"Hi everyone, we're collAGE!" The moment the camera came on, all nine of them bowed in unison to the lens.

"This is collAGE's first time filming our group reality show," Luke, as team leader, set the flow. "It also seems like it's our first time eating out together." He looked around the circle of members; his gaze finally landed on Lan Yu.

"If you put it that way, it feels like we haven't had time to sit down for a proper meal since debut." Catching a look from the manager behind the camera, Lan Yu naturally shared a smile with Luke and picked up his line.

"Yeah, yeah." Luke edged toward Lan Yu—who was already seated beside him. "Feels like it's the first time Yu and I have eaten together, too."

That improvised line was a bit much. Lan Yu rolled his eyes inwardly. "It's also the first time for me and a lot of the others to sit and eat and chat. As trainees, we were buried in practice, so there were very few chances to really talk. I'm kind of looking forward to using this dinner to get closer to everyone."

"Yeah, I never really had much chance to talk to hyeong before debut," Do-hyun cut in. "Hyeong's always the type to keep his head down and grind in the practice room. It's amazing."

"Right—Lan Yu hyeong is a classic I-type, isn't he? He's slow to warm up. In trainee days the only one he really hung out with was Kaede hyeong, right?" Si-An's comment made three of them glance at each other. At the word "Kaede," Lan Yu first met Kaede's eyes, then felt Luke's startled gaze on the back of his head.

Right—the manager probably only told Luke and me about pairing us to hype a ship. The others shouldn't know. When the manager started frantically winking from behind the camera, Lan Yu sighed silently and picked up the thread: "I am kind of an I-type, so like Leader-nim said, it's rare for all nine of us to sit down and talk like this to build chemistry. Right, Leader-nim?"

Even if Luke hadn't noticed Lan Yu's wink, he still knew to take the cue and oblige.

"Yeah, yeah, let's eat our fill today! Halmeoni, could we get the menus?"

"The place we came to today is a ramen shop I used to frequent as a trainee," Luke continued the intro. "The cheese tteokbokki with ramen here is really good."

"But isn't Leader-nim bad with spicy?" Lan Yu blurted—and only then realized he'd said something he shouldn't.

"Whoaa—" the members whooped.

"How does hyeong know Leader-nim can't do spicy?" Eun-woo squinted at Lan Yu, grinning.

"Exactly—I don't think Yu's ever eaten with Luke," Nat piled on.

"I don't remember it either." Kaede Fujiwara turned his eyes on Lan Yu. Lan Yu angled away from the camera and shot Kaede a look—don't you start.

"Oh?" Luke slid an arm onto Lan Yu's shoulder. "Didn't know our Yu cared about me this much."

"Heh." Lan Yu kept a businesslike smile for the lens.

The teasing died down when the giant platters of extra-spicy tteokbokki and ramen arrived, and everyone dug in. Just as Lan Yu raised a piece of rice cake, he saw Luke—seated beside him—start sweating after a single bite. He tried to keep up his idol composure for the camera, but the heat forced out an endless hiss.

"Halmeoni—over here, please. One bottle of milk." Lan Yu raised his hand and called to the owner behind the camera. Taking the bottle that was passed over, he handed it to Luke. Seeing the puzzled look on Luke's face, he added, "Something sweet cuts the heat better, and milk keeps your stomach from getting irritated by the spice."

Luke didn't hesitate; he tipped the bottle back and downed the whole thing in one go. "It really does beat iced water," he said after catching his breath—his stomach already feeling less raw. He beamed at Lan Yu. "Thanks so much, Yu!" And then he threw his arms around him.

"Leader-nim, that's a bit much…" A little amused, Lan Yu watched Luke carry on. But when he saw the manager behind the lens signaling the cameraperson for more close-ups, he let it drop.

Off to the side, Kaede watched them, then quietly slid the box of tissues from in front of him to Lan Yu's side—after which he went back to his ramen with the others.

Because the show airs weekly, the company kept the shoot short for pacing. The moment the cameras cut, the manager stepped past Kaede—who'd moved in front of the lens at wrap—and headed straight for Lan Yu and Luke. "You two were very natural today—looked like close friends. I always thought you hadn't really interacted before."

"Well..." Not really, Lan Yu answered inwardly.

"Keep that energy going from now on. Got it?"

"Got it," they answered in unison.

"What do you think of the tteokbokki and ramen, niisan?" When the others had packed up to head back to the company, Lan Yu came up beside Kaede and fell into step with him.

"You know I'm not interested in that," Kaede said, voice flat.

"I figured as much, so I wanted to ask if niisan wanted to grab something else. It looked like niisan hardly touched your food." Lan Yu leaned in to meet his eyes.

"We still have a shoot this afternoon. Aren't you worried about swelling if you eat too much?" Kaede lifted a hand and squeezed Lan Yu's cheek.

