God of Cooking

<A Person Who Peels Chestnuts (3)>

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry ?

Marco turned dumb. He half-expected Minjoon to say it was a joke, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Minjoon turned back and started heading out. Marco chased after him hurriedly.

“You want me to live here?” Marco asked.

“Never told you to live here. Just asked you to think about it. You have a lot of time. Relax a little. This city’s great for killing time.”

“Of course. It’s LA. No, that’s not the problem here. Did you call me out here for this?”

“Then did you come all the way here just for food?”

Marco couldn’t just say yes to that. He knew that Minjoon had some sort of a plan in bringing him here. Perhaps to try to cheer him up, at the very least? He would’ve refused normally, but he didn’t this time because he knew he needed the help. He needed advice, criticism, anything.

He thought Minjoon could do that for him. That’s what made him move in the first place. But…

“…Obviously I didn’t just come for food, but I definitely didn’t come to live in LA. That’s a bit too sudden, isn’t it?”

“But life doesn’t wait for you, does it? Come on, man. You never heard of the saying that life can be stranger than fiction?”

“It really is…”

Marco shook his head with a tired voice.

“Oh, by the way, will the people here recognize us?” Marco whispered.

“Yeah, they do. It’s not like they crowd us or anything though. They just pretend they don’t even see us.”

“It’s not really something to worry about.”

Marco scratched his head in embarrassment.

“Well, that’s the case for us, but Kaya or Chloe are a bit different. Quite a few people follow them around. Kaya even said she might have a stalker last time.” Anderson added.

“Must be pretty hard. They are pretty famous though. Even the people who talked to me over at New York were all just asking about those two. Oh, Minjoon too, actually.”

“Me?”

“Your tongue, and you being Kaya’s boyfriend and all that. Plus, you’ve made a few appearances on TV as well. It’s no surprise that you’d be famous. Kind of like a young genius?”

A few people on the internet were even speculating that Minjoon might be the successor of Rose Island. Though, no one really spoke of it since Minjoon was just a demi chef for now.

Right then, Marco noticed that Anderson was sneaking a glance towards him. He realized that he hadn’t mentioned Anderson in his conversation.

“Ah, of course, you’re popular too, Anderson. Especially among the women. Ah, though I don’t know if you’d like this… Gay people like you quite a bit as well.”

“…It’d have been better if I didn’t hear that.”

Anderson’s lips curled downwards into a frown. His face didn’t change all the way until he reached back home. And soon, Minjoon had the same face as Anderson. He looked around agitatedly as he shouted into the house.

“Kaya! Kaya! Where are you? Come out.”

“Isn’t she at work?”

“It’s 2am right now. She works hard, but she doesn’t work that hard. There’s nothing making her work this late today. What the hell is she doing?”

“Not on a business trip or anything either?”

“She would’ve said. Damn, what’s up with her? Roaming the streets this late? Is she mad?”

LA wasn’t as safe as South Korea. One couldn’t just walk the streets after midnight safely.

“How did you fight?” Marco asked worriedly.

“She told me I just buy things willy-nilly. Especially that plane ticket.”

“…You fought because of me?”

“It would’ve happened one way or the other. Don’t look so sorry about it. Hey, Anderson, can you lead him to his bed? I’m going to call Kaya.”

Anderson nodded. He wasn’t worried at all. It wasn’t like he didn’t care for Kaya. He just knew nothing bad would have happened to her.

‘Call the cameraman, idiot.’

Minjoon would get the answer right away if he just called the cameraman. Was he so worried that he couldn’t even think of such a simple thing? Anderson opened his mouth annoyedly.

“Don’t worry about her. Worry about the person she meets. You told me she was good at fighting.”

“Who knows what’s going to happen, though… Hah… Why won’t she pick up?”

“Ignore him, Marco. You need to sleep. Hell, I need to sleep.”

But Marco seemed incredibly worried about Kaya as well. Anderson sighed.

“Just call the damn cameraman. He’ll pick up.”

“Ah…! Anderson, you’re so damn smart today.”

“Not that you’re dumb?”

“I’ll call her.”

After talking for a few minutes, Minjoon ended his call. Marco asked a question with an agitated look.

“What’d he say?”

“She’s on the streets right now.”

“For what?”

“So that she wouldn’t have to see me. He thinks she’ll come back when I sleep. I heard Kaya shouting in the background not to talk to me. So he hung up. Yeah, at least she has the cameraman with her.”

