The Thorn Birds

"Get out of the way! Out of the way please!"

A bright red bicycle was now hurtling down the road, the legs of its rider peddling at the speed of light as she sped down the tarmac. Dressed in a casual checkered blue shirt and jeans, wrapped round with her grey overcoat and white scarf, the girl had one hand on the handlebar and the other waving frenziedly in front of her, trying to get the pedestrians out of her way. The temperatures in Seoul were sub-zero and this time of year, but there were beads of sweat trickling down from her forehead, evidence of the amount of physical exertion she was carrying out with that frantic peddling.

As she turned the corner, the sparkling black marble facade of a forty-storey building came into view. Right at the top of it stood the glittering gold letters that spelt out: Global Hotel. Global Hotel Seoul was merely one of the many owned by the massively wealthy Global Group, an enterprise whose mainstay was the hotel business, but also had numerous holdings in other areas including real estate and import trade.

A job with Global Group meant a one-way ticket to success.

As she peddled her way up to the back door of Global Hotel, Eunjung leapt off her bicycle and threw it hastily down in the employees' bicycle park, immediately making a mad dash for the door. A quick glance at her watch told her that she was already five minutes late for her first day of work.

"I'm sorry!" she turned her head quickly and called out as she accidentally brushed past a man who was walking down the corridors, knocking him in the right shoulder. Before the man in the black peacoat could reply, she was already flying into the distance.

She ran at top speed all the way down the hallway to the kitchens, where a group of seven trainees and the other regular kitchen staff of the hotel's restaurant had already lined up in two neat rows. Throwing her bag down by the side, Eunjung quickly assumed her position at the end of the line of trainees, trying not to notice that all eyes were now staring at her.

Looks like the boss isn't here yet, she thought to herself.

Eunjung heaved a sigh of relief when she realised that everyone seemed to still be waiting. "Are we still waiting for the boss to show up?" she whispered to the girl stood next to her.

The girl nodded and whispered back, "Apparently the restaurant has hired a new head chef and he's also reporting for the first time today. The manager has gone to receive him out front..."

"New head chef?" Eunjung repeated to herself. Not that it made any difference to her, after all, this was her first time stepping into this kitchen herself.

Jin Eunjung was an aspiring pastry chef, emphasis on the "aspiring" part. Despite having graduated top of her patissiere class three years back, an unfortunate accident that disabled her right hand meant that her dreams had had to be put on hold until she had regained full mobility of her hand. The physical injury was the least of it all - what had been more debilitating was the psychological injury she had suffered after the accident, which left her heart and soul in a dozen fractured pieces. Only now were the wounds slowly beginning to heal, but there was no doubt that there would still be numerous scars left behind.

Across from them, one of the senior kitchen staff gave them a sharp glare, hinting for them to stop the incessant whispering. Everyone seemed to be on tenterhooks this morning, as they anticipated the arrival of the new head of the kitchen.

Within the next five minutes, they could hear footsteps coming down the corridor and two men entered the kitchen. One of them was a portly middle-aged man in a sharp pin-striped business suit, his cheeks flushed red from the exertion of having walked too much within too short a span of time. The other was much younger, dressed in a black peacoat covering his carefully-pressed navy blue shirt, his dark brown hair swept upwards and to the back, not a single strand out of place. The minute they stepped foot into the kitchen, a buzz of excitement went up amongst the staff as they set eyes upon their new boss. Someone even dropped her phone onto the floor at the shock of realising who the young man was.

"Why's everyone so excited?" Eunjung whispered to the girl next to her. It seemed like a disproportionate amount of excitment surrounding the arrival of a new boss.

"Don't you know who he is?" the girl named Misoon replied incredulously.

Eunjung shook her head. He looked vaguely familiar, as though she had seen him somewhere before, but she definitely couldn't match a name to the face.

"That's D.O.!" Misoon squealed.

D.O.? The name rang no bells in Eunjung's head.

"Don't you know who he is? He's the famous Michelin star chef that's on all the culinary magazines! He recently beat the top Parisian chef Antoine Fleur to the title of World's Most Promising Young Chef at the global culinary awards! I can't believe he's going to be our new head chef!"

The manager Mr Kim clapped his hands together, calling for everyone's attention. A wave of silence immediately spread over the room, and everyone looked up intently.

