Chapter 159 - Chapter 159: The Reason Why They’re Hungry (2)

He thought Kaya would send him an angry text or call him back after he hung up… But his phone remained silent. He even tried to call her back himself, but the line was busy.

‘… This makes me even more anxious.’

She must’ve been really angry or was really hurt. Since she didn’t return his text or call, he didn’t know what else to do.

“Ugh, what do I do? Something’s off about Kaya.”

“If she feels hurt by something like that, she should just give up on living in this world.”

“… You’re so cold.”

“If I was really cold, I wouldn’t have let you free after just a day.”

In response, Cho Min Joon sighed without a response. What did they get themselves into? Anderson looked at Cho Min Joon’s backside and asked, “Are you going to make breakfast again?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think we’ll have time to go anywhere considering our flight time. Maybe we should cook ourselves. But shouldn’t we ask the others? This is the last time. Maybe they want to go out to eat instead of eating at home.”

“… But there isn’t much time to go to a store. I feel like the only thing we can do is go to a convenience store and get some prepared lunches.”

“Let’s sleep for now. We don’t have much time.”

“Yeah.”

But 7 hours later at 5 Am in the morning, Cho Min Joon and Anderson were standing in front of each other in the kitchen. Anderson looked at Cho Min Joon and opened his mouth.

“I thought you wanted to sleep.”

“Yeah… But I couldn’t sleep too well.”

“I heard your alarm ringing earlier. How am I supposed to believe you when you look dead tired?”

In response, Cho Min Joon looked away with an awkward look on his face. Anderson then burst into laughter. He was lying, but it was hard to hate him for it.

“You sly bastard. Okay. Let’s make breakfast.”

“Anything in mind?”

“It sounds like you do.”

“Yeah. I’ve gotten many inspirations from Tokyo Harmony. First…”

Cho Min Joon opened the fridge. There were many ingredients inside, but after what they had the morning before, it seemed to be lacking. Cho Min Joon looked back at Anderson and said, “Let’s go shopping.”

***

Even though it was summer, the early mornings were cold before the sun came up. Cho Min Joon zipped up his cardigan and put his hands in his pocket. His head was trembling.

“Ugh, it’s so cold. I shouldn’t have worn pants.”

“Why would you wear shorts when you’re wearing a cardigan? You knew it’d be cold.”

“I thought I’d be okay as long as I was warm on top, but I guess not. I guess temperature also needs balance just like cooking.”

“What kind of random cooking comparison is that?”

“We’re chefs. It’s not bad to have this habit.”

“I guess not, but it’s kind of ridiculous.”

Anderson shook his head. He looked fed up as he opened his mouth.

“If you’re that cold, take off that cardigan and wrap it around your waist.”

“… Wow. Anderson, you’re smarter than I thought.”

In response, Andreson’s face flushed.

The market. Cho Min Joon looked at the fish on the tables and opened his mouth.

“Do some restaurants buy their ingredients at large supermarkets instead?”

“Most do. If they care so much that they go to markets, they’re either located near a market or sign a contract with a supplier. Our family uses a supplier.”

“That sounds fun. Shopping for ingredients and comparing quality is kind of like playing a puzzle game.”

Cho Min Joon smiled because just the thought of it made him jealous. Anderson glared his eyes and looked at Cho Min Joon.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“… I feel like you have a lot of fantasies about having your own restaurant. Why is that? You know everything now. You know that it’s nothing glamorous like they make it seem on TV. Look at Samuel. A man like that was sensitive about everything we said. It’s a hard and difficult job.”

“I know that.”

Cho Min Joon moved his eyes from a mackerel to Anderson’s eyes. Anderson trembled. Half a year. No matter how complicated, it was long enough to know what each other was thinking.

But there were times when Cho Min Joon’s eyes were hard to understand. His eyes sometimes looked warm as if he had a lot of life experience.

‘… Is it because he originally wanted to become a teacher?’

There was no time to seek answers. Cho Min Joon opened his mouth.

“But Anderson, even the difficult parts are enjoyable. It might feel frustrating and miserable at the time, but is it because work and play is the same for me? Whenever I stand in front of a cooking station, my heart feels full. When I think about the fact that instead of wasting my life away, I’m doing what I should be doing… I feel full.”

“It must feel good to feel full.”

“I’m sure you do, too. You’re just like me.”

In response, Anderson smacked his lips. Cho Min Joon’s eyes seemed certain, but Anderson didn’t feel the same. Anderson hesitated before opening his mouth.

“What do you trust so much in me?”

“Your passion.”

His answer contained no hesitation. In response to his certain voice, Anderson looked at Cho Min Joon.

“My… passion?”

“If you didn’t have passion, you wouldn’t be here early in the morning to make breakfast.”

Anderson closed his mouth for a second. His eyes then turned to a woman who was shopping early in the morning. He answered in a quiet voice, “I’m not as proper as you think.”

“I never said you were.”

“… My feelings for cooking is more like affection than passion.”

“Why?”

“Because it wasn’t my choice.”

Anderson gave a short answer, but there were many complicated emotions contained in that short answer.

“It wasn’t my choice. It was because of my parents. Oh, but I’m not saying they forced it on me, but they never showed me any other way. At first, I thought it was a given, but as I got older, I hated that I walked this path without seeing any other option. I felt like my life was my parents’, not mine. So…”

Anderson closed his eyes. It wasn’t easy for him to say this given his pride, and Cho Min Joon wasn’t so impressive that he was worth giving up his pride for. The reason was simple.

