That very morning, the hotel was abuzz with activity as all the staff prepared excitedly for the arrival of not one, but two new key appointment holders. The first they had heard of long before, Director of Staff Seo Chaekyung; the second was a bomb that had been dropped upon them by the headquarters only yesterday, Chief of Operations Oh Sehun.
Everyone had heard about Director Seo down the grapevine, after all, she was the daughter of the organisation's CFO and supposedly due to marry the elusive crown prince of Global himself. Chief Oh on the other hand, was a complete mystery. According to their sources, he didn't seem to have any special connections, yet for the higher-ups to have chosen to send him down to Global Hotel in light of such a PR crisis showed that his position within the organisation was not to be belittled.
At the entrance of the hotel, the management had lined up in two neat rows, awaiting the arrivals of the newcomers.
Not before long, a sleek black BMW pulled up at the foyer and the doorman opened the door to allow a well-dressed young woman to alight from the vehicle. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders in soft brown curls and her sharp pantsuit looked as though it would cost most of them an entire year's salary. The ladies in the audience couldn't help but notice that her shoes were Gucci and the shoulder bag hanging off her right shoulder was Chanel.
"Director Seo, welcome to Global Hotel," the front office manager stepped forwards to introduce himself. "I am Lee Yonghwa and I manage the front office here at Global Hotel. We are most delighted to have you joining us."
A couple of the members of the entourage rolled their eyes as they listened to his words, dripping excessively with honey.
"Thank you," Chaekyung replied curtly, not even bothering to shake his outstretched hand. "Show me to my office." she demanded, walking straight into the building without even a sideways glance at all the people who had come to welcome her. The last thing she wanted to do was to waste time talking to unimportant folk.
As the front office manager hurried behind his new superior, the others heaved a sigh of relief that one big shot was gone, and all of them were secretly wondering if the second one would be equally arrogant.
Fifteen minutes later, they were still waiting.
"Where's Chief Oh? Do you think there's a traffic jam?"
"Beats me. Maybe they changed their mind and they're not sending a new Chief of Operations anymore?"
"Maybe he decided he doesn't want to come here?"
"You think perhaps they'll let Operations Manager Lee come back? I hope they do..."
The buzz among the staff continued growing, and as time continued ticking by, the doubt about whether or not their new Chief of Operations was going to show up grew greater and greater. In the minds of all the staff gathered there, there was only one question that desperately needed an answer.
Where was Oh Sehun?
#
"The new Director of Staff just arrived," Manager Kim reported to D.O. as he walked back into the kitchen, "but the Chief of Operations was a no-show. What do you think is going on? Could headquarters have changed their mind?"
D.O. shrugged, his attentions focused on his frying pan instead. He, too, wanted to solve the mystery of the food poisoning, but he didn't need any interference from headquarters. These people knew nothing about food and the only thing they wanted to do was to pin the blame on some scapegoat so that the case could be quickly closed.
"Shouldn't you go give your greetings to Director Seo?" Manager Kim ventured.
No. The last thing he wanted to do is to meet the bratty girl that he was supposed to marry. He shrugged again and didn't bother responding, so the manager left it at that. By now, he was used to the eccentricities of the head chef and knew better than to continue persisting when D.O. already made it clear he had no intention of doing anything.
"Where's Dok?" D.O. asked, referring to the chief pattisiere.
"I suppose he should be in his side kitchen preparing for today's service?" the manager replied.
The restaurant was due to open its doors again today after being closed to sort out the food poisoning incident. They weren't expecting as many customers as usual, but things still had to be prepared and food still had to be cooked.
D.O. switched off the gas to his hobs and wiped his hands on his apron, turning to head for the side kitchen. Seeing that D.O. was being completely unreceptive to his latest gossips, Manager Kim could only sigh and shake his head, heading off to look for someone else who would be more interested in what he had to say.
Out in the side kitchen where the patissieres worked, chief pattisiere Dok was whistling a cheery tune as he pulled a tray of piping hot Chelsea buns out of the oven.
"Ahh these smell absolutely glorious, if I may say so myself", he said as he took a whiff of the buns he had just baked.
"Hey Dok, where's the klutz?" a voice suddenly startled him from behind, his tray wobbling a little on his hands. Dok turned around to find an unsmiling D.O. standing at the doorway, arms crossed, looking like his usual uptight self.
