1st World: The Chef x The Celebrity
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Chapter 8: The Smear Campaign Begins
The Chef x The Celebrity
✨─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───✨
~ Date: Late June 2422 Interstellar Year ~
~ Location: World 1 – Luna Bellflower Moon ~ Terra Anka PXD2422 ~ The Golden Dragon Star Nexus Intergalactic Empire ~
✨─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───✨
🐦🔥 [ Phoenix ☯ POV ] 🐦🔥
Despite the professionalism between Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan and Choi Yongbok, rumors of improper behavior, harassment, and scheming spread quickly. Starnetizens claimed Beyol was trying to seduce Choi Yongbok even though he had supposedly been rejected again and again.
Choi Yongbok tried to dispel the rumors himself, but his stans and many passing starnetizens refused to believe him. They insisted he was only being polite for the sake of the show, or that Beyol had somehow manipulated him.
The rumors worsened once Beyol's secondary sex was exposed. Until then, he had kept his Dominant Omega status private for his own safety. Dominant Omegas were rare enough to be coveted, but being known as a male Dominant Omega was even more dangerous. One careless leak could turn admiration into obsession and curiosity into a threat.
Phoenix's expression darkened when Solaris reached that part. The leak was too precise to be accidental. Ordinary gossip could twist a clipped glance or an awkward pause, but private secondary-sex records were not something random fans could simply stumble across. Someone had either accessed protected information directly or received it from a person who could. That meant this was not a spontaneous mob reaction. It was staged.
Phoenix had seen enough ruined reputations across enough worlds to recognize the rhythm of a manufactured scandal. The first accusation was never meant to win the war by itself. It was bait. Something small enough to sound believable, vague enough to be repeated without consequence, and emotional enough that people would feel righteous for spreading it. Once the crowd accepted the possibility that Beyol was suspicious, every harmless action could be reinterpreted as proof.
A clipped video of Beyol leaning close to correct Choi Yongbok's hand placement became evidence of seduction. A pause in conversation became proof of tension. A moment where Choi Yongbok accepted Beyol's instruction became proof that the Movie Emperor had been bewitched. Even Choi's own denial could be twisted into another weapon. If he defended Beyol, then he had been manipulated. If he remained silent, then silence became confirmation.
That kind of trap irritated Phoenix more than open cruelty. Open cruelty could be met with knives, fire, poison, bankruptcy, public execution, or all of the above depending on his mood and available tools. Social manipulation was slower. It worked by convincing ordinary people to become accomplices while still feeling like heroes. It made a mob out of strangers, then hid the person holding the leash behind hashtags, edited clips, and righteous outrage.
-Phoenix - 'Solaris, mark the timing of every major post. I want the first account that used the seduction angle, the first account that mentioned pheromones, and the first account that exposed his Dominant Omega status. Also compare their posting patterns. If this was coordinated, there will be repetition: same phrasing, same images, same clipped footage, same emotional keywords.'
-Solaris - 'Understood, Mama. I will search for mirrored phrasing, repost clusters, edited media, anonymous insider claims, and accounts that gained followers or money from spreading the rumors.'
Phoenix's smile thinned. 'Good. Follow the attention, the money, and the access. Whoever leaked the secondary-sex record needed legal access, medical access, school access, family access, or a stolen database. The first three are easiest to disguise as bureaucracy. The last two are messier, which means they leave more blood on the floor.'
The more Solaris described the posts, the more obvious the pattern became. The first wave had not been a flood; it had been a drip. A short clip here. A vague "someone on set said" there. A fan account asking whether anyone else thought Beyol looked too comfortable near Choi Yongbok. A gossip page reposting the question with a laughing emoji. A so-called neutral viewer compiling every glance, pause, correction, and shared frame into an "evidence thread" that pretended to ask questions while clearly feeding the answer to anyone willing to bite.
Then came the anonymous insider posts. They never said anything concrete enough to be disproven. They used phrases like "I cannot reveal too much," "people on set know," and "watch episode three carefully." Cowards' language, Phoenix thought. Words designed to sound dangerous without carrying responsibility. The kind of poison that spread because it let readers feel as if they had uncovered a secret rather than swallowed bait.
The wording repeated too often to be natural. Different accounts used the same phrases: "gold-digging omega," "pheromone privilege," "dangerous closeness," and "protect the Movie Emperor." Some posts were polished enough to sound like public-relations copy. Others were crude and emotional, meant to stir outrage in people who never read beyond the first paragraph. Together, they created the illusion of a crowd forming organically, when in reality the crowd had been pointed, fed, and sharpened.
