Nice and Spicy! - a jaedo/dojae oneshot

Nice and Spicy!

Wow.

"That's... certainly very interesting."

"Quite intriguing, indeed... must have taken a lot of time."

"Oh, shut up, you little brats!" Doyoung exclaimed as he threw a handful of cornstarch at his younger brother, Haechan, and his boyfriend Renjun, who both ducked under the counter. "I just lost my focus for a second."

Haechan snickered. "A second? Hyungie, you lost your focus for about two hours by the looks of it. What's gotten into you?"

To be fair, the mochi DID look terrible. Not only they had lumps, you could see the sweet bean paste sticking out, and the shapes were just... sad. The kitchen was also a mess: cornstarch everywhere, matcha and cocoa powder in the weirdest of places, and overly-sticky mochi shells were hanging off several disregarded paper towels. The scene was just depressing.

"The beans weren't hydrated enough, so now my anko is a failure. I also steamed my shell too much and added too much matcha – they taste like sweet fish corpses." The wannabe-chef sighed, wiping his chair with the mochi-free part of the nearest paper towel. He sat down with an even bigger sigh, putting his head in his hands. "I should have sticked with some Gimbap today. Baking, especially Japanese dishes, is too much for me."

Renjun approached the distressed boy, stepping carefully over a pretty big pile of glutinous rice. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Doyoungie hyung. You had a rough day yesterday, your boss was an ass. I'm sure Yuta hyung will understand if you bring him not-homemade mochi for once."

"Thanks Renjunnie. I just wanted it to be perfect, that's all. I'll stop by a shop later today." Doyoung got up, dusted himself off and headed towards the sink. "So what are you two doing here? Not that I don't appreciate your company or something."

"We were just checking on you. Taeyongie hyung texted us about how he found you crying last night," Haechan said as he handed some dirty bowls to Doyoung "so we wanted to make sure you're okay now."

"Don't worry about me. Just had a rough day, that's all."

"You really need to quit, hyung. That boss of yours is making your life hell. I've come to check up on you more times than I won an overwatch match as Widowmaker for the past few months." Haechan gloated.

"Yeah!" Renjun supplied. "You definitely should. A friend's brother owns a restaurant chain: with your skills and some good old-fashioned favoritism, you'd get the job in no time! His name is Kun, and I bet he'll adore you."

Doyoung smiled. "As good as it sounds, I really need to think this through. What's the name? I'll look it up and see if I could be of some use there."

"Dream Launch. They mainly sell Chinese dishes, but they have other things on the menu as well – nothing you can't do."

"Dream launch? I think I've heard of it. Thank you, guys. Really. I'll finish cleaning up this mess and I'll get ready to go to Yuta's gathering."

"No problem hyungie. And you're welcome." Haechan winked.

Doyoung threw a paper towel at him. "Just go away, you leech."

***********

"Two bowls of mango-flavored shaved ice, 3 bowls of kimchi stew, 2 portions of Samgyeopsal, 1 plate of Gimbap and one extra-spicy Jjamppong for table 17!"

Chaos. That was the perfect word to describe the state of the Resonance restaurant at that moment.

The kitchen was filled with agitated, angry cooks and various staff, the heat and the powerful smells coming from every stove adding to the tense atmosphere. Everyone was screaming, pots and pans were clacking and banging – all under the supervision of the Head Chef, Moon Taeil.