“I feel like I keep crashing at your place.”
I said as I stepped out of the bathroom, drying my hair with a towel. Once again, because my clothes had ended up a mess, I had to rely on Baek Tae-beom, and I wasn’t thrilled about it. Even setting aside the fact that this guy was a future villain, it just didn’t sit well with me to keep receiving help from someone younger.
Whether he knew how I felt or not, Baek Tae-beom didn’t seem the least bit bothered. No—if anything, he looked kind of pleased.
“Are these also clothes from your high school days?”
“Yeah.”
“Still, this one fits pretty well. What did you do back in high school?”
“Huh?”
I asked as I perched on the edge of a chair. Baek Tae-beom blinked wide-eyed in surprise. He looked so unexpectedly cute that I thought he must’ve been pretty popular back then.
“You didn’t do any clubs or sports or anything?”
“How did you know?”
“It’s obvious. With that build, there’s no way you didn’t.”
Especially with a personality like his—too soft to say no. He probably got dragged into it by a friend or something. I stopped myself from saying that part aloud.
“I used to play basketball.”
“Were you good?”
“Do I look like I was?”
Baek Tae-beom asked playfully. I stood up and glanced around the living room, which looked exactly the same as before, thinking it over.
“You probably were. You’re tall.”
“I don’t think I was bad.”
Pressing the towel to my hair to soak up the moisture, I said, “Yeah?” without thinking. Then, out of sheer thirst, I opened the fridge.
Normally, I wasn’t the type to poke around in someone else’s place, especially not opening their furniture without permission. But somehow, I’d gotten comfortable enough with Baek Tae-beom that it just happened. I was about to apologize, flustered—
Apologize…
But what caught my eye was a nearly empty fridge containing little more than a few bottles of water. I spoke without meaning to.
“…Do you survive on just water?”
“Huh? Ah, well.”
Baek Tae-beom jumped up from his seat and hurried over to me. He closed the fridge and tried awkwardly to block my view with his large frame, but I’d already seen everything.
“Are you a fairy or something? Living off dew and moonlight?”
“No, I mean—Hyung, listen to me. I was actually planning to go grocery shopping today because I ran out of stuff. I swear! Don’t look at me like that…”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re interrogating me…”
He mumbled, looking crestfallen, and I eased the frown on my face.
“You know you’ve gotta eat properly. You’re already the type to keel over without warning.”
I poked at Baek Tae-beom’s stomach. I could feel the firm muscles under his shirt. He flinched, ticklish, but didn’t budge from in front of the fridge.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? …Wait a sec.”
Then, a brilliant idea struck me, and I raised the finger that had been poking him.
“Let’s go grocery shopping. Right now.”
“What?”
“I’ll cook for you.”
What a fantastic idea. I could ease my guilty conscience about relying on him, and feed this sickly-looking kid a proper meal. Maybe it was because I’d been so abrupt, but Baek Tae-beom looked taken aback. Meanwhile, my mind was already racing with cooking plans.
It had been a while since I bothered with proper meals. I’d gotten into the habit of skipping them entirely. Still, my years of living alone weren’t for nothing.
“Anything you can’t eat?”
“Can’t eat? Spicy stuff, maybe… Wait—are you seriously going to cook?”
“Let’s just get ready to head out.”
I said while drying my damp hair with the towel.
Can’t handle spicy food, huh? I narrowed down a few ingredient options, and a menu quickly took shape in my head.
“Do you like eggs?”
“Eggs?”
“Let’s make omurice.”
Baek Tae-beom blinked in confusion, then nodded slowly.
And just like that, Baek Tae-beom and I went out to the nearby market to shop for groceries. The place looked as normal as ever. Despite all the terrifying monsters appearing, people dying in droves, and inexplicable events unfolding—this peaceful-looking mart felt oddly surreal.
Pushing the cart, I felt oddly excited at the thought of buying groceries again. I looked up at Baek Tae-beom and said:
“Is there anything else you want to eat?”
“Are you good at cooking, Hyung?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m bad at it.”
I answered confidently with a broad grin, then took the lead, pushing the cart. I could feel the glances from passersby sneaking peeks at Baek Tae-beom, who stood out in every possible way—but his gaze stayed fixed solely on me.
“Watch where you’re walking.”
“I am. Let’s grab the eggs first.”
At first looking dazed, Baek Tae-beom soon seemed to perk up, now almost bouncing with excitement. In fact, he looked like he was actually looking forward to it. Come to think of it, this must’ve been his first time grocery shopping with someone else. The same went for me.
…Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to do this often.
For both of us. If we did this, maybe we’d each feel just a little less lonely. I glanced over at Baek Tae-beom, who was now loading the cart with a mountain of snacks, and gave him a look of disbelief.
