Soojin finally makes it to the restaurant that she was representing just hours ago on live television. Sloth-like and particularly uninterested today because of multiple reasons, she still makes it. She wasn't ever the type to skip work just because she had the authority to(only legally; she'd still have to face her mother for being irresponsible like that). Workaholism is something that I found out is typically prevalent all through this country.

All the eyes are on her just as she enters, the customers, the staff with their smiling, bright faces.

"Noona, you did amazing today! Congrats!" one of the serving staff tells her.

"A-Ahh, thanks," she quietly says before hurriedly rushing to the kitchen ignoring the eyes. The boy's words took her off-guard for a second there. As expected from Soojin, she had forgotten that this kind of treatment would be awaiting her. It might amuse one how she forgot that when all she was showered through phone calls and texts were words of congratulations, from her professors, classmates, and friends. But there are things on her mind that make it easy to be distracted. Being exposed makes her uncomfortable, and that's exactly what happened this afternoon; she's scared of things going south. But that is what I'm here for, to take care that things definitely don't go down if not to a better course. Poor girl doesn't even know that I exist though.

"Ohh, you're here! Soojin-ah, you did very well today, everyone in my family watched the show together," the head cook, Mrs. Jang tells her.

"You'd have won the round if you represented us instead," Soojin plainly says taking the older woman tongue-tied for a few.

"Is that why you look so dull? Don't worry about that, this is a very good start, we all know that you'll win it. Cheer up."

Soojin nods hesitantly and gets to work. A few minutes later she hears Donghyuck's voice who seems to be asking for her. She exits the kitchen to see him holding a small cake box in his hand, his friend Jeno beside him.

Soojin boredly blinks his way.

"I brought you cake, noona! Congr—" her cousin says.

She turns back on her heels and walks back into the kitchen folding her arms. "Why are y'all treating it like I won the whole show, I'm just placed at 3rd in round 1 for God's sake."

"But—"

"Hyuck, if you're here to celebrate anyway, why don't you do it by helping us at work. Sharing is caring, so share the work." Soojin throws two aprons their way. The boys catch it and get to their work helping to serve the tables; of course, Donghyuck had the cake he brought to look up to eating later and Jeno's incentive's the mere presence of Sooyoung.

After getting bored seeing the usual in the workplace for what always feels like to me very and utmostly tedious long hours of stirring and serving and savoring, I feel my magical indicator go off. And by that I mean I feel the presence of the other party I monitor nearing me. I didn't bother sticking around with Ateez much today because I knew of their schedule that wasn't going to be clear until— I look at the clock nearby— 40 minutes ago.

So I transport myself to their location and viola, I'm in their van.

"—won't be mad," I hear San finishing a sentence.

"Why would your friend be mad?" Their manager Jongsuk, who's driving the van, asks.

"I think it's going to be the closing time soon. We're a little late, aren't we? Seonghwa hyung, why did you want to go here in the first place?"

"If it's closing time, why bother? I can get you takeaway," Jongsuk offers.

Being out of context was no fun so I used this time to go back a few minutes in time into Seonghwa's head by my handy magical charms. Apparently, Seonghwa told the manager to take this route because he suggested eating dinner at Ahn's Restaurant. Odd request; usually they go directly to dorms to freshen up and order food, or get takeaway on their way home. And yeah, San's right, the restaurant's closing time is up soon, the crowd's already bare minimum in the place right now.

"Seonghwa hyung just wants to meet her," Yunho blurts out.

"Understandable, me too," Jongho says and Seonghwa meets his eye for a brief second before he averts it.

Jongsuk flashes a pointed look at the boys' way through the rearview mirror. "Is something going on that I don't know about?" he asks and Hongjoong immediately shakes his head.

"We all wanna congratulate her hyung, also she was exposed on TV as our friend because of us, we gotta talk to her about that, that's why Seonghwa suggested this, isn't it right, Seonghwa?" Hongjoong says. "And we're not exactly getting there at the very last minute, maybe they'll only offer takeaway at this time, but that's okay."

"I wanted to dine there though," Wooyoung complains.

"We can do that some other day. Why are you whiny? I just want to go home and take a shower," Yeosang says.

"They serve chimaek, if you go for a dine-in you'll get the chicken hot and crispy and made with love."

