For everyone: Larousse Gastronomique
For: Everyone
Author: rainbowfwish
Title: Larousse Gastronomique
Rating: G
Pairing: Kyungsoo/Yixing
Word count: 3.7k
Warnings: There is a surplus of idiots.
Summary: L'homme De Beurre gets a new sous chef. He speaks beautiful French. Kyungsoo is either really jealous or really turned on.
A/N: Thank ye Google Translate. There's also a PWP version of this but it was on OP's do not want list but will be made available if gorgeous OP decides she wants it.
Kyungsoo should be looking for another job.
It's not that Joonmyun is a bad owner or that Minseok is a bad manager. Joonmyun always makes sure they work reasonable hours, their birthdays are remembered, and they're paid on time. Also he doesn't argue about overtime either, which is a huge plus. Minseok, in all four years since Kyungsoo started working here, has never once dragged him out of his kitchen to apologise to an angry customer about one tiny bone in his snapper grenobloise or the undercooking (or overcooking) of his biftek, taking blame for the purportedly ruined dish and apologising on his behalf. He Okays short-notice shift swaps and rarely asks the reason why Kyungsoo would like to have Thursday instead of Tuesday off, and when he does it's only out of concern for the head chef because he's been working for six days straight and quite honestly, he needs a break.
So really, it's got nothing to do with Joonmyun or Minseok. Kyungsoo would follow them to the ends of the earth.
It's just that the rest of his colleagues are a bunch of imbeciles, a dime a dozen, and Kyungsoo can't work around them anymore because surely idiocy of that level is infectious.
On a good day Sehun gets three out of ten orders wrong. On a bad day, they sit him down in a corner of the busy kitchen with a plate of champagne chiboust to occupy him and Minseok personally delivers the right dish to the right table with an effortless airiness and the graceful flounce of a distinguished pupil of French waiter school who graduated with Honours and glowing recommendations. Tao, their other waiter, had taken to bringing bouquets of red roses and stripping them of their petals, only to scatter them on any available plate as he saw fit.
"It's art," he'd argued passionately when finally confronted by an angry Kyungsoo (who didn't appreciate unsanitary rose petals on his entrées, plat principals and desserts) and their even angrier rôtisseur Chanyeol, who had allergies and puffy eyes and a red nose to show for it. "And red roses mean amour." He pronounced it 'ay-mow-arr'. "That's French for love. The petals are supposed to symbolise that all of our dishes are made with ay-mow-arr, you unsophisticated philistines. Joonmyun! Am I right or am I right?"
Joonmyun, who had been hovering nervously in the doorway of his office, smiled uncertainly.
"Um, it's actually pronounced ah-moor, dear." And when Tao had reddened unattractively and was about to weep, he'd quickly added: "But I think it's a wonderful gesture. Very meaningful." He consoled the young man, who immediately straightened up and puffed out his chest, head held high. Taking this opportunity, Joonmyun quickly concluded the argument. "But some of our guests didn't realise that the rose petals were merely for decoration and they've eaten them. I was told that they, uh, don't really go well with most of our dishes."
The restaurant had two sommeliers. Neither one of them, in Kyungsoo's professional opinion, were up to standard. In fact Kyungsoo viewed them as two drunks who believed it was in their job description to finish off any opened bottle of wine left at the end of the night. Kyungsoo had once caught the two of them with a half full bottle of Riesling and a soup ladle full of époisses each, taking turns at pouring a little of the Riesling into the ladle and eating the soft cheese and wine as is, never mind the fact that the two ingredients were never going to emulsify into a smooth paste and was going to remain horribly lumpy and curdled no matter how many times they chewed. As far as Kyungsoo was concerned, Baekhyun and Jongdae were two piggish barbarians.
Yifan was the most uninviting and hostile maître d' you could ever have the misfortune of encountering: he seemed to have all his facial muscles set in stone because "smiling causes premature aging and wrinkles and I am a vision of male beauty amongst homo sapiens, I do not smile". Lu Han was only good at his job of being host so long as Minseok stayed in the kitchen and staffrooms and didn't come anywhere close to where Lu Han could potentially extend a hand diseased with depravation towards Minseok's nether regions, front or back. Jongin, their saucier, was probably the only one who could do a decent job, but he tired easily and had to go for a five minute power nap-like-the-dead every forty minutes regardless of how loud Kyungsoo yelled and Chanyeol banged his pots and pans (and dropped everything with alarming regularity), right during lunch and dinner rush hour.
Kyungsoo didn't really interact much with their other waiters (Taeyong, Ten, Johnny, Jaehwan and Yuta), but he was sure that he could find something wrong with them too if he put his mind to it, nit-picky as he was. You didn't get to be head chef of a fairly illustrious authentic French restaurant by being nice or having low standards. French cuisine demanded the best!
