A Blank Slate Regression For The Idol That Lost His Original Intention

Did I forget Gyeon Ha-jun’s birthday?

 

Not Seo Ye-hyun’s, not Kim Do-bin’s, but Ha-jun’s—someone whose birthday I always remembered even before my regression?

 

“Wow, Hyung. I didn’t expect this from you, but you’re seriously an indifferent person. How could you forget your friend’s birthday?”

 

I had no retort to Ryu Jae-hee’s teasing, so I kept my mouth shut. Luckily, Gyeon Ha-jun stepped in and made excuses for me.

 

“Hey, it happens. He’s been really busy lately.”

 

Please, Jun… Don’t. I just checked SNS, and Jae-hee posted a birthday message for you.

 

If you do that, I become the jerk who was too “busy” to remember a friend’s birthday. And I didn’t even have any personal schedule.

 

Luckily, I’d already decided to stick to the concept of posting my birthday messages for Seo Ye-hyun right before midnight.

 

Now, I’m committed to always posting birthday wishes at 11:59 PM. The problem is, I’ll have to stay awake until then for each member’s birthday.

 

At least I could take solace in the fact that it was only 2 PM. There was still time.

 

Even though I could simply post a selfie with Ha-jun before midnight, it didn’t feel right to let his birthday pass unremarked.

 

It was too late to pick a thoughtful, meaningful gift. I decided to ask Ha-jun later what he needed.

 

As I pondered what I could do now, I thought of pulling in Kim Do-bin and Seo Ye-hyun, who also hadn’t celebrated Ha-jun’s birthday yet.

 

The answer was an OA live stream.

 

I remembered a popular OA live stream from before my regression—one that garnered a lot of views—and started searching online.

 

[How to Cook Seaweed Soup]

 

I captured the list of ingredients and scrolled through the instructions. Soaking the seaweed, sautéing, adding water, and simmering—it seemed pretty straightforward.

 

Even someone like me, who knew next to nothing about cooking, could manage this. The line at the bottom of the page, “Even beginners can easily succeed!” filled me with confidence.

 

I decided to drag along Ryu Jae-hee, who was the most convenient errand boy, and headed to the nearby supermarket.

 

“Hyung, can I buy some snacks?”

 

“Sure, go ahead.”

 

“If I buy something with chocolate, Ye-hyun hyung will probably say something, right?”

 

“Who cares? Just buy what you want.”

 

“I’m counting on you, Hyung.”

 

If Seo Ye-hyun nagged me about it later, I could always blame it on the maknae.

 

Honestly, his scolding didn’t seem all that threatening…

 

After grabbing everything we needed, I asked Jae-hee something as we walked back to the dorm.

 

“How do you manage to remember everyone’s birthday?”

 

“I save them in my phone’s calendar. I even set alarms.”

 

That’s when I realized I’d saved the birthdays of my friends and seniors, but not the birthdays of my own group members.

 

Ha-jun’s birthday was easy enough to remember, so I didn’t bother saving it. But since I’d clearly forgotten about it today, saving the dates seemed like a smart idea.

 

I also felt a bit guilty. It made me confront the fact that, before my regression, I had seen this group purely as a stepping stone.

 

“When’s your birthday?”

 

“September 14.”

 

“Still a ways off. What about Kim Do-bin’s?”

 

“May 26.”

 

“And Ye-hyun hyung’s?”

 

“December 17.”

 

I entered all the birthdays into my calendar app before we got back to the dorm. Then, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

 

“Dobby! Come here and set up the OA live stream and start filming!”

 

“Do-bin is a free elf—”

 

“If you do that one more time, I’m throwing a sock at you!”

 

Kim Do-bin, who had been messing around, pouted and trudged over to the kitchen with his phone in hand.

 

“Well, if you didn’t keep calling me Dobby, I wouldn’t say that.”

 

“Shut up, Dobby.”

