Chapter 17

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Dansol, who had come out early to prepare the ingredients, found Taeoh crouched in a corner of the kitchen. Taeoh looked as if he had seen a ghost, completely spaced out.

“…Taeoh?”

“…”

“Taeoh!”

“Yes? Yes!”

“Are you okay? Why are you out here so early?”

“Oh… I was just going to prepare some ingredients in advance. What about you, Dansol?”

“I also came out to prepare some ingredients… Shall we do it together?”

Dansol offered Taeoh a carrot he was holding. Taeoh looked like he was about to cry.

“Sure… okay!”

“Since we have a lot of vegetables, how about making fried rice?”

“You seem pretty good at cooking, Dansol.”

“I think so. The members always say the food I make is delicious. Maybe I have a knack for it…”

Dansol, who was adeptly washing the vegetables, scratched the back of his head shyly in response to Taeoh’s question.

The company’s meal budget was limited, but the members, who were in their growth spurts, were always hungry.

On practice days, they could at least go to the snack shop in front of the company, but the problem was that the food there was so bad it was almost better to starve.

Consequently, the members held Dansol’s cooking in high regard.

“Taeoh, don’t you cook much at the dorm?”

“We usually have someone who cooks for us.”

“You live with your aunt?”

Dansol nodded gently, and Taeoh burst out laughing.

“Pfft, no. Not my actual aunt, but a lady who helps out.”

“A lady who helps out? Do you mean someone who does the housework for you?”

Dansol couldn’t even imagine such a thing in his company. Taeoh scratched the back of his head awkwardly at his shocked expression.

“It wasn’t always like this… It’s because our albums did well. Oh, I’m sorry…”

“…”

“I mean, that’s not it… This is just making it worse…”

There was a significant gap between Zeus and DinoSoul that couldn’t be bridged by mere words.

While DinoSoul struggled to even chart for three years, Zeus consistently dominated the top spots with each album release.

The only time DinoSoul had made it to the charts was with an OST for a daily drama that Dansol had appeared in.

Taeoh was familiar with the myriad of negative emotions that came with such a situation. Zeus also had a rough start with their first album concept, earning them a reputation similar to DinoSoul’s.

Knowing this, he felt like biting his tongue to stop himself from saying anything more.

However, Dansol wasn’t the type to harbor such inferiority complexes. Such feelings were a luxury for those who were unpopular. Dansol, who lacked both schedule and popularity, was now busy satisfying his curiosity from an omniscient viewer’s perspective.

“Then… your dorm must be really spacious? Does your manager have his own room?”

“Ah… he doesn’t live with us, but he has a room to rest in…”

“May I ask… how big is it?”

“About 90 pyeong (approximately 298 square meters)?”

“Does it have a view of the Han River?”

“Y-yes, a bit.”

Dansol asked all the questions he had always wondered about when watching successful idols on TV.

“Wow… that’s amazing. I’d love to live in a place like that if I get a second chance in life…”

Unconsciously speaking his thoughts aloud while handling a carrot, Dansol quickly covered his mouth. Fortunately, Taeoh didn’t seem to notice his slip.

“Dansol… you’re not upset, are you?”

“Huh? Why?”

“Well…”

“Is it because our album flopped?”

“Ugh… Please, Dansol, don’t say that…”

Taeoh trembled involuntarily at his indifferent comment, looking at his as if he were being recorded. Seeing his expression, Dansol continued with more dark humor, like a child who had discovered a new toy.

“Or is it because eight of us are crammed into a two-room semi-basement dorm?”

“Argh! Stop it! No!”

“There isn’t any mold in your dorm, right? We share our space with mold… we’re an 8-member group. Oh! Do you have air purifiers in every room?”

“Argh! Please, I’m sorry. Should I get on my knees?”

After teasing Taeoh for a while, they found themselves much closer.

With no one else around, Taeoh lowered his voice and asked Dansol.

“Um, Dansol, can I ask you something… Have you decided who you’ll vote for?”

“Huh?”

“Who do you want to eliminate?”

“Uh…”

The first elimination was coming up soon, but Dansol hadn’t given it much thought. After his date with Minhyuk, he had become too complacent.

For a moment, he considered voting for himself and leaving, but votes for oneself were treated as void in the survival competition.

If he wanted to create the most advantageous situation, he should vote for Yudohyeon. However, eliminating him could be interpreted as showing interest in IYiyeon, who Yudohyeon openly favored.

Moreover, it was awkward to vote for someone who had been kind to him. If he had to choose, it had to be someone he had little connection with and who was a reasonable choice.

“What about you, Taeoh?”

