THIS LOVE DOESN'T HAVE LONG BEANS(ENG)

Chapter 27

"Gosh, so Chef likes women?"

JJ exclaimed in surprise when Plawan mentioned the word 'Khao Suay'. He narrowed his eyes for a moment. Well, isn't this strange and shocking? Everyone thinks Chef Aob likes men.

"That's right, what an unexpected twist."

He replied. The young man took a sip of his liquor. It was Tuesday night and tomorrow was his day off, so Plawan had plans to go out drinking and reminisce. He even managed to convince JJ to switch shifts, despite the man repeatedly complaining about how difficult it was to switch.

"I'm sorry my friend, you missed your chance."

"Oh, asshole. I have ethics, you know. I saved my body for the people I love."

Plawan protested quickly. JJ burst out laughing and took another sip of his drink. You useless bully, one day I will punish you for your bad behavior.

"So what happened next?" JJ asked. Plawan could only shrug his shoulders.

"Nothing else, Chef just told me that much." Plawan pursed his lips. "Then he started telling me about all the cooking techniques that Mr. Ryosuke taught him. Like how to cut onions like blooming flowers. Who wants to know that?" He imitated the chef's voice sarcastically with irritation.

"Damn it, why didn't you ask?"

JJ replied annoyed as he poured more vodka into his friend's glass after seeing that the liquid was almost gone. At first, he just watched indifferently, but then he started to protest as the clear, intoxicating liquid was making him almost drunk.

"You think I'm brave?" He rolled his eyes at his friend. "Should I ask Chef, 'Chef, can you tell me more about your girlfriend? I'm so curious to death. How can I sleep if you don't tell me?' If anything I will be eaten alive."

Plawan pretended to make sarcastic little noises. While JJ repeated that he had to do exactly that, until he almost wanted to reach out and slap his troublemaking friend on the head.

"Oh, how is Mr. Methas?"

Plawan asked suddenly, lowering his voice as if it was a secret. JJ mumbled in his throat as if he was deep in thought, unsure of it.

"If I tell you, don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Okay."

"Don't tell anyone, okay? This violates my professional ethics."

"I know."

"Promise me."

"I promise."

He nodded firmly, partly because he was curious himself, but partly because of financial security. If something were to happen to Mr. Methas and his contract cancelled, he would be ready for it, not just working stupidly while his employer was somewhere about to die.

"His condition is not very good."

JJ said with a clearly worried expression, his mood changing from playful and annoying to as if there was a sediment clouding his mind the entire time.

"Usually, if cerebral thrombosis patients get to the hospital and receive timely treatment, their symptoms disappear completely. Within a day, they can return to their normal activities. Some people even go home that night as if nothing had happened."

"But we sent him to the hospital immediately, didn't we?"

"Yeah, right," JJ nodded. "But it seems like the clot that was blocking the patient's brain was big. Maybe it didn't come from normal blood vessels, but from an irregular heartbeat too. So the clot was big and it broke. The medicine didn't dissolve everything completely, instead it blocked another smaller blood vessel."

"So there's no other cure?"

"In fact, doctors sometimes perform brain surgery to remove blocked blood clots. But maybe there is a small blood vessel that is blocked without us realizing it. And it takes a long time to operate. Some parts of the brain  lacking blood for a long time will die and not recover as before."

The young man listened with a strange feeling of emptiness in his heart. He still remembered the image of that annoying person. What will happen to his pride if his body is imperfect?

"So he's bedridden and can't move now?"

"No," JJ shook his head. "The patient's limbs have started to work again, but he can only move a little. I don't think this is easy. I have seen many cases like this. In my opinion, we need to be prepared for many things."

After that, the drinking party atmosphere became very dull.

JJ seemed to be constantly worried about something. Maybe because he is a physiotherapist. When he treats someone, he wants the patient to make a full recovery and return to a normal. Not being able to cure a patient may be one of the wounds he has to face.

Plawan didn't ask about Methas again.

They drank vodka together until the bottle was nearly empty, just as the restaurant was about to close. The two of them called separate taxis and returned to their respective accommodations. At first, Plawan had planned to ask if he could stay at JJ's place to relieve his boredom, but he thought again when he saw that JJ wasn't in the right mood.

When he got home, Plawan was immersed in deep thoughts.

Something seemed to be settling in his mind, not  like what JJ was dealing with. Chef Aob still kept many secrets that he doesn't know, at least about the huge debt that forced the chef to finally sell the restaurant even though he didn't want to.

Who, what, and why had caused it?

Plawan couldn't sleep most of the night. His head was full of chaos. It wasn't until the sun rose that he finally fell asleep. He collapsed from drowsiness, his image fading. He woke up startled in the afternoon with a weird sensation in his stomach. Plawan got up to look for something easy to eat.

By the time he finished cleaning his room, it was almost 8p.m.

Since he wasn't around much, he had to deal with trash, especially leftovers. Plawan stopped buying fresh food for the refrigerator and focused on dry food or food that can be stored for a long time so there is no need to buy and throw it away. In fact, he could have asked the restaurant for fresh ingredients because the restaurant would not serve stale food to customers.

Plawan arrived back at the restaurant just after half past eight.

The last customer should have left by now, but he hadn't. When he arrived, he found that the restaurant was still lit. There were no staff in the restaurant except  for the chef who was sitting across the dining room. Plawan came in confused, and before he could ask anything, he heard Chef Aob calling to the woman sitting at a different table.

"Khao Suay..."