“I think we can start.” Victoria sat on the end of the table, where she could see all of her senior staff members and her business partner. “Our only agenda for today is to prep and cook the buffet dinner for Mr. Lee Seung Gi’s birthday party. Hankyung oppa, is the menu set?”

“He is going to have around one hundred guests tonight so he requested that each dish should be at least good for two hundred.” Her fellow Chinese native scanned through the file he was holding. “We have five varieties of appetizers, which are bacon-wrapped shrimp Caesar salad, grilled vegetables with lemon yogurt sauce, lemongrass skewers, chicken and chorizo croquettes and stuffed eggs with tarragon.”

“We have meat and vegetable main dishes, namely beet and carrot casserole and braised short ribs. We also have two chicken dishes, which are roasted spring chicken with couscous and soy braised chicken.” Ryeowook continued for the older man. “We have sardine pasta and summer tomato penne for our pasta dishes and seafood in green curry with brown rice and a seafood boil for the seafood dishes.”

“To end things, we’ll be serving a dark chocolate mousse, chocolate caramel cream tart, baked cheesecake, tiramisu parfait cupcakes and s’mores cupcakes for desserts.” Amber finished. “Of course, there’s a chocolate fondue.”

Victoria let out a low whistle. “That’s some party… Are you guys sure you have everything under control?”

Hankyung smiled reassuringly at his business partner. “Qian, we’ll be fine.”

“I’ll try to be back from my client appointments as soon as I can.” She promised before she shifted her attention to the trio of women to her right. “Tomorrow we are asked to cater for an event for a charity which helps underprivileged but passionate young cooks to get into the food industry. We’ve been tasked with desserts, right? So how’s that going?”

“The event is expected to have three hundred guests but we were asked to make fifty extra servings for each dessert.” Luna replied. “I’m in charge of the strawberry layer cake and date and nut tartlets with fresh fruits, unnie.”

Krystal looked up from her laptop. “I’m in charge of the caramelized rice pudding with oranges and caramelized pear galette.”

“I’m in charge of the blueberry bread and butter pudding and the molten chocolate cake.” Sulli concluded.

“Very good.” Victoria smiled at her donsaengs. “I think it’s best that I end the meeting her so all of you can get back to work. As for me, I need to look for a guinea pig.”

“What do you need a guinea pig for?”

                Seven heads turned towards the direction of the voice, finding Kyuhyun in the process of closing the door. No one was really surprised to see him. After all, he was a frequent visitor and they knew full well who he really was visiting... except that a certain someone remained oblivious to that fact. He looked quite tired and they knew in an instant that he came from choir practice.

“I need a guinea pig for taste testing.” Victoria quirked her eye smile at him as everyone got up from their seats. “You came right on time so lucky you.”

He rolled his eyes, addressing the two other men in the room after. “Hyungs, you’re still going with us tonight?”

“Tell Yesung and Sungmin we’ll see them later.” Hankyung replied for Ryeowook and himself before they left the room.

“What was that about?” Victoria asked Kyuhyun when it was just them in the room, heading to her private kitchen in the office.

“We’re hanging out tonight or something.” He replied as he followed her. “So what do you have for me today?”

The Chinese national took two forks and a spoon from a drawer. “I have garlic-roasted prawns on chickpea mousse, roasted duck salad and banana chocolate trifle.”

“What’s up with you and roasted?” Kyuhyun said jokingly, taking a forkful of prawn and mousse in his mouth. “Victoria Song Qian, this is really good.”

“Really? Aww… Thanks, Cho!” Much to his surprise, she started gathering a few Tupperware and placed food in them.

He took the time to taste her duck dish before he spoke. “What are you doing?”

“Packing food for Changmin…” Victoria replied in the midst of what she was holding. “I’m thinking of dropping by in his studio before I go to my meetings.”

                He bit himself from saying anything, fighting the pain that was threatening to appear on his face. Instead, he opted to just snack on the chocolate trifle, tuning out on everything she was saying. All he could focus on was how he found the dessert so good and sweet… almost wishing that it could erase all the bitterness he was feeling inside. It was a perfect distraction to a breaking heart.

He didn’t want to think of how much it hurt to love a girl who loved his best friend.