 

Seo Ye-hyun wandered into the kitchen, curious about what he could help with. But I told him to sit and wait with Ha-jun for their birthday meal.

 

The kitchen was already small, and having Seo Ye-hyun around would just make it more crowded. Plus, I was afraid he’d try to turn everything into diet food.

 

He would definitely substitute the beef brisket we bought with some chicken breast from the freezer.

 

“Oh, come on. My birthday was forever ago; why are you bothering with a birthday meal now?”

 

Despite his words, he didn’t seem upset. He probably did feel a little let down not getting a birthday meal before. I made a mental note to at least get him some instant seaweed soup next year.

 

“Going live in 3, 2, 1…”

 

Kim Do-bin gave us the countdown as he lifted his phone.

 

I waved at the camera and smiled.

 

“Hey, Daydream.”

 

“Hi! Long time no see, our sweet Daydreams!”

 

“Oh, wait. Sorry. It wasn’t live yet… Okay, now it’s live.”

 

I glared at Kim Do-bin but had to pretend nothing happened and wave again.

 

“Today, we’re attempting to make a birthday meal for Ha-jun. We’ve got Chef Yoon Eden, Assistant Ryu Jae-hee, and Cameraman Kim Do-bin.”

 

“People are asking, ‘Where’s Ye-hyun hyung?’”

 

When Kim Do-bin read the comment, I pulled out a large bowl and replied.

 

“We’re letting the eldest rest in the living room, considering he recently had his own birthday. He and Ha-jun will both be receiving birthday meals.”

 

I pulled out a dish for the beef brisket and lined it with a paper towel as I continued.

 

“Today’s menu will be beef seaweed soup, rolled omelets, and spicy stir-fried pork.”

 

“Isn’t that a bit too simple?”

 

“What matters is the heart.”

 

I pulled out the cutting board and placed some onions and six cloves of garlic on it.

 

“First, soak the dried seaweed in water to soften it. Hey, it says 10 to 15 minutes.”

 

“We can work on something else while waiting, like the spicy pork.”

 

“Oh, right. I’ll chop the garlic. You, soak the dried seaweed, maknae.”

 

“Yes, sir. Do you think this amount is enough for five people?”

 

Ryu Jae-hee pulled out two handfuls of dried seaweed from the bag and showed it to me.

 

It looked like it might be too little, so I tilted my head.

 

“Don’t you think it’s a little?”

 

“Then how about this much more?”

 

Jae-hee added another handful of dried seaweed. As he was reading the chat, Kim Do-bin relayed a message.

 

“Someone says the dried seaweed will expand a lot when soaked.”

 

“Yeah, we know that. It’s common sense. Dried raisins also swell when soaked.”

 

“But they’re asking if that’s really the right amount.”

 

“It should be fine, right?”

 

This should be enough. Any less and it’d be pointless.

 

I continued chopping the garlic, but it wasn’t turning out the way minced garlic should, so I called for help from Gyeon Ha-jun.

 

“Jun! Is this how I mince garlic?”

 

Gyeon Ha-jun came over, peeked over my shoulder, and gave me the solution.

 

“Use the handle of the knife to crush it.”

 

Ah, that’s how you do it. You crush it with the back of the knife, not slice it.

 

Ha-jun returned to the living room, and I finished mincing the garlic before reading the next step in the recipe.

 

“Add beef brisket, minced garlic, and sesame oil to the pot and sauté. We’ll do that after the seaweed’s ready, so let’s work on the spicy pork for now.”

 

Since the seaweed still needed more time, we set aside the seaweed soup and moved on to the stir-fried pork.

 

I should have soaked the seaweed in advance, but I didn’t realize it would take 10 minutes. That was my mistake.

 

“Slice the onions… Then fry the pork with the onions, right?”

 

“Ha-jun hyung! Do we fry the onions with the pork?”

 

“No, cook the pork first, and then when it’s almost done, add the vegetables and the sauce.”

