Chapter 116: Hunger Trip (1)
Chapter 116: Hunger Trip (1)
Sara Bloom: Ah, I knew it would end someday, but now that it really has, I feel so empty.
JIF VS GIF: When’s the next season coming?
Sara Bloom: @JIF VS GIF For now, the only thing that’s certain is that it won’t be this year.
Roy Sherfan: I’m happy my wife won, but I don’t like all these weird guys flocking around her.
Randle Klopers: As far as I’m concerned, you’re one of those weird guys.
SKELIX: So what’s the conclusion? After building Kaya up so much, the ending is just, ‘She became an excellent chef’?
Denizz Onenn: What other ending were you expecting from a cooking programme?
Tricia Peanut: @Denizz Onenn Sounds like he was hoping for an explosive kissing scene.
Rachel Catherine: It’s a little unclear whether it counts as a continuation, but apparently the programme airing after Grand Chef is going to be some kind of ‘food-tasting travel programme’. What was the title again? Hunger Trip? I think that was it.
Beth Liebermann: And apparently it’s true that Emily Potter and Jo Minjoon will be appearing on it.
Rachel Catherine: @Beth Liebermann Oh, really? I never thought those two suited each other.
Beth Liebermann: @Rachel Catherine Whether they suit each other or not, their characters are certainly distinctive. A genius with an absolute sense of taste and a talented heiress. It’d be nice if some other famous chefs appeared too……… But I suppose they’d be too busy with their restaurants, right?
“………It looks like people are pretty interested in Hunger Trip too.” Jo Minjoon spoke in amazement as he read through the comments.
Hunger Trip. That was the title of the food-tasting travel programme he would be doing with Emily. Of course, it would not be just the two of them. Other participants would be joining as well.
Maybe they’ve already been chosen.
Martin had avoided answering whenever Jo Minjoon asked about the other participants. He did not know why, but knowing would not have changed anything anyway. Whoever joined would most likely be people he did not know.
“I’m so jealous. I want to go too.” Chloe’s voice was muffled because she was lying face-down on the sofa. Her arms stretched helplessly towards the chocolates on the table, but they were too short to reach.
Jo Minjoon extended his own arm and placed a chocolate in her hand.
Chloe examined what he had given her and pouted. “……You hate me, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Would anyone give cocktail-flavoured chocolate to someone they didn’t hate?”
“I might’ve given it to you so you’d lose your appetite and get slimmer.” A teasing smile appeared on Jo Minjoon’s face.
Chloe pushed herself upright, set down the cocktail chocolate, and picked up a milk chocolate instead. Then she spoke with exaggerated dignity. “Forget it. I’m going to become a pig.”
“Then you won’t be able to wear that dress again. It was already tight.”
“What? It’s our last day and you’re still going to treat me like this?” Chloe glared at him sulkily, then hesitated and put the chocolate back down.
The competition was over.
The party was over too.
Now all that remained was to go home.
Chloe kept thinking about it.
Will we really be able to see one another again? We all live in such different worlds. Will our paths really cross?
Her anxiety dissolved once again beneath a smile.
Jo Minjoon looked over the snacks on the table and asked, “What are you going to do when you get back?”
“I need to think about it. The one thing I know for certain is that I’m going to run a cooking blog. And……actually, I got a few offers too. For television. Of course, it’s nothing like Hunger Trip, the proper programme you’re going on. More like a recipe segment that lasts a few minutes……”
“What? Why didn’t you say anything until now?”
“……It felt too pathetic to brag about.” Chloe answered with an embarrassed expression. “Kaya won, and you get to continue appearing on television……and then there’s me. What am I supposed to be? Sorry. You don’t like girls who are ugly on the inside, right?”
“If something like that makes you ugly on the inside, then I must smell so rotten I wouldn’t even be able to open my mouth.”
“Am I supposed to thank you when you put it like that?” She clenched her fists. “I’m going to succeed too. I’ll keep walking the path I’ve chosen for as long as I can. And my dream……”
Her fists loosened.
