Episode 11
11.
"Right. But can you make all the yoshoku menu items now?"
"Ganghun hyung gave me a recipe notebook, and I'd already received special training from him before that."
At Sihu's words, Hayun nodded, recalling the two people in the kitchen.
'The name "special training" gave me the feeling of seeing someone wearing a red hat.'
Hayun, who had been picturing Sihu and Ganghun, shivered slightly.
As the two were cleaning, they heard someone calling out.
"Excuse me!"
The two turned their heads at the sound of someone calling.
"Yes?"
"I'm the owner of the shop next door."
Sihu wondered what business the next-door shop owner had come for.
The woman claiming to be the next-door shop owner was looking for the owner.
The woman, short in stature with a face reminiscent of a bulldog, spoke irritably.
"Where did the owner go, leaving young men like you to mind the place?"
"May I ask what this is regarding?"
"Huh? No, could you tell the owner to come out?"
Hayun looked at Sihu.
Sihu stepped forward in front of the woman who claimed to be the next-door shop owner and said,
"I'm the owner of this shop starting tomorrow, so what is it?"
The eyes of the self-proclaimed next-door shop owner widened slightly.
Soon, with an expression that seemed to look down on him, she said,
"What? You're the owner? Did the previous owner quit?"
Sihu had spoken politely, but he gazed indifferently at the next-door shop owner who was spewing casual speech.
Since the next-door shop owner was shorter than Sihu, she had to look up at him.
"Yes. The previous owner handed the shop over to me and quit. Also, even if I'm young, I find your casual speech unpleasant. Own. Er."
"What?"
The next-door shop owner's voice began to rise slightly.
Just then, Sihu opened his mouth in a cold voice.
"I said it is unpleasant. And please, only state your business for coming here."
Perhaps feeling a chill in his voice, the next-door shop owner began stating her business.
"Our shop sells pasta, risotto, and the like, but since you're selling them here too, I came to tell you to change to an appropriate menu."
"......"
"I told the previous owner, Yun, about it too, but he wouldn't change it. So seeing as you renovated the shop this time, I came to tell you to change it now that the owner has changed."
Sihu was nearly dumbfounded by the next-door shop owner's words.
Hayun, listening from the side, also had an expression of disbelief.
The next-door shop owner looked at her own shop as she continued.
"You're a young person, so you understood me well, right? So take those off your menu like that. Well, good luck."
Having said her piece, the next-door shop owner slipped back into her store.
Sihu kept staring at her retreating figure.
Hayun looked at Sihu.
'Ah. This guy's pissed.'
Sihu's expression had turned cold and cynical.
Though his face usually bore a faint smile, when angry, the smile vanished and he looked like an ice figurine.
Sihu didn't even feel Hayun staring at him.
The words of his teacher from his school days came to mind.
'So this must be the kind of thing Teacher was talking about.'
A class period of the teacher nicknamed the so-called "Noodle King."
Surveying the students before class in a low alto voice, he opened his mouth.
"When a restaurant business is doing well, shops that blindly follow pop up around it like bamboo shoots after a rain, don't they?"
"Nooo—"
The students all answered that they didn't know.
Then the teacher displayed photos of the area around a certain restaurant in Seoul on the monitor and spoke.
"This is the before photo and the after photo. And look closely at this shop here. And these are photos of the shop's surroundings."
Sihu felt something as he looked at those photos.
To summarize the teacher's explanation, when the shop did well, the surrounding shops copied its menu.
It was said that the shop owner also faced so-called jealous obstruction from the newly opened shops.
However, when the shop owner sincerely served his menu to the customers, not only did the customers not decrease—they increased even more.
Then he said that among the surrounding shops, some enjoyed the trickle-down effect, while others were weeded out.
Sihu's eyes grew cold as one corner of his mouth rose.
Until middle school, when he was ostracized, he simply stayed still.
Sihu hated fights breaking out.
Because fighting only caused severe emotional exhaustion.
He thought, 'I just have to endure it.'
After that. If he avoided conflict through cooking, by high school, he neither avoided nor endured.
While participating in competitions, all manner of things happened.
After that, Sihu came to no longer avoid fights that walked up to him.
Looking at the next-door shop, Sihu muttered internally.
'Will you enjoy the trickle-down effect, or be weeded out? Well, I think it's the latter...'
Just then, a sigh was heard.
"Phew—"
Hayun let out a sigh as he finished organizing the dining area.
Sihu was staring intently at the next-door shop.
***
The newly renovated and opened [SeeYou] was swamped with orders pouring in frantically by lunchtime.
The most ordered items were the "tofu steak" and "Neapolitan."
The tomatoes that went into Sihu's signature "Neapolitan" had been picked from the vegetable garden.
Generally, tomatoes remove active oxygen from cells through antioxidants and are good for the heart.
But what kind of effect would a vegetable that closely resembles the tomatoes from the garden have?
When he first picked and ate one, he felt a sour yet sweet sap.
When made into a "Neapolitan," not only was the taste naturally first-class, but it drew exclamations of wonder from those who ate it.
It was enough to make even those who ordered it out of curiosity fall in love.
Some of the female high school students also snuck out of school during lunch to eat there.
Slurp—
Chew, chew—
Two female high school students, Wi Juha and Yu Saessak, had also appeared before lunch started and were eating, having ordered tofu steak and Neapolitan.
Juha set down her fork and quickly wiped her mouth with a napkin before speaking.
"Wow, damn—that Gisu bitch strongly recommended it, but it's really delicious."
