God of Cooking – Chapter 88: The weight of a restaurant (1)

 

“47, 48, 49, 50…… . Okay . Get up, Chloe . ”
“…… . Whew, difficult . ”

Chloe was letting out rough breaths while lying on the mat . Jo Minjoon, who was holding her legs, released his hands and asked .

“Isn’t it difficult to train everyday? People who exercised also do it in intervals . You will get injured . ”
“But instead, I don’t do that much . And there aren’t that many training machines here……… . ”

Chloe looked around the gym with regretful eyes . They gym that was made not only for the participants, but also for the staff, wasn’t on the good side . Jo Minjoon looked at Anderson that was doing squats next to them . Anderson had a body that was unexpectedly built up . It was certainly different compared to him .

“………Should I also do some exercise?”
“You came here to do that, didn’t you?”
“Rather than coming to do exercise, I came to get some motivation . ”
“You don’t get motivation from others, but you have to get motivated yourself . ‘I have to do some exercise……’ You just mumble these words by yourself and your body is still the same? And your will is also the same . ”
“Fine . Then, should I start to…… . ”

It was at that moment that he was going to end the word ‘today’ that his phone rang . His handphone rang . Jo Minjoon raised his hand to Chloe for a moment and got outside the gym . The name that popped up the screen was ‘Jessie Dean’ . It was a name he hadn’t seen for a while, so Jo Minjoon put on a welcoming smile .

“It’s been a while since you called . What happened?”
[ Just so . I was bored and I don’t have anything to do . ]
“But shouldn’t you be at school right now? Ah, New York is one hour behind . ”

The conversation continued this way by catching up . She was still making jelly, how big was Grand Chef’s house . And of course, a question that couldn’t be out appeared .

[ Aren’t the both of you really dating? ]
“I told you that we aren’t . ”

At the voice that was filled with curiousness, Jo Minjoon replied bluntly . Jessie groaned as if she didn’t believe him . Jo Minjoon let out a sigh and changed subjects . He was certainly tired of this theme . Because it wasn’t only Jessie, but also his family and friends asked him about Kaya when they called .

“How is Mr . Lucas doing?”
[ Well, it seems like he was starting a new company…… He doesn’t tell those things to me much . But he’s doing well . ]
“That’s good . ”

More than anything else, Jessie’s voice really brightened up . And with just that, he didn’t have anything in particular to worry about . Jessie asked him something that she was concerned of .

[ But, that Lotus girl…… . There were bad rumours in the internet . It’s not true, right? ]
“By all means, it’s not . People always tend to think that they were the victims . Tess Gilly, so…… You can look at it as the same kind . ”
[ Well, you should see people well . ]
“Also tell it to the people around you . Kaya, she’s not that kind of person . ”
[ ……That isn’t so difficult . But it seems like you really take care of her? ]

Jessie asked as if she was suspicious . Jo Minjoon replied with a voice he was sick of .

“Let’s end this . I have to exercise . ”
[ Ah, I’m sorry . Don’t cut . I’m bored . I’m bo……! ]

Even after Jessie’s eager voice, he couldn’t pull back his already extended finger . It was at that moment when the call ended and the screen was turning black . He heard a familiar voice .

“It seems like you were talking about me . ”
“Ah! What a surprise…… Go making a sign . ”

As he turned back to look at the owner of that voice, he saw Kaya pointing at her feet instead of replying . She was wearing high heels . Her feet moved . Clop clop . It was too clear of a sound to say it was silent . Jo Minjoon scratched his chin with an embarrassed face .

“I can’t listen well when I’m on a call . ”
“I think that you are just deaf . So what? Wasn’t that about me?”
“If someone calls me they usually ask me about you . Aren’t you like that?”
“…… . . There’s particularly no one that calls me . Excluding my sister and my mom . ”

Kaya pouted and replied . He knew he was supposed to feel sad at those words, but when she said it with that face, he thought she looked cute . Jo Minjoon smirked .

“And your sister and mother don’t talk about me?”
“They do . They ask me why I keep a fool such as you next to me . ”
“…… . . Really? They really said that?”
“And you also believe that?”

Kaya clicked her tongue and shook her head . Jo Minjoon frowned . When he played with his younger cousins, he tended to be the one that fell to these childish plays . He was like that when he was with Kaya . Although he didn’t know if that was good or bad…… . .

“I’m going to do some exercise . Leave . ”
“You are really going to exercise? You didn’t until now . Why, because I teased you?”
“Do I look like a kid to you? Who will exercise just because someone makes fun of me?”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a kid, and it hasn’t been long since you stopped being a teen . How about you also stop acting like an adult?”

At that moment, he did get angry, but he didn’t want to get swept up in her phase . For her, it hasn’t been long since he stopped being a teen, but that wasn’t the case . Because originally, he had lived until his thirties . It was an age where he shouldn’t do childish things .

“It hasn’t been long until I came back from the army . My body isn’t that bad . ”
“Army? You were a soldier?”

Kaya opened her eyes roundly . She looked like she had never imagined it, because he had never told anyone that he had gone to the army . Jo Minjoon slightly rolled his eyes .

“Yeah . And I also fired a gun and got training . ”

There was no need to say that he was from the administrative part of the army . So Jo Minjoon made up those last words . Kaya rolled her eyes with a confused face as if she had got a shock at the unexpected reality and then she asked in a careful voice .

