Five Star Michelin | Lee Taeyong x reader

Controlled

"Damnit Taeyong, we'll never get it back", Lee Sooman hissed at the chef, who looked very much like a child in the moment, standing straight, shoulders back, avoiding all eye contact with the older man in the room.

Taeyong wondered how the situation would've gone down if he had just stood up for himself and hadn't been such a coward, but it remained a pondering thought, as he let himself be reprimanded by the man he loved and hated at the same time.

He couldn't tell him to stop, it was physically impossible. In front of Lee Sooman, he was a child again, the fifteen year old who begged the man to teach him how to cook. Maybe that's why he wanted to prove himself, because he had learnt everything he knew from his mentor. He felt indebted to him, like he needed to give something back in return for everything he had done.

"We?" Taeyong asked, "I am the one with the stars, not the restaurant."

"You are the restaurant," Sooman countered, "You looking good means the restaurant looks good, which in turn means I look good."

It was never about Taeyong.

It was always about himself.

Taeyong realized he was just this doll, a puppet used to play by the rules just to let Lee Sooman get the respect he had lost after being forgotten in a world that used to be his.

Why didn't Taeyong hate him then? Why didn't he despise him?

"I have a way", Taeyong said, "I don't-"

"What is it?"

Taeyong swallowed down the lump in his throat, the guilt building up. Just to make him proud, he told himself.

Would she be proud?

"Change the menu", he said, earning a look of disapproval from Sooman that made him want to shrink away, "We all know how that turned out."

"You told me to outshine here didn't you", Taeyong said, "I can"

And so he told his mentor about what he knew, what he remembered. He held his hands behind his back to prevent anyone from seeing how they shook from guilt. A slow smile spread over Lee Sooman's face, which further fed Taeyong's guilt, "That's perfect."

Wrong. It was so wrong. The moment he found himself telling Sooman was the moment he knew he couldn't do this. He changed his opinion suddenly, trying to coax the older man out of the plan, but it was futile.

"Don't be daft Taeyong", he said, "This is a great opportunity. Go through with it or I'll be extremely disappointed."

And so Taeyong shut up, consumed by his guilt, controlled.