Mind the timeline, so you won't feel confused by the intentional mere mentions of the time ^_^

She never saw Eunjung from then on.

Months…

That was how long ago it was.

Eunjung had been gone for months.

Nobody knew where she went but she heard Eunjung had went to London and even Mexico to work in one of her mentor’s restaurants. She wasn’t even sure, Hwayoung claimed that was the case, saying she had stalked every single one of Eunjung’s possible friends on Facebook. Most of it was hearsay.

She wanted to know. Actually, she really does want to know where she must have gone, but Eunjung must have been doing her a favor.

What other way for her to ‘move on’ to find herself, whether she finds herself still looking at a future with Eunjung or a future by herself, or worst of all, a future with someone else, this was the high time for her to see things in a different perspective. A completely different perspective.

Having Eunjung to call and Eunjung to talk to wouldn’t have helped her realize that she can be alone and she can be independent, that’s what she told herself.

There was no Eunjung to think about, and no Eunjung to worry about…there was no Eunjung she could seek advice from, no Eunjung she could cry on to. There wasn’t going to be Eunjung assisting her, nor was there a Eunjung to help her do her laundry.

Most of all, there was no Jiyeon Eunjung had to worry over for. There was no Jiyeon in Eunjung’s life holding her back. There was no Jiyeon in Eunjung’s life to be with practically 24/7, round-the-clock, and on-call.

There just wasn’t going to be the two of them ever since Eunjung made the very decision to cut all communication.

And what has happened then was that, Jiyeon took it with understanding. She accepted it with little to no tears in her eyes.

They needed the separation, and here she is, just trying to get by…trying to slowly get used to the breath of fresh air.

The first few months may have been hell.

Her parents have been worried that she refused to say what had transpired, and her in-laws seemed to have also not known about the details. They all knew that Eunjung had went abroad but they didn’t know where exactly.

It was hell because it was as if she was just gone with the wind.

When she had come back the apartment was empty. The TV was no longer there to even remind her of what had happened. Eunjung’s little trinkets were already gone, so were all her clothes, the iPad replaced as if it hadn’t been thrown. Like a bubble, she was gone. The only reminder Eunjung had left was that the nagging sight of the kitchen so sparkly clean, and the whole apartment spotless.

Jiyeon had sat in the kitchen the moment she realized that everything wasn’t the same anymore. She had crumbled to the floor, hugging herself in tears. It really wasn’t the same.

She had went to the shop five days later, because it was only then did she manage to get up from their bed—her bed, she forgot, it’s only hers now—without breaking into tears. Jiyeon had felt guilty for keeping Sean in the city, after all, it had been two weeks that time since she and Eunjung spoke. Her mother-in-law had gone back to their hometown to help care for Mavin. It was the only reason why she had gotten up at all.

It was a bit late for her to realize that people had different lives to run and she too had a shop full of staff who now depended on her, and her alone.

Eunjung wasn’t going to come rescue her. If she screws it up, then she’ll screw up alone and she’d have to face the music.

She slowly began to realize that Eunjung wouldn’t be calling anymore, nor will she suddenly appear like she had disappeared. She wasn’t going to hear the keys tinkering outside the door and stumble through it with bags of groceries in hand.

But it was then she began to slowly stand for herself. When the reality became too obvious, glaring in fact, Jiyeon stood up to the challenge.

There was nobody else she could depend on but herself.

The shop had an eerie feeling when she had returned. Everyone knew that she and Eunjung had separated but they never asked, nor did she tell. They went about their jobs, and Jiyeon let them joke around unlike before. Jiyeon trusts that they could do the job Eunjung had left and days passed without disappointments. It was just them and her now.

At the end of the day, she had went home—if she could even still call it that. It was just an empty apartment. There was nothing to hide while she was in there, and no use to pretend. All her walls would be put down and she was at her vulnerable. Only, she doesn’t have much tears left to cry.

At the beginning, she mourned over the relationship she lost and the friendship that had been blurred out to a close transparency.

Then she started to ponder about what she was to do and tried thinking of Eunjung less.

She still continues to ponder over her life choices, and reminisce on memories she had defeated admitted she may never get back. It was how she got by day to day.

Jiyeon sees the day pass and the night drift away, it was the same. She was happy with how Piece-Of-Cake was doing without her but it still could never be the same again. A day in the calendar marked x, a new day to begin with the shop the only thing she could look forward to.

Today marked the day they had married…and it felt as if it was just yesterday.

Months may have passed.