"Ohh, maybe I can shower later then," Yeosang says gaining a few small laughs.

.

.

.

The people who were sat on one of the last two occupied table finally makes their way out of the restaurant leaving only one trio of customers to finish up their food soon and hurry. All of the staff are settled in the dine-in room today. Usually, the serving staff and the main cook would take off when the workers all collectively assume it's the last few tables and make sure the still occupied customers won't need any other service anymore; then all that'd remain is for the last dishes to be washed which is always taken care of by the Ahns themselves. But today, everyone stays, the staff and the occasional helpers Donghyuck and Jeno. Why? They're all just enjoying the cake Donghyuck brought, it was a kinda celebratory atmosphere with cake slices offered for free to the last trio of customers as well.

The staff is planning to leave after finishing the cake. The boys would stay though, Donghyuck and Jeno obviously missed the dinner hours of their university dorms, so their food was boiling over in the kitchen.

"Thank you for the cake noona," says Jungwon, a serving staff.

"What are you thanking me for, boy?" Soojin asks. "This cake is good though," she says, the only one who's still stuffing the cake, very uglily. I guess it's the period cravings.

"Ahh, right, thank you to you then, Donghyuck hyung," says Heesung, the other serving staff.

"I paid for the cake though," Jeno complains and Sooyoung laughs out and the young boys apologize to Jeno. "Hyuck's always been a free-loader, it's no surprise," Soojin comments, attention still on the cake.

The elders just smile at the kids. "Okay then, unnie, I'm leaving," Mrs. Jang says to Soojin's mom and turns to Heesung and Jungwon. "Let's go boys."

They all grab their things and the last three customers also ascend from their seats. And it's then that the restaurant's gate flings open revealing a bunch of young men who suddenly become conscious seeing the many eyes inside fixated upon them.

"We're sorry, we're closed for the day," Mrs. Jang tells Ateez.

"Ohh, it's Soojin's friend Jongho, Mirae," Mrs. Ahn says. "He came here once, I told you, remember?"

"Daebak!" Donghyuck gasps and Jeno's eyes widen. Jungwon says something in Heesung's ears whose scrutinizing eyes become now that's full of recognition.

"Excuse me, can we pay?" the last customers say and Sooyoung rushes to the billing counter guiding them.

Yunho still stands holding the handle of the glass gate blocking the others, wondering if they should leave or not(since Soojin's invisible to them). Jongho's already inside.

"Imo, you are saying that noon—" Donghyuck screeches.

"They're Ateez!" Heesung says.

"Stop yelling, you rasca—" Soojin stops as she realizes she can't curse yet because of the elders.

"Come inside, guys. I mean since you're already here," Soojin says and Yunho moves forward, assuming she's speaking to them. It is when Mrs. Jang, Heesung, and Jungwon move apart that they see Soojin sitting on a table behind them eating cake boredly.

"Is this the rest of the friends you and Jongho said you both have?" Mrs. Ahn asks. "1..2....there's nine. You're friends with nine people now?"

"Shocking," Mrs. Jang says.

"Yeah, very..." goes Jungwon.

"...very shocking," Jeno continues.

"So cool," Heesung says. "Oh! Noona, were they there on the show because of you?"

"Wait a minute," Mrs. Ahn says, looking at the awkward guys, who bow to her in greeting, in suspicion. "I've seen some of you somewhere."

"That's because—" Jeno starts off.

"Because they're in the wall posters of your daughter's room!" Donghyuck screeches. "Imo, how are you so clueless! Oh my God!"

"What?"

"Everyone shut up, now!" Soojin says exasperatedly as she gets up dramatically. She finally got to do it now that the customers are gone after billing.

"Geez, you look high. Are you high of cake now?" Sooyoung comments.

"Heesung, Jungwon, you've school tomorrow, you were about to leave," she tells them and turns to Mrs. Jang. "And you, imo, you were leaving too, so bye, all of you."

"I'll fill you in tomorrow," Mrs. Ahn quietly says to Mrs. Jang and the three leaves. "And you all? Are you customers or are you Soojin's friends?" she asks Ateez.

"Both," Yunho says and smiles. He's lowkey scared, and so are the others.

"Well, then, what do you do?"

