Kaya just looked at Min-joon without responding. It was quiet now, or she felt it was suddenly quiet, but the excited voices of the wedding guests were ringing loudly like a symphony in the wedding hall.
“The way you propose is so bland.”
That was how she responded to his unexpected proposal. Even before he replied, she opened her mouth with a complicated voice.
“You haven’t even given me a ring.”
“I couldn’t prepare it.”
“You are not romantic at all when you propose to me like this.”
Min-joon was speechless. She was right. How could he think of proposing to her in somebody else’s wedding hall like this? What did it mean when the most shining moment in one’s life like the wedding ceremony was eclipsed by others’ more shining events?
Min-joon was about to regret his reckless proposal as the freak took him when Kaya looked at his romantic eyes quietly. Min-joon stopped regretting what he proposed.
She said in a trembling voice, “I don’t like the way you proposed, but I still like it.”
“I understand what you mean.”
“I’m scared because I might be in a dream or reality.”
While talking to him, she couldn’t get a sense of what the heck she was talking about.
She thought he was weird when he nodded, saying he fully understood.
“How do you know everything? Aren’t you pretending to understand?”
“I’m happy, but I’m worried at the same time. I’m relieved to get married in a stable future, but it’s a pity that I have to postpone our marriage until then.”
“Are you a mind reader, Min-joon?”
She looked at him with a surprised expression. He pondered over her question for a moment. Strange enough, he could read her mind easily. Did he learn how to read people’s minds while following June?
“Because I am on the same page as you,” he quietly confessed. “I share all of your anxiety, fear, and greed. I think other lovers feel the same way. They’re scared and worried, as if they are walking on a single wooden bridge step by step, and they reach the end of the bridge before they know.”
“What if they fall?”
He burst into laughter at that. He laughed because he thought Kaya’s worries were funny. Both even shared such worries.
He quickly said when she was about to make an upset expression, “I’m sorry. Don’t get excited. I laughed because it was funny. I asked Chef June the same question as you did.”
“What did she say?”
“Well, she said if I should not fail in something, I should not think of the cases of failure from the beginning.”
In fact, that was the best advice he got from June. Just by not thinking about failure, he could expect a more bright future. At first, he thought it might be unrealistic. Come to think of it, however, worrying about failure was also unrealistic because like success, failure didn’t exist yet. Besides, he felt that he was more confident of living day by day, aside from planning about his future. The moment he started to not look at failure, he had nothing to fear. Honestly, he thought that June came to realize only recently who he really was.
If she had thought about him like that, she wouldn’t have been so concerned about him when she saw him first.
“Well, what she said might be right.”
After pondering over it for some time, Kaya sighed and nodded. Then she slowly began to lean on his shoulder. She felt cold. She took her hand off the hard armrest and touched his clothes and his skin beyond it. Both of them touched each other’s warmth.
“So, have you okayed my proposal?” he asked gently.
Looking at him, she answered, “Let me hold it.”
“Hold?”
“I told you already. I can’t feel romantic about the way you propose to me, and you don’t have a ring for me. You are mean. So, let me hold it. You didn’t say we should marry right now, but you are asking me if I want to okay your proposal or not. Don’t you think you are too selfish?”
“I thought you could approve something like a reservation system.”
“Nope, I don’t have anything like that because I’m old-fashioned. If you want to enjoy my dish, put your name on the waiting list and line up, with the ring and other stuff. Then I can consider…”
Kaya tried to say something, but she groaned as if she couldn’t stand it anymore.
Then she said as if she was shy, “I can’t say anything further.”
***
Chloe enjoyed drinking today. She could not be drunk a lot on a day like today, but she was holding another wine glass in her hand.
Honestly, she felt there had never been a better day than today when she could get drunk.
The finest snacks made by many chefs were on the tables like a buffet, and the wedding guests were all excitedly chatting with their partners.
But she was alone.
‘What a sad life…’
She tasted bitter, but liquor tasted sweet. She was nervous that she might be an ugly drunkard at someone else’s wedding party, but she couldn’t resist putting the wine glass to her lips.
At that moment, somebody put another wineglass next to Chloe’s wine glass. Chloe looked at the man in blurry eyes. He was today’s star, Anderson.
“Ah, Anderson. Congrats! I feel like my tongue is tripping.”
“You are drinking a lot.”
“Shall you drink too? If the groom gets drunk at the wedding hall, you might become your guests laughing stock for the rest of your life.”
“Well, I have already caused a big trouble because of alcohol. So, no problem.”
She laughed at his response, then raised a glass of wine.
“Cheers to our picky groom!”
“Hey, what kind of taste is that? You are really drunk.’
