>>5159278“Everything’s fine, huh?” A quirky-looking guy and the employee from the first floor show up, they look worried that something might have happened with Vanessa, and with good reason. With so much screeching, you didn’t hear the door being opened. He commands the man in the costume to leave you be. As the door closes, he clears his throat and begins talking. “Welcome, welcome, Mr. Kobashi, to my humble store. It’s been a while!”
“You know each other?” Vanessa knows this guy, well, it's her boss. But beyond an employer-employee relationship, you mean.
“We know each other?” You don’t recall ever seeing this guy in your life!
“My name is Ulrich Lucremoola! We both tried our luck to get the National Chef Scholarship of Excellence years back. If my memory serves me right, you were disqualified for trying to murder one of the contestants.” Ulrich has a good laugh. Oh yeah, you wanted to throw Gerard into one of the ovens for stealing your recipe, you never knew the results after what happened…
“I see you’ve done well for yourself.” You look around, not the best part of the store to make this remark.
“This? This is a mere hobby. I didn’t get the scholarship either, at least not on my first try. But that’s old news, and those pass by quickly to be forgotten by time and space.” Ulrich shrugs. “Ehem, onto the matter at hand, I was worried you were planning on throwing Ms. van Zullekom into an oven. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Still, you’ll have to pardon my rudeness, but I’ll stay here for the rest of the conversation. Just in case you fall into a fit of rage. Nothing personal.”
“Ulrich, please! It’s not necessary! Kobashi has my entire trust!” Vanessa doesn’t feel that comfortable talking about what she wants to talk about with him here.
