Chapter 7: 1.6

"Adrian, you know him?" Maddy asks, her voice trembling and eyes red as she holds back her own humiliated anger and tears back. After all, she was fresh out of high school. How could she suddenly bear listening to this barrage of disparaging remarks aimed at her almost out of nowhere? Yes she was impulsive and made a bet with him after some provocation but the things he said afterwards were really too much!

This pitiful image really hit the final nail on the coffin.

Drake! Lanzoni! Is! A! Dead! Man!

Jia Hyson immediately retracts his hand from Drake's shoulder and takes a step back, shaking the hand that touched Drake like he'd just touched something so extremely dirty he was unwilling to even wipe it off his clothes. "I thought I did," he sneers, "but I guess I was mistaken."

"Adrian, wait, I-"

"Come on Mads," Jia Hyson dodges Drake's weak attempt to grab him, going around him like he had the plague as he holds his sister's hand. "We should probably head upstairs now."

"En," Maddy gave him a watery but happy smile, finally comforted. Pointedly they both ignore the male lead as they walk past him hand-in-hand.

"Adrian! Adrian I didn't mean it! I-"

"Ah, did you hear that Adrian?" Maddy asks scornfully, already feeling much better now that her brother is by her side. "Sounded like something loud and full of himself."

"Try to block it out Mads," Jia Hyson smiles gently before throwing Drake a brief mocking look as he adds derisively, "Us homely people shouldn't try listen to those two-faced ghosts lest we get taken in by their lies."

They didn't bother to waste time around this scum male any longer and quickly went upstairs to the indoor balcony. This allows contestants that aren't competing at the moment to watch those that are. Generally they will cheer for the people they like and comment about what's happening down there and what they would have done themselves.

As they climbed up the stairs they both missed the confused, ashamed and heartbroken expression on a certain male lead's face.

Once ten minutes had passed, anyone still lingering was sent upstairs and filming resumed with the pale-faced individuals in black aprons standing in front of the podium awaiting their elimination challenge. Jia Hyson spent most of the time chatting with Maddy and surprisingly the womanizer Daniel Green who was very friendly and insightful.

The elimination challenge wasn't too hard since it was only the first day, but that didn't mean it wasn't cruel. Six plates of six different dishes featuring eggs in ninety minutes. And they only had fifteen minutes of the pantry before it was closed off. Half of them were going home.

"Thank god I don't have to do that," Jia Hyson sighs, "I wouldn't be able to remember the things I would need for two recipes much less six."

Maddy laughs, "I remember once you tried to make a cake and forgot which step you were on, then you just dumped everything in and skipped right to the third last step."

"Oh-ho?" Daniel chortles, "Is that true Adrian?"

Jia Hyson flushes. That was the time he told Bebe not to help him because he was very confident in his cooking skills helping him out when his memory couldn't. It turned out this doesn't apply to the precise chemistry that was baking. "That, that was ages ago."

Maddy nudges him on the ribs with a sly wink toward an amused Daniel, "Sure, if you call last Monday 'ages ago'!"

"You brat!" Adrian chuckles, ruffling her hair affectionately as she squeals.

The cameras eat this up, and they aren't the only ones. Dark eyes also greedily take in the sight, filled in with envy and longing. Drake Lanzoni was barely even listening to his partner's gushing, too busy shooting glances at Adrian. It had been exactly a month and six days since he had last seen him. Every time they meet it was like cleansing his heart in a warm spring.

Except now the spring had turned frigid. Remembering the way Adrian's beautiful face of shock morphed into something disdainful and cold. It was unbearable.

Drake knew it wasn't right to be so mean to the girl. But he couldn't suppress the ugliness in his heart at her easy confidence and obvious reciprocated affection with Adrian. He wanted to destroy that confidence, that affection, that sweet face that Adrian apparently likes in a woman.. He hadn't thought that Adrian was already so close to this little upstart. If Drake knew that Adrian would have reacted so seriously to a few insults he would've... well, he probably would've done the same thing but he would have been more discreet at the very least!

And now Adrian hates him. The thought felt poisonous and corrosive to his mind. Drake came to this competition to pursue his dream of being a chef that can be acknowledged by his family. But it wasn't like Home-Cooked Miracle was his only option for this, it was merely the easiest one. However once he heard that Adrian was signing up, it immediately became the only one he would even think of pursuing.

And yet, now that it's happening.. This wasn't supposed to be how it went.

He imagined seeing the surprise on Adrian's face, the shock as he reveals his identity from pauper to prince. He imagined Adrian may take a little while to accept the change, but ultimately years of friendship would make him realize Drake is still the same person, money or no money. He imagined working together in the kitchens, fighting side by side through the challenges of the show, sleeping under the same roof, maybe even accidentally waking into one another in the bath, tensions will rise and maybe, maybe...

