bc’s got him on a tight leash, sandwiched in-between the bullshit of knight’s rpm and the subunit’s sad excuse for a half-assed song. and lately, he just feels like dead-weight, lugged from one end to the next with no say — no talks unscripted, everything’s written out from the start.
today’s nothing different. the same old shit like hearsay — what he can and can’t say. the do’s and dont’s of a live broadcast. if he hasn’t memorized each one by now, that’d be a straight lie with the ten years he’s been digging himself a new grave. but there’s no animosity nor distaste that wants to force him out of his skin when the broadcast is nothing more than a game of league.
the only downside is when it’s another rookie idol he’s forced to reckon face-to-face with. when he steps into gold star’s buildings, his hands are already slung deep into his pockets with a grin that seethes the ‘i don’t give a fuck, rather be somewhere else’ mantra. (in hindsight, there’s no where else he’s expected besides the privacy of his own home). “hey.” a curt gesture, two fingers slung in the air and a nod of his head. “i heard we’re just playing league — you any good?” gyujeong slips into his chair, letting the illumination of the screen play more into his empty gaze.
“for the record, i only play support. more specifically, i only play thresh — so, if you play support i suppose we’ll be fucked this round.” he ignores the staff, shedding a look over towards haru.
setting: recording the base choice live @ bc ent. practice room, april 2021
with: @fmdxmax
"oh look! the viewer count is going up pretty fast!” yuanjun beamed, nudging max with his elbow as he saw the little numbers in the corner of the screen rapidly increase. the two of them had taken up vacancy in an empty practice room in the bc building to film their choice live for the base online platform. the whole thing was bound to be a succes really, yuanjun liked max and most of all, he liked how much the older spoiled him, he knew their dynamic would come across great on camera, fans loved that kind of thing. “hi there everyone at home! thank you for joining in today, i’m here with max-sunbaenim of origin!” another light nudge “say hi to the viewers hyung!”
of course, they were in a practice room with a reason, between main dancers and free range to do a livestream doing whatever the hell they wanted, dancing together had not only been the obvious choice but also a fun one. “we’re in a practice room as you can see, i’m sure you can all imagine why that is.” he spoke to the camera, the chat immediately flooding with comments that he hastily scanned. “today! we’re going to teach each other choreographies from our groups!” he turned his head to max again. “what do you think hyung? can you teach me black swan? pleaseeeee.” he batted his lashes at the older, knowing damn well max wouldn’t refuse him anyway. “black swan is super cool! i’ve been wanting to learn it ever since you guys released it.”
date: march 2021.
character(s) involved: n/a.
about: for the choice live, duri decided to have his own little cooking show where he cooks tomato spinach pasta.
trigger warnings: food cw.
notes: i just wanna thank chy for suggesting a recipe for duri to do for this.
word count: 1,290.
it almost wasn’t surprising that duri had decided to do a cooking show for his choice live when management had approached him to encourage him to do the live. so, with his manager, he set up the live for a time to work and what exactly he would be doing. so, within a kitchen set, they would set everything up for the live that was announced and scheduled. of course, they would probably still play up the whole masterchef thing for it, considering he did chose to cook, rather than doing something like singing. but, he liked to show off different sides of him and he had already done a cover for base online, so he decided to do something completely different. he placed an apron on himself, tying it around himself, and making it secure. he had a very “boyfriend” look on today, which had been suggested for him to do. it was probably to push that whole boyfriend image more, especially with duri’s personality, it always worked out best for bc entertainment. nonetheless, he was ready to begin.
he walked to the island, standing in front of the camera. everything he needed had already been placed out onto the island counter, in which duri had ended up arranging it nicer himself, and made things easier to grab himself. when asked if he was ready, with a bigger smile, he nodded, and the comments had already been going as they waited for the base online live to begin. once he got a cue that it had begun, he waved with both his hands. “hello! knight’s duri here!” he said, before giving a bow together. “today, i prepared to make you tomato spinach pasta!” he said, giggling softly. “are you ready to start?” he asked the audience, before looking over to read the comments. “let’s get started!” he said.
