As the clock struck seven in the evening, all of hell broke out. The kitchen began to speed up 100-fold as the chefs began preparing the same dishes, as Joonmyeon had selected, over and over and over again. The servers by the names of Victoria, Kibum, and Minho came half past six to get ready for tonight's fully-packed restaurant. As always, Joonmyeon was the one to greet people at the door. It would usually be the hostess or the owner of the restaurant, but everyone agreed that Joonmyeon had the best face for the job. With his charming smile and warm-gentle look, he was a welcoming person to anyone on the street.

"Good evening, ma'm," Joonmyeon greeted as he bowed and shook the party host's hand. 

She smiled warmly and returned the bow. "Evening, Joonmyeon. It's a pleasure to come back to the Douze Bistro." She takes Joonmyeon by the arm and walks her into the fully decorated restaurant as her party follows her behind. Joonmyeon gestures her to her table and pulls the seat out for the young lady. She bows and takes her seat. Joonmyeon proceeds to pull out every table for the other eight girls in the party. "I'm not sure if the other girls are coming tonight, so I just brought my eight." Joonmyeon nodded.

It was a typical Saturday evening. Kim Taeyeon, a fellow CEO companion of Kris, always ate at the Douze Bistro with her eight friends; Soonkyu, Sooyoung, Hyoyeon, Sooyeon— who goes by Jessica, Miyoung— who goes by Tiffany, Yuri, Yoona, and Joohyun— who goes by Seohyun. All of them befriended Kris while they were all in business school. None of them took the job as a CEO of a restaurant though. Instead, they were CEOs of financial services, information technology, energy, health care, retail, and telecommunication. Although said industries were more successful than Kris' chosen path, Kris still managed to top them all performance and salary wise. (Something Kris would brag about if he was like Jongdae, which in this case of having close female friends, he would not.)

"Are you ladies settled in and everything?" Joonmyeon asked as he finished placing a napkin on Joohyun's lap.

They all looked up at him and smiled. They couldn't help BUT smile when they were talking to such an angelic being. "Everything's great." Miyoung beamed. "What are we having for dinner today?"

"Yeah, I'm starving!" Sooyoung groans as her stomach rumbles. 

"Yah!" Hyoyeon lightly hit her taller friend. "You ate two hours ago, how are you possibly hungry?"

"Where do you even store the food??" Sookyu adds, poking Sooyoung's stomach. "It's like a black hole in there."

"I wish my stomach was like that," Yoona sighed. "I'll never have a figure like Sooyoung's.

"But you're beautiful just the way you are," Joonmyeon commented as he laid a hand on Yoona's shoulder. All the girls looked up at the scene, in awe and in jealousy. Joonmyeon had a way with words. He was a charmer who knew how to "woo" all of them. "I'll be back with your dishes in a while, ladies." He bowed as he began moving to the kitchen. "Until then you all may chit-chat away." As Joonmyeon exited the main dining room, he could have sworn that the girls were discussing how great his buttox looked in his chef uniform..

✧✧♚✧✧

"THEY'RE HERE!" Joonmyeon shouts as he bursts through the kitchen doorway.

"Oh , Yixing's still grilling the meat!" Luhan screamed.

"OH MY GOSH!" Joonmyeon cries out as he rushes to Yixing's station. "By the way, that's 100 won, Luhan."

Yixing is probably the only chef— minus Jongdae the cook— who's not in panic mode as the rich female customers await outside. The kitchen was in a frenzy and Yixing was sitting on a stool with his arms resting on his legs tucked close to his chest concentrating on his meat.

"Yah, Yixing-ah!" Joonmyeon hollers as the focused chef turns around. "Is this the first slab of meat you've grilling?"

Yixing nodded as Luhan rested an arm on Joonmyeon's shoulder from behind. "Hey, Xing, you better speed things up or you're going to make a lot of women upset.."

"You make it sound like I'm turning gay or something," Yixing mentions as he continues to focus on his grilling. "And, no, this is actually my third."

"You really need to speed things up," Joonmyeon said agreeing with Luhan.

"It's just one piece of meat, how long can you take?" Luhan tsked.

"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yixing brought a finger to Luhan's mouth. "Don't talk like that around him," Yixing whispered. "You could hurt it's feelings.."

"Feelings??" Luhan and Joonmyeon asked. 

"Hush little grilled steak, don't say a word," Yixing hummed as he flipped the meat with tongs. "Xingxing's gonna bathe you in Baek's sauce stirred."