So it was with a heavy heart that Kyungsoo wrote his letter of resignation, typed with small but bold letters on his typewriter on creamy white stationary paper. His tone was kind but firm, and offered many encouragements and expressed both his heartfelt gratitude at being able to work here under Joonmyun and Minseok and his most sincere apologies for being unable to work with men of Baekhyun and Jongdae's unsavoury calibre any longer, lest he go insane.
Joonmyun heaved a long, suffering sigh when the chef de cuisine delivered his letter on Monday afternoon. Before he could turn his mouth into a pout and widen his eyes Kyungsoo held up a finger threateningly and warned him: "Don't you guilt trip me into staying, Joonmyun."
"I wouldn't do that," Joonmyun reassured him, but nevertheless started begging shamelessly, going so far as to come around his heavy oak desk and giving his top employee a comradely pat on the back and offered him a glass of the '93 sauvignon blanc. Kyungsoo glared at him darkly because damn if that wasn't a dirty move.
"I know these four years haven't been easy on you, especially with staff like ours, but they're all really nice kids and I don't have the heart to fire any of them if we're bringing in a good profit. Which we are. Somehow. Miraculously." Joonmyun coughed. "The point is I know these past three months have been particularly hard for you because our second-in-command quit, but can I ask you one last favour and just think about it for another week? I was originally going to tell you today too, but we finally hired a new sous chef for you and he'll be coming in tomorrow. You can see if you like him, and if you don't then you can give me the letter again, but we'll miss you. Alright?"
Kyungsoo thought about it for a second, and then agreed. "Alright. But it's going to cost you the rest of that bottle."
-----------
Yixing walked up to L'homme De Beurre in a white wife beater and a pair of beach shorts.
Normally Kyungsoo wouldn't have given a guy who dressed like that a second thought. But just as he was walking out for a quick smoke before he had to go back in and deal with Baekhyun and Jongdae dropping a whole crate of the '03 black shiraz (Minseok was way too soft on them) Yixing turned up and smiled at him through the glass door.
Suspicious, Kyungsoo inched the door open slowly.
"Yes?"
"Bonjour. Je suis le nouveau sous chef Yixing. Pourriez-vous me prendre pour le propriétaire, s'il vous plait?" When the man smiled his teeth glinted and there was a deep dimple in his right cheek. And he was just Kyungsoo's type: tall, slender, not too bright looking but a definite looker. It was too bad Kyungsoo hated anybody who wasn't French but spoke it almost flawlessly, because even though Kyungsoo could understand everything, his thick Korean accent still came through and oh was it humiliating. So he never spoke French despite his proficiency. This sloppily dressed man spoke beautifully rounded Parisian French, pink tongue curling around those awful vowels and r's that Kyungsoo could never get right easily, his voice soft and musical.
"First state your name and business, please." To say Kyungsoo was jealous would be an understatement. So much so that he didn't even realise he was asking the man a question he'd already answered in his self-introduction. The perfectionist within Kyungsoo was wailing in agony at the man who looked like he was ready for a day at the beach and his magnificent impeccable French.
"Um, I'm Yixing...the new sous chef...and I'm here to see Joonmyun about starting here today...?"
"Of course," Kyungsoo gathered his wits and nodded robotically. "To the back, up the stairs and to the right." As long as he wasn't speaking French, Kyungsoo thought, and went out to puff on his apple flavoured electronic cigarette.
"Oh yes, Yixing! Welcome! Come on down, I'll introduce you to the gang." Joonmyun, happy to have attained a reliable sous chef, was much more accommodating than Kyungsoo.
"This is Minseok, our manager. Yifan and Lu Han the hosts, Tao Sehun Taeyong Ten Johnny Jaehwan Yuta our waiters, sommeliers Baekhyun and Jongdae, saucier Jongin and rôtisseur Chanyeol. And our head chef Kyungsoo who just went out. Everybody, this is our new sous chef and pâtissier Yixing. Yixing, would you like to introduce yourself a little?"
"Bonjour. I'm Yixing, uh, your new sous chef. I was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine but I grew up here and there and I'll be 24 this coming October. I like cooking, reading and snowboarding. My favourite meat is beef, my favourite vegetable is a toss-up between mushrooms and onions, my favourite dessert is patbingsu and my favourite drink is milk tea. I have almost four years experience of being sous chef, but I started out as a pâtissier and my speciality is éclairs and soufflés. I hope we're going to have fun together."
The staff all clapped dutifully and went back to preparing ingredients for the coming dinner rush, but Sehun sidled up next to Yixing and rested his cheek on Yixing's shoulder.
"Are you any good at cream puffs?" Sehun asked in a low voice, licking his lips.
Cream puffs, cream puffs...Yixing had been speaking French for so long cream puffs actually threw him off a little.
