God of Cooking

“Not yet…”

“Why? Can you date another girl?”

“No, never.”

Min-joon answered her nasty question with a straight face. He didn’t yet propose to Kaya formally. He wasn’t the type of man who would easily date a woman. So, if he broke up with her, he might not be able to find another woman.

“Kaya is young.”

“But she is your girlfriend.”

“If I take her now, I feel like I’m making her my woman at a time when he can’t even judge about marriage properly. She might regret marrying me. She might wish she got married a little later…”

“Why do you think so?” she asked, looking at him as if she could not understand. “What’s the age difference between you and Kaya?”

“As of today, four years.”

“Why are you trying to look down on her when you are only four years older than her?”

At that moment, he was at a loss, not knowing how to reply. As a matter of fact, he was only a 23-year-old young man right now.

“But I think I have to be calculative on this matter. I thought you would support me.”

“But you are wrong,” she said, shaking her head calmly. He even felt a sense of betrayal at the moment.

She said, “You’re now counting the number of cases where you should never fail. What you have to calculate is not the probability of failure, and what happens after that because you have to stop it by all means.”

“Then, what should I calculate?”

“I’m not your mother. I can’t kindly tell you everything one by one. You have to think about it yourself. You’re an adult, right?”

He just sighed. It was difficult for him.

She touched his shoulder, watching him, and said, “But don’t be too impatient. You’re doing pretty well.”

“Would it be better for me to propose to her?”

June shook her head as if she couldn’t help it.

“I just told you not to be impatient.”

***

Honestly, Min-joon felt June was quite cowardly. After he talked with her about Kaya, he had no choice but to be conscious of the word ‘marriage’ whenever he saw June.

As a matter of fact, he had been conscious of it for a long time. But he just deliberately didn’t want to think about it.

However, he naturally shook off such thoughts by the time he arrived in Los Angeles. He was happy to see the palm trees passing by while riding the freeway and even the blue sky that he saw so often in the plane. Obviously, he felt he was back home when he landed at the airport. The atmosphere here was such a contrast with the gloomy atmosphere in New York.

“Uncle!”

When he was picking up his carrier, someone whose voice was familiar to him came running to him and hugged his legs tightly. He turned his head. Ella, who grew quite tall while he couldn’t see her, was smiling, hugging him from behind.

“Ella. It’s been a long time.”

Ella raised her arm instead of replying. He smiled embarrassingly and held her up.

She kissed his cheek and hugged his neck tightly.

“Ella really missed you a lot,” said Lisa, her mom.

“Oh, Lisa. It’s nice to see you again.”

“Me, too. Did you eat anything?”

“If I didn’t eat yet, would you take out some bread from that bag?”

He glanced at the bag in Lisa’s hand. But she smiled bitterly and shook her head.

“No, it’s just jelly. Because of you, Ella has become a jelly enthusiast.”

“Ah…” He made an awkward expression. Whenever he saw Ella’s baby fat on her cheeks, he always gave her a handful of jelly.

At that moment, Chloe said, “Fairy!”

Ella wriggled, then took out her hands from his arms, and this time, she went to Chloe.

He chuckled, watching Ella be held in Chloe’s arms.

“She’s still the same.”

“Not really. She’s been complaining until recently that she is bored. She’s so happy to see you guys back this time.”

While the two were chatting like that, Ella was feeling rather nervous when she saw Kaya.

Ella reached out to Kaya first. Rather embarrassed, Kaya grabbed her hand and shook it.

“Let’s go. We have only a few hours left until their wedding.”

The wedding hall for Anderson and Janet was familiar to Min-joon and Kaya, too. It was the main restaurant of Rose Island. Of course, it wasn’t the new main store downtown. It was the original Rose Island that had been burnt some time ago, but newly renovated.

As soon as Kaya or Chloe pulled into the parking lot, they stepped right inside without hesitation. With Lisa following them, Min-joon couldn’t take off his feet. He looked back at the main store. It had been completely renovated after the fire, but there was still something unfamiliar inside the building such as the color of the wall, the shape of the window frame, the glittering of the glass roof. His old memories and reality were blurred and overlapped.

“Uncle, why aren’t you going inside?”

Ella looked up at him with a confused expression. Min-joon was standing there blankly, then looked down at her as if he came to his senses.

“Because I missed this place so much.”

“Then, why don’t you go inside quickly?”

She was right. But it was rather hard for him. All he had to do was to walk a few steps inside. Now, he just realized something. This restaurant, or this building itself, had a very important place in his life.

At that moment, he began to strongly want something.

He wanted to have it all—every tile and wall, not to mention windows to carpets. He simply wanted to have everything, so that his memories do not just stay as memories.

***

“You look cool.”