"I'm done with him," Luhan threw his hands up in the air. "I'll ask Baekhyun and Sehun if they can finish up the tenderloin."

"LUHAN, RELAX! IT'S FINE!" Joonmyeon assured. "YIXING'S NEVER LET US DOWN BEFORE!"

"Do you want me to pull up the list where he actually HAS?" Luhan take a notepad out of his back pocket. "Friday, April 20th: Yixing undercooked the beef patties for my birthday.  Sunday, May 6th: Yixing fails to remember that Baekhyun's allergic to pork and serves tonkatsu* on his birthday. Friday, September 21st-"

"Alright, alright I get it!" Joonmyeon rubbed his forehead. "But he never let's us down when the girls are here. So give him a chance, please? That's all I ask of you."

Luhan stared at Joonmyeon in disgust for a moment. He sighed and agreed to let Yixing continue. "Just check if the other girls are already seated outside." Joonmyeon smiled, nodded, and headed out. Luhan let out a small laugh. He didn't always agree with Joonmyeon. And he always never understood why Joonmyeon was the executive chef instead of himself. But he understood now— Joonmyeon cares.

"I think they like you," Kris whispered as he stood next to his shorter friend.

"Why me.." Joonmyeon complained back.

"Hey, lighten up," Kris chuckled as he hit Joonmyeon's back making him jolt forward a bit. "A room full of girls want to throw themselves at you. Every guy would kill for this."

"Yes, every guy but ME."

"Just take care of the girls, I'll take over the kitchen."

"Kris, that's a horrible idea. Me with the girls and you with the kids?"

"Okay, you seriously need to stop calling them that," Kris groaned. "And it'll be fine. I promise."

"Alright, you asked for it." Joonmyeon stared at all the females who focused their attention on him still shouting at him. He gulped and put on his charming smile. "I better get a raise after this," he muttered through his teeth.

"Oh, Joonmyeon. One more thing."

"Yes, Kris?"

"How about I give you a day off."

"Really?" Joonmyeon beamed. "Wait.. what's the catch."

", please," Kibum scoffed. "I cut your paper with my scissors."

"Yah, but I covered Minho's damn rock with my paper."

"But I smashed Kibum's scissors with my damn rock!" Minho argued.

"Should we involve them with the 'jar?'" Baekhyun whispered next to Chanyeol.

The taller one let out a chuckle. "Nah, that just means more people to bring to Hawaii, which'll cost more." The shorter one nodded as he began plating the gazpacho next to Chanyeol who was cooking his halibut.

Chanyeol looked over at his friend's plating. He smiled at himself knowing that they share some bonding time during the chaotic moments of the kitchen.

"Oh crap, I forgot Kyungsoo's part of the gazpacho at my station," Baekhyun yelled and rushed back to his station. Chanyeol couldn't help but giggle at how cute Baekhyun was.

"So what WAS that plan you were talking about?" Sehun asked from behind.

Chanyeol turned around. "My gosh, you really need to stop doing that.."

"Doing what?" The younger one asks cluelessly..

"That thing when you surprise people by using a soft voice when you're right behind them." Sehun tilted his head in confusion. "Oh just- nevermind, maknae."

"So..that plan.." Sehun continued.

"Right, right." Chanyeol fixed his hair. "I think you should hang out with Baekhyun more."

"BUT HE'S THE ENEMY HERE!" Sehun hissed.

"Oh my gosh, you've been playing too many RPG games on your Xbox," Chanyeol screamed to the ceiling. "I'm about to throw that thing out the window. I've been through sleepless nights because of all the shooting and shouting from you and Jongin! But anyway, yes, you should hang with Baekhyun because it'll drive Luhan away from him. It might even make Luhan jealous and think, 'Oh, why does Baekhyun hang out with Sehun more than me? Maybe I should spend more time with Sehun as well..' And then Luhan will spend more time with you, and Baekhyun will surely stay with me."

"How does that even work?"

"I don't know.. reverse psychology or something?" Chanyeol lightly slapped Sehun's head. "It's going to work, trust me," he smiled.

"Alright, I'm in. I'm in."

Things to Explain:

1) tonkatsu - a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet. AKA, MY COMFORT FOOD ALSGJA;SJGA;LS IT'S REALLY GOOD.

So sorry for the long wait. I hope this long chapter was worth waiting for ; 3 ; So yeah. GUESS WHO'S RUNNING THE KITCHEN IN THE NEXT CHAPTER?? UHUHUHUHUHU. We're going to have fun with the chefs. INCLUDING JONGDAE THE COOK.