"What?" the others exclaimed in unison.

The sleepiness wore off as they simultaneously went to the fridge. Joonie was the first to react. He gently pushed June to the side to count the number of boxes inside.

Then, his shoulders slumped.

"He's...right," Joonie muttered.

The others began to revolt.

"What do you mean we're missing one box?" Haruki exclaimed. "As far as I know, we created fifty cupcakes—no more, no less."

Hana nodded, her beautiful face graced with a prominent frown. "I may be really hungry, but I counted those cupcakes really well."

"I can assure you that," Mei said, raising her hand.

There was a slight annoyance in everyone's tone. It was obvious that all of them were on edge -as their chance to eat was now in jeopardy.

June sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. If only they had more ingredients, then he could whip something quickly.

"We're still going to be able to eat, right?" Jisung asked, sounding anxious.

With his question, everyone became rigid.

Pablo groaned and massaged his temples. "Crap," he muttered. "The production crew is not messing with us, right?"

Just then, Ramil PD came to the room.

"Woah," he chuckled. "What are you guys doing here? We still have around two hours left. We'll leave in an hour."

The others looked at each other with hesitation before Casper asked the question.

"PD, did you, perhaps, get one of the boxes of cupcakes inside the fridge?"

Ramil PD immediately frowned. "No," he said. "Why would we do that? Our staff has an amazing food truck that has both savory and sweet things! We even have refreshments."

They couldn't help but scowl. However, it was gone in an instant as they worried more about their cupcakes.

Ramil PD caught onto their silence, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"Don't tell me...," he muttered.

Pablo sighed loudly, confirming his speculation.

"You guys didn't finish the mission," Ramil PD said.

They collectively took a sharp breath after Ramil PD said those words.

"No, we did!" Casper exclaimed. "We really did. You can even check on the footage. It was just...gone."

"How could it be gone?" Ramil PD asked. Then, he called one of his staff members to go and find the footage of them in the kitchen. The staff nodded and opened his laptop.

They waited patiently, wanting to solve the mystery of the sudden disappearance of the cupcakes.

However, dread filled the room as the staff said his next words. He turned to the camera and saw that a small cloth had covered it.

Ramil PD was also surprised. "What? Who did this?"

The others glanced at each other, all with matching frowns.

"It has been there since last night," the staff said. "The camera didn't manage to get the person who covered it."

"Hmm," Ramil PD hummed. "So, we don't have footage of them in the kitchen?"

"We do," the staff responded. "However, it's all the footage we've filmed. They could have fifty cupcakes, but with this frame, we can never be too sure. Along with that, the monitoring camera would have caught the perpetrator-if there really is one."

Ramil PD sighed. "Maybe you guys just miscalculated...or counted one box as two."

"We didn't!" Mimi defended. "The three of us," she said, pertaining to the group of girls, "checked it plenty of times! I even counted those that I piped icing on. We can't be having a mass delusion now, can we?"

Ramil PD pursed his lips. "Then, how else are we going to explain the situation? Unless you can explain why this happened, then I don't think I can take you guys to the gathering."

There it was.

The thing they dreaded the most!

They were tired, cranky, hungry, and on edge! If they didn't get to eat for the night, then all hell was going to break loose!

"What do you mean?" Pablo couldn't help but exclaim. "We worked so hard on it! In fact, we've worked so hard for the last few days."

Ramil PD sighed. "I know," he said. "I've been a witness to that. But not everyone will. In this world, most people only look at the results. They don't care much about the process. If you didn't reach your objective, then why should I give you a reward?"

Everyone turned silent. They couldn't really refute his words. Although it was plain cruel, it was also reasonable.

Joonie cleared his throat. "Who was the last person in the kitchen?" he asked.

They turned to him with raised eyebrows.

He sighed. "We're all hungry," he muttered. "I know that all of us want to go down to the gathering. So, we need to look for an explanation for this. If it's not any of the staff members..."

Haruki frowned. "Are you insinuating that it's one of us?"

Joonie pursed his lips. "I believe so. It's the only plausible explanation at this point."

June frowned, predicting where this conversation was going. Joonie was speaking in such a

kind voice-almost unbelievably so.

"It was...June," Haruki said after a while.

The others, including Ramil PD, all turned to June, who remained composed and nonchalant

amidst all of this.

June pursed his lips and nodded, causing the others to frown slightly.

Jisung, on the other hand, immediately went to his aid.

"He cleaned up all the mess we made," he exclaimed. "He also packed the cupcakes in the

boxes! How can we even accuse him right now?"

"We're not accusing him," Joonie calmly said. "We're just conducting a thorough

investigation."

"As far as I know, everyone else went to sleep after baking the cupcakes. We only woke up

now," he continued.

"Ah," June muttered.

So, this was the route he was going to take?

"That's right," June said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"I was the last one here. I didn't sleep. I was also the one who discovered the incident," he

said, laying out the facts.

Joonie sighed and walked to where June was, gently holding onto his hand.

"I know that you've been working hard for all of us. You cook us meals, and you also eat the

least."

June pursed his lips. He didn't think he would notice that.

"You could have told us, June," he continued, appearing concerned.

"We could have spared some of the batter for you by reducing some from the others."

"You didn't have to take the cupcakes without us knowing."

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