Chapter 162: Party Members Wanted (3)
Chapter 162: Party Members Wanted (3)
Why had she done that?
Why had she thought she was the only one who had grown older and fallen ill over the past ten years? No one was free from the passage of time.
Rachel, who had remained standing because she could not bring herself to sit, collapsed onto the sofa as though all the strength had left her legs. Jack looked at her as tears began to gather in his eyes. Rachel shook her head in disbelief.
“That can’t be. You were clearly selling bread…”
“Lisa is thirty now. If you count from when she first started helping, she’s been working with dough for more than twenty years. If you’re looking for talent, there’s no one better suited than her.”
The conversation stalled. Rachel could only stare blankly at the cold fireplace. Her thoughts were tangled—or rather, there were no thoughts in her head at all. There was only a suffocating sense of helplessness and guilt surrounding her.
It was then that a small voice called out.
“Grandpa…”
A short, chubby little girl spoke in a sleepy voice. Rachel slowly turned her head. At the end of her gaze was a young girl wearing pink pyjamas. She had thick eyebrows, curly brown hair, and small lips half-hidden behind a hand that looked like a tiny dumpling as she let out an adorable yawn.
Jack smiled gently and held out his arms. “Ella. You’re awake.”
The girl named Ella immediately fell into Jack’s embrace. Rachel felt something strange as she watched Jack gently pat Ella’s back. Those hands could no longer knead dough, but they could still hold his granddaughter. The thought was warm, yet somehow cold at the same time.
“Is she Lisa’s daughter?”
“Yes. Ella, say hello. This is Rachel. Grandpa’s…” Jack stopped for a moment. He briefly met Rachel’s eyes, then looked back at Ella with a soft smile. “Old friend.”
No grandfather with love in his heart would say anything cruel in front of his granddaughter. At Jack’s introduction, Ella looked at Rachel and smiled brightly.
“Nice to meet you! My name is Ella!”
“Yes. Nice to meet you too. You look just like your mum.”
“Hehe. My mum is pretty. Oh, Grandpa, I need to go to the toilet.”
“All right. Go on.”
Ella suddenly darted towards the toilet as though someone were chasing her. Rachel watched her go with a faint smile before speaking.
“Her father?”
“I don’t know either.” Jack muttered in a sorrowful voice. “No matter how many times I ask Lisa, she won’t tell me. Maybe even she doesn’t know who the father is.”
“…Lisa is a good girl. That doesn’t sound like her.”
“Hmph. What kind of good girl lives without a husband and tears her father’s heart to pieces? More importantly, Rachel, you didn’t see how that child lived during the last ten years.”
“But I saw the twenty years before that. The Lisa I watched grow up was never immature. Even now, she’s taking good care of you. And she followed in your footsteps beautifully.”
“Don’t start acting gentle after all these years. I don’t want my heart wavering again.”
“…The debt I owe you, I promise I’ll repay it.”
“How?”
Jack asked immediately, but Rachel had no answer. Jack did not grow angry. He simply continued in a calm voice.
“If you don’t know, then I’ll tell you how. Whether you follow through or not is up to you, Rachel.”
She did not hesitate. She had no right to.
“I’ll do it. Whatever it is.”
“…Is it that you can’t read the mood, or that you refuse to?”
At the table, Jo Minjoon had already finished all the bread he had initially ordered and bought even more—tortillas, hot dogs, sandwiches, and other things—continuing to eat as though nothing were wrong.
Anderson could not understand him at all. Jo Minjoon was not usually oblivious, so with Rachel being this serious, how could he remain so relaxed?
Jo Minjoon opened his mouth leisurely, not to answer, but to take another bite of the tortilla filled with tomato sauce and cheese.
Anderson’s voice sharpened. “Answer me.”
“What am I supposed to answer? It’s neither that I can’t read the mood nor that I refuse to.”
“Then how are you so relaxed?”
“Because me acting serious won’t change anything. What do you do when your parents argue? Do you get serious too and start raising your voice?”
“…No.”
“It’s the same thing. Teacher Rachel and… ah, Mr. Jack Hudson. Whatever they’re talking about, us barging in and throwing our weight around won’t help. For your information, when adults are fighting, the role of the children is to smile brightly and innocently.”
“I understand what you mean…”
“Then eat. I’ve seen you staring at the bread for a while. Be honest. You want some too.”
Anderson’s face reddened. The bread really did look delicious. Since he had skipped breakfast, the smell of butter and freshly baked dough seemed sweeter than usual.
In the end, Anderson picked up a sweet potato cake. Just like that, he emptied his plate twice more. When he went up to buy something for the fifth time, Lisa finally stared at them strangely.
“Our shop doesn’t want customers leaving with stomach aches. Are you sure you should keep eating?”
“Do you think delicious food could hurt someone?”
“I don’t know. They say medicine is bitter and poison is sweet.”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never eaten poison.”
