Mingi and Jongho take their focus to the area of the kitchen where Byul and San are currently in front of the stove, after her fourth attempt of trying to switch on the gas fails. She would put her hand on the knob, eyes trained on the burner but as she sees the spark, her hand is automatically retracted. She curls her fingers when she notices the others looking at her, anticipating that maybe, she could find the courage to let the fire burn for once.

"You don't have to do it if you still can't," San mentions. "We're not forcing you or anything."

"San," she manages, throwing a look back to Jongho and Mingi, who are giving her encouraging smiles and thumbs-up. She turns to look at San who looks placid; the events on the rooftop where Han Byul had revealed herself desperately buried back as he tried to get back on his own two feet. "We promised that we would somehow learn to cook together, and I wanted to do that before we don't get a chance. At least one edible dish."

San puts his palms together, then tightens the knot of his apron before nodding. "Right, we can do this. What about trying to cook some fried rice? We can use the leftover rice, and it's one simple dish where you can try to throw in every ingredient you can think of. The first step is to get on with the fire."

"You can do this, Byul!"

Mingi shakes his arms in the air, looking very supportive as his glasses slide down and he pushes it back up with his shoulder. Beside him, Jongho is more of a silent spectator, and he looks less believing in her effort to cook, but he stays there nonetheless. Both of them are allowing themselves to be the guinea pigs to taste her cooking, Mingi more willing while Jongho more reluctant. It seems the latter is starting to question his decision, as Byul couldn't even get past the stage to ignite the fire.

Putting her head down, she steps a little bit away from the stove, gesturing for San to come close to it. Without questioning it, he understands what she's asking him to do, so he twists the knob, hearing the familiar ticking as the sparks catch on fire.

Nodding with determination, based on the cooking video San showed her that she might or might not have repeated for a thousand times this morning, she picks up the non-stick frying pan first, throwing the utensil on top of the burner as the fire seems to be dancing to her skin. It falls with a clang, but surprisingly, it lands perfectly on the centre of the burner.

"Show-off," he teases, but there's a decreased enthusiasm behind it, as he's trying to draw the line between them. "That's a good improvement. Now next, the cooking oil."

He hands over the bottle of cooking oil to her, which almost slips out of his hand but she catches it, pouring in an amount that would clog their arteries. It seems that she's trying to kill them in the long-run, but he doesn't comment on it. She's only starting to gain her confidence; ignoring the fire but focusing more on what's on top of it. In fact, the fire might even be invisible to her now.

The ingredients are spread around on the kitchen counter, and in they go, the chucking of the first few uncertain, but it grows to become more confident as she throws in the rice. She cracks two eggs into the pan, beating them up with her spatula as they sizzle. She stirs the fried rice, making sure it doesn't spill out as the final amount of rice together with the rest of the ingredients rose to the rim of the pan. A few dashes of salt go in as San looks at the contents of the pan, amazement etched on his face. She plates them into three different ones, the last having the most as she wipes her brow. He goes to switch off the fire, and immediately takes up a spoon to taste it.

He stays quiet as he swallows, his expression unreadable as Mingi and Jongho approach them carefully. With anticipation he peeks at them, as they take a bite one by one. Like San, both of them remain speechless.

"The stomachache must be coming," she sighs, already picking up the dishes to be thrown away. "Until all of you are left speechless?"

"I'll be honest with you," Jongho is the one to speak up first as he stops her from taking the dishes away. "I had zero confidence in you and I was sure I was going to throw up the moment I chewed it. No offence."

"None taken."

"But this was way better than what I expected from someone who never cooked in her life."

"Really?" Her eyes light up as she puts back down the plates and they dig in without asked. Mingi and San nod to supplement his sort-of compliment, and she takes a seat, as if trying to compose herself. "I have always watched cooking videos but I never tried it. I was trying to imitate whatever I saw them doing."

"You did a great job," Mingi chips in, looking as excited as Byul herself. He looks proud, even, as he claps his hands and return to the dish that's almost finishing up. "You should cook for us more often, so you can brush up your skills! In no time you could be the best cook in our house; don't tell Seonghwa though."

"Yeah, you should," San helps to add, but him and Byul exchange cryptic looks that the two don't catch. "The problem's the fire, not you. You're getting there." He finishes up the whole dish, clasping his hands over the empty plate. He looks at her, and she seems to want to talk about something as she ponders on it. "You look like you're about to say something, Han Byul."

The corners of her lips tug upwards as she looks at the hacker and the field agent, as if sizing them up before saying, "I feel like I haven't heard about both of you as much as I do for the others. I mean, we don't talk much and we're pretty distant. Just thought that I'd like to know more about both of you."

San scoffs, then communicates with her through their eyes: Are you trying to get background information on everyone before we go away?, but she ignores him.

"You mean, like where we come from and stuff like that?" Mingi enquires, moving over to the sink to wash the plates.

"When all of you involved me in the mission at the hotel, I didn't really get to know about where both of you came from or how you got recruited. I know about the rest, but I don't seem like I know you guys. I mean, if you're uncomfortable then it's fine. Just thought it'd be a good conversation starter for a Friday night."

Two nights before the showdown.

"Really? But there's nothing interesting about our background though. I wasn't a street fighter like San was or a gang member like Seonghwa was, or were best friends stuck like Wooyoung and Yeosang." Jongho takes an orange and starts peeling it, his mouth moving as he tells stories about himself. "I was taken from an orphanage from Sunrise district," his face breaks into something akin to a smile, "bet you've never heard of the district. It's a small district, much smaller than Light. It's called that because that's where the sun rises from."

Byul lapses into silence, because it's true that she has barely heard of the district, but finds no point in telling that.

When he realizes that he's straying from the topic, he pops one segment into his mouth and chews on it, face unchanged even though he possibly picked up the sourest one. As the juice floods his tongue, he says through a mouthful, "Not sure who my parents were, because apparently they died on the day I was born and I was sent to the orphanage."

They shift in their seats, palpable silence continuing.

He keeps on chewing, and shrugs. "No memories to miss, so I don't feel affected by it. Nothing to miss when I've never experienced it in the first place." He takes another segment of the orange. "Stop looking like that, I don't need pity from any of you. I hate drowning in self-pity, so don't expect me to be crying about it. But-" he grins as he plucks one and gives it to Byul, "-I'm sure you would be amused when you hear Mingi's story. Despite looking intimidating at first because of his height, you wouldn't believe how he got recruited in the first place."

Mingi rolls his eyes as Jongho and San snort. "Right, make fun of Song Mingi right here because my past is not as cool as any of you." He clasps his hands and he mumbles his words, that the three of them crane their necks to hear him talking clearly. "I was from Sunrise district too, lived with my grandmother and got scouted because of my hacking skills. The rest was history."

"Exactly," San presses his lips together, looking like laughter would escape past the moment he opens them. "And what were you hacking?"

Mingi looks done with them that his mouth is left slightly parted, unsure of whether he's going to shoot them down or continue the story. "A game," he says shortly, narrowing his eyes as he knows what's going to come next out of Jongho's mouth.

"He was caught trying to hack the Sims because he wanted to get more Simoleons!" Jongho relays, and she has never seen him more animated, more lively. Looks like they're enjoying it even though they've heard the story countless times. "Song Mingi was about to be brought to the police but Bifidensis held them back and scouted him. Pfft, all because of him trying to hack into the Sims and get more virtual money."

"I was trying to buy a mansion, but I was short of money and working my Sims' glutes off tak