Minjoon sat down on a chair with a tired face. Anderson turned to look at Marco.

“Do you snore, Marco?”

“No, I don’t.”

“With your size? Really?”

“I really don’t.”

“…Hm, alright. You can sleep on my sofa. Come here.”

“Ah, yeah. Night, Minjoon.”

“Night.”

Minjoon couldn’t sleep even after the two left for sleep. He didn’t think he could sleep until Kaya came back.

‘And here I thought she got tame…’

Minjoon called Kaya one more time. Of course, she didn’t answer.

€

“Is it fine if you really don’t take the call?”

“It is. So stop taking calls from him willy-nilly just like that. Also, get away from me. I want to be alone. It’s annoying seeing you with the camera like that.”

Kaya answered angrily. But seeing that she was glancing at the phone constantly, it seemed that she half expected him to call her. The cameraman sighed inwardly.

‘Just go in and make up already.’

This would all take ten seconds on television in total, and here the lady was, sitting on a bench for hours.

‘…Maybe I should’ve said we were right behind the house?’

That would’ve failed him as a cameraman, though. So he stayed put and filmed what Kaya was doing. Well, maybe doing was too strong of a word. The lady was just sitting down, changing her position every once in a while.

‘She’s a girl, all right.’

Right then, he heard footsteps in the background. The cameraman turned. He could see a man walking by with jeans and a hoodie. Maybe he was going back home after a night out? He tried to tune the man out as he thought this, but he ended up focusing on the man anyway. The man was speaking to Kaya.

“Hello, Kaya. I’ve wanted to see you.”

“…Who the hell are you?”

The man grinned.

“The person who loves you.”

€

Instead of wasting away time just waiting for Kaya, Minjoon decided to do something. He spent his time thinking of new recipes. The tasters from Michelin would come soon. Having this at the back of his mind made him think up of luxurious and expensive recipes.

If only he could get his recipes on the menu, and if only that would be what would land him on a three star restaurant… He’d be happy for an entire year.

But right now, he was too tired to think of stuff like that. There was the thing with Kaya, but it was dawn, after all. Minjoon closed his notebook, and turned to the cameraman with a sigh.

“Sorry. You can’t even sleep because of me.”

“I’m a pro. You don’t have to feel sorry for me doing my job.”

“I can relate to that somewhat.”

He was a pro as well, after all. A pro chef. Minjoon pondered on his words for a bit. It felt like just yesterday when he was just peeling garlic. Now he was earning money by cooking. The cameraman spoke up calmly.

“You’re pretty amazing, Minjoon.”

“Just doing my job, you know.”

“No, not that. I mean stuff like this. Waiting for Kaya, waving Marco over. Normally people don’t do such a thing.”

Compliments always felt awkward. Minjoon wiped his nose.

“I used to eat a lot when I was young. My grandmother would pick chestnuts from the mountain and peel them for you. Though she said they never hurt…” The cameraman began with a smile.

“Sometimes, she would get poked by the spikes. It’s very laborious as well. You must’ve been quite loved by her.”

“Someone has to peel it for others to eat it, after all. Our grandmother was that person. I think you’re like that, Minjoon. You do all the hard things. My grandmother did it because she was family, but you do it to friends as well. I respect that.”

“The compliments are kind of out of nowhere…”

As Minjoon was about to continue, he heard a siren. It stayed for a while, before going away soon enough. Minjoon sighed.

“See? That’s what LA’s like. I wonder what she’s doing out there…”

“Don’t worry too much. She’ll be fine. Ah, I got a message. Mind if I check?”

“Go for it. No need to get permission.”

“Thank you.”

The cameraman checked his phone with a smile. But that smile soon faded away quickly. He looked over to Minjoon with a surprised look. Minjoon looked back nervously.

“What’s up?”

“…Don’t be surprised. There was a stalker who appeared in front of Kaya.”

“What? What did you say?”

“Calm down. Well, they got sent to the hospital…”

“What hospital? I’m leaving.”

“Just listen for a second. You don’t have to go to the hospital. We have to go to the police station.”

Minjoon frowned. What was the man talking about? The cameraman continued with a confused look.

“The stalker was the one who got sent to the hospital. Kaya’s the one who got carried off by the police.”

“What?”

Minjoon answered dumbfoundedly. The cameraman shook his head.

“Your girlfriend’s scary.”

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry ?

<A Person Who Peels Chestnuts (3)> End.