[🏠︎] dining room.

it is an hour later when seonhye arrives back at the house. she had found a quaint bakery on her route and she'd seen the text about how there wasn't too big of a selection for breakfast so she thought it couldn't hurt to add some more variety. she walks straight to the dining room since she remembers a couple people had gathered there earlier. "good morning!" she repeats again, smiling as she holds up the bag in her hands before she places it down on the counter. "bread and pastries. i thought it couldn't hurt to have some nommies around in case anyone wants to take something to-go or just isn't feeling a heavy meal. could be a good snack too!"

he's back from his early morning bicycle ride, having parked the bike in the front yard. last night, after cleaning up after the welcome party, as seungwoo had been taking out the trash, he had come across two bicycles parked in the mansion's garage. wanting to get some fresh ingredients in preparation for breakfast, at the sight of the bike, seungwoo had thought to bike his way to the farmer's market nearby. it was only a 30-40 minute cycle, and he deemed it'd be a good way to add in some cardio into his day.

entering the mansion, he takes off his shoes, keeping his hiking backpack on. his bundle of fresh ingredients were inside the bag. he hears the chatter of his fellow contestants (now cohabitants), coming from the direction of the dining room. "good morning." seungwoo says in passing, as he strides off to the kitchen. "i'll have the omelette and pancake ready shortly."

Junha stirred the tea a little, he likes his herbal tea without any sugar with it. Then when the tea is fully steeped, he drains the tea bag with a small spoon, pressing on the side of the mug before tossing that into the nearest bin. "Actually I do enjoy coffee in the morning too but most of the time I opt for tea. It helps me better than coffee." He said and slowly takes a sip of his tea slowly, inhaling the scent of the chamomile at the same time. He peered over a little at the toast that Taehoon is making before nodding. "Oh butter on please, thank you." He said and he reaches for some sugar to sprinkle onto his buttered toast.

Taehoon resumes his unofficial post at the toaster, pushing down the silvery stainless-steel lever to send the slices of bread into their own little inferno. "You enjoy tea over coffee in the morning, Junha?" he asks, giving the other male a short glance over his shoulder before he makes a short walk to the refrigerator to see if there's butter. He finds one stick of butter, fortunately. Then he opens the top-most drawer next to the stove and pulls out a butter knife. He takes all of his findings back to his spot by the toaster just as the perfectly golden brown slices pop back up. "For right now, it's just you, me, Yeonah, and Seonhye. But I'll message in the chat to see if anyone else wants to come along with us." With agile ease, Taehoon unwraps the unused stick of butter and then uses the butter knife to cut a small slice before he smears it on over the hot toast. "Do you both like butter on your toast?" He asks to Yeonah and Junha.

He grabs the chamomile tea from one of the jars and drops it into a mug before moving to the water station to pour 3/4 hot water to let the tea steep for a few minutes. Junha's head turn to Taehoon when he asked him, flashing a warm smile. "I did sleep well... thank you for asking." He said and then poured a little room temperature water into his tea. "Oh toast? Yeah sure... I would like that." He said and then leaned his back to the counter. "Ah so we're going for groceries together later right?" He asked, as his mind remembered that Taehoon, Seonhye and himself will go. "Is there anyone else coming along?"

When the other male joins them in the kitchen, Taehoon turns his head to look at him. "Good morning, Junha-ssi. Did you sleep well?" he asks, attempting to make nice small talk. "I'm making us some toast. Would you like one?" Taehoon watches as Junha makes his way over to the jars of tea.

As Seonhye enters the space, Taehoon looks and greets her back with a, "Good morning." Many of the other contestants seemed to be early-risers too, which he surprisingly found relief in. He thought he'd be the only one. Dressed in her pink athletic wear, it's apparent that she'll either be making use of the gym but when she announces that she was going out for a run, it catches him off guard. She didn't look like the type. He's about to tell her that on his earlier run, he'd also done the same on his route, but she's out of the kitchen before he can do so — and before he can ask her about running. He decides he'll find another opportunity to ask her those questions.

When suddenly Taehoon heading to the toaster, Junha avoids the space stealthily. He turns out of Taehoon's sight, footsteps light as a cat. But then his presence was caught by Seonhye who was coming down the stairs. His eyes watches at how cheerful she is so early in the morning with such bright attire, as if she is carrying the sunshine in her very being. "M-morning..." He said, did not even know why he stuttered. Now that he is caught, might as well just invade the space where Yeonah and Taehoon were in the first place. He needs his morning tea after all. "Morning Taehoon-ssi and Yeonah-ssi." He greeted lightly before making a beeline to the jars of variety tea bags. He heard what Seonhye yelled and just nodded, noting silently what she said in his mind.

there's a skip in her step as she descends down the stairs from the second floor to the main floor. her hair's tied up into a high ponytail and she's donned a light pink matching athletic set, evidently ready to get her steps in. aside from being in unfamiliar territory, it's going to be a good day today. that's always what seonhye decides to believe, anyways. and if it's not, she'd just say it again the next day until it was.

"good morning, junha-ssi!" she greets junha with a beam as he appears, unaware that he was trying to get into the kitchen stealthily. she hasn't caught sight of taehoon and yeonah yet, but does when she heads toward the water dispenser to refill her bottle. she flashes them a smile too. "good morning, taehoon-ssi, yeonah-nim!"

only when she's done with that does she turn around, on her way back out, but then she stops to inform everyone: "i'm going for a run around the neighborhood. i'll try and see if there's any local matjibs and take note of the convenience stores too. text me if you want anything!"

and with that, she's off.