Eunjung had left a hole so deep. There was nothing she could come up with to patch herself up. She’s alone. It was still hard to live with that but her world slowly but surely shaped into a life without her…without needing her.

When months would turn into years, Jiyeon knows it would be time to put the pain at the back of her mind and move on from it completely, no matter how much it had once hurt to live with.

Time would come.

Time would come and she’ll see Eunjung again.

A part of her still hoped there was a future for them when that time comes. But as she slowly gets used to her life like this now, she wasn’t sure if she still needed to keep hoping for that.

One of the things she feared was that, one day, she wasn’t going to need Eunjung at all. And it scared her so much that she may forget that Eunjung ever existed in her life. 

What scared her the most is that, a part of her was happy with the way things had turned out because now Jiyeon could go out without the need for anyone. She was her own woman.

So where would Eunjung fit in that?

-

Just a bit more. Just settle down.

You’ve got this.

You’ve got this.

You’ve got th—

“Ugh, ,” Eunjung hisses, looking down to see a trickle of blood from her finger. The other chef beside her gasps, patting her on the shoulder, hurrying her to the back where they kept the first aid kit.

After all, there was no time to waste.

Eunjung’s chants inside her head had gone to a point on no return as she’s practically running to where their lockers were, near the head chef’s small office. It was just a small cut, nothing new. There wasn’t a problem with that unless of course she’d need to handle too much lemon squeezing today. That would be quite a pain, literally.

There was just a certain buzz inside her head as she presses down on her wound without a flinch.

You got this Eunjung, she thought over and over again wishing that maybe she could trick her mind into believing that she actually did.

Eunjung sighs.

This was what she’s always wanted…

It was chaos inside her head as she finishes taking care of her cut and finds herself mindlessly watching how the other chefs had glided around the kitchen, the sounds of the fire burning, pots and pans tinkering, the heat a bit overwhelming.

“You okay?” Chef Paulbert, their head chef and a man in his fifties, asks over her shoulder

“Yeah, just a cut, no worries,” she manages, hurrying over to her station without a second’s notice, tightening her apron behind her back.

You got this.

The longer her mantra had lasted, the longer Eunjung believed that she does.

It was always easy to get lost in this world she was currently in. Time flew by and days went on without a hitch.

There was always that electric buzz inside the large kitchen of one of the most famous fine dining restaurants in all of New York. The restaurant can accommodate hundreds people every night for dinner, in and out, reservations always done a month or two prior. The restaurant had always been a locals’ and tourists’ favorite for a decade and had served many famous and power house names from not only the food industry, but from Hollywood superstars, to politicians, elites and business tycoons. This place already bagged a Michelin award, the highest recognition there is for a restaurant and its chefs.

In this restaurant, all the aspiring and talented chefs had the freedom to innovate and move away from the norms, something she had already gotten used to by making pastries of her own. It gave her a chance to stand out.

It was just the place to be for a dreamer like her.

One of her superiors, who used to be her Sous Chef in Paris had moved here and is now the head chef of the outstanding and famous restaurant featuring foods of European, American and Asian cuisine fusion. Chef Paulbert is one of the chefs she looked up to the most despite him being one to have made her life a living hell back in those times in Paris. If she never took the chance to contact him, she wouldn’t have had a chance to stand in this kitchen. 

If he hadn’t believed in her, if she hadn’t convinced him to believe in her, then there wouldn’t have been a chance at all. He said, she held potential. She heard that from him when her internship ended and it was when he offered her a job in Paris years ago that she somehow refused. It was his contacts that got her a job when she went back home, there wasn’t a lot that served haute cuisine back there; specifically, there were only four, one of them being Lizzy’s Le Petite and that French restaurant she had worked in.

In this restaurant however, in this city that never sleeps, is a world Eunjung would continuously get lost in. Here she didn’t have to think too much other than her craft, other than doing what she loves to do, other than perfecting every single plate that comes out her hands. She never minded if she stayed back closing hours; working fifty to sixty hours a week. There was no room for rest.

She was here, on top, like she wanted to be.

Unlike other people who ever dreamed of this, she got the easy way in. But then again, this was an opportunity she had deprived herself for so many years.

Her hands had now practically worked on automatic as she thrives in her work station, striving to get through plate by plate. Creation after creation. Perfection to perfection. Definitely no less than perfection as she sends another plate off to service, her head chef giving her a nod as she placed the plate before him.

