung, Mr. Yoonwoo, and Mr. Cheonghyeon need to buy the ingredients for the foods they touched.”
“Isn’t that at least a relief?”
“I guess so. Even if I have all the ingredients, I can’t make braised short ribs.”
Cheonghyeon nodded beside them too. Of course, for him, it was just a matter of making rice, but still, were these not the members who had kindly fed him side dishes together?
He did not know anything, so he did not have any plan in particular, but he still nodded diligently and participated in the discussion.
“Then isn’t it easy? Everything I ate today, I can make.”
“Me too. Cheonghyeon, what about you?”
“I can do it too. I even know the ingredients. Water and rice.”
At Cheonghyeon’s confident answer, all the members smiled warmly.
Cheonghyeon lifted his chin with a smug little look, but the PD was wearing a sly smile.
What is it? At the smile that felt like a chill, Cheonghyeon hunched his shoulders slightly.
“It won’t be quite that easy. Alright, then, let’s get ready from now!”
T/N: Garlic bossam is a trendy and popular Korean dish featuring tender, slow-boiled pork belly topped with a unique, slightly sweet, and pungent garlic sauce.
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