"Right?"
"Huh, huh? But that oppa working in the kitchen—I've seen him somewhere before."
At Juha's words, Saessak glanced back.
"Oh, that oppa? He's really famous at our school."
"Wow, he's famous? Is it 'cause he cooks well? Or 'cause he's good-looking?"
Saessak spoke, chewing a mouthful of tofu steak.
"Both. Wonder if he has a girlfriend?"
At Saessak's words, Juha shook her head.
"An oppa like that, y'know, he's married to his work. The kind you absolutely shouldn't date."
While serving in the dining area, Hayun nearly dropped his tray upon overhearing the female high school students' gossip(?) about Sihu spoken in a rich dialect.
'I'll have to tell Sihu about this later.'
Hayun's thoughts couldn't continue.
Because of the sound coming from the kitchen.
Ding—
It was the bell signaling that the food in the kitchen was ready.
Hayun quickly went to the front of the kitchen, took a tray, and approached the customers.
It was a couple.
The female customer had ordered shrimp pasta, and the male customer had ordered the samcheop bansang.
"Your spicy shrimp pasta and samcheop bansang are ready."
The male customer looked down at the samcheop bansang, his eyes widening.
"Wow—dried pollock soup. How did you know I drank yesterday? I'll enjoy it."
At the male customer's words, Hayun smiled and politely explained.
"Our chef personally adjusts the soup differently for each customer."
"Isn't that difficult?"
At the customer's question, Hayun shrugged his shoulders and gave a greeting.
"Please enjoy."
Once Hayun left, the couple began paying their respects to the food set before them.
They each took out their phones and began taking pictures.
"This spicy shrimp pasta's decoration is really pretty. How are the shrimp so plump?"
The man nodded at his lover's words and looked down at his own spread.
'Milky broth, and grilled tofu, braised potatoes and eggplant namul beside it? Eggplant at this time of year?'
"Oppa! Are you listening to me?"
"Huh? Yeah! You said the shrimp are plump."
"Want me to give you one? At other places, when you order shrimp pasta, they only put one big shrimp on top as decoration, but here there are two. The price is cheap too, and it's much tastier than any place we've been to so far. Plus, the baguette is soft."
As the woman finished explaining, the man took a sip of the dried pollock soup.
"?!"
Mmm—
'This is totally a refreshing coolness that whets your thirst? The refreshing taste of vegetables steeped from the radish and the clean savor of the pollack—ah, my stomach feels unknotted.'
The couple began inhaling their respective dishes at a rapid pace.
"Soooo good—"
"Ah, refreshing. The samcheop bansang menu here really saved my life. It's so tasty I'd rather pay more."
"Really? I want to try it next time too."
"You should. It's really good. The eggplant namul is to die for."
"They have eggplant now?"
At the woman's question, the man shook his head and shrugged.
In the kitchen, Sihu let out a breath once the rush of orders had momentarily subsided.
Creak—
Sihu opened the refrigerator door and took out a bottle of barley tea he had brewed at home.
Gurgle—
A golden liquid began filling the glass cup.
Gulp— Gulp—
So thirsty was Sihu that he drank the water without even breathing.
"Give me a glass too."
He poured barley tea and handed it to Hayun, who had entered the kitchen.
"Phew—refreshing. Is this really barley tea? It's incredibly savory."
"It's good, right? I brewed it at home and brought it to drink while working."
"Yeah. Deliciously savory."
Hayun held out his cup, asking for another glass.
Sihu filled the cup to the brim with barley tea and handed it over.
After drinking the barley tea,
"So, what are you going to do about the shop next door?"
"Do about what?"
"The shop next door. They told us to remove the overlapping menu items. That's what I'm asking about."
Sihu's expression instantly transformed into that of an ice figurine.
And then, raising one corner of his mouth, he said,
"Hyung, I heard all sorts of stories from teachers while in school—when a tackle comes in, there's a plan for everything."
Sihu raised one corner of his mouth.
Seeing Sihu's appearance, Hayun felt the fine hairs on his nape stand up.
Chime—
The sound of the shop door opening was heard.
Hayun set down his cup in the kitchen and approached the customer.
Sihu's expression, which had been watching the customer from the kitchen, loosened slightly.
The customer who entered the shop was a mother and child.
It was a young mother and her young son.
The mother seemed to be saying something to her son as she entered the shop.
The child said nothing, keeping his head down.
The little child looked sullen, as if displeased about something.
The mother seemed to have entered the shop to soothe her sulking son.
Seeing the mother and child, he recalled his own mother and himself when he was young.
Smirking at the thought, Sihu waited for the mother and child to choose their menu.
"Sihu—. One samcheop bansang and one tofu steak, but they're asking for the kimchi in the samcheop bansang to not be spicy?"
"Huh?"
Sihu had a hunch.
"Hyung, by any chance is the mother's side the tofu steak and the child's side the samcheop bansang?"
"Huh, how did you know?"
Sihu smirked, glanced toward the child, and began cooking.
For the samcheop bansang, Sihu arranged eggplant namul, sesame leaf stem namul, grilled tofu, braised potatoes, and so on upon the tray, then served slightly less rice than for an adult.
He cut the kimchi into small pieces and made stir-fried kimchi that wasn't spicy.
He placed the samcheop bansang tray and the iron-plate tofu steak tray on the outgoing shelf and rang the bell.
Ding—
As he watched Hayun approach, pick up the trays, and head out to the customers, Sihu's eyes met the child's eyes.
"?!"
Thank you for reading.
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