“Did I make a mistake saying that?” He asked.
“No you didn't. Don't worry about it.”
“I'm not crazy…”
“It's just a joke. Don't take it too seriously, now.”
“Ah, a joke. I see.”
Marco sighed in relief. The man had quite a heart for someone who looked like a bodyguard. Lisa smiled before walking into the kitchen. Marco entered nervously, with Minjoon following behind him. Lisa looked at Minjoon with a confused look.
“Why are you coming here?”
“Just as an audience. Plus, I facilitated all this to begin with. I have a right to watch.”
“…Well, fine. Marco, can you make something for me?”
“What kind?”
“Let's go with the basics. How about you show me how to make ciabatta?”
“Ciabatta?”
Marco was a little taken aback. So far, Marco had only really made fancy bread served in high end bakeries. Stuff like panini, choux, or croissant. He was a little surprised to hear that she wanted something a little more simple.
He understood why, though. After all, the woman's ciabatta was by far the best thing he's had in a long time.
'Me, making something like that…?'
“I'll tell you the recipe.” Lisa added.
“What? C-can you? Isn't this a tes… No, before that, isn't this a precious recipe?”
“It is. After all, it's one of the bestsellers in this store. But you'll end up knowing it when you come here anyway. Plus, it's going to be one of the things you're going to end up fiddling with all the time.”
“Fiddling… You say.”
“I heard you ran into an unfortunate incident at your workplace? I'm going to be honest with you. It'll be very difficult for any of your recipes to enter the menu. Of course, it's not like I'm going to ignore it outright. But we have high standards here. Ah, it's not like we only have bad things here, of course. There's one great advantage in working here.”
“What would that… advantage be?”
Marco felt his heart thumping in excitement. Lisa held down a smile as she continued.
“You said you wanted to be the best baker in the world. Such a person would obviously be working in the best bakery in the world. That would be this place.”
Lisa's words were full of confidence. She knew everything about this bakery. All its history, and all the accidents it's been involved in. She knew the bakery's value. It was no surprise, therefore, that her words were as confident and powerful as a general's.
“Do you want to be the best?”
“Yes.” Marco answered. Lisa nodded in response.
“You'll have to pa.s.s this test, then.”
€
'…Maybe I should try studying baking as well.'
Minjoon found himself thinking as he watched Marco work. The man looked completely different from his usual self. His nervousness was completely gone, and what was left was a charismatic baker kneading the dough with full force.
'I'd be able to know how good he was if I knew more about baking.'
Marco's technique didn't at all look special to Minjoon. But not to Lisa. She could tell that Marco was kneading every part of the dough evenly.
'He poured the water quite skillfully as well.'
Controlling the water in a way that it wouldn't create pockets of water in the dough was a skill that took quite a bit of experience.
“How's he doing?”
“Oh, good G.o.d you surprised me.”
Minjoon jumped up in surprise. Kaya and Anderson were looking into the kitchen from the back.
“I think he's doing well, but I can't tell. Neither of them are saying anything…” Minjoon whispered.
“That means he's done nothing wrong so far. Probably, at least.” Kaya said.
“Or maybe she's trying not to interrupt. Who the h.e.l.l knows?” Anderson hit back.
Kaya gave Anderson a glare. Minjoon smiled.
“Careful, Anderson. You'll lose if you fight her.”
“Please, can you not put it like that? She'll start thinking she'd actually win.”
“The heck? You actually think you can win against me? Want to take this to the right?”
Kaya balled her fists in mock anger. Anderson just sighed.
“My fault for hanging out with you people.”
“Whatever. Let's go. He's going to take a few hours at the very least. We don't have the time to wait.”
“Should we say goodbye?”
“That'd just interrupt him. We have to go to work.”
Minjoon thought for a bit before turning back. Marco looked a little smaller to him for some reason when he turned back.
€
“So, you introduced a friend to Lisa?”
“Yes. He'll get hired if Lisa likes him enough. Though I'm not sure if he'd work here or there… Well, either or, this should be good for him. I've started thinking a bit about decision now though…”
“Well, what is it?”
“I was wondering if I really did the right thing. I feel like I interfered in the man's life too much.”
“How many people do you think actually manage to make their own decision? If you feel like you can help, then help. Actually accepting your help is their choice.”
Rachel smiled. Minjoon returned it, and continued in a worried tone.
