Eun Ji woke up after sleeping for heaven’s known how long; she stretch out in the bed and began searching for her phone in the middle of the bed, after fighting for a while, she found it tangled up between the lavender sheets. After picking it up, she saw the time, 1:30pm; she had being out for almost 12 hrs, but she didn’t even got shocked, after all the jet lag and the hell she had being through for the last couple of months, she was surprised she had managed to sleep for so long.

She stumbled with her luggage that was in the middle of the bedroom and caught a sight of her face as she walk into the bathroom, her eye bags where notorious now that she wasn’t wearing any makeup, her black hair was tangled up, but her stomach reminded her lack of food. She quickly washed her face and made way to the kitchen.

Eun Ji saw that Min Young had left her a note on the fridge, reminding her of her interview later that day at 8pm and the address carefully written down in the piece of paper, she smiled knowing that she wasn’t alone after all.

She open up the fridge and made a mental note of stopping to get groceries later that day, she saw some eggs and some bread that look where just bought the day before and decided that she will have to make do with that for the moment. Min Young sure wasn’t lying when she told her that she was practically living at her boyfriend’s place, since the fridge was almost empty and the place looked spotless.

“She better just marry the guy already, then I can keep her place, nothing that I hate most than having to look for some place to crash, although I don’t think I can afford the key money for this place” she said out loud while quickly fixing herself something to eat.

She seat down on the couch with her eggs, two slices of bread and a bottle of water, looking through the sight of Seoul the apartment had to offered. She took a deep breath; it had being so long since she had left, that everything kind of seemed unreal.

She was the illegitimate child from a CEO in the food industry who had made the jump to the US in the 80’s, her dad had taken her to live with his family in the US when her maternal grandmother who had being raising her died, since her mother had abandoned her and gotten remarried without telling anyone about her. As soon as she had gotten to the US, her Dad told her that she will be presented to everyone as his niece, not his daughter, since a slip like her could cost him everything he had fight for.

Despite the circumstances, she proved to be the smartest out of her other three half siblings, something that made her proud but deep down she knew she will never get anything from his Dad’s company; so despite being accepted to every Ivy League university at the US, she turn them all down and went out to study to become a chef.

At 1^st it was out to spite her family, but after just a few months she discovered a new world, her own world, where her last name didn’t meant anything and people would like her or hate her for her skills.

She had being working for the past six years at a high scale french restaurant in the Upper East Side in New York, she had started from the bottom and had managed to snatch the position of sous chef, the right hand of her boss, it had cost her greatly, in a world dominated by men, she was the only woman in the kitchen and she had to toughen up in order to survive.

Eun Ji sighed, she still couldn’t believe she had left all of that behind, her boss had beg her to stay, and only allow her to let go in a year license, under the conditions that he knew it was time for her to lead her own kitchen, but if she hadn’t make it in a year, she was grounded to his kitchen for the next decade. In a way that was reassuring on knowing she will have a place to return, but another side of her couldn’t wish to get the hell away from the city that had only give her grievance throughout the years.

The kitchens where the only place she felt like herself, back at her old place, she was used to getting ignored by her so called family, her stepmother hated her guts, as a constant reminder of her husband’s unfaithfulness, her half siblings couldn’t care less about her, especially since they were all older than her and always felt threaten that she will steal their share of the company and his father lived by impressions, so a love child was a big regret of his.

“And then that bastard had to come and complicated everything even further” she said to herself and shook her head. She decided to quickly go grab a shower; she made a mental list of the things she needed to get done before her interview and decided it was best to get it over it the sooner the better.

After 30min, she was already out, she had being smart enough to look for the different address for the things she needed, so first it was off to the city office to ask for her citizen id, she had double nationality, both American and Korean, but she decided it was simpler to just get a Korean id to make anything run smoother. After a couple of hours, she had her new id and then it was out to find a cell phone provider store, she had to be thankful she had being saving for a long time, moving to a different country sure was expensive.

One thing she had never done, was accepting money from his father, ever since she was in high school she had work part time after school, she knew very well her position in her family and the least she ever wanted was to give them any ammo to turn against her. So, despite coming from a wealthy background, she was the perfect girl next door with her feet well grounded, she guess that was one of the things that Min Young had liked about her.

After getting a new phone, she felt more relieved, she texted her close friends her new number and stash her old one in the bottom of her bag, she couldn’t wait to get back and stash it in the bottom of her suitcase and forget all about it. She soon received a text from one of her closest friends back in NY telling her that the rest of her stuff had already being shipped out and send her the tracking number, while wishing her all the best.

That was it, now she couldn’t care less about what was going on, she knew her “family” was going to be actually relieve that she had disappeared from their lives, especially after the latest discussion they had had.

