God of Cooking

"You know Marco's timid temper, right? If this kind of thing happens, I'm sure he is agonizing it alone instead of confiding in somebody else because he is such a gentle guy."

"If that's the case, you shouldn't do it on his behalf. What do you get when the bakery goes bankrupt? After all, the fact doesn't change that Marco will still be hurt."

"Then, what should we do? You don't want to do anything about him?"

While the two's squabbling was getting heated, the cameraman, who was talking with them, looked at the other cameramen. He felt his chatting with them interfered with the shooting, but they didn't care at all. Rather, they were busy filming the squabbing of the two intensively.

'Do they think this is worth filming?'

When he thought so, he began to take note of Kaya and Min-joon's expressions.

The cameraman zoomed on Min-joon's face. He always thought Min-joon was cool and gentle, but right now, his facial expression was so fierce that he could not believe it.

Min-joon said to Kaya, "I learned something while going through this competition. When you fight, you have to do it based on calculations, not emotions. It's just like cooking. You get shown up pretty quickly if you act without taking care of your feelings, just like Marco."

"So, what are you going to do about Marco?"

"Let's think about Marco for now. If someone was shot, we can't call the police first, not caring about the person who was shot, right? We need to call an ambulance first."

"Just thinking about him doesn't do any good to him."

"… That's a good point."

Min-joon raised his smartphone. Like she pointed out, just thinking about it didn't make any difference. First, he had to confront the problem.

Min-joon looked back at the cameraman and asked, "If that's the case, Marco is not doing anything at the moment, right?"

"Well, I think our cameraman is filming him right now. I guess he is probably pretty depressed right now."

"It's a good time to shoot the scene. If he tells about his position on TV, the bakery will get lots of bad reviews. Let me call him for a moment. His place is three or four hours ahead of my place. Anyway, it's still daytime there. Let me call him now."

Min-joon dialed the number on his smartphone and put it against his ear.

Kaya focused on the sound, getting close to his smartphone. The phone rang several times then it was cut off suddenly. She opened her eyes a bit wider this time.

<< Hello! This is Marco. I cannot take your call right now. Please leave a message. I will call you back later. >>

"His phone was cut off too fast, wasn't it?"

"Well, obviously he hung up the phone as soon as the phone rang. Call him again."

"Okay."

Min-joon dialed the number again. It was when he heard Marco's recorded voice on the phone two more times when Marco responded finally.

<<… Hi, Min-joon!>>

"It's been a while, Marco. Did you eat?"

<< No. My stomach is a bit upset. What's up? >>

"If you haven't eaten yet, I thought I would like to eat together."

<< I am in New York, man. >>

"Yeah, I know. Lunch is on you, man," Min-joon said jokingly.

"Let me get you the plane ticket in return."

Min-joon was serious at that moment. Although Marco felt he cracked a joke and forgot about it after hanging up the phone, Min-joon really booked and sent the plane ticket to him. A few hours after that, Marco was hurriedly getting on a plane to Los Angeles.

'What am I doing now?' Min-joon thought to himself.

Min-joon had never thought of anything like this, namely bringing him to Los Angeles all of a sudden or getting him a plane ticket to Los Angeles. He really could not understand why he did so.

Marco, who was being filmed in the New York studio of the broadcasting station at the moment, looked at the cameraman standing behind him and asked, "Muhammad, how much is the plane ticket from New York to Los Angeles?"

"I remember it correctly because I sent the receipt to the company. I paid $395 for the ticket."

Marco opened his eyes wide at his reply and took a breath suddenly. It was never a small amount that anybody could pay easily for an ordinary restaurant meal. With that money, he could enjoy a full course at a fairly high-end restaurant.

Looking at the ticket Min-joon bought for him, Marco suddenly realized how much Min-joon cared about him. He looked at the ticket again with tears welled in his eyes. He then wiped the tears and sniffed before he knew it.

"I'm sorry, I'm so childish, right?"

"No. Anyone in your situation will act like you. Don't blame yourself too much. Marco, you didn't do anything wrong."

"You know, other guys are working great in their fields, but I just don't know why I'm so messed up. I've been had like this, as you know."

There was no point in comforting Marco in this situation, which would make him more depressed. So, the cameraman didn't say anything. Of course, his silence also couldn't soothe Marco's troubled heart.

