Five Star Michelin | Lee Taeyong x reader

Dates and Tarts

"I thought he was 'jerky'"

You groaned, face in hands, "Would you stop already?"

Taemin paced across your living room, "No, because my best friend has conveniently hidden the fact that she had been dating Lee Taeyong for the past month!", he screeched, "When were you planning on telling me? When you were married? Had two kids and a dog?"

"I haven't told anyone", you assured him, "No one knows."

"Oh thank you for this charity", he scowled, "How the fuck did you manage to hide it from the press?"

"We didn't walk around town showing it off, simple", you said, looking back at the book you were reading, eyes scanning over the words of the page as you skimmed through it, reading over some girl's first love and how it ended sadly with her having to move away.

Taemin sighed, "You will give me the details later", he demanded, "I have a date with Eileen", he gave you a half assed hug, before collecting his coat, "Bye"

"See ya", you called out, flipping the page.

The topic of you dating Taeyong had come up quite by accident, when he asked you if you would be free sometime the next week to go for a movie with him, since it was one the two of you had been looking forward to for a while now. You told him you had plans the day he suggested, slipping up that it was a date with someone, only for the truth to come out and for you to tell him you had been dating Taeyong for a month now.

To be completely honest, it had been your idea, keeping the relationship, if you could even call it that, a secret. The two of you didn't have a label on it per se, at least not yet. Taeyong had been fine with keeping it public, seeing no harm in it, but you had requested to keep it quiet.

It wasn't because you were ashamed, in fact you were quite happy (something that you would have been horrified at just a month back) with him. It was because you weren't comfortable with the media having an insight to every aspect of your life, which was something they were fond of having when it came to celebrities. Taeyong understood and knew this, agreeing to keep it on the low down.

You sighed, turning the page and patiently waiting for the person who you were expecting to arrive. You heard a harsh knock on your door, jumping slightly at the sound and got up from your seat, confused.

The person you were awaiting wouldn't knock like that.

You opened the door, to see two figures instead of one, Taemin and Taeyong standing side by side, Taemin with an expression of comical anger and Taeyong with one of amusement.

"Look who I ran into", Taemin scowled, "You didn't even tell me he was coming."

You sighed in a mixture of exasperation as your friend, "I told no one, and don't you have a date?"

"Oh right", he said, "Goodbye, I'll be back"

"Delighted", you said dryly watching him leave before turning back to Taeyong.

"You know, I listen to his music a lot", he started, "And I had always wondered if I'd meet Lee Taemin, but him looking at me like I was an alien and then dragging me by the collar here was now how I expected to do so."

"I am so sorry about him,", you apologized for your eccentric friend, "he found out by mistake."
Taeyong grinned, "I'm okay with that", he said, "Can I come in?"

You nodded, walking into your own living room, him following you in as you went back to the couch, picking up your book, "Movie?"
Your dates, since you had decided not to show it off to the world, had comprised of movie nights, cooking with each other randomly (which went well the first time until of course he teased you about the salt and you nearly went through with your promise of committing murder) and visits to Café Bul. Irene and Chenle were delighted to see you everytime.

"Actually", you started, "I was wondering...", you trailed off, walking out of the room to put your book back in place, before returning, "If you could teach me how to make tteokbokki?"

He raised an eyebrow at you in surprise, "Really?"

You nodded, "The mild version you made for the awards"

"I would love to teach you, but this is a bit sudden and ingredients-"

"I already got them", you said, before smiling sheepishly, realizing how eager you sounded. He chuckled, at your enthusiasm. "Okay then."

"Great, wait a minute, I'll get everything ready, stay here", you said, walking over to your kitchen and pulling out the ingredients.

Taeyong took off his coat, placing it on your couch and looking around. By now he had been at your house several times, he knew the kitchen, he knew the way everything was placed in your living room, he could navigate it perfectly with his eyes closed.

Yet he stood there, studying the room as if he had never seen it before. He looked at the old TV that you had supposedly had for seven years now, but refused to give away even though you could more than afford to get a new one.

You were funny like that, you held on to random things you had taken a liking to, and kept them, no matter how battered or beat up they were.

Then he looked at his side, to the cabinet with frames, some with friends when you were younger, maybe ten, some when you were older, some with family, and about two with Taemin, who he had met just prior.

Finally his eyes fell on the little table in the middle of the room. A tea poy, to keep books and cups on. There sat a leatherbound journal, the only thing on it.

He walked ahead, picking up the book and flipping it open to its first page, where your name was scrawled in your handwriting at the top right of the first page. He turned it to see just a list on the first page, reading through it and realizing that they were ingredients for a recipe. Following the list was a step by step instruction on how to cook the dish. He turned the pages skimming through the different dishes you had penned down into the book.

Some of them were classic combinations with twists of your own and some were downright genius. He reached the second to last page you had written in, noting the small scribbled note on top.

Introduce this into the desserts menu. Michelin.

That piqued his interest, as he read over the recipe of a tart of some sort that sounded absolutely deletable to him. He read over it, a sort of twisted guilt seeping into his gut.

It was soon becoming clear that these weren't for anyone to see, especially not another chef. Yet he read on, the words imprinting into his mind.

"Apparently that L/n girl aims for another star too"

You were aiming for another star, and you were doing it the same way he had, taking the same risk, changing up the menu, but it seemed as if you were doing it slowly. Tentative, baby steps towards your goal. A smart idea.

"Just outshine her"

It was like a moral conflict, on one hand, he wanted to make Lee Sooman proud, but on the other was you, you who he had fallen for, someone he cared about, who also happened to be his competition.

He clicked a picture of the page and shut the book with shaking hands, and placed it back, composing himself again before you walked into the room, which you did a matter of seconds later, pulling him into your kitchen as you started bickering with him. He laughed at you, showing you how to make the dish he held close to his heart, teasing you about the seasoning.

But throughout it all, he couldn't shake off the guilt, the feeling of dread. He couldn't shake off his mentor's cold stare and demanding words.

"You will make me proud, won't you?"