Phase 2: Hugging (and Cuddling)

Hug;

VERB (hugs, hugging, hugged)

1 It is an act of squeezing someone tightly in one’s arms, embrace;

2 To hold something closely or tightly around or against part of one’s body, typically to express affection:

Cuddle;

VERB 

1 Hold close in one’s arms as a way of showing love or affection:

2 Lie or sit close and snug;

3 A prolonged and affectionate hug.

Damn it, Eunjung thought, almost dropping the bowl in her hands. She had been thinking. Thinking so hard how to make Jiyeon fall for her because after their, somehow unplanned, make out session on the couch, she just wasn’t sure just how much she was affecting her wife.

Sure, there was lust. It was practically overflowing for her, added to the fact that she usually ‘got it on’, or in Hyojoon’s words, got funky on a regular basis before she decided to marry Jiyeon. It had been so long, too long for her body.

There were several ladies in her contacts she can call for a quick fix of what she needs, even in the patisserie itself there were ladies she can try to seduce…like Suzy for example…

DAMN IT!

Eunjung slams the bowl on her stainless table, violently, albeit still ‘gently’ folding the mixture inside, trying not to look up across her where the certain girl in her mind was.

But much to her torture, Eunjung couldn’t help look up to see Suzy on her station, working so hard. Her hands were moving in such graceful motions, her body swaying, sweat practically making her neck shimmer in the most alluring way Eunjung just wanted to…

STOP IT! YOU HAVE A WIFE!

“Éclairs on the move!” Taecyeon yells out, bringing out a tray of freshly made Éclairs towards one of the many tray racks inside the bustling kitchen of Eunjung and Jiyeon’s humble patisserie.

Eunjung made sure to not get in his way as he said so, distracted from her earlier thoughts. It was time to get her head out of the gutter. It’s a busy day after all.

Krystal briskly walks towards the oven, carefully opening to check on her Crème Brule. She then immediately takes the mittens close by preparing to take out five trays of Crème Brule placed in small ramekins. “Hot! Hot,” She says out loud as she quickly takes out a tray towards the nearby table, carefully maneuvering her way the tight spaces as Wooyoung passes her by, dodging the hot tray.

“Time check, chocolate cake,” Eunjung asks out loud, stirring a hot pot of syrup for her fondant.

“Seventeen minutes!”  Wooyoung says out loud, applying whipped cream on a small strawberry cake a customer would be picking up in two hours.

“First batch of Crème Brule is out. Second batch, ten minutes,” Krystal informs.

“Hot guy coming through, hot cake too, watch out,” Wooyoung exclaims behind Krystal, taking out a large chocolate cake out the oven, earning laughter and exclamations of protest, obviously directed at his claims of being physically blessed and bountiful in terms of body temperature.

Amber slips inside the kitchen with Luna, opening the large chiller wordlessly, and comes out with trays of pastries. Eunjung sees them and asks, “Busy out there?”

“It’s picking up. The cupcakes sold out for the event downtown, bought in bulk. We need more cream puffs out there too,” Luna informs, hurriedly walking out the kitchen and out the door.

“How many left?” Areum asks out loudly after Amber despite her giant mixer’s loud whirring while Krystal passes behind her, maneuvering as carefully as she could.

“There are only three trays left in the chillers, one in the displays,” Amber exclaims, hurriedly shutting the walk-in chillers and brisk walked outside holding a tray of pastries.

“Right, on it!” Areum exclaims with a huff.

“We need someone out there. Someone’s ordering a cake for an after-party for a movie premiere,” Dara calls out from the door. “Huge ‘project’ guys, it’s another time to shine!”

Eunjung smiles at Dara’s expectant gaze. They called important and high demand clients’ orders Projects they needed to accomplish with flying colors. It started out as a joke at first Krystal and Areum started to call. But now, everyone looks forward to it. Projects meant someone would have to lead.

“Krys, go,” Eunjung orders from the side with a smile making Krystal jump in excitement.

Eunjung couldn’t be any happier like Krystal was feeling at that moment.

Krystal is one, other than Areum, who could handle such technically challenging tasks terms of baking and artistry. Areum had already been given the chance, leading the team for such large clients’ orders some time ago and Eunjung had thought it’s Krys’s time now.

Usually Eunjung would take the reins, but she trusts her staff. After Krystal, she’d probably get Suzy and Taecyeon to lead in too.

“Really?!”

“Go.”

“Got you covered on this,” Wooyoung informs Krystal and takes over with the Crème Brule’s before Krystal walks away.