By the time he boarded the plane, Marco looked gloomy as if he was a depressed patient. It was not unreasonable that the woman next to his seat hardened her face, looking at his expression. Of course, she could feel uncomfortable because Marco was big enough to reserve two seats.

A little later, she saw a cameraman following Marco. She wondered for a moment what the heck was going on. Then she asked Marco curiously, "Oh, you must be Marco who participated in the Grand Chef competition, right?"

"Yes, I am."

"Wow! I really enjoyed the cooking show! Oh, I'm Rebecca. May I ask why you are flying to Los Angeles?"

"I'm going there for a meal with my friend."

As soon as he replied, he realized how narrow-minded his answer was. It was as if he was eating pasta in Italy for lunch and Escargot in France for dinner.

He hurriedly added, "To be precise, I'm going to go there to treat my friend to a meal."

Of course, even that reply sounded very strange to the woman.

<hr />

"Are you so rich? How come you can waste money to buy Marco a plane ticket?" Kaya protested.

"Hey, don't you know I usually take action after careful thinking? When I decide to spend money, I make the decision after thinking it over a lot. So, don't worry," Min-joon replied.

"That's not what I mean, Min-joon. Don't you know what I'm trying to tell you now?"

"Hey, that's not the issue. I can help him if he is having a hard time now."

"I'm not blaming you because you helped him. I just wanted to point out the way you're spending your money. You know how ordinary people in America are living? They use credit cards to buy things then pay only the minimum amount each month. If they get injured at all, they are up to their necks in debt if they don't have health insurance."

"What the heck are you talking about? I'm not in debt. I have never paid my credit card balance late."

"I'm not talking about your credit card. What I am saying is you should not make the habit of wasting money like that. You know these guys in the market were not poor from the start. They were deep in debt because they mismanaged their money. So…" Snapped Kaya.

At that moment, she suddenly stopped talking. Min-joon was squeezing her lips with his fingers.

She murmured with a frown, "Oops! It hurts!"

"So, stop it. I think you are overreacting now. So, calm down."

Kaya shook off his hand. She stared at him for a moment with an angry look then stood up and stepped out to the front door. With the cameraman assigned to her hurriedly following him, Anderson looked at Min-joon as if he was surprised.

"Aren't you following her?"

"We have to go to work, too. I don't have time to soothe her."

"You're quite cold-hearted today. You're not pretending to be manly in front of the camera, right?"

"Do you think I'm on a very short leash?"

"Yes, I do," Anderson replied without hesitation. In fact, he could tell just by looking at Min-joon's expression that he was lying because he turned his gaze at the front door with a nervous expression. It meant he paid a lot of attention to what she said a little while ago.

He wanted her to come back before he went out to work, but she didn't come back.

When he reached Rose Island, his expression was not as bright as usual, so much so that Maya could not help but ask, "What's up, Chef?"

"No. It's nothing."

"You look very weak now."

"Really? If I look like that, just cheer me up, will you? Can you do double work for me?"

"Haha. I'm sorry I can't," she said with a hearty laugh.

He felt better, watching her laughing cheerfully.

At that moment, Ella, who was still watching him quietly, approached and opened her arms.

Min-joon looked at Ella with an embarrassed expression and said, "Ella. I'm sorry. I have to cook now. I'll hug you later."

"I'm not asking you to hug me. I want to hug you. When you have a hard time, you are heartened if someone hugs you like this."

"Oh Ella, how do you know that?"

"I'm not that young. I have grown up! And I'm old enough to know what's going on."

"Well, I don't think you know all there is to know about. Ella, if you think you have already grown up, you're too small. You have to grow taller."

"It's not about my height. It's about my thinking. Don't you know it, uncle?"

Ella shook her head as if she was proud of herself. Min-joon smiled at her then crawled toward her, kneeling down, as if he gave up. Then, she hugged his neck and patted him on the back.

"Good. My baby."

"What the heck?! How can this uncle be your baby?"

"Shush! I'm supposed to talk to you like that. Actually, that's what my Mom did to me."

Min-joon wanted to tell her that her mother could do it because Lisa is your mother, but he didn't. He didn't want to hurt her innocent feelings as a child. In this situation, any logical explanation was just meaningless and stupid.