Chapter 11: 1.10

With an inner resolve Jia Hyson didn't know he had, Jia Hyson just barely stopped himself from eating Drake up completely.

Bebe: ...inner resolve, what inner resolve? Clearly it was just Bebe (╬ಠ益ಠ)

Both breathless and flushed, the pair stares at each other as they lay entwined together on the queen-sized single bed. Even if they hadn't gone all the way, their repressed feelings wouldn't have been satisfied through kissing alone so they were both half-naked and sweaty. Still, despite being uncomfortably sticky in all sorts of places, they both had silly smiles on their faces.

"Adrian," Drake murmurs, kissing him soft and affectionately, "I love you."

Jia Hyson sighs happily and also gives him a kiss back, "You, you really are so cute,"

Drake frowns cutely, "How am I cute?"

"Then what should I call you?" Jia Hyson teases, "Sexy? Handsome? Gorgeous?"

"How about," Drake hums thoughtfully before giving him a wolfishly cheeky grin, "Mine?"

Jia Hyson shivers at how possessive and darkly affectionate he sounds. Such a sweet talker. "Yours," he agrees, with a pleased smile, "All yours,"

The younger man hugs Jia Hyson closer, nails digging into his back as if he wishes to dig a hole in his body and live forever inside him. Jia Hyson arches his back and moans, aroused at the thought and pain. "Mhnn... Drake..."

Ah, he's getting interested again.

Bebe: 'You're such a dirty spicy chicken host! I want to break up!'

Jia Hyson: 'Break up? You thought we were dating before? I may have no standards but I still wouldn't date you, peh!'

Bebe: QAQ why is it suddenly Bebe feels heartbroken?

Rolling his eyes, Jia Hyson admits that he may have gone off topic a little. Pushing himself up from the bed and out of Drake's embrace, he gives him a serious look. "Drake, about Maddy..."

Drake's face immediately contorts, "What about her?" He demands. "Do you still like her?! You can't like her! You just said you were mine!"

Bebe: ...wow

Jia Hyson: ...Darling, wtf

He just did so many things with his mouth and this man still thinks Jia Hyson is romantically interested in Maddy?! It turns out his man is such a dumb f*cking moron!

Jia Hyson smacks Drake upside the head, "You got stupider since I last saw you right?" He asks disdainfully. "Tell me, do you recall a while back when I was talking about my brother and sister and I showed you a photo of us three during New Years a while back?"

Drake hesitates, his temper already shriveling back into nothing as he feels wary and uneasy at such a strange unrelated question right after the hurtful insult. Was this to test him on his apparent lack of intelligence? Could it be that Adrian really thinks he's stupid? Was he being stupid?

He thinks for a moment. Drake does know Adrian has younger siblings, Adrian talks about them a lot. He knows they're both younger, one is chatty and cute, while the other is mature and dependable. The chatty one is a girl if he recalls, and the mature one is a boy. Um.

In retrospect, maybe Drake should have paid more attention to those photos and what Adrian had been talking about rather than staring at Adrian's face instead while inwardly praising how maternal and kind he is. The only impression he had gotten about Adrian's siblings was that they made Adrian happy despite making Adrian work so hard all the time and they were extremely lucky to have a brother like Adrian.

In short, Drake truly hadn't paid any attention at all to anything about the siblings themselves, just how Adrian relates to them. If Jia Hyson knew this he would've beat this dumb f*ck up and tell him that he should have put at least some male lead points to intelligence instead of investing it all into his d*ck. In fact that is exactly what Jia Hyson did when he later on.

Unfortunately he did not do voice his doubts now because Drake smiles, nods and presses another sweet kiss onto the corner of Jia Hyson's mouth, "En, of course," he says sincerely.

Jia Hyson couldn't help but feel both puzzled and pleased by how honest and genuine Drake sounded. "Then why are you being so mean to Maddy?"

Drake presses his face into the crook of his boyfriend's neck, inhaling the mild scent of sweat and the spices Adrian had been handling today, and hiding the way his eyes flash with unhappiness at the mention of that woman. Was Adrian soft on her because she reminds him of his sister? Even if that was so Drake couldn't help but still feel insecure, after all, familiarity breeds dependence and affection. Not to mention it was clear as day they had chemistry, they interacted like they knew each other for years.

