Chapter 197 - In front of the Starting Line (3)

‘Oh my… They’re at it again.’

All of the kitchen members shook their heads with a sigh. Min-joon Cho and Kaya meant well, but the other guys could not believe that the duo could flirt with each other openly. They would rather feel less painful if the duo showed their affection more deeply.

Maya turned to Garrick then said in a bitter voice, “Hey, Garrick, are all Asian men like that?”

“… Well, Korean men, in particular, are famous for showing affection to their lovers.”

“But if they marry, they are going to change, right?”

“That’s common to all men over the world. Romantic movies deal with their love only until they get married. They don’t deal with it once they get married. Actually, they can’t do it anymore because they are no more romantic like they used to be. When they get married, they are just a topic of family soap operas. You know such dramas usually deal with the crisis of a family, their peak crisis, and reconciliation.”

Janet responded to it in a cold voice, “I want to see those two get married quickly.”

“…It sounds like an evil wish,” said Garrick with an awkward smile.

But there was no more smile in Janet’s eyes.

Anderson, who was next to him, said with a serious expression, “What you’ve just said is the best thing you’ve ever said.”

“You know I say nice things all the time.”

“Let me leave it at that, man.”

Anderson shrugged. Janet glanced at him for a moment then looked back.

She momentarily flinched. Ella was staring at her with a resentful expression.

Ella muttered in a gloomy voice, “… Well, I don’t want to see them get married.”

***

“Is this the last carrier?”

“Well, you can’t say it’s baggage, just a few clothes in it.”

Min-joon shrugged, loading the last carrier into the car. The weather in California was mostly warm, and everything in the carrier was summer clothes, except for the nightclothes and a few thin coats.

He looked back. A house that stayed warm in the sun. Scratches etched on the bright magenta stone wall showed how old the house was. He dimly saw a long chimney stuck to one side of the wall.

Min-joon muttered with a bitter voice, “… I feel a bit sad to leave this house now.”

“Definitely, you look weird if you don’t feel sad to leave such a nice house.”

“Your house is nice, too. But why don’t you feel sad like me?”

“What’s the big deal even if you have a good house? Two ghosts live there.”

“Man, you’re so mean if you refer to your parents as ghosts.”

“You never know unless you experience it. You can’t blame me, man. Your parents are nice, right? You can’t understand it.”

Min-joon moved his eyebrows up and down silently.

Anderson wasn’t necessarily wrong. Certainly, Min-joon’s parents were different from Anderson’s. But…

“By the way, Amelia, it seems like you were in tears when you were packing.”

“… No, what are you talking about?”

Anderson replied awkwardly.

Rachel, watching them, slowly opened her mouth.

“Amelia pretends to be strong, but she is actually soft.”

“I don’t understand what you mean. Isn’t it correct to say she is pretending to be strong, but she is soft, just like an iron hand in a velvet hand?”

“Even such a strong woman is sad when her child is leaving the house. Besides, she has been with his son, kindly caring for him for more than twenty years.”

“Well, she wasn’t that kind…”

“It’s not that you held me in your arms like that…”

Anderson tried to add a bit but blurred at the end of her words, noticing Rachel’s intense look.

Watching Rachel, Min-joon suddenly thought of something. Did Rachel and Daniel never had a child or did they lose their child? Normally, if they had been together for such a long time, they would certainly have had at least a child, but no one mentioned it. That was why Min-joon was curious.

Of course, he wasn’t inconsiderate enough to ask Rachel about it directly.

Just because he was curious, it didn’t mean he deserved to know it. It was her private life. Unless Rachel mentioned it herself, he didn’t have to ask or deserve to know it.

With a wistful smile on her face, Rachel looked back at Min-joon and said, “You are leaving, after all.”

“I had a good time here. There will never be another time in my life when I tasted home food better than here.”

“Oh no. If you say so, Kaya will be sad.”

“I don’t think Kaya has ever served me any home food.”

“Don’t you think she will someday?”

It was a nasty question. Instead of answering, Min-joon turned his gaze with an embarrassing expression.

