"Burning up."
"FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
Jaemin was currently standing in the shower, singing a song of his past, which will eventually emerge in the future. He usually sang in the shower, it had been a habit for as long as he could remember. He usually showered more than an hour, so he had to do something to kill his boredom. His parents didn't like it, but that didn't matter now.
Because he lived alone.
That home that his grandfather showed him two weeks ago, was now his own. And he lived there without anyone else.
He was fourteen years old, and he lived alone.
It's very illegal, not that he cared. He liked living alone, he was almost as old as his parents mentally. So being treated as a child by them was very tiring. He liked it at first, but he quickly got sick of it.
His parents naturally dissagreed at first.
His grandfather told his parents that he will eventually need to go to Seoul if he gets accepted as a trainee. So he came up with the idea that he would live in one of the apartments there, with a care taker. Since they themselves couldn't take good enough care of him.
His parents wanted to go with him of course, but his grandfather told him it was better to let him go earlier, since they will have to when he passes the audition.
It all worked out in the end, and his parents agreed, which he didn't expect.
That care taker that was supposed to cook for him, do the dishes for him, wash his clothes for him etc.
She never came.
It was his grandfather's idea.
Why would he let a fourteen year old kid live by himself? Because he knew that something wasn't right. He was too intelligent and mature for his age. Moreover, he had caught him speaking to himself.
He always thinks out loud, which is something very stupid.
He talked about the future.
His grandfather was completely frozen. So he had to come up with an excuse.
Luckily, he was an expert in lying.
It took a full week to convince him, but he did, and he was proud of it. He himself didn't even know what he said to him, because basically everything he said was complete nonsense. He couldn't tell him he had been reborn with a system could he?
He had to call his parents everyday though, because they were worried. And there was another problem as well.
He couldn't cook.
He knew how to wash his clothes, do the dishes etc. But his cooking was terrible.
If he made kimchi stew, it would be kimchi soup, since it would be too bland. If he made a pancake, it would be a flat inkstone. Every dish he tried to make, resulted in a disaster.
He had tried to cook something easy today, an egg roll.
Result?
Burned egg roll.
He was just innately bad at cooking, but he could fix that.
"Skill Create: Cooking!"
========================
[ Kim Min-jae ]
[ Male ]
- Attributes -
Body Fitness: 20 (10)
Willpower: 20 (10)
Flexibility: 21 (10)
Intelligence: 21 (10)
Health: 20 (10)
Appearance: MAX (10)
Available attribute points: 20
- Skills -
Dancing: 40 (10)
Acting: 12 (10)
Singing: 35 (10)
Cooking: 3 (10)
Available skill points: 20
========================
Jesus, 3 points?
Even a homeless person could cook better than him.
He still had those 20 SP and AP from the latest quest he completed, and now was a good time to use them.
He invested 15 SP in cooking, and the other 5 in acting. An idol usually appears in dramas or other shows, and he needed acting for that. Starring in a popular drama could skyrocket his popularity, so acting was also very important, it couldn't be neglected. He had the inmense advantage of knowing which dramas were the most popular, so he had plans for that.
He invested 10 AP in body fitness, he already had a six pack, but having a nice body would make every fan, especially girls, go crazy. He inmediately felt the change after he invested those points. His shoulders got wider, his muscles became more defined, and he lost a bit of weight as well.
He felt full of power and stamina. He felt that he could easily run a marathon at this point.
He thought something was strange though, his mucles became more visible, but they only got a little bigger. It actually felt like his mucles were more dense than before.
He liked that though, he didn't want to become a bodybuilder. An idol is usually skinny. It seems this system was tailor made for a wanna-be idol. He wondered, if he maxed everything, would he become the perfect version of himself?
He decided he'd save some AP for later as well, since they could come in handy.
He suddenly had the urge to look at himself again...
He got out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, he approached that sacred mirror slowly but surely....
