Episode 14
14.
When Sihu looked at Hayun with a curious face.
“Can you get indigestion from porridge too?”
“Ah—yes, you can. It’s hopeless if you get indigestion from eating porridge. Even if you drink cider and prick your fingers….”
Sihu shook his head, recalling the time he had gotten indigestion from eating porridge.
The porridge he had served to the man eating in the hall was made with grains so fine that they were barely chewable.
It was a porridge filled with Sihu’s heart, so as not to cause indigestion and to make the stomach comfortable.
Hayun looked at Sihu, who was staring at the hall.
‘He really puts his all into cooking every single day, this guy.’
Perhaps feeling Hayun’s gaze?
Sihu looked at Hayun and said with a smile.
“Hyung, you’re hungry, right? Let’s eat quickly once the customer leaves too.”
“Yeah, let’s do that. I also need to clean up the hall once that customer leaves.”
***
“Ah— that was delicious.”
The male customer repeatedly bowed his head to express his gratitude.
Even though they said it was fine, he insisted on paying for the porridge and took out his wallet.
Hayun waved his hands and said.
“No, it’s fine.”
It was because Sihu had told him not to accept it.
After that, the kitchen had to run busily enough to resemble a battlefield, so Sihu couldn’t come out of the kitchen.
The man eventually tried to leave the shop after paying only for the takeout.
Ding-a-ling—
The store door rang as someone entered.
“Oh my? Aren’t you the customer who came by late last night?”
The woman who entered recognized the man.
Hayun furrowed his brow as soon as he saw the woman.
It was the owner of the next-door shop.
When the man saw the woman, his brow furrowed and his lips turned into a straight line.
The man was furious.
Gu Sukyeong, the next-door shop owner who failed to read the man’s expression, smiled and spoke.
“You enjoyed your meal with your girlfriend yesterday and left, and today you came here—”
As Gu Sukyeong twisted her body slightly and spoke with a smile, the man opened his mouth.
“Excuse me. Owner. After eating at that place yesterday, my girlfriend and I ended up in the hospital, do you know that?”
“…What do you mean?”
Gu Sukyeong shook her head as if that couldn’t be true, then spoke again with a smiling face.
“There must be some misunderstanding, didn’t you leave our shop saying you were going out for round two?”
At Gu Sukyeong’s words, the man spoke in a firm tone.
“No, the moment we left the restaurant, my stomach hurt like it was twisting, I even broke into a cold sweat and then vomited, ugh—.”
The man shook his head as if disgusted by what he had experienced yesterday.
The man looked down at the packaged food and continued.
“I was going to take the packed food to my girlfriend and then go to that shop. This is perfect. Let’s step outside and talk.”
“No—. You being sick is your own problem. Do you have any proof that you got a stomachache from our food—”
Gu Sukyeong began to raise her voice at the man’s words.
“This needs to be stopped. That lady seems like she’s trying to ruin our business.”
The voices of the man and Gu Sukyeong were growing louder.
Watching that scene, Sihu came out of the kitchen holding a frying pan and a ladle and began to hit them.
Clang-clang-clang-clang—
When Sihu banged the frying pan, the two people looked at him, and he stopped the two with a cold voice.
“Please stop.”
At Sihu’s words, Gu Sukyeong shrieked.
“Hey—! How dare a little kid intervene!”
When Gu Sukyeong in front of him screamed, the man stepped back and covered his ears.
“And, I told you to take it off the menu, why didn’t you? You don’t think my words mean anything?”
Sihu looked at Gu Sukyeong for a moment, then looked at Hayun.
Hayun drew a circle with his finger.
Watching the two people’s actions, Gu Sukyeong stomped her foot on the floor and said.
“These brats? What do you kids think you’re doing in front of an adult?”
Sihu closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them, speaking coldly.
“Owner, are you causing a scene in someone else’s shop right now? You call yourself an adult but have no common sense. Please leave.”
Hearing Sihu’s words, Gu Sukyeong crossed her arms as if dumbfounded and raised her voice even higher.
“Oh my? Look at the way he talks? This wet-behind-the-ears kid? What do you mean I’m causing a scene in a shop? I was talking because this customer is saying nonsense.”
At those words, the man crossed his arms, took a step toward Gu Sukyeong, and looked down at her.
“Hey. Lady. You asked for evidence earlier, right? Fine, I’ll show you.”
“Lady? Did you just call me lady? And I was speaking nicely to you as a customer? Fine! Bring the evidence if you have it.”
The man glared fiercely at Gu Sukyeong.
Then, looking furious, he went outside the shop and shouted loudly to Sihu before disappearing.
“Owner. Sorry for causing a disturbance. I’ll be back in a moment.”
As soon as the man disappeared, Gu Sukyeong approached Sihu and began pointing her finger at him.
“Can’t you even open your eyes properly? Did your parents teach a little brat like you to act this way?”
When an insult about his parents, which could hurt Sihu, came out, Hayun shook his head.
‘Ah— that lady is crossing the line.’
Because he knew what would happen next.
Hayun approached from behind and grabbed Sihu’s shoulder.
Sihu glanced at Hayun’s hand.
“Hyung! It’s fine. Let go.”
At Sihu’s words, Hayun released the shoulder he had been holding.
Sihu took a step toward Gu Sukyeong, looked down at her, and opened his mouth.
