Minseok throws open the door to the kitchen gasping for breath causing the entire kitchen to stare at him.

“Chef, I need,” He gulps in a few breaths before continuing, “I need 3 orders of fries and two charcuterie boards, and two oyster platters with mignonette sauce only.”

Tao whines in despair while Kris awkwardly pats his back. A collective groan is let out by the entire culinary staff as they pause their station break downs. Minah sighs in relief thank God I didn’t shut off the fryer.

Kyungsoo sighs frustratedly before glancing at the wall clock. It’s now 10:25pm just five minutes before service ended and the last two tickets of the night had just been sent out. He claps to gain control of the room. “Alright everyone, looks like we had some last-minute walk-ins. Let’s just hurry and get it over with before we shut down for the night. Minseok get them to order fast. Only offer things off of sautee and garmo, the grill’s already shut off and the flattop is almost cooled off. Also, the only desserts we can do now are the sorbet trio and the passionfruit mango mousse cake. Hyeri’s cleaning up and Yoona left already.”

Minseok nods and thanks everyone before heading back out to the bar. Yeonhee enters as soon as Minseok leaves.

“Sorry guys, we had a group of five hit the bar just now.” She announces.

“We know,” Tao shouts.

“It’s handled,” Kyungsoo responds, “I just told Minseok what we could still offer. They’re the last ones though Yeonhee, I can’t have more people go overtime tonight.”

She nods understandingly, “Thanks Soo. I promise these are the last people. We have about seven tables just finishing up dessert. The rest of the restaurant has been cleared out. I just cut Seulgi and Seohyun. Yixing and Minseok can take care of the last bar guests for the evening. Minseok’s locking up at the end of the night. Junmyeon sent Sehun home but he wanted to stay for family meal is that okay?”

Kyungsoo nods and says, “Sure! I made family tonight since we were so busy. Definitely enough taco stuff to go around!”

“Did I hear tacos?” Jongin said happily as he walked in through the door with a bouncing Sehun trailing behind him. Junmyeon followed suit and just shook his head at the younger boy’s excitement for food.

Kyungsoo gave them a heart shaped smile and nodded. “You boys are lucky tonight, we had the sirloin tips left over and Kris marinated it with the young kimchi, grilled then shredded them up. It’s actually insane. We might do a fun Korean-Mexican fusion for Tapas Night next month.”

The crew cheers happy to be fed and continues the rest of clean up. As soon as the final dishes leave, Chanyeol sighs a huge breath of relief and turns off the stove. He cuts the pilot light for the night and gathers the last of the dirty pans up with side towel. Behind! He yells as he passes Tao, patting him on the back and whispering a You killed it Tao! Before finally dropping them off at the dish pit and bows the lone dishwasher ajusshi who was still there.

Chanyeol stands with his hands on his hips and stretches back finally able to relieve his sore muscles when Kris’s head pops up over the pass and flashes a gummy smile at the team. “What are my chances of moving onto the line next month Chef?”

Kyungsoo stares at him surprised, “You want to be on the line??”

Chanyeol whoops with joy and Minah claps along while Tao looks like he’s about to cry.

“Join the dark side Kris hyung! We’ve got unlimited fries.” Chanyeol says wriggling his eyebrows.

Kris nods shly and says, “Yeah, I figured it was time to give it another go right? It’s been a few years and I think the burn out is gone. Couldn’t have done it without Chef Soo though.” He turns to look at the wide-eyed Soo Chef and gives him a proper bow.

Kyungsoo breaks free from his trance and launches himself onto Kris giving him a huge hug.

“My man! Finally! We’ll have a full line crew and it’ll be rockin’ every day 24/7 oh halle-freaking-luiah we’re bouta be the talk of town. Hell, we can probably rejoin the Concours this year! It’s not too late! Deadlines are in December. Oi Kris c’mere you giant.”

Kyungsoo gets Kris into a headlock and noogies him softly. The crew is whooping and hollering and laughing at the two.

Yeonhee looks on happy to see the team celebrating its little victories. Her eyes glisten, no tears fall but it was a close call. It’s been four years since Kris stepped down from his line cook duties. She’d been through so much with Kyungsoo and Kris. Before they started working at this restaurant the three of them had worked at another restaurant called Fleur et Sol, a staple upper scale restaurant that focused on farm-to-table and locally sourced products and fusion cuisine.

At the time Kyungsoo was the Chef de Partie training under Seoul’s most beloved Neo-Korean gastronomist Choi Hyun Wook. Chef Choi was late in age and had been training his staff for life after his retirement. Back then the kitchen line comprised of Kyungsoo, Kris, Kang Sunwoo, Na Bongsun, Kang Kiyoung, Choi Minchul, and Kwak Si-yang. They used to compete in cooking competitions that took them to nationals and then to the Bocuse D’Or the legendary culinary Olympics held in France. However shortly after Chef Choi retired, Kang Sunwoo got a bid for his own restaurant and left taking Bongsun, Kiyoung, and Minchul with him. Siyang stayed with Kyungsoo and Kris for two more years before moving over to Sunwoo’s team. Kyungsoo and Kris were tired. Kris struggled with manning three stations while Kyungsoo took over as Sous Chef and being on sautee and garmo. Upper management had a hard time finding the right talent to help Kyungsoo and so Joowon the owner of Fleur et Sol decided to downsize the restaurant. The change affected the team’s dynamics and the food quality took a turn for the worse. Little by little the notoriety fell from the restaurant and Joowon closed shop. Not wanting to lose Kyungsoo, Kris, and Yeonhee he decided to rebrand and reopen a smaller restaurant in Itaewon. Kyungsoo and Yeonhee eagerly accepted but Kris told Joowon that he wouldn’t be returning. He was tired and burned out from the last three years after their stint at Fleur et Sol and needed a break. Kyungsoo and Joowon pleaded with him to reconsider and when it seemed moot Kyungsoo offered Kris the prep cook position. You wouldn’t have to work full shifts, but you’d still be with us in the heart of it all. I need you Kris, no one else comes close to your production and knife skills. I understand where you’re coming from though but please. Please stay on. And so, Kris stayed. As time passed Kyungsoo was able to recreate a great team. Chanyeol and Tao joined on and he found Minah and Jae at a culinary school. Youngtae was the blacksheep of the group, always calling out and requesting days off or vacations but Joowon owed him a favor so Kyungsoo just bites his tongue and lets it slide. The new restaurant in Itaewon was co-owned by Joowon and three big time investors. Donghae was hired by the upper management team to Yeonhee’s chagrin and though he knew a lot of theoretical business management skills he wasn’t very experienced in the day-to-day activities as Yeonhee was.

“Yeonhee~” Hyeri waved a hand across Yeonhee’s face, “Earth to Yeonhee!”

“Huh what?” Yeonhee shook herself out of her memories and came to back in the kitchen.

“If you don’t hurry up Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol are going to finish the last of the tacos!” Hyeri said.

She looked over at the pass where the servers and the line cooks were cowered about fighting over the last few tortillas and the small plate of canneles Hyeri set out for dessert. Sehun and Jongin were betting who could eat more jalapenos while Yixing and Minseok were egging them on trying to see if they could slip in a habanero as a joke. Kyungsoo and Kris were going over some recipes with a half distracted Chanyeol who was pushing Baekhyun and Jongdae away from the last of the taco meat. She smiled and felt content this was her place to be, this is where she belonged and she couldn’t wait for the days yet to come.