Chapter 439 - Weight of Choice (2)

“Didn’t you miss Los Angeles?”

“Well, Paris was so nice that I couldn’t miss Los Angeles…”

Rachel shrugged with a smile at Min-joon’s nonchalant reply.

He then looked over her shoulders. There were quite a few men behind her, including Anderson, Janet, Javier, as well as Maya, and other cooks. There were even some that he didn’t know at all. Rachel glanced back at them and whispered to Min-joon, “I tried to come here quietly, but they all followed me after they knew you would arrive today.”

“As you know, reporters are the first who smell a rat. It looks like I can’t avoid them now for an interview.”

“Gosh, I just don’t know why they didn’t fly to Paris to interview you instead of coming to the airport here and disturb us like this.”

Rachel folded her arms and shook her head as if she didn’t like them.

Reporters were clicking the shutters of their cameras while checking her expressions.

They didn’t yet ask him any questions without her permission, but it seemed they would competitively throw questions as soon as she okayed.

‘It’s good they are being patient like this.’

The reporters’ restraint showed how influential Rachel was in this cooking world. Even though they didn’t hesitate to ask the men of power without any hesitation, they couldn’t ask even simple questions about the pair’s feelings about their victory without her permission. In some respects, this was a matter of her personality, not power, because they knew well that if they lost favor with her, she would never give them any good story to write about. On the other hand, if they won her favor, they often got scoops from her.

So, many of the reporters were trying to impress her favorably. At last, recognizing their earnest wishes, she was about to allow them to interview him when one of them asked something quite surprising.

“Chef Min-joon! I’m Jessica Prada from Daily Street. I hear rumors that you’re going to be the executive chef of the Pacific Hotel after this Paris contest or you would open your own restaurant. What do you think? Are you really planning to leave Rose Island? ”

Kaya laughed scornfully. The reporter was Jessica Prada who asked the question. Jessica was the reporter who had seriously distorted Kaya’s affair with her former school friend Tess in her story. It was time she would never appear again before Kaya, but she did, and asked a question that made all the parties concerned very uncomfortable.

Min-joon stared at her coldly for a moment then looked askance at Rachel. At that moment, Jessica clicked the shutter of a camera to capture it, thinking Min-joon was cautiously checking his teacher’s mood. She felt that she could write an interesting story based on that fact alone. She could tell her readers that he was checking her mood because he wanted to leave her or because he was not yet ready to leave her. She could write a story focusing on either one. And that was why she liked her job as a reporter, for she could make up the truth in her own way.

Of course, what she just observed would not be a candidate for a gossip piece, but she seemed to enjoy asking such a rude question. She turned to other reporters.

‘I’ve broken the ice, so you guys can ask, too. You must be idiots if you don’t ask follow-up questions.’

But Min-joon avoided replying to her question, but it was important which reporter made him answer.

Anyway, Min-joon replied with a cold voice, “I haven’t said that I’m doing an interview with you.”

“Oh, excuse me. As I already asked you a question, can you reply quickly? I think all the reporters here are about the question.”

“Well, as you were rude from the beginning, let me do the same to you. I don’t want to answer your question.”

“According to my sources, Delia Wi has been racking her brain trying to win over your heart.”

Min-joon really felt bad to hear her name from Jessica. He let out a sigh, not knowing how to reply. He had not decided yet whether to leave Rose Island or continue to stay after the Paris contest. Besides, he hadn’t talked with Rachel formally about what to do in the future.

“It is true that Delia tried to hire me, but I’ve always rejected her offer. And I don’t remember I’ve accepted her offer.”

He wanted to make clear about this matter because his vague reply would generate more wild rumors. He didn’t like a satisfactory smile on Jessica’s face, but he couldn’t help it.

Of course, after her first question, Min-joon purposely did not give Jessica another chance to ask. Whenever she raised her hand, he let another reporter ask, which seemed childish, but nobody took issue with him for that.

What they asked him was not much different from what he was asked in Paris. But the American reporters focused more on which restaurant he would want to work for in the future. While the French people were more interested in his cooking than Min-joon himself, the American reporters focused more on Chef Min-joon himself, for he was as famous as any celebrity in America.

But Min-joon felt really annoyed because of his popularity, for they asked lots of private questions, too. So, he had to agonize over whether to reply to such questions or not.

At that moment, somebody asked Rachel, not Min-joon or Kaya.

“Chef Rachel. I don’t think Chef Min-joon has a clear plan for his future, but I’d love to hear from you, Chef Rachel. If Min-joon is hired by another restaurant with a generous offer, are you going to support his decision to leave?”

