The first time Jolyn Chen and Louis Lin became partners, it was as mixed doubles on Glen A. Wilson High School’s badminton team. It would be another two decades before they became life partners, too.

They first became aware of each other at Mesa Robles Middle School in 2001, in Hacienda Heights, Calif. Both were first-generation Americans, born to immigrant parents from Taiwan. In high school, Ms. Chen and Mr. Lin became close friends and kept in touch throughout college.

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After Ms. Chen, 34, graduated from the Collins College of Hospitality Management at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, she moved to Washington, D.C., in 2012 to work in hotel management.

Mr. Lin, 35, received a bachelor’s degree in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He then graduated from the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in St. Helena, Calif.

When both were back in Hacienda Heights in November 2013, Ms. Chen mentioned she had just eaten at Rose’s Luxury, a trendy small plates restaurant in Capitol Hill.

A few days later, he saw that the restaurant was looking for a cook. He was offered the job, and soon, they were apartment hunting together.

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