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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 ?

Ella grabbed Minjoon and Lisa's hand with a scared face. Marco paused in his tracks for a second. He waves his hand at the girl cautiously.

"h.e.l.lo."

"Uu…."

Ella looked even more scared, if anything. Minjoon smiled at her gently.

"It's ok, Ella. He's my friend. He's not a bad guy."

"…Really?"

"Have you ever seen me lie? Here, try shaking hands with him."

Ella looked at Marco with a nervous look. But she teared up almost immediately and hugged Minjoon again. Minjoon looked at Marco with an apologetic look.

"The lighting was what probably scared her."

"…Kids get easily scared by me. It's fine."

Marco answered with a saddened look. Lisa shrugged.

"What about the ciabatta? Is it done?"

"Yes. I finished just now. Would you like some?"

"Sure. I was getting pretty hungry, actually."

"I want to eat too, mom."

Ella ended up getting the attention of both her mother and Marco, which made her yelp again. Marco sighed inwardly when he noticed the girl's grip tightening on Minjoon's hand.

'Cute kids are always afraid of me, looks like.'

It was a bit of a sobering thought, but it was what it was. Marco took the bread out of the oven. Minjoon gazed at it carefully.

[Ciabatta] Freshness: 93%
Source: (Hidden due to multiple ingredients)
Quality: High
Score: 7/10

'7 points as ciabatta is bound to be good.'

Ciabatta was good no matter how a person made it. Lisa put a piece into her mouth and let out a sigh. She took a piece off and gave it to Minjoon.

"Here, try some."

"Ah, sure."

"Mom! Ella wants some, too."

"Alright, here."

Ella smiled happily with the bread in her mouth. Minjoon was quite surprised. It was almost no different from Lisa's bread. Even Ella was thoroughly enjoying it.

"I'm sorry. I messed up." Marco spoke out.

The big man's voice confused Minjoon. What confused him even more, though, was the fact that Lisa didn't correct him.

"You know where you went wrong?" Lisa asked.

"Yes. The texture was off. I think the bread could've been a bit chewier."

"…This tastes pretty good to me. What's so wrong about it?"

"It's good for sure. Problem is, stuff like this gets more noticeable when you make bread in larger quant.i.ties."

"Yes. It gets harder to focus on the small stuff when you make things in large quant.i.ties, after all. Things might've been different if Marco practiced, but…"

Marco quietly listened to Lisa's lecture with his head down. Lisa gave him a few quick glances with interest. Normally, people would get pretty mad or defensive when they get lectured on, but Marco had none of that.

'He has a nice personality.'

No one liked getting lectured, but people in this field got mad especially easily over stuff like this. But the difference between art and cooking was that it was very easy to spot mistakes in cooking. It would do a cook no good to be stubborn like an artist.

"I'm sorry. There was no need to lecture you like that. I suppose I got jealous. Good job. Please treat me well from now."

"W-what?"

"It means you pa.s.sed the audition."

Marco's face turned incredibly complicated right then. He was happy, but he really had no choice but to come here now. He was also confused if he really pa.s.sed with a bread like that. All his emotions were clearly displayed on his face.

Right then, Ella slowly made her way to Marco. She was cautious, very obviously still afraid of the big man. As Marco looked at the girl confusedly, Ella waved her arm up and down. Minjoon opened his mouth when Marco's confusion didn't go away.

"She's asking you to get down."

"Ah, yeah."

Marco tried to lower his body a bit, then ended up falling over backwards. Ella pat the man's head with her feet extended upwards.

"Congrats, Mr. Bear."

"Whoa, really? For real?"

Chloe was looking at the crowd with wide eyes at Minjoon's place. Marco nodded with a nervous smile.

"Yeah. This ended up happening."

"Wow… How amazing! The five of us all living in LA?"

"No better place to be, I guess. As long as we ignore the living costs."

Anderson shrugged. Chloe's smile didn't leave her face. She didn't expect such good news when she came to say hi to Marco.

"And the three guys are all working at the same place, too."

"Well, we can't really say Marco's part of Rose Island… But yeah, I guess."

"So where does Marco live right now? Does he have a house?"

"He's in our place for now."

"Don't you guys only have two rooms? Where does he sleep?"

"Here."

Marco pointed to the sofa they were sitting on, glancing at Anderson a little as he did so. At first, he was supposed to sleep on Anderson's sofa, but as it turned out, Marco's claims about his snores were a complete lie. Even Minjoon and Kaya were able to hear him snore. Anderson clicked his tongue annoyedly.

