“I envy you, guys!” said Chloe, pursing her lips.
Whenever Kaya went to the Grand Chef competition as its judge, she closed Irregular Lab restaurant. And that meant that Chloe should just be alone at the restaurant while Kaya and Min-joon were serving at the Grand Chef as judges.
What was more, she was leaving the restaurant here for the Grand Chef, the most prestigious cooking competition in America. Their participation as judges would give them probably the best memories in their lives. So Chloe had no choice but to feel frustrated that she had to be here alone instead of joining them.
“If you’re envious, try to be a judge!”
“You are so mean!”
Chloe threw herself down on the sofa, hugging her pillow tightly.
Watching Chloe rather depressed, Delia frowned.
“You didn’t come when I asked you to play with me, right?”
“I don’t like clubs.”
“Hey, hey! What the hell are you talking about? I have never been to clubs…”
Delia pretended to be innocent, blushing, as if she was trying to manage her expression in front of Min-joon. Of course, he didn’t care whether she went to clubs or not.
He opened his mouth in a tired voice.
“Well, I’m thinking of going back when the Grand Chef competition is over.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I mean going back to Los Angeles.”
When he said that, Delia stared blankly at him even forgetting to pretend to be innocent.
He continued, “I want to learn everything from June to the extent that I think I’m more than qualified enough to be a head chef. And I’m going to double-check my cooking skills until then.”
Cooking level 9.
That was his primary goal right now because he thought that he needed to reach at least cooking level 9 to be able to cook any dish perfectly.
He wanted to get to cooking level 9 before the Grand Chef was over. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy at all, but he couldn’t be content with his current level forever.
“Well, I’m not marking time, of course, as far as my cooking skills are concerned.”
This was the problem with the system. Even though he was cooking level 8, it was clear that he was growing steadily. Nonetheless, his cooking level on the system was 8 even when it was actually higher than that, so he could not feel it vividly even if he really grew a lot,
“Do you really have to go back?” Delia asked quietly.
He looked at her for a moment and smiled apologetically.
“You don’t have to feel nervous as if I’m leaving tomorrow. You already knew I was going back to Los Angeles someday.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Don’t feel sad. Even if I’m going back to Los Angeles, it doesn’t mean we won’t meet again, right? I’m just getting out of your boundary here.”
In fact, given her position and status as the owner of a prestigious hotel, Delia had no reason to worry about a place when she wanted to meet somebody. However, there was one reason for her to react so nervously.
“Can we still meet like this after you go back to Los Angeles?”
That was a good question that a woman like Delia could ask. In other words, she just cut to the chase without hiding her inner feelings toward him.
At first, he was a little embarrassed by Delia’s frankness. So he even misunderstood her. Actually, it wasn’t just his misunderstanding because she was rude and thoughtless in terms of what she said or did to others. But everybody knew that she was not necessarily a bad woman.
“Why do you think we might be able to meet?” he asked.
“Well, we didn’t have a good time together like this in the past until I got to know you through business.”
In fact, she could establish her business relations with Kaya and Min-joon only after giving them hotel accommodations and arranging a restaurant called Irregular Lab. In other words, she got to be able to befriend them almost by begging them. People might regard her relationship with them as miserable, but she was too sophisticated to feel the same, for she relied on her money to maintain all her relations with others.
At that moment, Chloe changed her posture and looked at Delia, frowning. Of course, she knew how Delia was thinking of him as a rule. But she couldn’t point it out. She couldn’t argue with Delia when the latter didn’t say anything in this situation.
However, the situation was different now.
“You really think so? Is it because of business interests that we are mingling around with you?”
“Well, I don’t know exactly. I don’t know about that.”
“Then let me tell you clearly now. So listen carefully. We’re friends. Even if you are broke someday, we’re going to keep meeting you. It doesn’t matter whether you have a weird personality or not because we’ve already become friends. Do you know what I mean?”
“Chloe…”
“If you get what I mean, don’t say it in the future, because I think I’ll get angry if I hear it again.”
Having said that coldly, Chloe crossed her arms and sat down on the sofa, as if she got upset.
Watching her nervously, Delia checked her expression.
In fact, it was Chloe who got most close to her. Since Min-joon and Kaya were lovers, they tended to mingle with each other, and on such occasions, Chloe usually hung out with her.
In addition, it was also Chloe who felt most sorry for Delia’s weird personality and took care of her. Anyway, she was sorry to make Chloe upset.
“She is cute.”
Kaya whispered softly into Min-joon’s ear. He nodded with a smile. The scenes of the two young girls quarreling with each other looked charming like a fairy tale.
“Well, you have changed a lot! Like it or not, even our relationship has changed.”
He looked at them blankly. Then he sprang to his feet and looked at Delia, who was flattering Chloe.
“Delia.”
“Uh?”
“Come with me. Let me give you something to eat.”
“What? Something to eat? Why do you suddenly…”
Delia answered as if she was a little embarrassed, but Min-joon headed to the kitchen first. She hurriedly followed him to the kitchen and looked at him with a puzzled expression.
He said with an awkward expression, “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever made a dish that you want. Tell me any dish you want to eat. I can make you anything.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, any dish.”
“Do you really just want to cook for me?”
“Why not?”
“Well, it smells like a rat.”
She looked at him curiously, but he avoided her gaze.
Fortunately, she didn’t feel suspicious for long. In no time, she just smiled and started talking about what she wanted to eat. Then she soon looked up at the ceiling, perching on Island in the kitchen, and laughed like a child.
“I feel great,” she said.
But he didn’t ask why she was in a good mood. He didn’t have to ask. She suddenly turned her head to him after raising it to the ceiling. Her hair fluttered. As someone watching him cook right next to him, her behavior was not desirable, but he didn’t care because she would eat the dish anyway.
“You guys are going back to Los Angeles.”
“You’re coming, too, aren’t you?”
“Well, I guess so. Where do you want to open your restaurant? That original Rose Island restaurant?”
“I think so.”
“What would you do if I opened a restaurant for you in Los Angeles?”
“I’ll think about it.”
He would have refused it immediately in the past, but he was showing a pretty positive reaction to her proposal. Was it because both of them were closer than before? With a giggle, she looked back at the ceiling because she blushed at that moment. She just felt embarrassed not as a woman or his fan, but as a friend of his.
“You’re going to get married to Kaya then.”
He cleared his throat at that. The moment he opened a restaurant, he would marry Kaya, which was already known to everybody. That was why Delia didn’t want him to open his restaurant.
But she was different now. She was still his fan. If he asked her out for a date, she would gladly accept it, regardless of how long their relationship would last. From her perspective, it was important to confirm that he had good feelings toward her.
Obviously, he was different from before, but she could not know how he was different. She didn’t feel uncomfortable or jealous about the situation where he and Kaya got married. She liked it. So she could ask, “Can I help you?”
“What?”
“I mean the relationship between you and Kaya.”
She would not have made such an offer to him.
“I’m talking about your proposal to her.”
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