Chapter 69: Temptation of Three Stars (4)
Chapter 69: Temptation of Three Stars (4)
Was she getting revenge because he hadn’t replied to her last time? Jo Minjoon smiled bitterly and put away his phone. If she wasn’t going to answer, there was no point pestering her. He would find out once he got back anyway.
Surely it isn’t Marco……
Who else had been on that team? Jo Minjoon thought it over. The only ones he was particularly close to were Marco and Hugo. It still wasn’t entirely clear, but he had also grown somewhat closer to Jacob. As for the others……
It doesn’t really matter who it is.
Aside from those three, it would be difficult to say he was especially close to anyone. Honestly, no matter who had been eliminated, he probably wouldn’t feel particularly disappointed. He simply hoped it wasn’t one of those three. Of course, sooner or later they would all have to part ways, but he wanted to delay that moment for as long as possible.
Things, however, had a way of turning out contrary to what one hoped.
When the van arrived at the Grand Chef house and they went up to the fourth floor, they saw Jacob coming out with his luggage.
Jo Minjoon’s expression froze for a moment, then relaxed. If Jacob was already leaving, he didn’t want to send him off with a troubled expression.
“Are you leaving?”
“Looks like it. Unfortunately.”
“You said your father cooks French cuisine, right? Are you going back to work at his restaurant?”
“No. I don’t plan to. Working under my father’s shadow and cooking out here on my own…… I realised this time that they’re completely different things. He’ll probably give me hell for it, but I need to walk my own path.”
Jo Minjoon smiled, though inwardly he sighed.
He felt uneasy. Marco’s baking level was 7, Hugo’s was 6, and Jacob’s was only 5. Jacob had been at a level where one mistake could easily get him eliminated. None of them had particularly high baking levels, but aside from Jo Minjoon himself, Jacob’s had been the lowest.
If I’d been in that elimination challenge……
Just thinking about it sent a chill down his spine. His own baking level was still only 4. The loser might have been decided before the challenge even began. Perhaps his cooking level could have compensated somewhat for his weak baking skills, but even that would probably not have been enough.
Jo Minjoon gave him a sad smile. “Take care.”
“Yeah. You survive too.”
Jacob started walking, then stopped.
His eyes met Anderson’s.
In truth, Jacob had been closer to Anderson than to Jo Minjoon. Perhaps it was because he had once been on a team with Anderson and Kaya. Their time together had been short, but the friendship that had formed between them had been surprisingly deep.
Precisely because of that, there was no need for a long farewell.
Anderson spoke briefly. “You did well.”
“……Win, Anderson. Win.”
Jacob smiled bitterly and finally resumed walking. No one followed him all the way out. Somehow, they felt that doing so would only make it harder for him to leave.
Only after Jacob disappeared down the stairs did Jo Minjoon release the breath he had been holding.
Anderson swept his gaze around the room, sharper than usual. His eyes stopped briefly on Kaya, then moved to Marco.
“Why did Jacob get eliminated? Tell me.”
“……He put cheddar in the apple pie and baked it.”
“What?”
Anderson frowned as though the answer made no sense at all. It was the sort of combination whose failure seemed obvious even without seeing the result. Apple pie and cheese. Even for a skilled chef, bringing those ingredients together harmoniously wouldn’t be easy.
Only then did he seem to understand why Jacob had been eliminated, and he let out a sigh.
Kaya glanced at Anderson without saying anything, then turned towards Jo Minjoon. She had just opened her mouth when Chloe stepped forward first.
“How was the three-star restaurant?”
“It was perfect.”
Jo Minjoon’s answer was brief. There was no need to say more. Perfect. That single word contained everything he felt. Honestly, adding anything else would have seemed like unnecessary leftovers. The meal had possessed everything cooking needed.
The word itself sounded simple, but producing food like that required an enormous amount of experience, effort, and care. For people who loved cooking, those were obvious truths.
Chloe stared blankly at him for a moment before smiling softly, as though she understood.
“You must have really enjoyed it.”
Jo Minjoon answered only with a smile, one filled with unmistakable happiness.
For a moment, Chloe stared absently at that smile before turning her head away.
Kaya’s voice cut in sharply. “Stop smiling, you pig.”
