Kyungsoo took a step back, admiring the main course of pan-seared cod with mango puree and sauteed asparagus lining the side of the plate, giving the dish a touch of greenery which brought it to life. It was not a combination that he would have liked to work with, but considering the constraints, the final product was still satisfactory. D.O. was not a person who send something sub-standard out of his kitchen doors.
The appetisers had already been sent out to the V.I.P. dining area, and both plates had come back completely spanking clean. The manager had also reverted that the prince and princess of Monaco were more than pleased with what they had been served, so everything was going well so far.
He signalled to the servers to take the main courses out. There should be no more than a ten minute interval between courses - five minutes would be too short a time for the previous dish to go down, fifteen minutes would induce boredom and irritation.
Kyungsoo wasn't all too worried about the dishes that he was responsible for cooking. He had enough confidence in his own skills and abilities to know that nothing would go wrong. The one dish that was out of his control was the dessert, which he had reluctantly handed over to chief pattisiere Dok and Eunjung, since this was more their field of expertise. He had made Eunjung bake the red velvet cupcakes ten times over the last two days and personally checked that the quality was up to scratch. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.
He poked his head round to peek into the side kitchen where the pattisieres were sweating over their task.
Everything should be fine, shouldn't it? he thought to himself as he watched them bustle about.
Eunjung looked rather calm, her hand held steady as she held the icing piping bag over the row of delicate tiny cupcakes. Kyungsoo was rather impressed with Eunjung's flair for baking after what he had seen from her over the past couple of days, but still he never once offered her a single word of praise. It would not have been his style to do so.
He took a deep breath and turned his attention back to his own work.
Everything's going to be fine. This whole circus will be over in an hour...
The one thing he hated about working in the hotel business is the fact that you had to be at the beck and call of all these so-called V.I.P. guests who felt as though they had the perogative to order everyone else around like slaves. It wasn't part of his character to bow down to people and pander to their whims and fancies. The last time he caved in to his father's demands and agreed to come work in the hotel, he had splashed coffee in the face of one of the guests because the idiot made him bring up five cups of coffee, each time insisting that the coffee wasn't at a precise temperature of 60 degrees. It had taken the management a rather great deal of effort to appease the guest after that incident, and he never stepped foot in the hotel again ever since. Up until now.
"The prince and princess seem pleased with their food." Manager Kim strolled into the kitchen with a huge beam on his face. He too had been worried after seeing the long list of food allergies that the crown princess had, but it looked as though D.O. was living up to his name after all.
"Good," came the stony reply. D.O. didn't have time to entertain any idle chatter now, he had the next course to start worrying about.
"How's the preparation for the Japanese tour group?" Manager Kim looked around and asked casually. Besides their two V.I.P.s that they had to cater for today, the hotel was also hosting a huge group of Japanese tourists and that meant the kitchen had to work at double the speed in order to serve up all their meals on time. Besides D.O. and his sous chef, everyone else was assigned to cater to the Japanese tour group, and things seemed to be running on schedule.
The deputy head chef looked up and said, "Everything is going according to schedule sir. We are expecting the tour group to arrive back at the hotel in about half an hour."
"Chef Lee," Misoon rushed up to the deputy chef and whispered something into his ear urgently.
The deputy frowned slightly, before turning to her and saying, "It should be fine as long as the ice is still there. Bring it out quickly, we haven't got much time."
"Is something wrong?" Manager Kim walked over and asked with concern.
Chef Lee shook his head and replied, "No big issue. Misoon reported that our seafood freezer is down, but we always keep our seafood on dry ice anyway and it hasn't been that long since the freezer went down, so there shouldn't be any problems."
Manager Kim nodded thoughtfully. "Ok then. Make sure that the seafood is still fresh before serving, we don't want any problems."
D.O. frowned as he heard the exchange, but still his eyes remained glued to the rack of lamb that was sitting in front of him. Under normal circumstances he would have told the deputy chef to throw all the seafood away and purchase new stock but right now he didn't have the time, and in any case, the deputy was right about the ice.
All he wanted to worry about right now was getting over this royal pain in the ass.
#
"Did everything go well?" Chanyeol asked the rotund man who was walking alongside him down the hotel corridor.
Manager Kim nodded and smiled. "The prince and princess were very pleased with their dinner, they even sent their compliments to the chef and said that they would be sure to recommend our hotel to their friends in the future." The princess had been especially enamoured by the dainty cupcakes that were served for dessert and both were impressed at the fact that these cupcakes had been possible without the use of any of the usual baking necessities.
