God of Cooking

<A Surprise (2)>

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 🙁

“…I didn’t think there’d be this many.”

Even Minjoon seemed shocked by the crowd. He and Kaya both had hundreds and thousands of followers on Starbook. There were probably even more people who weren’t necessarily following them, but were fans regardless. Even so, to think there’d be this many fans just in South Korea… He did see quite a few messages when he said he’d be going back, but…

‘This is just…’

It was almost as if he was more popular in Korea than in Japan. He did know he was popular in Korea, yes. At least on the internet. On popular media, he was just mentioned every once in a while as a popular chef in America. Old people would look at him and nod in pride. Younger people on the other hand… many of Minjoon’s videos were edited and put online. Many of his recipes were very widespread already.

That wasn’t all. He would’ve just been forgotten if news about him was just about him posting new recipes. But nope. Something was always happening around him. He met the Thai king on Hunger Trip. After that, he started working in Rose Island, which was touted to be the best restaurant in the world. His pictures with famous people were circulating all over the place on the internet as well. He was practically impossible to forget.

Above that, the Jo Reggiano. The dessert that shook up the world.

“…What do we do?”
“Jemma, Grace, Bruce, you guys go out first. I’ll come out later after doing an interview.”
“I understand. Good luck. Now, lady. May I be your escort?”

Bruce tapped Minjoon’s shoulder before extending his hand towards Jemma. the girl looked at the man’s hand awkwardly. In the end, she grabbed it after she looked at Bruce’s smile. Minjoon looked at the two of them before whispering to Kaya.

“I think Bruce will be a great father. To you and Jemma both.”
“…I hope so.”

Normally, she’d have said that she didn’t need a father. But was it because she knew Bruce was right next to her, or was it because Jemma’s hand in Bruce’s hand looked so small to her? She wasn’t very offensive today. Instead, she decided to say the truth she held deep in her heart. Minjoon extended his own hand towards her.

“Want to hold our hands as we go out?”

Kaya locked her fingers with his.

“Let’s go.”

€

The interview time they had with the reporters was not what they originally had in plan. Kaya and Minjoon ended up having to be exposed to countless camera flashes by both reporters and civilians. This wasn’t anything official, so they weren’t pressured too much, thankfully. One of the reporters asked Minjoon a question.

“I recently saw news on you collapsing. Are you healthy?”
“I can’t say I’m perfectly healthy.”
“Are you here in Korea to rest up?”
“You’ll have to ask Kaya that, instead of me, unfortunately. I wasn’t the one who planned any of this.”

The reporter paused before turning to look at Kaya. There was an interpreter available, but he still seemed hesitant. In the end, he asked a question with his not-so-good english.

“Mm… Ms. Kaya. What is your reason for being in Korea?”
“It’s Minjoon’s home country. We don’t get time off often, so I saw this as a chance. I was also curious about what Korea was like.”

The reporter wasn’t able to open his mouth even after Kaya finished. Right then, a different reporter opened his mouth with good English.

“This is Oh Kyungha from Daily Cooking. Since both of you are chefs, I think it’d be proper to ask a food-related question. How do you two feel about Korean food?”

Minjoon immediately tapped Kaya’s foot with that question. She needed to be careful here. One criticism might be able to ruin the people’s impressions of her. Thankfully, she didn’t respond immediately. She fell silent for quite some time. Even to the point where the reporter was confused. Just before he tried to hurry her, Kaya finally opened her mouth.

“I can’t say I know enough about Korean food to be able to say anything. Minjoon’s made me a few dishes every once in a while, but he’s always modified it to fit my tastes. So I’m excited to be able to try the real thing here.”

A good response. This time, the reporter turned to look at Minjoon.

“What about you, Mr. Minjoon?”
“I…”

Minjoon hesitated. He couldn’t say he didn’t know much about Korean food, like Kaya did. He was Korean, after all. But he didn’t just want to lie saying good things either. He didn’t want to lie when it came to food. He was a chef, after all.

“Korean food is like homework to me. After all, I’ve eaten it my entire life. Patriotism about this country aside, I think if my cooking were to improve, I’d need to learn a lot more about Korean food. That’s why I’m planning on going on a foodie trip today. I want to learn a lot from experienced chefs of Korea.”
“Are you planning on working in Rose Island in the future? I understand that you’re getting a lot of scouting offers from many places.”
“I have no plans on going anywhere as of the moment.”
“What about you, Ms. Kaya? I heard chef Rachel was considering hiring you.”
“Just rumors. We never talked about anything specific like that.”

They spent a bit more time talking about more rumors. The most interesting one out of them was this.

“I understand that your family came into the country with you, Ms. Kaya. From what I heard, you’re planning on having each of your families meet for marriage. Is that true?”
“…No. We’ll probably meet, but not for that.”

The question was so sudden that Minjoon just sat there in shock for a bit. Kaya whispered towards Minjoon with a curious look.

“What did the reporter just ask? The interpreter said we’ll meet but not meet?”

It looked like the concept didn’t get translated very well. Minjoon whispered to Kaya.

“You know, meeting for marriage. The reporter asked if we were here for that.”
“Ah… So they were curious about that, huh.”

Kaya smiled. Like an evil child. She looked over the reporters before replying.

“I’m going to marry this kid.”

€

“…I told you not to make a mistake.”

Minjoon sighed from inside the rent car. Kaya took a look around the Korean web before turning to him with a pout.

“I can’t tell if they published anything about us yet since I don’t know Korean. Can you look for me?”
“What if there is? Will you really marry me?”
“What, you scared?”

Kaya looked back at Minjoon with her legs crossed. Minjoon could only sigh. right now, they were headed towards the apartment his parents prepared for him in Bundang. They always told him that they’d give it to him when he married, but… Did that matter at this point? There was little chance that he’d live in Korea to begin with. Most of his connections were in America and in other countries. There was no reason to go back.

‘…Well, I’d be popular, at least.’

Well, besides that… There were bigger things to worry about.

‘Marriage.’

The reporters all had different reactions. Some thought it was a joke, others thought it was a joke in disguise. The other audience reacted about the same way. They thought that Kaya really liked Minjoon.

“We don’t need to talk about our private life to the reporters. We’re not celebrities…”
“Wow, what a pretty bridge…”

Kaya just dumbly looked out the window. Incheon bridge. The biggest bridge in all of Korea. Also the fanciest. The road was almost endlessly long, and there were an incredible number of steel ropes holding up the bridge. The weather was good today, too.

Kaya wasn’t the only one who was amazed. Everyone from Bruce, Jemma, and Grace were all impressed. Kaya muttered dumbly.

“I thought this place would be really poor.”
“I told you it isn’t.”
“I thought that was just your patriotism talking.”
“You’ll see soon. There’s no better place than Korea if you just want to play around.”
“Food, though?”
“That’s…”

Minjoon wasn’t able to say anything. He wasn’t able to try any decent food when he was in Korea. Then again, he didn’t really care. He didn’t have the time. He didn’t want to look around for good food when he was a teacher, and he simply didn’t have the time as a chef.

But there were no excuses now. Korean food was like homework to him. A chef at least needed to know what food from their own country was like.

“We’ll have to find out,” Minjoon said.