“i’m making the pasta by hand! we’re going to go with an angel hair pasta, to have a nice, long pasta. i think it’ll go well with everything,” he said, chuckling softly. maybe making pasta by scratch was a bit of a flex, but he was showing what he knows, and of course, he was trying to be like a television chef, after all. he goes through all the steps of creating pasta from scratch with the flour and eggs, the well in the middle, all of that. he walked through what he was doing, and the pasta was made. he cut it into the shape that was needed, before putting it off to the side, and cleaning up. “i really like cleaning up as i go, it feels a lot better to me to have a clean workspace as i continue on,” he explained. “now that that’s done, let’s get to the rest of the stuff!” he said.
he had filled a pot with both broth and water, before placing that to a burner, and turning it on. “i’ve added both water and broth to the pot, the broth will give the pasta nice flavor, “first for chopping, the garlic,” he says, before he’s grabbing the cloves, and a knife. he smashed them, and began to mince them. it was clear that he was in a zone, before he was sure to walk them through the recipe as if he was a chef on television - a bit different from him competing on masterchef korea celebrity. “i’m mincing the garlic,” duri says to the camera. putting that to the side, he grabs the cherry tomatoes. “i’m using cherry tomatoes for this recipe, they’re better for pasta recipes, and it’s a nice bite.” he explained, before he began to slice the cherry tomatoes in half. “i’m cutting them in half as well because... well, i don’t really had a reason for that,” he said, giggling a bunch more. after putting them all to the side, he would then grab the spinach, but before that, he would place the pasta into the water. “the water and broth mixture has come to a boil, so i added the pasta! it’ll go quickly!” he said. he now takes the spinach and makes sure it’s really dry, “i’m making sure the spinach is really dry, just so that when it cooks in the pan, none of the water comes off the spinach. we don’t want any water to fill up in the pan!” he says, before giggling softly. finally, everything he needed to cut was done. “i also have parmesan cheese for the recipe, so if you ever want to make this, don’t forget about that, if you’d like it!” he says.
he turns the burner on underneath the pan, to get it to heat up. “once the pan is heated up, i’m going to add oil and garlic,” he said. so, he went ahead and did that, a nice sizzle can be heard. “i’ll stir constantly, just so that it doesn’t burn, then i’m going to add the chopped spinach once the garlic gets really fragrant.” he explained. once that occurred, the spinach was added in, just so it could cook down. “once the spinach cooks down, we add in the cherry tomatoes,” he explains as those come next. he places them in, moving his spoon around. “we’re looking for the cherry tomatoes to get a nice color and to release their juices because that’s where the sauce is coming from,” he explained. “at this point, i’m going to add in some more garlic, as well as salt and pepper. we aren’t adding much to this because it’s meant to be nice and light. we also get an earthy flavor from the spinach and a sweetness from the cherry tomatoes, as well as a nice bite with the garlic. it balances itself out,” he said, before he’s giggling at himself. so, he does just as he said he was going to. “and with that, the pasta is done, so as i continue to cook those, i’m going to drain this,” he says, before grabbing mittens, and taking the pot to the sink to drain it. he then takes the drain pasta back over, and adds it into the pan. “now we put everything together and add the cheese,” as says, before adding it in, then stirring it together. “now, time to plate!” he said, of course, it was going to be rather nice, showing off his masterchef skills, after all.
he places the plates down, before plating up the food, and sprinkling more cheese on to make it look better. “ta-da!” he said, a giggle leaving his lips. “ah, staff, would you like to try?” he asked the ones behind the camera and they all came to try it. pouring in praises, he bows and thanks the staff members, who take the plates with him. he takes a taste of his, a large smile against his lips, “ah, it’s so good. i think you should all try it,” he said, giggling. of course, the comments are filled with wanting duri to cook for them because they want to try his cooking. comments like, “oppa, i really want to try your cooking,” “hyung, please cook for me,” and a bunch of others, which made him giggle. “i wish i could cook for everyone... but i hope you felt like i was cooking for you today,” he stayed on the live a bit longer, just to talk to the fans and such, before it was time to go.
“it looks like i have to go. thank you for watching me cook today! i hope we can do it again soon! masterchef duri, out!” he said, bowing towards the camera, and coming back up. he waved towards the camera with both hands as he giggled, “bye bye!”