"I'm sorry," Drake murmurs morosely, taking the opportunity to eat some extra tofu by nuzzling into that silky, creamy skin trying to resist the urge to bite into it. He enjoys being so close to Adrian, feeling even the faintest tremble and the softest breath as Adrian begins to writhe and pant again.

"Ah-are you?" Adrian mutters suspiciously but it seems he's truly weak to pleasure as his words had begun to slur a little as if on the precipice of drunkenness. Mentally Drake notes that down for future reference. It was a valuable piece of information that needed to be investigated thoroughly in the future.

"Of course," Drake lies smoothly though it falls a bit short since he became more interested in tasting Adrian's skin once more. In a good mood he graciously promises Adrian to treat Maddy a little nicer from now on before quickly moving on to see if he could convince his boyfriend to make out with him again. Luckily for him it seems Adrian was just as impatient and eagerly agreed.

The room once again was filled to the brim with ambiguous things.

Daniel and Lex: ...it's starting to get dark QAQ

Maddy: That bastard Drake Lanzoni! He dares try and take my brother's virtue! I! Will! Not! Forgive!

Bebe: Girl, your brother practically shoved his virtue into Drake's hands...

When Jia Hyson finally opened the door, there were three distinctly unhappy people waiting for him there. He feels a little shamed for the first time in a long time. Especially when Daniel barged into their room and screamed in a manner unbefitting of a smooth playboy, "You damn beasts! Couldn't you have rolled around your own beds?! We just did the laundry! F*cking hell!"

Lex pats Daniel's shoulder soothingly but even his kind scholarly face was twisted, "Now, now, I'm sure that these two animals will be very willing to give us their bunk bed now. Only truly shameless people with no morals whatsoever would still cling to their bunk bed after rutting on someone else's bed."

Jia Hyson froze a little bit under such a gentle and cold smile. It was even worse than his own expression from before. Ah, wasn't Lex Grey the saintly scholar type of supporting character? Was it because his personality was too similar to Adrian's that he blackened a little bit?

"Don't worry," Lex assures Jia Hyson, voice as light as a summer breeze despite none of the warmth showing in his eyes, "We'll switch back the next laundry day."

Daniel and Jia Hyson look at Lex in surprise, "You want us to switch back afterwards?" Daniel demands, "Are you kidding me, why?"

Lex gives Daniel a much kinder smile than the one he directed at Jia Hyson. Jia Hyson notes that his hand still hasn't left Daniel's shoulder and suddenly he had a very strange feeling about the pair. "Do you really want to keep sleeping in a room with those two sharing the same bed? After all, clearly they've already established feelings, it would be no surprise if at night they..."

Daniel makes a disgusted expression as he glances at Jia Hyson, and Drake hovering over-protectively behind him like he was worried someone was going to punch his beloved. Little does he know, the one everyone clearly wanted to punch was him, however at the same time everyone was fairly intimidated by Drake so they choose to speak with Adrian instead. The only exception was Maddy who was silently glaring at him like he had f*cked her mother right in front of her. Which... wasn't too far from the truth really.

"Ahh, no, yes, I get!" Daniel shakes his head as if trying to get the image out of his head. "F*ck your right Lex, why should we reward these bastards with our bed?" He sneers at the pair, his aristocratic and naturally seductive features making him look like a young noble disdaining the poor, "Adrian, tell your, your, ugh, tell Drake that he only gets our bed till next Monday! Then it's ours again!"

Jia Hyson felt a little speechless at the sight, it seems that the characters have developed a bit differently to the story? Daniel seems cuter and more tsundere though maybe it's because he's being compared to the elegant maturity of Lex. Also, speaking of Lex, his hand was still on Daniel's shoulder and weren't they a little too close to each other?

Jia Hyson: 'Ah, it couldn't be that I turned this shitty smut novel into a shitty gay smut novel right?' _(:3」∠)_

Bebe: 'Host is lucky this mission is so easy that even a sneeze could improve ratings or Bebe would've castrated you.'

Jia Hyson: (◔ д◔) 'My family's Bebe has gotten meaner lately.'

Still, the comment made Jia Hyson feel far more guilty than offending his roommates. After all this was his first mission, he should at least have the resolve to do his best here. A better improvement in the story means better rewards for both the host and system. And since Bebe had wasted all it's points on stupid sh*t they really needed to earn at least enough to get the facial recognition program.

