07
07.
“I’m thinking about whether I should quit….”
Sihu was inwardly flustered.
If Hayun quit, he would have to do everything by himself.
Prepping ingredients, cooking, serving, calculating bills, cleaning up….
Do it all alone? He concluded that it would be a bit tough.
Sihu shook his head.
“If you say you’re quitting, Hyung… Hyung?”
Hayun smirked at Sihu and said,
“When did I say I was quitting? I said I was thinking about it.”
At Hayun’s words laced with a hint of mischief, Sihu breathed a sigh of relief.
“Besides, I told you before, didn’t I? I won’t leave you alone.”
Hayun wore a gentle smile.
Ziiing—
“Wait a moment.”
“Yes.”
After taking a call a short distance away, Hayun approached Sihu.
“A junior of mine showed up. Ah! Right. Ganghun-hyung told me to give you this.”
Hayun held out an envelope to Sihu.
The moment Sihu took it, Hayun turned and ran off in a hurry.
“I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah, I’m off!”
He opened the envelope.
“Huh? This is….”
Sihu’s eyes couldn’t help but widen.
It was an invitation voucher to a hanjeongsik restaurant run by a master of Korean cuisine in the country.
The moment he saw the invitation, his mouth fell slightly open.
It was a place where no matter how much money one had, they couldn’t taste the food without the owner’s permission.
Moreover, the moment he saw the master’s name, his pupils trembled.
Rustle—
Sihu discovered a piece of paper behind the invitation.
[Hope this helps with selecting the menu. And go with Hayun tomorrow.]
Sihu immediately took out his phone and sent a text to Ganghun.
[Hyung! Thank you for the invitation.]
A moment later.
A smiling emoji flew in as a text from Ganghun.
***
In the living room, where he lay half-reclined on the sofa reading a book, the only sound was the turning of pages.
Ssk—
Flipping the page and moving his eyes diligently, he eventually let out a breath as if fed up.
“Ugh—do you really have to worry this much just to run a single store?”
Sihu was leaning against the sofa, reading a book about store management.
Thud—
After closing the book, Sihu went out to the yard to clear his head.
Dragging his slippers outside, the chilly air embraced him.
Whooo—
The cold wind ruffled Sihu’s hair.
As he paced about the yard, his eyes fell on the furnace he had built in a corner.
Recalling when he built the furnace, Sihu burst into a chuckle.
‘I really suffered making that thing….’
Sihu briefly recalled the memories of building the furnace.
After watching hwagwa being baked in a furnace on YouTube, he had immediately searched for furnace blueprints.
He really wanted to build one and try using it.
Rather than a furnace you crouched to use, he decided to build one you could use while standing.
It was a furnace made by purchasing yellow clay bricks with his allowance and filling the gaps with yellow clay he had scooped from the mountain.
Standing in front of the furnace, the entrance was about waist-high to Sihu, and roughly one hundred centimeters wide.
Gurgle—
Hearing his stomach growl, Sihu thought of the quintessential winter snack.
“Should I roast some sweet potatoes?”
Sihu put the firewood he’d stored in the shed into the furnace and lit a fire.
Fwoosh—
In the dry weather, the wood quickly blazed up.
Watching the fire catch, Sihu glanced at the furnace chimney.
He could see smoke rising to the sky, unfurling white locks.
“It’s been a while since I used the furnace.”
Sihu muttered and headed to the kitchen.
He wrapped a few sweet potatoes from the vegetable garden in cooking foil and came out to the yard.
The wood had already burned down, leaving behind embers that had turned to charcoal.
Was it because the firewood was thin?
Beneath the wood-turned-charcoal, Sihu placed the foil-wrapped sweet potatoes and went back to his room.
Even in the cold weather, Sihu’s house didn’t need the boiler turned on.
If he left the main bedroom door open, the whole house became warm and cozy.
‘The warm draft from the vegetable garden heats the whole house, so I save on heating costs.’