"Oh, choux à la crème? Yes. That's a basic level recipe pâtissiers start out on...would you like me to...make some?" Yixing asked, quite unsure of what to make of this Korean young man who engaged in personal bubble contact within a minute of meeting, but being raised in an environment of open French affections meant he was very comfortable with tilting his head up and giving Sehun three kisses on his cheeks. Usually he only kissed twice, but he felt Sehun deserved an extra kiss for being so friendly.
From behind a counter where he was observing this proceeding regarding his boyfriend very closely, Tao screeched and accidentally banged his knee against the drawer handle.
Sehun touched his cheek and blushed. He liked this new sous chef! Yixing even smelled like vanilla cake.
"I will be waiting," he promised solemnly, and went off to find and console Tao who was always overly emotional in the mornings. Even while Tao was hugging him to within an inch of his life he could only think about Yixing's cream puffs and how they could taste.
"There will be no kissing Minseok," Lu Han declared, shielding the manager behind him protectively while the older man lightly slapped at Lu Han's forearm. "But I am very open to this European cheek kissing greeting business. Come, let us be intimate."
Minseok rolled his eyes and pulled Lu Han away. Joonmyun quickly took Yixing by the elbow and led him to a shiny new kitchen bench and proudly showed off the new Japanese knife set he'd bought as a welcome gift for Yixing.
"This will be your station. I ordered a new counter because Kyungsoo told me pâtissiers need more counter space than they need sinks, so you only have the one, but if you run out of space to put dirty dishes there's always a spare sink or two around. And this station is closest to the oven and blast chiller so you won't have to carry anything that can be spilled for too long. And we also installed an electric stovetop into the counter with all the dials and settings so you won't have to worry about an open flame or adjusting heat on a gas stove. Also Kyungsoo's idea!"
"Thanks," Yixing beamed, quite in awe of everything and very touched that so much thought was put into making his new work area inviting and hospitable. When Kyungsoo walked in he was gathered into a tight hug and received three kisses.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Yixing chanted, smiling widely and going in for another hug. "I love it! Thank you so much for all the effort you put into my station."
"You're welcome." Kyungsoo replied stiffly. He still hadn't gotten over Yixing's French. As if sensing his irritation, Yixing hesitantly drew back and retreated.
"I'm sorry but...am I making you uncomfortable?"
From behind the doorway (as usual), Joonmyun watched on nervously. Kyungsoo regarded Yixing for a long silence before he sighed. Joonmyun breathed a sigh of relief with him.
"No, it's just. Your French."
"Huh? Oh! I've been using impolite French. I'm sorry, I just haven't used it in a while but give me a few days and-"
"No. That's fine. That's not the reason why."
"...then?"
"It's just- vous parlez belles français." You speak beautiful French.
Kyungsoo cringed. It felt like his whole jaw clamped up and refused to cooperate, and all he got out were choppy French words broken roughly at their syllables. Yixing, thankfully, hadn't realised. In fact, he looked incredulous at the compliment, unable to understand why Kyungsoo seemed displeased with him but spoke with such ency in his voice.
"...merci. J'ai grandi dans Neuilly-sur-Seine et j'ai eu une nounou française tout étranger. Ne vous offenser mes français?" Thank you. I grew up in Neuilly-sur-Seine and I had a French nanny while overseas. Does my French offend you?
"Non!" At least his no sounded okay. But Yixing had to be rich, growing up in Neuilly-sur-Seine. And he had a nanny! Who had nannies in this day and age? What was he doing in Korea working as a sous chef?
"Alors...?" Then...?
"Mes française sons horrible. Je ne peux jamais obtenir le bon accent." My French sounds horrible. I can never get the right accent.
"Vous parlez très formelle et correcte français." You speak very formal and correct French.
Yixing didn't deny that Kyungsoo could work a little on his pronunciation, but he praised Kyungsoo's grasp of French syntax. "Et votre français est tout à fait passable, ne vous inquiétez pas. En fait, ce est mieux que la plupart. Beaucoup mieux que les touristes qui pensent bonjour et vive la France est suffisante." Your French is quite passable, don't worry. In fact, it's better than most. Much better than tourists who think 'Bonjour' and 'Vive La France' is enough to get them by.
"…thanks," Kyungsoo mumbled, feeling a little better but still insanely jealous of all that gorgeous French.
"You're very welcome. And thank you again for my new station."
"You're welcome too. But flattery will get you nowhere. Remember you're still on trial and if you're not up to my standards then I'm still walking away. Joonmyun, you hear me?"
Joonmyun nodded, mouth set in a pout and eyes sad.
"You're leaving? Why?"
"Because you will very soon realise that we are surrounded by idiots. You better be worth having to deal with a dozen people who share 100 points of IQ between them. Understand?"
Yixing smiled. "Oui chef!"
For the next few days, Yixing really did make Kyungsoo's job easier. So much so that Sehun saw an exponential rise in his serving abilities and was now able to get eight out of ten dishes to the right table. Joonmyun almost weeped with joy and gave Sehun a gold star on the collar of his starched uniform.