Phoenix had to admit the method was effective. Fan accounts made emotional posts about protecting Choi Yongbok. Entertainment bloggers posted long breakdowns full of cropped images and red circles. Anonymous accounts claimed the show staff had been "uncomfortable" for weeks. Comment sections filled with people declaring that Choi's denial had to be forced because a man like him would never defend someone unless management pressured him. Every defense became another accusation. Every silence became another confession.
Worse were the fake concern posts. Those were the ones Phoenix despised most. They did not call for punishment directly. They asked whether Beyol was "mentally stable enough" to be on a public program. They wondered if a Dominant Omega should be allowed near celebrities without stricter monitoring. They claimed to worry for Choi, for other contestants, for the safety of the audience, for the moral image of the empire. Concern was such a convenient mask. People could wear it while tightening a noose and still believe their hands were clean.
-Phoenix - 'Add fake concern posts to the list. Those are often written by people with an agenda or by fools who think fear makes them virtuous. Track which accounts switched from gossip to moral panic first. The pivot matters. Whoever shifted the narrative from "Beyol is annoying" to "Beyol is dangerous" either knows the culprit or is one of the first useful idiots they used.'
Once the public learned he was a Dominant Omega, the tone changed. Some called him a liar for hiding his status. Others accused him of using his pheromones to manipulate the show staff and Choi Yongbok. A few even claimed that if a Dominant Omega was allowed to act freely on a popular program, then other Dominants would believe they could do whatever they wanted without consequence.
Phoenix's fingers curled slowly against his palm. The accusation was ugly, but the logic behind it was uglier. Once the crowd decided Beyol's pheromones were dangerous, they could justify anything. Surveillance became protection. Isolation became public safety. Blacklisting became moral responsibility. If someone tried to lock Beyol away, they would not call it imprisonment. They would call it precaution.
That made Phoenix's stomach turn in a way hunger could not explain. He knew too well how easily people renamed control when the victim was someone society already wanted to restrict. Protect the public. Preserve order. Safeguard the vulnerable. Every world had its preferred language for cruelty. This one simply dressed its chains in pheromone theory and public concern.
-Phoenix - 'Solaris, add another category. Track anyone calling for monitoring, registration, forced medical checks, scent restriction, or removal from the show for public safety. Those people may not be the culprits, but they are useful pressure points. If the mastermind planned to turn public opinion into legal action, that is where the next stage would begin.'
-Solaris - 'Yes, Mama. I will flag posts that frame punishment as protection and compare them with any legal commentary, entertainment-contract clauses, medical-policy references, and security recommendations released afterward.'
Phoenix's eyes went colder. 'Good. If a rumor conveniently creates the exact public fear needed to justify a contract termination, medical order, or legal restriction, then it is not gossip. It is groundwork.'
For one brief second, Phoenix thought of his own hidden SSS-Dominant Omega status and felt something sharp slide beneath his ribs. Beyol had been ruined by the exposure of a regular Dominant Omega classification. If anyone discovered Phoenix's true level, the empire would not merely gossip. Families, labs, agencies, criminals, fanatics, and political factions would descend like starving beasts dressed in silk. The thought did not frighten him as much as it should have. It enraged him.
He had not survived thirty-two thousand years of stolen choices just to let another society decide his body made him public property. Not Beyol's body. Not Phoenix's soul. Not anyone's. If this world wanted to turn biology into chains, then Phoenix would learn the lock, copy the key, and melt the whole mechanism down before it could close around his throat.
The rage was cleaner than the fear. Fear made his hands cold and his breathing shallow. Rage sharpened him. Rage gave him edges. For a moment, Phoenix let himself feel it fully—the fury of watching another life be cornered by the same old mechanisms wearing new names. He had seen chains made of iron, contracts, divine decrees, imperial law, family obligation, marriage bonds, medical labels, and system commands. In the end, they all served the same purpose when placed in the wrong hands: to convince the victim that resistance was unreasonable.
That was what made this smear campaign so revolting. It did not need Beyol to be guilty. It only needed enough people to feel that he might be. Might be dangerous. Might be manipulative. Might be using pheromones. Might be lying. Might be hiding something. The word might was soft enough to slip past reason and sharp enough to cut a reputation to pieces. Phoenix knew that blade well. He had been killed by rumors before, by laws before, by families who smiled while handing him over to monsters because someone convinced them it was necessary.
