God of Cooking

Chapter 262

<A Surprise (1)>

“This… always feels so weird.”

Jemma grinned as soon as the plane slowly took off. Minjoon smiled. He understood exactly how the girl felt. He felt the same when he first got on a plane.

Things have changed a bit now, of course. He’s had to ride a plane multiple times during the filming of the Hunger Trip. It would be odd if he still felt wonderment when he rode planes. The same went for Kaya. In fact, the woman was closing her eyes with a slight frown on her face.

“I hate planes. I ride them too much.”
“Kaya, don’t try to downplay Jemma’s moment here.”
“I’m not doing that, I’m…”

Kaya pouted, and closed her mouth with an annoyed look. Minjoon looked back. He, Kaya and Jemma were taking the three seats on the right side of the plane. Behind them were Grace and Bruce. Surprisingly, there was no one sitting on the third seat for them. Minjoon turned to look at Jemma. It was nice watching her smile like a kid. He opened his mouth.

“Jemma!”

He put a bit of strength behind his voice, but the girl didn’t hear him. Minjoon stretched out his hand and tapped at the window she was looking out of. The girl turned to look at him with wide eyes. Minjoon smiled.

“It’s your first time traveling outside the country, right?”
“Yeah.”
“How does it feel?”
“Good. Why are you asking her something so obvious?”

Kaya responded annoyedly. As Minjoon glared at Kaya, Jemma stuttered out her response.

“It’s all good. Being… with my family… and…”

Jemma shrugged with an awkward smile. The girl didn’t really like to speak long sentences because it accentuated her bad pronunciation. She didn’t show it, but it was obvious that she had very painful memories of this. Minjoon could also tell that Jemma felt a little awkward when she talked about family. It wasn’t hard to find out why.

‘Probably dealing with Bruce.’

Kaya and Jemma were put in two different situations here. Kaya and Bruce were blood related, but that wasn’t the case for Jemma. Kaya found her blood related father, and Grace found her old husband. But Jemma wasn’t even able to figure out what to call this new person in her family. As a matter of fact, Minjoon’s never seen Jemma call Bruce ‘dad’ ever so far.

Bruce probably felt similarly. He didn’t even know what Jemma felt about all of this either. Not only that, he was still working things out with Kaya and Grace. It wasn’t strange that the man didn’t have time to establish a relationship with Jemma.

‘What can I do about this?’

The thought actually lasted for quite some time. Kaya eventually fell asleep, and Jemma was busy looking out the window. Their little time of relaxation ended when the stewardice arrived with their meal.

“Today’s meal is a choice between mushroom risotto and chicken steak. What would you like?”
“I’ll take risotto. What do you want, Jemma?”
“Uhm…. Chiken, please.”
“I’ll skip, thank you.“

Minjoon turned to look at Kaya, who muttered quietly to him.

“Plane food doesn’t taste good. I don’t want it.”
“…Well, I guess you ate plenty of it in the past.”
“And still eating them. Every time I go out of the country.”

Kaya shook her head dejectedly. Plane food must taste horrible to people with sensitive tongues like her. She might have a better time eating roasted onions instead. Minjoon could understand how Kaya felt when his food came.

“How’s that risotto?” Kaya asked.
“This isn’t a risotto… it’s just porridge.”
“Score?”
“…It’s been a while since you asked me that. 5.”

Minjoon answered calmly. He remembered getting touched the first time he ate jambalaya on a plane. He was touched that plane food could be so good.

‘I wonder if I’d feel that amount of happiness if I eat that jambalaya again?’

Probably not. The Minjoon then and the Minjoon now were two completely different people. He’s tried too many good foods at this point. He was able to make them, even. His standards for food were way too high.

‘To think I can’t enjoy food because I know too much about it…’

How odd. Minjoon turned to look at Jemma. The girl probably felt similarly. Despite the fact that Kaya succeeded and she got out of poverty, that didn’t necessarily mean that she was happy. Grace met her past husband, and Kaya was fulfilling her dreams. But Jemma hasn’t done anything. She hasn’t even overcome her disabilities. Minjoon couldn’t even begin to imagine how the girl felt. The only thing he could do was to try to be kind to her.