"Eomma, what are you? A detective?" Soojin asks. "They are my friends and you probably recognized them by now," she maliciously eyes Donghyuck and Jeno. "They're idols. They're the group members of Ateez. All of them, except for that clueless ahjussi there, he's their manager."

"Hello, my name's Kim Honjoong," the short boy introduces himself to the mother of his friend and so does each of the others following him.

.

.

.

Soojin was exhausted. She was fatigued and the recurring mild cramps were getting to her, and there were the mood swings and cravings and the desperate need to lie down and sleep. She was convinced she'd finish the cake and make Sooyoung do all the last dishes before she'd finally rush home. But here she is, frying away pieces of chicken in the kitchen for her friends. Somehow, she ended up telling her friends to stay to eat and drink together like in the old days( I don't know what kind of mood swings these are). 'Since you guys came here looking for food anyway?' she reasoned.

After many minutes of vague and discreet explanations by Soojin of how she happened to meet Ateez one day suddenly, and after what felt like countless times of its repetition and confirmation by the eight friends themselves, who all added their own additions to the story, a little something to make it believable, Mrs. Ahn was convinced. But the woman did pull the boys aside to ask them in privacy if her daughter had stalked and blackmailed them into being friends with her. After Sooyoung's statement on how she'd known of the friendship herself and Donghyuck's on how he had sniffed on and assumed Soojin getting involved with new people for a while now too, Mrs. Ahn let the kids be and went home. Sooyoung stayed 'to help serve them' in her exact words. And for the other two boys, well Donghyuck was Donghyuck and he refused to leave. And Ateez's manager: the poor, hungry man was sent off with a promise to leave the van behind for the boys and that he finds some takeaway and then a cab for himself.

Soojin finishes the last batch of chicken and takes it to the dine-in room where the hungry idol boys are settled around a conjoined table, Sooyoung comfortably sitting amongst them and grilling pork and making wraps and sauces for the guys. And just in time, Dongyuck and Jeno, who were sent to get some instant ramen from the convenience store come back visibly muttering things to each other and nudging each other's shoulders as they look at Ateez.

"What is that?" Soojin asks as she keeps the chicken on their table. "What's with the whispers? You guys begged to stay back saying you wanted to serve and help, so you better do the job right, be respectful to the customers you fools!" she finishes off yelling, making Jeno flinch( yeah, it was no news how the boy always found Soojin very intimidating).

"Easy there unnie, you scared him again."

Soojin looks at Sooyoung. "At least someone's doing their job right. I don't think the convenience store is that far away Hyuck, why are you so late?"

"Ha ha ha," he awkwardly starts. "I think we're just on time seeing you're just bringing the chicken. What matters is that we got the ramyeon."

Soojin keeps glaring at them.

"Geez, why are you cranky today? It's intolerable," Wooyoung says.

"We disturbed you with this visit, didn't we? You should've told us so, Soojin-ah," Hongjoong cautiously says.

"No, I just—" she huffs. "Look, I wanted this, alright? I missed this, I thought it was a good opportunity to reminisce and recreate. My offer for you to stay was genuine." The only problem is the extra people whose presence she finds it uncomfortable to talk freely with her friends. "Don't worry about that, Captain."

"You call Hongjoong sunbaenim 'captain'?" Donghyuck asks. Boy, you're making it worse.

"Shut up," Soojin says. "Guys, this idiot right here is my cousin Lee Donghyuck and that is Lee Jeno, his friend."

"Oh, hello," San says. "Do you guys work here?"

"No," Sooyoung answers. "They sometimes do the barter of helping around here to get free food."

"You called Hongjoong 'sunbae', do you work in the field? Trainee?" Seonghwa asks.

"No, we sing and create music on Youtube, for now at least. We've got a whole team. We're social media singers," Jeno answers.

Sooyoung goes to bring the bottles of Soju and beer.

"Wah! You never let me have drinks here, noona!" Donghyuck exclaims. "The you I knew was a boring introvert and miser, what happened to you all of a sudden?"

"What do you mean? She's still a miser," Sooyoung says and laughs.

"Wow, it's good that I decided to stay for this," Donghyuck says. "But we won't intrude this table if you don't want that."

