The flight from New York to Seoul was a total of fifteen long hours.
It's been a while since I've been back... Kai mused to himself as he flipped through the airline magazine, which was chock full of photographs of places in Seoul that were worth visiting. It had been three years to be exact - three years since he had hopped onto an airplane and left for greener pastures.
I wonder how she's doing now...
He shook his head. That was all in the past. Three years ago he had made up his mind to leave his previous identity behind and to forge a new future for himself, one that he had always dreamed of. From that day on, Kim Jongin simply became a shadow of Kai, and three years later he was returning with a first-class flight ticket and a reputation that many would kill to have. His past was something that was better off left dead and buried.
"Red wine or white wine with your meal, sir?"
Kai paused for a second, contemplating his decision. "Red please."
The air stewardess smiled and nodded, turning back to her pushcart to pour him his glass of wine. Kai didn't typically like like to take wine with his meals, yet it was something he found himself being forced to do during business meetings and such. Now it had simply become a habit of sorts. The finance industry was probably one with the highest number of deaths from liver failure, simply because people drank too much.
A girl in her twenties was making her way down the aisle on her way back from the toilet. To her annoyance, her pathway was blocked by the air stewardess and her food trolley.
"This is going to take a while..." she grumbled to herself under her breath, waiting cross-armed behind the stewardess.
"Sorry Miss, this will only be a minute," the stewardess turned around and said when she realised someone was standing behind her. The girl simply rolled her eyes ungraciously and walked forwards, wanting to squeeze herself through the small space between the trolley and the row of seats.
Just then, a sudden bout of turbulence struck the plane and with the jerking of the cabin floor, the girl leaned over sideways, knocking straight into the stewardess who was stood quietly at the side with Kai's glass of wine. Needless to say, the wine ended up somewhere else instead of staying obediently within its glass.
"Oh dear! I am so sorry, sir!" the air stewardess apologised profusely as she looked down in dismay at the purple stain that had spread over the front of Kai's shirt.
Kai looked down and frowned. It was one of his favourite Armani shirts, and even though it wouldn't cost much to send it to the dry cleaners, it was more of the hassle that he was annoyed about.
"Clumsy oaf..." the girl who had been the cause of all this said snidely, just loud enough so that everyone in the vicinity could hear her. The air stewardess flushed bright red in embarassment and shame when she heard what the girl had to say. Without even batting an eyelid, the girl simply squeezed her way past the food trolley and made her way back to her seat.
"I am so, so sorry, sir," the stewardess continued saying, looking extremely worried. At a glance, Kai could tell that she was inexperienced and such a slip-up could well cost her her job in a line of work where perfection was the minimum expectation. The cabin manager walked up when he noticed the commotion, giving the stewardess a stern look of reprimand when he saw the situation.
Before he could open his mouth to chastise her, Kai stood up and put out his hand, stopping him short. "It's not her fault, please don't blame her for this." Technically the stewardess had been holding the glass of wine when it tipped all over him, but she wouldn't have done that if the spoilt brat of a girl hadn't insisted on forcing her way past the trolley instead of waiting for a minute longer.
The manager was about to apologise some more but Kai had already reached out for the half-empty mini bottle of wine that the stewardess had cracked open for him. Picking it up, he made his way past the food trolley and down the aisle, stopping only when he reached seat D04, where a certain girl was seated.
Seo Chaekyung had just sat back down in her seat, after having made her umpteenth toilet trip. She had never been particularly good with flying and despite flying first class, her stomach had been churning throughout the flight. She had just about fished out her magazine to continue reading when she realised someone was stood on the aisle beside her.
She looked up to find a waterfall of wine cascade out of its bottle - straight onto her skirt.
"What the hell!" she yelled, leaping up in surprise. She turned to glare at the man, who was holding the empty bottle of wine with an expressionless face. "Are you out of your mind? What did you do that for!"
Kai shrugged and turned on his heel, heading back to his own seat.
He didn't have time to entertain brats.