Next stop was the grocery store, despite she knew she didn’t have to, she decided to prepare a simple dish for her interview later that day, after all, she was interviewing for a chef position and she didn’t want to walk in just by references, she wanted her food do the talking.

It was around 5:30pm when she finally got back at the apartment, and immediately got into cooking mode, she decided for a simple salmon tartar with a wasabi dressing, it was an entrée that she was proud of making and that new that would maintain for the trip she had to make, alongside she made a deconstructed mandu, frying the skins and preparing the filling on the side, after that she steam it instead of frying it, and began setting things aside in the container she had bought. She knew the dishes where simple and easy to ensemble, but she betted in the taste and the final presentation.

When she finish getting everything ready, she eyed the clock, 7:00pm, she didn’t want to arrived late, so she went to change, into a long pair of dark jeans, a black pair of high heel boots, a green blouse and a long jacket, she applied some bb cream, some eye liner, mascara and lip gloss, she didn’t feel like putting too much on her face, after all, her mind was on making food look appealing, not her.

She was finishing grabbing everything when her phone began ringing.

“Yeobseo” she immediately ask, not caring who was on the other line, after all, only a handful of people knew her new digits.

“Aigoo, uri donsaeng is alive!” She heard Min Young on the other side of the line “Eun Ji, where are you?”

“I was about to get out from your apartment and go fetch myself a taxi”

“Thank God, you haven’t left then, come down, Soo Hyun is taking us in her car” Min Young said back.

“Really? I finally get to met the infamous Soo Hyun-sshi”

“Yah! Gizibe, what have you told her about me?” Soo Hyun voice could be heard on the other side of the line.

“Nothing good” Min Young said while laughing “Palli, we don’t want for you to arrive late to your interview”.

“Ne, I’m already on the elevator”

“Ok, we are the ones on the blue sedan” her friend said while ending the call.

Eun Ji walked to the car and stuffed herself and her bags in the back seat.

“Eun Ji-ah, this is Soo Hyun-ah, Soo Hyun, my donsaeng”.

“Is a pleasure to finally meet you, Young has not stopped talking about you, is nice to finally put a face in her stories”

“Nice to meet you too, Soo Hyun-sshi” Eun Ji said while nodding and Soo Hyun started the car.

“Since you are Min Young’s donsaeng you can call me unnie as well, I don’t mind, as long as you don’t call me ahjumma we are good” Soo Hyun said while laughing.

“Ok, thanks. But where are we heading?”

“Oh, the guys record company, you’ll hear it from them, the restaurant they are planning to open up is undergoing major renovations, so conducting the interview there won’t be possible, but don’t worry, they are really eager to meet you” Min Young replied.

“I see” was all that Eun Ji said and let the other two chit chatting while they made their way to the guys company.

It didn’t took them long to finally arrive to the company and the gals directed Eun Ji to the small kitchenette where she could plate her entrees, and gave her directions to the meeting room.

Eun Ji entered into her business mode and began stacking the food in the plates she had brought and skillfully dressing the dishes in an artistic way. She finally smiled when she was satisfied with the outcome and began walking outside the kitchenette when she almost bump into a tall figure and immediately move to avoid a mess with her food.

“Watch it!” she said concern that the food was still in its place.

“I am so sorry, are you ok?” a deep voice said sending a small shock through her spine.

“Ne, but please be more careful, I’m betting my life in these dishes” she said softing up at the male figure in front of her, after all it wasn’t completely his fault.

“Do you need a hand with those?”

“Ani, I’m ok, but do you mind telling me where the conference room is?” she said assuming it must be one of the workers in there, after all he was dress in a fashionable way but that it didn’t look like he liked claiming all the attention to him, so maybe a producer of some sort.

“Sure, actually I am on my way there as well” he said while they began walking in silence, with her skillfully walking with the food stack in perfection.

The strange guy opened up the door for her and he saw Min Young seating next to the guy he assumed to be Young Bae and another guy with brown hair that look up the minute he heard the door opened, but the greeting she heard wasn’t what she expected.

“Hyung, you are here?”

“Ne, Ji, hi Bae, Min Young-ah” he said walking inside the conference room while holding the door open for Eun Ji.

“Oh, you must be Park Eun Ji, annyeonghaseyo Kwon Jiyong or GD, whoever you feel most comfortable with, this is Taeyang but I’m pretty sure Min Young must have engraved Young Bae on you” he said while chuckling a bit.

“Oh, nice to meet you, Park Eun Ji-imnida” she said while bowing her head and placing the dishes in the large table “I am sorry I couldn’t prepare more in advance, but I didn’t want to come empty handed”.

