Chapter 121
Chapter 121
TeSTAR’s first W-Live in a while began with the faces of Cha Yu-jin and Keun Se-jin, their eyes sparkling.
[Is it on?]
[It’s working!]
After confirming that excited fans were starting to post comments, the two snickered and swung the camera back.
Immediately, their professional attire came into full view.
Professional for cooking, that is… They were wearing aprons and latex gloves.
[Hello, Loviewers!]
[Greetings!]
The two bowed deeply toward the screen. Cha Yu-jin caught a Korean comment by chance and waved his hand.
[Nice to meet you too!]
[Haha, me too! And the reason we turned on W-Live today is… to cook this chicken!]
As Keun Se-jin adjusted the camera, two raw chickens, looking pale and clean under the selfie filter, were briefly captured on screen.
[See those chickens? Actually, those are the chickens I ordered as a birthday present for Moon-dae!]
Despite the flood of question marks in the comments, Keun Se-jin continued nonchalantly.
[We’re going to cook them beautifully today for a year-end party and give Moon-dae a delicious meal!]
[Chicken soup for the soul! Chicken Soup!]
The two laughed heartily at the worried comments.
[If it tastes bad, we’ll eat it ourselves and just order something delicious for Moon-dae and the other members!]
[But we’re going to do a good job this time!]
The comments grew even more anxious at Cha Yu-jin’s baseless confidence.
Being among the top tier in the team for mental fortitude regarding interpersonal relations, the two completely filtered out malicious comments like "No fun" or "Stop trying too hard" and only accepted fan reactions.
[Aha, Moon-dae hyung! The hyungs will be here soon!]
[That’s right~ They’re a bit late because of the schedule! We’re going to have the main dish ready, and then we’ll try making the simpler things together!]
For the record, that was a lie.
Their clock-out time had simply been delayed by an hour or two because they had to do extra practice due to a slight modification in the choreography.
However, the two who had mastered it the fastest had asked for understanding and gone home early so they could start the W-Live at the planned time.
But the rest of the members had no idea these two would actually do cooking content on W-Live…
[Alright, let’s begin!]
[The best!]
And their cooking failed spectacularly.
Cha Yu-jin, who hadn't forgotten the experience of the "Burnt Soup of the Dead" he’d made with Seon A-hyun last time, controlled the heat quite well. The problem, however, erupted from elsewhere.
[Wow! Next is… cumin!]
[Hmm? Cumin? Unfortunately, we don't have such exotic spices in our dorm. Let’s put in chili powder instead!]
[Great! Let’s add honey too!]
[Honey sounds good!]
Ignoring the perfectly fine recipe, they threw in highly individualistic additional ingredients based on "vibes."
The comments became a mess of confusion, bewilderment, and laughter.
And just as the fans expected, the result was a chicken broth with a mysterious flavor.
[Oh, it’s done!]
[Alright, first, the taste…]
[…]
[…]
After excitedly tasting it, both of them were left with expressions that defied words.
The comments were filled with people bursting into laughter, regardless of who they were.
The two nodded with smiles, wearing the specific faces of people who had just tasted a failed dish.
Then, Keun Se-jin sharply cut off any potential criticism about wasting food by pretending to be heartbroken.
[Haha, we’ll eat this taste of defeat ourselves, so please don't worry…]
[It’s okay to eat.]
After checking the comments that were either stopping them or laughing, Keun Se-jin shrugged and resumed communicating.
[Then, first, let’s order some fried chicken…]
At that moment, the sound of the front door opening signaled the return of the other members.
[They’re here!]
[Welcome back!]
As Cha Yu-jin ran out, Keun Se-jin put a finger to his lips toward the camera.
Then he quickly tried to hide the pot to destroy the evidence.
Of course, it was futile.
"What are you doing?"
"Oh? Haha! Doing a V-App~ Moon-dae, say hi to the Loviewers!"
"Ah."
Park Moon-dae stopped his interrogation for a moment and leaned his face toward the screen.
"Has everyone been doing well?"
In an instant, countless greetings flashed through the comments. Park Moon-dae nodded with a faint smile.
"Yes, hello."
"I’m Moon-dae!"
"…"
The timing was exquisite.
Park Moon-dae stared with cold, dead eyes at Keun Se-jin, who was bursting with laughter after mimicking Moon-dae's SNS speech habit.
