# Chapter 125
“We need a concept. Something that gets people addicted so they can’t help but keep watching.”
“Isn’t cooking the concept?”
“There he goes again with his one-dimensional thinking. The primary concept is your face, and we need something that makes people keep watching despite themselves—something absurd or outrageous. Like situations or comments that make viewers laugh even when they’re trying not to.”
Since the topic had come up, Mo Eunje planned to wholeheartedly assist while staying at Ban Hajun’s officetel. On the surface, he was coming up with ideas for Ban Hajun’s sake, but inwardly, he thought that by focusing on this project, he might temporarily escape from the reality of Tae Igyeol’s confession that had been weighing on him. So Mo Eunje was determined to participate actively and enthusiastically.
“Mo Eunje, since we’re doing this, help me properly.”
“I was going to do that even without you asking.”
“Then since we have curry left, let’s start with your interview first.”
“Why my interview?”
“For a taste test review. Whether we use it or not, the more source material, the better.”
It was a good idea. Since Ban Hajun had a wide network, if his acquaintances took turns doing taste test reviews, it might become an attractive feature. Plus, Ban Hajun had many SNS followers, so even if just a quarter of those followers subscribed to his MiTube channel, he’d start with thousands of followers right away.
“Ah! Then since I have refined taste, I’ll be harsh in my review. Lend me some of your nice clothes. I have an image to maintain, so I can’t be filmed looking this shabby.”
Ban Hajun went into the small room he used as a dressing room and came back with a bright lemon-colored thin long-sleeved hoodie. As soon as Mo Eunje saw the clothes, his eyes lit up.
“Wow, it’s so pretty! Totally my style.”
“It was a gift from an ex, but I never wore it because I didn’t like the color.”
“How can you say this color isn’t good? Is there something wrong with your eyes? Why haven’t you worn something this pretty even once?”
“Yeah. You can have it.”
Mo Eunje took off the stretched-out gray t-shirt he was wearing and slipped his arms into the lemon-colored hoodie. He went to the large room used as an acting practice room and stood in front of the mirror that covered one wall. It was pretty. Not just pretty, but his face looked so bright that it was incredibly pretty.
“Can I really keep this?”
“I have a few more similar ones. I’ll give them all to you.”
“Awesome! Hajun, I’ll burn myself out helping with your MiTube!”
And thus began the official face-wasting and talent-wasting of two high-quality men.
&
While Mo Eunje was wasting his face and talent, Tae Igyeol was on a video call with his grandmother. Though Mo Eunje hadn’t told her about Tae Igyeol’s injured arm because they were worried she’d be concerned, apparently Tae Hyunseok had mentioned it during a call two days earlier.
“Since neither you nor Eunje told me, I was trying to pretend I didn’t know, but I was too worried.”
Thinking about his grandmother worrying for two whole days made his heart heavy. She must have been incredibly concerned to call him on video as soon as she woke up at 5 AM New Orleans time, after holding back for so long. Her wrinkled face was full of worry. So Tae Igyeol forced a smile.
“I’m fine, Grandmother. It doesn’t hurt at all.”
“Are you sure it really doesn’t hurt?”
“Of course. Thanks to you, I was born with a strong body.”
“But you must be having a hard time, right? My pretty boy looks so unwell. Our cutie must be tired from taking care of you. If I were there, I could have looked after both of you…”
Occasionally, his grandmother would apologize like this for returning to America. Even though she had finally found her own happiness, albeit later in life, there was no need for her to feel sorry. His grandmother had raised them with such care until they finished school—for that alone, she deserved their filial piety for the rest of her life.
Moreover, Grandmother was the only person Tae Igyeol loved as much as Mo Eunje.
“Eunje… ran away from home.”
Perhaps because of this, Tae Igyeol mumbled as he lowered his gaze. He had avoided contacting her for a while, afraid that hearing her voice would make him show weakness and worry her, but inevitably, he couldn’t hold back and added yet another concern. He thought it would have been better if he had talked to his grandmother from the beginning instead of having conversations with Ban Hajun or Shin Dael.
He had heard from Ban Hajun that Mo Eunje had gone to look at houses through another real estate agency today. He hadn’t expected Mo Eunje, who usually avoided troublesome tasks, to go that far. Ban Hajun had apparently scrutinized places meticulously as if looking for his own home to unsettle Mo Eunje, but such shallow tactics wouldn’t work forever.
Tae Igyeol was weighing Mo Eunje and Shin Dael as potential tenants for room 401. For Shin Dael, he could ask Song Yeonhwa to introduce her to a place with better security at the same price, so there wouldn’t be any issues unless Shin Dael insisted on moving into Ritz Ville at all costs.
“Ran away? I don’t think you two would have fought…”
“…”
“Our Igyeol must have gathered great courage.”
From the old days, his grandmother had always known everything without being told. That’s why she was someone he wanted to rely on. While he wanted to protect Mo Eunje, he wanted to lean on his grandmother. In high school, he had even thought about living with Mo Eunje, his grandmother, and grandfather when they became adults. Though those plans fell through when his grandparents moved to America.
