Like Stacking Legos (part 4)
(Please note that the initial parts of this Korean chapter is found at the end of the old Webnovel chapter 651. They broke up the chapters along different points from the Korean chapters, hence the split across chapters.)
Jo Minjoon’s attention was drawn to Kaya. Whether he was looking at Kaya or whether he was looking at the numbers next to her, he himself was not sure of. Rather, was he even paying attention to anyone, at all?
The world became clearer and brighter. It was actually not the type of brightness that puts you in a good mood. It was the type of dazzling light that blinds you and makes it difficult to look at. And within such a light, Jo Minjoon’s attention was focused only on Kaya.
In this distorted world inside this light, only Kaya remained appearing in her original form. However, precisely for that reason, Jo Minjoon felt that something was off. Kaya seemed fake. The Kaya he had seen and known all this time did not feel like the true Kaya.
‘…What am I seeing now?’
Suddenly, Kaya felt like a stranger to him. He realized now that the feeling of inferiority he thought had had conquered at one point had not disappeared but had been lying dormant. Jo Minjoon clenched his fist. He felt frustrated.
He had thought for a while that Kaya could be close to reaching level 9. The requirements for reaching level 9 are leadership, cooking skills, and cooking that excite one’s senses. What Kaya had been lacking was just leadership at most. When it came to cooking skills and sensory cooking, Kaya had already far exceeded cooking level 8.
However, knowing it and witnessing it before his very eyes were two entirely different things.
A while back, Jo Minjoon had thought that he, at the least, wished to reach level 9 before Kaya did. And he did not think that would be impossible either given there was not much of a difference in time when each had reached level 8. And after Grand Chef, Jo Minjoon was the one who had poured an overwhelming amount of time into cooking compared to Kaya.
Nevertheless, this was the gap between them.
‘What should I be feeling right now?’
As her husband, should he be feeling a pure feeling of joy about Kaya’s progress? Or should he be feeling resentment as her competitor? He could not determine the answer to that. All he could do was simply look at Kaya with a gaze filled with confusion like a person who has lost his way.
As would be natural for her, Kaya soon noticed Jo Minjoon. She had been conversing with some chefs, but she soon waved at them and approached Jo Minjoon. She looked up at Jo Minjoon, glanced at the people behind her for a moment, and then looked at Jo Minjoon again.
“What’s wrong? You don’t look so good. You feeling sick? Do you have a fever… or not.”
Kaya had lifted her hand to touch Jo Minjoon’s forehead and then furrowed her brow and mumbled. Jo Minjoon observed Kaya quietly. If it were Kaya in his shoes, what would she have thought in this situation?
He had a feeling that if it had been Kaya, she would have made a proper judgment call. She may wander a bit, but she is nevertheless the type of person who always make a good decision.
Jo Minjoon suddenly began some self-reflection. ‘What kind of person am I? Am I the type of person to make good decisions?’
“…Do you feel anything particularly different these days?” Instead of answering her, he asked her a question instead. Kaya frowned for a moment. She could not understand why Jo Minjoon had that look on his face or why he would ask such a question.
“With me? Or you? Or do you mean the restaurant? What are you talking about?”
“Just with your cooking or anything related.”
“…Not really?”
“You really don’t feel anything? Anything like leading becoming easier or your cooking have improved?”
“I don’t know if my cooking’s improved any. Well, now that some time has passed, doing head chef duties feels a bit more familiar now. But… I don’t think so much so that I can say that something’s changed.”
Upon hearing Kaya’s response, Jo Minjoon felt as if he had been doused with cold water1. She did not feel a change. Even though she had reached level 9. She was as she always was.
On one hand, he is not surprised by this. The cooking level is only an indication of their actual level. However, that level is inevitably subjective and based on calculation. No matter how much the system attempts to be objective, the result is it scores criteria when the criteria are met it simply expresses it as a number.
The system is nothing.
Thinking back on when Kaya had been at cooking level 7, her cooking was more sensory than a level 8 chef and her cooking skills were more refined.
If you look properly at what this ‘level’ actually means, it is unbelievably crude.
He had known this already. In the end, whether one has reached cooking level 9 or not, truthfully, holds no meaning.
That notwithstanding, why is his heart feeling so shriveled like this?
“You sure nothing’s wrong?”
As Jo Minjoon’s expression slowly worsened, Kaya looked at him worriedly. She wondered just what worry of his this gloomy man could be hiding. At that moment, Jo Minjoon took her in his arms and hugged her without saying a word.
Kaya, in that moment, was confused and muttered softly, “Hey, let go! The staff can all see!”
“They already saw, so what does it matter.”
It was not a lie, either. The moment Jo Minjoon hugged Kaya, the staff smirked and looked on at them with knowing looks. Kaya tried to put more strength into escaping his embrace, but soon gave up and relaxed her body. However, to preserve the last of her pride, she did not hug Jo Minjoon face-to-face.
“…Later, you will have to explain why you’re being like this,” Kaya said quite firmly.
Jo Minjoon smiled laughingly and replied, “It’s just for a short time…”
It was not a satisfactory enough of an answer for her.
“I was in a bad mood.”
This, too, was not a lie.
He was simply in a bad mood for a short time.
That was all.
“Finally you’re bringing your dish,” Jo Minjoon said while looking at Lee Minwoo. He spoke English instead of Korean on purpose. Normally Koreans residing overseas who are not at least 2nd generation do not speak English amongst themselves, but in Lee Minwoo’s case, they both felt more at ease speaking English to each other. Lee Minwoo laughed awkwardly.
“I just wasn’t satisfied with it.”
“And are you satisfied with it now?”
“For now, this is the best I can do at my level.”
Jo Minjoon took a look at Lee Minwoo’s dish. The cooking score was a 6. Purely going by score, it would not be a dish that drew one’s attention. Neither would it be worthy of being added to the menu.