"Take the steak to 28," Yixing would put the orders into a little rhyme for Sehun. "Don't forget the cheese soufflé. Confit duck to 35, get Jongdae to pour more wine. Vichyssoise and shellfish marinière for table four, ask eleven if they'd like more caramel sauce. There's an apple and cinnamon tart waiting for you when you come back Sehunnie! Jaehwannie I need more plates!"
Sehun was smitten. His belly was already full from all the honey and chocolate choux à la crème Yixing had been feeding him throughout the day under the guise of taste testing, but he would never say no to anything sweet.
Best of all, Yixing was never disappointed with him even if he got orders wrong.
"That's alright," his now favourite hyung would say, patting his head. "You just sit down and have a rest and try my new lavender and blueberry sorbet." He had a peculiar way of encouraging Sehun so that he felt he deserved his dessert (and break) even when he clearly didn't. Sehun was all too happy with this arrangement.
If Yixing could produce an improvement in Sehun, he could do it with anybody. Chanyeol dropped less pans (Yixing wrapped a roll of gauze around all the handles so his oiled fingers wouldn't slip). Baekhyun and Jongdae drank less from their cellar (Yixing was promising them expensive imported Bordeaux wine from his own cellar and Baekhyun and Jongdae judged alcohol on how expensive it was). Tao was now fixated with making vegetable flowers ("They're edible!") and Yifan, using his new French skincare products, had even conceded to smile every so often.
Kyungsoo watched Lu Han put an arm around Yixing and suddenly felt a little left out. He hadn't realised that with a little patience his co-workers could level up from nerve grating to mildly annoying. Which is why, at the end of two weeks, he still handed in his letter to Joonmyun. Yixing happened to be in Joonmyun's office when he did.
"But I thought I was doing pretty okay?" Yixing said in a small voice.
"You are." Kyungsoo assured him, and even pulled him in for a hug. "You're actually doing way more than okay. The guys here love you, and since I started working here for the first time ever Sehun actually got all his orders right. I never thought that he would be able to remember all of them if I'd just taken a little time and make it easier for him to remember. I think being head chef made me feel like a huge responsibility was on my shoulders and I got so anxious and angry whenever something didn't go right and yelling at people made it a little better."
"But that's the thing with all head chefs. Kyungsoo, you're not the only one. I've worked with a lot of head chefs and they've said much nastier things. Everybody knows you don't mean it. And I think they feel a bit guilty too because they know they're in the wrong. Tao especially. I mean, I'm still trying to get over the fact he carved a beetroot flower and put it on your salmon. He wants me to ask if it would be better if he'd put it on your braised pork instead, by the way. I took the liberty of saying no."
Kyungsoo snorted.
"What I'm trying to say is, being head chef is your job. And head chefs yell at people: that's what they do. But that's also why you have me. I'm a sous chef, and it's in my job description to smooth any ruffled feathers at the end of the night. I mean, you've never yelled at me, right? And even when you yell you still say sorry and that's what matters. You've stayed this long...might as well stay until you get all your French kinks worked out. I promise I'll help."
"Excuse me, what French kinks?" Joonmyun piped up, having been considerately quiet all this time. But now he was genuinely curious.
"No? Not kinks? That's not the right word?"
"I think you mean complex." Kyungsoo supplied helpfully, and Yixing made an 'Ah, that's it!' face.
"Yes, your French pronunciation complex. If you stay I promise to make sure you won't feel embarrassed about speaking French ever again! What do you say? One on one lessons at my house or yours, no tutoring fee involved. And I am a very firm believer in rewarding a job well done."
Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes and very carefully contemplated everything, during which time Joonmyun opened a bottle of a dry '07 chardonnay and gave Kyungsoo a glass.
"Okay," Kyungsoo finally agreed. "But my house is a little cramped so we'll do it at yours."
"Deal. I'll have breakfast, lunch and dinner and dessert made for whenever you decide to come over."
"Is it just me," Joonmyun wondered. "Or did you guys skip the awkward flirting phase altogether and this is you guys negotiating a date?"
"We are?" Yixing tilted his head, looking over at Kyungsoo with a smile on his face. Kyungsoo nodded.
"We are." He confirmed. "A study date. And a dinner date. And an overnight date. And then hopefully a 'take you back home to meet my parents' kind of date. And eventually a 'we're adopting this kid' date. Any problems, Yixing?"
"Nope. But you're forgetting the 'let's get a dog or a cat' date."
"Too many dates," Joonmyun complained. "And you guys are weird. But, you know, whatever makes you happy. Yixing, I'm counting on you now to keep Kyungsoo here, okay?"
"Okay!"
"You know what would make me really happy, Joonmyun?" Kyungsoo asked, inching forward and pointing at the mini wine fridge in the corner of the office.
