The Cook Hid His Stepfather – Episode 1
Prologue. Enlistment
I didn’t know, not until the very moment before my enlistment.
“Sigh... Soyeon’s favorability hit rock bottom. Fuck….”
“You still haven’t dropped that fucking system window concept?”
“I told you, this bastard’s been pushing that concept since middle school.”
“Ugh, I want to push him off a cliff.”
At a hunting pojangmacha in Hongdae, I—Han Seongjin, the one with the shortest hair—had my head buried in the table.
It didn’t feel real. That I was going to the army tomorrow. It was as surreal as the unrealistic system window flickering before my eyes.
“Hey, how does telling her I’m going to the army make favorability that was stacked up to 50 drop into the negatives? Is enlisting a crime?”
“It is a crime, you dumbass. You said you didn’t even know you were going tomorrow; if I were her, I’d have blocked you on KakaoTalk.”
[Soyeon has blocked you on messenger ‘KakaoTalk’.]
“Fuck, the bastard called it.”
Unable to let go of the slightest hope, I flipped the phone I was holding onto the table.
“Hey, just drink. You won’t be able to for the next five weeks.”
“It’s six weeks because of COVID, dumbass.”
“Two extra weeks at the training center? Ugh, if it were me, I’d look into immigrating.”
“Yeah, I’m enlisting tomorrow.”
These reservists, who had already finished their service two years before me, were wholeheartedly devoted to teasing me.
Those damned bastards.
Even so, I tilted my glass.
At this reality that felt unreal.
And at the army I was entering tomorrow.
To forget.
“Seongjin, take care and come back safe.”
“Hyuuuung….”
But when I opened my eyes, I was at the entrance to the training center.
Due to COVID, families couldn’t even get out of their cars, and there was no enlistment ceremony.
The moment I stepped out of the car my mother had driven, my steps heavy.
[The bond with parent ‘I Hyesuk’ deepens.]
[Favorability is already at maximum.]
[The bond with sibling ‘Han Jeongu’ deepens.]
[Favorability value has changed.]
[99 -> 100]
The steps of enlisting while leaving behind my mother, who had raised me alone with such difficulty, and my younger brother Jeongu, five years my junior, were heavy.
Why.
Why was I, who had grown up in a single-parent household, enlisting on active duty?
It was because my father still remained on the family register.
I had no idea where he was or what he was doing, but Mother, despite having raised us without a father, had adamantly refused divorce, insisting that at least the family register must remain clean.
So I was Grade 1 active duty.
That was how I came to enter the 130th Division Recruit Training Center.
“Move, move, move!”
‘Fuck….’
Surrounded by drill instructors, I swallowed down the sheer shittiness of it all.
* * *
So.
Military life.
Had only just begun.
During the six weeks at the training center, I put this system window only I could see to good use.
The system window had been visible since my second year of middle school. At first, I thought it was a symptom of chūnibyō or some mental illness.
But it never disappeared and had continued until now, and amusingly, it had been gradually developing.
If at first it had only shown the other person’s emotions, now it could predict exact favorability values, emotions, and even the other person’s disposition.
Based on that, I quickly adapted to the training center. I got close to those called “aces,” and by getting on the good side of senior drill instructors, I secured countless phone calls, smoke breaks, PX time, and more.
And after the six weeks passed.
The day to say goodbye to the drill instructors.
I thought my military life was over. It felt like I had made it.
But the moment I boarded the bus and moved to my permanent unit.
And the moment I met him there.
“Hello?”
The moment I met a staff sergeant wearing a padded jacket and slippers and followed him out to the drill ground.
“Look here.”
I realized.
“You only discharge after every single person here has been discharged?”
I’m fucked.
No matter how much I thought about it, I was fucked.
* * *
“Loyalty! Private Second Class Han Seongjin, sir!”
“Yeah, have a seat.”
The air was thick with a musty stench.
Yellow mold bloomed on the sign that read “Administration Office.”
“You drink coffee?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Good.”
An old man—no, a man whose age was impossible to gauge—with grizzled hair took two cans of Let’s Be from a small fridge and placed one in front of me.
“Ah, make yourself comfortable. Han Seongjin… Han Seongjin is….”
The man searched for my name among the yellow document envelopes before him. Finding my envelope at the very bottom, he took it out and read it.
“Name’s Han Seongjin… Your specialty is cooking, huh? Did you cook on the outside?”
“Yes, sir! I’m from a culinary department!”
“Culinary department? You must be good?”
“Uh… I have quite a few certificates!”
Honestly, it was more than just a few. I held certificates for Korean, Japanese, Western, and Chinese cuisine, and having worked part-time while in university, I knew the ins and outs of running a restaurant better than anyone.
But what I realized after going through the training center was:
‘Standing out gets you nothing good.’
In the army, being average is best. I had just painfully realized my friends’ advice. Because.
“Oh, trainee company commander, excellent squad citation, first place in marksmanship. Wow, an ace, an ace. Hey, you’ll do well here.”
[Headquarters Company Administration and Supply Officer ‘???’s favorability has increased.]
[0 -> 1]
What I earned by working my fucking ass off at the training center was:
A four-night, five-day leave.
Adding up all the awards, it was close to ten days, but they said I was getting too much leave, so it got cut right from the training center.
After that, I swore: in the army, I’d only go halfway.
“Well yeah, our unit’s facilities aren’t great, but the guys here are good, so let’s work hard, Seongjin.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Yeah, do your best. Minjun, help Seongjin unpack his stuff.”
“Roger that.”
With that short interview over, I was led by a man named Minjun through the hallway toward the barracks.
Truly amusingly.
The facilities of the 130th Division’s 3rd Battalion were so wretched that one couldn’t believe this was the army of 2021.
First of all, they were sleeping platforms.
Not beds—sleeping platforms.
On top of that, the buildings were just two temporary one- and two-story structures.
‘Iron Wall Barracks’
When I stood before that barracks whose even name looked shoddy, I truly wanted to run away.
But the moment I went inside carrying my duffel bag.
I wanted to kill myself.
“Ah, where’s the remote?”
“You used it last.”
“Bullshit, I threw it to you and went to take a dump.”
“I saw you.”
“Isn’t it under the locker?”
“I checked, it’s not there.”
The noisy barracks.
The musty stench of sweat.
Scattered trash and dust.
The lights turned off and the flickering glow of the TV.
An idol whose name I didn’t know dancing on the screen.
“Oh, what’s this, a new recruit?”
“Wow, it is a new recruit.”
“Isn’t he the last of our batch?”
“12th class? Damn, nice. Discharge is December next year?”
“Ugh, we should’ve gotten a junior by now.”
And ten gazes focused on me.
“Hey, so where’s the remote?”
“Ah, fuck, I said I don’t know. I took a dump.”
“Ah, you shitting bastard.”
And interest that scattered in an instant.
“There’s an empty spot over there, unpack there.”
“Yes.”
“I’m your batchmate.”
And the man named Minjun closed the door and left.
In that single moment, I felt this unit in my bones.
But did I know it would turn out like this?
That I would end up being ‘made’ into this unit’s fucking ace.