He wondered, not for the first time, how many ordinary people became cruel simply because cruelty had been given a respectable excuse. Some probably thought they were protecting Choi Yongbok. Some wanted entertainment. Some hated omegas. Some envied Dominants. Some were frightened by biology they did not understand. Some only wanted to belong to the loudest side. The mastermind did not need all of them to be evil. They only needed them to be useful.
That was the part Phoenix hated most. A villain with a knife was honest. A villain with a crowd was cowardly. They could push one person forward, let another write the accusation, let ten thousand strangers repeat it, and then stand behind the noise pretending their hands were clean. Beyol would bleed in public while the one who opened the wound watched from somewhere safe.
Phoenix's anger cooled into something far more dangerous than rage. He would not simply stop the smear campaign. He would dissect it. Every phrase, every repost, every anonymous claim, every account that pivoted from mockery to moral panic would become a thread. Pull enough threads, and even the most careful spider eventually lost its web. This time, the crowd would not be allowed to swallow the victim while the puppeteer stayed hidden behind the noise.
That was when doxing posts began spreading across Stella-Link and Nova Talk. Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan's residence on Luna Bellflower, his family's restaurant, and even the old family farm on Kythera 88 were exposed. What should have been private information became entertainment for strangers who wanted someone to punish.
At first, the accusations came in waves: school bullying, arrogance, diva behavior, and fake dating scandals. Former classmates appeared online with polished stories of being tormented by Beyol, even though Beyol could not remember most of them and could not find them in his old class albums or yearbooks. The moment he tried to defend himself, the crowd treated his denial as proof that he had no remorse.
Then the so-called evidence appeared. Screenshots, official-looking school documents, witness statements, and anonymous posts were released one after another. Some people questioned the timing and inconsistencies, but their voices were drowned out by louder accounts demanding a public apology, removal from the show, and the end of Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan's career before it could even begin.
Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan had not yet realized it, but the smear campaign was no longer about ruining his reputation alone. The people behind it had moved on to something far crueler. If public opinion could not break him fast enough, they would turn their hatred toward the one place he could not protect from behind a screen: his family.
~ ✨~🐉~ ☯ ~🐦🔥~✨~
~ Date: Late June 2422 Interstellar Year ~
~ Location: World 1 – Luna Bellflower Moon ~ Terra Anka PXD2422 ~ The Golden Dragon Star Nexus Intergalactic Empire ~
✨─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───✨
🐦🔥 [ Phoenix ☯ POV ] 🐦🔥
Despite the professionalism between Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan and Choi Yongbok, rumors of improper behavior, harassment, and scheming spread quickly. Starnetizens claimed Beyol was trying to seduce Choi Yongbok even though he had supposedly been rejected again and again.
Choi Yongbok tried to dispel the rumors himself, but his stans and many passing starnetizens refused to believe him. They insisted he was only being polite for the sake of the show, or that Beyol had somehow manipulated him.
The rumors worsened once Beyol's secondary sex was exposed. Until then, he had kept his Dominant Omega status private for his own safety. Dominant Omegas were rare enough to be coveted, but being known as a male Dominant Omega was even more dangerous. One careless leak could turn admiration into obsession and curiosity into a threat.
Phoenix's expression darkened when Solaris reached that part. The leak was too precise to be accidental. Ordinary gossip could twist a clipped glance or an awkward pause, but private secondary-sex records were not something random fans could simply stumble across. Someone had either accessed protected information directly or received it from a person who could. That meant this was not a spontaneous mob reaction. It was staged.
Phoenix had seen enough ruined reputations across enough worlds to recognize the rhythm of a manufactured scandal. The first accusation was never meant to win the war by itself. It was bait. Something small enough to sound believable, vague enough to be repeated without consequence, and emotional enough that people would feel righteous for spreading it. Once the crowd accepted the possibility that Beyol was suspicious, every harmless action could be reinterpreted as proof.
A clipped video of Beyol leaning close to correct Choi Yongbok's hand placement became evidence of seduction. A pause in conversation became proof of tension. A moment where Choi Yongbok accepted Beyol's instruction became proof that the Movie Emperor had been bewitched. Even Choi's own denial could be twisted into another weapon. If he defended Beyol, then he had been manipulated. If he remained silent, then silence became confirmation.