Rachel said in a slightly serious voice, “Sometimes you have to hold onto somebody firmly rather than stepping back. I may sound like a prejudiced old woman, but what a woman wants from a man is only this, namely holding her tightly.”

“… Did you do it too?”

“I’ve heard a lot from others that I had a tough personality, but you know I’m not a man.

When a man wants to have the world, a woman wants to have the man who has the world. And when she is convinced that he has it, she wants the man to be obsessed with her. It’s easy for a woman who doesn’t get obsessed to doubt his love.”

Min-joon understood roughly what she meant. As if lost in thought, he nodded seriously. Then he said carefully, “Don’t you think I’m already obsessed enough?”

“Well, you’re gently obsessed. Sometimes it’s okay to be rude. Think about this. If you made a friend, but your friend tries to act formally, can you feel comfortable with your friend?”

“… Well, I’m afraid I can’t,” Min-joon said timidly.

Rachel smiled at him and said, slowly tapping his shoulder, “You’re a smart kid. I think you understand everything I said. Let me stop advising you here. You don’t think I’m a boring old woman, do you?”

“Even if you recited an encyclopedia in front of me, I wouldn’t think so.”

“Don’t flatter me so openly, boy.”

“Don’t you think my kind of clumsy flattering is better than a calculated one?”

“… As you say so, I just get confused if you’re dumb like a bear or smart like a fox,” Rachel said, giggling at him as if she could not outfox him.

Min-joon replied gently, “Thank you so much, ma’am… It’s strange to say goodbye like this. I am not leaving the kitchen as you know.”

“Come here.”

Rachel opened her arms. Min-joon approached carefully and hugged her.

She patted Min-joon on the back.

“You were like a son to me. And you will continue to be. If you miss the loving embrace of your family from time to time, come to me anytime.”

The moment he heard it, he had a strange feeling. He has a family in Korea, and Kaya, his sweetheart. But Rachel had no one left behind.

Of course, the faithful Isaac was beside her, but wasn’t it Rachel, not Min-joon, who would miss her family? He felt heavy when he thought about it.

Min-joon hugged her. It wasn’t just his pull when he hugged her in his arms. He felt sorry for leaving with love. Could Rachel feel it, too? He was not sure.

Min-joon whispered quietly, “Don’t think that I’m like your son. Just think of me as your son. When you embrace me, I’ll embrace you, too.”

“… You’re overflowing with enthusiasm. Are you trying to comfort me now?”

“You know there is no law that says only seniors deserve to comfort their juniors.”

Rachel gently pushed him out. There was a bit of embarrassment on her wrinkled face.

Clearing her throat, she said, “Goodbye now. You even took a vacation leave because of moving, so you can’t afford to spend your precious time chatting with me, right?”

“I don’t care about it if I can chat with you like this.”

“I can’t really beat an eloquent speaker like you.”

Rachel smiled awkwardly as if she couldn’t stop him. She even thought that Kaya had no choice but to get hooked on him since he had the gift of the gab like this. In fact, regardless of old and young, man and woman, anybody could not help but like his frankness.

‘What a great talent.’

Even if one’s personality was not good, it was still possible for one to make delicious dishes.

Even if one could smell the cook’s sincerity in the dish, few people could read it properly.

However, any restaurant with such a man as its chef was supposed to get into trouble. It was the same case when one didn’t treat tooth decay because it doesn’t hurt. The cavity would someday get worse, so much so that one couldn’t touch it without pulling it out.

Min-joon didn’t think he would at least be in such a situation. Definitely, he would benefit from his fine personality itself. He would certainly embrace his kitchen members warmly, who would warmly greet the customers as well.

“I’ll contact you when I arrive!”

“Since you’re not that far from me, you don’t have to. Just unpack your baggage and have a good rest. It’s my order as the head chef.”

“Yep.”

Min-joon saluted her and got into the car. Rachel slowly turned her back, watching the car fading away with a gentle smile. There were a lot of voices around her, but now there was really no sound. She heard no wind, no birds, no insects, no car engine. She looked blankly at her house. Why did she feel that her house, which was full of romance, was so empty?

“… It’s going to be quiet from now on.”