Sihu glanced toward the main bedroom for a moment.
He sat back on the sofa and resumed reading the store management book.
A short while later.
He took the sweet potatoes out of the furnace and brought them inside.
Sihu peeled the sweet potato skin, blew on it, and took a bite.
Hah—
The hot sweet potato delivered sweetness with a creamy texture in his mouth.
Sip—
A sip of brewed barley tea.
Didn’t someone say?
That you should drink soda with sweet potatoes.
With a bite of sweet potato, a smile naturally formed on Sihu’s lips.
He recalled the roasted sweet potatoes his father had bought when he was young.
‘Was I eight years old back then?’
Sihu’s gaze turned toward the yard.
Thud—
Squeak—
“Huh? Son!”
Seeing Sihu awake, his father took out a yellow paper bag from inside his coat and said,
“Son! They were selling roasted sweet potatoes at the bus stop up ahead. So I bought some to share with our Sihu.”
His father placed a sweet potato in Sihu’s small hand.
“Sihu. You have to blow on it like this—hoo, hoo—before eating. It’s hot, understand?”
Following his father’s example, Sihu did the same and took a bite of the sweet potato.
“Wow—Dad. It’s really delicious.”
His father brought out a plate with a few slices of fresh kimchi from the kitchen.
“Sihu, roasted sweet potatoes taste even better when you top them with kimchi like this.”
“……?”
At Sihu’s wide, curious gaze, his father seemed slightly embarrassed, so he took a bite of the kimchi-topped sweet potato and spoke.
“Our Sihu doesn’t know the taste of roasted sweet potatoes with kimchi yet, does he?”
Back then, his father had truly enjoyed eating sweet potato topped with kimchi.
“Sihu, I peeled it here, so hold it carefully and eat.”
“Yes.”
The young Sihu felt the warmth of the sweet potato his father placed in his hand.
Reminiscing about his childhood, Sihu looked at the sweet potato he was eating.
“It tastes exactly like the sweet potato Dad gave me.”
It was sweet, yet somehow tasted of longing.
Recalling memories of his father, Sihu felt his nose tingle slightly.
“Sweet potatoes… Should I make some sweet potato matang before going to [SeeYou] tomorrow?”
Sihu decided to make a matang snack with these delicious sweet potatoes before going to work tomorrow, and continued eating.
Munch—
Chew chew—
Gulp—
Sip—
Having polished off three sweet potatoes in one spot, Sihu finished with a final sip of barley tea.
“Ah—that hit the spot.”
Satisfying his empty stomach with sweet potatoes, he buckled down once more to read the store management book and the menu composition book.
‘Huh?’
After reading for a while, Sihu felt something was strange.
Content that hadn’t entered his head until moments ago was suddenly making sense all at once.
‘Ah—was it because I was hungry? My brain doesn’t work when I’m hungry.’
Thinking this was the right time, Sihu scribbled Korean menu items in his notebook.
Scribbling for a while to compose the menu, he took out the invitation Ganghun had given him.
“But how did hyung get this? Teacher Yun Suk-hui’s place is really hard to get into….”
Sihu tilted his head.
***
Yun Suk-hui was dumbfounded by her nephew’s request, but when she heard the name, her eyes widened.
“If it’s the Gang Sihu I know, that would be wonderful.”
At the voice coming through the receiver, Yun Suk-hui formed a faint smile.
“I see. Then it must be the student I know. Very well, I’ll send it. Yes. You take care of yourself too, and stop by sometime.”
After the call ended, Yun Suk-hui let out a light sigh.
She recalled Gang Sihu.
Seeing Gang Sihu for the first time at culinary school, Yun Suk-hui had been inwardly surprised.
His knifework and ability to interpret the taste of food were unlike that of a high school student.
He displayed movements one could only attain after rolling around the culinary scene for at least a dozen years.
