Chapter 64: At the End of the Trip (1)
Chapter 64: At the End of the Trip (1)
By the time they arrived in Chicago—or, more precisely, at the Grand Chef house—it was already past midnight. Unsurprisingly, none of the contestants or production staff were waiting for them. It couldn’t be helped, and it was understandable. They might have missed the faces of people they hadn’t seen for a week, but that longing was weak compared with the pull of sleep.
There was one thing they had all come to realise during the food-truck mission: sleep was far sweeter than they had ever imagined.
They woke before dawn to buy groceries, prepared the food, and then spent the day selling it. A chef’s work continued even after ordinary employees had finished for the day. Quite apart from the irregular schedule, the physical strain alone was difficult to endure.
Even the production staff following them around with cameras were worn out, so how much worse must it have been for the contestants? Naturally, everyone wanted to sleep even a little longer.
Jo Minjoon, however, couldn’t.
The insomnia that had followed him throughout the week was even worse tonight. Perhaps it was because this was the final day.
In the end, Jo Minjoon got out of bed and went down to the lobby, only to let out a helpless laugh.
There was a familiar face there.
No, familiar faces.
“Chloe. Hugo.”
“……Minjoon? What are you doing up at this hour……?” Hugo asked in surprise, then soon smirked.
The moment they looked at one another, they understood. There was no need to explain what the past week had been like. All three of their faces were filled with exhaustion.
Chloe laughed weakly. “Minjoon, so you were the same.”
“Thanks. I thought I was the only one like this, but knowing I have companions in misery makes me feel better.”
“What do you mean, misery? That’s a little harsh.”
Hugo didn’t respond to Jo Minjoon’s words and took a seat. Perhaps because they were conscious of belonging to different teams, the three of them sat slightly apart from one another.
Hugo spoke with exaggerated confidence. “Our team has potential. A lot of potential. So prepare yourselves for second place.”
“Ha. I don’t know where that confidence is coming from. Didn’t you see the reactions online? Because of our food truck, even the sales at other sushi restaurants are going up.”
“That doesn’t mean you did better than us.”
Hugo and Jo Minjoon exchanged challenging looks.
Chloe sighed quietly. “Stop it. You know cats raise their fur when they’re scared, right?”
“……Now that I look at you, are you all right? I thought contacting you back then would only give you a headache. You ended up dealing with that jerk instead of Kaya.”
“It was the obvious thing to do as team leader. But there are so many things a team leader has to do. No, so many responsibilities. If a one-week mission is already this difficult, how heavy will that responsibility be when we open our own restaurants someday?”
Jo Minjoon and Hugo fell silent.
It was a question neither of them particularly wanted to think about. Yet if they continued down this path, it was a burden they would eventually have to face.
Jo Minjoon finally said, “By then, we’ll be able to handle it. Our necks will have grown thicker too.”
“Now I understand why tall people get stiff necks.”
Chloe laughed helplessly.
Watching the two of them, Hugo glanced around. Perhaps because the Grand Chef house had been empty for a week, the cameras that were normally installed around the lobby were nowhere to be seen.
Hugo lowered his voice cautiously. “Your…… sales. No, your profit. How much was it?”
“Are you crazy? You want me to tell another team that?” “So what? There’s nothing in the rules saying we can’t share.”
“Even so……” Chloe spoke hesitantly.
Her voice was usually cheerful, but she wasn’t normally bold about things like this. She clearly didn’t like the idea of sharing such information.
Hugo softened his tone. “Us telling each other doesn’t mean we’re doing anything wrong. It’s just to give ourselves some peace of mind. I’ll be honest. Even if I hear the numbers and end up discouraged, I’d rather know before I go to sleep. It’s probably the same for you.”
“……If your results weren’t good, wouldn’t you rather not know?”
“If that’s the case, I’ll just work harder tomorrow. That might be better.”
Chloe stared at the floor for a long time without speaking.
