cinnamon » vernon

»reflecting

"Chop this thinner, and faster."

He held a piece of the green pepper in his fingers and scrunched his nose as he examined it.

"Why are you being so generous? You're cooking, not volunteering." He threw it away and told me to start over, fading into the kitchen yet again.

I sighed heavily as I chopped my fifth green bell pepper today, trying to focus on my hands and not on the chef's voice, reading out the orders.

"... Kang Jiyeon!"

"yes!" I kept up my knife work and lifted my head as the chef yelled out my name.

His brows furrowed deeply as he looked at the knife in my hands. "Yah, Kang Jiyeon!" He yelled rushing towards me.

I let go of the knife in my hand and looked down, seeing my thumb drenched in blood. I swallowed air, immediately taking my hand away from the cutting board.

I can't get blood on the vegetables.

"What are you doing?!" He yelled again, letting out a stressed sigh.

"I'm sorry, chef." I let out firmly, trying not to cry in pain. I bit my lip to keep myself from doing so.

Taking my hand and looking at it attentively, he wrapped my finger in his uniform's black apron and called out the sous-chef. "Get her first aid, as soon as you finish the pasta."

Then, he turned to me again. "Didn't you ever learn to watch what you're doing?" I looked up at him an nodded, feeling embarrassed. "Answer properly." He commanded, firmly.

"Yes, chef." I kept my eyes down as I kept the tears to myself. Actually, he was pressing my thumb into the fabric way to tightly and it was starting to hurt.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried thinking of something else. "I shouldn't be teaching you this kind of stuff. You're off for lunch today, reflect hard." He said sternly.

To this day, chef vernon's voice still gave me the creeps. He was just too serious all the time, too demanding.

"Yes, chef." I repeated in a low tone.

"Be back at seven." He finally let go of my finger and I accidentally sighed in relief.

The look chef gave me after that was dangerous.

"Go." I excused myself and rushed towards the storage room, where sous-chef leaned his back against a pile of boxes filled with apples, searching through the first aid kit.

He lifted his head and let out a small smile as I walked inside the cramped division. I sat on the bench in front of him with a sigh.

"Finger." I put out my hand and he held my thumb, examining it for a bit.

"Thank you for the first aid, sous chef."

"I'm still working, you're off, from what I heard from here. Drop the title already..." he lifted his eyes from my cut for a second.

I let out a smile. "Gosh Jun, if I knew the new chef would be like this I'd never-"

"Your uncle was cooler." He cut me. I flinched slightly when he started cleaning the deep cut. "But this vernon guy? He's got a lot of experience. This guy's no joke in the kitchen."

"You have a lot of experience too." I lifted an eyebrow. "You even studied abroad!"

"But I'm not a chef..."

"You're a sous chef, jun. It's not that far apart." He chuckled lightly as he wrapped a plaster around my finger.

I held my thumb in front of my face, examining it. "Amazing." I sighed. My first aid was sloppy but jun's was always perfect.

"I know." He smiled and crossed his arms, looking down at me.

I then got up and thanked him. "I gotta go and reflect now." I took my hands to my neck, trying to untie my white apron's knot. I struggled for a bit.

Jun then chuckled and circled around me, getting a hold of the knot.

"Just ask for help if you can't do something, silly." His fingertips brushed the back of my neck lightly for a second, as he carefully untied my apron.

"Thanks, Jun." I turned to him and smiled. "You should get back to work now."

"I should." As soon as we stepped outside the storage room, chef's head peeked into the hall as he called jun back to work. "yes, chef!"

I saw as he turned around and waved before entering the kitchen. "Reflect hard!" He commanded.

"I will, I will!"