"Ahahaha!" A peal of tinkling laughter rang out, to anyone else it would sound almost fairy like but to Drake it was just grating, "Adrian, you idiot get off!"

Drake's jaw clenched. This was all that girl's fault. If only she wasn't here.

Quickly he forces himself to calm down and continue smiling placidly at the person in front of him. No, he can't afford to antagonize that girl. It would only serve to drive Adrian away. He had tried so hard to hide this ugly part of him and now it came out in a rather terrible way. Right now Drake needed to focus on patching things up and gaining back that lost trust and friendship he had so stupidly lost because of his impulsive temper.

Yes.

He knows what to do.

With renewed resolve as expected of a main lead character in love, Drake Lanzoni smiles.

...

Since no one important to the story dropped out early, Jia Hyson didn't care. In the end the judges said a very rousing speech that had dutifully incited the competitive cooking spirit in them all and bid them a good night, ushering the contestants back into their assigned cars which will drive them to the Miracle Chef House.

Since it was the first week, there was only three actual challenges meant to cut down the numbers. This is because the tapes of the audition videos and the preliminary rounds were enough to pad for two whole episodes. Jia Hyson remembers his preliminary round, he got to make his specialty- a cheeseburger- in forty-five minutes and serve it to two food critics and one very lucky food blogger who had determined he had passed. It was funny how one of the most stressful moments of his life was going to be shown in what was probably the most boring part of the show.

Generally there are about four challenges a week. On Monday there is always a 2-stage Mystery Box challenge which will result in either the elimination challenge and the Miracle Chef pin immunity challenge the next day. Thursday is some sort of team or service challenge which will lead to a two stage-elimination on Sunday. Friday is usually a carefree training day where the judges and guest chefs would teach everyone a dish or a skill and Wednesdays and Saturdays were days off. This schedule can change but more or less it's maintained throughout the show.

Anyway, the point is, they only had two more challenges but by the end of it everyone theoretically won't have to fight over which loser has to sleep on the couches.

F*cking drama.

"Okay," One of the older contestants says as everyone stares at the giant U-shaped communal couch with their luggage in hand while two asshole cameramen circle around them waiting for blood to be shed. "The first people who can find bunk mates can get first dibs of the rooms. The rest can figure out who's couches and who's floor."

"I, maybe we should make the people who got in eliminations sleep out here?" One of the white lotus timidly suggests, it was either Milly Trainor or Susan Bee, Jia Hyson can't recall they were practically copy and pasted versions of each other in his opinion.

The other lookalike white lotus gave the first one a sad look. "That's not fair, we had to fight hard in that elimination. If anything we should be the ones who get to sleep on a bed. Not to mention, some of us didn't deserve to be there in the first place!" Oh right, Susan Bee was the one who almost got eliminated. That makes the other one Milly. Sh*t, he couldn't wait till the herd thinned down, there were too many names to remember. Thank god he had Bebe to remind him.

Unfortunately Bebe was a stupid level 0 Beta system who apparently can't recognize important characters by sight alone. For now Bebe is just a floating story book that is capable of being sarcastic and ripping people off.

Jia Hyson: 'Weren't you a different type of system before? Were you always this useless? How can you not recognize Drake? He's a male lead! A male lead!'

Bebe: 'Host haven't you ever played an RPG? When you change jobs those job-specific skills disappear. What can Bebe do about that?'┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

Jia Hyson: 'Yes but the skill points don't! Don't they reset so you can pick the new skills?!'

Bebe: '..They do.'

Jia Hyson: 'Then where did they go?!'

Bebe: '... Bebe may have forgotten to build up foundation in Bebe's basic passive skills in favor of other things... like... getting an in-built laser beam...' (￢з￢)

Jia Hyson: Oh my god! I can't count on this f*cking cheap system!!! Die and go to hell!!! 凸ಠ益ಠ)凸

"Hey Adrian," Daniel nudges him as the argument between the similar looking white lotuses grow more heated. "Want to be roomies?"

Jia Hyson gives him a considering look before breaking out into a gentle and welcoming smile, "I suppose you're not too bad." They're already on friendly terms already plus he needs to keep a careful eye on Daniel and his flirtatious ways. Maddy had looked down on Daniel for his manner of standing on multiple boats. Boats meaning females. Anne Brooks was one of the first who had gotten strung along since they were car buddies, but since she dragged him down he quickly threw her aside for greener pastures like Susan Bee. Anne is set as naive and romantic and had genuinely fell for Daniel's sweet words, making her cling to him unable to take any hints of his displeasure until he couldn't take it anymore and yelled at her in the middle of a service challenge breaking her heart and pride. Maddy being the righteous female protagonist couldn't stand this and slapped him, fully triggering Daniel's interest early on.