“Now I need your permission to smile too?”
“My stomach hurts. I hate it when other people get to eat something better than me.”
“You’re really spoiled. Can’t you be happy that your friend got to eat something delicious?”
“I hate it even more when it’s a friend.” Kaya glared at him as she spoke.
Jo Minjoon merely laughed and sat down on the lobby sofa. The other contestants gradually pushed aside the depressing mood left by Jacob’s departure and gathered around him. Naturally, they were curious about the three-star restaurant, and questions immediately poured in like a waterfall.
“What dishes did they serve?”
“Did you meet the chef? What did he say?”
“How much was the course?”
Jo Minjoon raised a hand to calm them down.
“Why are you only asking me? Ask the others too.”
“……Your palate is sensitive. You probably experienced it more clearly than they did. Describe it for us.”
“I don’t know. Even if I felt it clearly, I’m not confident I can put it into words.”
“Fine. Then just tell us the scores. How was it?”
Of course they would ask that.
It was exactly what Jo Minjoon had expected. Martin had also focused on the scores.
He smiled and answered without dragging it out.
“There was one ten-point dish.”
Almost simultaneously, exclamations of amazement broke out around him.
They had all watched Jo Minjoon score dishes before. Even seven- and eight-point dishes were already exceptional, so ten points sounded almost impossibly distant.
The conversation continued for quite some time. Perhaps because none of them wanted the atmosphere to sink after Jacob’s departure, they became even more animated than usual. But their interest and excitement weren’t forced. A three-star restaurant was the dream of every chef.
The price alone made such places difficult for ordinary people to visit, and there were very few restaurants of that calibre to begin with. Getting a reservation wasn’t easy either. That was simply reality.
And being contestants on Grand Chef didn’t make them fundamentally different. They might all dream of cooking professionally, but many of them had previously lived ordinary lives unrelated to the culinary world. Chloe, after all, had simply been a university student.
They kept talking even after midnight. At some point, hunger struck again, so they made a few snacks. Since there probably wouldn’t be another mission for at least a few days, throwing off their daily routine for one night didn’t seem like a serious problem.
As the night deepened, bottles of alcohol naturally appeared on the table. The flavour wasn’t particularly good because most of it had originally been bought for cooking, but it was enough to keep the conversation going.
“Do you think we’ll make it……?” It was Hugo.
His eyes were hazy with drink as he stared ahead. No one could tell exactly what he was looking at. Perhaps the opened bottle of champagne, perhaps the tiramisu sitting nearby.
Jo Minjoon wet his tongue with his non-alcoholic mojito before answering.
“Successful chefs always say you need to work hard…… but who knows? The advice of people who succeeded and people who failed would probably be different. Usually, advice from the successful ones seems more useful, but……”
“Chefs who failed…… no, that wording isn’t right.” Hugo shook his head. “Not receiving a Michelin star doesn’t mean someone didn’t work hard. There are very few chefs who truly don’t work hard.”
Anderson nodded. “I know a few people besides my parents who own three-star restaurants. One of them earned three stars when he was thirty-four and held them for almost ten years. Then he committed suicide. Maybe he was terrified of dropping to two stars. Honestly, if three stars come with that much pressure…… I don’t want them. I just want to cook my own food.”
“But your cooking will still be judged. Even if you try not to care, eventually you will. Aren’t your parents the same?”
“I don’t know. Of course they feel pressure. But they aren’t the kind of people who get swept away by other people’s opinions. And honestly, even if they were struggling, what parents would want to show that to their child?”
Anderson took another sip of red wine. As time passed, his face grew as red as the wine itself. He normally didn’t like alcohol and rarely drank, which probably made it affect him more strongly than the others.
Jo Minjoon looked at him with concern. “At this rate, you’re all going to wake up looking like zombies tomorrow. Why don’t you stop drinking for a while?”
“Shut up. If you’re not drinking, just sit there and eat the snacks quietly.”
“……I warned you.” Jo Minjoon grumbled and put a biscuit into his mouth.
The biscuits Marco had made carried a faint lime fragrance and had the sort of flavour that never became tiring.
“Ah, I really need to improve my baking. But it’s not easy.”