"Nah, you should join us," Wooyoung says and the two boys are quick to seat themselves. Soojin glares at her cousin and feels a tug at her hand. She sees it's Jongho sitting near where she stands. "Relax, noona, you should sit." As she's about to sit on the floor on Jongho's left, Seonghwa speaks.

"You can sit here, Soojin," Seonghwa, who's on Jongho's right, says. And Soojin quietly sits between the two pursing her lips. It'd look like that both these guys chose to sit next to each other knowing that each of them would ask the girl to sit beside them. And I can assure you that's exactly what had happened.

Poor Soojin! I feel her frustration. She not only has to refrain from being her usually friendly self in front of the intruders and now there's also this love triangle going on that she definitely doesn't want Donghyuck or even Sooyoung to learn about.

"So we meet again, don't we, Youngie number 2?" Wooyoung says to Sooyoung. Everyone pours themselves a drink, the pork sizzling, noodles boiling, and chicken sitting crispy on the table full of other side dishes.

"Excuse me, I'm the one she started calling that name before, I'm rightfully no.1," Sooyoung replies.

"I was born before, I'm the no.1, sorry you were late," argues Wooyoung.

"How lame are you to be jealous of this?" Yeosang comments. San is busy chatting with the two new faces and Yunho and Mingi intently listen.

The bickering of Youngie vs. Youngie keeps continuing and while Soojin tries to ignore it she can't. "Can you stop, Youngie?" she says frustratedly. And they both turn to face her in response.

Soojin grabs her head and Seonghwa is quick to pat her back gently. "It's okay, everyone's loud, just don't focus on them, tell me how your week was?" he softly says and the loudness suddenly halts. Soojin can already feel all the eyes their way even when hers are on Seonghwa's, a subtle blush rising to her cheeks.

She never really texted Seonghwa after that vague and suggestive message from him that once. It kept her thinking. But the man didn't stop though. He'd still send her all sorts of sweet messages every day, just like the time when they dated. And that was nerve-wracking for her.

Soojin suddenly sees a hand offering food near her mouth. "Say aaah," Jongho says. "I made you a wrap."

"Huh?" To say she is taken aback by this really foreign situation is an understatement. She's only had a few shots but she feels dizzy, and maybe that is because of this situation. Whatever, I'm having the time of my life watching this.

"Say aahh, noona, open your mouth," the boy lovingly says, stealing all the spotlight Seonghwa previously built. Soojin reluctantly let him feed her the wrap.

"Thank you, Jongho," she says between the bites.

"Jongho?" he pouts.

"S-Sweetie."

Seonghwa's hand gently lands on Soojin's forehead. "Why are you stuttering?" he gasps. "Are you sick?"

"No. Why are you being so dramatic?"

"Sorry," Seonghwa says disheartened, staring at the table.

"Aish, why do you seem sad now?" she lifts his chin and makes him face her. "Are you a child?" and he looks at her blankly. "Shit, did I make it worse? You look cute, okay? You're adorable, oppa. Now cheer up."

"If it's a complimenting festival, do mine next," Jongho says and Soojin turns to face him with pursed lips and an awkward face. 'Why are they being like this?' she keeps asking in her head. She ruffles his hair with a smile nonetheless, forced at first but when he pouts his pink lips, and her attention goes there for a split second, she smiles wider. And then suddenly retraces her hand as soon as she remembers herself wanting to kiss him from the last time. And it is this second that she's free from attending to both the guys that she sees the others looking at her, Donghyuck especially with his big, wide eyes watching as if it's some big revelation.

"Why are those three like this, sunbae?" he quietly asks Yunho next to him. "And why are you guys all not much surprised?"

"Uh—"

Before Yunho could mess, San speaks. "We have no idea too."

"Yeah, I don't know. It's natural, we're all very friendly, she's like that to us too," Yunho says.

Back on the other end of the table, Jongho and Seonghwa keep doing stuff to get Soojin's attention. "Ugh, can you stop with the PDA?" Yeosang says to the three. "There's disgustingly too much romance in the air."

Dongyuck and Jeno's attention goes that way.

"Uh, Yeosang-ah!" San calls out to him. "Why don't you eat the chicken? It's nice." His voice stressing and jaws set in a forced, tight smile to convey the hidden message.

"I'm eating the chicken right now, you idiot," Yeosang says. The boy had always been bad at catching clues.