#
Eunjung tried to stifle a yawn as she waited for the bread to rise in the oven. The temperature had to be perfect and the timing had to be down to the exact second, or else the bread she baked would end up as a failure and she would have to start from scratch. That, and the chief patissiere would probably give her a earful for it.
It was already past 11PM at night, and everyone else had already gone home. She was the only one left because it was her turn to bake the bread for the breakfast service, a tiring but absolutely crucial job.
Staring at the warm glow coming from within the oven, Eunjung propped her elbows up on the table and let her sleepy head rest on top of her hands. She liked watching bread rise in the oven. There was something slow and steady about it, and with every inch it rose, the feeling of satisfaction within her grew. Also, the smell of freshly baked bread was probably what heaven smelled like, in Eunjung's opinion.
Ding!
The oven bell went off. Walking over to the oven, Eunjung popped on her oven mitts and opened the door, removing all five trays of bread from within and laying them out neatly on the metal tabletop. She took a whiff, and sighed with satisfaction at the aroma of the bread that had just come out. Once she had packed all the bread neatly in their baskets, her job was done. Eunjung walked out of the small kitchen that was specially designated for the pastries and dessert chefs, entering the main kitchen where the rest of the chefs usually worked.
To her surprise, there was still a dim light coming from the far right corner of the kitchen.
Did someone forget to turn off the light?
She walked over slowly, wanting to switch off the last light before she headed off to the changing rooms. What surprised her even more was the revelation that she wasn't the only one left in the kitchen after all. There in the rightmost corner of the kitchen stood D.O., beads of sweat gathered above his brow as he concentrated on searing the tuna fillet that was sitting in his pan. He was so focused on his cooking that he didn't even hear her walking close.
"Umm... head chef?" Eunjung said quietly. She had contemplated just turning around and disappearing, but if he realised that she had been around and not volunteered to help with anything, then she would probably get another strike in the morning, so she decided against the cowardly option.
Kyungsoo looked up in surprise, not having expected anyone else to be in the kitchen at this time of night. A look of recognition dawned on his face for a second, then he quickly turned his gaze back to his pan. "Shit!" he cursed, realising that that tiny disruption had caused him to miss his timing by a second. With a scowl, he took the pan off the heat and threw the ruined fish into the bin.
Eunjung gulped.
Every since he caught her using her phone out in the hallway, Eunjung had tried her hardest to stay out of D.O.'s way as best she could. Out of sight, out of mind. If he didn't see her, then he couldn't possibly fault her for doing anything wrongly. That plan of action had gotten her two weeks of peace, but it looked like her good days were about to be over once again.
"What are you still doing here," Kyungsoo turned to her and said coldly. He had spent half the night trying to perfect his new pan-seared tuna recipe, but now he was going to have to start over thanks to Eunjung's untimely interruption. There was a reason why he only worked on his new recipes when everyone had gone off home - so that no one would be around to disturb him.
"Umm..." Eunjung stammered, "I was baking the bread for tomorrow morning's breakfast service..."
Kyungsoo made a mental note to tell the chief pattisiere not to leave bread baking till late at night. If anything, the bread should be baked fresh early in the morning. Although the undiscerning customer wouldn't notice, leaving it overnight would still alter its taste slightly, and he wanted nothing but perfection out of his kitchen.
"Go home then," he said, turning to get another tuna fillet so that he could start over.
Eunjung was thanking her lucky stars and about to scamper off when Kyungsoo suddenly called out again, "Wait." She froze in her step. "Come back here."
She retraced her steps obediently, standing in front of him with her head bowed down like a guilty student in front of her teacher.
"You can chop tomatoes can't you? Help me chop those over there, then you can go home. I'll give you your overtime pay," Kyungsoo said casually, pointing at the basket of tomatoes sitting by the side. Eunjung nodded despondently and trotted over, picking up the knife to begin work.
Why did I not turn around earlier... she grumbled to herself as she sliced the first tomato into half. Now she was barely able to keep her eyes open, and she was still here chopping tomatoes. She wasn't even hired to cook, she was hired to bake and make sweets.
Yawning, she sliced through tomato after tomato slowly. A metre away from her, D.O. had focused all his attentions on preparing his new tuna fillet, and was treating her as though she were invisible.
