I actually know the truth.
Only I can see Yeseul.
I still don't know how I came to see Yeseul.
Whether she's a hallucination created by my anxiety, or just a ghost that's attached itself to me.
But I don't care either way.
She only tells me things that help me and things I want to hear.
Not once has she whispered like a demon trying to lead me down the wrong path.
That's why I didn't want Yeseul to disappear.
That's why I knew I shouldn't respond to her.
If I answered someone who wasn't present, I'd immediately be treated as strange.
Whether possessed by a ghost or seeing things.
People find it strange when others see what they cannot, and believe it needs to be treated and resolved.
"Hehe. You did well cooking with the downstairs neighbor last time, right? This time won't be difficult either. There are quite a few people, but Gabi is beside you and so am I. Let's do well without being afraid. Okay?"
But how could I make Yeseul disappear when she helps me like this?
Yet completely ignoring her also hurt my heart.
Even though only I can see Yeseul.
She treats me so well.
And I'm supposed to turn my back on her.
So without letting others notice, I nodded while making eye contact with Yeseul.
Fortunately, since my phone was between us, viewers would think I was nodding at them.
- Hextech: Isn't Gabi your friend's name? Why the formal speech suddenly?
- Palala: Friends sometimes joke around using formal speech, isn't that what this is?
- Dedica: I never use formal speech unless I'm really pissed off lol
- SilverPanthea: But is it normal to just say "thank you" when someone asks if you're okay...? The context seems a bit off
- Sistato: It's fine, normally people would say "I'm okay, thanks for worrying about me," but people don't always speak in perfect context
Even now, viewers were concerned because of my slip-up when speaking to Gabi.
I need to be careful. There's no need to make people suspicious.
I'll talk to you all I want when we're alone.
Please understand for now, Yeseul.
With an anxious heart, worried that Yeseul might be upset, I started chopping the vegetables.
I'd already learned from the downstairs neighbor.
And it's not like this required the high-level knife skills needed for slicing raw fish.
As Yeseul said, a knife is just a safe tool if you're not trying to chop quickly.
Curling my fingers to avoid cutting them, placing my knuckles against the side of the knife.
In that position, using the kitchen knife to slice onions and green onions with a pushing motion.
Without applying much force, the vegetables were easily chopped.
Gabi, who had been watching me with concern, seemed relieved when she saw me chopping vegetables so well.
She started focusing on the vegetables in front of her.
- Ttihwakjjit: Noel's good at knife work
- LexiaQueennim: Noel's better at bat work though
- BB14: No no, don't you remember Fiora? Noel's good with knives too
- Lorgee: Noel's good with spears too, right? Remember when she destroyed Jackson with the bread knife?
- SweetPotatoCake: Hey, don't take the jokes any further
- Averec: Whoever takes Noel home is lucky~ She's so good with knives
- HungryChobungi: Isn't that bad? If she catches you cheating, the knife direction changes
- SilverPanthea: No no, the knife direction stays the same, just the ingredients on the cutting board change
- Arongdarong: You idiots, just don't cheat
- Dedica: For real lol, if you cheat on a wife like Noel you're truly garbage
- CRCE: Cheating is garbage behavior to begin with?
- Dedica: Aha!
Fortunately, the viewers had forgotten about my strange comment and were focusing on my knife skills.
Honestly, I'm not skilled enough to deserve such praise.
But it still made me feel proud that everyone was complimenting me.
"I don't think I'm that good. But I'm glad my efforts are showing. Thank you."
"Hehe. That's right. Noel worked really hard."
"It was all to make braised ribs for my mother. I'm just quite disappointed that I couldn't feed her the braised ribs."
- Ttihwakjjit: Ah... I guess you can't bring food to someone in prison
- Sistato: In movies they smuggle in ramen and kimchi
- SilverPanthea: That's just movies... and that's smuggling, right? Regular people can't do that...
- LawyerDontDo♡Bal: If you deposit some money, it can make things a bit easier in there, legally, though there are limits to how much you can deposit
- Posikposikja: Oh right, there's the deposit system
I felt a moment of panic when I realized I'd unconsciously responded to Yeseul, but fortunately, the viewers seemed to interpret my answer as a continuation of what I'd said before.
This much is fine.
It would have hurt my heart to completely ignore Yeseul.
I think it'll be okay if I respond like this from now on.
Without letting others notice, connecting the context of the conversation might give me a headache, but making Yeseul upset would be worse than me having to think a bit harder.
After diligently chopping the green onions and onions and handing them to SpineSpirit, I gained momentum and quickly finished chopping the other vegetables that the other two had washed.
