Cooking Stream
"So that's it for the shad sashimi."
"Yay! Finally!"
"The original plan was Part One—tormenting you, Wooju, while we prepped the fish—and then Part Two, teaching you how to cook while we made the spicy soup."
"Hold on! That was the original plan?!"
"Yep."
But Part One had taken far longer than expected, and I was now debating whether to just skip the cooking lesson altogether.
"It's just that so much time has passed…."
"That's true…."
"Hmm… why don't you decide, Wooju? Should I teach you how to cook?"
Better to leave it to Minseo's judgment. If she still wanted to learn even after looking this exhausted, then I'd teach her.
"Teach me!"
"Alright then."
I hadn't expected an answer that fast….
Well, I supposed that just meant her passion for cooking ran deep.
"Okay, first—let's try holding the knife again."
"Okay! Like this, right?!"
"Good grief…."
I wholeheartedly agreed with Sua's strangled groan from the sidelines.
…What do I even do with this.
"…Could you show that grip to the camera?"
"Huh? Sure!"
She'd reverted right back to the grip she'd had before I taught her a thing.
…So Minseo was also a regressor. Of a different kind, granted….
"…You've seriously never cut your hand?"
"Huh? Of course not!"
…How?
"…Let's start with the vegetables, then."
"Yes! Watch me—I'm pretty decent at slicing veggies!"
"Right."
She'd already torched any shred of trust, so I watched with my expectations lowered as far as they'd go. And Minseo gloriously betrayed them.
"Like… th-is…!"
In the worst possible direction, naturally.
…Slow. Unbelievably slow…!
This was the kind of speed that suddenly made it make sense why our last team dinner had taken over three hours.
…No wonder she's never cut herself, gripping the knife like that and moving that slowly.
"U…gh…."
…Where am I even supposed to start with this critique?
"Wh… what…?"
"Unnie, you're not asking because you genuinely don't know, right?"
"No! I know I'm slow! But that doesn't warrant sighing like that, does it?!"
"…So you really don't know."
"Excuse me? And how good are you, exactly?"
"Better than you, at the very least?"
While Sua was busy hitting Minseo with that brutal reality check, I ran the numbers and concluded the simplest fix: I'd physically correct her grip, then make her hold it that way all day until it stuck. Emergency handled, I turned to the main event—the spicy fish soup.
"For the vegetables, we've got radish, onion, chili peppers, scallions, and so on."
I assigned Minseo the scallions—easiest job I could think of—gave Sua the onions, and took the rest myself.
"Radish goes in first."
Water in the pot, burner on, and the radish was cut and in before the water even thought about simmering.
"Spicy soup is only good when the radish goes tender all the way through, you know?"
"Now, with that going, we make the seasoning sauce."
Sauce, sauce—ah, this should do.
"Wooju, come here a second."
"Huh? I'm not even done with the scallions yet…?"
…Still?
Better than before, sure, but still painfully slow….
"This is more urgent."
I handed a bowl to Minseo, who shuffled over.
"…What's this?"
"Make the seasoning sauce."
"Just like that, out of nowhere?!"
"Yep. Going with my gut."
Her knife skills had stunned me so thoroughly I'd briefly forgotten, but the most alarming thing I'd seen from her before was her seasoning—the overall flavor adjustment, salt included—and her heat control.
Heat control could wait for another lesson. Seasoning had to be hammered in now.
"Okay… two tablespoons of gochujang… two tablespoons of minced garlic… chili flakes… two tablespoons…."
"Hold on."
"…What?"
"Won't it be way too spicy if the chili peppers go in on top of all that?"
"Oh… you think so?"
"I do. Add a little at a time, taste it once, and only then add more if it's lacking."
"Oooh…."
…I'd really rather she not be amazed by basic common sense.
…Things must have been dire indeed if chat was resorting to her real name. I understood that particular frustration all too well, so I could only feel for them.
She kept trying to toss this and that in afterward, and after I'd warned her through it enough times, the sauce landed at a reasonably decent level.
"Mm, this is pretty good."
"Wow! It's delicious?! And I made this?!"
"Now add the sauce, and let me know once the water's at a boil."
After issuing instructions to Minseo, I finished the scallions she'd abandoned in the name of sauce-making.
"Rose! It's boiling!"
"Oh, is it?"
At Minseo's call, I added the chopped vegetables and the shad we'd set aside for the soup while slicing the sashimi earlier.
"About… ten minutes? Yeah. That should just about do it."
"Ooh…!"
Leaving the pot to bubble away, I pulled out everything else I'd bought.
"Time to set the table?"
"What's this?"
"Sashimi."
"…Didn't we already make shad sashimi?"
"Eating nothing but shad gets old, you know."
Turned out I'd also grabbed some rockfish and sea bream along the way.
After that, we plated everything, adjusted the camera so only the food was in frame, and dug in for real.
"Ahh… we're finally eating…."
I'd originally planned to cook rice in the pot too, but I'd run out of energy for that, so I tossed some instant rice in the microwave instead.
"Delicious!"
"Wow… so this is how good shad is…?"
It stung a little, but it was still tasty, so fine.
"Glad there were no casualties."
"A relief indeed…."
Having come within a hair's breadth of disaster watching Minseo more times than I could count, I wholeheartedly agreed with the manager.