“I've also been wondering if this was a good way of connecting two people together. I feel like I've just pushed Marco onto Lisa.”
“That's a problem for Lisa. You don't need to worry about it. Besides that, didn't you hear about the people from Michelin coming? Do you have a dish in mind that you'd like to present?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Oh, what is it?”
Minjoon just smiled in response. Rachel sighed.
“You won't tell me, huh?”
“Sorry. I'm really confident about this one, so I don't want to show you until I'm done.”
“Alright. I'll wait. But don't make me wait too long. Old people aren't very patient. I might even try to sneak a look when I can.”
“It'll be done quick, I promise.”
Minjoon's eyes were s.h.i.+ning with confidence. Rachel liked those eyes of his. They weren't something that came from the man's youth. It was something that resulted from hope, confidence, and talent.
'He's trying to help out a friend when he has a full plate as well…'
She actually quite appreciated what Minjoon did. Plus, it made her excited.
After all, the kitchen didn't just run under the head chef. The head chef needed to form a good connection between not only the kitchen staff, but also the merchants they bought ingredients from.
If Minjoon continued down on his path of fostering good connections…
'He'll become a head chef loved by everyone.'
Of course, by everyone, she meant the customers as well. That night, there were quite a lot of customers who were looking for Minjoon. Even more so than Rachel, even. It wasn't because of the food, of course. They wanted to hear about what happened with Kaya.
“You have an amazing girlfriend, Minjoon!”
“Ahaha… Thank you.”
“No, really! My goodness, a girlfriend who can knock out stalkers… I want to meet a girl like that.”
“Your partner's right next to you. Please…”
“Ah, Bella, this is a misunderstanding. This is…”
The night went on like such. Most people wouldn't have had so much interest normally, but it was inevitable with how famous Minjoon was to begin with.
There was the woman that Janet warned him about, too. Delia. He couldn't do anything to her though, especially when she didn't even do anything to him just yet.
“h.e.l.lo, we've been seeing each other a lot.”
“Of course. The menu changes every time I come. I heard this pomegranate dessert was made by you?”
“Yes. Do you like it?”
“Oh my… How did you even think of making something so artistic? It would have been amazing if I had this for Christmas. Even better if it had a ring in it for proposals.”
“Ah, my girlfriend dislikes that kind of stuff, unfortunately.”
“Oh, I can totally see that. She was from the slums, wasn't she? That's understandable.”
Minjoon just smiled in response. He didn't know if she said that with bad intent, but he didn't want to agree with someone bringing down his girlfriend.
The woman next to Delia seemed to have noticed his feelings, thankfully.
“Sorry about this. She just doesn't understand.”
“What? What did I do this time?”
“Just keep your mouth shut for now.”
“Ugh… It's always my fault.”
Delia shook her head in annoyance, before smiling again. Her smile seemed incredibly fake for some reason to Minjoon.
“Anyway, I'm a big fan of men like you. No, that'd cause misunderstandings. Chefs like you? No. Male chefs like you. I don't like the female ones. They're annoying. We used to use a female head chef in our hotel, but that woman was so dang annoying. Couldn't cook either.”
“…Chefs have their worldview, after all. Maybe they were trying to protect their life. I think it'd be good if Ms. Delia tried to have some understanding.”
Normally, he wouldn't have tried to say something like this. But thinking about all the humiliation the nameless chef must've gone through… Made him quite angry. He was a chef, after all.
He expected Delia to frown soon after, but that didn't end up happening. She actually smiled at him brightly.
“Wow, you remembered my name. Awesome! Could you say my name again, Minjoon?”
“…Sure, Ms. Delia.”
“Ah, cool. It feels awesome to be called by my name by my idol. I wish you could say my name every day. Ah, you can just come to my kitchen. Minjoon, how much do you get paid here?”
He really didn't expect that one. Minjoon just froze in place from shock. Delia started to laugh to herself.
“Ah, I don't need to know. That's private, right, right. I'll just ask you this. I'll give you this much compared to your current salary.”
Delia stuck out two fingers. Minjoon sighed.
“Ms. Delia, I'm not working for money. Even if you say you're going to give me twice the pay, I'm learning far more valuable things here.”
“Wow, amazing. Right, some things you really can't buy with money. But Minjoon, you seem to be misunderstanding something.”
The woman's voice slithered up his neck like a snake.
“I was talking about twenty times, not two. Do you still… Not want to work for me?”
If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator's site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry ?