“…Neither have I. That’ll be four dollars and forty cents.”
By the time they returned to their table, the number of customers had begun to dwindle. The reason was simple. The bakery was already running out of bread.
Earlier, there had been so much that Jo Minjoon had wondered whether they could possibly sell it all in one day. Now the shelves were already beginning to empty.
Jo Minjoon shook his head. “Do all bakeries in America do this well?”
“Of course not. You tasted the bread yourself. This place isn’t normal.”
“Come to think of it, you must come here pretty often. Do you know Miss Lisa too?”
“We recognise each other. We’re not close.”
“Not surprising. You’re not exactly the friendly type.”
Anderson frowned but did not argue. It was true.
Rachel’s conversation lasted longer than expected. When the door finally opened, Jo Minjoon and Anderson both turned at once, but only Amelia came out.
She sat beside them and sighed. “Huuu. I’m exhausted. Can I have some of that bread?”
“Of course. Please. How is it going?”
“I’m not sure. Neither good nor bad. Reconciliation is always like this. So is being abandoned.”
Jo Minjoon understood what she meant by reconciliation, but not abandonment. As though reading his expression, Amelia began nibbling on rye bread with cream cheese as she explained.
“Ah, you probably haven’t heard yet. Mr. Jack is already retired. Not because he wanted to be, but because his body can’t handle the work anymore. He’s no longer capable of baking.”
“…That’s terrible. Then why…?”
Jo Minjoon stopped midway through his question. His gaze fell on the bread in Amelia’s hand.
Amelia nodded. “Lisa is an exceptional baker. Jack can’t stand in front of an oven anymore. In that case, there’s meaning in his daughter fulfilling her father’s last dream in his place. And beyond that, those two needed to meet at least once… Right, Lisa?”
Amelia smiled brightly as she turned around. Lisa had approached without them noticing and was looking down at her with a dull expression.
“Amelia. You can’t do this.”
“You knew this was something that had to be dealt with eventually.”
“…My father is exhausted.”
“If he can make it through today, he might actually regain some strength.”
“At the very least, you could have called me beforehand and explained the situation.”
“I suppose that’s true. Sorry. That was my mistake.”
The apology came too quickly. Lisa looked as though she still had something to say, but in the end, she only sighed.
Amelia ate the last piece of bread and glanced behind her. There were no customers left, and no bread remained on the shelves.
She spoke with obvious disappointment. “Do you have any bread left?”
“I still have some dough. Do you want that?”
“…I’ll just fill myself up with jam.”
Amelia grumbled.
At that moment, the door opened. A small girl—Ella—hurried in as though startled. She bent forward so far that it looked like she might fall and wrapped herself around Lisa’s leg.
“Mummy!”
“…Ella. Mummy told you not to walk around in your pyjamas.”
“Yes… but I like my pyjamas.”
“You have a very pretty daughter.”
Jo Minjoon spoke honestly. The little girl was undeniably adorable, cute enough to resemble a child model from television.
Ella peeked at him after hearing the compliment. Looking embarrassed, she gave a small laugh and hid behind Lisa’s leg.
Lisa sighed. “Ella, don’t pull on Mummy’s clothes. You’ll stretch them.”
Anderson was not usually fond of children, but even his gaze softened as he looked at Ella.
Then footsteps began approaching. Jo Minjoon’s smile disappeared, and he stood.
“The conversation… did it go well?”
“It did. But…”
Rachel stared at him with a strange expression. Jo Minjoon could not understand what it meant.
Then Jack extended his hand towards him.
“My name is Jack Hudson.”
“Jo Minjoon.”
Jo Minjoon shook it. Did he have arthritis? His hand was trembling, but Jo Minjoon did not find it particularly strange.
After they released each other, Jack spoke. “Rachel says you’re her new hope.”
“Teacher tends to say good things about me.”
“Then do you think that hope is misplaced?”
It sounded like a casual question, but it was not one that could be answered casually. Jo Minjoon’s eyes sharpened.
“No matter what expectations Teacher has of me, I’ll make sure I live up to them.”
“…Even if she asks you to do something impossible, like bring her a star from the sky?”
“She’s not the type to have such unrealistic expectations.”
“No. That’s where you’re wrong. I’m being completely serious when I say this, but this woman is insane.”
Rachel’s lips twitched. It looked as though she wanted to protest, but considering what she had done over the past ten years, she had no grounds to argue.
Jo Minjoon suppressed a laugh. “I know Teacher was pretty terrible in the past.”
“…The only person this terrible woman could never stand against was Daniel. Daniel had something Rachel didn’t. I don’t know whether to call it intuition or something else. But anyway, I hate this selfish old woman, yet there’s one thing I have to admit. She’s one of the five best chefs in the world. You will have to fill in whatever someone like her lacks. Are you still confident you can meet her expectations?”