Ah, right—I never mentioned the manager was here, did I?
"That's our manager. Even when she's working, a person still needs to eat."
"Hello, everyone. Min Jiyu, manager of Solana."
Oh!
A genuinely good idea had just popped into my head.
"Manager, would you like to do a mukbang?"
"Excuse… me?"
"…Rose?"
"What nonsense is she spouting now…?"
"The stream's gotten a bit visually stale, and we happen to have one person among us who could show her face, don't we?"
"…And that would be me?"
"Yes."
It was a decent idea, wasn't it?
"…My apologies, but I must decline."
"Shame."
It was clever, sure, but I hadn't genuinely expected it to succeed, so I wasn't all that disappointed.
"Ooh, this is better than I expected?"
"Hohoho! See?! See?!"
"Unnie… Rose did basically all of it, so why are you taking the credit…."
"I still helped really hard, didn't I?!"
"You didn't 'help really hard'—you clung on like a pack mule and vetoed everything?"
"Hey!"
"Ah, I'm going to run to the bathroom real quick."
"Sure. Have a good trip~"
I stepped out of the studio, took care of business, and came back out.
"Ngh…!"
Maybe I'd had a rough day, because a full-body stretch produced an audible crack from my spine.
Phew… tonight's going to be a blissful sleep….
And with that, I was heading back to the studio when—
"Huh?"
"Oh…?"
Of all people, I ran into Do Hyunwoo.
…So that thing earlier was a flag after all?
"Hello there."
"Ah… hey… Yeonwoo…."
"Where are you headed?"
"I was on my way to see the composer."
"You two must be pretty close, huh?"
"Well… I suppose?"
"I'll pass along that you agonized over it just now."
"What?! No!"
Truly a satisfying target to hit. He reacted like that to the tiniest bit of teasing—how could I possibly resist?
Oh!
Another genuinely good idea popped into my head.
Earlier and now—my brain was really firing on all cylinders today….
"Do you have some time right now?"
"Huh? Why?"
"I was wondering if you'd had dinner."
I'd bought ingredients generously so we wouldn't run short, and the result was, counterintuitively, a surplus….
Any leftovers would just get thrown out, and wouldn't that be a waste? Better to feed them to him than to the trash can.
"…Is this a hit— …no, I suppose not, given last time…."
What is he mumbling about?
He muttered it so quietly that even my enhanced TS physique couldn't catch it.
"Anyway—do you have time or not?"
"Um… yes… more or less…."
"Then come with me."
As I led Do Hyunwoo back toward the studio, I probed him with a few questions.
"Did you hear about what I do?"
"Yes… uh… you work as an anime character, apparently…."
Next question….
"Do you know I mostly do live streams?"
"Yes… I heard that too…."
"Oh, then this will go quickly."
"…Huh?"
Right around the time I'd confirmed everything he absolutely needed to know, we arrived at the studio.
"We're live right now, so don't say my name."
"What?!"
"Ah—actually, no. Don't open your mouth at all."
Come to think of it, the fans could identify someone by voice alone, couldn't they? I'd forgotten because my streaming voice and my everyday voice were a little different.
I'd already survived one near-catastrophe of an idol-fandom terrorism incident; I had no intention of repeating the same mistake.
"Ex…cuse me?"
He asked for clarification, but I brushed him off and pushed the door open.
"I'm baaack."
"Oh, you're— huh…?"
"What— what's going on…."
"Rose…! Please…!"
"I've brought someone to dispose of the leftover food."
He was a grown man, after all—surely he'd eat more than the people in here?
"A—"
"Ahem… I told you not to open your mouth, didn't I?"
"Rose. Come here for a second."
"Yes?"
Sua suddenly called me over with a dead-serious expression, then whispered.
"I cannot process this situation! Explain it to me in detail, now!"
"I ran into him on the way back, asked if he'd eaten, he said no, so I brought him here to feed him?"
"That's what you're saying right now?!"
"Hmm… should I send him back, then?"
"No! That would just be rude on our end!"
The blissfully clueless viewers were demanding an explanation, so I gave them the summary version.
"It looked like we'd have food left over, so I brought in someone to eat it."
Mm. Nailed the summary.
"Ah, if you knew who it was things would just get complicated, so I told him not to open his mouth unless he's chewing. Don't worry your heads about it."
"Wow! No! Seriously! I'm so speechless there's nothing to say! Right now!"
"Words are coming out just fine, though."
"Wow! Unbelievable! GAH!"
Anyway, with the situation sorted, I sat the still-clueless Do Hyunwoo down and got some food into him.
"It tastes better than you expected, right?"
"N—"
"I said no talking, remember?"
"Rose… are you actually insane?"
"What, can't he just nod for yes and shake his head for no?"
Thankfully, I kept the conversation rolling myself, and despite the awkward atmosphere, the stream went off surprisingly well.
After the meal was finished, I called out to Do Hyunwoo on his way out.
"Weren't you headed to see the composer?"
"N—"
"I said no talking, remember?"
Ignoring all the pointed stares burning into me from around the room, I finished what I'd been about to say.
"Tell him I said to come on over if he hasn't had dinner yet."
There were still leftovers, after all.
Must have been the leftover-scrap instincts kicking in—Do Hyunwoo really hadn't eaten much.