"Alright everyone, attention please. As you all know, today we are welcoming quite a number of new staff into the family. Here beside me is your new head chef, D.O. - I'm sure many of you would have recognised him by now. We are very honoured to have him join us and I hope you will all work well with him to steer our restaurant to greater heights! As for the new trainees, welcome to Global Hotel. You will be here for a trial period of three months, throughout which you will be assessed to determine whether or not you are qualified to sign on as a regular staff. Please work hard and I look forward to seeing good things from you. I will now hand you over to your new head chef." Mr Kim nodded towards D.O., before turning and leaving the kitchen to return to his office.

Everyone's attention was glued to the new head chef, who was now scanning the twenty-odd kitchen staff with cold, expressionless eyes. A couple of the girls were ogling at him wide-eyed, like a bunch of adoring fangirls.

Bunch of imbeciles... Kyungsoo thought to himself. If he was going to raise the standard of Global Hotel's restaurant up to one that he was satisfied with, then it would take a hell lot of work with this bunch. Looking at them, he now understood why the restaurant was so badly panned despite being part of a six-star hotel establishment.

His eyes settled on a girl standing at the end of the line, who was now peering excitedly all over the kitchen. He recognised that grey coat and white scarf the minute he laid eyes on them.

Standing at the head of the line, he opened his mouth and said, "As Manager Kim already said, my name is D.O. and I will be taking over operations in this kitchen from now on. I don't know how your previous head chef worked, but now that you are working under me, there are a number of rules and regulations that I need you to adhere to strictly. One, punctuality. You are expected to report to work punctually at 8AM every day, not a single minute later. Two, cleanliness. In my kitchen, there is a place for everything - I do not expect to see a single item out of place--" He walked over to one of the kitchen benches where someone had left a dirty bowl overnight. With one hand, he picked up the bowl and threw it into the sink, where it landed with a resounding clang that made everyone jump. "Three, quality. I do not compromise on the quality of the food that leaves this kitchen. If anyone sends out anything that is sub-standard, then I do not need you in this kitchen, is that clear?"

There was a murmur of agreement round the room, though everyone was now looking at one another worriedly. The initial excitement of having D.O. as their new head chef was slowly transforming into stress and worry.

"I don't care who you are, or how long you've worked here. If you flout any of my rules, three strikes and you're out," Kyungsoo said calmly. He walked over purposefully down the line, studying each and every one of his new staff carefully, coming to a halt in front of the girl with the grey coat and white scarf.

Eunjung was standing with her head bowed down and eyes facing the floor, when she realised that a pair of brown shoes had come into view. Looking up, she realised that the new boss was now stood in front of her, staring at her with an unreadable expression.

"What's your name?" Kyungsoo asked.

"Me?" Eunjung pointed at herself in surprise, wondering why he was even speaking to her. "Jin Eunjung..."

"Jin Eunjung, strike one."

"What?" Eunjung cocked her head and looked at him quizzically, wondering what on earth that meant. Staring at him and his black peacoat, it suddenly hit Eunjung like a tsunami. She knew where she had seen him before... She had seen him walking down the corridor barely five minutes before he was officially introduced to the staff by Manager Kim, and she had smashed into his right shoulder. Her face scrounged up in despair and her shoulders sank downwards at the realisation that she had been caught late on her first day of work by none other than her new boss.

This was possibly the worst start to a new job.

Kyungsoo walked into the staff changing room, taking off his coat and placing it neatly into the locker that he had been assigned. Out of his bag, he pulled out his chef's uniform, neatly folded and pressed without a single crease to be seen. As he changed out of his clothes and into his uniform, he pondered upon the job that he had just taken up, and whether or not it was a wise move to make.

To everyone who was out there in the kitchen, and to most people who had seen his face before on television or in the magazines, he was simply D.O., the Michelin star chef who made waves in the culinary world with his creative fusion dishes and acute attention to detail that made him one of the top chefs in the world. Few people knew him by his real name, Do Kyungsoo, and that was just as well, since it was an identity that was nothing but a burden upon his shoulders.

When Manager Kim, a stalwart in Global Hotel and one of the few people who knew who he really was, had approached him asking for his help in reviving the dismal state of the hotel's restaurant, he had intially been hesitant to take up the position. Eventually he had caved in, being unable to resist the temptation of executing a Gordon Ramsay style rescue of this pathetic restaurant. His only condition to Manager Kim had been that no one else in the hotel's management hierarchy was to know that he was taking up the position, else he would quit immediately.

Perhaps it will all work out fine... After all, they say the most dangerous place in the world is often the safest place, he thought.

Straightening out his sleeves and smoothing down the front of his shirt, Kyungsoo put the finishing touches onto his pristinely white uniform, giving himself the once over in the mirror. If he was to turn this restaurant on his head, then he had his work cut out for him.

"Welcome back to Global, Do Kyungsoo."