1st World: The Chef x The Celebrity
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~ Date: 26 June 2422 Interstellar Year ~
~ Location: World 1 – Luna Bellflower Moon ~ Terra Anka PXD2422 ~ The Golden Dragon Star Nexus Intergalactic Empire ~
✨─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───✨
🐦🔥 [ Phoenix ☯ POV ] 🐦🔥
-Solaris - 'We are still at the point where Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan has only received his star message and appointment details for The Chef and The Celebrity. That means we are early enough to change everything. Since I already sent you the basic profile, I will focus on how the original timeline began to fall apart.'
-Phoenix - 'En. Keep it brief, but do not skip anything important.'
-Solaris - 'At first, everything went well. Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan entered The Chef and The Celebrity, the variety competition where up-and-coming chefs and celebrities teach each other their trades. The chefs taught cooking, plating, and menu development, while the celebrities taught performance skills for acting challenges, photoshoots, and original skits. Beyol was paired with Choi Yongbok, the Movie Emperor, and although the match made Beyol nervous, he treated the opportunity seriously from the beginning.'
Beyol's family history mattered because his dream was never only about fame. His parents had worked hard to reach where they were. They started with Tae Eun-Kyung's small roadside stall in the countryside beside the family farm, using produce they grew themselves and meat from livestock they raised.
Tae Eun-Kyung's dishes became popular because she used recipes handed down in her family from before humans left Ancient Earth, adapting them to local flora and fauna without losing their original spirit.
Her stall eventually became a small restaurant, then a larger brick-and-mortar restaurant. When business kept growing, the family decided to relocate closer to the capital of the Golden Dragon Star Nexus Intergalactic Empire, Terra Anka PXD2422.
As with any empire, kingdom, country, state, or town, the closer one lives to the city center, the higher the cost of living becomes because of supply and demand for real estate. Due to the high cost of living on the capital planet, even in the countryside, the Beyols chose to move to Luna Bellflower, the smallest of the three moons that orbit Terra Anka PXD2422. The decision proved wise because Luna Bellflower was close enough to the capital to attract customers while still affordable enough for the family to rebuild.
The Beyols also started a new farm on Luna Bellflower because it was more cost-effective than shipping ingredients daily from the family farm back on Kythera 88.
This time, however, Beyol Shin wanted to plant some of the seeds that had been handed down through his family as priceless heirlooms. The seeds were among the last remaining from humanity's voyage through space from Ancient Earth.
As a botanist, he wanted to discover what they would grow into, but he worried they would spoil instead of taking root like previous attempts had. If those seeds could be revived, the Beyol family might recover a piece of history everyone else had forgotten.
'Solaris, remind me to check those seeds later. If I can run a diagnostic and help the original owner's father grow and reproduce them, that might fulfill one of his lifelong wishes.'
'Yes, Mama. I can also provide more seeds from the Nursery if Mr. Beyol's seeds are no longer viable,' Solaris replied through their shared mental link.
For the time being, Beyol Shin had set that dream aside to focus on establishing the new local farm, restaurant, and traditional tea house. Though the family was considered middle class, most of their extra earnings went straight back into the businesses and into paying off the debts from the move and renovations.
Though Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan was initially taken aback by Choi Yongbok's cold face and distant personality, he hid it well. He took the teaching seriously and put all his effort into helping Choi Yongbok understand the basics of cooking. Off camera, Beyol worked hard to develop a full menu that would wow the judges while still staying within the technical range Choi Yongbok could execute smoothly.
Because Beyol was desperate to win The Chef and The Celebrity, he offered to train with Choi Yongbok during non-filming hours. To his surprise, Choi agreed. They practiced at both the studio and Choi Yongbok's private residence so they could work in peace, away from prying eyes, stans, and the media.
They did not want competitors stealing the recipes Beyol had developed specifically for Choi Yongbok. At the same time, Choi's management team and the Beyol family agreed that the two men had to be careful. There were always at least three other people present whenever they worked together, so no one could credibly accuse them of acting improperly.