It was the typical 'I'll make this prideful woman fall for me and break her heart but in the end I was the one who fell for her' type scenario. Thankfully his contribution to the bullying and sexual harassment wasn't much or Jia Hyson wouldn't have associated with him at all. Mainly his personality was petty and calculative, choosing to watch the bullying in the shadows before swooping in to help near the end or whispering doubts and suspicions in Maddy's mind toward the male lead and other interested parties. The worst thing he'd done was shortly before he realized his true feelings he'd panicked about Maddy completely ignoring him forever in favor of Drake and spiked her food with aphrodisiac to get her into his bed.

And honestly, that really wasn't that bad since literally everyone has accidentally or intentionally drugged up Maddy at one point. Really Jia Hyson could not be angrier. This piece of smut pretending to be a pure story couldn't even be bothered to be good smut. Why does someone have to be drugged to be horny? Never mind the clearly rampant bribery happening behind the scenes that allows so much drugs and illegal alcohol and exotic sex ingredients to be smuggled into the show.

So now that Adrian and Daniel has paired up, the surrounding people who were listening in also followed, unwilling to be the ones caught up in the catfight and then finding out there were no more rooms left. However being roommates with someone also wasn't that simple, if you are friendly with your roommates they could serve as invaluable teammates since you'll get a clearer understanding of their temperament and cooking preferences. Conversely if you are incompatible and become enemies with one another it would become an incredibly uncomfortable stay. The first challenge also created some bonds and impressions between various contestants which will add further complexity.

"What about that man?" Jia Hyson points to a relatively inconspicuous man in his mid-thirties. He looked like he did manual labor for a living and had a scruffy but trustworthy face. Daniel frowns.

"He has a beard."

Jia Hyson is starting to regret this partnership. "So? Why are you being this picky?"

"If I have to sleep with a bunch of men they have to be good-looking." Daniel sniffs.

Well. Jia Hyson doesn't disagree with that thinking.

"We'll be sleeping on the floor at this rate, the first two rooms for guys are already taken!" He hisses. "You pick then!"

"That one." Daniel points at one of the chauvinist pigs James Cartwell. He was slim and rather feminine looking but James had an insane complex about this and overcompensated by being voluntarily consumed by straight male cancer. Jia Hyson immediately rejects him.

"No, no, what about-"

"Are you guys looking for roommates as well?" The pair turn to see a handsome bespectacled young man that Jia Hyson recognizes as the supporting male lead Lex Grey! The potential love interest Jia Hyson's sister-complex approves of the most. Good personality. Humble family business of owning a grocery store. Intelligent. An unwavering passion for cooking that even when he leaves the competition he still opens a small popular cafe next to his family's store using their local ingredients. And best of all- he never tries to f*ck his sister! Purely an old-fashioned romantic! Perfect marriage material! A 10/10!

They must be roomies!

"Yes! Yes we are!" Jia Hyson smiles with relief, blocking Daniel's mouth just in case he doesn't like glasses or some other nonsense. For a straight man he has far too many opinions about other guy's appearances. "Great, now we just need one more and-"

"Actually," Lex Grey coughs politely, "I do have someone."

"Even better," Jia Hyson assures him happily, mind already reformatting the story. If the initial bad impression keeps up, Drake Lanzoni can play a similar role to Daniel's. Adrian and Lex can support each other in protecting Maddy when she needs it. Slowly Lex and her will cultivate feelings. When Lex inevitably leaves he will wish her something along the lines of 'win for my sake as well' which will motivate Maddy further. The minor romance condition would be filled and then it's just the guaranteed path of growth and victory as Maddy becomes stronger, more confident and independent!

Best of all, when Jia Hyson leaves the show he could finally let loose a little and find a hot man to play with to wash away the remains of his stupid love sickness. Someone older and mature and steady unlike-

"Adrian." Drake Lanzoni's young handsome face smiles shyly.

Jia Hyson's expression freezes.

Then it turns completely cold.

"You," he hisses but Drake doesn't back down, instead he stares back at him with a steady determination that makes his traitorous heart flutter a little.

"Me."

"Uhm, you both know each other then?" Lex steps in as the tension between the pair grows as time moves on.

"Yes." Drake says.

"No." Adrian says at that same time.

"Well I personally don't care," Daniel huffs as he looks at the hallway of bedrooms that were being slowly filled up. "But unless you want to sleep on the floor for five days we need to go now."

"Adrian?" Drake raises his perfect brow, his lips curved upwards in assured arrogance reminding Jia Hyson of all the times they played games together and how Jac-Drake was always so good at them. It also reminded Jia Hyson how f*cking attractive his smug look was. That f*cker. How dare he use his good looks to dazzle him!

