"Yo, I'm famous!" the words come out from the phone in English, the first thing Joshua says as Soojin picks up the call.

"Oh my Gad! Whot!" Soojin tries to keep up the enthusiasm in her voice. A laugh is what she receives from the other line at her attempt at English.

"Heyy, don't laugh et me mayhn," she says but the laugh doesn't stop until she audibly huffs into the phone.

"Sorry, sorry," Joshua switches back to Korean. "I did not realize that I wasn't speaking in Korean but you took me off-guard with your reply." He chuckles.

"Stop laughing at my English, I know I have an accent but that's how everyone here speaks, it's not so new," Soojin sourly says.

"I know that, but you sounded so cute. Your grammar sounds fine, you probably are good at the language, I think now I have someone to talk to before I forget my English. What do you say, Ms Soojin Ahn?"

"Why did you call? You sounded very excited."

"Oh yeah! How did you not know this? We're famous now!"

"What?"

"Fans of your friends posted photos of you and me with your friends; when they visited my restaurant and we ate with them, remember? So we are publicly 'friends' of Ateez amongst the fans now, I'm more famous because somehow they found out I'm the restauranteur and weirdly, I'm ashamed to say, these girls are what we call in English 'simping' over me."

Soojin lets out a muffled chortle. It's a bit of a situation and it's scary but the last part sure did get her. "This is not good. Our photos and identity has been publicized, I hate to receive unwanted attention, but at least for now, they're putting you more in the limelight because of your status and looks, this is how fandoms are like, welcome to this world, oppa."

"I find the simping weird but the whole situation is nothing I can't handle. And who knows, maybe I can expect more people to visit my restaurant because of this."

"Ahh, you're a slave of capitalism."

"I'm more worried for you. I mean, I don't know fandoms and stuff like you do but I know that these fans wouldn't mind seeing a guy friend of their idol as much as a female friend. If I wasn't there and you were seen meeting them alone I don't know how different the type of attention would have been. You gotta watch out."

"I know," Soojin sighs. "I'll be careful. Now lemme go check this on the internet. I wanna see it myself."

"Okay, but don't waste too much on it, go do preparations. And if you want moral support call me anytime before you reach there. Do well on the programme! Fighting!"

"Oppa, you spent the last night giving all the moral support you could. And I'm fine, I didn't need it anyway. I'll only come back winning, don't worry."

"That's the spirit!" he says. "But your confidence is intimidating, I'd be sweating if I was your opponent."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Bye." She hangs up and spends the next half an hour frowning as she scrolls through the phone and stressing out both because of the fiasco on the internet and the nagging in her brain that tells her she should be worrying about her programme instead.

.

.

.

The 'programme' is something that's important and special for Soojin. It was last week when she received a call from one of the biggest broadcasting channels in the nation that kept her, and the rest of the family, jumping and screaming in excitement. Ahn's Restaurant had been selected for the cooking competition amongst the chefs of restaurants in the nation that applied; Three benefits would come out of it, a promotion opportunity, a chance to show your face on the television and, lastly, prize money if you win. Of course, this was big. But it's even bigger for Soojin, she gets to compete doing what she's passionate about, she gets to show it off, she isn't like the other competitors who are probably just doing their jobs as the chefs for the restauranteurs. She's going because she desperately wants to cook on television; the kind, old cook of her restaurant was happy to have her represent them in it.

And that competition is scheduled today, more like the first round of it is. And is Soojin more nervous to appear in front of the live television than the whole process of the competition itself? Yes, and she's sweating. I'm kinda scared for this girl. And is something reassuring her that she shouldn't be such? No. She's going to be on a live broadcast in a few and she knows for sure that people are going to watch it. There's no person that Sooyoung knows and didn't tell to watch all the episodes of the show to catch her sister on it(and Sooyoung knows a lot of people). And there's no person her mother left out to tell as well. And then there are her own friends, Joshua who will be religiously watching, and Ateez who apologized a thousand times to her just as she disclosed the news because they knew they were gonna be busy. They knew they probably couldn't catch the show, and it was confirmed when the manager disclosed the schedule for the day in the morning; They can't watch it live. Or so they thought.

Oh, what is the possibility that the one who was frowning not being able to catch a show live on television is able to witness it live live? If I was human I'd say it's rarest of rare but my team up there seems to be doing their work right.

"Oh," Yunho suddenly gasps distractedly looking away from the camera filming him. He and the rest are on the premises of the same channel's grand office building along with the host of their current interview/creative-talk-show and camera directors.

The rest of the group and the host turns in the direction Yunho's looking at.

"Oh, that's..." San begins but quietens down, his momentary shock subsides when he remembers that Soojin did inform them about the time and date of her competition. What the host sees is a random girl wearing a chest number running furiously to the studio hall where the cooking show was to be broadcasted.