With nothing left to do, Gabi and I moved to watch SpineSpirit making the sauce. Though that just meant going around the connected tables.
"How's it going with the chocolate gochujang sauce?"
"Hmm, I'm experiencing muscle loss from tasting it to find the golden ratio. Sigh, I shouldn't be consuming this much sugar..."
"SpineSpirit, you should know you're blessed. Others have to eat unpleasant things to entertain viewers, but your viewers enjoy watching you eat delicious food."
"Ugh... I wish it were meat. But everyone keeps suggesting donation missions like eating cake, spreading jam on bread, drinking non-zero calorie drinks? I'm doing cardio I never signed up for!"
I understood what he meant.
A streamer's suffering typically becomes the viewers' happiness.
Of course, not severe misfortune, just enough stress to be entertaining.
Finding no drumsticks in your chicken order, or putting too much water in your ramen—these minor misfortunes can become humorous.
But if you drop all your takeout chicken on the street, that makes viewers feel bad too.
For SpineSpirit, excessive carbs are poison.
They bury the muscles he's worked hard to build.
So he has to exercise more to lose the fat.
That's probably why viewers want to see SpineSpirit eating desserts.
It's not harmful, but it does cause him stress.
- Ttihwakjjit: But what does chocolate gochujang actually taste like...
- SilverPanthea: Host, could you please try some and describe the taste?
- Dedica: This guy just tried to assassinate Noel
- Sistato: Honestly it sounds kind of terrible lol but it might surprisingly be good
Similarly, my viewers wanted to see me suffer too.
But I didn't really mind those requests.
Because when I was truly unhappy, they sympathized with me.
Even now, they occasionally make sad assumptions about my past.
Since I've grown fond of my viewers, I had no reason not to grant such requests.
Oh, and I wasn't particularly disgusted by chocolate gochujang.
Gochujang itself is already a bit sweet, right?
The combination of sweetness and saltiness is usually hard to mess up.
[Donation message from KimIpari]
Mission: Eat chocolate gochujang without throwing up!
"Well, I don't think I'll throw up. I'm not picky about food unless it's spoiled or fermented. Eating a balanced diet is healthy."
- LexiaQueennim: Does Noel eat eggplant side dishes too?
- Dedica: She probably got scolded if she didn't...
- Sistato: It's normal to get scolded for being picky about side dishes lol but in Noel's case...
- MissingBnB: She had to eat well because of her family environment...
See, even now they're making assumptions about my past and feeling sorry for me.
When there's no need for that at all.
So with Yeseul also urging me to try the chocolate gochujang quickly, I dipped my pinky finger into SpineSpirit's mixture and tasted it, partly to quiet the viewers.
"Well, I was raised quite well actually. It's a bit embarrassing to say it myself, but anyway, my mother was a good cook so there wasn't any food I refused to eat because it tasted bad. Hmm, the chocolate gochujang is... exactly as I expected. It's gochujang that's a bit sweeter, with a cocoa aroma that makes it interesting. But wouldn't it be too rich if we ate it with meat like this?"
It wasn't a particularly off-putting taste.
But perhaps because of the fat content in chocolate itself, it felt slightly greasy.
The meat itself would already have fat, so I wondered if this could be balanced.
"That's a problem. Would it be better if we added some vegetables and boiled it? If we thin it out, it might become too bland."
"It's not bad actually, but we need a refreshing salad. Something sour would be nice. Should we lend our knives to the other team and get some lemons in return? We're done using our knives anyway."
Lemon. Not a bad choice.
Greasy flavors are usually balanced by sourness.
Whether acid actually breaks down fat or it's just psychological, I'm not sure.
Anyway, seeing the other table tearing vegetables with their hands because they didn't have knives, we agreed an exchange wouldn't hurt.
So Gabi made a backdoor deal with Jaemin and got some lemons.
And that's how we created our chocolate-gochujang-extra-lemon sauce.
It became a bit thinner because of the lemon juice, but it was still quite thick.
"It's a spicy, sweet, salty, and sour sauce. I wonder if it will actually go well with meat..."
"Hehehe, we'll only know after we cook and taste it! Come on, let's throw everything in the frying pan and cook it!"
We'd done everything we could.
The last step was to cook the meat with the sauce according to Naengmyeonbap's orders.
Would food cooked this way actually taste good?
Along with the viewers, I watched Naengmyeonbap's heat control.
Even I, with little expertise in cooking meat, could tell things were going wrong when he insisted on using high heat.
But hey, it was fun. That's what matters.
Right, Yeseul?