Chapter 19 · 9 min

Chapter 19

The Master Hyung’s Hideout

The alley entrance with darkness laid.

One sports car was stopped.

“...”

Namgung Wi sitting in the driver’s seat was staring outside the window with a stiff face.

The place his gaze reached was the old restaurant with lights off.

[Jin Myeong Gak]

‘Am I crazy.’

Namgung Wi’s brow crumpled.

He was now swept in complicated emotions.

The fact that he ended up coming here alone just because of jajangmyeon.

“Huu...”

A sigh flowed from irritation at himself.

Even thinking of going back now, his gaze headed toward Jin Myeong Gak again.

Just jajangmyeon.

This ugly appearance because curious about that taste.

All kinds of thoughts circled in his mind.

Just when he was confused inside the car like that.

“Business is over.”

“...!!”

At the sudden voice Namgung Wi who was startled reflexively turned his head with a swish.

A young man who had approached at some point was looking down at him with hands stuck in his pockets beyond the car window.

“······!”

Namgung Wi’s eyes widened.

An indifferent face.

The young chef of Jin Myeong Gak, exactly Lee Jin-myeong.

“...”

In an instant Namgung Wi was flustered.

He had come here, but because he didn’t expect to collide directly like this suddenly.

But soon he hid the surprised expression and frowned.

His pride was hurt by the counterpart’s reaction.

Namgung Wi lowered the window.

Then he looked up with sharp eyes and said.

“···Do you know who I am?”

“Not interested.”

“······.”

Not that he doesn’t know, but not interested?

Namgung Wi’s expression hardened miserably.

“Do you really not know me?”

“······.”

Jin Myeong didn’t even reply.

He just looked down with a blank and languid gaze as if bothersome.

At that indifferent attitude Namgung Wi lost his composure and raised his voice.

“Do you live without watching TV or the internet? Haven’t you seen the hottest ‘Master Chef Championship’ these days?”

“······.”

“Then ‘The Birth of Absolute Taste’? I was in charge of the main judging there······!”

“If you want to eat, come during the day.”

“...”

Namgung Wi’s mouth fell open.

Even after clearly hearing the words of being the main judge of a TV program, he says such things?

This kind of treatment.

For him it was a shock he was experiencing for the first time in his life.

But soon he took a deep breath and found composure.

Then he asked again with a calm face.

“Can’t now?”

“No.”

“I’ll give money.”

Namgung Wi took out his wallet.

That mere one bowl of jajangmyeon.

There is no chef in the world who can’t be subdued with money.

Seuk.

Namgung Wi suddenly held out one paper outside the window.

A 1 million won check.

An amount that is unbelievable to think of as the price of just one bowl of jajangmyeon.

Namgung Wi lightly shook the check held at his fingertips and made a leisurely smile.

“How is it. This level should be enough.”

“...”

But.

On Jin Myeong’s face looking down at the 1 million won check, there was not the slightest agitation.

“No.”

“...What?”

Namgung Wi’s brow distorted.

“If it’s because money is insufficient...”

“If you want to eat, come during business hours.”

Jin Myeong who said that turned his body without lingering and moved his steps toward the restaurant.

“······.”

Namgung Wi’s face looking at Jin Myeong’s back receding into the darkness distorted terribly with humiliation.

Badeuk.

‘Arrogant bastard···’

In the end Namgung Wi started the engine and roughly turned the handle.

Buaaang!

The sports car let out a roar and roughly exited the dark alley.

“...”

Jin Myeong standing in front of the restaurant door looked at the receding sports car with indifferent eyes.

‘I didn’t expect him to come directly.’

Perhaps his subordinate was mixed among the restaurant customers.

In fact some fellows had even dug through the trash outside the kitchen back door of the restaurant.

‘Namgung Wi...’

The Martial Alliance Leader of his previous life.

Originally he was a bitter enemy who even twisting and tearing the neck by drawing up internal energy the moment they faced faces would not be refreshing enough.

But after actually colliding directly like this right in front, a truly bizarre emotion was rising in Jin Myeong’s chest.

The Namgung Wi of his previous life that Jin Myeong remembered was an overwhelming tyrant who pressed down the surroundings.

But what about that man who was flustered in front of his eyes now.

He was merely a frail brat anxious to be known who he is while shaking paper-like money.

“...”

Jin Myeong let out a hollow laugh.

The person in question, far from the bad connection of the previous life, doesn’t even know why he is receiving this kind of treatment, and is just raising his veins over one bowl of jajangmyeon.

Even emitting killing intent alone and getting angry against a naked brat who knows nothing felt like a waste.

Rather the bizarre superiority this situation gave was transforming the fierce revenge that had been coiled in Jin Myeong’s chest into amusement and interest.

‘Yeah, anyway that fellow is at most just an ordinary gourmet.’

Jin Myeong slowly turned his body, opened the restaurant door and entered inside.

***

The next day afternoon.

In front of the entrance of the old PC room located on the neighborhood commercial street.

One A4 paper was stuck on the glass door.

A low-quality CCTV capture screen was embedded on the paper.

In the capture screen the appearance of a young man holding a fried rice bowl was enlarged.

The face wasn’t well confirmed.

“What? Catching a guy who caused some accident again?”

“Seems like a PC room dine and dash. Kids these days really...”

“Right. Anyway really.”

Neighborhood people passing by clicked their tongues, stopped their steps and looked into the notice.

[Desperately looking for the noble person who descended on our store last night!]

「Handsome chef in the photo! Please stop by just once more!

I’ll give 3 times the part-timer hourly wage so won’t you come and make fried rice just once more?