She heard the guy clearing his throat and immediately Young Bae recognized that his hyung was piss they hadn’t taking notice of him yet.

“Oh you shouldn’t have, although it will be kind of weird interviewing someone whose food we haven’t tasted first, also nice to meet you and this is Choi Seung Hyun, the architect and designer in charge of the renovations for the restaurant” Bae said quickly getting over introductions.

“Nice to meet you too” she said and immediately thought “great another voice she had to deal with if she managed to get the job”.

“Well, I am pretty sure that Min Young kind of tell you a bit of the project we are envisioning and we are thankful you have flown out from New York to meet us” Young Bae began saying.

“Actually unnie didn’t quite gave me all the specifics, she told me her boyfriend and close friend were starting an Asian fusion restaurant and they were looking for someone to be their executive chef, as you can see in the resume I send her last week, I think I am capable of handling the position”

“Yes, to be honest I was one impressive resume for your age, but we aren’t that much into knowing that kind of stuff, that’s why we also consulted with our hyung here” Jiyong said signaling to Seung Hyun who was looking straight into her face in kind of a rude way “He has work in the restaurant area before and he has more experience, that’s why we are trusting him with this work”

“I see. Well, they say there is nothing like food to do the talking in this kind of situations” Eun Ji said trying to avoid the awkwardness of having him staring so earnestly at her “Please do try them out” she said while describing the dishes to them.

Everyone in the room took a bite and she could hear one of their favorite sounds, the ones people let out when they tasted good food, all but one, the quiet weird guy simply took bites from everything and close his eyes while eating the food.

“Told you guys she was an amazing cook, I mean I didn’t had a thing in my apartment” Min Young said sending her a cheerful glance at her donsaeng.

“Yes, it s really good and this is what Bae and I were talking about when we said Asian fusion, this tastes just like mandu” Jiyong said taking another bite.

“I am glad you enjoy it” Eun Ji said feeling a bit more relieved, maybe she hadn’t made the wrong decisions despite the impulse.

“Park Eun Ji-sshi, if you don’t mind me asking you, why do you feel you are up to the challenge of tackling Asian Fusion food, I mean, your resume stated you have work the past 6 years in a French restaurant” Jiyong asked her.

“Oh, well, Asian food has always being a personal favorite of mine, I did loved working with French cuisine since it gave me lots of classic training I wouldn’t experienced elsewhere, but my first love is Asian food and if you contact my former boss, he will tell you that it was my dream to work with the food that was in my roots” she respectfully answered.  

“Interesting, but what would you say it will be a nice wine to pair with your two dishes?” Seung Hyun finally spoke up and everyone in the room immediately went quiet. Jiyong roll his eyes, knowing that his hyung had gone into his foodie zone and was afraid he was going to scare her away, like he had done the previous chef they had interviewed earlier that week.

“I will have to say that for the salmon tartar I would recommend a nice Sauvignon Blanc or a bone dry Riesling, not older than 2012 or it will compete with the freshness of the dish also you want to avoid the residual sugar and the pronounce fruitiness, although I personally like it with a glass of Prosecco. As for the deconstructed mandu, well, we are talking Korean food here, full of spiciness and rich flavors, so a Dry Rosé from Bandol will work well or even a young Pinot Noir with medium body and bright acidity” she replied without even flinching.

Seung Hyun let a small smirk showed up in his face, and Jiyong, Young Bae and Min Young exchanged glances, not sure what it may happen next.

“I think you have found your chef my donsaengs” he said finally letting the smile creep entirely in his face.

Jiyong and Young Bae finally let a sigh of relieve come from them and Eun Ji was almost confused, I mean she was supposed to impress them not him.

“I have to say I have no idea what the hell you both just said, but I think this will be the beginning of a nice collaboration” Jiyong said.

“This means I got the job?” Eun Ji asked, still not quite sure on what just happened.

“Well, like we told you, we love to eat, but the foodie here is our hyung, so we trust him completely with this, to be fully honest, he will also act as the president of the restaurant for the time being, we are just here as the money” Young Bae finally said and Min Young nudge him softly on the side like questioning him why he hadn’t share that import piece of info with her.

“I see, well, it will be a pleasure working along you Choi Seung Hyun-sshi” Eun Ji said extending her hand.

“Anya, trust me, the pleasure will be completely mine” Choi Seung Hyun said taking her hand between his and shacking it softly. 

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A/N:  Hello everyone, sorry i couldnt double update last week and that i updated until today, I have being really busy. So in compensation, a bit of a long chapter for all of you. Thank you to all of you who have already subscribed and for all of your sweet coments! You are the best! 
~sayurimei