Jia Hyson bites his lower lip, unaware of how it draws a certain young man's attention toward it. He's torn but in his heart he knows what his choice must be. "I call dibs on the bottom bunk," he sighs as he starts to walk to the nearest unoccupied room which was near the end of the hallway. The rest of the men follow.

"Usually people want the top bunk," Daniel comments mildly.

"Adrian isn't very good with heights." Drake immediately replies with the encouragement of absolutely no one. The 'domineering beast' male lead was grinning wildly as he follows behind Jia Hyson like a eager puppy. It was such a Jacob act that Jia Hyson couldn't help but glance back at him a few times before quickly looking away once Drake catches him. Every time it happens Drake smiles even wider and moves a little closer to him.

"Definitely knows each other," Lex mutters under his breath as he watches them. He exchanges faintly amused and knowing looks with his other roommate. It seems... they're going to get to watch something good ah?

When they step into the room the drama immediately ramps up by 200%. Why?

Because there's only three beds.

One bunk bed and one queen sized bed.

Jia Hyson: '...F*CK ME.'

It turns out this was the room the main characters would have sex in once half the contestants leave. Why was there a queen bed when every other bed in the entire house were bunk beds? Ask the producers!

"I already dibbed the bottom bunk!" Jia Hyson suddenly bursts out in the midst of everyone's dumbfounded silence. He takes the opportunity to throw his duffle bag onto said bed to mark his territory. Even if you ignore the future sister having orgasms on that mattress thing- which is very hard to do- as a very sexual bi man who hasn't had any carnal relations for about five years, it wasn't a good idea to put him in a nice bed with another handsome bloke.

Especially if one of them was particularly handsome and currently emotionally infuriating to be around. Jia Hyson hasn't been acquainted with this particular scenario before but he did once drunkenly sleep with one of his more irritating yet better looking editors and that had been a train wreck. Really. Literal trains had been involved. And a lot of crying. Because Jia Hyson really didn't like heights. It's a long story.

"I'll take top then," Drake wastes no time to volunteers as Jia Hyson was hastily sitting on his self-assigned bed and pretending to take out stuff from his bag.

"Hey, no, wait, shouldn't we talk about this?"

Drake's eyes felt like icicles stabbing into Daniel and Lex's soul. "Do you want to top with Adrian then?"

Eh? Why did it feel like they heard it a bit wrong?

Daniel and Lex silently shook their heads and the suffocating aura around them seemed to retreat much to their relief. Drake beams, bright and sunny, like the harsh winter they had just experienced was merely an illusion. "Good, good," Drake says amiably as if they were the best of friends, somehow making the two supporting male leads sweat even more, "So me being on top?"

Forget Daniel and Lex, even Jia Hyson pretending he couldn't hear them was choking back the blood in his mouth.

Oi, oi male lead, you mean top bunk right? We're still talking about beds right? Is this the because you're written as a secret beast that everything comes out so ambiguous?

Drake, seemingly unhappy with the lack of response frowns, making the other male leads jump into action.

"You can top, you can top!" Lex insists frantically.

"Yes, yes," Daniel agrees just as quickly, "Feel free to top Adrian, we won't stop you, really!"

Jia Hyson: ...Aren't these supporting males too spineless?

Jia Hyson watches expressionlessly as Drake struts over with his Louis Vitton brand baggage like a proud cat bringing home his hunt. It really makes his heart itch at the sight. Standing directly in front of him, Drake pauses and gives him a warm helpless smile, "What a coincidence, it seems we will be sleeping closely together," Without even an invitation Drake sits next to Jia Hyson and murmurs into his ear, "It really must be fate ah,"

Jia Hyson: ...Isn't this male lead too shameless?

Fate my perky ass!

Don't act like I couldn't have heard any of what you guys just said! And so loudly too! You think just because you huddle in a corner a silencing barrier just appears? This is a small room you f*cks! What is this, a sh*tty teenage drama?

Oh. Right.

As Jia Hyson continues his one sided cold war with the male lead, the two supporting leads who were the most damaged in this situation can't help but stare at each other with equal helplessness.

"So, I guess we're sleeping together for a while?" Lex weakly comments.

Daniel chuckles but there's an obvious note of bewilderment that oddly enough makes Alex feel a little more relaxed. "I don't even know your name."

With an amused twitch of his lips, Lex puts his hand out, "Lex Grey."

Daniel takes the offered hand and shakes it, slightly surprised at the feel of callouses on the scholarly looking man. It's not a bad feeling per say. "Daniel Green."

Maddy who had been one of the first girls to gather a group and a room had been looking to check on her brother only to stumble across the scene. Two men shaking hands with soft smiles in front of a single bed and her brother sitting next to the horrible man from before that was now whispering things in his ear.

Maddy: '...You guys, is this a cooking show or a dating show? This little girl can no longer tell.' _(:3」∠)_