He looked into the mirror.
In his eyes. small hearts started gradually appearing.
He could really be a symbol for male handsomeness in South Korea.
If he had long hair and put on some girly make up, then he would be a national beauty. He could even put down Kim Tae-hee easily solely by looks. And with his short hair and muscular body, he had no equal.
"Aigoo, control yourself Min-jae. Don't fall in love with yourself.."
He quickly averted his attention elsewhere, started putting his clothes on and got out of the shower. He went straight to the kitchen because he was pretty hungry, and he wanted to test if he truly got better at cooking.
He picked some ingredients from the fridge, including the beef he had bought yesterday. He wanted to eat steak very badly.
He prepared everything in the kitchen, and put the meat in the pan.
Almost instantly, images and information appeared inside of his mind that showed him how he was supposed to cook the steak correctly. Most skills that had been upgraded would follow this process, so he was used to it.
It was a bit vague, probably because he hadn't upgraded it enough, but he could understand a lot of it.
This was the start of his first cooking session.
---
He put down his chopsticks.
His belly was stuffed, he couldn't eat anymore.
It was delicious.
The steak he made, combines with the side dishes he made, was truly something that he'd want to eat again.
It wasn't as good as his mother's, nor had it reached the standards of a restaurant. But he was proud of himself. It tasted pretty good, combined with the fact that he made it himself is something that made it even more tasty.
For his own good, he decided that his cooking skill will be maxed out, eventually.
Singing, dancing and acting were more important though, so he would focus on them first. He practiced those skills a lot as well, almost everyday. He basically did everything a trainee did, to stand out more.
He had the chance to be one of a kind, someone different then the others.
He was bound to become famous, incredibly so.
He knew what his future looked like, and he was looking forward to it.
But he shouldn't focus on the future that much, there was still a long way to go before he reached such a level. The present is what he was in now, and that is all he currently cared about.
He walked to his bed, he decided he'd go to sleep. It was his first day at his new school in Seoul tomorrow, and he needed to be fully rested for that. It was almost midnight already, so he didn't have a lot of time left.
*Rriinggg*
His phone rung.
"Gosh, which idiot contacts me at this hour."
He accepted the call lazily.
"Annyeonghaseyo, you're speaking with Kim Min-jae, who is this?"
He talked in a bit of a tired manner, like he wanted to quickly hang up.
"Ah, annyeonghaseyo, this is Park Jin-young from JYP Entertainment, excuse me for contacting you at this hour, I have some news for you."
WHAAAAATTT??!
Why was he so careless? He was talking to JYP himself!
His face turned pale, his forehead was being covered in cold sweat almost instantly.
"Ah- ah! Hello there Jin Youngpil-nim! It's an honor to speak to you! What is the reason for your call?"
(Author note: -nim is used as a high form of respect in Korea, usually used with CEO's, pastors, teachers etc.)
"Hahah, I'm sorry, had I called at an innapropiate time?"
He noticed that he was greatly startled, so he chuckled a bit.
"Ah no, not at all! I'm happy to receive your call!"
"That's good then, I usually don't contact the candidates personally, but you are an exception."
Scored! He was an exception! He was grinning from ear to ear.
"Your performance truly suprised me, it was basically perfect. I got goosebumps from watching you sing, and I got so into your dance that you did in the video, you are a very remarkable person."
"I guess you already know why I contacted you."
He did.
"You have passed the auditions, congratulations on becoming a trainee!"
(Current Status)
========================
[ Kim Min-jae ]
[ Male ]
- Attributes -
Body Fitness: 30 (10)
Willpower: 20 (10)
Flexibility: 21 (10)
Intelligence: 21 (10)
Health: 20 (10)
Appearance: MAX (10)
Available attribute points: 10
- Skills -
Dancing: 40 (10)
Acting: 17 (10)
Singing: 35 (10)
Cooking: 18 (10)
Available skill points: 0
========================