"Your new bottle of '92 pinot gris."
Author: rainbowfwish
Title: Larousse Gastronomique
Rating: G
Pairing: Kyungsoo/Yixing
Word count: 3.7k
Warnings: There is a surplus of idiots.
Summary: L'homme De Beurre gets a new sous chef. He speaks beautiful French. Kyungsoo is either really jealous or really turned on.
A/N: Thank ye Google Translate. There's also a PWP version of this but it was on OP's do not want list but will be made available if gorgeous OP decides she wants it.
Kyungsoo should be looking for another job.
It's not that Joonmyun is a bad owner or that Minseok is a bad manager. Joonmyun always makes sure they work reasonable hours, their birthdays are remembered, and they're paid on time. Also he doesn't argue about overtime either, which is a huge plus. Minseok, in all four years since Kyungsoo started working here, has never once dragged him out of his kitchen to apologise to an angry customer about one tiny bone in his snapper grenobloise or the undercooking (or overcooking) of his biftek, taking blame for the purportedly ruined dish and apologising on his behalf. He Okays short-notice shift swaps and rarely asks the reason why Kyungsoo would like to have Thursday instead of Tuesday off, and when he does it's only out of concern for the head chef because he's been working for six days straight and quite honestly, he needs a break.
So really, it's got nothing to do with Joonmyun or Minseok. Kyungsoo would follow them to the ends of the earth.
It's just that the rest of his colleagues are a bunch of imbeciles, a dime a dozen, and Kyungsoo can't work around them anymore because surely idiocy of that level is infectious.
On a good day Sehun gets three out of ten orders wrong. On a bad day, they sit him down in a corner of the busy kitchen with a plate of champagne chiboust to occupy him and Minseok personally delivers the right dish to the right table with an effortless airiness and the graceful flounce of a distinguished pupil of French waiter school who graduated with Honours and glowing recommendations. Tao, their other waiter, had taken to bringing bouquets of red roses and stripping them of their petals, only to scatter them on any available plate as he saw fit.
"It's art," he'd argued passionately when finally confronted by an angry Kyungsoo (who didn't appreciate unsanitary rose petals on his entrées, plat principals and desserts) and their even angrier rôtisseur Chanyeol, who had allergies and puffy eyes and a red nose to show for it. "And red roses mean amour." He pronounced it 'ay-mow-arr'. "That's French for love. The petals are supposed to symbolise that all of our dishes are made with ay-mow-arr, you unsophisticated philistines. Joonmyun! Am I right or am I right?"
Joonmyun, who had been hovering nervously in the doorway of his office, smiled uncertainly.
"Um, it's actually pronounced ah-moor, dear." And when Tao had reddened unattractively and was about to weep, he'd quickly added: "But I think it's a wonderful gesture. Very meaningful." He consoled the young man, who immediately straightened up and puffed out his chest, head held high. Taking this opportunity, Joonmyun quickly concluded the argument. "But some of our guests didn't realise that the rose petals were merely for decoration and they've eaten them. I was told that they, uh, don't really go well with most of our dishes."
The restaurant had two sommeliers. Neither one of them, in Kyungsoo's professional opinion, were up to standard. In fact Kyungsoo viewed them as two drunks who believed it was in their job description to finish off any opened bottle of wine left at the end of the night. Kyungsoo had once caught the two of them with a half full bottle of Riesling and a soup ladle full of époisses each, taking turns at pouring a little of the Riesling into the ladle and eating the soft cheese and wine as is, never mind the fact that the two ingredients were never going to emulsify into a smooth paste and was going to remain horribly lumpy and curdled no matter how many times they chewed. As far as Kyungsoo was concerned, Baekhyun and Jongdae were two piggish barbarians.
Yifan was the most uninviting and hostile maître d' you could ever have the misfortune of encountering: he seemed to have all his facial muscles set in stone because "smiling causes premature aging and wrinkles and I am a vision of male beauty amongst homo sapiens, I do not smile". Lu Han was only good at his job of being host so long as Minseok stayed in the kitchen and staffrooms and didn't come anywhere close to where Lu Han could potentially extend a hand diseased with depravation towards Minseok's nether regions, front or back. Jongin, their saucier, was probably the only one who could do a decent job, but he tired easily and had to go for a five minute power nap-like-the-dead every forty minutes regardless of how loud Kyungsoo yelled and Chanyeol banged his pots and pans (and dropped everything with alarming regularity), right during lunch and dinner rush hour.
Kyungsoo didn't really interact much with their other waiters (Taeyong, Ten, Johnny, Jaehwan and Yuta), but he was sure that he could find something wrong with them too if he put his mind to it, nit-picky as he was. You didn't get to be head chef of a fairly illustrious authentic French restaurant by being nice or having low standards. French cuisine demanded the best!
