Things became unbearably hectic in the kitchen, come Saturday night, as it was usually the busiest day of the week for Seomse Tokyo. Mercifully, Jae-wook sunbaenim was required to attend the Board of Directors’ meeting and Kyungsoo had to take over the head chef position once again.

Jae-wook had only given Kyungsoo minimal instructions, although there was nothing new to what Mr. Rodgers had advised him before. Then the head chef divested of his apron and changed into a suit.

Kyungsoo prepared the meals for all 15 members of the board, including Mrs. Park, diligently. He was careful to get each of the 7 courses ready up to standard, just as he would, had Ms. Gloria been there. He was grateful to all the crew members who listened to him and looked to him for leadership, and he found himself directing orders here and there (still in a diplomatic and calm way, of course, since almost every other kitchen staff was older than him). He had one team take care of the concurrent orders coming in from the weekend patrons—those who have made reservations weeks ahead—and another team for the ongoing directors’ meeting in the function room.

Since he was preoccupied in the kitchen, he and Yixing hardly even saw each other, as Yixing’s post was outside to welcome and greet everyone and attend to the directors’ requests, if any. Kyungsoo also hadn’t been able to leave the kitchen at all, because he was solving issues left and right, and helping with the cooking at the same time.

Before he knew it, three grueling hours had flown by, and almost everything went without a hitch… except for a slight mishap on an undercooked dory fish that Kyungsoo was fixing right away.

He endorsed the new dory fish order once done, with a side of the SOO CHEF takoyaki as compliments of the house for the inconvenience caused, to the waiter. “Any last orders?”

That was when he noticed that the kitchen had fallen into an obscure hush.

Kyungsoo turned around and saw that everyone was bowing 180 degrees.

“Mrs. Park!” Kyungsoo exclaimed, immediately reaching a clean towel to wipe his hands with, as Chanyeol’s mother approached him with open arms.

Even though he was sweaty and probably smelled like every kind of food under the sun, Kyungsoo shyly returned the Seomse matriarch’s embrace, his cheeks reddening as he felt all gazes in the room on them. “Annyeong-haseayo.”

“Aigoo, don’t work so hard, Kyungsoo-ssi!” Mrs. Park pulled back with a worried smile, and began to wipe beads of perspiration from the side of Kyungsoo’s face—with her extremely expensive, pink tweed Chanel jacket!

Kyungsoo’s eyes widened in horror, stepping back a little. “M-Mrs. Park, your suit!”

Mrs. Park only clucked her tongue in dismissal, and continued what she was doing in that maternal way of hers. “That bourbon pecan chicken was completely delightful, by the way. And I want to commend you for doing such a wonderful job.”

Kyungsoo bowed repeatedly, giggling just a bit. “Kamsa-hamnida, Mrs. Park. I’m glad you enjoyed the meal.”

Mrs. Park squeezed both his hands, and Kyungsoo couldn’t help thinking how much Chanyeol looked like her that very moment. “And due to such positive reviews of this branch, we have decided to open another one in the Shinjuku area… and partly because of the SOO CHEF dish people kept reviewing online and constantly come back to.”

The blush on Kyungsoo’s face crept even higher, up to the roots of his hair. He did remember having to prepare over 20 orders of the takoyaki today alone.

“So… anyway, I actually just dropped by to say hello,” Mrs. Park told him wistfully, smiling at everybody now in the room. “Keep up the good work, everyone!”

Kyungsoo bowed once more and bid Mrs. Park goodnight.

Before long, it was closing time. Mr. Rodgers called for a last minute meeting after the staff members cleaned up the kitchen and outside too.

“So, I have a couple of good news,” Tony was saying, grinning widely. “First is that I heard from Gloria and she said that everything was settled in her hometown and that she could return to work as early as Tuesday. Since Monday is not so busy, Kyungsoo would only be filling in until tomorrow afternoon.” He gave a thumbs-up to the sous chef. “Remarkable work today, Kyungsoo! And he worked a 11-hour shift today, everybody.”

Kyungsoo only covered his face with both hands, laughing, while Yixing squeezed his shoulders proudly.

“Next is that you’ve probably heard that we’re opening another Tokyo branch. Estimated time to begin operation is within three months, as we have already secured the location. We may or may not be shifting some of you to that branch…”

Protests began to fill the air.

“All right, all right, hear me out,” Tony soothed, raising his hand up gently. “I’m still waiting for directives from upper management, so it’s also still possible that a new set of staff would be hired for the second Tokyo branch but one thing has been determined. The head chef would be Choi Jae-wook for the Shinjuku kitchen.”

Wait, what…?

Kyungsoo lowered his hands from his eyes, gazing into Yixing’s ones, both absolutely dumbfounded.

Jae-wook sunbaenim was transferring to Tokyo…?

“In fact, he volunteered. After that, needless to say, it was a unanimous decision.”

Jae-wook sunbaenim was standing at the back of the room, not saying anything. Only until the other staff members congratulated him and made small talk did he think to reply and even laughed, talking loud enough for Kyungsoo to hear that he was looking forward to it.

Kyungsoo stood up and resolutely went to the lockers once the meeting was over. Yixing anxiously followed him, as both of them changed into their casual wear and asked if he was all right.

Kyungsoo only nodded, didn’t want get into too much detail about what had happened between him and Jae-wook a year ago. All Yixing knew was that they used to be a couple and that was terminable by means of employment.

Kyungsoo was quiet on the commute home, as he sat next to Yixing hyung on the train. Yixing had his arm linked with his, though, and the older one kept shaking that arm, trying to meet his eyes.

When Kyungsoo finally did meet his gaze, Yixing smiled at him, and Kyungsoo had to smile back.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Hyung asked again. “We could stop by somewhere and have a drink?” Yixing pulled his phone out. “I’ll call Junmyeon and he can join us.”

Kyungsoo shook his head, checking his wristwatch. It was half past eleven in the evening already. “I have to go to the market by 6:30 a.m. tomorrow and buy the fresh catch as sunbaenim would only be coming in the afternoon.”

Yixing pressed his lips together, knowing that Kyungsoo felt a sense of pride in being reliable, especially when it came to work. He thought to change the subject instead, hoping to make the younger one feel better. “Junmyeonie showed me ChanSoo’s performance from last night. I didn’t know you could sing that well!”

Kyungsoo chuckled. “You didn’t ask!”

“Next time, we’ll go to karaoke and put those pipes to good use!” Yixing suggested, suddenly opening the home page of Junmyeon’s social media account, where the entire video of the performance was posted.

“Omo!” Kyungsoo exclaimed, feeling extremely embarrassed. “Hyung tagged me?”

“Why not?” Yixing asked, ruffling the younger one’s black hair as he loaned Kyungsoo one of his ear buds and they both began watching the video together. “You could be a viral sensation, you never know… and Park sajangnim is no joke playing the guitar! He probably plays even better than I do!”

“He probably does,” Kyungsoo laughingly agreed, only to receive a soft jab on the bicep from hyung, who was laughing as well. “The most amazing thing to me was how he was rapping at the speed of light and still the words were so clear!”

“Right?” Yixing enthused, fast forwarding to ChanSoo’s “Guilty” cover. “I thought I was watching a Kpop idol! He even sounds way better than most of them live.”

Kyungsoo was thinking Park sajangnim could easily have been one, had he chosen that path and taken up the offer of becomin