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They had just come home from work, after hours and hours of the usual dance practice. Beomgyu was snacking on his junk food after dinner while watching some youtube videos on the big screen in the living room. At the dining table, Soobin sighed heavily while poking inside his unappetizing green salad bowl.
He lost count on how many days he had this for dinner but it was sure not even a week had passed. As the comeback’s approaching, he needed to lose some weight and watched his diet. It was not that he needed a strict extreme one, just enough so that he looked fit and good in whatever outfits the stylist had planned for him.
For the record, no one forced him into diet. It was all him.
His diet was planned for a month but he was already tired with this greenish tasteless meal that kept haunting him every single night. He thought maybe some ranch would make it slightly better, but for sure it would wipe out his effort in the two hours long gym session that he had earlier. That thought made him sighed heavily, again.
If Beomgyu counted how many sighs he had heard from the latter and converted it into money, he was sure would be rich by now. Since Soobin’s diet started and he kept his regular gym session, Beomgyu was for sure could see his struggle.
Going to the gym was not the hardest part, changing his meals everyday was. It was not easy for a foodie Soobin to settle on boiled eggs, tasteless chicken breast and salad all day.
When they were having meals together, Beomgyu was drowned with guilty when Soobin stared at Beomgyu’s full set of rice with meat and side dishes while he aimlessly nudged the inside of his salad bowl.
The blank stare eyeing his meal had turned scared Beomgyu to set his meal earlier or later or just eat inside his room, alone.
“Are you okay, hyung?” Beomgyu asked, peeking from his laying position on the couch.
And again, he only heard a deep, long sigh from the dining table.
===
In the car, at work, at the dorm, it was almost like Soobin was losing his will to live. As soon as the music stopped, he plopped down right where he stood and just wobbled and crawled like a sloth when people told him to move.
If he was not staring out into space, most of the time he was just doom scrolling hundreds of food reels, drooling over things he could not eat. Beomgyu certainly did not understand why he did that self inflicted torture to himself.
There was one time they were on an hour-long drive to a venue. Before he drifted to sleep, Beomgyu saw Soobin scrolling on Tiktok for nakgopsae. An hour later when he woke up, he couldn't believe his eyes when seeing the man beside him was still scrolling for the same exact dish on his phone.
It lasted for a few days after.
Beomgyu once asked why Soobin was so obsessed with the dish, he curtly answered, simply because it was delicious, something people who had a child palate like Beomgyu would never understand.
Soobin got a painful red arm after that.
One day at home, Beomgyu saw his dorm mate eating dinner in the living room with the television on. There, Soobin sat on the floor, munching and chewing his usual meal but his eyes kept staring straight at the big screen, unblinking.
Beomgyu shivered a little looking at the scene unfolding.
It was not a movie, not reels, not a mukbang, not even a moving video. It was just a big still image of nakgopsae he probably got from google image.
Scared, Beomgyu slowly retreated back into his room.
After two weeks, Soobin had finally lost his mind.
===
Another week passed.
Soobin walked out of his room to get a glass of water. He was just home, had his usual taste of nothing but greens dinner, had his shower and it was time for bed. His strategy to avoid hunger: sleep. He better hurried before it hit him.
On his way to the kitchen, he met a quiet Beomgyu at the dining table, having some sort of staring battle with the dish in front of him. Soobin peeked curiously only to find it was a mixture of Beomgyu’s long term sworn enemies of octopus, shrimp and gopchang in one plate.
“Since when do you eat that?” He was drooling a little looking at the dish, but immediately came back to his senses shortly after that.
“You keep saying it’s delicious. I was just curious.” Beomgyu frowned, regretting his decision of choosing that dish to order earlier.
“It is. Try it.”
Beomgyu made a face, not convinced with the latter’s statement. The members, Soobin especially, had tricked him so many times for him to eat seafood, he swore he could not trust them anymore.
But still, he picked up his chopstick and grabbed a tiny cut of octopus, hesitantly drew it closer to his mouth and chewed it slowly.
And…
He gagged. The unfamiliar, rubby, weird texture. He frenziedly grabbed a tissue and spit it out.
Soobin rolled his eyes at the dramatic act. It was not even that bad. He scoffed.
“I don’t wanna eat it anymore.” Rejectedly, Beomgyu put the chopstick down, frowning at the dish like it had tainted his taste bud.
Dumbfounded Soobin looked at the still full plate of nakgopsae which not even 1% of it had been eaten. “Who's going to finish this?”
“You eat it. It’s yucky.” With that, Beomgyu got up from his seat and skipping to the kitchen, rummaging the upper cupboard above the stove.
“What even– Yah! Why did you even order it?“
“Eat it hyung. I paid for that. Don’t waste it.”
“ I– my die– What are you going to eat then?”
To answer him, Beomgyu happily waved a packet of ramyeon in his hand, a pot of water was already on the stove.
Soobin glared sharply at the latter. He grumbled under his breath, complaining on how he always had to be Beomgyu’s leftover disposal machine but his hand already grabbed the chopstick Beomgyu left behind.
He hesitated for a few seconds. In a small part of his mind, the good and evil fought. But as he took the bite, all the doubts died. He hummed happily at the taste he had craved for days.
Looking at that, Beomgyu smiled victorily.
What Soobin did not know, Beomgyu did not order the nakgopsae for himself.
He did not even plan to eat nakgopsae that night.
One cheat day is okay. He already worked so hard. It's a reward. He smirked.