She couldn’t bring herself to take a step back to the house.

**

The house the three moved to was on the outskirts of Beverly Hills. The streets were lined with trees that were a few dozen meters in height, and all kinds of cars were parked along the road in front of the house.

And among them were Min-joon and Anderson’s truck. When Min-joon dragged the carrier into the house, Kaya, who had been dusting off for a long time, looked back at them, wearing a mask.

“Did you pack all your luggage?”

“Yes, this is the last one.”

“It’s simple and nice.”

Kaya nodded. The furniture she had ordered in advance was already delivered home several days ago, waiting for them.

With a sigh, Min-joon sat down on the sofa.

Kaya said, frowning, “Are you going to take a break as soon as you get here? We’ve got so much work to do right now.”

“Aren’t you supposed to clean up?”

“… So, you are not going to help me?”

Kaya opened her eyes sharply and stared at him. He grabbed her wrist. He reached for the floor duster and snatched it. She sat down on his lap before she knew it and raised her eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“Let’s take a break. I feel under the weather a bit.”

“… What happened?”

Instead of replying, he hugged Kaya tightly. She twisted her body as if she was uncomfortable.

“If you hold me, do it right. My back hurts so much if you hold me like that.”

“Well, Ms. Rachel told me to act like a bad guy sometimes.”

“… Well, I don’t think she means your action a moment ago.”

He smiled and let go of her. Kaya’s eyes, who just stood up and adjusted her posture, immediately pointed to his lap and the empty seat next to him.

After all, what she did was half and half. She sat with one of her buttocks on the sofa, and the other on his thigh.

He asked with a dumbfounded voice, “You told me to sit right, but you didn’t.”

“Well, they say online that if you want to keep up a good relationship with your lover, you had better give your lover only half of your heart, instead of giving all your body and soul. By the way, what’s the matter? Why do you look so depressed?”

“Well, I felt a bit sad when I left Head chef Rachel’s house. It hurts a bit when I think she’s going to live in that spacious house alone.”

“You can visit her sometimes.”

“You know a house is a house. She needs someone to greet her when she goes back home.”

“Doesn’t she have Isaac around her?”

“Well, their relationship is far from something like a family, but it’s more of a master and student relationship. But I don’t know.”

“Stop thinking about what you don’t know. Come on in. I finished cleaning our room.”

Kaya got up from her seat after kissing his cheek. In the end, it was Kaya and Min-joon who would use the master bedroom at the same time. Even though Min-joon pretended not to, he felt better about using it with Kaya than Anderson. If she didn’t feel uncomfortable, there was no reason for the two to use a separate room.

But that didn’t mean the two shared the bed. To be precise, the two separated the two beds apart enough to fit a lamp in between. Kaya lay on the bed and looked at him.

“What are you doing. Lie down like me.”

“Now?”

“Then are you going to lie down tomorrow?”

Min-joon agonized for a moment. He was still in a street dress. However, he didn’t want to rub her the wrong way by making excuses not to lie down.

Eventually, when he lay down, she opened his mouth.

“Give me your hand.”

“…Am I a dog?”

Having said that, he gently gave her a hand. She held it and smiled, closing her eyes as if she was satisfied.

“Do I have to sleep like this every day?” Min-joon asked.

“… If you keep doing this, we won’t go far enough in our relationship,” Kaya said, “Aside from the progress, we are supposed to hold hands like this when we go to sleep. It’s not just when we go to sleep. Wherever we go or whatever we do, let’s hold hands like this.”

“What if I have to go to the restroom?”

“Stop breaking the mood, Min-joon.”

She looked sharply at him and pinched his palm. It didn’t hurt.

He said, “Do you remember the promise we made at the Grand Chef?”

“Which promise?”

“You said you would serve me breakfast and lunch until I lose the chef competition.”

He turned his head quietly, lying on the bed. She was already looking at him.

With her eyes meeting his, she said, “But you’ve won it. So, losing it is impossible.”

She didn’t answer. He looked at her seriously. Then he quietly whispered something like a joke.

“Now that you have held my hand, you can never give it back to me.”