Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Translator: Penny
Chapter 120
"See! Even Hyung can't eat it!"
Kim Dobin's smug expression irritated me, and I frowned, retorting, "Don't be ridiculous. I just choked."
"Then eat it again in front of me, and I'll believe you."
"Jaehee, eat it and prove it's a perfectly fine side dish."
"Why are you passing off your creation to me? The one who made it should eat it. I can prove my egg rolls are edible by eating them myself."
As if I were about to force-feed him the spicy stir-fried pork, Ryu Jaehee swiftly picked up an egg roll with his chopsticks and popped it into his mouth. He swallowed with a peculiar expression.
"Hmph, it's... edible, I guess."
Hey, you're terrible at acting too. Ryu Jaehee, whose face showed no hint of enjoyment, blurted out "edible" before rushing to the refrigerator and gulping down bottled water in a panic.
"See! Even you can't honestly eat it, Ryu Jaehee!"
"No, I just choked!"
I ruffled the hair of the guy who was parroting my excuse, then suddenly turned to Kim Dobin with a thought.
"So, what did you have for lunch?"
Kim Dobin scratched his head and replied, "I called Hajun Hyung this morning, and he told me not to eat this lunchbox but to get kimbap from the convenience store instead. So I did."
"What did he say?"
"He said Hyung was stir-frying meat on high heat."
No wonder Gyeon Hajun had texted me out of the blue this morning, telling me to cook on medium heat.
But seriously, if you're short on time and the meat is taking forever to cook, isn't it obvious you'd turn up the heat?
The sound of the keypad beeping echoed through the room, followed by the click of the door opening and closing in quick succession.
"I'm here," Gyeon Hajun announced, striding toward the table where a lunchbox lay open, surrounded by the three of us.
Before his gaze could land on it, I quickly closed the lid of the lunchbox containing the pork.
"Dobin, did you buy kimbap this morning?"
"Yeah, there's a convenience store nearby, so I grabbed some without being late."
"Good. How did the college entrance exam go?"
Kim Dobin, who had been feigning disinterest, suddenly whipped around to face us, his eyes widening.
"Wow, now that I think about it, these guys didn't even ask how the exam went for a student who just took it! Who asks about the lunchbox instead of checking on the student's well-being?!"
"We would have asked if you hadn't lied about the lunchbox lid being stuck."
"Then ask me now!"
"Alright, did you sleep well?"
"I didn't sleep, you know?"
"Oh, really? I did. You're better than me, man."
While chuckling and ruffling Kim Dobin's hair, Gyeon Hajun finally pried open the lid of the pork stir-fry bento box.
With a serious expression, Gyeon Hajun stared down at the dish, which at least looked like pork stir-fry. As soon as he picked up the chopsticks from the table,
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Don't eat that!"
I snatched the bento box and dumped its contents into the food waste bag.
"I just tried it, and this isn't fit for human consumption."
"So you did taste it. But how could you pack something like that in your younger brother's bento box for the university entrance exam?"
"Jun-a, I'm not that much of a jerk. I just tasted it for the first time myself."
As I protested indignantly, Kim Dobin seized the opportunity and pounced.
"See! I told you! He spat it out because he couldn't eat it!"
"You told me to prove it by eating it. Stop treating me differently from Gyeon Hajun."
Ryu Jaehee joined in, grumbling.
Exhausted by the barrage of attacks coming from all sides, I raised my arms in surrender and declared a truce.
"Okay, okay. I won't say anything about bringing your lunch as is anymore. Happy now?"
With that, the lunchbox commotion came to an end.
As soon as our vacation ended, we had a radio schedule. The DJ read a story from a student whose mother had accidentally packed two containers of rice instead of side dishes for both her and her father's lunches. He then asked us, "Were there any test-takers in Reve?"
Kim Dobin immediately shot his hand up.
"Me!"
"Ah, Dobin-ssi, you were a test-taker? How did it go? Did you do well?"
"No comment."
Kim Dobin made an X with his finger over his lips and shook his head.
"I'm curious if you have any memorable anecdotes from the day of the exam."
At the DJ's question, Dobin glanced at me, hesitated, and then cautiously began to speak.
"Well, Eden Hyung and Jaehee packed my lunch for me..."
OMG, how did that happen?!
Not Hajun?!
I scanned the real-time comments scrolling across the monitor. The speed at which they were now flooding in was overwhelming, a stark reminder of how much things had changed.
Back during "One Chance," I could still read them without even trying.
"Hajun Hyung happened to be away from the dorms on vacation that day. The only ones left were me, Eden Hyung, and Jaehee."
- Now I understand why Eden couldn't go home during the vacation and had to stay at the dorm.
- And of all people, he had to be stuck with the Hopeless Cooking Trio...
- Dobin, you didn't get a stomachache, right?
- Hearing that the members packed a lunchbox for Dobin on the day of his university entrance exam sounds so heartwarming, but the reality is far from it.
Everyone was genuinely worried about Kim Dobin's condition at the time.
"I didn't get a stomachache," Dobin said.
"Of course not. You didn't even eat it—you just brought it back untouched. After we worked so hard to make that lunchbox since morning," Ryu Jaehee blurted out, as if tattling. I nodded in agreement beside him, knowing we were being broadcast on a visual radio show and would be seen anyway.
- I get it. I wouldn't have eaten it either.
- Dobin's so kind. He even told a white lie to protect his hyung and dongsaeng from feeling bad.
- Eden, you're my ultimate bias, but I couldn't bring myself to eat the lunchbox you made on exam day.