"Good. Send my regards to the head chef for a job well done," Chanyeol replied and returned his smile.
He had been sent down to Global Seoul to check on the V.I.P. visit, just to make sure that everything was going smoothly. As they walked down the hallway, all the staff who saw them made sure to greet him politely as they went along. Chanyeol didn't like it when people did that, but as the chairman's personal assistant, his position was much higher than anyone who worked here, even compared to the hotel director, and that sort of a position commanded a certain respect from the subordinates. Even a man like Manager Kim who had been working in the hotel for eons and was significantly older than him in age had to address him formally, which made him even more uncomfortable.
They were heading down to the lobby for Chanyeol to take his leave when suddenly a young waitress in her black-and-white uniform came rushing towards them.
"What's wrong?" Manager Kim raised his eyebrows as he looked at the flustered girl.
"Mr Kim, there's been a big problem! One of the Japanese tourists just threw up, and a number of them are complaining of stomachaches after having eaten our food!" she reported quickly.
An aghast look crossed the manager's face as he looked up at Chanyeol worriedly. Such a problem could not have picked a more inopportune time to arise, when the chairman's personal assistant was here on his rounds. Manager Kim silently cursed his bad luck, before turning to Chanyeol and saying, "I am so sorry, but I will have to attend to this immediately. I believe it should not be a big issue, it is unlikely that it was caused by our hotel's food."
"I'll come with you, you might need some help," Chanyeol said.
The manager hesitated for a while, wondering whether it would be wise to bring him along. In the end, he nodded reluctantly, and the duo hurried behind the young waitress towards the restaurant where all the drama was currently unfolding.
#
Inside the restaurant, it was absolute chaos.
There were staff members rushing around haphazardly trying to attend to the guests and it was evident that there was more than one person who was looking dreadfully ill and pale in the face. Manager Kim immediately rushed towards the serving captain, asking for details on the situation.
"We had already finished serving all the dishes and the coffee and tea had also just been served before the first guest complained of stomach trouble. About fifteen minutes later, there were other guests complaining of the same problem, and the most severe of them had to be taken up to his hotel room quickly where it was reported that he threw up as a result of the stomach upset."
"Have you called for ambulances?" Manager Kim asked urgently.
The captain nodded her head. "The ambulances will be here soon. The tour group leader keeps insisting that our food is the cause of the problem and is kicking up a big fuss, what should we do?" She gestured over to a tall, burly Japanese man who was standing with his arms folded and ranting angrily.
"This is obviously your fault! What are you going to do about it!" the man was yelling angrily. The object of his anger was none other than head chef D.O., who was simply standing in front of him with a look of pure disdain on his face and no urgency whatsoever.
"You have no reason to be insisting that the problem came from our food. We maintain the highest standards of hygiene here in my kitchen and no one has ever gotten ill from eating my food before," D.O. replied cockily, not even batting an eyelid. His cool demeanour only served to enrage the Japanese man even more, and he continued ranting away in Japanese.
D.O. was not impressed.
Just after he thought that his problems with the fussy crown princess were over and done with, this had to crop up. It was as though someone up in the heavens just didn't want to give him a break.
When Chanyeol registered who it was who was being shouted at by the angry Japanese, a look of surprise came over his face.
Isn't that Kyungsoo? What's he doing here!
If Kyungsoo was back in Seoul, it didn't seem possible that he wouldn't have heard anything. Even the chairman himself had not mentioned anything about Kyungsoo returning, so seeing him hear in the kitchen of Global Hotel was rather unexpected.
"Is that Kyungsoo?" Chanyeol leaned over and whispered in Manager Kim's ear
The older man jumped when he heard that, cursing inwardly at himself. Kyungsoo had made him swear not to reveal his presence to anyone, but now that Chanyeol had seen him the cat was out of the bag. The thought hadn't crossed his mind when Chanyeol volunteered to follow him back to the restaurant to help, but on hindsight it was a terrible idea. D.O. would undoubtedly give him a piece of his mind when he found out. He nodded helplessly.
"What is he doing here!"
"He returned not long ago and took up the position of head chef in our kitchen. I requested for his help because our kitchen was not exactly doing very well as of late..." the manager said ruefully.