“Why are you here alone? Where is the bride?”
“Oh, she is so popular at the moment,” he said, pointing to his back.
Today, Janet was surrounded by so many guests. Honestly, Chloe could understand them. Janet was beautiful today. She smelled so attractively that she couldn’t even be compared to a flower.
“After all, women are beautiful when they are loved. Good job, Anderson! You have made her so shiny like that!”
“Are you drunk and talking nonsense now?”
“You’re so mean. Can’t you just understand me?”
When she narrowed her eyes, Anderson drank wine, giggling at her.
She stared at the wine glass, lying face down on her table.
“Alcohol is my enemy. It makes me feel miserable like this every day.”
“Why don’t you stop drinking then?”
“How can I live without alcohol when I feel miserable?”
“Well, it’s up to you anyway.”
She seemed to be okay, so he thought she was sober, but she was not. She was drunk a lot. Anderson looked at Min-joon and Kaya quickly. When he saw them a little while ago, they were whispering to each other, but they were cooking in the kitchen with other chefs. Anyway, they looked happy.
‘Only this woman is getting drunk a lot here.’
He understood Chloe’s feelings. As a matter of fact, she liked Min-joon very much. Given that Min-joon and Kaya were famous for loving each other, she could be even called a pervert because she chose to be around them, which must be like torture to her.
“I want to get married, too…”
Chloe muttered, rubbing her face against the wine glass. Then she just closed her eyes. Anderson sighed, wishing that she could meet a great man someday.
While Anderson and Chloe were spending time like that, Min-joon was cooking in the kitchen at the request of the wedding guests. Cho Reggiano dessert. They were wondering what Cho Reggiano really tasted like, so he could not turn a deaf ear to their request.
In fact, it wasn’t just because of their expectations alone. He liked this moment so much.
Although it was not his wedding, it was the wedding of his best friend. So, he liked this particular moment among the chefs who came here to celebrate Anderson’s wedding.
If this moment wasn’t sweet, what could they call sweet in the world? Anderson’s wedding was like a festival to them. The happiest moment for a chef was when he or she met someone who appreciated their cooking. And each and every one of the people here was savvy enough to appreciate the value of fine food.
“Man, the Cho Reggiano that I’ve been eating so far isn’t a genuine Cho Reggiano.”
“You bet. I also thought it was something like a placebo effect. People have a strong perception that Cho Reggiano is great and delicious, so they seem to think they were moved by the taste when they actually didn’t feel it at all.”
“It looks like you are mean.”
The guests greeted Min-joon with a smile. He felt rather embarrassed, but he didn’t hide the joy of receiving their praise. The guests chatted with each other while watching him.
“I’m curious about what kind of restaurant he will open someday.”
It didn’t matter to them whether his restaurant would make good business or not because it was hard to imagine that a chef with Min-joon’s fame and popularity would not succeed. Of course, if his cooking skills were not as good as his recognition, his restaurant business might not be successful, but Min-joon was competent enough to be recognized in major cooking contests. That was why they were more curious. They were curious about what kind of chef Min-joon was, and what kind of restaurant he would run. Not all restaurants were high-end. Some restaurants serve only a few simple menus, while there were Japanese and fusion restaurants, as well as those that specialize only in molecular cuisine. Besides, there were some sort of hybrid restaurants as the one run by Kaya and Chloe, which were much different from the structure of a typical restaurant. Some chefs didn’t set up their own restaurants to explore ingredients from all over the world, so they became sort of catering chefs.
But they couldn’t ask him. Those who knew even a little about Min-joon’s awkward situation where he was now sandwiched between June and Rachel already knew that such a question itself was very sensitive to Min-joon. But not all of them were quick-witted enough to stay away from such a question.
After all, one of them asked, “Where and what kind of restaurant would you like to run later, Min-joon?”
At that moment, his eyes met Rachel’s. Since they arrived at Anderson and Janet’s wedding hall, the two had no chance to talk with each other. So, he found himself rather embarrassed because answering that question would be like confessing to Rachel.
But he didn’t hesitate for long. What he learned from June was not just calculating success and failure. As long as what he had to say would not do any harm to him, he was ready to speak out without any hesitation.
So, he said confidently, “In the past, I thought that I would set up a restaurant that would serve dishes with the finest ingredients, which they can’t eat anywhere else.”
“How about now?”
“Well, it’s rather vague, compared to what I thought before because I want to do more. I am getting more and more greedy about cooking, but I don’t know if I can satisfy my greed. But if you want me to single out one of them…”
Min-joon made eye contact with Rachel shyly, then said, “Someday, right here at this restaurant, I want to make a kitchen of my own.”
