Kim Dobin, who had been lazily scrolling through his phone and reading the chat, burst out laughing.
“How can you call someone over and not feel guilty about it? Because of you and Eden hyung, Hajun hyung’s new nicknames are ‘Jun Doraemon’ and ‘Jun Ratatouille.'”
I guess we did call him a bit too much…?
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I scratched my cheek while looking at Gyeon Hajun, who looked just as exhausted as me and Ryu Jaehee from all the cooking.
As Jaehee proudly stirred the pork stir-fry with a wooden spoon, he declared, “The pork stir-fry is done!”
“Jaehee, it’s undercooked. Keep frying it.”
“Not done yet.”
Jaehee, dejected by Hajun’s firm correction, turned the gas back on and resumed stirring the stir-fry with less enthusiasm.
“Eden, stir the soup a bit and cover it with a lid. Keep the heat on medium.”
It was a rare scene, seeing the person who was supposed to be receiving the birthday feast leading the cooking of his own birthday meal.
However, the final dish was something I could handle without Hajun’s help.
“Once we finish this egg roll, this hard labor will finally be over.”
“It seems like Hajun hyung did more than you did.”
“I worked hard too, you know.”
I cracked the eggs, whisking them with chopsticks to shape them. Memories of the many days I practiced making this dish flashed through my mind.
Being an idle idol with no schedule, I had plenty of free time to do all sorts of useless things. It’s not a memory I’m particularly fond of.
As I finished the tornado omelet, Dobin’s eyes sparkled as he made a request.
“Wow, amazing! Hyung, do it again!”
“There are no more eggs. That was the last one.”
“You didn’t buy any eggs while shopping?”
“I didn’t buy them because I thought we had some in the fridge. I didn’t know we only had three left.”
As Jaehee glanced over while stir-frying the pork, he commented, “This isn’t an egg roll—it’s an omelet.”
“Whether it’s an omelet or an egg roll, it’s all the same egg. Just eat it and stop nitpicking.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
I remembered how much our maknae loved this dish. I used to bring it to him when he was studying for the civil service exam. Now that he no longer had to prepare for that exam, seeing that brought back mixed feelings.
Despite his words, Jaehee couldn’t take his eyes off the tornado omelet, clearly fascinated.
Hajun asked him, “Don’t you smell something burning?”
“Hey, hey, hey! The pork’s burning!”
At my urgent shout, Jaehee hurriedly turned off the gas.
And thus, our arduous cooking session came to an end.
On the dining table, a pot of seaweed soup, the tornado omelet, and the slightly burnt pork stir-fry were neatly arranged alongside the side dishes from the fridge and a whipped cream cake we had bought.
As Ryu Jaehee belted out the birthday song with added vibrato, and Kim Dobin harmonized poorly, I clapped along in half-hearted celebration.
I wanted to zone out, but if I did, they’d call me “fish eyes” again and my initial intention would drop, so I forced myself to maintain an expression that was a bit more animated.
As Hajun blew out the candles on the cake, Kim Dobin, still holding the camera, suddenly asked, “So, how does it feel to finally receive a birthday meal instead of making one?”
“Can I even say that I received it…?”
With a tired smile, Hajun let out a small laugh, and Seo Yehyun chimed in.
“One thing’s for sure—Hajun didn’t exactly get a break from cooking.”
Remembering how Hajun had practically played the part of a certain rat from a famous movie, guiding us through the entire process, I had no desire to argue and just nodded in agreement.
“See you next time, Daydreams!”
“Eat something delicious, dreams!”
After taking a quick shot of the birthday meal and wishing Hajun a happy birthday once more, we ended the live broadcast to start eating.
The stream had far exceeded the ten-minute minimum requirement. I wondered if the weekly quest would count this live OA session as a success.
Hajun took a bite of the seaweed soup, then quietly set his spoon down and said, “Could someone grab some salt?”
“Jaehee, get the salt.”
Was it really that bland? The recipe called for two spoonfuls of soy sauce, which I had added exactly as instructed.
“I followed the blog recipe perfectly. Why is it bland?”
“That recipe is for four servings, right?”
At Hajun’s question, I pulled up the blog and confirmed that it was indeed for four servings. I nodded, and Hajun continued.
“This is eight servings, Eden.”
“…I see. No wonder 1.5 liters of water didn’t seem like enough.”
Cooking was tough. And honestly, even though I made it, it didn’t taste good.
[▷Take care of the members’ birthdays! ✓
▶You have completed ‘Taking care of Gyeon Hajun’s birthday’ for 20xx.
▶You have received 5 initial intention points and a random ticket as a reward.]
Seeing the delayed quest success message, I sighed in relief. At least, unlike with Seo Yehyun, I had found out about the birthday in advance this time.
However, I didn’t skip the tradition of posting a birthday message on social media precisely at 11:59 PM.
REVE_official @LnL_reve
[Eden Dream]
Hajun-ah, happy birthday.
Next time, I’ll try to make sure you only sit back and receive the birthday meal.
#happybirthday #mybf
_(BirthdayMeal_GroupPhoto.jpg)_
Shares: 4,831 | Quotes: 1,122 | Likes: 8,104
|
REVE_official @LnL_reve
+) Birthday boy’s birthday meal review
Seaweed soup – Bland
Pork stir-fry – Burnt
Tornado omelet – Too pretty to eat
So he says.