The customer who ate that fried rice yesterday is not leaving the PC room now and stamping the attendance every day.

ㅠㅠ Please save us!」

“······What, this? Are you joking?”

“Looking for a person because he made PC room fried rice delicious? Isn’t this crazy?”

People burst out hollow laughs as if dumbfounded, shook their heads and passed by.

At the same time, the bustling alley of the neighborhood.

The large-bodied youth who tasted that legendary fried rice at the PC room last night and his friend were walking the road.

“Haa······.”

The large-bodied youth let out a deeply sunken sigh like a person carrying all the regrets of the world.

His two eyes lost focus and were loosely released.

“Aoh, a bit! Stop sighing that damn sigh! The ground will sink, crazy guy!”

“Hey··· you don’t know. That was really the heavenly taste I tasted for the first time in my life.”

“Ah, a bit! Stop that damn heavenly taste song! How many times already since yesterday? Calluses will form on the ears!”

The friend shuddered and hit the large one’s back, but he only smacked his lips.

He felt like he would go crazy wanting to eat again.

Even this morning as soon as he opened his eyes he ran to that PC room again but the unfamiliar person who made the fried rice wasn’t even visible by the tip of his nose.

The despair that he could never experience that taste again was making him like a ruined person.

“Hey hey, I know a killer gukbap restaurant. Let’s go there. I’ll treat.”

“Forget it man. A guy with no money.”

“Shit, I’m not to the extent of hearing such words from an unemployed bastard. Forget it, forget it. Even when I make up my mind and say I’ll treat, it’s a fuss. You just go to the convenience store and eat triangular kimbap.”

“Ah, why like this? Getting sulky over a small joke. Okay, okay. Instead if you treat special I’ll go.”

“Ahyu, like a leech bastard. What special, just eat as given. Lead the way.”

“Okay. But you’ll order one bottle of soju too, right?”

“Confirmed! Really abandon in front of the convenience store and go?”

While walking having such a squabble, the two people’s steps stopped dead.

Near the Chinese restaurant ‘Jin Myeong Gak’.

“...”

It was busy with people lining up in front of the restaurant.

Not only were foreigners hard to see in this neighborhood gathered a lot, but also those continuously taking selfies with phones or cams.

“Wow, there are a lot of customers.”

But the large one sharply furrowed his brow watching that noisy scenery.

Even the large one roughly knew the fact that it was the hottest Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood recently.

“Tsk, is that the famous rip-off restaurant?”

The large one clicked his tongue as if pathetic watching the long waiting line.

“Why is a neighborhood Chinese restaurant making such a fuss. Completely doing thug acts toward foreign tourists.”

When the large one snorted and sneered, the friend beside poked the large one’s side as if frustrated.

“You crazy guy. Didn’t you see the YouTube shorts?”

“Shorts? What shorts.”

“The video of the young chef there turning the wok has millions of views now. The fire show is completely art. Moreover yesterday that national mukbang YouTuber Myeondosa famous for being picky also came and ate, and that person finished three bowls of jajangmyeon during the broadcast? He went after completely highly praising it as a crazy taste not regrettable at all for 13,000 won.”

The friend sparkled his eyes and recited detailed information.

“There’s a reason people go crazy like that.”

The friend said making a fuss but the large one still had a sullen and indifferent expression.

“Bullshit, really. Even if jajangmyeon is delicious it’s jajangmyeon. Pouring MSG hard on chunjang, and doing fire play a bit flashily in front of the eyes so hooked on superficial style and eyes rolled.”

When the large one snorted, the friend’s brow crumpled sharply.

“You shit··· you’re out of your mind all day just because of PC room frozen fried rice! Who cursing whom, this pig bastard!”

“Hey! That’s a different dimension, dimension! I’ll stake my life and say, that fried rice yesterday was art itself!”

“Aigu, bullshit.”

The friend snorted as if absurd, then took out the smartphone from his pocket with a seuk.

“This is that video, damn guy. I don’t know the taste, but visually it’s real, real.”

The friend held out the phone with a seuk.

Then a short video flowed along with a light beat sound.

Hwaaaaaaaaak!!

An explosive pillar of fire that seemed like it would come out through the smartphone screen.

The large one looked down at the screen as if glancing with an indifferent expression with arms crossed.

“Well it looks plausible...”

The voice of the large one who was sneering cut off for a moment.

“······?”

In the screen, the appearance of the chef tossing the wok into the air was close-upped.

A blank and languid gaze as if everything was bothersome.

But a youth with a young-looking face dominating the flame while the wrist moved like lightning.

“Eh?”

The large one’s pupils began shaking like crazy as if an earthquake occurred.

Then his mouth fell open.

“Hey, look. No joke, right? The fire show is crazy······ hey, why are you like that?”

The friend who was showing the screen asked in fluster at the large one’s bizarre reaction.

But the large one as if he couldn’t even hear the friend’s words grabbed the friend’s smartphone with both hands that were trembling and brought it close as if burying his eyes in the young chef’s face in the screen.

“Th, this person...!”

Certain.

Exactly that unfamiliar part-timer who gave the fried rice with an indifferent expression at the PC room last night and suddenly disappeared like smoke!

“...Fried rice master hyung!!”

A scream like a beast’s roar burst from the large one’s mouth.

“Wha, what?! Surprised, crazy guy! Let go of the phone! It’ll break!”

“This person!! The hyung who made that crazy fried rice at the PC room!!”

The large one alternated between the sign of Jin Myeong Gak and the smartphone screen with surprised eyes and was shocked.

“That was the master hyung’s hideout!”

“...”