A vivid smile appeared on her face, and her eyes, shining both green and brown, turned towards Jo Minjoon. “I’ll make it come true.”
The flush on her face might have been embarrassment, or perhaps simply her make-up. The faint creases that appeared beside her cheeks when she smiled were quite charming.
Jo Minjoon could not think of anything to say.
As he merely moved his lips without speaking, a saviour appeared.
It was Hugo. He emerged dragging a suitcase behind him and rubbed the back of his neck. “Ugh, I’m so stiff. I brought way too much luggage. Did you guys pack everything?”
“Yeah. We’ve got everything.”
“Ah, there’s chocolate. Give me one.”
Jo Minjoon handed him the same chocolate he had offered Chloe earlier.
Hugo bit into it with expectant eyes, only to frown almost immediately. At first came the flavour of chocolate, but then creamy alcohol seemed to burst across his mouth.
His voice trembled in confusion. “Wha—what is this? Is this even chocolate?”
“Yeah. Cocktail chocolate.”
“What the hell…… Did they collect everything that tastes bad and stuff it inside? Seriously, why did you give this to me? Did I do something wrong?”
At Hugo’s reaction, Chloe looked at Jo Minjoon with sparkling eyes.
Her expression clearly said, See? See? I was right, wasn’t I?
Jo Minjoon burst out laughing.
Hugo swallowed the chocolate with a deeply displeased expression. “……If there’d been a bin nearby, I definitely would’ve spat it out.”
“There’s a saying in my country that medicine that’s good for you tastes bitter.”
“If that logic were true, everything bitter would be good for you.”
“You never know. Maybe it is.” Jo Minjoon smirked.
Hugo dropped onto the sofa with the expression of someone who had just swallowed powdered medicine. Then, as soon as Kaya came out, his eyes lit up and he lifted the chocolate as though he had finally found his chance.
“Kaya. Want some chocolate?”
“No. I don’t.”
“……Why?”
“I brushed my teeth.”
Hugo put the chocolate down dejectedly.
Kaya glanced around the lobby, then perched on the arm of the sofa where Jo Minjoon was sitting. She ran a hand over her slightly curled black hair and smiled. “Isn’t my hair nice these days?”
“I liked your old hair better.” Chloe sounded genuinely disappointed.
Considering that she preferred messy hair, it was understandable. Kaya’s hair now was smooth enough to belong in a shampoo advertisement.
“Are you using conditioner?”
“Before, I didn’t because it was a hassle and too expensive. But now I can.”
“Now that you’ve earned three hundred thousand dollars, conditioner should be nothing.”
“Exactly.” Kaya puffed out her chest with dignity and smirked.
Truthfully, three hundred thousand dollars was not necessarily enough money to completely change someone’s life. But for Kaya, at least, it held enormous meaning. It allowed her to leave behind her life at the market. She had lived a life where she could not even casually spend thirty dollars. For someone like her, earning that much money was more than enough reason to feel proud of herself.
Outside the bus window, Anderson stood watching through the half-tinted glass with his usual blunt expression. As the scenery receded, Anderson receded with it.
The Grand Chef house grew farther away too.
Compared with before, this really was a farewell without any promises.
Kaya pressed her face against the window and watched the building and garden until the very end. Only when even their shadows were no longer visible did she speak with a stifled expression.
“Still, it feels a little easier because we’re leaving together. I think I would’ve been really depressed if I’d had to leave alone.”
“Depressed…… Well, yeah.” Chloe looked back on her memories and nodded.
The day she had left after being eliminated in the quarter-finals, she really had been depressed. Far too many things had happened by then.
“Next time……when will we be able to meet again?”
No one could answer the question.
And no one objected to the way Kaya had spoken as though meeting again were inevitable.
“Do you regret not being able to leave with them?” Martin approached Anderson, who had remained standing there long after the bus disappeared beyond the horizon.
Anderson slowly turned his head.
Even the sight of Martin seemed enough to make his voice fill with displeasure. “What is it? Why did you tell only me to stay behind?”