○ ● ○ ● ○
The OA live broadcast celebrating Gyeon Hajun’s birthday skyrocketed in views, thanks to its “real-life Ratatouille” (without the rat) appeal.
I was baffled since my only intention was to capture a wholesome moment of celebrating a fellow member’s birthday, but if it leads to good results, who am I to complain?
[☺ Fans reached 70,000!]
[Reward: +20 initial intention, Item Selection Voucher]
The status window that usually only raised my blood pressure was, for the first time in a while, showing something pleasant.
[A project to regain the initial intention for an idol who has lost his initial intention!]
[Essential condition—You’ve disappointed 30,000 fans, now make 30 million fans happy!
(73,011/30,000,000)]
Seventy thousand fans—an impressive number compared to when we had only ten thousand—but still a long way to go.
At this rate, we’d have to reach first-tier status, even recognized internationally, within three years to even have a chance at 30 million.
Whenever I saw that number, it felt like being weighed down by debt, the kind that never seemed to decrease.
[Initial Intention: 100]
Receiving 20 points pushed my initial intention points to 100 for the first time since this system was there.
From the very first moment I had returned, I had cursed so much that when I first checked my status window, my initial intention was at something like 94.
“Now that I’ve successfully regained my 100 points of initial intention, could you maybe remove the infinite time-loop penalty?”
I tried probing the system, but there was no response.
“Or maybe reduce the goal to one million fans…?”
[Initial Intention -1]
(Ayaka : Ahem…That’s so funny- Cough)
This cursed system was now deducting points without any justification?
Though I didn’t feel the last remnant of my conscience, known as “initial intention Pain” (the pain felt when losing points), it still annoyed me to see the score drop back to 99.
Since I couldn’t raise the initial intention before the weekly quest calculation on Monday at midnight, there was no way to get it back to 100.
[Surprise QUEST★]
[▶Re-establish your concept
-Content: You confused your fans by discarding the concept you had already established. Here’s your chance to make things right. Re-establish your concept based on ‘what your fans think of you.’
-Reward: initial intention +10, Random Ticket
-Deadline: Within a month
※ Failure to re-establish your concept based on fans’ expectations will result in a penalty!]
Wait, I didn’t ask for a surprise quest. Can I return this?
The only thing that could’ve messed with my concept was that time I didn’t cry during our first music show win, when everyone was expecting me to be a tough guy with a soft heart.
Sure, I could fake some tears during the Rookie of the Year speech if we won, but that’s not a guarantee.
Crying at KICKS winning Rookie of the Year wouldn’t just hurt my pride; it would damage our reputation.
And shedding tears of joy over a music show win isn’t something I can just make happen within a month.
“Should I just adopt a horror movie reaction concept? Pretend to be scared while watching a horror movie?”
But even if I tried to fake fear, the delayed reaction to jump-scare moments would make it obvious and turn me into a laughingstock.
“Wow, the January comeback lineup is insane.”
“If we had really come back in January, we would’ve flopped, no chance at a number one.”
“Now I get why they say our fortune is bad this month. Maybe I should start believing in astrology.”
As I struggled with how to complete this quest, the youngest members’ chatter reached my ears, whether I wanted to hear it or not.
That’s nonsense.
I couldn’t help but feel that I had gotten even the youngest members interested in such nonsense. Still, I had no regrets about stopping the January comeback.
With the new year over, the Silver Disk Awards and the Naon Chart Music Awards were suddenly just around the corner.
Both had their controversies, but they were still more reputable than WAMA.
Voting had already ended, and I didn’t bother checking the results because I didn’t want to get angry.
Before my reset, REVE had never won a grand prize.
Even though I knew that our group wasn’t exactly grand prize material.
‘Although a song I composed did win a grand prize once.’
It wasn’t exactly fun sitting in the audience, clapping without winning anything, while hearing junior groups say, “We’d like to thank senior Yoon Eden for his generous help with producing.”
Sometimes, seeing all the attention one member received, along with songs that got stuck in a strange limbo between “good enough” and “terrible,” made me think, “Could that have been us?” and that thought never failed to annoy me.
“The 20XX Rookie of the Year award goes to… Congratulations, REVE!”
Maybe it was because we lost the Rookie of the Year award at WAMA to KICKS, but instead of feeling happiness, I just felt relieved that we could finally rub it in their faces.
I deliberately flashed a smirk in KICKS’ direction as I received the bouquet and trophy.
Then, I handed the mic over to Ryu Jaehee, who had been whining for days that he wanted to give the acceptance speech if we won.
Seo Yehyun, shedding tears just like when we won our first music show, and Kim Dobin, sniffling beside him.
Gyeon Hajun, his eyes flushed red, turned to look at me one by one, while I, still dry-eyed, subtly wiped his face.
“We’ll continue to work hard and be active as REVE. Thank you!”
As Jaehee’s speech finally ended, I waved the trophy and bowed my head.
‘How exactly do people fake tears?’
I should’ve asked future actor Gyeon Hajun.
***
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