That kind of trap irritated Phoenix more than open cruelty. Open cruelty could be met with knives, fire, poison, bankruptcy, public execution, or all of the above depending on his mood and available tools. Social manipulation was slower. It worked by convincing ordinary people to become accomplices while still feeling like heroes. It made a mob out of strangers, then hid the person holding the leash behind hashtags, edited clips, and righteous outrage.
-Phoenix - 'Solaris, mark the timing of every major post. I want the first account that used the seduction angle, the first account that mentioned pheromones, and the first account that exposed his Dominant Omega status. Also compare their posting patterns. If this was coordinated, there will be repetition: same phrasing, same images, same clipped footage, same emotional keywords.'
-Solaris - 'Understood, Mama. I will search for mirrored phrasing, repost clusters, edited media, anonymous insider claims, and accounts that gained followers or money from spreading the rumors.'
Phoenix's smile thinned. 'Good. Follow the attention, the money, and the access. Whoever leaked the secondary-sex record needed legal access, medical access, school access, family access, or a stolen database. The first three are easiest to disguise as bureaucracy. The last two are messier, which means they leave more blood on the floor.'
The more Solaris described the posts, the more obvious the pattern became. The first wave had not been a flood; it had been a drip. A short clip here. A vague "someone on set said" there. A fan account asking whether anyone else thought Beyol looked too comfortable near Choi Yongbok. A gossip page reposting the question with a laughing emoji. A so-called neutral viewer compiling every glance, pause, correction, and shared frame into an "evidence thread" that pretended to ask questions while clearly feeding the answer to anyone willing to bite.
Then came the anonymous insider posts. They never said anything concrete enough to be disproven. They used phrases like "I cannot reveal too much," "people on set know," and "watch episode three carefully." Cowards' language, Phoenix thought. Words designed to sound dangerous without carrying responsibility. The kind of poison that spread because it let readers feel as if they had uncovered a secret rather than swallowed bait.
The wording repeated too often to be natural. Different accounts used the same phrases: "gold-digging omega," "pheromone privilege," "dangerous closeness," and "protect the Movie Emperor." Some posts were polished enough to sound like public-relations copy. Others were crude and emotional, meant to stir outrage in people who never read beyond the first paragraph. Together, they created the illusion of a crowd forming organically, when in reality the crowd had been pointed, fed, and sharpened.
Phoenix had to admit the method was effective. Fan accounts made emotional posts about protecting Choi Yongbok. Entertainment bloggers posted long breakdowns full of cropped images and red circles. Anonymous accounts claimed the show staff had been "uncomfortable" for weeks. Comment sections filled with people declaring that Choi's denial had to be forced because a man like him would never defend someone unless management pressured him. Every defense became another accusation. Every silence became another confession.
Worse were the fake concern posts. Those were the ones Phoenix despised most. They did not call for punishment directly. They asked whether Beyol was "mentally stable enough" to be on a public program. They wondered if a Dominant Omega should be allowed near celebrities without stricter monitoring. They claimed to worry for Choi, for other contestants, for the safety of the audience, for the moral image of the empire. Concern was such a convenient mask. People could wear it while tightening a noose and still believe their hands were clean.
-Phoenix - 'Add fake concern posts to the list. Those are often written by people with an agenda or by fools who think fear makes them virtuous. Track which accounts switched from gossip to moral panic first. The pivot matters. Whoever shifted the narrative from "Beyol is annoying" to "Beyol is dangerous" either knows the culprit or is one of the first useful idiots they used.'
Once the public learned he was a Dominant Omega, the tone changed. Some called him a liar for hiding his status. Others accused him of using his pheromones to manipulate the show staff and Choi Yongbok. A few even claimed that if a Dominant Omega was allowed to act freely on a popular program, then other Dominants would believe they could do whatever they wanted without consequence.
Phoenix's fingers curled slowly against his palm. The accusation was ugly, but the logic behind it was uglier. Once the crowd decided Beyol's pheromones were dangerous, they could justify anything. Surveillance became protection. Isolation became public safety. Blacklisting became moral responsibility. If someone tried to lock Beyol away, they would not call it imprisonment. They would call it precaution.
That made Phoenix's stomach turn in a way hunger could not explain. He knew too well how easily people renamed control when the victim was someone society already wanted to restrict. Protect the public. Preserve order. Safeguard the vulnerable. Every world had its preferred language for cruelty. This one simply dressed its chains in pheromone theory and public concern.