Neither of them expected the arrangement to work as well as it did. Beyol was earnest, talented, and hardworking, while Choi Yongbok was exacting, intelligent, and surprisingly willing to listen once he respected someone's skill. Their personalities were not naturally warm toward each other, but they developed a close acquaintanceship built on professionalism, consistency, and shared effort.
Everything was going well—both on camera and during Choi Yongbok's culinary training—until the second episode of The Chef and The Celebrity aired. That episode became the first crack in the original timeline. What began as ordinary starnetizen noise quickly widened into drama, scandal, and public backlash.
At first, the backlash seemed almost harmless compared with what would come later. Some of Choi Yongbok's fans complained that a nobody had no place speaking casually to their Movie Emperor. The comments hurt Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan, but he endured them for his family's sake and focused on the competition.
When the pairing episode aired and viewers saw that Beyol would be working directly with Choi Yongbok, the complaints sharpened. Starnetizens accused Beyol of trying to ensnare Choi Yongbok in his greedy, gold-digging hands. Beyol, his family, and Choi Yongbok all knew the accusation was ridiculous. Both The Chef and The Celebrity and Choi Yongbok posted statements on Stella-Link reminding viewers not to slander someone without proof, but the correction only slowed the rumor. It did not kill it.
Then the third episode aired, showing the chefs working one-on-one with their celebrity partners. Even though Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan and Choi Yongbok behaved with nothing but professionalism, a wave of posts appeared across Stella-Link and Nova Talk. This time, the attacks went further. Starnetizens exposed Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan's private secondary-sex status as a Dominant Omega and began doxing him and his family.
The moment Beyol's status was exposed, the situation stopped being simple entertainment gossip. His privacy, safety, family, and future were all placed in danger at once. What happened next was no longer just backlash. It was the beginning of a deliberate smear campaign.
Phoenix listened in silence while Solaris continued to unfold the original timeline. The more he heard, the colder his expression became. This was not merely a story about jealous stans or an unlucky contestant caught in entertainment gossip. It was a careful chain of pressure points: first curiosity, then envy, then exposure, then accusation. Whoever had engineered Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan's downfall understood exactly how public attention worked. They did not need to present truth. They only needed to feed the crowd enough emotion for the crowd to turn truth into an afterthought.
That realization sharpened Phoenix's eyes. He had seen this pattern before across too many worlds: the first rumor was always small enough to dismiss, the first insult common enough to ignore, and the first lie wrapped in just enough possibility that decent people hesitated to deny it too loudly. By the time the real blade appeared, the victim had already been isolated, exhausted, and pushed into the exact position the enemy wanted.
Beyol had entered the program with an open heart and a practical mind. He had not expected special treatment from Choi Yongbok, nor had he expected friendship. In fact, the original Beyol had been almost painfully careful around the Movie Emperor. He kept a respectful distance, spoke politely, and never allowed his admiration for Choi's work to cross into worship. He treated Choi as a partner in a competition, not as a fantasy to chase.
That, ironically, was probably why Choi Yongbok tolerated him. According to Solaris's information, Choi disliked excessive praise almost as much as he disliked unnecessary physical contact. People either approached him like a god carved from starlight or treated him like a prize to be claimed. Beyol did neither. He corrected Choi's knife grip when necessary, praised improvement only when it was earned, and calmly adjusted lessons when Choi's expression went blank from information overload.
During one practice session, Beyol had even snapped at him without meaning to. Choi had nearly ruined a delicate sauce by raising the temperature too quickly, and Beyol, caught up in professional instinct, had rapped the counter with a spoon and told him, "Movie Emperor or not, heat does not care about your face." The room went silent. The assistants froze. Beyol turned pale when he realized what he had said. But Choi Yongbok only stared at the sauce, lowered the heat, and asked, "Like this?"
From then on, the lessons improved. Choi began listening more closely, and Beyol stopped overexplaining every small movement. They developed a rhythm that looked colder than it was: short questions, shorter answers, quiet corrections, and long stretches of focused work. There was nothing romantic about it. Nothing improper. Only two people trying to master unfamiliar skills under enormous pressure.
