Tofu Tarts

Eunjung stretched out her arms and slowly opened her eyes. The morning sunshine streamed into the room through the translucent curtains, giving it a nice, warm glow. Opening her mouth wide for a yawn, the girl turned on her side, not wanting to get out of her comfortable bed. Beneath her head, her pillow felt softer than ever before, as though it were stuffed full of down feathers instead of the cheap cotton that it actually was. The bed also felt more comfortable than she remembered, making her not want to wake up at all.

What time is it... Why's the alarm not ringing...

She squinted at the clock by her bedside. It read 8.05AM.

When the numbers registered in her brain, Eunjung immediately shot up on the bed. "Oh my God how is it already 8.05!" She typically set her alarm for 7 in the morning, just so she would be able to get to work at half eight. She was never going to make it on time now.

After the shock of the time of day wore over, she was about to be faced with an even more shocking revelation.

"Where the hell am I?" She looked around bewildered by the unfamiliar surroundings, which now explained why her bed felt so much more comfortable than she remembered. She was in what appeared to be a hotel room, with clean white sheets and white curtains, along with classy wooden furnishings. Eunjung immediately looked down, and sighed with relief when she realised she was still fully clothed.

Where am I? How on earth did I end up here?

She got out of the bed and walked over to the window. A quick glance outside immediately informed her about her whereabouts. This was the view she looked at pretty much every day, except she typically saw it from the ground floor, not twenty storeys up. She was in one of the hotel rooms of Global Hotel, the very place she worked.

Scratching her head, she pondered upon the mystery of how she had ended up here. The first image that popped into mind was that of a tuna fillet being seared in a pan, the second was the face of a man she would rather not rememeber. Her last memory was of her cursing D.O. as she chopped her tomatoes, and then... nothing.

What on earth happened after that? Did he put me here? She smacked her head, wishing that she was less of a heavy sleeper.

Another glance at the clock told her that the time was now a quarter past eight.

Eunjung immediately headed for the door, dashing her way down to the ground floor where the restaurant was. Thankfully she was in the hotel building itself, so she probably wouldn't be late. She was wearing the same stinky uniform that she had been wearing yesterday, complete with tomato juice stains, but right now she couldn't care less. If she wasn't careful, she would get strike two before the month even ended.

When she arrived in the kitchen, most of the other staff were already lined up for the morning brief, but she still wasn't the latest. Eunjung heaved a sigh of relief and quickly took her place next to Misoon.

"What's with your uniform?" Misoon gawked at her in surprise when she noticed the tomato stains splattered over the front.

Blushing in embarrassment, Eunjung shook her head and said, "Don't ask, I'm not even sure what happened myself." As much as she wished that last night was a bad dream, the stains on her uniform told her otherwise.

The last few members of the kitchen quickly dashed in a couple of minutes before D.O. showed up. Walking in calmly like he always did, without a trace of a smile on his face, their cold head chef did his usual inspection of the crew before the morning shift began.

Please don't stop in front of me, please don't stop, please don't stop.

Eunjung prayed silently to herself as D.O. walked down the row. As he walked past her, her shoulders remained tense all the way until he moved on to the next person without stopping. She let out a sigh of relief.

Then he turned around and walked back, stopping right in front of her.

"Rule number five - uniforms are to be neatly pressed and spotless. If anyone comes to work in this--" he pointed at Eunjung's uniform, "-- sort of a get-up, then you can get ready to kiss your job goodbye." With that, he dismissed the team and headed straight ot his work station without another word to Eunjung.

Eunjung scowled as she watched him walk away. "Why don't you tell everyone why my uniform is like this? It would have been perfectly clean if you hadn't made me chop tomatoes till the wee hours of the morning!" she grumbled under her breath.

"Eunjung, you better be careful. The head chef doesn't seem to like you much..." Misoon whispered to her as they made their way to their side kitchen. It was pretty obvious to everyone else that D.O. seemed to be especially picky when it came to Eunjung and even the tiniest errors she made gave her a high chance of catching his attention for all the wrong reasons. Some of the others had already started a betting pool to bet on how long it would take before she received three strikes and was kicked out for good.

