Five Star Michelin | Lee Taeyong x reader

Five Stars

Ever since Taeyong was ten, he had dreamed of making it in the cooking industry.

He vividly remembered cooking with his mother every Sunday, as she explained her secret tips and tricks to getting the food to taste a certain way. The smell of the kitchen was one of his comforts, along with standing beside his mother as she taught him how to cut the onions properly for a specific dish.

His love for cooking and food only grew, and at fifteen he was taken under former Michelin chef, Lee Sooman's wing. Lee Sooman taught him everything he knew, bringing Taeyong up to the level of the world-famous chefs, before letting him take the lead.

The celebrity status came along when he earned his first Michelin star, and he got more attention, not only for his food but for his looks too. If he wasn't a chef, he could certainly be a model.

When he hit his third Michelin star, he knew he had made it, and was beyond joyful, but he wasn't done. The goal was five Michelin stars, that was what he had always wanted, and what he had always worked towards. So he changed things up, taking the risk.

A risk that lost him a star.

That was devastating, but not altogether bad. He was still one of the best chefs, and the prestige and honour of once having three never faded, but it was a setback.

"You'll have to get it back somehow", Lee Sooman warned, "It's not just your reputation boy, it's the restaurants"

That was what his mentor told him when he first lost the star. It was as if he didn't really care for taeyong, no, he cared for the reputation that he had built around Taeyong using him like some sort of device. After all, Sooman had lost all of his own stars.

It sometimes felt like he was trying to love his dream through Taeyong. Having the title of mentoring a famous chef was gloat-worthy.

But Taeyong strived for himself too, it was his dream before anything else.

He sighed, taking a sip of the wine he had poured himself as some meaningless T.V show played in the background.

Of course, there was this inkling, this feeling of regret every time he let his mentor down. He had practically grown up with him, and the urge to please was very much alive, even now. He had been like a father figure to Taeyong.

That was the thing, he felt like a child in front of his mentor, especially when he told Taeyong that earning that Michelin star back was an absolute must. Lee Sooman held shares in Ncity, being one of the people who helped start the place, and one of the owners, so he had a say in everything that happened.

Taeyong was the other owner, along with being the head chef. He was living his dream, the chef who had it all, the chef everyone admired. Yet he wasn't done, he wasn't complete yet.

Five Stars was the goal. Five stars he would get.