"Oh, she looks like a contestant for this year's Top Taste. Do you know her?" the host asks and the cameras are already on the silhouette of Soojin who just disappears behind the door.

"The wait is finally over! Welcome to the long-awaited arrival of Korea's favourite cook-off show, Top Taste Season 5 powdered by..." the muffled but loud voice of programme introduction is heard from the studio at the end of the hall.

Wooyoung laughs loudly. "Yes, that's our friend, she told us about this show. She's late and it's not surprising."

By now Hongjoong could predict the upcoming. The camera already captured Soojin and then Wooyoung's statement, this made for an interesting new discovery about Ateez, a friend has been disclosed and now it's not difficult for the host to know her name. Hongjoong knew he owed a big apology to their friend.

"Ahh then let's go cheer your friend, she's already late and probably nervous because of it. I'm curious about the competition too, I watch all the seasons and episodes of Top Taste," the host says and they all walk to the studio. The show seems to have begun, the competitors are already seen introducing themselves.

They all slowly make their way to stand a respectable distance behind the camera people broadcasting the show. Wooyoung waves his hand at Soojin and the girl stiffens visibly.

"Wooyoung-ssi, don't distract her, she's about to introduce her," the host speaks in ASMR in respect to the surrounding's limit and conduct.

"Ahh, sorry sorry," he whispers back, everything each of the nine does, Ateez or the host, captured in their interview show's cameras surrounding them.

One of the zoom-in cameras of Top Taste's collection of set-up pans to Soojin when it's her time. "Hello everyone," she says. "I'm Ahn Soojin representing Ahn's Restaurant in Seoul. I'm passionate about cooking and serving, I'm co-owner of Ahn's Restaurant along with my mother, so I work there even though I'm not the main cook, and I'm also a university student. I hope to do my best today." She nods to conclude and the camera moves to the next contestant.

"That's the friend of Ateez, everyone," the MC of the talk show whispers to the camera. "Wishing her the luck in my mind, and you too..." she asks the boys.

"Yeah, fighting, our friend!" Yunho softly speaks into his speaker in ASMR.

"Okay then, let's go and do our thing, we can't be a bother in this studio much longer. Unfortunately, the cooking won't start until sometime later, I'll catch the rerun later. Come on," she walks and Ateez and the cameras follow out of the studio with her.

Hongjoong's thankful that it was over fast, unlike the cooking competition their interview show won't be aired until the end of the week so there was time to ease Soojin into it. Or so he thought.

Back at the safety and privacy of their individual confines, Joshua and Sooyoung each are amused or gasping as they see the 3-second clip of Ateez as they cheer on the live screen subtitled how the boy group are supporting their contestant friend in Top Taste's studio.

.

.

.

It has been a long day for everyone, including myself. You think it's an easy job to follow around someone the whole day? You take stress when they take stress, you end up tiring yourself out when they're tiring themselves out in work(although in my case I experience no physical exertion). It was strenuous to go through the thrill of how everything will turn out in the end, I watched Soojin practising the dish at home multiple times but even with my 4k visual knowledge, I couldn't predict if her food would turn out good when inside that studio surrounded by cameras. Soojin was under the pressure of the competition a few hours earlier, and so was I.

And in the end, Soojin placed third amongst the fifteen contestants who represented their restaurants. Worry not, it was just the first round.

She decided to stay at home until dinner hours at the restaurant begins, she deserved that much after the hard work today and everyone agreed. And I thought it was gonna be a peaceful few hours off work for her and me, but no, this is Soojin I'm talking about.

She lays on her bed, clutching her stomach in one hand because of the mild pain of the monthlies and her phone on the other. And what's she doing? Contemplating her whole life and drowning in self-loathing as she painfully watches the rerun of the show, scrutinizing and crying pathetically at all the awkward and stupid things(she thinks) she did on camera. And of course, the fact that Ateez's presence to support her was disclosed on television stressed her out even more. I'm thankful she didn't resort to investigate Twitter yet. All she did was playing the rerun and checking messages from the boys(Hongjoong) apologizing shortly and something along the lines of how they're busy and will show up to apologize and celebrate in person. She was confused by the message, so as always, she ignored it.

And she's still going at the cringing over herself. But you know what, I refuse to pay attention to her. And even though I end up losing all the energy at the end of the summoning ordeal, I still have time till it ends, till he's dismissed. Yeah, after he takes over and till he leaves, I'm just like a subconscious that rests. I have peace during that interval and right now I aspire for that peace. I'm sure you want a change from seeing the pathetic story of Soojin's boring present too. Technically her past is more pathetic and gruesome but whatever.

He's taking charge in...

3!

2!

And 1!

-

-

'No, I didn't steal it. This is what I made myself, that's not stealing.'

'Of course, even if it was stolen, what's done is done. Now only that's left is for it to be eaten.'

'I DID NOT STEAL IT. STOP SUSPECTING ME!'