The Chef x The Celebrity
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📢‼️ Author's Note / Content Warning
My Lovely Little Dragon-Phoenixes & Phoenix-Dragons, this is one of the darkest original-timeline chapters, so please protect your peace and step away if needed. This chapter contains coercion, suicide coercion, suicidal action, self-harm by jumping, emotional manipulation, threats against family, abuse, and the aftermath of severe trauma. If you need to skip, pause, or come back later, that is completely okay.
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~ Date: Late June 2422 Interstellar Year ~
~ Location: World 1 – Luna Bellflower Moon ~ Terra Anka PXD2422 ~ The Golden Dragon Star Nexus Intergalactic Empire ~
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🐦🔥 [ Phoenix ☯ POV ] 🐦🔥
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~~ Original Timeline ~~
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- Stellar Year 2422, Luna Bellflower Moon, Terra Anka PXD2422, Golden Dragon Star Nexus Empire -
"So, if I die, will you stop going after my family?" Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan asked in a trembling voice. His whole body felt numb. He had no doubt that Lee Eun-ae would never stop until he was dead. With his brother in a coma, his parents ruined, and his family cornered from every side, he believed he had only one choice left: protect them at any cost, even if that cost was his own life.
Lee Eun-ae stood with one hip jutted out and a finger pressed to her chin, pretending to consider his question. After a long pause, she smiled. "Sure. I will stop going after your family if you write a confession letter, record it as a video, post it online, and then kill yourself in front of me."
For a moment, the world around Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan went silent. The sounds of the room, the faint buzz of his star terminal, even Lee Eun-ae's breathing seemed to fade until all he could hear was the hollow roar of his own pulse. He had expected cruelty. After everything she had confessed, how could he not? But the casual way she spoke of his death, as if asking him to bring her a cup of tea, made something inside him crack so cleanly that he almost did not feel the pain at first.
He looked at the woman who had once eaten at his family's table, slept over during school breaks, borrowed his notes before exams, cried on his shoulder when auditions went badly, and laughed with his mother while helping wash vegetables in the restaurant kitchen. Lee Eun-ae had held his little brother's hand when Joon was nervous on his first day at a new school. She had called Tae Eun-Kyung "Auntie" with such sweetness that his mother had always prepared extra side dishes for her. She had accepted the warmth of his home for years while apparently dreaming of the day she could burn it down around them.
That realization hurt worse than the threats. A stranger's hatred could be survived. A mob's cruelty could be explained away as ignorance, cowardice, or hysteria. But betrayal wore familiar eyes. Betrayal knew where the spare key was hidden, which words would hurt the most, and exactly how to make love feel like a weapon. Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan had trusted her with his joys, his fears, his dreams, and his family. She had gathered each precious thing and turned them into blades.
Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan felt like he would be sick. He thought of his wonderful, loving family—his parents, who had worked so hard to provide everything their children needed and as much of what they wanted as they could; his older siblings, who had helped him chase his dream of becoming a chef; and his little brother, who should never have been dragged into any of this.
He thought of his mother's hands, always warm from the kitchen, pressing a bowl into his palms because she worried he was too thin. He thought of his father's quiet pride whenever one of the heirloom plants survived another season. He thought of Eun-Ha's sharp tongue and softer heart, of Young-Jae's steady support, of Joon's bright laughter before the world had beaten him into silence. They had all given pieces of themselves to help him stand beneath a spotlight that had become a guillotine.
If he refused, Lee Eun-ae would continue. He knew it as surely as he knew his own name. She would smile, cry, lie, and spend money until another disaster found his family. If the restaurants were gone, she would target their shelter. If his parents survived, she would target their medicine. If Joon woke, she would make sure the school, the starnet, or the courts crushed whatever remained of his future. There was no bottom to her resentment. There was only another pit beneath the last one.
He had always wanted to take care of them once he became successful enough. He wanted to give back everything they had given him at least tenfold. Had he known this dream would cause them so much pain, he never would have befriended Lee Eun-ae. He never would have joined The Chef and The Celebrity. He never would have chosen that high school, even if it had been the best in the city. Now his only priority was protecting his family in any way possible.
So Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan made the only calculation his shattered heart could still understand. One life for five. His name for their safety. His future for their chance to keep breathing. It was a terrible, impossible bargain, and a small, rational part of him knew Lee Eun-ae might not honor it. But despair did not leave room for perfect choices. Despair offered only the least unbearable illusion of control.
With determination flashing in his eyes and his face void of emotion, he looked Lee Eun-ae in the eye and told her he would do what she asked. He would give his life if it meant protecting his loved ones. He would do anything for them. He only hoped this would save them.
Lee Eun-ae looked almost disappointed that he did not scream, beg, or collapse at her feet. Perhaps she had wanted a performance. Perhaps she had wanted him to prove, one last time, that he was as weak and pathetic as she had always claimed. Instead, Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan simply sat down, picked up the stylus with shaking fingers, and began writing the confession she dictated to him.
Every sentence felt like swallowing broken glass. He wrote that he had abused his Dominant Omega status. He wrote that he had manipulated Choi Yongbok. He wrote that he had deceived the public, lied to his family, and deserved the hatred thrown at him. His hand trembled so badly that Lee Eun-ae clicked her tongue and told him to make it neater. If he was going to die, she said, he should at least leave behind something useful.
Useful. That word nearly made him laugh. His life had been useful to her when she needed notes, meals, introductions, emotional support, and the illusion of a loyal friend. His family had been useful when she wanted warmth without effort. His downfall was useful now because it would clear the path to the man she believed belonged to her. Even his death had to serve her narrative.
He stood there with an aura colder than absolute zero, filled with remorse for his family and loathing toward Lee Eun-ae so severe that one might worry his soul would never enter the cycle of rebirth.