“You don’t eat much bread in your country, do you?”
“It’s treated more like a snack. And even fewer people bake it themselves.”
“Good. If the next mission is a baking challenge, at least we know one person will definitely rank below us.”
Jo Minjoon smiled bitterly at Anderson’s words. Honestly, it was difficult to argue.
“I’ll just have to pray the next mission isn’t baking.”
“……Do you want me to teach you?”
“Wow. What’s this? You being nice?”
Honestly, if Anderson offered to teach him, Jo Minjoon couldn’t ask for anyone better. Aside from Marco, Anderson was the only contestant with baking level 7.
Anderson’s expression sank. Perhaps because he was drunk, his voice trembled slightly.
“Jacob’s gone…… If you leave too, who’s going to put up with my temper?”
“Then fix your temper. You and Kaya both.”
“Don’t compare me to that spoiled girl……”
“I can hear you. Shut your mouth.” Kaya, who had collapsed forward onto the table, spoke coldly without even lifting her head. She hadn’t drunk much, but her face was already bright red.
Anderson raised one corner of his mouth far too dramatically. It was obvious he was drunk. “Why? If I don’t shut up, are you going to hit me?”
“You grew up so comfortably that you have no idea how rough market people can be, do you? Huh?”
“What do you mean, comfortably? I struggled too. It’s always like this. Just because my family has money, people assume I grew up without worries or hardships.”
“At least you never had to cook with leftover cabbage scraps because throwing them away felt like a waste.”
At Kaya’s words, Anderson fell silent.
Temper flaring, he shook his head and stood up.
“Ah, forget it. I’m going to sleep. You people can drink alcohol or olive oil or whatever you want and do as you please.”
He staggered off towards his room.
Kaya simply continued glaring after him with her cheek resting on the table.
Jo Minjoon sighed. “You’re pretty drunk too. Go to sleep.”
“I don’t want to. Don’t order me around. You think you can tell me what to do just because I don’t have money and I’m ignorant?”
“……See? You’re drunk.”
Jo Minjoon pulled one of her arms over his shoulders and helped her to her feet. Chloe, Marco, Joanne, and several of the others were also slumped over the table, but Kaya came first. None of the others looked likely to cause any trouble in their current state.
He practically had to drag her along.
“I told you not to drink too much. In the US, you have to be at least twenty-one to drink. What you’re doing is illegal.”
“Don’t act so stiff. Didn’t you drink when you were my age?”
“I didn’t.”
“……Boring bastard.” Kaya grumbled.
Jo Minjoon frowned and tightened his hold around the arm supporting her when she suddenly stopped walking altogether.
“Walk properly.”
“I don’t want to. I’m resisting. Have you ever seen a cow willingly let itself be dragged to the slaughterhouse?”
“You’re not going to a slaughterhouse. You’re going to your room.” Jo Minjoon pinched her wrist with the hand holding her.
“Ow!” Kaya glared at him resentfully. “I hate people who resort to violence……”
“How is that violence?”
“That’s why alcohol is bad. That person was drunk too…… and he hit Mum. Right in front of me. That person who called himself my father did that. Because of alcohol.”
Strictly speaking, it was Kaya who had been drinking rather than Jo Minjoon, but he didn’t point that out.
By the time he finally managed to get her to the fourth floor and into her room, Kaya leaned against the wall and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Jo Minjoon sighed. “I’ll let it go because you’re drunk……”
“I’m going to kill you.”
The unexpected words stopped him cold.
He stared at her suspiciously. Even drunk, that was unusually direct.
Kaya forced her childish eyes open as wide as she could and stared at Jo Minjoon—or perhaps at something only she could see—with stubborn determination.
“I’m going to get rid of every obstacle in front of me. I won’t be eliminated again. Winning…… my life…… I won’t let any of it fall apart again. Just watch me. Watch how far I climb. I…… I’ll kill all of you.”
Jo Minjoon was about to say something when Kaya’s eyes closed and her body slowly collapsed.
He hurriedly caught her.
Her freckled nose, her flushed cheeks, and the tears running down her face filled his vision.
Jo Minjoon looked at her with a complicated expression and murmured too softly for her to hear.
“Are you that scared?”