Chef's Ambition (Hirai Momo x Female Reader)

Chapter 17

1 Week Later

Saturday Afternoon: 2:00 P.M

Momo's POV

It was finally the rerun day of the annual cooking competition. Fortunately, it was moved to a Saturday, so the entire group could make it to support me and keep Y/N safe. Although we don't expect anything to happen, we must be careful for the time being.

The past week has been spent mainly training with Y/N at home. Although I easily could have gone to classes, I decided to stay home with Y/N. It was a lot more useful and interesting to train under Y/N then to go to boring lectures. I was able to use my mostly healed injuries as an excuse and obtained notes from some of my classmates who didn't try to bully me.

The training with Y/N has been a grueling experience. Y/N became a completely different person the moment we started our sessions. She was basically a drill sergeant and would yell at me for any little mistake I made no matter how small. I am honestly at a lack of words to describe the experience. Like how does the cute and adorable Y/N become so serious and passionate when she is cooking to the point that I question if it's actually Y/N or not? Honestly, there is no answer to that question.

Y/N invited Y/B/N over to our training sessions, but they rejected the offer. We decided to keep them in the loop by video calling them. It really felt like Y/B/N was a third wheel because Y/N and I would constantly forget that they were "present". Y/B/N ended up teasing us a few times whenever Y/N and I got a little bit too close at times.

Y/N pulled me to the side right before I split away from the group to go get ready for the competition. She gave me another dog charm that looked exactly like Boo. I thanked her as I placed the charm into my pocket and told her that there was something important I wanted to tell her if I win. Y/N nodded her head and gave me a kiss on the cheek and ran off before I could react.

That was only a couple of minutes ago, but I was still smiling like an idiot. Some people were giving me weird looks, but I didn't care as that was one of the best things to happen to me today. I was even more motivated to win just because of that one small action.

The competition started and the emcee introduced all of the rules and information as is tradition. It was announced that the theme was changed to "love". Everyone was surprised by this as that meant we could cook anything we wanted. From what I have read, every theme has been concrete, and this is the first open-concept theme.

I went straight for the food-storage units the moment the bell rang to signal the start of the competition. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to make, but I thought of what I wanted to cook for Y/N at that moment and my hands instantly moved on their own. I grabbed what I needed for budae jjigae, sundubu jjigae, and japchae.

My selections were a bit weird, but all that mattered is that it was what I wanted to create for Y/N right now. I looked up at the audience and was able to find Y/N in the sea of people. We made eye contact and she smiled at me. That smile gave me even more motivation to win this competition.

I picked up my knife and was about to start preparing the ingredients when I remembered the harsh teachings of Y/N. I repositioned myself and fixed my posture before continuing. Y/N complained about my position relative to the cutting board and my general posture. She even went as far as physically moving me to prove her point. I was a tad scared by this side of Y/N as I never expected her to be this aggressive and assertive.

I started the cooking process. Every movement I made triggered Y/N's voice and the memory inside my head complaining about what I was doing and Y/N showing me exactly the best way to do it. I tasted everything like she had taught me and made sure to constantly check everything as it cooked. I was thankful for all of the harsh criticism as Y/N truly showed the flaws in my methods that I never noticed. Y/N wasn't the type to just yell at you and not help you; she praised me every time I did things correctly after she showed me the correct way to do it which made me happy to hear. I craved for the good feeling her praise gave me and worked hard to make her praise me at every moment throughout our training.