Eunjung banged her palms down on the table in determination and declared, "I don't care if he likes me! I'll prove to him that I deserve a place here!"

D.O., no matter how much you hate me and want me out, I'll prove to you that this kitchen needs me and that I belong here!

#

Chanyeol was waiting impatiently at the Incheon Airport arrival lounge, wondering when on earth the person he was waiting for would appear. He didn't even know what she looked like and all he had to go by was the sheet of paper with her name printed on it that he was now holding in his hands.

Do I look like a freaking tour guide?

Frankly he didn't care two hoots about the girl called Seo Chaekyung that he had been sent to pick up, even if she was the only daughter of Global Group's chief financial officer. She was probably a spoilt brat with her head stuck in the air. If it hadn't been the chairman himself who told him to come, he would have just thrown the sheet of paper into the bin instead of standing here waiting like a fool for a girl who was now an hour late. The plane landed an hour ago, but there was still no sign of her anywhere. He was beginning to wonder if she had perhaps missed the flight altogether.

According to what he was told, Chaekyung was coming back after studying for abroad for a number of years, having graduated with first class honours from Wharton Business School in Pennsylvannia. She was only a fresh graduate but the chairman had already given her the job of director of staff at Global Hotel Seoul, the jewel in the crown of hotels owned by Global Group. She was also the future missus of Global Group, assuming Kyungsoo showed up at some point.

Bloody hell, Kyungsoo, you should be the one doing this, not me. The girl is your fiancee, not mine... Chanyeol groused to himself as he thought about Kyungsoo. Even though he was only the adopted brother, Chanyeol's relationship with Kyungsoo had always been pretty good throughout their childhood days, but these days they hardly spoke anymore. It was a little difficult considering Chanyeol didn't even know where Kyungsoo was most of the time.

He didn't blame Kyungsoo for doing the disappearing act so often because he could see for himself the amount of stress and pressure that Chairman Do put his son under. All Kyungsoo wanted to do was to make good food, not be the chairman of a multi-million dollar empire. His ambitions were not aligned in that direction. Neither was Chanyeol's, but Chanyeol didn't have the guts to do what Kyungsoo had done - run away.

That would explain why he was standing here now, waiting like a fool.

The sliding doors slid open and finally, a girl wearing Chanel sunshades can sashaying out, pushing her trolley that was piled high with three massive luggages. From the way she dressed, Chanyeol immediately knew that she was the one he was waiting for. He waved the sign in the air, trying to get her attention.

"Are you Miss Seo Chaekyung?" he asked when she had walked over.

She nodded haughtily and replied, "Yes, you must be the driver. Take my bags." She took her hands off the trolley and immediately started walking towards the exit, leaving a stunned Chanyeol to deal with her large amount of luggage.

Driver?!

He didn't like her already. Thank goodness he wasn't the one who had to marry her.

#

Kyungsoo was having a headache.

The restaurant manager had just given him a hot potato to deal with and he needed a solution quick. Nothing was coming into his mind right now. It was a complete blank.

In a week's time, the hotel would be receiving some VVIP guests, namely the crown prince of Monaco and his wife, who would be in Seoul for a diplomatic visit to the Blue House. The problem he had to work with now was that the crown princess was allergic to a great number of foods, ranging from eggs to cheese to spice and even to grapes and tomatoes. Kyungsoo would consider himself a chef who could prepare an immensely wide repertoire of dishes, but after he browsed through his mental catalogue, he realised that the number of dishes he had created which didn't contain any of the foods that the princess was allergic to only numbered three. That was hardly enough to feed the royal couple for one meal, much less for a five day visit. Also, the different types of pastries and desserts prepared by the restaurant all contained eggs and milk, both of which were also on the taboo list.

He sighed as he looked down at his pathetic menu, which only had three items on it at the moment. Within a week, he needed to come up with at least seven more dishes, plus a range of desserts that would suit the lady's fussy palate. It was an uphill task, even for a Michelin Star chef like himself.

