Wax

Thirty Three

A/N: A long chapter because I fell ill last week and couldn't finish it ;-; I'M SO SORRY. Hehe. But ohhhh my gooddddddness I was dying (both because of the nausea I was experiencing but also because I was very eager to write this too). 

Without further ado, please enjoy. And after reading the comments from the last update, I see that most of you prefer the weekly updates no matter the length. Again, I'm sorry I missed last week update! ;-;

Also, I want to write a Vday special! Haha. There will be a vote on IG about what you'd like the special to be about. At the same time, I don't know, do you guys like the AUs that I write? Or is that, like, not as good as the SeeSaw chapters? Hmmmmm

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[Vanilla]

The list of names was fairly short. Five, to be exact. Out of the final thirteen we'd be picking for the show, these five—by means of simple deduction, judging from the placement and the seeming quality of these names as part of the cast on the show—had to be the select few who'd, by the production team's standards, secured themselves a spot.

I wasn't surprised. It was no secret; that reality TV competitions in general had scripted or pre-selected members of the cast even after filtering out profiles that were unsuitable for entertainment. Yet, it made no sense to add this to a judge's brief last-minute. I'd nearly been duped into thinking they'd actually forgotten about such a thing.

Hesitant, I approached Chef Pao regarding the matter and he laughed, patting the empty space beside him. I sat. "First time in TV like this?"

Although not quite understanding what he meant by the question, I answered in truth. "Yes."

"This list is special. When you taste their food later, you cannot say anything bad about their dish."

"Which would therefore warrant their acceptance into the thirteen?" I tried to piece together but again, missed the mark.

"Yes, and no. It is just to make sure the post-production team can edit smooth. In any case, these people's cooking will not be, uh... these people's cooking will look very good on camera. That, I can confirm. So we cannot contradict this and they would like for us to say... good things. You know?" Chef Pao did his best to explain this in the simplest manner and although I most certainly expressed some form of disappointment, I wouldn't go as far as to say it wasn't expected of entertainment.

"So... not a word of helpful criticism?"

"Okay that one, grey area. Right?" He gestured to the uh... imaginary grey area. "If you think one of these people's dishes is bad, just keep quiet. Like that, easy for post-production. Actually, criticism also okay because preliminaries, they can cut out. Because not live. Just more work for them, you know?"

I shook my head and he humored me with a laugh. Just to further illustrate my dilemma to another judge who seemed much more experienced in the field of entertainment, I asked: "Correct me if I'm wrong. We are to lie about the taste of their food?"

"Ah, not lie, not really, just uh... say nice things instead of... okay yah it's lying," he ended up admitting and it brought about some laughter in the room. "Are you uncomfortable with that?"