Normally, Ken might just nod and tell her she could do it to keep her childlike innocence and dreams alive. But he didn’t have the nerve to be so brazen. Right now, he was also an adult just like Min-joon, but compared to Min-joon, his cooking skills were far behind him.
In fact, Ken had never thought about comparing himself with Min-joon, but when Merlyn asked such a question, he suddenly looked back on his past with regret. He wanted to grow up as an adult who could answer her question confidently.
But what did he look like now?
Merlyn said, “I want to be like Chef Min-joon.”
She clenched her fists and looked at Min-joon with twinkling eyes. The participants must have been already exhausted just by following Min-joon’s instructions, but he took care of each o thm. He was still cooking at the Island with them.
Was it his fitness problem or willpower problem, or both? Merlyn agonized over whether to get off her chair or not for a long time, but she couldn’t do it easily. She wanted to follow him, but when she got close to him, he walked so fast that she could not dare to catch up with him.
Ken looked at Merlyn and smiled silently. Greed was often described as vulgar in literature and movies, but that was wrong.
Greed was as beautiful as the passion of the person who had it.
***
“What the hell did you do to the participants?”
“What are you talking about? I just cooked with them.”
“Look at the eyes of the participants watching you now! They have a lot of love and respect for you in their eyes!”
Kaya grunted as if she didn’t like what he did to them.
Min-joon asked, pinching her cheek, “What are you complaining about? Because I won over their hearts? Or because they like me?”
His questions were basically the same, but they were subtly different because the object of jealousy was different.
Instead of answering, she turned her head quickly and looked at the participants.
“Hey, you should have showed them your cooking skills moderately. I can’t believe how they can fall in love with you when you have cooked with them only once.”
“Well, I still have a long way to go.”
“Are you pretending to be humble again?”
“No, what I mean is I’m still lacking by my own standards. Of course, I’m the best by other people’s standards.”
Having said that, he giggled at her. As if she thought his words were ridiculous, she stared at him for a moment. She then turned to Joseph.
“Joseph, say something to this arrogant junior chef!”
“Well, I have nothing to say because he is right.”
“Gosh, you’re too generous,” she said while grumbling as if she gave up.
Min-joon wanted to tell her that if anybody should be reproached for being arrogant, it was none other than her, not himself, but he held back the urge to do so. He didn’t want to disturb her mind right now.
‘It looks like she is pissed off because I came here first.’
When he first got on the plane bound for Los Angeles, Kaya protested a few times. She complained why he had to fly to Los Angeles first instead of waiting for her to join him because she would be so bored if she would sit on the plane alone. And that was why she was nagging him now because he decided to leave first, ignoring her request.
“Are you upset?” he whispered into her ears.
“You want to be kicked out? Don’t treat me like a child,” said Kaya, staring at him sharply. He felt the way she looked at him was childish. He was at a loss for a moment, pondering over how he could propose to a childish girl like her in a mature manner?
“By the way, the cooking mission during this season must be pretty fun,” Joseph said.
Min-joon nodded at that right away. As a matter of fact, the cooking mission this time was supposed to draw quite a lot of attention in terms of the participants’ relationship with others rather than the cooking itself.
“Well, even from my point of view as a participant, I think team play was always the most fun. And at the same time, I felt most burdensome when I cooked as a team member.”
“You know what? If you form a team, it’s natural that you have as many disadvantages as advantages. So, you tend to blame others when you can’t work out something as you wish.”
“I’m afraid some of them might decide to drop out during the competition,” Min-joon said in a worried voice. The losers he was worried about were not those who would drop out in the middle of the competition. He was worried about those participants who might not even be able to form a team at all.
“Why do you think there are dropouts?” Kaya asked in a bewildered voice.
Min-joon realized from her expression that she didn’t yet fully understand the core of the cooking mission this time.
So, he kindly gave her a reminder.
***
“Let me tell you one thing. The biggest element of your mission this time is to form a team. The minimum number of the team is three. It’s up to you to choose how many you want in your team. But the most important thing is that you have to make the dishes for each team member. In other words, if your team has three members, you have to prepare a three-course meal, if you have five, you have to prepare a five-course dish. Is there anyone who doesn’t understand my point?”
When Min-joon announced the evaluation guideline, the participants looked around with their eyes twinkling sharply.
At that moment, Michael asked, “Then, as long as the course is good, all of the team members can advance to the next round?”
“Yeah, but that means that if one of your team members makes a mistake, your team fails as a whole.”
The participants began to look at those around them with a tense expression because their teams could be eliminated by one of their team members’ mistakes.
Of course, those who have survived until now are fine chefs, but their cooking level was different from each other.
‘Man, I don’t like this kind of grouping.’
People were already asking each other about forming teams. Unexpectedly, Gwen was popular among them. She had few friends because of her gloomy personality, but they know how competent she was as a chef.
But she seemed a little perplexed by their unusual interest in her. Right now, several participants were trying to have her as their team member. She could not help but think hard about which one she wanted to join hands with or which one she wanted to reject.
On the other hand, there was one participant who was avoided by other team members.
“I’m sorry, but I think we’ll just do it with three.”
“Can’t you add one more to your team? I’ll do my best anyway.”
“No, I’m so sorry.”
The participant was none other than Merlyn. That little girl was not welcomed by any team members. Watching her being rejected by other teams several times, Min-joon frowned as if he didn’t like their attitude.
Kaya muttered, “Man, this mission really sucks! I just wonder whether Martin wants to carry any philosophical message in this mission. Crazy bastard!”
Although the way Kaya spoke was rough, she also felt sorry for Merlyn. At the same time, Kaya also understood their feelings. The fact that Merlyn survived this far meant that she was competent enough, but it seemed that they were concerned about her young age and cooking experience.
There were people like Michael who came here to make good memories, but there were others who bet everything on this competition. So, they didn’t want to ruin their mission simply because of their sympathy with Merlyn. The more desperately she tried to engage them, the more desperately they pushed her out.
At that moment, somebody came up to team up with her.
“Won’t you team up with me?”
“Uh? With me?”
“Yeah. You and me. And let’s add one more.”
It was Peter who reached out to her first. Since Kaya had a fixed perception of Peter, she could not help but be surprised.
But Min-joon supported Peter’s choice. In fact, it was Peter who could get the most benefit by having Merlyn as his teammate because what was most important for him was to restore his bad image in the past. And the American people liked the person who was kind to a kid.
Of course, Min-joon was not sure whether Peter took that into account when he decided to reach out to her, but his judgment was good. What was important was whether he could get another one to form a team of three, but he quickly solved that problem when Gwen came up to him and joined him.
“Can I join you, too?”
“Sure, why not?” Peter nodded calmly.
Peter, Merlyn, and Gwen.
The three that lacked the most but shone the most joined hands.
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