He wasn't as worried about the main courses as he was about the desserts. According to the information provided to him by Manager Kim, the royal couple had a penchant for sweets, yet this was the area of specialisation that Kyungsoo was most unfamiliar with.

"Take a break sir," a hoarse voice came from behind him. Kyungsoo turned around and saw the chief pattisiere standing behind him with a smile beneath his curly moustache. As much as he liked to keep up his stern demeanour most of the time, Kyungsoo found that he was rather fond of the roly poly man who took charge of the desserts and pastries in his kitchen. Also, the fact that he always noticed the man's belly before the rest of him made him feel like laughing.

Chief pattisiere Dok walked over and placed a slice of fruit tart in front of him. "You've been sitting here for the past three hours, you should eat something. Try this."

Realising that his stomach was rather empty, Kyungsoo decided to oblige the man, reaching for the fork and putting a bit of fruit tart into his mouth. The crust melted almost immediately when it came in contact with his tongue, and the fresh taste of the strawberries and peaches complemented perfectly with the sweetness of the custard within.

"It's good," Kyungsoo said. In fact, it was better than most of the fruit tarts he had ever tasted. "But it tastes a little different..." There was something odd about this tart, yet he couldn't quite put his finger on it. The custard was creamy, but it didn't seem to have the same consistency as the custard he was used to.

"Very good sir, your taste buds are truly like no other," the plump man beamed. "This isn't any ordinary fruit tart indeed! It contains no eggs or milk, so I would call it a vegan fruit tart perhaps? We are thinking of rolling this out in our desserts menu soon, since nowadays there seem to be an increasing number of vegans coming into our restaurant."

No eggs?

No milk?

The bells started ringing non-stop in Kyungsoo's head.

"Are you sure there's no eggs or milk in this tart? How did you make the custard then?" Kyungsoo asked in disbelief. As far as he was aware, he had never ever encountered custard made without eggs before. The essence of custard were the numerous egg yolks that went into it, enough to give you a heart attack, so how was it possible that he had just eaten a mouthful of custard that didn't have any eggs? He had eaten vegan tarts before, but the taste of vegan desserts were alway sub-standard because there simply wasn't any way of re-creating the creamy sweetness without using eggs or milk.

Chief pattisiere Dok beamed proudly and nodded. "It's true! There are no eggs or milk in this tart whatsoever. You'll never guess what the custard is made with."

Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow.

"It's made with tofu!" the plump man chuckled gleefully to himself when he saw the aghast look on Kyungsoo's face. For someone who always walked around the kitchen as though he knew everything there was to know about the culinary world, this was a priceless moment where the great D.O. was looking completely flabbergasted.

Kyungsoo grabbed Dok by the shoulders and shook him hard. "Are you sure? The custard is made from tofu?!" This was the most ridiculous thing that he had ever heard in all his ears in the culinary business. How could a person make custard from tofu, and still make it taste like the real thing!

Dok threw his head back and laughed even more, his face turning ruddy red as he did so. "I am not lying to you, the custard is truly made from tofu. I didn't believe it myself when she told me but Eunjung made it for me right in front of my eyes, so I have no choice but to believe her."

"Eunjung? Jin Eunjung? She made this?"

Dok nodded his head. "That girl has got quite the creative spark up in that head of hers. She'll be a great pattisiere one day if she sets her mind to it." So far he had been fairly impressed with Eunjung's work, even though the head chef seemed to have a particular dislike for the girl. She had a flair for making sweets and a certain odd sort of creativity that he had never seen before in a pastry chef. If her talents were well honed and developed, then she would definitely carve a name for herself one day. "So, do I have to go ahead to put this in next month's menu?"

"Do whatever you want," was Kyungsoo's hasty reply. Within a split second, he had already sprung to his feet and dashed out of the door. Right now he didn't have time to worry about next month's menu. He had a week to come up with a dessert that would suit the tastebuds of the world's most fussy eater and a certain trainee pattisiere had just delivered the perfect solution right to his doorstep.

He couldn't possibly serve something as basic as a strawberry tart to royalty, but at least right now he had a starting point to work with.

If Jin Eunjung could help him cross this hurdle, then he would even consider rescinding her first strike.

If.