June did not know why she was touched by Min-joon’s warm attitude. She could not figure out why her voice trembled a bit at that moment. Maybe it was because she still thought he was Rachel’s man. In some respects, he was her alter ego, who always drew her attention. He was a chef addicted to Rachel’s world as far as she knew.
In fact, June was praised by many chefs and gourmets so far, but she couldn’t hear Rachel praising her. So, she might have felt like she was recognized by Rachel when he recognized her.
While taking a shower back home, June kept thinking about Min-joon because of the way he treated her. She wondered what made him respect her all of a sudden.
As a matter of fact, she kept wondering if she could ever win over his heart while she was working with him in the days ahead because he would not want her to talk about anything other than cooking. So, she was pretty much surprised when he accepted her proposal, though she pretended to look calm as usual.
“He has said I’m a good chef…”
While recalling what he said to her, she suddenly found herself surprised and turned the bathtub lever to stop the water. The foam on her body was already washed off. His unexpected warmness melted her icy feelings toward him. But she pulled herself together, with her eyes sharpening. The war of nerves between the two just began. She still had a lot of things to solve when it came to her building a relationship with him.
‘Thanks for having such expectations of me. So I’ll show you what it means to be a good chef or the best chef.’
***
“STOOOOOOOP!”
As if she couldn’t listen to him anymore, Kaya shouted to Min-joon.
When he looked at her, surprised, she also stared at him as if she was dumbfounded.
“Hey, your facial expression is so weird. If somebody sees me, they might think that I don’t listen to you at all.”
“Oh, what I mean is…”
“Hey, stop making weird expressions on your face! Let me repeat the same thing. How come you have a crush on June like this? What did she say to you?”
“Hey, don’t say I have a crush on her. You’re going too far!”
“I saw the same thing when you were dealing with Chef Rachel at first. Do you easily fall in love with a woman older than you if she is a good chef?”
“If I did, I would not date you like this.”
“Even if June is not that old, she is a good chef, isn’t she?” said Kaya, sweeping her dark hair over her shoulder blatantly.
Watching Kaya’s arrogant attitude quietly, Delia also swept her hair over like her.
At that moment, Chloe opened her mouth.
“Anyway, it’s good for Min-joon. As you know, you were very much concerned he might not hit it off with June.”
“Well, it’s rather hard to say whether I can hit it off with her or not. But she is much better than I thought.”
“Do you want to praise her in front of me?” demanded Kaya.
“She’s almost 20 years older than me, you know.”
“But she is almost 20 years younger than Chef Rachel.”
“Do you think it’s a meaningful comparison?” Min-joon asked, watching her protruding.
She stared at him, interlocking her fingers.
“Anyway! I’m not a fan of June, and I’m sick and tired of you praising her. So, choose whether you want to keep praising her or stop living with me.”
“Are you threatening me now?”
“No way. How can an intellectual woman in the 21st century do such a barbaric thing? I’m just proposing an elegant negotiation.”
“Got it. I’ll stop then.”
Min-joon shrugged with a sigh. With Kaya staring at him with an unsatisfied expression, Delia said to him, “By the way, have you heard about Kaya’s restaurant plan?”
“Yes, sort of. As I understand, she wants to make each dish quickly through the division of work while making a small profit through a quick return like a fast-food shop.”
“Honestly, do you think it makes sense to run such a restaurant at a hotel? I don’t understand how she can sell food with a cheap and delicious concept…”
“But you have approved it, right, Delia? You shouldn’t ask me.”
“Just ignore her. She is now trying to appeal to you,” Kaya said in a sullen voice.
Delia looked back at her without hiding her surprise at the moment. She thought she kept intentions from him, but Kaya clearly noticed her intentions.
Watching her surprised look, Kaya murmured with a sigh, “If you’re just hungry for praise, just speak out. Don’t beat around the bush.”
“Don’t you think you are treating me coldly? I’m the investor for you guys.”
“Well, I stepped on another hiker with a high heel, but you haven’t seen the soles of my high heels, right? Don’t you think I’m treating you well?”
“You’re so mean, Kaya,” said Delia while pouting, turning her sofa. She wondered why she was enduring Kaya’s insult while knowing she would be treated coldly like this.
At that moment, Min-joon opened his mouth as if he felt sorry for her.