If I'd eaten that, I might have collapsed with a stomachache during English class.
They should have just packed cup ramen and hot water in a thermos.
Good intentions, but...
Sadly, everyone just sympathized with Kim Dobin, who brought his lunch untouched. No one took our side.
"We're not that bad at cooking, you know."
We'd clearly demonstrated our skills during our first-anniversary live stream. Why we were still stuck with the image of being culinary novices remained a mystery.
Of course, this particular lunch had been a spectacular failure.
Have you forgotten the strawberry cake that looked like it crawled out of Devil Fruit hell?
I still can't forget the konjac tteokbokki.
I'll never forget the live stream where we made Hajun's birthday meal, which only earned him the nickname "Juntatouille."
This time, without Juntatouille, it would have just been Linguini 1 and 2. I can already picture how that would have gone.
Hmm... Have we really done that much cooking content?
This year's year-end awards show special stage was the Music Daejeon hosted by S Company.
Instead of the entire group Reve participating, only Ryu Jaehee and I were selected for the special stage.
Five boy groups and five girl groups with moderate popularity, all in their second to fourth year, each chose their leader and youngest member to form four project groups.
Of course, the groups were segregated by gender.
The special stage would feature these groups performing Christmas songs with contrasting concepts.
"Hyung's project group is going for a powerful concept, right?"
"Yeah, though it's more hip-hop than outright powerful. What about you guys?"
"Ours is pretty predictable—pure and cute."
The guy, who even used hamster emojis to refer to himself as "Hamzzi," was grumbling with a sulky expression, clearly displeased with something.
"Isn't this too predictable? They should have gone with a 'Maknae on Top' concept, giving the youngest members intense dance tracks while the leaders got cute songs for a surprising twist."
"You should be grateful they're letting you do a cute concept at your age."
"If they'd waited two years, you'd be the only one sticking out, forced to act cute with that face of yours."
"No, no, that's not what I meant! I'm saying it would have been fresher to show a surprising twist—like proving you can pull off a hip-hop concept even with a cute face."
"Doesn't it give you goosebumps to call yourself 'cute'?"
Well, I won't be hearing that after two years anyway... Wait, no. Even after growing up so fast, this guy still goes around calling himself a "giant hamster."
In any case, Ryu Jaehee's complaints never reached the broadcasting station, and each member's assigned concept remained unchanged.
Since the song, concept, and choreography were all determined by the broadcasting station, my only task was to diligently learn the choreography and lyrics and practice hard with the temporary collaboration team.
"Hello."
"Hi! We've met before, right? Our activities overlapped a bit during Reve and One Chance."
"Of course I remember. It's been a while."
Whether based on debut date or age, I was the youngest member of this project group called "On Top."
And to make matters worse, this damn "On Top" also included...
"...Hello."
"Ah, yes. Hello."
...the KICKS Leader.
I gave a perfunctory nod to the KICKS Leader, making no attempt to hide my displeasure.
I'd rather compete against them as rivals like last year. At least then I could crush them. But as teammates, I can't do that.
Of course, the KICKS youngest member would be in the team of youngest members, but the problem was that our youngest member was in there too.
The Christmas song we'd be performing was a dance track with a strong electronic vibe. And the composer and producer was...
"Hyung, you said you were busy. Was this what you were working on?"
"Oh, you're here too? Lucky you."
"Come on, if you'd read the proposal beforehand, you'd have known I was involved."
"Yeah, you little brat. I agreed to manage this group. Happy now?"
It was the King God Producer himself, G1.
Despite being a project group, the choreography we received was surprisingly challenging. The recording session followed suit, with only a brief practice period before we had to perform.
Unlike me, who got an "OK" after just two takes, the other members were struggling with Producer G1's relentless demands for retakes.
During the What Kind of Ending era, I'd only seen him casually giving the thumbs-up, which had faded my memories of our past collaborations. But watching him now, my memories of working with G1 resurfaced vividly.
That infamous "retake" hell, to be exact.
"Producer G1 hasn't changed a bit... still as meticulous as ever," the leader of a sunbae group muttered wearily as he collapsed into the seat next to me after staggering out of the recording booth, utterly exhausted.
"Retake. Did you even practice? Your pitch is completely off."
I clicked my tongue, watching the KICKS Leader get constantly criticized.
The KICKS Leader, whose eyes met mine through the transparent booth of the recording studio, bit his lip.
We somehow managed to finish recording, and now it was time to rehearse the choreography.
Since everyone belonged to different groups with conflicting schedules, it was difficult to dedicate as much time as we would for our original group practices. We agreed to learn our individual parts first and then practice the group choreography together.
"Chaemin, did you not practice your part?"
"I'm sorry, my schedule has been overlapping lately..."
"Let's just focus on the formations for now. Chaemin, you can memorize your part by the day after tomorrow, right?"
Perhaps because we were all leaders, our ability to resolve conflicts at the slightest sign of tension was truly remarkable.
For the filming, each agency took turns using the practice rooms.
It happened to be Newborn's turn this time. It was their first visit to their former agency in a long time.
📝 Translator’s Note:
You may notice that certain lines or phrases in this novel appear both in their original Korean (or Hanja) form and in English translation.
This is intentional — these phrases are classical idioms, divine titles, or poetic expressions that carry layered meanings.
To preserve their original tone and authenticity, the raw text has been kept for reference, while the English interpretation is provided right before or after it. This helps convey both the literal and cultural nuance of the original work.
but if you guys dont want tha raw for future chapters or my future other novels u can just text me on discord and say so discord name Mr.Penny