“Well, even now, I’m making the dish I borrowed from Daniel. Even if I make a dish myself, I always have to agonize over whether it’s really my original dish. But Min-joon makes his original. He has never seen Daniel’s dish, but he can make one that resembles Daniel’s. He has Daniel’s soul and talent.”
“Why are you saying you borrowed your dish from Daniel? I know you were influenced by Chef Daniel, but I don’t think it’s a borrowed dish.”
“I always helped him cook. So, he was always the main character. What I did was just help him as an assistant. But Min-joon is…”
Rachel didn’t say further at that moment, but it wasn’t that difficult for Deborah to predict what she would have said after that.
Deborah said in a soft but troubled voice, “Min-joon must be happy to receive your trust and love.”
She could not remember what Rachel said next. Sitting down on the sofa in the break room, Deborah pondered over her conversation with Rachel. Right at that moment, somebody opened the door of the break room suddenly. He was Justin. With a pale look, he opened the cabinet on one side roughly and began scouring the contents.
Deborah asked in a confused voice at his sudden action, “Justin, what’s wrong with you?”
“Oh, Chef.”
It seemed that he didn’t even notice she was there. She saw a cold sweat on his forehead.
She asked in an anxious voice, “What’s going on?”
“Well…” Justin blurred with his eyes trembling with anxiety.
It seemed he was so shocked at the moment that he could hardly talk to her right away.
A little later he barely opened his mouth.
“Chef Min-joon has collapsed..”
“What did you say?”
She looked at him with a perplexed expression. Even a little while ago, Min-joon talked with her cheerfully. Did he really collapse? But Justin was serious. Finally, he said nervously in a trembling voice as if he was shaken, “I ran to the kitchen when Cook Maya suddenly screamed and found Chef Min-joon lying on the ground. And…”
Deborah ran out of the break room even before she heard him out. The hall was shrouded with an atmosphere of sudden turmoil.
“Did you say that Min-joon collapsed?”
“I think so.”
With people in the hall whispering about Min-joon, Hall manager Annie, waitresses, and waiters were busy reassuring them with a calm voice.
‘Man, it seems like I’ve come to a battlefield suddenly,’ Deborah thought to herself.
She expected little that a quiet dining hall here would turn into a place of confusion in an instant. When she entered the kitchen, Anderson was carrying Min-joon on his back, who fell to the floor. Deborah turned her head then moved quietly and grabbed Rachel’s trembling hands, namely, Rachel’s hands that were weak and wrinkled with the passage of years.
“Don’t worry, Master Rachel.”
Rachel didn’t answer. But Deborah knew who she was intensely looking at, with her face pale and white. Deborah quietly hugged Rachel tightly. Her fleshless body was so small and slender that Deborah felt as if she was hugging a little girl. She hugged her cold body, trembling in fear. Rachel barely opened her mouth only when her cold body got warmed up with Deborah’s hugging.
“Now I’m fine. You can let go of your arms.”
She spoke in a firm and stern voice, but Deborah easily found she was anxious and nervous right now. But she slowly withdrew her hands from Rachel.
Clenching her fists, Rachel looked around the kitchen. Anderson, who carried and loaded Min-joon in Justin’s truck, returned to the kitchen with sweat on his forehead.
Rachel opened her mouth in a low voice.
“Keep doing what you were doing. Our customers are waiting for their dishes.”
“Yes, Chef!”
Their colleagues fell right in the kitchen, but it would be a lie if Min-joon’s colleagues in the kitchen would not feel confused and surprised, but they didn’t try to express their feelings.
In particular, it was Rachel who was agonizing most at the moment.
Even Maya was trying hard to hold back the tears welling in her eyes, let alone other chefs.
Glancing around the kitchen, Rachel said with a sigh, “It’s fortunate that Ella is not here. If she had seen him like that, she would certainly have felt deeply wounded.”
“Are you alright, master?”
“Oh, you’ve grown, Deborah. It’s very kind of you to check on me.”
“Who would take care of you without me?” Said Deborah cheerfully, pouting her lips.
Obviously, she wanted to change the heavy atmosphere in the kitchen. Rachel didn’t want to throw cold water on her warm consideration.
“Stop it and take charge of the molecular cooking section on behalf of Min-joon.”
“Are you going to use me for free?”
“I’ll give you an answer.”
“Pardon?” She asked with her eyes open wide.
Trying to avoid her gaze, Rachel said in a calm voice, “Let me tell you how to get out of the slump you are in now.”
“You’re mean, Rachel. If you make an offer like that, I can’t refuse.”
“You don’t mean to refuse anyway.”
Actually, Rachel was right. Deborah shrugged humorously.