-Phoenix - 'Solaris, add another category. Track anyone calling for monitoring, registration, forced medical checks, scent restriction, or removal from the show for public safety. Those people may not be the culprits, but they are useful pressure points. If the mastermind planned to turn public opinion into legal action, that is where the next stage would begin.'
-Solaris - 'Yes, Mama. I will flag posts that frame punishment as protection and compare them with any legal commentary, entertainment-contract clauses, medical-policy references, and security recommendations released afterward.'
Phoenix's eyes went colder. 'Good. If a rumor conveniently creates the exact public fear needed to justify a contract termination, medical order, or legal restriction, then it is not gossip. It is groundwork.'
For one brief second, Phoenix thought of his own hidden SSS-Dominant Omega status and felt something sharp slide beneath his ribs. Beyol had been ruined by the exposure of a regular Dominant Omega classification. If anyone discovered Phoenix's true level, the empire would not merely gossip. Families, labs, agencies, criminals, fanatics, and political factions would descend like starving beasts dressed in silk. The thought did not frighten him as much as it should have. It enraged him.
He had not survived thirty-two thousand years of stolen choices just to let another society decide his body made him public property. Not Beyol's body. Not Phoenix's soul. Not anyone's. If this world wanted to turn biology into chains, then Phoenix would learn the lock, copy the key, and melt the whole mechanism down before it could close around his throat.
The rage was cleaner than the fear. Fear made his hands cold and his breathing shallow. Rage sharpened him. Rage gave him edges. For a moment, Phoenix let himself feel it fully—the fury of watching another life be cornered by the same old mechanisms wearing new names. He had seen chains made of iron, contracts, divine decrees, imperial law, family obligation, marriage bonds, medical labels, and system commands. In the end, they all served the same purpose when placed in the wrong hands: to convince the victim that resistance was unreasonable.
That was what made this smear campaign so revolting. It did not need Beyol to be guilty. It only needed enough people to feel that he might be. Might be dangerous. Might be manipulative. Might be using pheromones. Might be lying. Might be hiding something. The word might was soft enough to slip past reason and sharp enough to cut a reputation to pieces. Phoenix knew that blade well. He had been killed by rumors before, by laws before, by families who smiled while handing him over to monsters because someone convinced them it was necessary.
He wondered, not for the first time, how many ordinary people became cruel simply because cruelty had been given a respectable excuse. Some probably thought they were protecting Choi Yongbok. Some wanted entertainment. Some hated omegas. Some envied Dominants. Some were frightened by biology they did not understand. Some only wanted to belong to the loudest side. The mastermind did not need all of them to be evil. They only needed them to be useful.
That was the part Phoenix hated most. A villain with a knife was honest. A villain with a crowd was cowardly. They could push one person forward, let another write the accusation, let ten thousand strangers repeat it, and then stand behind the noise pretending their hands were clean. Beyol would bleed in public while the one who opened the wound watched from somewhere safe.
Phoenix's anger cooled into something far more dangerous than rage. He would not simply stop the smear campaign. He would dissect it. Every phrase, every repost, every anonymous claim, every account that pivoted from mockery to moral panic would become a thread. Pull enough threads, and even the most careful spider eventually lost its web. This time, the crowd would not be allowed to swallow the victim while the puppeteer stayed hidden behind the noise.
That was when doxing posts began spreading across Stella-Link and Nova Talk. Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan's residence on Luna Bellflower, his family's restaurant, and even the old family farm on Kythera 88 were exposed. What should have been private information became entertainment for strangers who wanted someone to punish.
At first, the accusations came in waves: school bullying, arrogance, diva behavior, and fake dating scandals. Former classmates appeared online with polished stories of being tormented by Beyol, even though Beyol could not remember most of them and could not find them in his old class albums or yearbooks. The moment he tried to defend himself, the crowd treated his denial as proof that he had no remorse.
Then the so-called evidence appeared. Screenshots, official-looking school documents, witness statements, and anonymous posts were released one after another. Some people questioned the timing and inconsistencies, but their voices were drowned out by louder accounts demanding a public apology, removal from the show, and the end of Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan's career before it could even begin.
Beyol Bong Tae-Hwan had not yet realized it, but the smear campaign was no longer about ruining his reputation alone. The people behind it had moved on to something far crueler. If public opinion could not break him fast enough, they would turn their hatred toward the one place he could not protect from behind a screen: his family.
~ ✨~🐉~ ☯ ~🐦🔥~✨~