“Fix your hair Krys!” Areum reminds with a chuckle.

From the sidelines, Jiyeon watches the crew moving around the tight space. Their fluidity and teamwork was beyond her. It was somehow a busy day for everyone in the kitchen as orders for events were being made. They didn’t only accept orders for cakes, but they had accepted bulk orders for their pastries too. It was during these months that the kitchens didn’t really get many breaks in between, trying to get as much done as possible.

It was why they were remodeling the place.

Jiyeon could see how cramped the kitchen seemed to be as time passed. When they first opened, they had only a team of two, Eunjung and Eunjung’s friend Shinyoung, who isn’t part of the team for the mean time due to personal reasons. The kitchen was big for only two people to work in. Months later they had taken struggling community college students who couldn’t afford culinary schools like Krystal and Areum who then decided to quit school to just learn on the job with Eunjung and Shinyoung. Suzy came in to join with her highest educational attainment being that of a high school graduate but had worked in several bakeries for years. Then they had employed Wooyoung and Taecyeon who were recommended by Eunjung’s friend from college. They worked in kitchens around the cities, not much extensive knowledge with pastries. They were simply lower line cooks, usually in charge of prep. Eunjung had to train them along the way, day and night none of them had given up.

But the kitchen wasn’t ready to handle five people working altogether.

Upfront was a bit more tolerable with shifts between, Dara, Luna, Hara and Amber. Before it used to be just Jiyeon and the buried-in-student-loans Amber manning the front, then as time passed Jiyeon employed Dara, Luna and Hara. However, the shop was still quaint in size despite its growing popularity and high demands.

Now cake orders were coming in after Eunjung made a cake for a car company, the real size and actual design of a real car from the company, which was featured worldwide years ago after she had been recommended to take on the challenge by one of her French mentors. That had led her to be chosen.

The demand became even higher when Eunjung was chosen to be part of a team with a mentor and several other pastry chefs to join a local competition. They had won that local title, being best in the city, and soon won the best in the state, and then the best in the country. The team she was in was chosen to represent the country in the World Pastry Cup in Paris. They won second place. That much alone had garnered Eunjung a spot to be one of the best in the country.

And it had done better for their humble patisserie which sells affordable pastries everyone could try. Simply by exposing Eunjung to the world had brought in magazines and television programs to their doors, knocking to get a taste of what they could offer and soon everyone was coming in.

But now they’re so hectic.

This, the life in the kitchen, tight knit as the team is, needed a bigger place. And it’s also why Jiyeon and Eunjung were getting busier and busier for the upcoming changes.

It wasn’t exactly the perfect time for them to have gotten married. Especially given such conditions, they barely really had a day off these days and had only forced those days they got married and the time she had her painful period.

Jiyeon sighs as she watched the team laugh about a joke Wooyoung blurts out, immediately lightening the tension inside the time pressured and tight kitchen. At the corner of her eyes, she sees Eunjung being taken over by Areum and her wife then coming towards her direction where the water dispenser was.

She was sweating and looked utterly drained.

Eunjung is the life in the kitchen but these days there had been some changes in her that Jiyeon couldn’t point out. It must be her lack of sleep and her nightmares since she refused to bear it all for sleep knowing Jiyeon was uncomfortable. That was how considerate she is but it made Jiyeon feel guilty. Her wife is losing sleep just because they’re uncomfortable.

“Hey,” Eunjung tiredly greets, taking her glass on the rack above the dispenser and gets herself some water. Jiyeon simply observes Eunjung desperately taking in as much water as she needed.

The kitchen is intense; it is physical and needed a lot of presence of mind. Let your mind float and you’ll probably face the consequences of burns, blood and screams of fury. But it was a good thing Eunjung wasn’t the type to throw pans at her team. She had experienced that, only she wasn’t the one being thrown at and had vowed not to do the same thing.

Eunjung was the calm but stern type. Everyone respected her in the kitchen, not only because she had worked for her mentor for two years in a 3-star Michelin awarded restaurant after her more-than-a-year-long stay in France—an internship and intensive programs at Le Cordon Bleu under her belt—but because she was truly good at what she does and has high regard for her team of amateurs.

It was obvious how Eunjung picks to be in her team, even if they were college dropouts or those struggling to get by day by day, just as long as they were passionate about it. She was someone who gives chances to those who didn’t have any.

That is one of the reasons Jiyeon truly admires her wife. Jiyeon looks up