Romantic? When she heard it, Amilla barely held back the urge to smile bitterly. Yes, it was true. She was romantic, very romantic. Maybe she forgot that the reason why June liked to act in a calculated way was not because she wanted to have a nice mansion and drive a luxury car.
She wanted to get ahead of others. Some might say it was only her vanity, but it was a romantic ambition to June.
Why did Amila want to blame her by spitting out such harsh words?
She reflected on it. Maybe it was because she was disappointed with June who she once trusted so much. She believed that simply by working hard as a chef, June would be able to climb to a higher position than anyone else, so much so that she didn’t have to devote herself to meeting so many people from all walks of life.
But June denied Amila’s romantic thinking with her actions. She lived busier than anyone else. She felt tired more than anyone else while leading a busy life.
Amila repeatedly told June that she could not find any romance or fun in her life. Amila argued that even if June spent her young days struggling to achieve what she wanted, it would not be so meaningful to her at the end of the day.
Normally, Amila would not have meddled in June’s matters because this was clearly what June could not put up with. After all, June burst into a rage.
─ If you want me to live a beggar’s life, you do it. I intend to move up the upper class!
Having heard that, Amila hurled all kinds of abusive words at June before breaking up.
It had been five years since they broke up like that. After that, Amila decided to live a decent and cool life. Even if she was not getting any spotlight from people, she thought she could lead a worthy life.
‘So, how is my life now?’ Amila asked herself.
Her ability to make noodles was definitely better than when she broke up with June.
But she had nobody around her to ask them if her life was okay. She wanted to ask them if it was okay for her to live comfortably like a retired man even when she was only 40.
“Min-joon’s Pesce pasta was really delicious.”
“You will never know how much time and effort I have put in to hire him. So, it’s natural he makes such delicious food.”
“And it was fun and fresh. I felt thrilled as much as I did when I first started cooking. I could feel it in his Pesce. I just don’t know how he can work for a woman like you. In my eyes, you and Min-joon are like chalk and cheese.”
“At first, we were like that,” June said bitterly, recalling her first encounter with him.
After hearing out, Amilla shook her head with a sigh.
“You’ve gotten stupider since I last saw you…”
“I’ll admit it. At that time, I was nervous. I could not make rational judgments properly. As a matter of fact, I got even worried I might lose what I achieved until then.”
“How about now? Aren’t you worried at all?”
June smiled quietly at her question. The moment she saw June’s smile, she expected that June was not. But what June said to her was against her expectation.
“I’m still scared.”
“Really? You are still scared?”
“Well, I pretended I’ve overcome everything while pretending to be strong, but I’m still scared. You know what? Actually, I’m not sure if he has taken away everything from me. Sometimes I have such bad dreams.”
“Then why did you decide to have him work for you? Because you want to keep him at bay? No, I don’t think so because I know you are trying to take care of those around you. If you have decided to have him around you, it means you have trust in him… Do you want to support him who might be your biggest threat?”
“Stop it. I know that, too.”
“What’s the reason? Why did you change your mind?”
Amila was now looking at her with lots of curiosity that she had never shown, for she never expected June would do that.
Seeing her calmly, June said, “Well, I thought there was nothing new at the end of the day. I know I’ve been through tough times all the time until now, but this time, I’ve run into another trouble. So, if I’m destined to go through this trouble, I just feel I have to have him around me. I can prepare for his next move everyday, then.”
“So, you want to have him at your mercy?”
“There’s no such thing like a leash on his neck because he only does what he wants.
“Then why did you hire him? I don’t think you have recruited him because you want to do something bad, right?”
“Who do you think I am?” June asked in a weary voice.
A bit dejected, Amila replied as if she was murmuring.
“It’s one of your specialties. Intrigue and trick, right?”
“Well, I’m going to treat those with dirty motivations the same way they treat me. I’ve just protected myself while living life in the fast lane. Don’t you think it’s time you understood me?” June asked in a rather hoarse voice.
At that moment, Amila looked at June as if she did something wrong. Maybe she has been treating June unfairly until now. Or both of them had been doing injustice to each other for a long time.
As she knew she could not hide her mistakes, Amila made an awkward smile.
Then she said, “By the way, Min-joon’s Pesce was delicious.”
***
There were quite a few differences between Min-joon’s life in New York and Los Angeles, but they were different. One of them was that he never neglected to develop recipes. He didn’t have as much time available as before, but if he didn’t develop new recipes, he would not expect to improve his skills.
Of course, he might be worrying too much. Even if he didn’t make new recipes, his cooking skills were improving every day. June gave him only two weeks to get on top of his sous chef position, but he was surprisingly adapting himself to the new position.