“Service,” he calls out after placing on the finishing touches. Despite the noises of pots, pans, plates, and the buzz and the heat of the fire, service was quick to come to his aid and soon, Eunjung sees her plate moving away.

You got this, she chides herself once more as another order came no longer than a second after.

“What is this presentation?” Paulbert asks with his scrutinizing gaze over a plate, Eunjung overhears as she continuously works on her own.

“2 Crayfish, 3 Beouf Bourgignon, table fifteen please!” The sous chef calls out in the background, with several “Yes chef,” ringing in Eunjung’s ears.

“It looks like I vomited in the sky and fell on this plate,” Paulbert huffs angrily, setting her co-worker’s plate aside. “Get me another one, now.”

The tension was quickly picking up, slowly but surely it was. Eunjung looks up in horror to see one of her closest chefs who was tasked to move the pot of stock accidentally spill the whole thing onto the floor in mere seconds. The kitchen turns quiet for a second, but then resumes as if nothing had happened, except for her friend and of course, the head chef.

It was gut twisting the moment she sees the stock in a mess on the floor, apparently slipping from her friend’s hands. It was doom and dark in her eyes when the head chef closes in on the poor guy, Chef Paulbert was just beyond livid.

“Can’t you do anything right?! The busiest night and you give the floor a shower!” Her friend Jonathan runs to the side, muttering apologies to the chef, a mop in hand. If only it made the chef feel better but it didn’t. Eunjung wanted to help, but she couldn’t, her hands were full as it always seems to be. It was a full house again, they all got their hands busy. “What are you doing?! Are you now the cleaning lady Jonathan?! Might as well be since you can’t cook right!”

Eunjung knew what was to come, everyone would have had to quickly assemble to do mise-en-place for the stock that she started muttering to herself while the head chef starts barking orders. She finishes the dish she was working on, setting it before the head chef who seemed satisfied with her job by saying nothing else but, “Service,” as he went on to multitask of placing the finishing touches and barking orders.

“Team, get me last night’s left over stock, finely chop carrots, onions, celery! Get chopping!”

“Yes chef,” was the collective response, and that included Eunjung as she raced back to getting a new pot, while another chef pours in the leftover stock. Some had been disgruntled, giving Jonathan a side glare. Eunjung quickly chops the vegetables she had automatically got, keeping an eye on the other three working on the stock, completely in sync as if they had rehearsed for this event.

“This should be cooked for twelve minutes, but with finely chopped vegetables, tell me how many minutes,” the head chef barks over her shoulders as Eunjung pours in her chopped carrots to the mix.

“Four minutes chef!” Eunjung exclaims after and Paulbert, was once again pleased.

“Good, now get me the stock in four minutes! I want every single one of you to show me that you aren’t dumb idiots!”

That was pleasing to her ears because this could be the nicest thing Paulbert could have done especially with his flaring temper, a full house, one sick chef, one chef fired the day before, one chef who screwed up by giving the floor a bath just now and a line from service waiting to serve the plates out to the front. Paulbert had been ruthless with her back in Paris, he’s pretty much a potty mouth whenever his chefs weren’t up to his standards, like a French version of Gordon Ramsey. Not all chefs were like that, but he definitely is when you’re on his bad side especially for such perfectionist as he is. He wasn’t highly regarded in this craft for nothing.

Though Eunjung got it in stride now, never letting it affect her. It was part of the job now, there was nothing personal. Do it right, then your ears are alright.

They were barely catching up tonight with another new menu for the week, sure, but they were getting there.

Keep up, she started telling herself as she went to make béchamel sauce from scratch for the new order using the stock they just made.

She needed to trust her instincts. In the world of cooking, sometimes your intuition just works its magic. It gets even better with time and experience. From her straight by the book technicalities in what she had learned in pastry making when she was younger, it wasn’t exactly what came to play when they’re in the hot kitchen.

It was as simply as counting one to ten but in a difference of seconds you can either already make or break your creation; satisfy the hungry patron or you just straight out disappoint—even as much as angering them—because of broken expectations.

Probably much like relationships.

Relationships…

Relationship she broke herself.

Eunjung shakes her head as a flash of her face haunts her mind all of a sudden. No, she needed to focus, she told herself. It didn’t even connect, how in the world did Jiyeon get into that thought?

She chides herself once more.

Keep up, Eunjung.

Keep up!

And so this night of service had went on as expected, blocking all thoughts of her, getting lost once again in a world Eunjung had drowned herself in ever since she’d went away.

It was her only means of escape. It was the only way for her heart to feel numb because even now that more than a year has pass