Whatever it was that had persuaded Kyungsoo to return, now was not the time to worry about that. Right now, the irate Japanese man looked as though he was about to throw a punch into Kyungsoo's face.
Chanyeol walked over to him calmly and said in fluent Japanese, "Sir, my name is Park Chanyeol, I am this hotel's representative, may I know how we can help you?"
Kyungsoo turned to look at the newcomer and his face immediately fell when he realised who it was. The Japanese man on the other hand, looked slightly taken aback when he heard Chanyeol speaking in his own language. After he overcame the initial surprise, he immediately began, "Your food is not clean! My friends are all sick after eating your food! I demand an explanation for this! How are you going to compensate us?"
"Sir, I assure you that if the guests are truly ill because of our hotel's food, then we will definitely make the necessary compensations. I sincerely apologise for all this alarm, but I believe the most urgent matter right now is to ensure that all your friends get well quickly. We have already called for ambulances to send them to the hospital where the doctors will be able to take a look at them. Shall we first make sure that they are alright before we discuss what we should do next?"
It was fortunate that the ambulances arrived just at that moment, and the paramedics came in to take the suffering guests to the hospital. Seeing that his friends were being taken out of the restaurant, the angry man had no choice but to shelve his debate and follow them to the hospital first.
"Fine, we will talk about this when we return, but I expect a satisfactory response from your hotel!" he said angrily before storming off after the rest.
"But of course," Chanyeol replied with a smile.
Once they were all gone, Kyungsoo sat down on one of the chairs and scowled. "Bloody idiots. What makes them think something was wrong with our food? They've been out eating and eating all day!"
"Still as cocky as ever," Chanyeol patted him on the shoulder and sat down across from him. "Why didn't you tell me you were back in Seoul?"
Kyungsoo gave Chanyeol a sheepish look and replied, "Manager Kim threw me a challenge and I couldn't resist. Don't tell anyone that I'm back, especially not my father." The last person that needed to know about his whereabouts was Chairman Do, who would undoubtedly try to force him to come back permanently. He didn't want any shackles tying him down.
"Ya, do you know that because of you, I had to go to the airport and pick up that insufferable fiancee of yours?" Chanyeol rolled his eyes as he recalled how he had waited at the airport for Chaekyung.
"What fiancee?" Kyungsoo looked puzzled.
"Seo Chaekyung! CFO Seo's daughter! Don't tell me you forgot about the engagement." Chanyeol threw his hands up in disbelief.
"Oh, her." He had completely forgotten, not that it mattered. Kyungsoo wasn't about to marry some spoilt, rich girl just because his father wanted him to. That was never part of his plans.
Chanyeol chuckled when he realised the irony of the situation. "By the way, it's rather convenient that you chose to come back to Global Hotel Seoul to work. Did you know that the hotel is getting a new director of staff?"
Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow and shook his head.
"She's none other than your future missus, Miss Seo Chaekyung," Chanyeol smirked when he saw Kyungsoo's horrified reaction. To be frank, neither of them had really seen much of Chaekyung before, so even if she was working in the hotel it seemed unlikely that she would be able to recognise Kyungsoo or vice versa. However, having to work in such close proximity with the woman he would rather die than marry would be a nightmare for Kyungsoo, and Chanyeol felt rather smug about that. It served him right for having gone AWOL for such a long time.
Just then, he remembered that someone else was also working right here in this hotel and this very restaurant. Eunjung had just been complaining to him the night before about how her anal boss had made her bake the same cupcakes over and over again, picking and fussing over the slightest imperfections. Now all the puzzle pieces were falling into place. Looking across the table at a distraught Kyungsoo, Chanyeol couldn't help but chuckle slightly to himself when he realised that the "uptight anal boss" that Eunjung had been constantly ranting about was none other than his good friend, Do Kyungsoo.
I bet Eunjung has no clue that the boss she hates so much is actually the heir to this entire hotel and more...
He stood up and started to head for the kitchen. It didn't make sense not to pay Eunjung a visit since he was already here.
He gave Kyungsoo a path on the shoulder and said, "I won't tell anyone that you're back for now, but you really should pay the chairman a visit some time. He's been quite stressed lately because of Alpha Enterprises. He needs his son by his side."
"That's what you're there for. He already has one son, he doesn't need me," Kyungsoo replied stiffly at the mention of his father.
"I'm not his son. My surname is Park, not Do. No matter how many years go by, that will not change." Chanyeol sighed and shook his head, before walking straight into the kitchen.