Just as Hugo was about to say something else, her lips parted.
That night, for the first time in a week, Jo Minjoon slept properly.
It was somewhere between dawn and morning when he finally left his room, hair dishevelled, intending to take a shower.
Then he heard a familiar voice. “……You ignored me yesterday?”
The first voice he heard that morning belonged to none other than Kaya.
He had no idea how long she had been there, but she was leaning against the wall beside his door, glaring at him.
Jo Minjoon smiled brightly. “You’re up early.”
“Up early? So you’re saying you didn’t think anything of making me look like an idiot who can’t even tell norimaki from norikami?”
“Did you eat breakfast? Are the others awake?”
“……Are you changing the subject?” Kaya looked dumbfounded.
Jo Minjoon pointed at his hair. “Can’t you see what I look like right now? Let me wash first.”
He assumed she would go somewhere else while he showered, but when he returned roughly twenty minutes later, she was still standing in the same place.
Only then did Jo Minjoon become bewildered.
It was the first time she had ever followed him around like this.
“……Are you really this upset about what happened yesterday?”
“The person who did something wrong is always the calm one. I really did know the difference.”
“Yes. Of course you did.”
“No, don’t just say that. I really did. Are you ignoring me because I’m stupid and didn’t get much education?” Kaya’s eyes wavered.
Rather than angry, she suddenly looked nervous.
Only then did Jo Minjoon realise that his small joke the previous night might have touched on one of Kaya’s deeper insecurities.
“I don’t look down on you. Who looks down on their friends?”
Kaya opened her mouth to retort, then closed it again at the word friends.
Her expression became complicated.
Just as she had told Martin some time ago, she didn’t particularly like that word. More precisely, she didn’t really believe friendship existed between people.
Of course, Jo Minjoon had no way of knowing that.
He yawned and started walking.
Kaya hurried after him. “What? Why are you just leaving? I’m not finished talking.”
“I’m sorry. I’m too sleepy to answer properly. Let’s eat breakfast first. When we teamed up before, you promised that if I helped you, you’d cook me breakfast every day. You did it for a few days and then stopped, didn’t you?”
“……That was because everyone kept teasing me.”
“And do you think they stopped teasing you because you quit making breakfast for me? We’re already their favourite material.”
Kaya matched his pace with a dissatisfied expression, then glanced at his face.
It had only been a week since they had last seen each other, but he looked awful.
Kaya spoke sullenly. “You ended up like this just from running a food truck? You’re pretty weak for a man. How are you ever going to run a restaurant?”
“Yeah. Maybe I should exercise.”
“Men are supposed to have muscles. You need to be at least like Arnold Schwarzenegger before you can call yourself a man.”
“……That’s not a man. That’s a male specimen.” Jo Minjoon shook his head as though thoroughly fed up.
Kaya’s eyes sharpened. “Anyway, exercise. Chloe had a hard time too, but she didn’t collapse like you because she has better stamina.”
“……It sounds like Chloe held up pretty well.”
“Chloe is Chloe.”
I wonder.
From the way she had looked last night, Chloe hadn’t seemed particularly comfortable either.
Jo Minjoon swallowed the words and headed towards the kitchen counter.
Kaya pouted. “Are you seriously planning to make me do everything? I’m tired too.”
“Make something simple. An omelette will do. It doesn’t take two people. Oh, actually, make a Spanish omelette. Put some potatoes in it. Not too spicy and not too salty. And I want as little browning on the outside as possible. I’ll cut the fruit.”
“……You ask for a lot.”
Despite sighing, Kaya made the omelette with complete concentration. She even whisked the eggs carefully. She cooked them together with onions, then added thinly sliced potatoes.
The result was delicious.
Because the potatoes had been cooked beforehand, there was no unpleasant raw smell, and the right amount of butter brought out the richness of the eggs.
The texture was soft, while the potatoes had a smooth bite. The eggs were slightly undercooked, but that made them feel almost like a sauce, which worked well. It was a Spanish omelette that stayed faithfully within the standard style.