“Mm, I’m sorry for cutting into the time you could spend with your friends. But I don’t think this is something we should discuss here…… Shall we go somewhere else?”
“……Let’s go to the fourth-floor lobby.”
“Oh, dear. Climbing stairs isn’t exactly my hobby.”
Martin put on a miserable expression, but Anderson did not change his mind.
In the end, Martin had no choice but to climb the stairs to the fourth floor. By the time he reached the lobby and sat down on the sofa, he was breathing slightly harder.
Anderson remained seated in his usual place and stared at the table.
Open chocolates, sweets, and wrappers were scattered across it.
Normally, the sight would probably have irritated him.
Yet for some reason, looking at them now made him feel strangely pleased, as though he already missed his friends.
As Anderson retied the loosened plastic wrappers around the sweets to restore their original shapes, Martin spoke.
“Why do you think I asked only you to stay?”
“It’s probably a business proposal. And if it is, there are two possibilities. Since you called me rather than the others, either it’s something related to my parents……or you need something from me. Probably.” Anderson asked calmly, “That food-tasting travel programme……… Is this about Hunger Trip?”
“……….”
Martin stared at Anderson blankly as though he had just been struck. He had not expected his intentions to be exposed that easily.
I wanted to surprise him more than anything.
Martin spoke in disappointment. “You catch on quickly. Then do you already know what kind of proposal I’m going to make?”
“There are two possibilities there too. First, you might want me to ask my parents to let you film at their restaurant. But that isn’t something I can promise. You’ve seen my parents, so you should already know my words don’t carry much weight with them. And if, perhaps, it’s about me appearing on the programme……” Anderson’s eyes sharpened. “Do you want me?”
“……Yes. Actually, that’s exactly it.”
Even while thinking, This is strangely discouraging, Martin could only answer honestly.
Then he continued calmly. “Originally, I planned to bring in professionals only. But once we decided to include Jo Minjoon, the direction changed a little. When tasting the same food, how different is the experience of a professional from that of a non-professional? We started considering that angle too. And naturally, viewers will probably find it easier to immerse themselves in the viewpoint of someone who isn’t a professional critic.”
“But why me? Chloe has star appeal too, and she’d probably be better for the ratings. As for Kaya……well, she won, so she probably won’t have time.”
“We did consider Chloe, actually. But just as I was about to make her an offer, I found out she’d already been booked for another programme. Even if that hadn’t happened, though, the chances of us choosing Chloe would probably have been low. She works well with Jo Minjoon, but viewers prefer conflict to a gentle atmosphere. Like you and Kaya. We decided that if you appeared alongside Jo Minjoon, you could balance out the softer and rougher sides of the programme.”
Anderson slowly fiddled with one of the sweets.
He rolled the wrapper up, then unfolded it again.
Finally, he spoke. “So in the end, you want me to play Minjoon’s supporting role, right? I think I’ve already had enough experience doing that for Kaya. It’s not a particularly attractive offer to me. It would certainly help Minjoon experience cultures from around the world……but I’ve already experienced plenty of them myself.”
“The benefits aren’t limited to the tasting experience. The appearance fee is quite substantial, as you’d expect. And more than anything, it would raise your public profile. The sort of reputation that can be difficult to build even after spending years behind the walls of a kitchen.”
For a long time, Anderson did not answer.
He closed his eyes and organised his thoughts.
Then he spoke quietly. “I’m sorry. I don’t think it suits me. Honestly, the little bit of recognition I already have is enough, and as for the appearance fee……as you know, I’m not exactly a son desperate for money.”
“One thing.” Martin interrupted. His expression resembled that of a general finally drawing his last weapon. “There’s one more thing that might make the offer appealing to you.”
“……What?”
Instead of answering, Martin searched through the documents tucked against his chest.
He pulled out a single photograph.
Anderson looked at it casually at first.
Then his eyes widened in shock. “Could it be………?”
“Yes. It could.” Martin smiled confidently. “Have you changed your mind now?”