"Hah?" Lan Yu gave Kaede an exaggerated once-over. "Is niisan calling me fat now? I worry every day niisan'll pass out from hunger, and you're the one worried about puffiness?"

Kaede shrugged, noncommittal.

"Come have a little with me, niisan." Lan Yu walked right up to Kaede and blinked at him. "I know you can still eat. If we go now, we'll make it back in time for the afternoon shoot."

Kaede didn't answer. That was answer enough. Lan Yu hurried him toward a nearby Japanese place. They came often; the owner knew to tuck them away somewhere inconspicuous. Lan Yu pushed the door open, greeted the owner warmly, and the two of them headed for their usual spot.

Their orders came quickly. After a quick "いただきます," they started in.

"I thought you didn't really interact with him," Kaede said out of nowhere as they ate.

"Mm? Him?" Lan Yu was a little thrown by the question. After a moment's thought, it clicked that Kaede probably meant Luke, and he asked, uncertain, "Do you mean Leader-nim?"

"From what I recall, you've never had dinner with him."

"I mean, I haven't, really. We barely even talked before. If niisan is wondering how I knew he can't take spice—it's because he showed me today's script before filming, and we chatted a bit." In the end, Lan Yu obediently laid it all out.

"... " Kaede ate in silence.

As he ate, Lan Yu replayed the table jokes from earlier. Everyone had been teasing—but they'd said the quiet part out loud, too: back in trainee days, aside from Kaede, Lan Yu hadn't really spent time with anyone. He wasn't a social type; and in trainee days, with the very word "debut" pressing down on everyone so hard they could barely breathe, he had no interest in lighting any fuses or cleaning up the fallout. But now that they were one group, keeping a deliberate distance would just feel stiff. And sooner or later, people would notice that what he had with Kaede wasn't just ordinary teammate stuff. Thinking that, Lan Yu looked up at him.

So how did Kaede see the two of them? Lan Yu wasn't sure. Kaede had never shown interest in building more relationships; even with fellow members, he likely saw them as coworkers—be decent on camera, no need to extend it off-hours. He'd always kept public and private cleanly split. Which probably made Lan Yu the exception—blurring that boundary. For Kaede, that blur was no small thing.

Should I be the one to smooth some of those relationships for him? Lan Yu wondered. People might excuse Kaede's coolness toward group affairs for various reasons, but they wouldn't treat Lan Yu the same. Back as a trainee, he'd heard the whispers about him and Kaede—calling him a hanger-on. Kaede had told him clearly he'd heard it all before and he shouldn't care. Lan Yu hadn't, really. He'd never taken debut all that seriously anyway; he'd figured the relationship would end the moment the debut list dropped. As long as Kaede didn't care, he had no standing to care either. But now that they'd debuted, he couldn't pretend it was idle talk. He knew exactly what kind of disaster this could turn into; after all, he'd always been on the receiving end of that kind of slander.

"Will you keep filming with him like this?" Kaede asked after a while.

"Mm... I'm not really sure. It was the manager who suddenly told me to start doing this with him, and I don't even know when they'll tell me to stop." Lan Yu couldn't help thinking—how much say did he have in any of this?

"You like it?"

"Huh?" That wasn't a Kaede-type question. In all the time he'd known him, Kaede had never asked whether Lan Yu liked something—let alone something as trivial as hyping a ship on their group reality show. "It's hard to say I like or dislike it. We're told to do it, so we do it. It's not really something I get a say in." He answered anyway, even if it felt un-Yu-like.

「いや、あいつのこと、好きなのか？」

Lan Yu looked up and met his eyes for a beat. The two of them had long agreed that, though they were studying each other's languages, they were ultimately debuting in Korea—so for day-to-day conversations, big or small, they would stick to Korean as much as possible. Which was why, when Kaede suddenly switched to Japanese, Lan Yu understood just how heavy the question was.

"I wouldn't use the word 'like' for Leader-nim. We didn't really have any dealings before this; we're just teammates who were told to run a ship angle together. I can't exactly say I'm repulsed by it—otherwise, in the company's eyes, I'd be an 'unqualified' idol. It just feels like I'm being pushed along in it, so it's hard for me to say what I actually feel."

After thinking for a moment, Lan Yu still wasn't sure what the right answer was, so he just said whatever came to mind.

Kaede didn't respond to that.

"Does niisan have any thoughts about our filming?" Lan Yu finally asked back, unable to hold it in.

"I'm not really in a position to say anything."

"niisan means—as a 'fuck buddy'?" Lan Yu smiled.

Kaede glanced around, making sure no one could overhear.

"Relax, niisan. I picked this time because there wouldn't be other customers."

"We've debuted now," Kaede said, looking at him. "We can't talk like before."

"Yeah," Lan Yu met Kaede's eyes, ignoring the phone lighting up on the table with Luke's script for the next episode, and said, "We can't be like before."