So it was with a heavy heart that Kyungsoo wrote his letter of resignation, typed with small but bold letters on his typewriter on creamy white stationary paper. His tone was kind but firm, and offered many encouragements and expressed both his heartfelt gratitude at being able to work here under Joonmyun and Minseok and his most sincere apologies for being unable to work with men of Baekhyun and Jongdae's unsavoury calibre any longer, lest he go insane.
Joonmyun heaved a long, suffering sigh when the chef de cuisine delivered his letter on Monday afternoon. Before he could turn his mouth into a pout and widen his eyes Kyungsoo held up a finger threateningly and warned him: "Don't you guilt trip me into staying, Joonmyun."
"I wouldn't do that," Joonmyun reassured him, but nevertheless started begging shamelessly, going so far as to come around his heavy oak desk and giving his top employee a comradely pat on the back and offered him a glass of the '93 sauvignon blanc. Kyungsoo glared at him darkly because damn if that wasn't a dirty move.
"I know these four years haven't been easy on you, especially with staff like ours, but they're all really nice kids and I don't have the heart to fire any of them if we're bringing in a good profit. Which we are. Somehow. Miraculously." Joonmyun coughed. "The point is I know these past three months have been particularly hard for you because our second-in-command quit, but can I ask you one last favour and just think about it for another week? I was originally going to tell you today too, but we finally hired a new sous chef for you and he'll be coming in tomorrow. You can see if you like him, and if you don't then you can give me the letter again, but we'll miss you. Alright?"
Kyungsoo thought about it for a second, and then agreed. "Alright. But it's going to cost you the rest of that bottle."
-----------
Yixing walked up to L'homme De Beurre in a white wife beater and a pair of beach shorts.
Normally Kyungsoo wouldn't have given a guy who dressed like that a second thought. But just as he was walking out for a quick smoke before he had to go back in and deal with Baekhyun and Jongdae dropping a whole crate of the '03 black shiraz (Minseok was way too soft on them) Yixing turned up and smiled at him through the glass door.
Suspicious, Kyungsoo inched the door open slowly.
"Yes?"
"Bonjour. Je suis le nouveau sous chef Yixing. Pourriez-vous me prendre pour le propriétaire, s'il vous plait?" When the man smiled his teeth glinted and there was a deep dimple in his right cheek. And he was just Kyungsoo's type: tall, slender, not too bright looking but a definite looker. It was too bad Kyungsoo hated anybody who wasn't French but spoke it almost flawlessly, because even though Kyungsoo could understand everything, his thick Korean accent still came through and oh was it humiliating. So he never spoke French despite his proficiency. This sloppily dressed man spoke beautifully rounded Parisian French, pink tongue curling around those awful vowels and r's that Kyungsoo could never get right easily, his voice soft and musical.
"First state your name and business, please." To say Kyungsoo was jealous would be an understatement. So much so that he didn't even realise he was asking the man a question he'd already answered in his self-introduction. The perfectionist within Kyungsoo was wailing in agony at the man who looked like he was ready for a day at the beach and his magnificent impeccable French.
"Um, I'm Yixing...the new sous chef...and I'm here to see Joonmyun about starting here today...?"
"Of course," Kyungsoo gathered his wits and nodded robotically. "To the back, up the stairs and to the right." As long as he wasn't speaking French, Kyungsoo thought, and went out to puff on his apple flavoured electronic cigarette.
"Oh yes, Yixing! Welcome! Come on down, I'll introduce you to the gang." Joonmyun, happy to have attained a reliable sous chef, was much more accommodating than Kyungsoo.
"This is Minseok, our manager. Yifan and Lu Han the hosts, Tao Sehun Taeyong Ten Johnny Jaehwan Yuta our waiters, sommeliers Baekhyun and Jongdae, saucier Jongin and rôtisseur Chanyeol. And our head chef Kyungsoo who just went out. Everybody, this is our new sous chef and pâtissier Yixing. Yixing, would you like to introduce yourself a little?"
"Bonjour. I'm Yixing, uh, your new sous chef. I was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine but I grew up here and there and I'll be 24 this coming October. I like cooking, reading and snowboarding. My favourite meat is beef, my favourite vegetable is a toss-up between mushrooms and onions, my favourite dessert is patbingsu and my favourite drink is milk tea. I have almost four years experience of being sous chef, but I started out as a pâtissier and my speciality is éclairs and soufflés. I hope we're going to have fun together."
The staff all clapped dutifully and went back to preparing ingredients for the coming dinner rush, but Sehun sidled up next to Yixing and rested his cheek on Yixing's shoulder.
"Are you any good at cream puffs?" Sehun asked in a low voice, licking his lips.
Cream puffs, cream puffs...Yixing had been speaking French for so long cream puffs actually threw him off a little.
