Tteok (떡) to my Heart (MoonSun AU)

Chapter 23: Décaltteokmanie

After sealing a deal with Min oppa, Eric drove us back to ssaem's house where everyone is waiting for the outcome after exposing his true colours. It only took us two knocks and the door were quickly pried open to reveal quite an audience – ssaem, So-Hyun, Hyejin, Nurse Jung, Wendy and her sister all looked antsy.

"Well?" Hyejin broke the silence first, "What happened?"

Eric let out a huge sigh while pushing my head with his index finger as he explained the whole situation and concluded, "That's what happened... Aaaaand... Surprise, surprise. This idiot took the bait and agreed to the cooking competition."

"YOU DID WHAT?!" The choir of audience yelled in unison, causing me to jam my ears with my hands while I allow the ringing to settle down in my eardrums.

"Chef Min is the head chef and owner of 3 Michelin Star restaurant, are you even hearing yourself right now?!" Hyejin complained.

"Well, I can't even hear myself right now after all that yelling." I thought to myself, but my gut feelings tell me I shouldn't say it out loud otherwise the consequences would be dire. Although there was silence in the room and all they did was stare at me, it takes no brainer to read their facial expression as if they're asking me, 'Now what?!'

Instead of explaining everything, I figured its easier to show them what's on my mind, "Let's go, follow me." At first, they were questioning where and why but I just left leaving them no choice but to follow suit. After we arrived at Tteok Tokki, I made eye contact with Wendy's sister Eun-Seo eonni, "Eonni, are we clear?"

She tapped her finger on her earpiece to confirm and replied, "No sign of spies lurking around. I have dispatched a few officers to monitor our surroundings." After I confirmed we're in the safe zone, I took out 2 pots of sauce. Firstly, I opened the pot on my left and gave each of them a teaspoon to taste it. The reactions were very welcoming, "Hmmm... This sauce is so addicting, I can't get enough of it!" said Hyejin, while others nodded.

Next, I opened the pot on my right and gave them a new utensil to try it. Again, Hyejin is the first to comment, "Whoa... This is also good! I can't stop eating!" Nurse Jung then licked the sauce clean and use the spoon to tap on the crown of Hyejin's head, "Ya! Everything taste good to you, can you even tell the difference?!"

"B-Byulyi..." Hyejin began to tear up, which made us all surprised wondering what happened until she explained, "W-Wheeinie just tapped my head with her spoon... P-Part of her is on my hair... It feels like shaking hands with an idol I'm never washing my hair again!"

"YA!!!! It's Nurse Jung for you... and that's DIRTY!" Nurse Jung quickly took a tissue and wiped her head and Hyejin responded even more to it, "Awww... Look. Now she's patting my head."

I decided to end Nurse Jung's suffering and cleared my throat, "tell me, which one do you all prefer? First or second?" Everyone put up a peace sign, signalling number two and I nod in satisfaction, "Good choice, because number two is the real recipe for Tteok Tokki sauce."

"That reminds me... Number one tasted like what we had from hyung's food truck earlier." Eric commented, as expected from the younger brother he has keen palate.

"Correct. That's the recipe I used to lure him out." I confirmed, finally explaining the details of the competition, "The contest has a total of two rounds. First round is presenting the dish to a panel of five judges who will score our tteokbokki on a scale of 1 to 10. The second round is public blind tasting. We'll have our food stalls facing each other, but the consumers wouldn't know who the chef behind the stall is, because there will be no signage, and so whoever has the highest number of patrons will win."