 

Once again, Gyeon Ha-jun quickly appeared in the kitchen to guide us and then disappeared just as fast.

 

Since our attempt to mix our own seasoning would almost certainly fail, we opted for pre-made sauce from the store.

 

Machines are better at measuring ingredients accurately than we are. Cooking “from the heart” only works when you’re actually good at it.

 

“Pre-made sauce is the best for cooking. By the way, this is not a paid promotion.”

 

As I poured the sauce, carefully hiding the label with my hand, Kim Do-bin suddenly shouted.

 

“Hyung! Eden hyung! It’s overflowing! It’s overflowing!”

 

“Ah! What the heck!”

 

As I turned to look where Kim Dobin’s finger was pointing, I saw that the bowl was overflowing with seaweed, spilling out and dripping onto the floor. It looked like it had given birth to some sort of monstrous creature.

 

I stared in disbelief at the seaweed escaping the bowl and falling to the ground. Maybe the problem was that I had filled it with too much water to speed up the soaking process, or perhaps it was because I had added that extra handful of seaweed. For someone who only knew how to make ramen and tornado omelets, seaweed soup was proving to be a challenge.

 

I had foolishly trusted the claim that beginners could easily succeed with this recipe. If I had known this would happen, I would have bought seaweed soup ramen and just left out the noodles.

 

“I told you it would expand a lot,”

 

“You didn’t say it would expand ‘this’ much!”

 

Faced with the overwhelming amount of seaweed, far more than five servings’ worth, I panicked and called for help.

 

“Jun-ah! What do I do about this?”

 

Gyeon Hajun quickly arrived and, upon seeing the seaweed farm that had emerged from the bowl, sighed quietly.

 

“You really soaked a lot… I should’ve portioned it out for you…”

 

With practiced ease, Hajun drained the water from the bowl, grabbed another container, and transferred a reasonable amount of seaweed into it before handing it to me.

 

“Use this much.”

 

“And the rest? Throw it out?”

 

“Why would you waste it? We’ll put it in the fridge and use it soon for cold cucumber soup or seaweed salad.”

 

With everything expertly sorted out by Hajun, we resumed cooking. I hadn’t even finished a single dish yet, but I already felt like I was about to collapse.

 

“The recipe says to stir-fry the beef brisket with minced garlic in sesame oil. We still have sesame oil in the dorm, right? Go grab it, maknae.”

 

At my request, Ryu Jaehee rummaged through the shelves before pausing and letting out an awkward laugh.

 

“Oh, right. We used it all up last time making soy sauce egg rice with Dobin hyung.”

 

“You should’ve told me that at the store earlier! We could’ve bought more.”

 

What a scatterbrained kid. Tsk, tsk. It was too late to go back to the store now, so we had no choice but to improvise.

 

“Can we substitute olive oil for sesame oil?”

 

“Isn’t that a bit much?”

 

“Oil is oil, right?”

 

“Jun hyung! Is it okay to use olive oil for seaweed soup?”

 

As Hajun approached, I pulled out my phone and began searching for answers.

 

“Look at this. There are recipes that use olive oil,” I said confidently, showing Jaehee my search results. Hajun, who had now arrived, added his two cents.

 

“It should be fine. It just won’t have that nutty flavor. By the way, Eden, the meat’s burning. Lower the heat.”

 

After drizzling olive oil into the pot and diligently stir-frying the beef and seaweed, I added water and moved on to the next step in the recipe.

 

“It says to add a spoonful of soy sauce. Should I use regular soy sauce? Is that the same as soup soy sauce?”

 

“The soup soy sauce is next to the regular one. Yeah, that one.”

 

At this point, Hajun no longer returned to the living room but remained in the kitchen.

 

“Hyung, I told you to go relax in the living room.”

 

“I think I’ll feel more at ease staying here,”

 

Hajun said with a weary expression, shaking his head.

 

***

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