"Oh, choux à la crème? Yes. That's a basic level recipe pâtissiers start out on...would you like me to...make some?" Yixing asked, quite unsure of what to make of this Korean young man who engaged in personal bubble contact within a minute of meeting, but being raised in an environment of open French affections meant he was very comfortable with tilting his head up and giving Sehun three kisses on his cheeks. Usually he only kissed twice, but he felt Sehun deserved an extra kiss for being so friendly.
From behind a counter where he was observing this proceeding regarding his boyfriend very closely, Tao screeched and accidentally banged his knee against the drawer handle.
Sehun touched his cheek and blushed. He liked this new sous chef! Yixing even smelled like vanilla cake.
"I will be waiting," he promised solemnly, and went off to find and console Tao who was always overly emotional in the mornings. Even while Tao was hugging him to within an inch of his life he could only think about Yixing's cream puffs and how they could taste.
"There will be no kissing Minseok," Lu Han declared, shielding the manager behind him protectively while the older man lightly slapped at Lu Han's forearm. "But I am very open to this European cheek kissing greeting business. Come, let us be intimate."
Minseok rolled his eyes and pulled Lu Han away. Joonmyun quickly took Yixing by the elbow and led him to a shiny new kitchen bench and proudly showed off the new Japanese knife set he'd bought as a welcome gift for Yixing.
"This will be your station. I ordered a new counter because Kyungsoo told me pâtissiers need more counter space than they need sinks, so you only have the one, but if you run out of space to put dirty dishes there's always a spare sink or two around. And this station is closest to the oven and blast chiller so you won't have to carry anything that can be spilled for too long. And we also installed an electric stovetop into the counter with all the dials and settings so you won't have to worry about an open flame or adjusting heat on a gas stove. Also Kyungsoo's idea!"
"Thanks," Yixing beamed, quite in awe of everything and very touched that so much thought was put into making his new work area inviting and hospitable. When Kyungsoo walked in he was gathered into a tight hug and received three kisses.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Yixing chanted, smiling widely and going in for another hug. "I love it! Thank you so much for all the effort you put into my station."
"You're welcome." Kyungsoo replied stiffly. He still hadn't gotten over Yixing's French. As if sensing his irritation, Yixing hesitantly drew back and retreated.
"I'm sorry but...am I making you uncomfortable?"
From behind the doorway (as usual), Joonmyun watched on nervously. Kyungsoo regarded Yixing for a long silence before he sighed. Joonmyun breathed a sigh of relief with him.
"No, it's just. Your French."
"Huh? Oh! I've been using impolite French. I'm sorry, I just haven't used it in a while but give me a few days and-"
"No. That's fine. That's not the reason why."
"...then?"
"It's just- vous parlez belles français." You speak beautiful French.
Kyungsoo cringed. It felt like his whole jaw clamped up and refused to cooperate, and all he got out were choppy French words broken roughly at their syllables. Yixing, thankfully, hadn't realised. In fact, he looked incredulous at the compliment, unable to understand why Kyungsoo seemed displeased with him but spoke with such ency in his voice.
"...merci. J'ai grandi dans Neuilly-sur-Seine et j'ai eu une nounou française tout étranger. Ne vous offenser mes français?" Thank you. I grew up in Neuilly-sur-Seine and I had a French nanny while overseas. Does my French offend you?
"Non!" At least his no sounded okay. But Yixing had to be rich, growing up in Neuilly-sur-Seine. And he had a nanny! Who had nannies in this day and age? What was he doing in Korea working as a sous chef?
"Alors...?" Then...?
"Mes française sons horrible. Je ne peux jamais obtenir le bon accent." My French sounds horrible. I can never get the right accent.
"Vous parlez très formelle et correcte français." You speak very formal and correct French.
Yixing didn't deny that Kyungsoo could work a little on his pronunciation, but he praised Kyungsoo's grasp of French syntax. "Et votre français est tout à fait passable, ne vous inquiétez pas. En fait, ce est mieux que la plupart. Beaucoup mieux que les touristes qui pensent bonjour et vive la France est suffisante." Your French is quite passable, don't worry. In fact, it's better than most. Much better than tourists who think 'Bonjour' and 'Vive La France' is enough to get them by.
"…thanks," Kyungsoo mumbled, feeling a little better but still insanely jealous of all that gorgeous French.
"You're very welcome. And thank you again for my new station."
"You're welcome too. But flattery will get you nowhere. Remember you're still on trial and if you're not up to my standards then I'm still walking away. Joonmyun, you hear me?"
Joonmyun nodded, mouth set in a pout and eyes sad.
"You're leaving? Why?"
"Because you will very soon realise that we are surrounded by idiots. You better be worth having to deal with a dozen people who share 100 points of IQ between them. Understand?"
Yixing smiled. "Oui chef!"
For the next few days, Yixing really did make Kyungsoo's job easier. So much so that Sehun saw an exponential rise in his serving abilities and was now able to get eight out of ten dishes to the right table. Joonmyun almost weeped with joy and gave Sehun a gold star on the collar of his starched uniform.
