Her youthfulness faded away. It didn’t mean that her wrinkles increased or she lost the vitality of her youth. The ‘immature’ traits of young people were no more in her looks. But Min-joon really missed them. Generally speaking, ‘immature traits’ have negative implications.
Rachel was not necessarily immature. Because of her chequered life, her ‘immaturity’ was not ugly. She was a beautiful woman and at the same time a respectable woman. So he used to like her youth that belied her age. He liked that youthfulness of hers.
What made her become fully adult-like like this?
It was ‘what’ but Min-joon. He made her give up her youthfulness.
“Min-joon!” Rachel called his name.
Feeling an indescribable sense of loss and guilt, he replied, “Yes.”
“I’m going to take your answer as mine.”
“Pardon?”
“I hope you don’t think I’m irresponsible because this is the best I could think of.”
She smiled at him. It seemed that she was bothered by what he had told her before. Back then, he told her that it was she, not anybody else, who should realize her own dream.
And she did not forget what he told her.
“It’s strange. Yeah, you’re right. At some point in my life, I’ve become more accustomed to running next to the lead runner rather than being the front runner. I told people that I was Daniel’s partner, but I actually lived on their warm attention to his talent. So when Daniel disappeared, I hid from them because I was not confident of running as the front runner.”
She continued, “As your teacher, I still tried to rely on you, and even now, I can’t say I don’t want to feel up to it. I still don’t know how weak-minded I am, but I’ve finally decided that I would stop blaming myself for being weak-minded. And I’ve also decided to accept the load you wanted me to carry on my back. I’m quite willing to do so if it’s the load that I should have carried by myself from the beginning.”
“Then, have you found the way, too?”
“I’m still walking on it.”
“Just walking on it won’t help you solve the problem.”
“Well, it’s better than not walking on it at all, isn’t it?”
“That’s right,” he said, bursting into laughter.
Crossing her legs, she said, “I want to have you as my insurance. I know that people tend to be weak-minded when they have somebody to rely on, but I hope you can understand me even if I rely on you as a weak-minded teacher.”
“Well, I don’t know if I can afford to do so since I’m your student…”
“I don’t know either. So, it’s up to you. By the way, this restaurant…”
She looked around the Venice branch of Rose Island. There were quite a few subtle changes when compared to it in the past. Dining tables were reduced, and there were no customers at the tables. Such an empty dining hall during the day was something unfamiliar to them.
But it was still her restaurant, where she and Daniel were building their dreams.
“This restaurant is like a jewel to me,” she said.
She was choked with emotions when she said that.
She continued, “Actually, it’s not very good in terms of location. Although it’s located in front of the beach, the security around this area isn’t very good. In the past, I often heard gangsters shooting at the beach at night.”
“But you couldn’t give it up.”
“Nope, I couldn’t give it up. As I said, this place was a gem to me. So, I’m a little puzzled right now because I’m not sure if it means me giving up to let you have this place…”
It was a funny situation. Rachel, who had the most memories in this store, wanted to leave this place to run a restaurant downtown, while Min-joon wanted to inherit this place that cherished all her dreams.
“Downtown Los Angeles is quite close to Santa Monica.”
“So what?”
“I don’t think it’s very positive to have two Rose Island restaurants so close together.”
“Even if they are close to each other, it will take you up to two hours to come here if you are caught in a traffic jam.”
“But it takes you less than 30 minutes without the traffic jam.”
“Is that closeness so important?”
“If it’s a ramen shop, it doesn’t matter. You don’t feel pressured by the price of ramen. So if there is a ramen branch nearby, nobody will try to drive to its main store for 30 minutes. But a restaurant is different. You have to think about the prices of menus first. When you run the main restaurant, do you want to open a branch with the same prices nearby?”
He explained to her in detail, but she wasn’t embarrassed.
She slowly looked into him and said, “It looks like you want to say something else to me.”
“…”
“Your excuses don’t pass with me. Tell me what you want to say.”
After some hesitation, he finally said, “Well, I would like to make sure I am not carrying your load anymore.”
Actually, he had been hesitating to tell this ever since he noticed her intentions. Even as he spoke to her, there was some hesitation in his voice.
But now it was all over.
“The sign of Rose Island isn’t suitable for this Venice store.”
<hr />
“You are not going to put up the sign of Rose Island there?” Lisa asked in a slightly surprised voice.
Min-joon, who was sipping the orange juice Ella gave him, nodded.
“It’s Rachel’s responsibility if that store has that sign. Things will get complicated if I use the same name as the sign of that Venice branch.”
“Well, even if you don’t own it, things are pretty complicated. You’re the referee of Rose Island, right? I mean you’re in a position to select the head of Rose Island every four years. But if you have nothing to do with Rose Island…”
“I can be fairer because I’ve nothing to do with it. And even if I don’t use the sign of Rose Island, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to run that restaurant. I’m quite willing to work as its head chef, but it’s me who has to choose the new name of the restaurant.”
“And Rachel will still remain as its owner, right?”
“That’s right.”
While the two were conversing like that, Ella looked at them blankly. She had no idea what they were talking about. Marco didn’t know, either.
At last, Marco, who was looking at them with a puzzled expression, asked him quietly,” So did you decide to work at the restaurant or not?”
“I didn’t sign a contract yet, but I agreed to work there.”
“Great. So you want to live in Santa Monica again?”
“No, in Los Angeles.”
“Los Angeles?”
“Yep,” he replied in a calm voice. “Rose Island’s main restaurant will be moved to its original location, and I’ll restore it like before.”
“What!?” Marco asked loudly, startled.
Suddenly, things got complicated. Lisa also looked at him with a surprised expression.
Ella was handing out a biscuit to him as if she didn’t care what was going on.
Smiling at her, he took it.
“What Rachel really wants most is to restore the current Rose Island to its original one.”
“Then why does she insist on hiring you?” Lisa asked. “Well, Rachel wanted Min-joon to take over the main store, or more precisely, the Venice branch, for she believed that if he took over that place, he could refurbish it into one that Daniel used to run in the past. She really wants Min-joon to show something remarkable there even if he doesn’t put up the sign of Rose Island there. If you give up on that, what’s the meaning of your contract?”
That was a good point. At the same time, that was the most ironic thing in this situation. Rachel had been trying to have Min-joon fill the void left by Daniel. At the end of the day, however, it was she, not Min-joon, who had to take care of all that.
Could he do it or not? But Min-joon didn’t agonize over it. He didn’t think it was really meaningful even if he did it. Could Rachel be happy if he brought out the intended results when she didn’t challenge things at all?
“Do you remember what Chef Rachel said when she moved the main branch downtown?
She said she didn’t want to get caught up in old memories in a new place. So, now is the time for her to face those old memories again. Actually, the downtown branch didn’t mean much to her.”
“Okay. I think it’s good that Rachel is back. But what about you, Min-joon? If you take over the Rose Island branch in downtown Los Angeles, what are your benefits? Of course, you can work there as the head chef…”
Suddenly, Min-joon felt empty. He felt something was lacking. More precisely, he was rather vague about what Lisa just pointed out. He didn’t completely reject Rachel’s hope, but neither did he accept it. How should he define it?
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