Because of that, demi chef Downey, who had been on the lookout for Min-joon’s shortcomings, was more surprised than anybody else in the kitchen. He could find nothing to find fault with Min-joon. Since he just assumed the sous chef role, he was a bit clumsy, but that was fine. As a matter of fact, he was growing unusually fast.
‘Well, if this guy behaves badly…’
‘I don’t know if I have a bad attitude…’
Contrary to Downey’s expectations, Min-joon was very polite. In fact, Downey had never seen any chef so focused on cooking as Min-joon. As a matter of fact, he was doing his work on a tight daily schedule just like June. He vividly remembered that even Dobby who respected and followed June so much gave up after trying to catch up with her schedule. As a result, other kitchen staff other than Downey admired Min-joon rather than reject him.
“Honestly, he looks a little cute, right?” said Osla.
“Are you kidding?” Downey glared at her angrily.
“Hey, I’m telling you a fact. Anyway, he is our new chef. Don’t you think it’s funny you are acting like that because Eva hasn’t taken over the sous chef position?”
“Yeah, it’s funny. I agree.”
“Right, Eva?”
Downey and Osla were stunned to find Eva was standing behind her while they were talking. Eva said calmly, with Downey embarrassed so much, “Min-joon is a good chef. Even if you guys are so mean to him, he is very nice to you, right? Be nice to a good man, and be mean to a bad guy! It’s because I’m not qualified for the sous chef position that I haven’t taken it, so it’s not somebody else’s fault.”
“Well, I don’t think you’re not qualified,” retorted Downey in a sullen voice. Oslar smiled at him.
Eva said, “Thank you, but you also don’t think that Min-joon is not qualified, right? I can say confidently that he is the most qualified for the sous chef position among us. Don’t you think it’s stupid to assign someone like Min-joon to a demi chef position here? Can you deny what I said?”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m so frustrated.”
“Don’t be annoyed. What’s the big deal about the sous chef position anyway? I’m fine as long as I meet people who love cooking and spend them with them everyday. If you behave like this, Downey, you are really going to make me miserable.”
He looked at her blankly as if he was shocked because his concern about her hurt her pride. At that moment, she nodded as if she understood him and opened her mouth.
“Let’s judge him by what he is. Treat him well if he is good, but if he is not good, we can think twice about him then. In my eyes, he is a good man.”
Downey turned without answering.
Shrugging at the moment, Eva looked at Osla and said, “It looks like he got more hurt than me because I didn’t take over the sous chef position.”
“Well, he followed you like his sister. So, I understand.”
“By the way, I wonder what Min-joon is doing now…”
Eva looked at Min-joon, slurring her words, who was trying to make jelly by sifting the broth made by boiling Pesce. Eva thought that since he was in charge of the molecular cooking section at the main store of Rose Island, he was quite good at such annoying recipes as jelly.
At that moment, Downey approached him and opened his mouth, looking at the pesce.
“What is this?”
“Oh, I’m making jelly with Pesce. I’m thinking of making jelly sauce. Or I can just make jelly and serve it with other ingredients. I think I can bring out more rich taste from Pesce than I think.”
“I hear you made this Pesce for Amila.”
“Ah yes.”
The fact that Min-joon and June met Amila was already widely known to the kitchen staff.
They heard that after arguing with Amila, he persuaded her to try his Pesce. They also heard that his Pesce made it possible for June to reconcile with Amila in several years. Actually, that was what June told her staff.
‘Honestly, it looks like June has exaggerated to promote Min-joon on purpose.’
Downey thought like that, but he could not express his feelings. He was not at the scene anyway, but he was not persuaded that Amila and June reconciled because of his Pesce.
‘If Amila reconciled with June from the bottom of her heart, why isn’t she refusing to supply noodles for us?’
Because Amila had stopped supplying noodles, they hardly served pasta for customers these days.
Anyway, Min-joon didn’t pay any attention to what they were thinking or saying. Regardless of what they thought of him, he was the new sous chef here. What he was focusing on right now was Pesce jelly. More precisely, he wanted to make this jelly contain fire taste fully.
The thing was how to bring out the best fire taste with the given ingredients.
He even used vodka because of flambe with a higher percentage alcohol content, but it only deepened the taste of alcohol. But he thought this time he could come up with more satisfactory results because he used kaoliang liquor to do flambe.
‘There is nothing better than kaoliang to bring out the fire taste.’
Thinking so, Min-joon started framing the jelly in the mold before putting it in the refrigerator. He heard lots of whispering in the kitchen. He turned his head and smiled soon. Downey was staring, with his mouth wide open, as if he couldn’t believe what was going on.
Amila was standing right there in the kitchen.
“Oh Amila, welcome!”
It was the moment that Min-joon worked miracles with Pesce.
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