A few members entering the kitchen also hurriedly covered their mouths and lowered their heads, holding back their laughter.
This guy, seriously.
Contrary to Park Moon-dae’s inner thoughts, the comments were nothing but praise.
Seeing the chat window flooded with "LOL" and puppy emojis, Park Moon-dae decided to let it slide just this once.
At least the engagement is good.
Instead, he decided to properly inspect the pot.
"Everyone, what did these guys do?"
The comments fluctuated between cover-ups that matched the mood and a few snitches.
Keun Se-jin slyly patted Park Moon-dae’s back and turned the camera angle.
"Us? We were just having a light conversation~ Right, Yu-jin?"
"That’s right!"
Cha Yu-jin added brightly.
"And we cooked!"
"Gah."
Keun Se-jin sank.
And Kim Rae-bin muttered with a blank face, as if he couldn't understand the situation at all.
"You expected not to be caught while wearing aprons…?"
The fans roared with laughter.
And Park Moon-dae immediately checked the pot that Keun Se-jin had sneakily set down.
"…Is this supposed to be chicken soup?"
"That’s right."
"It’s the end of the year, and we wanted to cook a chicken dish to celebrate your birthday too… But we’ll just order chicken for you. We’ll eat all of that!"
"We’ll eat it!"
"…"
Park Moon-dae wore a mysterious expression, then took a sip of the contents in the pot.
Then he let out a short laugh.
"You guys didn't follow the recipe Yu-jin’s mother gave you, did you?"
"We exercised our creativity."
"We put in honey."
"Right. I thought so."
Park Moon-dae clicked his tongue, eventually grabbed the pot, and put it back on the stove.
Then he took more ingredients out of the refrigerator and began adding them to the pot with practiced ease.
"Oh, Moon-dae!"
"Make it delicious, please!"
Keun Se-jin and Cha Yu-jin immediately switched to "worship mode" once they realized the situation.
"I-I’ll help too…!"
"…Really? Then taste this."
"O-Okay!"
Seon A-hyun, who hadn't picked up on Park Moon-dae’s polite refusal, brought a spoon with all his heart and tasted the broth.
His expression became a mix of question marks and exclamation points.
"I-It’s delicious! B-But… the taste is…"
"Is it Korean spicy braised chicken stew?"
"Y-Yes!! That’s right!"
Indeed.
The chicken soup was nowhere to be found; the food in the pot had become Dak-bokkeum-tang…!
The fans' sentiment wavered again at the shocking testimony. But the person who cooked it was calm.
Park Moon-dae turned toward the smartphone broadcasting the W-Live and explained quite kindly.
"Since it already had honey and chili powder… I just added soy sauce and gochujang to save it as a Korean dish. The broth had boiled down a lot, so I thought this was the right way to go."
"Heol, it’s delicious! Everyone, this is really good. How did he do it? What exactly is Park Moon-dae?"
"Wow, cooking success!"
"…"
Park Moon-dae temporarily gained the full trust of the two. Of course, he had never asked for it.
Still, that one pot was far from enough to cover dinner, so the members naturally brought out a grill and started cooking pork belly together.
"I can really do a good job with this one!"
"I’m good at grilling meat!"
Surprisingly, Cha Yu-jin and Keun Se-jin really did have a knack for grilling meat, so they successfully made up for their previous failure.
"…It’s good."
"It really feels like a year-end party, doesn't it? This is nice!"
The two oldest members, who had volunteered to clean up the kitchen, also gave favorable reviews.
And both felt a sense of cognitive dissonance throughout the meal, knowing the dish in the pot was supposed to have been chicken soup.
The pasta noodles that had been added were a bit awkward, but they were fine if you thought of them as sujebi.
"Chicken soup, huh…"
"You guys made that again."
At those meaningful words, the comments wailed, demanding to know the meaning of "again" this time.
[Ah, of course we have to tell you!]
[It is an incident that occurred on the 15th, the day of Moon-dae hyung’s birthday…]
Thanks to that, TeSTAR was able to enjoyably chatter about the episode from Park Moon-dae’s birthday, filtering out what needed to be filtered.
It was a rare moment of genuine, full-scale real-time communication for TeSTAR, who had gone through many ups and downs. As rumors spread, even casual fans tuned in, and the viewership climbed steadily.