“I… well, there’s someone I desperately want to see gone, but there are too many to choose from.”

“Who…”

Just as Dansol was about to ask who Taeoh had in mind, Jisoo and Daesoo entered the kitchen.

“Sol, why didn’t you wait for us?”

“Oh, Jisoo! I thought it would be good to start early.”

Jisoo ignored Taeoh and focused solely on Dansol. He had only stepped away for a moment to wash up, and another alpha was already next to Dansol, which irked him.

At Taeoh’s playful words, Jisoo deliberately widened his eyes and spoke sternly. his usually rhythmic tone, almost like singing when calling Dansol, turned into a monotonous one.

“I did it too, hyung!”

“Who’s your hyung?”

“Huh? Oh… Dansol called you hyung.”

“Call me Senior. Actually, don’t call me at all. If you can help it.”

Jisoo, who felt slighted the previous day for calling only Minhyuk “hyung,” now erected a cold wall towards Taeoh.

Startled by Jisoo’s starkly different attitude, Dansol looked at Taeoh for cues. He felt sorry for Taeoh, who looked dejected, and tried to change the subject to lighten the mood.

“Hyung, have you decided?”

“Huh? Decided what?”

“Who to eliminate…”

“Oh, that…”

Jisoo glanced at Daesoo.

Daesoo, who had taken the knife from Dansol, was dicing onions. Then he flashed a sly smile and glanced at Taeoh.

“You two were talking about that…?”

“Oh, no. It’s just… I was curious.”

“Well… I’ll pick whoever our Sol picks. If you secretly tell me, I’ll vote for that person too.”

“No way! I don’t have anyone…”

Dansol, startled by Jisoo’s blatant attempt to probe, waved his hands in denial.

Although Yoo Doohyun’s face flashed through his mind, he knew picking him wasn’t a good idea considering the potential backlash if Yoo Doohyun didn’t get eliminated.

“Really? Let me know if you decide later. I’ll help you.”

“Oh… you don’t need to help! Uh… I’ll stir-fry the rice!”

Thanks to Jisoo’s teasing, Dansol hurried to the gas stove, took out a wok, and started stir-frying rice.

Dansol, who seemed confident in cooking, dumped all the prepared ingredients at once and stirred them vigorously. It looked more like rubbing than stir-frying.

The freshly cooked rice, still steaming, was added without removing the steam, resulting in a dish that looked more like porridge than stir-fry.

The vegetables, still retaining moisture, made a squelching sound as they cooked unevenly.

Despite his love for cooking, Dansol’s clumsy skills made Daesoo want to take over the wok, but Dansol, wearing a serious expression like a royal chef, refused to hand it over.

In truth, Dansol enjoyed the act of cooking more than he was skilled at it. His inflated cooking ego came from cooking at a level where even a street vendor’s food tasted awful and where members who could chew iron praised him.

Just as everyone, worried about Dansol’s posture that was perfect for straining his wrist, gave up and started setting the table, PD Choi, who usually didn’t get involved in dorm affairs, entered the kitchen.

“Oh, you’re preparing the meal early. What should we do? We almost didn’t need to prepare today’s meal.”

“Huh?”

***

Following PD Choi to the front yard, they saw two large meal trucks, a coffee truck, and a snack truck lined up. Among them was catering from a hotel.

The lovely colored banners and X-stands showed who the extravagant support was from.

[Not sure what you’d like, so I prepared everything. Enjoy and take good care of our Taeoh. —Hera (Zeus Fans)]

“They usually come according to the schedule, but the assistant director gave the wrong date. The meal is ready… what should we do?”

The staff, used to filming sets, were amazed at the effort put into the stickers with Taeoh’s face. Taeoh felt uncomfortable for causing Dansol trouble, albeit unintentionally.

Dansol felt the same. He had often heard teasing remarks on daily drama sets about how idols always had snacks while he didn’t.

He thought it was a joke then, but now he realized it wasn’t entirely in jest. Even though he joked with Taeoh, a part of him felt bitter.

“I’ll eat inside. I like fried rice.”

Daesoo, watching Dansol bite his lip, said. Eventually, Jisoo added more pressure on PD Choi.

“We can bring it out and eat together. Our Sol worked hard on it. PD Choi, you wouldn’t edit this out, right?”

Surrounded by two Alphas (one an Omega in public), PD Choi was cornered. While Jisoo and Daesoo’s determination to protect Dansol’s fried rice was a problem, they couldn’t ignore Zeus’s large fandom.

Just then, Yeomin and Doohyun, who had been resting inside, came out to the noisy front yard.

“Wow, instead of taking punishment, you’re using money, junior?”

Yeomin smirked at Taeoh.

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