However, because it was Lee Minwoo who had made it, he was quite interested. What Lee Minwoo had made was a conch meat salad accompanied by buckwheat mixed2 noodles. On the surface, the dish was simple.
Jo Minjoon picked up a pair of chopsticks and placed a bit of the noodles and salad in his mouth to taste. Then he nodded his head for a moment. A sauce commonly used in Korea with a soy sauce and red pepper flake base had been used to marinate the conch meat salad. As for the buckwheat noodles, it seemed to have been made by mixing in red pepper paste, plum extract, sesame oil, as well as sesame seeds and crushed onions.
The taste was a bit unusual. It may have been because he had not eaten Korean food recently, but it seemed to have come a fraction closer to being novel.
However, the reason Jo Minjoon had a deep frown on his face was for a different reason.
“So, you went with Korean cuisine.”
“Since I am Korean.”
“That’s not a satisfactory response. It isn’t as if all Koreans are obsessed with Korean food and all foreigners avoid Korean food. So, why are you insisting on Korean cuisine?”
While Jo Minjoon could consider it unnecessary to have used such a strong word as ‘insist’ after seeing just a single recipe, he was able to assess Lee Minwoo’s tendencies and philosophy to some extent through this dish.
“Just because I wanted to.”
That was not the reply he was looking for. As Jo Minjoon stared at him blankly, Lee Minwoo continued quietly.
“While living in the U.S., as a Korean, you can’t really shed that feeling you’re somehow a foreigner. So there was even a time when I hated being Korean. But now that I’ve come this far… the part of me I had hated I have come to love. I think you would understand, right?”
Jo Minjoon remained silent for a bit. What Lee Minwoo spoke of was not something Jo Minjoon had not experienced himself. Anyone who has gone to a foreign country inevitably feels this. Jo Minjoon had felt this most immediately and most intensely when he stood on the Grand Chef stage.
When he had set a Korean-style spread with Korean cuisine and also when he had prepared a menu for families with strong Korean flavors, he had suffered defeats both times.
Would one be able to say that was simply coincidence?
He did not want to consider it having been discriminated against. He did not want to play the victim. However, he clearly had suffered from handicaps as a foreigner. And he would continue to in the future.
Jo Minjoon did not necessarily want to be conscious of the handicap. While he always considered Korean cuisine as his homework, he did not dive deeply into those studies. The more he delved into Korean cuisine, the more he felt he had lost touch with the trends of the world.
However, Lee Minwoo is trying to do that very delving. Is that brashness a chef who is just starting out has? Or is it courage? Is Lee Minwoo’s attitude right or is it wrong?
“It tastes good,” Jo Minjoon began saying.
“However, not so much we can put it on the menu. It does not taste refined nor does it feel novel. Also, you were unable to bring out the texture of the buckwheat properly. It’ll be better if you focused more on the inherent taste of buckwheat. It’s like pasta where the taste of the noodles controls everything.”
“Yes, sir!” Lee Minwoo responded like a soldier.
He prepared to collect the plate which had plenty of food still left on it. But at that moment, Jo Minjoon raised his hand to stop him.
“Leave that there.”
“…Sorry?”
“I said we can’t put it on the menu. I never said it was not good enough for me to eat. I’ll tell you again, it tastes good. Continue with your efforts.”
“Okay!”
“You can leave now.”
“Thank you very much, chef!”
Lee Minwoo left the office with such a wide smile that it could hardly hide his true feelings inside. Jo Minjoon took a look at the plate Lee Minwoo left behind and picked up his chopsticks.
The dish, honestly, did not taste as great as what he had told Lee Minwoo made it sound like.
However, for some reason, he could not stop helping himself with the chopsticks.
The weather was nice. In the garden, the stronger the sunlight was, the greener the grass became. Lying in the hammock strung up between two trees, Kaya could feel the sunlight penetrating her skin. Grace burst out laughing looking at Kaya.
“Now you’ve become some lady accustomed to having free time.”
“Free time?”
“Yeah. You never used to like resting easy like this in the past.”
“I see.”
” ‘I see’ coming from this girl who used to frown from just seeing someone happy and laughing!”
“…I guess I have a general understanding of what you think of me now, mom.”
Kaya shot a glare jokingly and picked up the book she had placed on her chest. However, maybe it is because the sunlight was too bright or maybe it is because she is normally the type who hates reading, but the words were not registering in her head. In the end, she let her hand that was holding the book fall to the ground.
‘Free time, huh…’
Kaya held those words at the tip of her tongue for a moment. Honestly, she understood why Grace was saying such a thing to her. The Kaya from long ago used to be like that. She had believed she would never get to experience the happiness normal people felt. And that is why whenever she saw happy people, she felt annoyed more than envious.
In fact, there were many a day she was angry during her teenage years. That was because she never got to experience her teenage years. Whenever she thinks of her teenage years, she was only reminded of everything she had to lose.
However, it is no longer like that these days. Honestly speaking, those thoughts she had long ago and the inferiority complex she had, themselves, are fading from mind. Her daily life still does not have ordinary happiness. Rather, her daily life now carries a special type of happiness.
“I’m sorry,” Grace immediately tossed out an apology. Kaya glanced at Grace. She understood why Grace was apologizing.
Kaya asked quietly, “I was a good daughter, wasn’t I?”
“…Yeah. And I was a miserable excuse for a mother.”
How miserable Grace must have felt saying that. Kaya did not wish to make Grace feel any worse. Kaya looked up at the sky. The sunlight was bright. So she used the book to cover her eyes.
After covering her eyes, she said, “Then, it’s fine.”
CREDITS:
Original author: 양치기자리
Translator: Comic Seoul
Proofreader: Potato