“You gonna eat all that?”
“You don’t like snacks, Hyung?”
“…I don’t eat them.”
At that, Baek Tae-beom began quietly unloading the snacks from the cart. By the time we were done shopping and I looked over the cart, it was packed full. Turns out he didn’t even have basic stuff like cooking oil—we had to buy everything from scratch.
“You don’t eat snacks either? Why’d you grab them then?”
“I’m not really into junk food.”
“So why were you gonna buy them?”
“Because if you liked them, I was going to.”
“Why?”
Baek Tae-beom looked at me like I was the weird one for asking.
“You’re going to come over a lot, right?”
[CH. Private / One More Dazzling Than the Sun: You hearing this? This guy’s a smooth operator. Did he just casually rope you into being a regular at his place?]
I ignored Apollo’s usual nonsense.
“Not necessarily…”
I was going to answer vaguely, but the look on Baek Tae-beom’s face made me trail off. Puppy-dog eyes, filled with longing. He was starting to weaponize that face of his. He already knew I was weak to it.
“…I guess I will.”
“Right?”
With the shopping done, we lugged all the bags back home. We had ended up picking up a bunch of unnecessary things too, but considering it was Baek Tae-beom’s house, I figured it was better to have something than nothing and kept a positive mindset. After the two of us filled the fridge, I flashed him a confident grin and motioned for him to sit.
“Now just sit there and watch.”
“Is that okay? You’re the guest, Hyung…”
“Hey. I said I’d cook, didn’t I?”
I gave his head a rough ruffle and walked over to the kitchen.
First things first… let’s beat the eggs.
I could feel my lips starting to curl into a smile. If I couldn’t do much for him as a Constellation, then at the very least I could be here as a reliable hyung. It was a conclusion I came up with myself, but damn, it felt like a good one. I nodded in approval.
I microwaved the instant rice, diced the carrots and onions, and poured oil into the pan. Every ten seconds, I heard Baek Tae-beom call out from behind: “Hyung, are you okay?”, “Should I help you?”, to which I gave half-hearted replies while continuing with the cooking.
Where’s the salt…?
But… did I need to add salt? I casually decided to skip a few steps. Honestly, hadn’t it always tasted fine even without that kind of seasoning? Then I spotted the starch syrup we bought earlier.
Wouldn’t that make it even tastier?
Humming as I stirred the vegetables, I drizzled in the syrup. They say adding butter brings out the flavor—maybe syrup works the same way. I added ketchup, tossed in the rice, stir-fried everything, and plated it. Then I poured the beaten eggs into the pan.
And just like that, I made the perfect omurice.
Should I draw something on it too?
Picking up the ketchup, I carefully drew on top of Baek Tae-beom’s omurice. I smiled, satisfied with my work.
[CH. Private / One More Dazzling Than the Sun: Is that… an octopus?]
[CH. Private / One Who Knows of Destruction: Huh? Anyone can tell it’s a tiger.]
[CH. Private / One More Dazzling Than the Sun: That’s supposed to be a tiger?]
Ignoring Apollo’s incredulous wailing, I called Baek Tae-beom over. He sat down, clearly excited, and looked at his plate.
“Hyung, you’re really good at drawing.”
“Right?”
“Yeah, it looks just like an octopus.”
“……”
Who cares what the drawing looks like. As long as it tastes good. I told him to hurry up and try it. Baek Tae-beom, eyes sparkling, took a bite of the omurice.
And I saw it—the faint furrow of his brows.
“Does it taste weird?”
That’s odd. I swear I made it the same way I always do. I asked, worried. But Baek Tae-beom lifted his head with a beaming smile.
“It’s delicious.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s amazing. You’re seriously good at cooking.”
“That good, huh?”
I took a bite of my own and tilted my head—it tasted the same as usual. Maybe a little sweeter because of the syrup, but that’s it. Meanwhile, Baek Tae-beom kept scooping the omurice into his mouth with mechanical precision, like he was eating something gourmet.
[CH. Private / One More Dazzling Than the Sun: You really think that looks like the face of someone enjoying good food?]
[CH. Private / One Who Knows of Destruction: He said it’s good. Why do you always have to ruin everything I do?]
[Constellation ‘One More Dazzling Than the Sun’ clutches the back of his neck.]
“If it’s really good, I’ll cook for you again, Tae-beom.”
At that, Baek Tae-beom froze briefly, then smiled even brighter, his cheeks puffed up with food as he nodded. He looked so adorably happy that I pushed my plate over to him too.
“You were hungry, right? Eat this too.”
“H-Hyung…”
“I’m not hungry.”
Baek Tae-beom stared at the omurice for a moment, then smiled like he was the happiest guy in the world.
And I, too, smiled with quiet satisfaction.