“Then you did it?”
“What?”
“That…… . . Ki…… . no, if you shot a person . ”

Even if she was trying not to show it, her big eyes were showing a light he had never seen before . And there was a lot of unnecessary hand gestures . Was it because of that? That even if he knew that it was childish, he wanted to tease her more . This man that was once 30 years old, replied with a really meaningful voice .

“Korea is a ceasefire country . ”

Honestly speaking, she didn’t know what he was talking about . Kaya was weak with words that were hitting around the bush . Was there no way that they wouldn’t fire a gun because it was a ceasefire country, or precisely because it was such a country that there would be cases as that . Just listening to the weight of his voice, it seemed to be the latter case .

‘Is it difficult for him to reply?’

It was understandable for her to think like that . She was embarrassed to show that she didn’t comprehend . Kaya opened her eyes clearly and said .

“I don’t think about that in a bad way even if it did happen . I understand . ”
“Thanks . ”

Jo Minjoon smirked . Just what in the world was she thinking about . He wondered if she was thinking of Korea as a dangerous environment such as the Middle East . He didn’t know when he should clear the misunderstanding, and when he was going to be hit by annoyed punches .

‘Let’s worry about that later…… . . First, let’s do some exercise . ’

However, Jo Minjoon doing exercise that day didn’t happen . Even before he grabbed a dumbbell, the staff approached and yelled .

“We are moving to the mission place . Everybody prepare and come to the garage!”

–

While they were moving in the bus, the main subject of the talk was obviously related to the mission . Sasha opened her mouth .

“It will be a restaurant, right? There are only such places to go when you go out . ”
“There’s also hotels . But the certain thing is that we are going to a kitchen, with whatever shape it has . ”
“…… . . Will only one person get eliminated today too?”
“I don’t know . Thinking about the numbers, I think that it should, and there may even be some unexpected turns and 2 people gets eliminated . Just don’t think about getting eliminated . That’s more comfortable . ”

Anderson said with a cynical voice . Listening to Sasha’s sigh, Jo Minjoon turned his sight to outside the window . How long has it been since he had gone out of Grand Chef’s house? Recently, reporters gathered so much that they couldn’t even get out . And as he could see the exterior like this, he felt that his stuffiness was getting relieved .

Right behind his seat, Kaya glanced at his back . She wondered if she had touched some hurting memories related to the army with just his simple appearance of looking outside the window .

‘…… . How dangerous is it if it’s in a ceasefire state?’

There was no way that she would have learnt about that, or have some interest in it . Kaya poked Chloe’s side that was seated next to her . Chloe turned to look at her with a confused face .

“Why?”
“Shh . Get closer . ”

Kaya said with a really low voice .

“Is Korea, I mean South Korea, still a dangerous country? And do they also fire guns?”
“I wonder . Not that I know . I even have some friends that travelled there . Well, I did see that people picked a fight with you through the news . But why?”
“No, it’s nothing . ”
“What is it? Making me curious . Are you really not going to tell me? If you are talking about Korea, is it not related to Minjoon?”
“Sh! I told you to be quiet!”

Kaya put on a fierce face and pressed Chloe’s lips with her thumb . Chloe raised her eyebrows and looked at Kaya’s face and finger alternating . Kaya lifted her finger and said .

“Act a little tactful, Chloe . ”
“So what should I be tactful about?”
“…… . . You can’t tell this to anyone . ”

Kaya looked at those around her with vigilant eyes . Jo Minjoon was still looking outside the window, and Anderson and Sasha were talking about the mission . Ivanna was asleep . There was no one who would listen to their conversation . Kaya opened her mouth .

“Minjoon said that he was a soldier . ”
“I think that you must serve military service in Korea, so it’s obvious that he went to the army . What about it?”
“So if you were a soldier you have gone to war and such . There were also some uncles that went to the army, but each of them had it hard because of the memories of the army . Minjoon doesn’t show it but…… Isn’t he suffering by himself? You know, there are those symptoms . PT……this and that . ”

Chloe looked at Kaya with a strange face . Just what was this little lady imagining? However Kaya was still putting a face that was entirely in her own world .

“Thinking about it, he will return to Korea again . I didn’t think much about it before, but isn’t this a dangerous thing? He would have to be helping in the humanitarian division . Should I tell Minjoon to apply for it now?”
“………I think that you are having a big misunderstanding . Kaya . Korea is different to what you are imagining . ”
“It’s a ceasefire country . He said that war can happen at any moment . ”
“That’s right……”

She didn’t know how to explain it . And in the first place, even she didn’t know much about Korea . The problem was elsewhere . It was that if she left it like this misunderstanding on her own and worrying by herself, she became quite cute . However she wasn’t confident on being able to handle Kaya’s attitude after she got to know the truth and after she had feigned innocence .

“Kaya, actually…… . . ”
“We have arrived!”
“So they say . Let’s talk about this another time . ”

However, Chloe’s determination got cut by the staff’s yell . ‘Well, now is not the only time . ’ Chloe thought like that and turned her head . The thing she saw outside the window was a restaurant . A restaurant that was half on water, and the other half was on the shore . Because most of it was built with white trees, it had quite a romantic feeling in it .

If anyone saw it they would have admired it, and Kaya wasn’t an exception . She, who got off the bus, forgot even about Jo Minjoon having gone to the army and simply expressed words of admiration . However the voice that was heard after that, and the mic that appeared before her suddenly crumbled her admiration .

“It’s Jessica Prada from Daily Street . We received an accusation that you bullied your schoolmate with malice, was that true?”

< The weight of a restaurant (1) > End

Translator’s note: Thanks for reading and for your support!

 

Translator : Subak
Proofreader : Saihikawa