And when more than two and a half hours had passed since the start, the members finally checked "that question."
[The next question is… Oh, this one. ‘Was A-hyun’s tumbling at the KBC festival part of the original choreography or an ad-lib?’]
In fact, this question had already been posted several times since the beginning.
However, Cha Yu-jin had been extremely focused on cooking and couldn't properly read the long Korean comments passing by quickly.
And Keun Se-jin had quite deliberately pretended not to see it.
This was because the impact would be greater if they answered while everyone was together, and it would look better in the screenshots that would circulate.
Ryu Cheong-woo, who had become slightly jovial from the atmosphere, answered with a smile.
"Ah, that was indeed an ad-lib! It was truly amazing!"
"It was great!"
"Ah, the details? At that time, there was a bit of a problem with our in-ears…"
TeSTAR enjoyably explained the situation at the time in detail, with Park Moon-dae and Keun Se-jin occasionally setting up defensive lines just in case.
"Those two grabbed A-hyun’s back firmly! So, how was it, A-hyun-ssi?"
"F-For some reason, I felt like I could do it… so I-I tried jumping once…!"
"It was a truly amazing sight, but it was definitely not something we intended. A-hyun says he will only try it in the future after safety is secured. Right?"
"Y-Yes! M-My body is important…!"
TeSTAR wrapped up that topic shortly after and chatted about other minor things for another half hour before ending the broadcast, but the first thing to circulate as screenshots was, of course, this part.
*
[TeSTAR accident ad-lib speculations all confirmed to be true]
: They confirmed it themselves on V-App
(Link to screenshots with subtitles)
*
People were stunned by the conclusion, which had turned out to be the most miraculous possibility. The news spread like a tidal wave to WeTube and FaceLook.
[TeSTAR’s accident management—the unbelievable speculations turned out to be true?]
[The power of the surviving Idol Inc. stocks is terrifying]
[The shocking dance skills of the 3rd place winner of Aju-sa]
The unfair image and controversies associated with TeSTAR had already lost their strength. With this hot topic, TeSTAR was able to shake off even the last remaining dregs.
The controversy over the Rookie of the Year award vanished completely into the annals of time, to the point where it felt awkward to even bring it up anymore.
The fans of TeSTAR, filled with pride, tried to share the heartwarming tidbits that had just come out of the W-Live, but it didn't have much effect.
This was because people had already become accustomed to the provocative topics TeSTAR created…
The fans stopped talking about the chicken soup, feeling a bit sheepish.
In any case, winning the Rookie of the Year award at the major awards ceremonies in January was practically a given.
TeSTAR, having infused themselves with a complete "talented" image, was naturally scheduled to ring in the New Year at a broadcasting station, as befitting idols with good results.
However, they also ended up meeting an unexpected, welcome face there.
December 31st, MBS Gayo Daejejeon.
"Thank you!"
Once our first assigned stage was over, we had a lot of free time.
This was because MBS was doing a live broadcast for a whopping four hours and had scattered TeSTAR’s performances across Parts 1 and 3.
Of course, that didn't mean they let us perform two of our own songs. The stage we just did was a one-verse cover of a 2000s boy group song.
Furthermore, because they only gave us exactly three minutes for the Part 3 stage, we had to cut out the second-verse lyrics.
Hmm, considering TeSTAR’s results this year, this is textbook mistreatment.
I wonder if I should see this as discrimination based on our origin or discrimination based on our agency.
I suspect it’s both.
"Still, it’s nice to have plenty of time to change outfits~"
I nodded.
Thinking positively, we also avoided the worst.
I’m talking about Imjingak.
"Right. We didn't have to go outdoors."
"…T-True."
Performing outdoors in this winter weather wearing summer school uniforms would have been quite a sight to behold.
It was while we were crossing the broadcasting station hallway, chatting like that.
Suddenly, someone greeted us.
"Wow, it’s TeSTAR! Give me an autograph!"
It was a voice I’d heard before.
And the members' eyes widened as if they were about to pop out when they turned their heads to check the person.
"…Heol!"
"Hyung!"
The person who greeted us was, surprisingly… Gold 1, Ha Il-jun.
"Hey, have you been doing well?"
Gold 1 waved his hand vigorously from among a group of people. A few members approached him, looking delighted.
And I discovered one more familiar face next to Gold 1.
"…Oh."
It was Choi Won-gil.