“Yes.”
Jo Minjoon did not hesitate for even a second.
Jack frowned, but Jo Minjoon did not sound like a foolish young man speaking arrogantly because he did not know his limits.
“I’ve heard about your absolute taste. Yes, that’s undeniably an unusual talent. I’m sure that someday, you’ll become a chef known by everyone.”
“Mr. Jack, I’ve never thought of my absolute taste as anything that special. My tongue is a little more sensitive than average. That’s all. The reason I’m confident I can meet Teacher Rachel’s expectations isn’t because of my tongue.”
“…Then what is it?”
“That food becomes more delicious the more sincerely you devote yourself to it.”
After saying that, Jo Minjoon glanced to the side. A finger-length piece of brioche remained. It was an eight-point dish.
(Translator’s Note: Brioche —A rich French yeast bread made with a high proportion of eggs and butter, producing a tender crumb somewhere between ordinary bread and pastry. Brioche has been documented in France for several centuries; forms recognisable as brioche were established by at least the seventeenth century, although the word itself appears in earlier French records.)
Jo Minjoon picked it up and immediately put it into his mouth, then slowly read the system window appearing in front of him.
“I can tell quite a lot just from eating this brioche. After making the dough, every time you spread the butter, you rested it for three minutes. I can also tell that you used four egg whites and five egg yolks in the dough.”
Jack’s eyes trembled instantly. Lisa reacted the same way.
They had heard countless rumours about Jo Minjoon, but hearing him prove it with bread they had made themselves felt completely different. Even Ella, still clinging to Lisa’s leg, stared at him in shock.
“But all this gives me is information. Once I’m inside a kitchen as a chef, what I have to think about isn’t much different from what anyone else thinks about. Absolute taste? Does it let me see a completely different world? Of course it helps me. But the customers we serve have ordinary senses of taste. In the end, I’m not that different from any other chef.”
“…Fine. Let’s assume that’s true. Then why should Rachel trust and rely on you? If there’s really nothing particularly valuable about your unusual tongue, what exactly is it about you that Rachel should value?”
“My sincerity.”
It was an unexpected answer. Jack had assumed Jo Minjoon would name some special ability or talent, but Jo Minjoon could not do that.
If talent decided everything, if a person’s limits were fixed from the moment they began, he could not accept that kind of reality.
He did have talent. Even without the system, his tongue was sensitive, and his instincts for recipes were creative while still remaining realistic. But it was not overwhelming talent.
Overwhelming talent was what Kaya possessed.
That was precisely why talent had to be a wall that could be overcome. Kaya’s rival. Jo Minjoon could not accept a future where everything ended without him ever reaching her.
He continued, his voice burning with conviction.
“I’m sure there are plenty of people who put sincerity on every plate. But I also have vitality, youth, and the desire to keep pushing forward. Just as food becomes better the more time and effort you put into it, I believe chefs are the same.”
“But you know that isn’t why Rachel values you.”
Jo Minjoon’s chest tightened.
Yes. Although Rachel looked at Jo Minjoon, she was not always looking at the real Jo Minjoon. She was looking at the version of him with absolute taste that existed inside her mind.
Jo Minjoon briefly bit his lip.
Then Rachel rested a hand on his shoulder.
“No, Jack. You’re wrong. Minjoon’s tongue isn’t what I value most.”
“Then what is?”
“Minjoon himself. The person he is.”
Both Jo Minjoon and Jack were left speechless by the answer.
Ella, who had been watching the three adults with wide eyes, tugged on Lisa’s clothes. Lisa looked down, and Ella gestured for her to bend closer.
“What is it, Ella? Are you hungry?”
“Mummy, how did that mister know how we make our bread?”
“…He really did know. Were you surprised?”
Ella nodded vigorously.
Six years old. Still extremely young. But she had already watched plenty of people come to Lisa asking for the bakery’s recipes, only to leave without learning anything.
To Ella, their bread recipe had always been a mysterious riddle no one could solve.
So Jo Minjoon, who had solved it…
“Is that mister a fairy?”
“Huh?”
“Mummy said nobody could figure out our bread recipe. If he can figure out something nobody else can, he must be a fairy. Right?”
Lisa had no idea what kind of logic was going through Ella’s head. But then again, it would have been stranger for a six-year-old’s reasoning to be perfectly realistic.
She simply nodded.
And at that moment, a wholly unrealistic conclusion formed inside Ella’s mind.
Jo Minjoon was a fairy.
There was only one fairy she knew, and that led to one inevitable conclusion.
Ella stared at him in shock.
“That mister… is Tinker Bell?”
(Translator’s Note: Tinker Bell — The fairy companion of Peter Pan. Tinker Bell first appeared in J. M. Barrie’s stage play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, first performed in London in 1904, and subsequently in Barrie’s 1911 novel Peter and Wendy.)