"That's fine," Jia Hyson agrees quickly, clinging onto his motivation to work hard for the story while it was still present and looks at Drake, "don't worry, we won't be doing anything like that anymore."

Drake's face could be best described as the expression one would make when watching the sky fall right after learning to fly.

Maddy nods satisfied at Adrian's attitude. There's the moral and upstanding brother she knows! He must have been temporarily bewitched by that asshole Drake and coerced by his devilish looks and sweet lies. Unbeknownst to Jia Hyson, his sister has silently vowed to make sure Drake suffer and regret ever thinking he could have her brother.

Of course, how could Drake not see her smug happiness at Adrian's declaration? Maddy had a very open and honest personality and that reflected on her emotive face. It couldn't have been more clear unless it was scribbled on her forehead. As they by chance locked eyes, the pair simultaneously gave each other a disdainful sneer.

Jia Hyson noticed the change in expression on his sister, following her line of sight his gaze moves toward Drake who had put on an exaggerated expression of innocence.

Jia Hyson: '...'

He turns to look back at Maddy only to see she has the same expression on. If anything it was even more badly exaggerated.

Jia Hyson: '...'

Helpless he shrugs to himself. At least it seems like they're not going to openly antagonize each other in his presence. He's not sure how the new story is produced exactly but if their enmity is downplayed it should be interpreted as rivalry. Probably. Hopefully.

He should get Bebe to contact the counterattack systems just in case things don't pan out.

After running away to shower, Jia Hyson pulls Maddy into a lone corner and explains the general messy misunderstanding about Jacob and Drake. As expected, Maddy's opinion of him did not improve. She didn't say anything but Jia Hyson is fairly sure Drake has been labeled 'irredeemable scum' in her eyes.

"-anyway, I like Drake a lot so if you can get along with him a bit that would be great." Jia Hyson finishes a bit lamely.

"Sure, whatever," Maddy sullenly replies like the teenager she is. Jia Hyson was absolutely positive she wasn't going to do it but this time he wasn't as worried. Maddy is written with the type of character that will hit when she is hit and forgive when forgiveness is asked. At the very most she'll badmouth Drake and poke at him a bit.

Jia Hyson gives her a relieved smile, patting her on the head indulgently, "Good, good," he cheerily praises, "now we should go to bed, it's getting a little late."

"Adrian.." Maddy hesitates, "what about you share the bed with me tonight instead? I mean, I believe you of course, but I don't trust Drake to try something on you!" She scowls as she spits out Drake's name like it was dirt in her mouth.

Jia Hyson blinks, a little unsure what to say. Because telling your younger sister who thinks the world of you that you were the one who initiated the relationship with the person she currently dislikes the most was not an option he was willing to consider. He doesn't enjoy facing the disappointment of people he likes.

Luckily he didn't need to answer. Because Drake, who of course has been eavesdropping, immediately pulled Jia Hyson forcefully into his arms. Hugging him tightly while glaring at Maddy. "Adrian's sleeping with me." He announces.

"You-!"

"Maddy, don't worry," Jia Hyson interrupts before they start fighting, "I'll be fine, give Drake a little credit okay?"

"But he's a huge dic-"

"Okay! Goodnight!" Jia Hyson swiftly drags Drake back into their room, slamming the door and throwing himself back onto their new temporary bed. He buries his tired face into one of the pillows. It really has been a long day. As the lights switch off, he wriggles his way under the blankets, ignoring the burning gaze on his back. Only when the mattress dips when Drake crawls on behind him does he turn around to face the younger man.

Drake of course was watching him back. After a minute of silent staring he asks quietly, "Were you serious about the not going any further matter?"

Jia Hyson sneers. So his mind was still on sexual matters, as expected of the male lead of this story. "I'm not going to lose any bit of my virginity on the set of a television show." He adamantly declares in a harsh whisper. Just one kiss triggered Drake's libido and unlocked some of his natural dominating sexiness, Jia Hyson could only quake in fear at what would happen if they went all the way.

He knew his limits. It had taken him a lot just to not attack him before. Now that Jia Hyson had a small taste and watched his man become more alluring as a result, he really wouldn't dare do more.

Bebe: 'Wait so Host would be willing to have sex here if the story wasn't hindered by it?'

Jia Hyson: 'Bebe, don't worry, this Host is willing to have sex on a dragon if he has to!' (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Bebe: 'That really wasn't.. on a dragon? Really?'

