It was cold in Santa Monica during the winter. Of course, those who lived there prepared for the cold by wearing overcoats and knickers in winter, but it was not that cold for those who lived in a colder place.
It was raining now, but it almost stopped now. The water droplets flowing through the window accumulated under the window frame for a long time.
“Rain stopped,” Janet muttered blankly.
Anderson didn’t respond, but she continued without caring about it.
“We have got married.”
At that moment, she heard somebody’s voice as stubborn as the water droplets. She turned her head. Anderson was looking at her as if he could not believe even now.
“Yeah.”
He put his hand on her belly. Until just a few months ago, he could not put his hand on it naturally like this. But now he was different. He could put his hand on it, and he could sleep with her.
“I’m sorry we haven’t gone on a honeymoon. We got married when you got a baby bump.”
“Well, if I had not shown in pregnancy, we would not have gotten married from the beginning.”
He didn’t want to deny it, but at the same time, he got a little curious. If Janet hadn’t been pregnant, had they not gotten married?”
He thought about how he came to propose to Janet. He also thought about how they got married. The most probable reason for it was because she got pregnant, but that was not necessarily true because Janet had never wanted Anderson to marry her.
It was Anderson who rather wanted to get married to her. It was Anderson who couldn’t stand it. Every time her baby bump started to show more, and she went to work at Rose Island without showing her feelings when her nerves were on edge, not to mention drinking alcohol that she liked so much, he could not afford to be a mere onlooker anymore.
Should he call it sympathy for her or a sense of responsibility for her? Or was it love? Although he wanted to call it love, he was not yet sure about it.
He felt warm-hearted when he saw her. He felt comfortable. When he embraced her skinny body in his arms, he felt like he became somebody. He felt like the world around him had changed. But he didn’t know what to say if he asked if it was love. If it had been love, he should have loved her even before she got pregnant.
When he was toying with such mixed feelings, she said, looking at him, “Do you want to enjoy some honeymoon feelings now? You are very energetic today.”
Instead of answering, he hugged Janet tighter. He felt her attraction, warmth, scent, smell, softness, hardness, her breath and her eyes and her affectionate expression. He wanted to say he loved her, but it was difficult to bring out such words. He even envied Min-joon who didn’t hesitate to express his affection for Kaya openly. But he didn’t realize that Min-joon didn’t tell Kaya often that he loved her.
“You already know what I want to say, right?” Anderson asked.
Janet asked, lookin at him quietly, “If you don’t say it, I wouldn’t know.”
“Well, that’s fine.”
In no time, Anderson and Janet threw themselves on the bed and made hot love. But at the moment when they confirmed their warmth toward each other, Anderson felt rather cold. Was it Santa Monica’s cold? Or was it just the cold in his own delusion?
“I love you.”
It was an unexpected moment when he heard that. He looked at the ceiling with a blank expression for a long time. He didn’t understand what he just heard. He even got confused about who said it first. After a long silence, he slowly turned his head. Janet was lying on his arms, looking at him.
“What did you just say?”
“I said I love you, Anderson Rousseau.”
When she said that, there were some drops of tears in her eyes. Was it because she was sad or happy? Or, she might have yawned at that moment. He slowly reached out his finger and wiped her tears. Her skin felt softer when he touched it. He opened his mouth. His body was hot. But he felt cold, so he felt like he could express it now.
“Me, too.”
He confessed rather cowardly and selfishly while feeling sorry at the same time.
“I love you, too, Janet Rousseau.”
***
If he could do as he pleased, Min-joon wanted to feel the air in Los Angeles and Santa Monica a little more since he came back to this place after a long time, but he couldn’t. It was the same for Kaya and Chloe because they were head chefs of their own restaurant, not sous chefs like Min-joon. They shut the restaurant temporarily to attend Janet and Anderson’s wedding ceremony, so they had to go back as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, he was standing alone in the hall of Rose Island’s original main store, where Anderson and Janet’s simple yet beautiful wedding took place. When he was standing on a red carpet that had not yet been removed, Anderson came over and said, “Oh, you have come here early.”
“You want me to come early.”
“I did. I’m sorry. It was rather late.”
“I’m not a cold-blooded person who doesn’t understand the groom who spent the first night of the wedding. You know me, right?” said Min-joon, laughing mischievously. Anderson also laughed it off, but he was not embarrassed. Min-joon was rather surprised to feel the unusual gravitas of Anderson, which he didn’t notice before.