Kaya stared at him. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Silence means it’s good. Normally, when people eat something delicious, they don’t talk much.”
“So every time the judges said something was delicious, they must have been lying.”
“……That’s because they have to evaluate it. This is different.”
“I need an evaluation too. What score is it?”
At that, Jo Minjoon suddenly coughed as though he had choked.
Kaya showed no sign of kindness by patting his back.
Only after quite some time did he finally look at her with watery eyes.
“You’re asking me for a score now too? You never used to.”
“I thought I should start asking. Everyone else does, and I’m the only one who doesn’t. It feels weird.”
“……Honestly, with your palate, you don’t need anyone else’s evaluation.”
“I’m sensitive too, but I couldn’t identify all twenty ingredients like you. Maybe I could get fifteen. Anyway, how do you even know my palate is sensitive?”
“You can tell when you spend enough time with someone.”
He couldn’t exactly tell her that he knew because her tasting level was 10.
Kaya looked at him strangely. “So what score is it? Is it bad?”
“No. Your dishes average around a seven. When you do well, you make quite a few eights.”
“……Hmm. Is that so?” A faint smile appeared on Kaya’s face.
She nodded, apparently satisfied.
Jo Minjoon glanced around. Morning had already arrived, yet no one else had appeared. “Are they all still asleep?”
“Just like you want to regain your strength by eating breakfast, they probably want to regain theirs by sleeping a little longer. I should’ve done that too.”
“So because of me, you’re suffering when you normally wouldn’t be?”
“Why? Breakfast isn’t enough for you? Now you want me to flatter you too?”
“If you’d like.”
“I wouldn’t. I’m awake at this hour because of you.”
Kaya spoke in her usual rough tone and put a bite of omelette into her mouth.
The instant she tasted it, her expression relaxed.
Seeing the satisfied smile on her face, Jo Minjoon gave her an incredulous look. “It’s pretty rare to see someone eat their own cooking that happily.”
“Why? Food doesn’t stop tasting good just because I made it.”
“It did for me. Other people’s food always tasted better than my own.”
“That’s because you never lived without enough. You should know that even having ingredients to cook with is something to be happy about.”
“……Now you sound exactly like my mother.”
Kaya pouted as though wondering what was wrong with that and returned her attention to eating.
She had always placed great importance on cooking and eating.
Perhaps she wasn’t nervous about the mission that was about to begin.
Jo Minjoon found that side of Kaya strangely impressive. She could be fragile in some ways and remarkably strong in others.
“Aren’t you nervous? The food-truck mission starts again soon.”
“What’s there to be nervous about? Even if our team comes last, we just have to survive the elimination challenge.”
“That’s true…… but the odds still make you nervous.”
“A girl who had nothing going for her in the market came all the way here and kept surviving elimination challenges. If you think about which of those things was less likely, there’s really nothing to worry about. And you—judging by your face, it looks like you used up all your strength this past week.”
She spoke as though it were nothing, but her voice wasn’t flat enough to hide the concern beneath it.
Jo Minjoon smiled softly. “I’m fine now.”
“Now? Wouldn’t it be normal to feel even more pressure today?”
“……Can I be honest?”
“Can you be dishonest?”
“I don’t think I’m going to come last.”
Kaya looked confused. She asked as though she genuinely couldn’t understand him.
“So after working yourself half to death for a week, you suddenly think you won’t be eliminated today? For no reason?”
“Do I need a reason? The feeling matters. I just don’t think I’ll come last. That’s all.”
“Then who do you think will?”
Jo Minjoon smiled bitterly.
He remembered the profits he had discussed with Hugo and Chloe the previous night.
His team had made $5,700.
Chloe’s team had earned $50 more.
And lastly……
“It won’t be you or me, so there’s only one team left.”
Hugo’s team hadn’t even reached $5,000.