Her suggestion draws a laugh from him as his head gives a slight nod in acknowledgement. "I suppose it can appear that way," he replies, taking another sip of his coffee as he leans his back against the island counter. When she turns around, he's not expecting her to be so surprised that he'd follow her into the kitchen. It would've been even more strange if he stayed behind—and frankly, he's enjoying their conversation thus far. Nevertheless, he apologizes for startling her. "Sorry, am I too close?". It's a rhetoric question, but he takes a tiny step to the side, hoping he hasn't made her uncomfortable in any way.

As if to make it appear as though he didn't just follow her to talk, he sets his coffee mug down on the counter before he goes over to the toaster, reaching over to open the bag of bread. Just as he does, he senses another person's presence, but they disappear just a quickly, leaving him wondering who it was. "Yeah, just a few work e-mails I needed to respond to. Nothing too serious," he responds. That was a lie though — there were at least 10 other client e-mails on his correspondence. "Did you want a toast too?" He throws her a questioning look, eyes briefly flickering to the cup of coffee in her hand. "I don't think a single cup of coffee will sustain you for our day of grocery shopping."

Junha was about to enter the dining room but then halted silently when he sees there are already two people there chatting. He did not want to disturb the good mood, he makes a silent u-turn immediately, heading to the kitchen instead.

"Is that so?" Yeonah chuckles as she reaches for the coffee maker, grateful that the beverage is still relatively warm; she opens up a nearby cupboard—voilà, mugs on her first try at navigating the space!—and pours herself a decent cup, inhaling the scent of the dark liquid deeply and letting out a long sigh in the process. Despite her parents constantly reminding her of the drawbacks of taking caffeine first thing in the morning, she'll always beg to differ. "I'm glad you did. Also, I wasn't accusing you of anything, but if the shoe fits I guess?"

Unaware that Taehoon had already approached her, she turns and promptly takes a step back in surprise, narrowly avoiding sloshing her coffee onto his (obviously expensive, if the logo peeking in through the tape was indication) polo shirt. "Woah, there. Hi," she laughs, a certain redness tingeing the tips of her ears in embarrassment. The proximity allows Yeonah to crane her neck up—she'd only realized it, but this man is /tall/, good Lord—to blink up at him, and she gives him an impish look as she sips from her own mug. "I slept well, too. As well as I can, at least. My body clock decided to ignore my alarm altogether and woke me up early," she laughs, shrugging as she seats herself down onto one of the island chairs, once again putting some distance between her and the male—and in the process, slowing down her heartbeat (for obviously non-medical reasons, she ruefully surmises). "A bummer, because I actually wanted to experience sleeping in for once."

"You, on the other hand, seemed busy before I came in." Another sip, this time with a questioning gaze directed at the male in front of her. "Work stuff?"

He's proofreading the contents in his e-mail when the soft pattering of someone coming down the stairs reaches his ears — but he's locked in. He's focused . . . that is until he glimpses upward to take note of who's come down to join him on the ground floor of the house, and he does a double-take. It's Yeonah. The fresh look of her in the morning does something strange to his heart, and he has to remind himself to breathe. Figuring the e-mail is good as it is (within that split second), Taehoon sends it out to the client before shutting the screen of his laptop and redirecting his undivided attention on the woman who has just entered the space. "Good morning, Yeonah." he responds, amused at the distance she's given them both as she stands by the island.

Taehoon rises from his seat and makes it a short walk towards her with his mug of coffee in hand. "Are you accusing me of being an insomniac?" he quirks a brow, teasing as he raises his cup to his lips for a short sip. After swallowing, he continues. "Of course, I slept. Quite well, surprisingly. You're up early as well. How did you sleep?"

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Alarms be damned—her own body clock had woken her up a good half-hour before her phone was set to ring, and Yeonah figured a cold shower would be the best option to fully wake herself up. She sighs as she makes her way out of the en suite of the shared bedroom, quietly patting her hair with a towel so as to not wake her roommates; when she deemed her tresses sufficiently dried, she quickly styles it before heading directly to the kitchen, figuring somebody else /has/ to be up with the smell of coffee lingering in the air.

She stops in her tracks right by the archway leading into the dining room, finding a familiar face seated by the large table smack dab in the middle. Yeonah smiles; at least it's someone she's conversed with before—this is gonna be a walk in the park, right? "Good morning," she pipes up from where she stands, acknowledging Taehoon's presence with a small tilt of her head even as she beelines it to the island across the space. "You're up early. Did you even sleep, Taehoon-ssi?"

The red-dotted modern contemporary styled clock on the wall read five fifty. Taehoon sat alone at the dining table, a laptop propped open as he perused through recent e-mails he's received from [bleep] and from clients. A mug of black coffee on the right-side of his laptop sat steaming, unsipped. Despite the early hour, he's made-up as if this were any other normal day of going into office. Just as the clock strikes six, he's typing away furiously, responding to a client's e-mail about an upcoming project that will need [redacted].

[〆 ﹕ open starter for anyone or for an interspersed group thread! no need to tag taehoon in your reply. ]