"Take the steak to 28," Yixing would put the orders into a little rhyme for Sehun. "Don't forget the cheese soufflé. Confit duck to 35, get Jongdae to pour more wine. Vichyssoise and shellfish marinière for table four, ask eleven if they'd like more caramel sauce. There's an apple and cinnamon tart waiting for you when you come back Sehunnie! Jaehwannie I need more plates!"
Sehun was smitten. His belly was already full from all the honey and chocolate choux à la crème Yixing had been feeding him throughout the day under the guise of taste testing, but he would never say no to anything sweet.
Best of all, Yixing was never disappointed with him even if he got orders wrong.
"That's alright," his now favourite hyung would say, patting his head. "You just sit down and have a rest and try my new lavender and blueberry sorbet." He had a peculiar way of encouraging Sehun so that he felt he deserved his dessert (and break) even when he clearly didn't. Sehun was all too happy with this arrangement.
If Yixing could produce an improvement in Sehun, he could do it with anybody. Chanyeol dropped less pans (Yixing wrapped a roll of gauze around all the handles so his oiled fingers wouldn't slip). Baekhyun and Jongdae drank less from their cellar (Yixing was promising them expensive imported Bordeaux wine from his own cellar and Baekhyun and Jongdae judged alcohol on how expensive it was). Tao was now fixated with making vegetable flowers ("They're edible!") and Yifan, using his new French skincare products, had even conceded to smile every so often.
Kyungsoo watched Lu Han put an arm around Yixing and suddenly felt a little left out. He hadn't realised that with a little patience his co-workers could level up from nerve grating to mildly annoying. Which is why, at the end of two weeks, he still handed in his letter to Joonmyun. Yixing happened to be in Joonmyun's office when he did.
"But I thought I was doing pretty okay?" Yixing said in a small voice.
"You are." Kyungsoo assured him, and even pulled him in for a hug. "You're actually doing way more than okay. The guys here love you, and since I started working here for the first time ever Sehun actually got all his orders right. I never thought that he would be able to remember all of them if I'd just taken a little time and make it easier for him to remember. I think being head chef made me feel like a huge responsibility was on my shoulders and I got so anxious and angry whenever something didn't go right and yelling at people made it a little better."
"But that's the thing with all head chefs. Kyungsoo, you're not the only one. I've worked with a lot of head chefs and they've said much nastier things. Everybody knows you don't mean it. And I think they feel a bit guilty too because they know they're in the wrong. Tao especially. I mean, I'm still trying to get over the fact he carved a beetroot flower and put it on your salmon. He wants me to ask if it would be better if he'd put it on your braised pork instead, by the way. I took the liberty of saying no."
Kyungsoo snorted.
"What I'm trying to say is, being head chef is your job. And head chefs yell at people: that's what they do. But that's also why you have me. I'm a sous chef, and it's in my job description to smooth any ruffled feathers at the end of the night. I mean, you've never yelled at me, right? And even when you yell you still say sorry and that's what matters. You've stayed this long...might as well stay until you get all your French kinks worked out. I promise I'll help."
"Excuse me, what French kinks?" Joonmyun piped up, having been considerately quiet all this time. But now he was genuinely curious.
"No? Not kinks? That's not the right word?"
"I think you mean complex." Kyungsoo supplied helpfully, and Yixing made an 'Ah, that's it!' face.
"Yes, your French pronunciation complex. If you stay I promise to make sure you won't feel embarrassed about speaking French ever again! What do you say? One on one lessons at my house or yours, no tutoring fee involved. And I am a very firm believer in rewarding a job well done."
Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes and very carefully contemplated everything, during which time Joonmyun opened a bottle of a dry '07 chardonnay and gave Kyungsoo a glass.
"Okay," Kyungsoo finally agreed. "But my house is a little cramped so we'll do it at yours."
"Deal. I'll have breakfast, lunch and dinner and dessert made for whenever you decide to come over."
"Is it just me," Joonmyun wondered. "Or did you guys skip the awkward flirting phase altogether and this is you guys negotiating a date?"
"We are?" Yixing tilted his head, looking over at Kyungsoo with a smile on his face. Kyungsoo nodded.
"We are." He confirmed. "A study date. And a dinner date. And an overnight date. And then hopefully a 'take you back home to meet my parents' kind of date. And eventually a 'we're adopting this kid' date. Any problems, Yixing?"
"Nope. But you're forgetting the 'let's get a dog or a cat' date."
"Too many dates," Joonmyun complained. "And you guys are weird. But, you know, whatever makes you happy. Yixing, I'm counting on you now to keep Kyungsoo here, okay?"
"Okay!"
"You know what would make me really happy, Joonmyun?" Kyungsoo asked, inching forward and pointing at the mini wine fridge in the corner of the office.
"Your new bottle of '92 pinot gris."