chasing girl wonder

beer & skittles

A/N: There's no way I can end this fic with 40 chapters so, yeah. Let's just roll with it.

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"Do you hear the difference?" Lisa said, showing Sangmoon how to proficiently dice an onion. They were practicing the different kinds of slices in the room next to the kitchen which would soon become their office. After cutting vertical lines through half of the onion, she turned it counterclockwise and pressed her left hand on top of it to hold it in place. "Then I slice it through horizontally. Just once, keeping the root there, so...," she sliced through, "you see, it doesn't rip the onion apart."

Leaning forward a little, Sangmoon nodded, focused on the way Lisa's hands were placed and the direction of her cuts.

Lisa continued, "Then I go, slice them this way." She pushed the knife down to make the diced cuts at a slower speed so Sangmoon could follow. "It's a clean dice, right?"

"Yeah," Sangmoon said, being offered the other half. Lisa gestured for him to try it. He was a little nervous despite having tried it out several times when he helped to cook at home. But there was still a tad of difference from how professional chefs like Lisa and at the culinary school—even Nana—do it.

Patiently observing Sangmoon, Lisa remained quiet, stepping back to give him some room.

Out of nervousness and consciousness, Sangmoon asked casually, "How often should I sharpen the knife?"

"With a whetstone, monthly. It depends on how often you use your knife. You'll know when it needs sharpening," Lisa answered, her eyes on Sangmoon's hands, shifting to the knife occasionally. "It's just for three minutes or so. Just learn to do it properly. I'll teach when we need to. You can't," she paused and nodded when Sangmoon finished, "over sharpen your knife. Damages it."

Sangmoon put the knife down and stepped back to give way for Lisa. Catching a bead of sweat that trickled down his sideburn using the back of his index finger, he pursed his lips, and winced, unsatisfied with his work. "I think I—I got it wrong on the," he made a horizontal cut in the air with his hand.

Lisa hummed, pushing the diced onion over to the right and picking another half-sliced onion. "Here. Make sure your knife is angled straight. See that?" She glanced at Sangmoon who bobbed his head. "Then, keep your fingers tucked and observe how I slice through—pull all the way down so the tip of the knife touches right before the root," she tapped the root of the onion with her index finger, "so it stays intact. You hear the knife—the tip—just barely touching the board?"

Sangmoon fixed his eyes on the knife. "I hear it. It's... sleek how you do it."

"It's neat, yeah?" Lisa then twisted the onion to the right and placed her left palm flat above the onion again, like what she did earlier, applying enough pressure so the pieces would not scatter while doing a horizontal cut in the middle. "Now, after, you slice forward to dice them. Then finish with the last couple of...," she sliced the edges and tail of the root to make a few more dice cuts, "...pieces."

"Okay, I—I got it. I'll keep practicing," Sangmoon said, wearing a sheepish smile.

"Take your time." Handing Sangmoon another half-sliced onion, Lisa picked up the plastic deli quart container with her free hand as her phone alarmed to remind her to take her meds. It brought a smile to her face remembering Roseanne was the one who set it on her phone that morning, knowing she would forget about it, teasing her that a bear was probably more responsible than she was. She waited for Sangmoon to finish dicing before taking the meds.

"Ho—How is it?" Sangmoon beamed fretfully.

Lisa slapped Sangmoon's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. "Good one. Keep practicing, alright? Customers may not notice it, and it doesn't have to be perfect. But it's a crucial part of the process because people eat with their eyes first. And chefs should learn how to feed the eyes too."