"There's no way a guy like him wouldn't snore. I should've known."

"Sorry. I really didn't know."

"Most people don't realize they even snore. Don't be so mad, Anderson. Anyway, this sofa's probably a bit too small for you, Marco… Why don't you come to my place? I have a second house there that you can live in."

Kaya choked on her water right then. She looked at Kaya with a surprised look.

"S-second house?"

"Nothing special. The previous owner just turned the shed into a studio… But it has a bath and a kitchen and everything. I used to use it as a place for filming videos. It's a bit far from Rose Island, though. At least 40 minutes?"

"…Can I really?"

"No worries. I'll still take rent. I'll quote you a fair price, though. How is it? There's a bunch of restaurants and bars nearby, too."

Marco gulped. Kaya muttered to herself dumbly as she watched the two talk.

"Chloe, you're rich, aren't you?"

"What? I'm not rich. This is all thanks to my agent."

"…Why doesn't my agent do stuff like this for me?"

"You're off the TV after a year, Kaya. Why would he put so much effort into you?"

Minjoon pat Kaya affectionately as he commented. She still looked sad, though.

"He won't see me again after a year. He should treat me well while he still can. Shouldn't he?"

"Aren't you happy with your 300k?"

"I have none of it after buying mom her house."

"Hey, you have a house, too. It's all good."

"Don't worry, Kaya. At least you have a great boyfriend like Minjoon."

Chloe smiled. Minjoon turned away nervously without being able to say anything. Kaya grabbed his cheek and pulled him back into the conversation.

"Great? You must be joking, he's a total kid."

"…Never thought I'd hear something like that from you."

"Whatever. Anyway, Chloe. You aren't planning on meeting anyone? Feels like there'd be lots of people you could choose from."

"Well… I don't really know. I like my work more right now."

Chloe responded with a light smile. Before Kaya managed to get another word out, she quickly steered the conversation away.

"Speaking of rich people, I heard you got involved with someone weird, Minjoon?"

"Ah, her? She's quite something. Trying to buy someone's boyfriend with money? What the heck? Why didn't she come to me?"

"…Why would she go to you?"

"Because your intellectual property belongs to me, obviously."

"I don't think this is the right place to use that word…"

"Whatever. Does she still go there?"

"I don't know…."

Minjoon drifted off. Delia never came after that. Her friend, Terry, was different though. He kept running into the woman everywhere. Like the park where he jogged, or the market. He s.h.i.+vered unconsciously as he thought of it.

"I don't really want to think about them."

"Was that Delia woman pretty?"

Chloe asked. Minjoon looked at her incredulously.

"What the heck is up with you people and asking questions like that? Kaya asked the exact same thing."

"Well, how was she? I'm curious."

"He said she was pretty. He actually said she wasn't that bad, but that means she was pretty anyway."

Kaya poked out her lips in annoyance. Minjoon sighed.

"…Can we not talk about what my customers look like? I can't call them ugly or anything. But calling them pretty would just make you mad."

"I didn't say anything about getting mad."

"You're prettier."

"You saying that with a tired voice doesn't work, you know?"

Kaya's mouth curled slightly upwards, though. Maybe this was what it was like to raise a child? Kaya acted quite immaturely most of the time.

"I'm tired from trying to think up a new recipe. Bug off."

"Ah, cuz of the Michelin thing?"

Chloe's eyes shone with excitement. Minjoon shook his head.

"No. Michelin aside, I'm excited that I can even make my own dish for the menu. Rachel ends up making tons of new amazing dishes almost daily, but I end up getting tired making one dish in a month."

"How many did you make so far?"

"For the dishes I made all by myself… Just one. The dessert."

"Oh, that one? What are you going to make this time?"

Minjoon thought for a second. He was having trouble trying to describe it. He slowly opened his mouth a bit later.

"The dessert from last time was actually really hard to make. I had to simulate tons of different flavors, after all. But that was what really made it fun. So that's what I'm planning on doing this time."

"With a dessert?"

"No. An appetizer. I want to bring out 5 flavors from one ingredient."

"….Five? Is that even possible?"

Minjoon just smiled. The recipe wasn't finished just yet. But he was sure it would blow everyone away when it was completed. After all…

[The expected score of the dish is 9 points!]

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 ?

End.