Chapter 13: Unexpected Encounters and First Impressions

The unofficial Episode 0 of began to play.

Rather than the expected film set, the scene opened at the Blue Swan Cafe. It was then revealed that a message, ostensibly from Assistant Director Koo Ye-jin, had been uniformly sent to every participant.

“I haven’t written mine yet!”

Chaeyeon-woo giggled beside him, their voice light and playful.

‘I wrote mine right away that day, just in case I received it and then didn’t bother.’

A brief shot of Dohwa entering the cafe appeared, but the first person shown truly entering the establishment was Woo Sori.

Following this, subtitles flashed across the screen, indicating that the visit times didn’t match. Scenes of Jae-hyun and Ma Won-ho ordering at the cafe then played out in sequence.

Suddenly, the camera shifted through various angles, finally settling on Kang Hae-il. He was impeccably dressed in a suit, strikingly similar to the one he wore today.

“Oh, what’s this?”

Unlike the previous scenes with just three people, the cafe was now considerably more crowded.

As the camera zoomed in on the entrance, Kang Hae-il stood in line at the sole kiosk.

“So, they overlapped?”

As Dohwa stepped into the cafe, he heard a murmur of voices nearby.

Though the voices continued around him, Dohwa could barely discern their words. His entire focus remained riveted on the screen, the surrounding chatter blurring into an indistinct murmur.

‘I had no idea I was being filmed, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen myself in such a video.’

Without so much as a blink, Dohwa watched himself standing in line directly behind Kang Hae-il. Since Kang Hae-il had his back turned, he couldn’t see Dohwa, and Dohwa could only see Kang Hae-il’s back, preventing any mutual recognition.

[Gifticon (Unused) Paid with Personal Card ]

The subtitle appeared beneath the scene of Kang Hae-il placing his order.

A small, bewildered laugh escaped Dohwa at the text, which revealed that the gifticon Kang Hae-il had received remained unused.

Afterward, Dohwa was shown deliberating before placing his own order. They then appeared to be waiting for their drinks in separate areas.

‘The staff called the wrong number then, and I got the wrong drink.’

The camera captured Dohwa, not Kang Hae-il, being called first with number 138, and heading to the pickup counter.

“Ah.”

Could this, too, have been intentional?

The staff member, ignoring Dohwa’s perplexed expression as he held an Americano, called out the number belonging to the drink’s true owner once more.

With the distinct sound of footsteps, Kang Hae-il swiftly approached the pickup counter and retrieved the Americano that had been in front of Dohwa.

The encounter at the Blue Swan Cafe concluded with a final shot of Dohwa watching Kang Hae-il’s retreating back as he turned and exited the cafe.

‘The power of editing is truly undeniable.’

With the background music playing and only fragmented scenes compiled, it genuinely appeared to be a fated encounter.

“There must be more to it.”

“Is it coming out now?”

The screen went black, and just as Dohwa thought the video had ended, he heard Ma Won-ho’s low voice and Woo Sori’s excited murmur from beside him.

‘There’s more?’

Indeed, the screen transitioned, revealing Chaeyeon-woo receiving the exact same omakase dinner invitation from Assistant Director Koo Ye-jin that Dohwa had. Then, in sequence, scenes of them entering the restaurant, sitting down to eat, and the reactions and conversations of the two people next to Chaeyeon-woo when they dropped their spoon.

Dohwa hadn’t realized it at the time, but Kang Hae-il had been seated beside him, the last to arrive. It meant they had encountered each other twice in a single day.

A scene then showed Dohwa being the first to leave, with everyone else seemingly watching him depart. This was followed by a close-up of Ma Won-ho leaning back.

There must have been a camera outside the door as well, for when it zoomed in on Ma Won-ho, it revealed what he was looking at directly ahead.

Dohwa was waiting for the elevator.

Though the video didn’t show them making eye contact, Dohwa suddenly recalled making direct eye contact with a man while looking from outside into the restaurant.

“We saw each other.”

Ma Won-ho’s quiet, confident voice reached him, causing Dohwa to turn his head. It must have been why he had subtly probed Dohwa earlier—he already knew.

Despite half of the man’s face being obscured by a glass at the time, Dohwa now realized that the eyes clearly visible on screen matched those he had met.

Dohwa’s lips parted as if to speak, but he quickly pressed them shut. He averted his gaze first, returning his attention to the video.

This time, unlike before, he couldn’t focus on the video itself, merely watching the scenes featuring the remaining participants.

“It’s over.”

The house they were currently staying in appeared on screen, seemingly hinting at the next episode, and then the video truly ended.

Checking the time, Dohwa saw that everyone had been engrossed in the video for over an hour without moving. As others stretched and relaxed their postures, Dohwa also leaned his back against the sofa once more.

Zing—

Simultaneously, everyone’s phones vibrated.

[Send a message to the person who left the best first impression.]

‘…My brain feels like it’s going to overload.’

Dohwa immediately turned off his phone screen and ran a hand over his face.

After receiving the identical message, a collective silence fell, as if by prior arrangement, and everyone subtly eyed each other. The late hour was evident in the faint fatigue etched on their faces.

“Let’s all head to our rooms and get some rest.”