Rachel did not answer for a moment. She looked at Min-joon with mixed feelings then replied quickly, on for a while. She looked at Cho Min-joon with her complicated eyes, and she immediately replied, “I have no intention of letting him leave.”

“Then, are you going to keep him at Rose Island even in the future?”

Rachel looked at the reporter who asked the question. The reporter flinched a bit when he noticed some resentment in her eyes. He felt he gave her the wrong question.

Rachel opened her mouth.

***

“Damn it, why did that crazy bitch mention my name?”

While reading the newspaper for a while, Delia shouted all of a sudden.

Terry replied quietly, checking her expression, “I know you have been trying to hire Min-joon openly, so everybody knows it, although they are reluctant to mention it.”

“Terry, I think you have become too arrogant because I am generous to you these days. You remember what I warned you the other day? If you can’t hire Min-joon, you are going to be fired.”

Terry pouted at her cold voice. As a matter of fact, she messed up while she was trying to forcibly win over his heart as the head chef of her hotel restaurant. So, it was highly unlikely that any chef with the right mindset would work with her.

“Oh my God, why is Min-joon being more and more popular? As things stand now, it’s even more difficult for us to hire him, right?”

“You already knew early on that he was going to be like that, didn’t you? Apart from his talent, he has great potential as a star chef. So, you should have approached him more prudently from the beginning. But you messed up everything.”

“Are you blaming me now?”

“Don’t you think so?”

“I admit it. It’s my fault.”

Delia fell on her desk with a depressed look. Her restaurant commanded a nice view of the downtown in the back, and there was a large, high-quality marble table in front of her. The Hispanic workers she hired to install it on the top floor of her hotel really had a hard time bringing the materials to the top floor. Nonetheless, she didn’t look good in the background of that luxurious marble table. Putting her cheeks on it, she breathed out.

Watching the nicely arranged prints scattering like petals, she said, “Can’t you find any way to hire him?”

“You know this isn’t a matter of method. It’s a matter of the human heart. Unless you hire Mafia gang members to take him here and work with us, I don’t think he is going to work for your hotel.”

“No, he should not be hurt.”

“But you are not confident of winning over his heart, right?’

“Even if I am trying to please him, he doesn’t like me.”

“Well, ordinary people would describe your efforts as ugly. So, don’t be such an ass.”

“Do you really want to lose your job?”

Delia’s eyes glared fiercely. Sensing her grumpy mood, Terry cleared her throat.

Collecting the prints that fell on the floor, Terry said gently, “If I lose my job, you will lose the final chance to hire him anyway.”

What she said was quite meaningful.

Delia didn’t respond at all for a while then slowly lifted her body off her table.

She looked at Terry with her eyes twinkling like a child.

“Oh, you have the hidden card, right?”

“I can’t guarantee, but you can try.”

“What is it?”

“Do you know what you should do to catch a beast?”

“I don’t know. So tell me quickly.”

“You catch her cub. Then its mom should appear to save her cub anyway. Then you can lure and drop her in the pit you have dug in advance.”

“But, Min-joon doesn’t have any kids, does he?”

Terry sighed at her naive reply. She just could not understand why this woman with such an innocent brain was so childish in approaching him.

She said quietly, “But he has one as precious as a kid.”

Delia still didn’t seem to understand her point.

Then, she opened her mouth blankly as if she realized something, at last.

“You mean his girlfriend, Kaya Reuters?”

“Yeah. Try to lure her. If she likes you, you make friends with her. You might be able to get her help. As you know, a friend’s friend is your friend.”

“Well, do you think I have to do it?”

“It’s up to you.”

Delia started twisting her hair with mixed feelings.

After hesitating for some time, she finally said, “Okay, I’ll try.”

“Okay, then stand up.”

“Why?”

“You directly met Min-joon several times. Are you going to ask somebody to hire Kaya? Don’t take it easy. It’s not only us who is trying to hire Kaya Reuters. What I have suggested to you is not that difficult. Don’t you think other hotels or wealthy restaurant owners are also keenly interested in Min-joon and Kaya?”

When she heard that, she sprang to her feet. She could not miss this opportunity.

“Okay. Let’s go. Let’s show them the power of money.”

“Hey, there are things that you can’t get with money.”

“Anyway, let me try!”

Delia put on a shawl hurriedly then started heading for the elevator.

Terry sighed, watching her quietly.

A quiet and secret war of scouting Min-joon and Kaya began.