“My parents have passed away. If you are an adult, shouldn’t you know better than to cause a scene in someone else’s shop?”
Was it because Sihu’s voice was so cold?
Or did his eyes look as frosty as hoarfrost?
The moment Gu Sukyeong saw Sihu’s eyes, she flinched and stepped back.
“Leave. I’m telling you to get out back to your own shop. Don’t ruin someone else’s lunch business.”
His calm voice was all the more chilling.
Gu Sukyeong faltered and stepped backward.
‘What kind of eyes…’
Gu Sukyeong felt as if the whites of Sihu’s eyes were invisible.
Terror as if she would be devoured.
A feeling of being torn to shreds and terror were being engraved into her mind.
Tap-tap-tap-.
Afraid that Sihu would move, Gu Sukyeong quickly backed away before turning around and rushing out of the shop.
Ding-a-ling-.
She bumped shoulders with a customer who was entering.
“What the? That lady.”
The customer who entered looked at the person leaving.
“The shop next door?”
Hayun recognized the customer and approached to ask if they were okay.
The customer nodded that they were fine, but their brow was furrowed.
Hayun bowed slightly as if apologetic and guided them to a seat.
“I went to that shop once, and I almost threw up seeing how they really make the food…”
It was Hayun who heard the muttering of the customer sitting down.
While handing over the menu and water, he saw the smartphone in the customer’s hand and his eyes grew slightly wider.
‘Oh—?!’
When Hayun entered the kitchen, Sihu was heading to the front door with coarse salt.
Swish— swish—
After sprinkling coarse salt several times in front of the main door and heading back to the kitchen.
Hayun stuck close to Sihu’s side and spoke quietly.
“The customers seem to have a lot of complaints about the next-door shop.”
“Complaints?”
“Yeah, earlier that customer had written all sorts of curses about it on their Byeolgram.”
“……”
***
After the commotion died down, a few days later.
Ding-a-ling—
Students were seen entering the shop hesitantly.
As soon as Sihu saw the students, he went into the kitchen.
Hayun put on a smiling face and welcomed the students.
“Welcome. You’ve been coming often these days. Isn’t it before lunch time yet? You came early?”
They were students from the nearby high school.
[SeeYou]’s regular customers, Wi Juha and Yu Saesak.
They smiled brightly and spoke to Hayun.
“We saw so much praise for this place going up on Byeolgram.”
“What praise?”
“Look here.”
Hayun, who had become somewhat close with them, looked at the phone Saesak held out, then glanced at Sihu in the kitchen.
‘It makes me happy to see Sihu’s heart and effort shining through.’
Guided by Hayun to their seats, Juha and Saesak were looking at the menu when they noticed the ‘Today’s Menu’.
[SeeYou]’s ‘Today’s Menu,’ like a random draw where you don’t know what will come out.
The two students called Hayun.
“We’ll have one Today’s Menu, one Sancheop bansang, and one hamburger steak.”
Hayun took down the orders and asked.
“Is one more person coming?”
“No—, we’re going to eat it ourselves.”
“Hmm—, that’s quite a lot, will you be okay?”
At Hayun’s words, Juha, who had been quietly looking at the menu, said.
“We’re still growing, so we can eat a lot.”
“Yes—. Got it.”
Hayun took the order and headed to the kitchen.
Watching that, the female students began writing something on their Byeolgrams.
After tapping away at the phone keyboard for a while, Saesak asked Juha.
“Are you going to post?”
“Everyone needs to know that crazy lady played dirty, you know.”
Juha uploaded a video to her Byeolgram.
[A few days ago, what happened at the [SeeYou] shop.]
(Video)
A few days ago, we snuck out with a friend saying we were going to the nurse’s office to get to [SeeYou] early?
But what we saw was, surprisingly, the next-door shop owner causing a ruckus at [SeeYou].
Isn’t she crazy? You know people who have eaten there, right?
The taste—there is absolutely nothing to it.
I’ll skip the rest of the words. Just watch the video.
#WatchingAFight #[SeeYou]행사 #JustWatchTheVideo
Juha didn’t know how big of a ripple effect the video and post she uploaded would have.
Hayun, who had entered the kitchen, saw Sihu crouching down doing something.
“What are you doing?”
Sihu showed him a stainless steel bowl.
Inside were surf clams and white clams.
“I had them purging, so I was purging them once more in a dark place.”
“Really? I thought you were depressed because of the next-door owner.”
Sihu shrugged his shoulders and said.
“Not at all. Rather, since it’s a fight that came to us, it’s comfortable.”
“Comfortable?”
Sihu raised one corner of his mouth and said.
“I did chase her out by raising my voice, but we need to make sure customers can’t even think of going over there with our food taste and service.”
Watching Sihu sprinkle salt on the clams in the stainless steel bowl and then wash them, Hayun unknowingly rubbed the back of his neck.
‘Whew—. This kid is scary sometimes when he talks.’
When he told him the reason he had come into the kitchen, Sihu quickly began cooking.
Swoosh—
Seeing that, Hayun went back out to the hall alone to greet customers.
“Welcome—. Please sit wherever you’re comfortable.”
The customer looked straight at Hayun and asked bluntly as soon as they entered.
“Why is the next-door shop like that, seriously?”
“Excuse me?”
Hayun tilted his head curiously and asked.
“What happened to make you ask that?”
Thank you for reading.
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