Min-joon looked at Anderson with a smile. Anderson, dressed in a wedding suit, was really cool. Basically, thanks to his regular exercise and muscle buildup, he had a great body line that stood out when the suit fit his body perfectly. He turned his head with an embarrassed look.

“Don’t make fun of me.”

“I’m not making fun of you. You’re really cool. And you are the main character today.”

“…” Anderson was speechless.

Min-joon smiled and said, “I honestly didn’t think you would remain single, but I really didn’t expect you would get married ahead of me.”

“I didn’t expect it, either.”

“How do you feel?”

“What do you think?”

“Well, you are happy, but you might not want to express it because of what you have said, right?”

“Yeah, sort of.”

Anderson just sighed as if he gave up everything. Min-joon looked at the bride’s waiting room, more precisely, the office that Rachel used in the past. There was no rule that men should not enter there, but he felt reluctant to enter.

“Aren’t you curious to see Janet in a wedding dress? Oh, do you already know it?”

“I know. She was worried about her baby bump, but it doesn’t stand out, fortunately, considering she’s been four weeks into pregnancy.”

Min-joon didn’t say anything for a moment. Of course, he wanted to ask him some questions, such as how he was going to raise the baby or if he had any future plan about the baby and the restaurant. But he didn’t want to ask. It wasn’t just that he didn’t want to break the sunny mood of the wedding that he didn’t ask such questions. Perhaps Anderson had a plan, and so did Janet.

“You are confident, aren’t you?”

“It’s not a matter of confidence. I have to overcome it.”

Strange enough, at that moment, Min-joon recalled what June told her. She said he should not take into account anything he might fail in.

So, he momentarily paused and smiled at Anderson.

“Sure, I’ll cheer for you.”

A little later, the guests gathered at the wedding hall. Chloe and Kaya were blushing in strange excitement.

“Janet is really pretty,” said Chloe.

Janet wasn’t ugly basically, but it was clear that her makeup was fantastic, given her beautiful looks now. She momentarily toyed with such childish thoughts. But when Janet appeared, holding her father’s hand, Min-joon could understand what Kaya and Chloe said.

Janet was beautiful.

As a matter of fact, Min-joon had never seen her being that beautiful. She was smiling. It wasn’t just a formal smile. She was happy, but she tried in vain to hide her happiness before the guests.

‘Man, I miscalculate their plan…’

The two were enjoying the current atmosphere fully, so if they could keep up with it, all the difficulties he talked about would not be that important.

The guests whispered and smiled when she took step after step. With the guests casting a gaze at the hem of her dress, Janet and Anderson were the stars of today’s wedding ceremony.

The ceremony itself took place in a very normal atmosphere. What surprised them was that Anderson and Janet responded without hesitation, “Yes,” when asked if they would value each other in any situation. Since both didn’t say anything recklessly, they were clearly ready to follow their promise today.

In fact, Min-joon was all the more surprised. He never thought that Anderson and Janet could prioritize their love over their dreams. So, he asked himself whether he could put his marriage with Kaya before his dream. Could he put being with his sweetheart before his dream?

He found himself pondering over it instead of answering quickly. At that moment, Anderson and Janet were just exchanging kisses of oath with each other. Min-joon gave up idle thoughts with the guests cheering for the two.

They had nothing like a honeymoon because it was not easy for them to take several days off, given the nature of their jobs. So, as soon as the ceremony was over, they hosted a small party for the guests. in fact, it was too big to be called a small party. It was the wedding of Anderson and Janet, not anyone else. It was no wonder that most of the people who received the wedding invitation cards were famous chefs. Min-joon and his party were among them, to say the least.

So, there was no need to hire outside chefs to prepare the food. Anderson and Janet already had all the ingredients in the refrigerator, so the assigned chefs were supposed to play their roles.

“Great!”

Kaya, who successfully showed off her signature pasta in New York, was so satisfied after the guests praised her pasta highly. Min-joon glanced at her and smiled silently. He liked this tranquil atmosphere now. He was happy to have these moments right here, not anywhere else.

“Only today, I realized that I was coveting this restaurant more than I thought,” he said.

He wasn’t very interested in the position of the executive chef who controlled all the branches of Rose Island. This building looked bigger to him than all of them combined. That was natural because he was a born chef, not a businessman.

“I hear Rachel told you if you’re ready, she would give this restaurant to you,” Kaya said.

“Well, back then, I didn’t think about it seriously. But I now know how valuable this is to me. I want to have it. I want to leave my fingerprints in every corner of the kitchen and leave the legacy of my life just like Anderson and Janet today. I want to get married, too”

“Min-joon?”

“Let’s get married, Kaya,” he said.

When Kaya became speechless, he gently continued, “I’m not saying I want to get married right now. But I don’t want to say it vaguely. Once I have this restaurant, I would like to have a wedding ceremony with you like Anderson and Janet today, and on the same day as today.”

He confessed to her, “So, let’s get married.”