“How is it, Jemma? Tasty?”
“Yeah. Really soft, not tough. I like it.”
“That’s good.”
“Wan some?”
“No thanks. I’m happy with this.”

Minjoon smiled. Jemma cut the chicken with some effort and looked out the window. She looked at the clear blue sky in front of her as she opened her mouth.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to see something like this.”
“Why not?”
“Wel… New York was my world. I thought I would just die there.”

Minjoon turned to look at Kaya. He sighed. She was sleeping. If she heard what Jemma said right now, she would’ve gotten really mad. Minjoon looked at Jemma with an angry look.

“Don’t say something like that. No life ends so pointlessly as long as you don’t give up.”
“How ar you so sure?”
“I’ve given up, and I’ve gotten back up again from that state before.”
“…But I’m diferent. I can’t even speek English that well.”

There was an incredible amount of self-hate he could hear in that voice. Minjoon looked at the girl calmly. But the girl didn’t look back. She just looked out the window depressedly.

“Jemma, I can’t understand all the hardships you went through. I can’t even imagine the amount of pain you had to endure. But I can say this. I gave up on my dreams once. I’ve made up countless excuses to justify it. How do you think I felt about my excuses when I got a dream again?”
“…I dun know.”
“That all of those excuses were bullshit. The moment I decided to follow my dream, I learned that what seemed like walls were actually just stairs.”
“But… I dun even know what I want to do.”
“That’s why we’re here.”

Minjoon extended his hand. He smiled when the girl grabbed his hand.

“We’ll be there for you no matter what you want to do. We’ll be your support if you feel like you can’t walk forward. But you need to do the walking yourself.”
“…Can I do it?”
“You’re much more powerful than you think, Jemma. I don’t like you because you’re Kaya’s sister. It’s because you’re a good person. So stop hating yourself, Jemma. Only bad people hate people. Even if the one they hate is themselves.”

Jemma didn’t respond for a while. She seemed to be thinking about a lot of things. The girl ended up just closing her mouth after saying thank you. By the time her breathing started slowing down, someone spoke to Minjoon.

“Thanks for putting it that way.”
“…You were awake?”

Minjoon turned to look at Kaya. The woman frowned before responding quietly.

“I couldn’t make it obvious that I was awake. Jemma would’ve hated it if she learned I heard that.”
“Don’t worry about her too much. She can do it. She’s a good kid.”
“Yeah, I know that. But I can’t tell her myself. I can’t be a person who lectures Jemma, but someone who always supports her.”

Minjoon didn’t correct her. He sort of knew what she was trying to imply. Jemma was being pained practically every day, so Kaya probably didn’t want to be the one to lecture the poor girl. Kaya looked at Jemma for a second before leaning on Minjoon’s shoulder.

“Thanks for being there for us.”
“Why would you be? You’re there for me too.”
“You must also feel that much thankful though.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”

Minjoon nodded with a smile.

“Jemma was always like homework to me. Someone who I always needed to take care of. I’ve never disliked her though. Because I loved her.”
“It’s amazing. It’s hard to be that responsible at such a young age.”
“But I’ve never actually given the girl a chance to walk by herself. I just kept putting the girl on my back and… I’m so sorry that I did that.”
“Don’t be. You’re a very nice sister. A very nice daughter, and a perfect girlfriend.”

Kaya let out a small laugh. She looked around before continuing.

“Thank goodness the cameraman isn’t here. We wouldn’t be able to talk about this if he was here.”
“This is exactly why I told him not to follow us to Korea. We need our own time. It’s stressful knowing that we’re always being watched.”
“Definitely.”

Kaya smiled. She shrugged playfully.

“It does feel appreciative that someone’s recording my life though. All of our memories are being preserved through the television.”
“Fair enough. You did like rewatching Grand Chef a few times. Don’t worry though. A few people will try to talk to us in Korea whether you like it or not.”
“Are we that famous in Korea?”
“More than you might think.”

Kaya looked confused. She had no idea how popular they were. But her curiosity didn’t last long. After just a few hours in the airport… They were greeted with countless camera flashes.

<A Surprise (1)> End.