“Thank you, Delia, for treating these two ladies. Hope they’re in your good hands. I know this is a pretty big adventure for you, too. Kaya knows it. She is just grumbling like that because of her hot temper.”
“Are you serious?”
“Lying is not my specialty.”
When Min-joon answered with a calm voice, Delia’s face began to turn bright.
Although Kaya watched the two conversing in a friendly manner, she didn’t stop them because she also admitted that she was treating Delia coldly. Instead, Kaya changed the topic.
“I don’t think this is going to be an adventure.”
“Hey, it is. As you know, unless it’s a small hotel or a short-term sales event at a small hotel, it’s not common for a big hotel restaurant to serve fast-food-like dishes.”
“I know. But our plan is perfect. We’ll be perfecting our dishes. Given we’re well known to people, it’s harder for us to fail.”
“I know what you mean, but….” Min-joon slurred his words.
Kaya and Chloe said that they wouldn’t hire any more chefs in their kitchen. They would not hire any additional cooks. What they wanted to hire were ordinary part-time students.
This kind of work system was possible thanks to a thorough division of labor like a fast-food restaurant. Since Chloe or Kaya would be in charge of the meticulous parts such as seasoning or difficult cooking, all the part-time workers needed to do was baking or trimming the ingredients.
“I’m going to start with offering hot dogs,” Kaya opened her mouth. That was new to Min-joon.
He asked with a puzzled look, “If you are offering hot dogs, isn’t it difficult to show your cooking skills properly? Depending on what sauce you are going to use, not to mention the buns, the hotdogs will taste differently, of course.”
“Yeah, sauce is the key, of course. As for the buns, we are looking for a baker who will supply good bread, and we have to make sausages ourselves.”
Min-joon nodded at that. He thought it would be fun. People didn’t respect hotdogs. It was not that they think it was not a good dish, but they tend to think that it was just an instant junk food.
Of course, any dish could be a great dish, depending on which chef made it, but people’s perceptions would not change that easily. They might not think of it as ordinary junk food, but there were many people who considered it as unusual junk food. Min-joon was not ready to accept their perceptions like that. Perhaps Chloe or Kaya felt the same way.
***
Two weeks wasn’t longer than Min-joon thought. While working next to Dobby as his assistant, he learned one by one how to help June as part of his sous chef training. When he was done working in the kitchen, he had to spend some time outside the kitchen as a member of society.
He could not understand why not a single day passed without any party in New York. So much so that all the parties in America were being held in New York. If it was not time to go to a party, June usually took time out to meet people by all means in various fields, ranging from hotel CEOs, entertainers, politicians to officials from the food authorities.
Min-joon thought June was more patient than he thought. Just as everyone in the world was not decent and polite, some of those she met were just rude and tough. Sometimes they were not polite, and they even sexually harassed her. Some of them took a high-handed stance toward her and didn’t even listen to her.
Nonetheless, she did not lose her smile.
One day, he asked because he was so frustrated with the way she dealt with people.
“Why are you trying to meet people like that?”
“You already know why.”
“Yeah. I know. Then let me ask you this way. Don’t you think it’s easy to build a good image of your restaurant even if you meet people who treat you nice and well, right? Why are you bothering to meet those guys who are rough-mannered and hostile to you?”
She listened patiently without ignoring him.
Instead of answering, she asked back, “Then can you tell me why I shouldn’t see them?”
“Well, it’s because…”
“If what you say may make me feel bad, I don’t care. I don’t need to have pride that isn’t helpful to me at all. If you really want to take care of your pride, you have to make use of those who are even rude to you. That’s the way you get even with them better.”
“It’s a win-win rather than revenge. No matter what kind of relationship they make with you, it won’t necessarily be beneficial to you.”
“Are you telling me not to have any win-win relationship with disgusting guys?”
He was speechless when she asked back.
She said with a sigh, “This is the relationship you make with people in society. Don’t think you’ll always have a relationship with people that’s pleasant and amicable.”
When she said that, he was still not persuaded because he wanted to tell her that he became a chef because he wanted to share his dishes and smile with everyone.
But she did not try to persuade him because she also knew he was stubborn too.
But was it because she didn’t really know how stubborn he was? Or was it because she didn’t know generally speaking geniuses had the kind of stubbornness that ordinary people could never imagine?
The next day, he showed how stubborn he was.