When the letter was finished, she made him read it aloud. The first recording was not good enough. His voice cracked too much, she said. The second sounded too empty. The third made him look too pitiful. She deleted each one with growing irritation until Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan understood that she did not merely want him dead. She wanted the world to see him die correctly: guilty enough to satisfy the mob, broken enough to entertain them, and obedient enough to erase himself from her story.
A demonic, triumphant smile bloomed across Lee Eun-ae's face as she recorded the confession video on Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan's phone. Then she posted it as if she were him, tagging The Chef and The Celebrity, Choi Yongbok, his university, and several news agencies so it would spread farther and faster. She did not even hesitate. To her, his life had already become a prop in the performance of his own destruction.
Within minutes, the post began spreading. Notifications flashed across the screen faster than Beyol could read them. Some people cursed him. Some celebrated. Some demanded proof that he would "take responsibility." A few voices begged him not to do anything irreversible, but they were swallowed by the avalanche. Lee Eun-ae watched the numbers climb with glittering eyes, as if every share and comment was applause meant only for her.
Beyol wanted to call his mother. He wanted to hear her voice one more time, even if all he could do was stay silent and breathe while she called him her sunshine. He wanted to apologize to his father, to tell Eun-Ha and Young-Jae to take care of Joon, to tell Joon that none of this was his fault. But Lee Eun-ae kept his terminal in her hand and smiled whenever his gaze drifted toward it.
"Do not even think about ruining this," she warned softly. "If you try to call them, I will assume our agreement is void. Then I will make sure your precious family follows you soon after."
After posting it, she forced him to travel with her to The Trinity Bridge, the highest bridge in Cheraw. As she marched him toward the highest point of the beautiful bridge, that creepy, demonic smile never left her face. She truly could not have been happier, because she believed a soul that committed suicide could never reincarnate.
The journey to The Trinity Bridge passed like a nightmare filmed through fog. City lights smeared across the windows of the hired hovercar. Advertisements floated above the roads, bright and cheerful, selling perfumes, dramas, luxury apartments, and tickets to future episodes of The Chef and The Celebrity. His face appeared on one of the gossip feeds for half a second before the ad changed. Beyol flinched anyway.
Lee Eun-ae hummed beside him, perfectly relaxed. Every so often, she checked the post and laughed under her breath at the comments. Beyol kept his eyes on his hands. They were cold. He wondered, absurdly, whether his mother would scold him for not wearing a warmer jacket. The thought nearly broke him. He bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood and forced himself not to cry.
When they reached the bridge, the wind was the first thing he noticed. It cut through his clothes and pushed at his hair like impatient hands. Below, the river reflected scattered city lights in broken ribbons. The Trinity Bridge had always been considered beautiful, an architectural marvel meant to represent connection, endurance, and hope. Tonight, it looked like the galaxy's cruelest joke.
The wind stole most of Lee Eun-ae's next words, but he caught enough. She told him to be grateful. She told him his death would finally give meaning to his pathetic life. She told him that once he was gone, everyone would move on, and Choi Yongbok would eventually see the woman who had protected him from a monster. Beyol no longer had the strength to answer. Somewhere inside him, something had already gone quiet.
Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan stepped onto the edge of The Trinity Bridge with Lee Eun-ae's threats still ringing in his ears. He knew she might be lying. He knew someone like her might never stop. But with his brother in a coma, his parents ruined, and his family's safety hanging by a thread, he chose the only bargain he believed he had left. His final wish was not only for revenge. He wanted someone to protect his family, clear his name, expose Lee Eun-ae, and live the life he had been robbed of. That was where the original timeline ended for Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan.
In that final moment, Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan did not think of starnetizens, accusations, rankings, contracts, or Choi Yongbok. He thought of home. Steam rising from hot pot broth. His mother's laughter from the kitchen. His father explaining plants with quiet excitement. Eun-Ha scolding him for overworking. Young-Jae pretending not to worry while worrying the most. Joon tugging on his sleeve and asking when his brother would cook something sweet again.
He wanted them to live. He wanted them to laugh without fear. He wanted someone to tell the truth loudly enough that the whole galaxy would be forced to hear it. He wanted Lee Eun-ae exposed, not only as revenge, but so she could never do this to anyone else. He wanted his family's name washed clean. He wanted his recipes to be made, his father's seeds to grow, his mother's restaurant to stay warm and full of life. He wanted so much that his heart ached with the shape of every future stolen from him.
That desperate wish did not vanish when his body fell. It tore free of him like a flare in the dark, raw and unfinished, carrying grief, love, resentment, and one final plea: Please, someone protect them. Please, someone live where I could not.
Far beyond that collapsing timeline, inside the Nursery where wandering souls, broken shells, and unfinished karmic threads gathered like stars waiting to be reborn, the plea rang out. Solaris heard it first. A young man's soul, frayed and dimming, was begging not for revenge alone but for protection, justice, and continuation. It was the kind of wish the Nursery could answer only if another soul was willing to shoulder the burden.
Phoenix answered before Solaris could even finish explaining. Perhaps it was because the original Beyol's desperation echoed too closely with wounds Phoenix never allowed himself to name. Perhaps it was because no family that loved so fiercely deserved to be destroyed for one person's jealousy. Or perhaps Phoenix simply could not ignore a soul that asked, with its last strength, for someone else to survive.
So the shattered end of one life became the opening seam of another. The original timeline closed on The Trinity Bridge, but the current timeline bent before it could reach that point. Phoenix entered the shell on 26 June 2422 Interstellar Year, the day Beyol first received the star message for The Chef and The Celebrity, long before Lee Eun-ae's trap could fully close. This time, the bridge would not be an ending. This time, it would be evidence waiting for the day Phoenix dragged every hidden sin into the light.
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