Bebe felt slightly impressed by the depths of his host's shamelessness.

Drake looks deeply into Jia Hyson's eyes for a moment before nodding with a silly smile that didn't suit his face but made him very cute in Jia Hyson's eyes. "You're right, our first time together should of course be special."

Jia Hyson: ...So your first time with Maddy in the story was what? To scratch an itch? Ah, I feel a little torn about this.

Unaware of Jia Hyson's conflicting feelings, Drake takes the opportunity to kiss him affectionately again and snack a bit on Adrian's tofu in the dark. Jia Hyson basks in the attention for few minutes then lightly smacking Drake's hands away before they could get even bolder. "Don't be difficult," Jia Hyson scolds with a breathless voice.

Even in the dark Jia Hyson can feel his lover sulk. Indulgently he snuggled up to him, enjoying having a warm body to cuddle with and entwine his limbs around like an enthusiastic koala. Personally he finds cuddling one of the few good things about a relationship, other than the guaranteed sex of course.

Bebe: 눈_눈 'You really were scum in your original life huh?'

Jia Hyson: 'I donated to charity and got stabbed, it all evens out in the end.'

┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

Bebe: 'You have weird ideas about how karma works.'

The next day was elimination day. However since no one interesting was on the chopping block, and the challenge was basic, the day was mostly spent on the balcony chatting with the people who were equally uninterested in the proceedings while a Drake shaped blanket possessively hung around his shoulders whispering sweet little things in his ears. Most people were surprised at this turn of events, some were disgusted and some merely sighed and mournfully said some rendition of 'all the good ones are always gay'.

The Monologuing room was very full that day.

As one of the main sources of gossip, of course Jia Hyson was pushed into this room. Literally. He felt a little speechless at that. He knows this is all very exciting but shouldn't they be focusing more on the elimination challenge? Or at least try to act more interested?

Given a few cues and questions, Jia Hyson responds with a smile and a blush that wasn't quite faked. He recounts the story about Drake hiding his identity and how he hadn't known till they met again, embellishing it to be much more romantic and less anger-inducing than it actually was. For main characters with built in golden fingers, they sure were dumb as rocks when it comes to basic understanding of emotional consequences when faced with their love interests.

Also, speaking on that matter, he's seventy-three percent sure that Drake has no clue Maddy is his sister. Jia Hyson isn't sure how the author god did it, but somehow, despite previous glaring evidence and obvious hints, Drake can't see it. Worse still, in order to ensure both Maddy and Adrian could compete, they signed a very legal agreement to not reveal their sibling relationship till the last moment to provide just that extra spice of drama.

If it was any other situation, Jia Hyson might've caved and told Drake since he was wary of Drake's shaky male lead halo. However as a reluctant reader of this story, he is well aware of how pervasive the third season of Home-cooked Miracle really is. Hidden cameras were everywhere save for the bedrooms, and even those still had recording devices. Only the bathrooms were safe places but since they have a tendency to echo it wouldn't be difficult to eavesdrop there as well. Simply put, Jia Hyson really couldn't afford to even think about breaking their confidentiality contract much less try.

It seems... his own creativity has unexpectedly slapped him in the face?

For the sake of the story, Jia Hyson puts away his doubts and pretends to genuinely believe that Drake now knows his real relationship with Maddy. Even if he really wanted to slap the stupid out of that handsome face every time it eats vinegar, Jia Hyson keeps up an expression of ignorance. After all, the number one must have in romance story is obliviousness! A character can be as intelligent as a supercomputer but must be daft when it comes to matters of the heart. They can have the highest EQ in the world but wouldn't be able to tell if someone likes them unless it was punched into their faces twice. Obliviousness was a beloved aspect of any story, guaranteed to make the viewers happy at home.

By the third week of the competition, the overall situation between the relationships of the contestants have more or less stabilized. As Jia Hyson had hoped, Maddy and Drake had took on a strong rivalry that just barely brushed past the line of pure enmity. Daniel and Lex had become close friends. They were also friendly with Jia Hyson, though unfortunately they didn't dare act too chummy for fear of his overbearing boyfriend. That really could be the same to be said for everyone in regards to Jia Hyson. Male, female, young, old, Drake seems to be happy to eat all types of vinegar.