Phoenix could respect that. Professional compatibility was rare enough. Trust, even limited working trust, was rarer still. The tragedy was that the public would later twist that exact compatibility into evidence of seduction. If Beyol stood too far away, he was cold and arrogant. If he stood close enough to teach, he was scheming. If Choi corrected him, Beyol was being humiliated. If Choi listened to him, Beyol had bewitched him. No matter what happened, the narrative had already been prepared.
-Phoenix - 'So the original timeline gave them enough neutral material to twist however they wanted.'
-Solaris - 'Exactly. There were recordings, practice schedules, witness lists, and official studio footage, but most people never watched the full context. They watched clips. Clips are easy to frame. A quiet pause becomes tension. A correction becomes humiliation. A shared glance becomes secret affection. A professional warning becomes proof of arrogance. The person behind the smear campaign understood media manipulation very well.'
Phoenix hummed softly, fingers brushing one of the wisteria flowers beside him. His hunger had not vanished, but annoyance was quickly overtaking it. This world had handed him a stage, a cooking competition, a famous partner, a vulnerable family, and an invisible enemy who liked playing with public perception. It was almost rude how neatly the battlefield had been arranged.
'Fine,' Phoenix thought, a slow smile touching his lips. 'If they want a performance, I will give them one. But unlike the original Beyol, I already know the script is poisoned. This time, I will write the ending myself.'
Solaris went quiet for a moment. Through the bond, Phoenix felt a small pulse of approval, worry, and something like excitement. The little phoenix dragon knew that tone. It was the same tone Phoenix used before dismantling corrupt noble houses, bankrupting criminal syndicates, and smiling politely while an entire boardroom realized too late that they had already lost.
-Solaris - 'Mama Phoenix, should I begin gathering all available public records, studio schedules, security footage, and archived social posts from the original timeline? If we understand how the rumor evolved, we can prepare countermeasures before each stage occurs.'
-Phoenix - 'Yes. Start with anything tied to the first three episodes, the staff list, Choi Yongbok's management team, Beyol's known acquaintances, Lee Eun-ae, and anyone who had access to Beyol's secondary-sex records. Also flag everyone who benefited after Beyol was ruined. People who profit from tragedy are usually either lucky vultures or the ones who planted the corpse.'
-Solaris - 'Understood, Mama. I will be careful not to alert any local monitoring systems.'
Phoenix nodded, and the decision settled something inside him. Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan's dream had been broken once, but Phoenix had arrived before the first visible crack. He still had time to protect the family restaurant, strengthen Beyol's public image, prepare evidence, and turn every future accusation into a trap for the person who dared to weaponize it. The original timeline had ended in ruin because Beyol had been kind, trusting, and unprepared. Phoenix could be kind when he chose to be, but trusting and unprepared were luxuries he had buried thousands of years ago.
He looked across the pond, watching the koi glide beneath the water like living brushstrokes. Somewhere beyond this peaceful garden, the empire's entertainment machine was already turning. Cameras, contracts, fans, managers, sponsors, rivals, gossip accounts, and hidden grudges were all waiting for Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan to step into the light. In the original timeline, that light had burned him. This time, Phoenix intended to make it illuminate every shadow around him.
Only after making that silent vow did Phoenix allow himself to acknowledge the increasingly dramatic complaints from his stomach. Revenge, strategy, and emotional processing were all important, but apparently this body had not eaten recently. If he was going to outplay a manipulative black lotus, survive a variety show, manage impossible pheromones, and protect an entire family from a public execution disguised as entertainment gossip, then food had to come first.
-Phoenix - 'Solaris, continue the original timeline while we find something to eat. I can plan better once this body's stomach stops trying to file a formal complaint.'
Solaris made a delighted little sound through the bond, clearly relieved that Phoenix had not sunk too deeply into the darkness of Beyol's memories. -Solaris - 'Yes, Mama Phoenix. I will summarize the next stage quickly. After the public began questioning Beyol's closeness to Choi Yongbok, the person behind the scenes waited until the audience had already formed an opinion. Then they leaked his Dominant Omega status. That leak changed everything.'
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