Chapter Three

Step 3: Throw in Two Teaspoons of Shock and Uncertainty

It was going to be seven in the evening when Bom hopped off the bus she was riding. Taxis were very scarce that night; maybe because it was raining. Luckily the rain turned out to be flimsy and slow when she started walking her way down to Trattoria Rossi. Because of her eagerness to leave the Spring Tempo Manor she forgot to bring her umbrella. Maybe because hearing only Youngbae’s name seemed like she was hurriedly overtaking by despair inside. What more if they will start working together?

She knew that what Kwon Youngdeuk said about Youngbae’s feeling of excitement to work with her was a big fat lie. Didn’t he know he was the one who left her? Mayhap Dong Youngbae was now thinking of a good plan on how he would totally kick her out of the Spring Tempo Manor.

She was feeling so thankful for Youngdeuk’s unselfishness when she asked him for a two-week vacation leave. When he asked her why she suddenly thought of doing so, she just said that she needed enough time to condition her mind. And that she almost fainted out when he announced that they will be working together—and it was a relief on her part that those words never came out of when she spoke to him.

She wanted to be strong, so that when she saw Youngbae again, he would not have the strength to fight her anymore when she thought of strangling him. No, she could never do things like that. She’s not an aggressive or harsh kind of woman. The thing she could only do is to cry and stay in one corner alone, like what she did those times. And she didn’t bother wiping her tears when it started running down her cheeks.

She tried to make up a decision while still on the bus ride—on whether to stay in ST Manor and work with Youngbae or to not stay and find another job. Aside from Dara, no one in her co-workers knew what their past was. If there was someone out there who could give her any guarantee that her past with him would remain as a secret until they become old and until they retired from work, well, it would have somehow helped her to convince herself not to leave the Spring Tempo Manor. But for that, if she wished to let her acrid connection with Youngbae remain as a secret, it’d seem like she wished for the sun to not rise ever again in her entire life.

Though how hard they tried to keep it, it will still come out. As what the saying goes—there are no secrets that can’t be revealed. She didn’t know if like her, he, too, tried hard to conceal everything that happened between them. Perhaps she might not know he already shared their past to their friends without her knowing. They didn’t have any communications after he turned his back to her. Besides, she only knew tiny details on what was going on about him because of the cooking show on TV where he happened to be the chef on it.

She knew she could runback to her family in the moment when she finally decided to avoid Youngbae and she was assured of that. Asking the management to kick Youngbae out and look for a new chef was out of the question, she was certain of that. She heard straight from Mr. Kwon Youngdeuk how the process turned fastidious in search for a new chef. Both of her parents had been retired but her brother, Teddy, has a successful Italian restaurant and she was in no doubt that he couldn’t refuse when she asked for a job to him.

Yet if she was going to compare his brother restaurant to ST Manor, the differences between the two were too huge. Spring Tempo Manor was more famous, more classy, and bigger than her bother’s. A person who dreamt to have a good career in restaurant industry should aim to work in ST Manor, not likely in the small scale Italian restaurant of her brother Teddy.

Will she just throw away her four years of perseverance at ST Manor just like that? She badly needed some pieces of wise advice and thorough and serious talk amongst the people who loved her. She needed a clearer and peaceful place. The problem was, her parents and her brother with his family were all out of the country for a vacation. She could call them up, but could she have the guts to ruin the vacation they planned for so long to happen?

There’s a certain person wherein she could ask for some beautiful advices to help her up—Aunt Marie.

She strode hastily when she caught sight of the Italian restaurant she was aiming for. Her forehead creases when she saw the whole place was engulfed with darkness. A couple more steps before she certainly found out that it was closed. She thought if the restaurant had just closed or it was closed throughout the day? She stopped feeling devastated and sheltered herself in the nearby establishment. She was talking at her Aunt over the phone earlier but she didn’t mention to her that she was having problem with Trattoria Rossi. Where her Aunt would be? Her home was in a far distance and she was feeling slothful to have a trip home, moreover that the rain continued to pour hard.

She stared at the restaurant where she grew up.  The place was barely neglected. Faded paints, some broken windows, and some parts of it were already staggering. It was not a hidden fact to her that her Aunt Marie was facing livelihood problems. But not even for once, she had mentioned that she’d let Trattoria Rossi face its own downfall. Everyone knew how her Aunt Marie loved her restaurant. It was her life. She became an early widow and since then she focused her love to Trattoria Rossi—except to them who was her relatives.

She was about to put out her cell phone to call her Aunt when she saw a ray of light coming from the kitchen part of the restaurant. She knew that her Aunt won’t neglect her that easily.

Carrying her bag she hastily went to the back part of the restaurant, in the kitchen. Her smile widened even more when she saw that the kitchen door was half opened. She heard some rustling and clanking that made her certain someone was there. Half-running, she went to the back door and shrieked—as a man emerged from the entry way and splashed towards her direction the pale filled with filthy water he was carrying. She was about to scold him but it didn’t happen when she took notice of his face.

“Hi, Bom. I’m sorry about that. It’s great to see you again. `Want to come inside and dry off?”

“Top?”

“Welcome back to Rossi’s. It’s going to be just like old times.”