Maddy of course had attracted many friends and enemies over this period. Though a lot of those friends had left the competition it was a huge improvement from the original setup. A major change was the presence of Anne Brooks, who had avoided getting emotionally beaten up by Daniel thanks to their lack of interaction now that most of Daniel's time has been subtly monopolized by Lex. Instead, she had become a steadfast friend for Maddy. Not only that it turned out she was a small fan of Adrian and after overcoming her initial shyness asked him for an autograph.

Then there was also Ryan Powers the other main supporting male lead after Lex Grey, and the joker Eric Jones who had become good friends with Maddy. Ryan Powers was really just a less powerful and, in Jia Hyson's opinion, less interesting version of Drake. Of course because of this, Ryan seems to hold some sort of inferiority complex toward the more superior Drake, establishing a one-sided rivalry with him. Maddy and he got closer under the pretense of 'the enemy to my enemy is a friend'. Eric was there because he found this whole thing extremely funny.

Of course just because Maddy had more friends, didn't mean she necessarily had less enemies. Despite Jia Hyson's changes to the setting, it hadn't altered the fact that technically Maddy was surrounded by gorgeous young men. Shirley currently was the main cannonfodder antagonist at this stage, though as expected as the first villain in Maddy's way (that wasn't Drake) her harassment was fairly typical. Harley, the other bully was a little bit smarter and was using gossip as her main weapon. The three white lotus girls were taking their time to show themselves, Susan Bee was the main ticking time bomb as she has wormed her way into being Maddy's second close friend after Anne.

As for Eddie Walker and James Cartwell... well, they were still utter c*cks but most of their aggro had gone towards someone else.

Unfortunately that someone else was Jia Hyson.

"Oi, look, it's the fag," Eddie sneers as he passes by with James snickering next to him. Jia Hyson rolls his eyes. They all live in one, albeit large, house. Like. F*ck off man.

"Oh look, it's assh*le one and two," Maddy shoots back. Jia Hyson lightly restrains her by the shoulder. She's already tried to beat them up the first time this happened, since she was a small girl no one took her seriously but now Eddie walks with a limp. Jia Hyson had been proud. He knew those martial arts lessons wasn't a waste! Maddy got a warning back then but she may not get it again.

However due to this, the tables have turned and now Eddie and James fear her and in turn hate Adrian even more. Apparently hiding behind a girl is worse than getting beat up by said girl. "I see you have pipsqueak speaking up for you again," James laughs darkly, but pointedly was looking away from Maddy's glaring eyes, "what? Where's your boyfriend?"

"Unlike you and Eddie, I don't need to stick by my man every waking minute," Jia Hyson laughs back, "I mean, seriously, I never see you two apart anymore. I'm almost jealous."

As homophobic bigots, the best way to provoke them was imply that they were what they most hated. The pair's faces immediately went black.

"Come on," Jia Hyson tugs Maddy toward the direction of the waiting cars outside the house, "let's go, it's a service challenge today."

Maddy groans but obediently follows him into a car, happy to have the privilege now that Drake keeps stealing her chances to stick close to her brother. "Service challenges are the worst!"

They were.

The pressure of a time limit. The calculations for large quantities of dishes. The shouting. The panic. The planning. And worse-

The teamwork.

Now Jia Hyson doesn't mind group projects. He doesn't. Really. As long as he has competent teammates who are willing to take his suggestions into consideration and have a decent level of skill he's fairly happy. However, with a cast full of bullies, backstabbers and stereotypical stubborn, ignorant idiots, group challenges become actual nightmares. He's never experienced working with such pig teammates before and Jia Hyson clearly recalls middle-school.

As it's the third week, the challenges of course had become bigger and bolder. For this service challenge the cars sent them out into the countryside. This gave Maddy and himself time to cheerfully re-establish their sibling relationship without Jia Hyson's vinegar eating boyfriend.

Meanwhile in another car, Daniel Green was staring morosely out the window as he suffocated on the surrounding silence and his own unshed tears. Ah, so unlucky. He had just been innocently waiting in the car for Lex to join him before Drake suddenly opened the door and sat next to him. Now suddenly Daniel is forced to endure a few hours alone with the most intimidating contestant here.

Lex, in the car behind Daniel and Drake, was also looking particularly gloomy. He was stuck with one of the white lotuses, Charlotte who was doing nothing but giving him coy blushing looks.

If Jia Hyson had known of the situation he would've have lit a candle for the pair. Ah, the life of a supporting male was always hard.