"Ouch!" Eunjung suddenly jumped up and yelped as the knife sliced through her index finger, leaving a bloody trail.
Kyungsoo jerked his head round in surprise. Thankfully, his fish wasn't yet in the pan, else he would have another failed attempt on his hands. When he saw her bleeding finger, he frowned. "Look what you did to the tomato," he said, walking over and picking up the tomato she had been cutting, which now had a slight splotch of blood on it. He flung it into the bin with a sigh.
Eunjung looked up at him incredulously. She had a huge gash on her finger and he was complaining about the tomato? She knew D.O. was a heartless jerk, but she didn't know just how heartless he was.
Without another word, he walked back to his tuna. Eunjung stood there sucking on her injured finger, trying to stop it from bleeding.
"Why are you still standing there? Finish cutting the tomatoes," Kyungsoo mumbled as he placed the pan above the flames and adjusted it until it reached the correct temperature.
Eunjung stuck out her tongue at him, knowing that he would probably not notice. Cold-hearted jerk... I hope your tuna fish gets burnt till a crisp! She sulked and picked up the knife again, continuing with her tomato chopping chore. When she was finally done, she coughed softly to get his attention, placing the bowl of chopped tomatoes by his side.
He glanced sideways at the tomatoes and frowned, "Is this what you consider chopping tomatoes? They are far too chunky! Chop them into finer pieces!" He shoved the bowl back in her direction, before proceeding to treat her as if she were invisible once more.
Picking the bowl and dragging her feet back to her work station, Eunjung picked up the knife and glared in D.O.'s direction hatefully.
Am I his slave? I'm doing him a favour by chopping his damn tomatoes, even if he's paying me overtime! I bake for a living, I don't chop tomatoes on a daily basis, how the hell am I supposed to know what size they're supposed to be!
Her dislike for the man grew that much more with every tomato she chopped. She didn't care if D.O. was some world-renowned Michelin star chef. In her opinion, he was nothing more than a selfish jerk who couldn't care less about anyone else except himself.
By the time Kyungsoo finally finished searing his tuna to his satisfaction, the time was past midnight. Staring at the pink fillet sitting neatly on its plate, he smiled to himself with pride.
Perfect. Now all it needs are the tomatoes for garnishing...
He looked around for the tomatoes.
Sitting not so far from where he was standing was Eunjung, who now had her head collapsed on the metal tabletop on top of her hands, evidently having drifted off to dreamland. After finishing with the tomatoes, she had thought to bring them over to D.O. again, but seeing that his tuna was in the pan and he seemed to be dead focused on it, she figured she had better just wait until he was done just in case he yelled at her again for ruining his dish. Eventually her eyelids had felt so heavy that she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer, which was what brought her to her current state, fast asleep in the kitchen.
Kyungsoo walked over and picked up the bowl of tomatoes. Looking at how they were re-chopped, he shook his head. The girl obviously hadn't been taught the proper skills of how to chop vegetables at all. He could still see the cut on her index finger from earlier on, the opening still red and raw. He walked back to his station and emptied the tomatoes out onto a chopping board, skillfully slicing them into tiny evenly sized chunks. Placing them on top of his tuna fillet, his new dish was officially complete.
He took off his apron and hung it up on the hook, before walking back to Eunjung.
"Wake up, you can go home now," he said.
There was no response.
Eunjung wasn't the sort to sleep long hours. Typically she only got four to five hours of sleep a night, which was much less than what a normal person should get. However, once she slept, she slept. Even if the house caught fire or a tornado struck, she wouldn't be able to be woken up from her sleep. Kyungsoo found that out when he tried to shake her awake, and failed.
What the hell am I supposed to do with her now?
Kyungsoo folded his arms across his chest and looked at the sleeping girl. She was even smiling in her dreams.
Must be a good dream she's having...
He sighed.
The only thing he could conclude now was that he must have offended Jin Eunjung in his previous life, because she seemed to be here with the sole purpose of ticking him off. He made a mental note that he would definitely get rid of her after three months.