"What klutz?" he asked, placing the tray down on the table before someone else knocked it off his hands.
"Jin Eunjung," D.O. replied, rolling his eyes. He needed someone to help him chop tomatoes, and she seemed like a good target.
"Ah, so we're on nickname terms now?" Dok replied with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "I think she went to the storeroom to fetch some more icing sugar, we're almost out of it." As he watched D.O. disappear from view, obviously gone to look for Eunjung, Dok couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "Poor Eunjung is in for it again. Those two are always at loggerheads, I wonder what they ever did to each other in their previous lives..."
He was about to put the second batch of Chelsea buns into the oven when suddenly there was yet another voice poping out of nowhere.
"Excuse me, are you Dok Man?" the voice asked.
Dok whirled around, annoyed at the constant interruptions to his work. This time, the person whom the voice belonged to was not someone familiar. Standing at the doorway was a young man who looked barely older than D.O., clad in a simple navy blue long-sleeved with contrasting white collar and cuffs, his hair neatly swept upwards in a stylish coiff. He was smiling as he asked the question, but something in his tone of voice sent chills down Dok's spine.
"That depends on who's looking for him..."
#
D.O. couldn't find Eunjung anywhere.
"That klutzy girl must be skiving on the job, wait till I get my hands on her," he muttered to himself as he made his way back from the storerooms towards the kitchen. Either she didn't go to the storeroom at all, or he must have somehow completely missed her along the way. Either way, it annoyed him.
He as about to continue criticising under his breath when his phone rang in his pocket.
"Hello?" he answered, albeit in a rather snappish tone.
"Whoa, why so grumpy so early in the morning?" came the voice from the other end. It didn't take him more than a second to figure out that the person on the line was Chanyeol, whose cheery voice was the polar opposite of his usual grouchy tone.
"I'm not grumpy. What do you want?"
Chanyeol's tone switched to a serious one almost immediately. "I heard about the food poisoning incident. The headquarters is very concerned about it."
"Tell me something I don't already know."
"It's not Jin Eunjung. The cupcakes are fine," Chanyeol said quickly.
"Wow, news travels fast," D.O. responded snidely, secretly surprised at the fact that the cupcake suspicions had even reached the ears of Chanyeol over at the headquarters. "How are you so sure that the cupcakes weren't the cause of the poisoning anyway?"
"I ate a couple of them when I went by your kitchen that day, I didn't come down with anything. Do you need me to be a witness?"
D.O. paused for a second. So someone did eat the cupcakes and not come down with food poisoning... that meant that it really wasn't because of the klutz's cupcakes. In front of all the staff, he had stood out and said that the cupcakes were fine, insisting that he tried them himself, but the truth was that he never did. He didn't know why he was so confident that it couldn't have been Eunjung's cupcakes, but his sixth sense told him that it couldn't have been her. Perhaps it was because he had observed how meticulous she was with her baking - someone that meticulous couldn't possibly leave any room for error. Now with Chanyeol's new information, he was relieved that his faith hadn't been misplaced after all.
The mystery still remained unsolved though.
"It's fine, the staff who baked the cupcakes has been cleared of any suspicion," he replied.
"Are you sure? Will there be any disciplinary action taken against her?" Chanyeol pressed.
D.O. raised an eyebrow. "She'll be fine, I already said she's clear of any suspicion! Why are you so concerned about this? You seem more concerned about Jin Eunjung than about the hotel's reputation. Do you know her or something?"
"No, no I don't," Chanyeol quickly said, hoping that Kyungsoo hadn't gotten suspicious. Eunjung had already made it perfectly clear that she didn't want anyone knowing about their relationship, in case people felt she got the job by connections. "Anyway, they're sending Oh Sehun down to clear things up, have you met him?"
"Who?" D.O. asked absentmindedly, his eyes still looking around for any sign of Eunjung.
"The new Chief of Operations?"
"Oh, him. No idea, haven't met him, don't particularly give a damn." That was the truth. D.O. didn't much care about anyone else besides D.O., and he especially didn't give a crap about some lackey of his father's who was being sent here to make a fuss over nothing.
"Well you'll probably meet him sooner or later. Just be careful with him..." Chanyeol said hesitantly.
"Be careful? Why?"