Yun Suk-hui had often met Gang Sihu at competitions.
She recalled the rising star, ‘Gang Sihu,’ who had swept awards at various Korean cuisine competitions.
‘I hope it’s that kid.’
***
Sihu decided to use the invitation Ganghun had given him.
After making plans with Hayun, he prepared to go out.
One of the reasons Sihu had been surprised seeing the invitation was because he knew the master’s name.
‘Master Yun Suk-hui.’
He recalled the time when Master Yun Suk-hui had come to give a lecture during high school.
“The foundation of Korean cuisine is the taste of jang. The taste of jang is fermentation. Fermentation is the science of time together with the energy contained in nature.”
When explaining Korean cuisine, Teacher Yun Suk-hui’s expression held love and passion for the food.
Recalling Teacher Yun Suk-hui, Sihu chuckled.
‘She probably won’t remember me, but….’
Rustle, rustle—
Sihu put on black cotton pants and a white turtleneck, then threw on a black winter coat over them.
Leaving the house, he headed to the bus stop and saw a bus approaching.
“I don’t want to take the bus….”
A mutter that slipped out unconsciously.
Looking at the bus stop, Sihu realized he still harbored a vague anxiety about public transportation.
Knowing he couldn’t hold onto this anxiety forever, Sihu boldly boarded the bus.
Beep—.
“Welcome aboard.—”
The automated voice announced that he had boarded.
Thump, thump—
So tense that he could hear his own heartbeat in his ears, Sihu maintained a blank expression and looked around.
He spotted a few empty seats.
When Sihu sat down, the high school girls nearby glanced at him.
The girls began whispering amongst themselves while looking at him.
“That oppa, do you know he’s the chef at the gyeongnyangsik restaurant in front of Korea University?”
“I don’t know where that is.”
“You don’t know? Ah right. You transferred from Busan so you wouldn’t know. It’s famous on social media. You use Byeolgram too. Hold on, let me show you.”
The girl fumbled with her phone and showed the [SeeYou] menu and star ratings posted on Byeolgram.
The other student, having checked Byeolgram, glanced back and forth between Sihu and her phone with a slightly surprised face.
“Huh? It’s that place from Byeolgram? Then that oppa is the chef there?”
“Yeah, isn’t he handsome?”
The student rolled her eyes briefly and looked at Sihu.
Letting out a light sigh, she whispered.
“He’s decent-looking, but what’s the use of being handsome when he’s not our oppa.”
Sihu stared blankly out the window, unaware of the girls’ conversation.
Ziiing—
[Where are you? I’m here.]
Sihu saw Hayun’s text, replied, and got ready to get off.
“This stop is Pillyu-dong.—”
At the bus announcement, Sihu pressed the stop button.
Screech—
After the bus stopped and he got off, Hayun approached.
“Oh—Gang Sihu. You dressed up?”
Hayun was surprised at Sihu’s attire.
He looked far more composed and stylish than his usual self.
Sihu looked at Hayun and spoke as well.
“You dressed up too, Hyung.”
At Sihu’s words, Hayun scratched his cheek as if embarrassed.
“Ganghun-hyung told me to dress like this….”
“Huh? Ganghun-hyung?”
Hayun realized he’d slipped up.
“Huh? Uh. I told him I was going to a restaurant where a Master chef is with you, and he told me the dress code.”
At Hayun’s words, Sihu nodded in understanding.
Sihu and Hayun entered an alley to go to the restaurant run by Master Yun Suk-hui.
“Is this the right place?”
“Uh… Just a moment, let me turn on the map app.”
Since it was their first time in the neighborhood, Hayun and Sihu wandered a bit.
Hayun looked around and spoke.
“Isn’t this where we were just a little while ago? Hand it here.”
Without a word, Sihu held out his phone to Hayun.
“Hey… Could it be?”
At Hayun’s words, Sihu rolled his eyes and averted his gaze.
Thank you for reading.
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