At that moment, Min-joon could not respond momentarily, even if he wanted to, because he also agreed with what the customer said. This time he opened his mouth, sensing that the customer was curious about his silence.
He said with a quick smile, “Yes, you’re right. Life seems to be exactly like that.”
Then he walked around a few more tables.
When he returned to the kitchen, June donned a puzzled expression, looking at his face.
“What’s the matter with you?”
“You know carpaccio with raclette cheese, right? How did you come up with that idea? It’s not common to put a hot and cold dish on one plate, I think. Nobody would have thought about such a mix.”
“Well, it’s my greed.”
“Greed?”
“Yeah, it came out of my desire to cook differently from others. It came out of my desire to bring out every taste in one dish. Greed always starts like that. If you think about it, this is not that unusual. Just like hot patties and cold lettuce in a burger, you can’t feel it because it’s common.”
Obviously, she had a point. What she said was not wrong. Right now, there was one thing that came to his mind as another example, which was pretty much Korean. Cold noodles and pork ribs. The taste of pork ribs tastes hotter and more sensual because cold noodles cool down one’s tongue.
Was it because his desire to try such a dish was triggered by that? That evening, when the restaurant was closed, he sliced cold-cooked chicken broth jelly like sashimi and put it on top of the sous vide-cooked pork. It was a moment when he felt the taste and texture of the pork more vividly thanks to the cold jelly.
His chest filled out. It wasn’t something that got stuck in the neck. He was so thrilled by the taste created by the difference in temperature, and what the customer told him was still ringing in his ears. When the customer said his dish was like the ups and downs of life, he recalled the faces of Ella and Lisa.
The dawn was approaching, and the sound of the wind rattling against the window grew bigger. However, there was no chance that the kitchen would become cold because he didn’t turn off the heat even after his kitchen staff left for the day.
It was when he made about five dishes that could make up for the difference in temperature that he heard somebody calling him suddenly. He was about to wash the pot after he was all done at that moment.
“What makes you so angry?”
He looked aside in surprise. June was looking at him blankly.
Calming his pounding heart, he asked, “Who is angry? Me?”
“You’ve been frowning all along while you’re cooking, and every dish you’ve made isn’t that high quality compared to your usual dishes. Well, I just have the impression that you are now cooking just because you want to make something, but you just cook to beat your emptiness. Am I guessing your intention too much?”
“Well, I can’t say you are wrong.”
“Is it because of Lisa?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t like this situation very much. I don’t like it. Actually, I can’t. I just want to get angry about this situation, so I’m angry at God and her destiny. I’m also upset about myself in this situation.”
“You’re kind-hearted, Min-joon,” she said with a soft smile.
“I understand you are not close to Lisa, but you want to be helpful to her.”
“Well, I think I should. Although I’m not close to her, both of us share a good relationship.”
“You have to get used to the fact that just as it’s easy to gain, it’s also easy to lose, regardless of whether it is your honor or person or things.”
But he did not answer. Looking at his stubborn expression, she stroked his head.
When he looked at her with an embarrassed expression, she grinned at him.
“By the way, I got a call from Chef Rachel. She says she has something to announce to all the chefs of Rose Island branches.”
“Really? All the chefs of all branches?”
“Well, it seems something important. Maybe she might announce something that I have always longed for. Come with me. Given Lisa’s surgery date, we can’t stay with her, but we can hold her hands after her surgery is over.”
He bit his lips as if he was a bit hesitant.
She asked again, “Do you want to go, too?”
He nodded, “Yeah, I will.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Thank you, Marco. I hate to even imagine how hard it would have been for me without you.”
Lisa smiled, looking at him in the morning. She looked pretty good as a patient who was hospitalized today. Marco opened his mouth, trying not to make a gloomy expression.
“Thanks to you, I could make all the bread I could ever want to. So, don’t tell me you are grateful to me.”
“Thank you anyway.”
Lisa smiled at him again. She hardly smiled when she was in good health, but since she got sick like this, she smiled more often than before. Why? It was not because she was happy about this situation. Did she want to overcome this situation with a positive mindset? Or didn’t she want to make people not worry about her? Either way, she felt heartbroken when she thought about it.
“What if… I don’t know what to think about this time.”
“There is nothing like ‘what if,’ I’m sure your surgery will be successful, and you will overcome it.”
She couldn’t say that even if her surgery was successful, there wasn’t a high probability of her long survival. Looking at him for some time, she opened her mouth in a quiet voice.
“Let’s think of the day when I’m not here. Think about the day I can’t open my eyes for long even if I do. If that day comes, I need somebody who can tell Ella about me.”
“Lisa..”
“But that’s the problem. I just don’t know who Ella’s father is.”
At her shocking confession all of a sudden, he just looked at her blankly, unable to respond.
She smiled feebly and said, “I had a man I loved. So, I even thought about getting married to him. I thought I could rely on him, so I wanted to be with him forever until I found out later that he was a married man.”
“Oh my God…”
“Yeah, that’s life. Our life is full of nonsense all the time. Don’t you think so?”
Marco’s expression hardened at her unexpected confession.
She said, smiling cynically, “At that time, I felt like I was abandoned in this world, so I gave myself up at the club. And when I got a little conscious, I got pregnant with Ella. Marco, should I describe it as my mistake?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yeah. It would be hard for me to say that it wasn’t a mistake. That’s why I didn’t tell anyone about this. It wasn’t because I was ashamed. I couldn’t say that Ella was born because of my mistake. That kid wasn’t something like a mistake to me. She was like the sunlight who saved my life. She reached out her hand to me, which was my last hope. I could not tell anybody that she was a product of my mistake. I can’t or won’t tell anybody about it.”
“Then why are you telling me about it?”
“I wanted to tell anybody this time, whoever it was.”
She smiled at that moment. But her casual smile looked sad. Was it because the way he looked at her was sad? Was it because the tears filled in his innocent eyes made her cry?
“You are the first man that I talked to about my story. And you’re the last one, too, who has heard about my story because I know you will never tell Ella about it. You won’t tell Jack about it. Just think you’ve become a priest in the Confession Room. Somebody has to listen to my last repentance.”
“You don’t have to repent.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
The two were silent for a moment.
She muttered as if she thought herself pitiable.
“Well, my life was nothing particular. But I can’t allow my life to end like that. I don’t want to be remembered as a baker that nobody remembers.”
“It won’t happen.”
She felt he didn’t say it carelessly. There was something significant enough for her to ignore it as mere comforting words.
When she made a puzzled look, he looked at her with a forced smile.
“Lisa, can you follow me for a minute?”
“Uh?”
“Wait a moment.”
Having said that, he started walking ahead. He went out of the living room and the bakery into the street before meeting her relatives and friends.
“Oh my God…”
There were people out there—the chefs of Rose Island, the bakery staff, the neighbors who shared Lisa’s bread every day, and Jack and Ella.
“Mom, this is what I made,” said Ella.
Ella said in a voice, about to cry, or in a voice after crying for a long time.
Holding a cake with whipped cream in her hands, she was looking at her mother.
Lisa blankly knelt before her.
Ella gently pushed the cake in front of her and opened her mouth.
“Uncle Marco helped me make this, but it’s not beautiful. So, help me next time, Mom. Will you?”
An ordinary baker? Her description of herself as an ordinary bakery was wrong from the beginning because there was nobody who was not special in this world.
“Sure, of course. I’m going to help you make it next time.”