"He's one of the organisation's high-fliers. He's only a year younger than you but he was already assuming a directorial position here in headquarters. A person his age doesn't get to where he is without having some tricks up his sleeves. I've met him a couple of times and I don't get good vibes from him."
D.O. shrugged. "Whatever, it's not like we'll be crossing paths very much. He can climb his social ladder all he wants, I'll just stay here in my kitchen minding my own business."
"You know you can't stay hiding in the kitchen forever Kyungsoo..."
"Don't nag." Just then, one of the kitchen staff came running over to D.O., looking a little worried. "Hey Chanyeol, I've got to go. Catch you later."
"Head chef, you're needed in the kitchen immediately," the staff said quickly.
D.O. frowned. What on earth is going on? He didn't ask any questions, simply marching straight down the corridor and back to his kitchen.
#
"Ya, Jin Eunjung, where were you? I was looking all over for you!" was the first thing that D.O. said when he stormed into the kitchen, his eyes landing on Eunjung who was standing beside Dok, looking a little disconcerted. It took him a couple of seconds to realise that something wasn't quite normal in the kitchen. It looked as though the entirety of the restaurant staff had gathered, all looking rather uncertain and apprehensive.
There was a single face there that was unfamiliar to him. A man in a navy blue shirt and tailored trousers, standing right in the middle of the crowd.
"Who are you? No outsiders are allowed in my kitchen!" D.O. yelled, appalled that his staff had actually let a stranger into the kitchen without his permission.
The man didn't budge. Instead, his lips curled into a smile as he stretched out his hand to D.O. for a handshake. D.O. didn't bother taking it, so he promptly put it back down again. "I believe you must be the head chef. I apologise for the intrusion, but I am going to have to take one of your staff with me for now," he said, looking to his left.
It was only then that D.O. realised that sitting to the left of the stranger was Man Doo, the errand boy that did the simple chores around the kitchen like wash the dishes and carry things around. The boy was quivering slightly, his eyes swollen as though he had just been crying.
"What's going on here?" D.O. frowned, confused at the string of events.
"Why don't you tell him yourself, Man Doo?" the stranger said to the errand boy.
Man Doo looked up at D.O., his eyes wide with fear. Slowly, he opened his mouth and said, "Head chef... I... I... I'm so sorry... I was the one who accidentally switched off the power to the seafood freezer..."
"Seafood freezer?" D.O. was even more confused now.
Manager Kim stood up and explained, "The cause of the food poisoning was not the cupcakes, it was the seafood platter. On that day when Misoon reported that the seafood freezer had been switched off, we thought that it was fine because the freezer had only been switched off for a couple of minutes. It turns out that the night before, Man Doo accidentally kicked the power line to the freezer and the freezer had already been off for the entire night. The next morning, when he realised what had happened, he quickly put the plug back in and the ice re-froze. By chance the switch tripped again the next day, but we were led to believe that it had only been switched off for a short while because the ice was still largely intact."
"Was it really you Man Doo?" D.O. turned to the boy and demanded. If what Manager Kim said was true, then it was no wonder the guests suffered from food poisoning. Seafood had to be kept frozen at all times prior to cooking, or else bacteria would start growing. An entire night of freezer outage would definitely ruin the seafood.
The boy nodded, tears trickling from his eyes.
"I expect such slip-ups will not happen again in this kitchen. Our hotel has a reputation to uphold, and much of it has already been damaged thanks to your negligence," the man in blue said to no one in particular, but everyone could tell that his words were directed at D.O.. "Man Doo, come with me."
Man Doo obediently stood up and followed the man towards the exit.
"Wait a minute, who are you! Why are you taking my staff away just like that? Did I say that you could?!" D.O. shouted after the brazen stranger.
The man stopped in his tracks. Without turning around, he said calmly, "Head chef D.O., if I were you, I'd spend more of energy ensuring that the food that comes out of my kitchen is of the highest standards, instead of wasting time bothering about useless matters. After all, the hotel hired you to cook, not to do anything else." With that, he was out of the door, leaving a flabberghasted room of people behind.
"Who. The. Hell. Is. That. Imbecile," D.O. said through gritted teeth. This was the first time in his entire life that anyone dared to speak to him in that sort of derogatory tone, and he didn't like it one bit.
Manager Kim walked up to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"That would be our new boss. Oh Sehun."