Kang Hae-il was the first to speak, and his suggestion acted as a fuse, prompting everyone to agree.

“We’ve been moving since morning, so I am pretty tired.”

“Good night, everyone!”

One by one, they rose from their seats, and the gathering gradually dispersed.

No one touched their phones further as they retreated into their respective rooms. Chaeyeon-woo, upon entering their room, immediately flopped onto the sofa.

“I don’t know who to send it to.”

Their words seemed to perfectly articulate Dohwa’s own thoughts.

Conversely, Woo Sori, who was seated on the adjacent sofa, promptly put down his phone. He looked at them and spoke with an air of nonchalance.

“I sent mine. Is it alright if I shower first?”

“Wow, that was fast, Sori-hyung. Go ahead and shower!”

“I’m fine with that too.”

Woo Sori, perhaps having separate clothes for sleeping, gathered his change of clothes and a pouch, then calmly disappeared to the bathroom.

The definition of a ‘first impression.’

‘Who should I send the message to?’

Dohwa had initially thought he was meeting everyone for the first time here, but discovering the production team’s intentional pre-arranged encounters left him feeling conflicted.

He had only truly registered it today, yet it felt as though the pieces of a puzzle were finally falling into place.

“Ugh, I don’t care, I sent mine!”

Chaeyeon-woo tossed their phone aside and stomped their feet, then rose from the sofa, declaring they would get ready to shower.

‘There’s no putting it off anyway.’

After much deliberation over what constituted a ‘first impression,’ Dohwa finally picked up his phone and sent the message, squeezing his eyes shut before opening them again.

Since he was the last to shower, he decided to clear his mind and opened the book he had brought to read.

Not long after, his phone vibrated.

Zing—

Zing—

[The dinner was delicious. However, I am concerned about your intake, so please focus more on eating than drinking next time.]

It was supposed to be delivered anonymously.

[Let’s see each other often from now on.]

Dohwa’s eyes widened, a tremor running through him as he received two messages whose senders were glaringly obvious, despite the supposed anonymity.

He tried to dismiss the thoughts and look at his book again, but the words refused to register, so he simply closed it. Not content with that, he even closed his eyes to further reduce the mental distraction.

He remained utterly oblivious to the gaze that watched him from nearby.

“I’m so curious who everyone sent their messages to! Should we tell each other?”

“Hmm… I don’t know.”

Chaeyeon-woo, emerging from the shower after Woo Sori, spoke with a face full of curiosity.

Woo Sori, lying in bed with a face mask on, responded with a reluctant voice, but Chaeyeon-woo paid them no mind.

“It might change later, and it’s only the first day, after all.”

Watching Chaeyeon-woo tap their face and speak so casually, Dohwa decided to speak first. Despite it being the first day, he didn’t want to share his choice with others.

“I’ll keep it a secret.”

“…Hmph. Too bad.”

After indirectly stating he wouldn’t tell, Dohwa gathered his towel and cleansing products and left to shower.

‘The remaining two might share with each other, though.’

He would see it on broadcast anyway. His usual curiosity, which would have been piqued, felt dampened by the sheer volume of his thoughts.

Passing through the powder room, he entered a spacious shower area with a large bathtub. He placed his belongings to one side and began to undress.

‘There’s no camera in here.’

As was only natural, of course.

Despite the unfamiliar surroundings, the solitude allowed him to feel like his true self again.

The fact that he was filming here as an omega participant felt like a lie.

It was as if he had experienced a lifetime’s worth of unprecedented events all at once. He wasn’t one to keep a diary often, but he resolved to record today’s events, uncertain how they might be used in his work later.

The cold water hitting his head washed away every trace of lingering alcohol.

Today, he had received first-impression messages from two out of three people.

No one seemed to have developed feelings for anyone yet; it was clear they were all still in the exploratory phase.

He tried to move past it without attaching too much significance to it.

‘It’s just a gut feeling.’

Yang Chaewon’s words from when they were drinking echoed in his mind, and the faces of the three people flashed before him in succession.

Not yet, I don’t know.

After drying his hair just enough to stop dripping, Dohwa returned to the room, where only small lamps cast a soft glow.

“Dohwa-ssi, I’m going to sleep first. Good night.”

“I’m tired too, so I’ll go to bed now.”

“Good night, everyone.”

No sooner had Woo Sori’s sleepy voice drifted from beneath his covers than Chaeyeon-woo, who had been sitting, pulled their blanket up and lay down.

His body was weary from the day’s extensive activities, but since he usually didn’t sleep at this hour, his mind felt completely awake after showering.

Dohwa’s eyes, the only ones not closed, sparkled brightly in the dark.

To avoid disturbing the two sleeping figures, he quietly slipped out of the room, clutching the book he had intended to read and his laptop under his arm.

Having observed a large table in one of the rooms during his initial tour of the house, he settled there, finding it conducive for work.

As he wrote in his diary, he realized he had garnered a significant amount of inspiration from the people he’d met. He felt confident that these new characters would possess a distinct and well-defined personality, unlike his previous creations.

Just as he finished writing his diary entry on his laptop and lightly stretched his neck,

“What are you doing?”

A dark silhouette appeared in the doorway, and a voice spoke, startling him so much that he let out a silent scream.