Rachel said with a sigh, “And don’t try to comfort me. If you are going too far, I feel uncomfortable now. I’m okay. As you know, I’ve already gotten sick a lot. Do you think someone like me, who’s covered with bruises, will fall because of another shock?”
Since Rachel clearly said she didn’t want any more comfort, Deborah felt it awkward to keep talking to her for comfort. Heading to the kitchen counter for molecular cooking, Deborah suddenly became curious about one thing.
“Don’t you feel more pain if somebody hits you on your wounded part?”
**
“He collapsed from overworking…”
Justin and the cameraman next to him let out a sigh of relief almost at the same time.
They thought Min-joon might have had a serious illness because he collapsed suddenly without any reason. Fortunately, Min-joon collapsed because he overworked himself, which meant he could get well with good rest. Justin collapsed onto the chair as if he finally could feel relaxed.
“What a relief!”
“Well, I can’t definitely say that he is in good condition. He really needs an absolute rest for the time being. It looks like he worked too much. He is really in bad shape,” said the doctor who examined his condition.
The doctor disappeared after explaining Min-joon’s condition for a while. It wasn’t until he disappeared that Justin turned to the cameraman with a slightly quaint expression.
“It’s Chef Min-joon who overworked himself. But why should I be scolded for his illness?”
“That’s the way life is. You don’t understand it, and sometimes, things are unfair.”
“Well, I don’t feel that bad because the doctor said Chef Min-joon didn’t have any serious disease.”
“To put it more bluntly, we can’t say it’s anything like a disease. By the way, I guess you really like Chef Min-joon a lot since you are so relieved by the doctor’s assurances.”
“Of course I do. He takes care of me better than any other demi chef. How can’t I appreciate his consideration?”
There was no pretense in Justin’s voice. Even the cameraman could notice that he was really worried about Min-joon and respected him. The cameraman slowly turned the camera lens toward Min-joon. Why did he recall the image of the Sleeping Princess in the Woods when he saw Min-joon sleeping peacefully with the IV fluid in his arm?
‘Does he need a prince to wake him up with a kiss?’
There were probably quite a few who wanted to be that prince, given that even the apprentice chefs like Justin value him so much.
“When did the doctor say he would wake up?”
“I wish he could have a sound sleep. The doctor has asked me to have him sleep again even if he wakes up,” Justin said in a worried voice.
According to the doctor, a sudden change in Min-joon’s daily life was putting a strain on his body. Just like the farmers who were fine during the summer when they were so busy, but got sick during the fall when they were free after harvesting, Min-joon collapsed from accumulated fatigue the moment he felt relaxed.
The cameraman said in a troubled voice, “If he was overtaken with fatigue because he had a break, I think he would rather have kept overworking himself.”
“If that’s the case, his fatigue would have piled up and collapsed with more aftereffects. I think it’s good he collapsed this time. Once he gets well again, he won’t get sick for a while.”
“Well, I hear when you get sick from overwork, you don’t get sick frequently for a while.”
“I don’t think it’s proper for you to say that now.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Since it’s my job to inform our viewers of the facts, I’m accustomed to telling you the truth,” said the cameraman humorously.
But Justin didn’t laugh. He could not afford to laugh casually with Min-joon in bed with illness.
Only then did the cameraman scratch his cheek with an embarrassed expression.
Min-joon did not open his eyes for a long time. Meanwhile, there was lots of gossip about him circulating on the internet. In fact, there were dozens of customers at Rose Island when Min-joon collapsed. Some of the customers posted about his illness on the internet, which spread quickly like a wildfire.
Some of those with smartphones did not know who Min-joon was, but there were none who didn’t know he passed out. There were countless comments and feedback on the internet, such as, ‘Who the hell is he? Oh, is he the guy who developed Cho Reggiano?’
‘Oh, this is going to be a big topic that can grab people’s attention.’
Originally, the cameraman was supposed to finish the shooting today. As soon as the news about Min-joon’s illness broke, however, the head office ordered the cameraman to shoot another scene about his illness and the explosive reaction on the internet. Of course, he needed to get his permission when he woke up, but there was no reason for his refusal.
Even if he refused, the cameraman could cut off the additional scenes about his illness later.
But as time went on, the cameraman became more convinced he could not delete that scene. It was simply too good to be deleted from the main scenes, given the arrival of famous visitors to check his condition at the hospital.
“Chloe, Kaya, Marco, Anderson, Rachel… Well, they should definitely come here because they’re close to him. No wonder Emily and Sarah are visiting because they did a lot of broadcasting together. But…”
But the problem was that there were celebrities coming to see him, too. Some of them were famous hosts of TV cuisine programs or star chefs in Los Angeles.