Cho Min Joon was a friend.

“That’s why I signed up for Grand Chef. I wanted to make my life my own. I wanted to choose the path for myself. I wanted to check if I could love this path.”

“… Yeah. I remember you telling me that. That you wanted to get away from your parents’ shadow.”

A deep meaning was hidden within that remark. Cho Min Joon opened his mouth. His eyes looked soft, but his voice was stern.

“You’ve done it, Anderson. It’s not because you’re good at cooking. You’re…”

Cho Min Joon closed his mouth for a moment. He wasn’t good at saying corny things, at least in his mind. But he wanted to say it.

“You’re my rival. I don’t become rivals with someone who doesn’t like to cook.”

After that, Cho Min Joon quickly turned toward the fish. The thought of how Anderson would look back at him made him cringe. At that moment, Anderson spoke from behind him, “I’m glad you’re my friend.”

Cho Min Joon didn’t answer… because there was no need to.

***

They didn’t start cooking as soon as they got back from the market. Cho Min Joon and Anderson sat in front of the table and exchanged recipes. They thought of the overall structure of the meal, the harmony between ingredients, and how they would cook the dishes.

Meanwhile, both Cho Min Joon and Anderson were in awe of each other. In Anderson’s case, he was envious of Cho Min Joon’s recipe creativity, while Cho Min Joon was envious of Anderson’s understanding of ingredients. Anderson opened his mouth.

“How can you know this much when you only learned on the internet? I can’t believe it.”

“There was a good mentor online.”

“Who? I’ve never seen someone that impressive online before.”

“Kaya.”

“… What?”

In response, Anderson grimaced. He then opened his mouth in a bitter voice.

“You’re not talking about Kaya Reuters, are you?”

“I am.”

“… Stop lying. Kaya only got on the internet after the show started airing. How could you have seen anything before that?”

Cho Min Joon smiled without an answer. It was impossible for him to explain. All he could do was make excuses to himself that he didn’t lie to Anderson.

“Let’s think about how to split this up.”

“Split what up? Roles?”

“Yeah. We’ve always split it up in the same way. It was always either two ways. Each person takes charge of each dish or one person prepares the ingredients while the other uses the fire. Don’t you think there might be a more efficient way to do it?”

They were determined to find a better method. Anderson stared at the snapper as he opened his mouth.

“We need to be one.”

“… What?”

“Why are you looking at me like that? We have to move as one body, as if we’re a body with four arms attached. My thoughts become yours, and your thoughts become mine so that we can work perfectly together.”

“That just sounds like it can get troublesome.”

“That’s why we have to have all steps of the recipe prepared beforehand. Then it’ll be easier.”

Cho Min Joon nodded. The recipes they shared with each other had a Japanese foundation. It was their last day in Japan, which meant it was their last day of being like family. The reason why they chose homecooked dishes was because they wanted to share a family-like time.

The formation was simple—white rice. At first, they considered making mushroom rice, but unless they wanted to win with the rice alone, they didn’t think it was wise to mix anything into the rice.

As for the fish, they picked snapper. The cooking method consisted of cutting the snapper and cooking it in a broth made of cooking wine and turnip before boiling it down in soy sauce and sugar. Aside from that, there was stir-fried beef and potatoes, pork with roasted ginger, and clams in rice wine. On top of that, there were marinated cucumber, cabbage, and vegetables with salt and walnut oil.

They didn’t exchange many words. Cho Min Joon and Anderson constantly checked up on each other, but that didn’t mean they weren’t focused on their dishes. What they were checking was the overall situation of the kitchen. It was as if they were both head chefs. What made them different from regular head chefs was that there were two in the front line.

It was a new experience, and it was helpful. After all, if one didn’t focus on every step of a cooking process, everything could be ruined. Doing a perfect job at working the knife and pan while checking the overall situation was harder than expected.

But it was also fun. The feeling of using their brains and bodies to the best of their abilities was thrilling. What made it feel completely different was that he didn’t worry about the cooking score. The fire underneath the pan was more beautiful than usual, and the handle of the knife seemed easier to grip.

‘This… is what real cooking is like. This is fun.’

It was enjoyable to simply make food without worrying about the score. This was real cooking. Cho Min Joon smiled. It was small, but it was more honest and clear than ever before.

Their chemistry became more perfect as time went on. When Cho Min Joon left something, Anderson jumped in, and when Anderson needed an ingredient, Cho Min Joon passed it over. They were watching and listening to each other.

Anderson felt his heart pounding. At first, he felt like he was being controlled by Cho Min Joon, but that wasn’t true. They were exchanging countless remarks without saying anything. He had never felt something like this before. It felt like he found someone who understood him.

So when they finished cooking, Anderson looked disappointed that it ended. He looked at Cho Min Joon with sad eyes, but it was strange. Cho Min Joon was looking at something else beside Anderson.

But Anderson couldn’t see anything. At that moment, Cho Min Joon opened his mouth. His voice was full of jealousy.

“… Congratulations, Anderson.”

[Anderson Russo]

Cooking Level: 8

Baking Level: 7

Tasting Level: 8

Decoration Level: 7