“What did Janet say? I think she might have felt upset if you came out like this on the first morning after the wedding.”
“Well, don’t worry about it. We don’t care about it. As a matter of fact, she is sleeping now because it’s been quite a tough day for her.”
“So, why did you call me out here?”
“Did you have breakfast?”
“No.”
“Good. Let me make breakfast for you.”
Min-joon just nodded at his unexpected offer without feeling embarrassed. Anderson immediately began to boil the water. Meanwhile, the pasta he prepared was fettuccine. Min-joon was curious about what kind of sauce he wanted to use. Anderson melted the rapeseed oil and butter on a pan, and soon began to bake rabbit meat. With the meat’s characteristic fascinating aroma, which was properly soaked in spices, gradually becoming thicker, Anderson moved the meat to the plate by the time the outer surface of the meat was dyed a perfect golden brown. Then again, he put shallot, garlic, bay leaf and rosemary and cooked it. How many minutes had passed? When the garlic wasn’t quite ripe yet, thanks to the moisture from the onions and other things, Anderson poured dry white wine.
The flame did not soar because he didn’t pour it to make flambe. The heat wasn’t that strong either. Anderson boiled the wine so that the broth was barely visible, and then poured chicken broth with the rabbit meat, which was cooked in advance. By the time the chicken broth had boiled down to about a third, Anderson simmered it by adding double cream, then seasoned it with grainy mustard.
Min-joon had no choice but to be surprised while watching his cooking process. He thought that if Anderson kept cooking like this, his expected cooking score would be 9 points. But it wasn’t because the pasta Anderson brought wasn’t ordinary pasta. The pasta Anderson made boasted of a cooking score of 10. But what surprised Min-joon wasn’t just because Anderson scored 10 points. As a chef with a cooking score of 8, it would not be difficult to make a 10-point dish with more time and effort.
What surprised Cho Min-joon was that Anderson’s cuisine retained the essence of European cuisine while he had it fully localized to suit American taste. Anderson mixed sauce and rabbit meat with pasta, plated it neatly, and put it down before Min-joon
“This is my dish. Min-joon.”
It didn’t just mean he cooked it. Min-joon could feel and read what kind of life Anderson led in his dish. He raised a fork instead of answering. The first thing he tasted was rabbit meat. He couldn’t feel any greasy smell. The fluffy and chewy meat characteristic of rabbit meat stimulated his tongue with the strong scent of mustard whenever he chewed it.
It wasn’t just the taste of mustard. The flavors of the cream, wine, and double cream that formed the basis of mustard express its surprisingly heavy and stimulating taste. In addition, the chewy taste of fettuccine, which showed the best of Al dante, proved that there was a reason why Anderson was in charge of the pasta section for the past year.
At each bite, Min-joon became happier, and he admired his cooking skills. He had no choice but to feel Anderson was also a great chef. He was a friend Min-joon might think of as a rival as well as an adversary. That was why he wanted to have Anderson around him as his rival forever.
“Now you’ve become a perfect chef, Anderson.”
What Min-joon said seemed nothing special, but it was the best compliment he could give Anderson. Fortunately, Anderson understood it.
He smiled maturely and said, “I’m thinking of keeping this place for my life.”
“You mean Gluto’s?”
“I’m not just saying I’m going to keep Gluto’s only. Maybe it’s another restaurant. But in this city, where we have good old memories, I’ll continue to cook. I’m going to have more regulars and chefs. Someday my place may be still Gluto’s, or some other restaurant that we don’t know.”
Did he completely shake off his lingering affection for Rose Island? Although Min-joon was curious about it, Min-joon did not ask.
Anderson said, “I heard that you’re coveting this original main restaurant of Rose Island. And I also heard that you already discussed with Rachel about it.”
“…”
“Thanks for being my friend,” Anderson said. “Thanks to you, I now know what real cooking was. I’ve come to realize what I love most and how to live. So I’m honestly happy. I don’t know why and for what purpose you have made such a decision, but it means you want to come back here, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll be back.”
“I want to live with you like that for the rest of my life, tasting our dishes, pointing them out, recognizing them.”
At that moment, Anderson felt he wanted to say something to him, which it was really hard for him to mention to Janet. But he felt he could say it to Anderson more comfortably.
So, he said without any hesitation, “I love you, my friend.”