“So Eunje ran away?”
“Yes. He told me not to contact him until I’ve sorted out my feelings.”
“Can human emotions be controlled so easily? If you contact him saying you’ve sorted out feelings you’ve harbored for years in just a few days, that would be a lie.”
His grandmother understood things so clearly—why couldn’t Mo Eunje understand this?
“If it were feelings that could be sorted out, I wouldn’t have confessed in the first place.”
“…Should I talk to Eunje?”
“No. I can bear it for now. I’ll ask for your help when I’m truly struggling to the point of death.”
In a situation where he was considering the worst-case scenario, he couldn’t use the grandmother card just yet. Just as his grandmother was an absolute figure to him, she was equally precious to Mo Eunje, so he shouldn’t involve her until the very end. If he could win Mo Eunje’s heart, he would abandon fair play and wouldn’t hesitate to use underhanded schemes, which is why he had to save his grandmother for the very end. Among the various plans he had meticulously prepared, getting his grandmother’s support was the very last resort.
“Alright. Use this grandma whenever you need. I’m always on the side of my pretty boy and cutie.”
“This time… just this once, please take my side.”
“I’ll think about it, and if that’s the way for both of you to be happy, I’ll do so.”
Because his grandmother loved Mo Eunje as much as her own grandson Tae Igyeol, she wouldn’t give biased answers, even as empty words. Thanks to this, Tae Igyeol felt much more at ease.
If his grandmother took his side by any chance, it would mean that us loving each other is the path to both our happiness.
4-3
Mo Eunje visited a couple more real estate agencies and looked at houses on Thursday and Friday afternoon, learning that properties with the same budget mostly overlapped. Ban Hajun was being even more meticulous than him, finding so many faults, and when he personally confirmed that the condition of the houses Song Yeonhwa had shown him was top-notch, his motivation to pound the pavement disappeared.
Over the weekend, he stayed cooped up in the officetel, editing videos they had filmed with Ban Hajun. Since neither of them had experience with editing, they downloaded a free editing app and learned how to edit by watching MiTube. These days, free tutorials were readily available, making it easy even for beginners to learn quickly. After racking their brains and editing together, the results were quite watchable, which made them proud. They had completed five videos ready for upload and only needed to create a channel, but before that, the biggest challenge remained.
“What should we name the channel?”
“Hmm…”
Ban Hajun tilted his head. They had been so engrossed in editing that they only belatedly realized they needed to come up with a channel name.
“Just throw out anything. When I’m deciding on short story titles, Tae Igyeol and I just throw out ideas mindlessly, and quite a few good ones have come from that.”
There’s Tae Igyeol again. He had reached the point where he couldn’t discuss his life without mentioning Tae Igyeol, and he was about to get upset wondering why that guy had made such a reckless move. He quickly pulled himself together and composed his feelings. Unaware of Mo Eunje’s inner thoughts, Ban Hajun racked his brain and threw out ideas one by one.
“Ban Hajun’s Cooking Class?”
“You’re not even making special dishes, yet you’re calling it a class? It sounds too professional, like content from actual chefs.”
“Then… Ban Hajun’s Cooking School?”
“How is that different from Cooking Class? It reminds me of that cooking researcher who appears on TV saying ‘How very delicious!'”
It was as if his ears were playing a trick on him, hearing “How very delicious!” Like everyone has their own personality, that was that cooking researcher’s characteristic, and Ban Hajun doing that line while cooking wouldn’t suit him at all—it would be neither fun nor moving.
“Time Cooking with Ban Hajun?”
“Let’s move away from cooking. The channel name doesn’t necessarily have to include ‘cooking’ or ‘cuisine.'”
“But then how will people know it’s a cooking channel?”
“Get a grip, Ban Hajun. The main element of your channel isn’t cooking, it’s your face.”
Throughout the editing process, they had shown only a few inserts of actual cooking and focused the screen composition on his face, but Ban Hajun still hadn’t grasped the essence. More precisely, he couldn’t break free from his obsession with cooking.
“Ban Hajun’s Cook Cook Cook?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Hajun Who Cooks?”
“I said, remove the cooking. You’re too fixated on cooking right now.”
Mo Eunje couldn’t help but sigh at how Ban Hajun kept coming up with such stereotypical, stale ideas. In truth, if Tae Igyeol with his clever, brilliant mind and good sense had been here, this would have been easily solved. Even if Ban Hajun came up with 100 ideas, one casually thrown out by Tae Igyeol would be much better.
“Ban Hajun and Cook Cook?”
“Haah, please…”
“Shit, don’t just coldly evaluate everything—show some naming sense. You’re a novelist, aren’t you?”
“I struggle enough coming up with titles for my own novels, why should I name your channel too? Isn’t there some expression that’s not outdated, unique, a play on words, and metaphorically expresses cooking?”
At this abstract description, Ban Hajun’s face contorted. The face that had looked delicately handsome in the videos instantly became ugly.
