Chapter 5 · 10 min

Chapter 5

...There Was Talent?

Before long the dawn mist cleared, and morning was slowly brightening beyond the ridge.

“...”

Jin Myeong’s closed eyes opened wide.

He stood up and lightly loosened his body.

The blocked meridians had opened slightly, and the heavy body had become a little lighter.

The minimal muscle strength and energy to turn a heavy wok had been forcibly drawn up.

‘Shall I go down now.’

Arriving in front of the restaurant after descending the mountain like that.

His gaze went to the sign hanging on the outer wall of the old building.

“······.”

Jin Myeong’s pupils shook slightly.

Jin Myeong Gak.

It was his own name, and also the name of the youth who had been the owner of this body.

Even without groping through Lee Jin-myeong’s memories, he seemed to know the meaning contained in that name.

‘Parents······.’

Jin Myeong’s gaze stayed on the sign and wouldn’t easily fall.

Jin Myeong of his previous life was an abandoned orphan.

Unconditional blind affection or the warm embrace of a family, he had never once experienced in his entire life.

“...”

A strange feeling he couldn’t shake off no matter how he tried to ignore it.

After looking up at the sign for a long while lost in thought, Jin Myeong soon gathered his complicated mind and carefully pushed the restaurant’s glass door to enter.

Passing the dim hall, the single room attached inside the restaurant.

He carefully opened the sliding door so no sound would be made.

Deureureuk.

“······!”

The mother who woke from sleep raised her body.

With a messy face, her eyes met Jin Myeong’s.

“Did you go pee?”

It seemed she guessed the son had felt the urge at night and gone to the bathroom in his sleep.

“······.”

Jin Myeong just roughly nodded with an indifferent and uncaring face.

When morning time came, the parents who woke from sleep began cleaning the hall with heavy steps.

The backs of the two sweeping dust with brooms as if by habit were utterly pitiful.

At that time, Jin Myeong grabbed the large mop from the corner and approached, silently wiping the stains on the floor.

Seeing that, the parents’ pupils widened.

“Oh my! Honey, look at this. Our Jin-myeong is even helping with the cleaning.”

“Hehe, right. Aww, he’s doing well! Our son has grown up.”

The parents reddened their eyes and rejoiced.

The admirable appearance of the son trying to do his part, interlocking with the reality that in a few days they would have to close even this restaurant and sit on the streets, was making the two’s chests even colder.

In that sorrowful atmosphere, around the time afternoon came.

Ding!

The shop’s sliding door opened and unfamiliar customers rushed in.

Surprisingly, a foreign couple holding small cameras for video.

“Oh, welco······ no, hello? No, welcome?”

The father greeted with clumsy English.

At that time, the expressions of the two foreigners who met eyes with Jin Myeong holding the large mop in the corner of the hall brightened.

“Oh my god! Are you the chef?! The black noodle chef!!”

“Wow! We saw you on YouTube! Michael’s stream! You are amazing, Chef!!”

The two jumped up and down and made a fuss toward Jin Myeong with smiling faces.

“······?”

Jin Myeong’s expression looking blankly at their exaggerated dance while holding the large mop was still sullen and indifferent.

And beside them, only the father and mother who had no way of knowing what on earth was going on blankly looked at each other’s faces with bewildered eyes.

“...”

The highly excited foreign couple even turned on the smartphone translator and shouted the order in clumsy Korean.

“Jja, jjajangmyeon! Two please! Two jjajangmyeon!”

“Ah, yes! Two jajangmyeon! Just a moment, wait a little!”

The father hurriedly nodded and reflexively turned his body toward the kitchen.

But at that moment, the foreign couple freaked out and waved both hands.

“No, no, no! Not you!”

The two pointed at Jin Myeong standing indifferently.

“This chef! Black noodle chef! Please!”

At that gesture, the father and mother froze with dumbfounded expressions.

“Ji, Jin-myeong...?”

While the parents stood blankly unable to understand at all, Jin Myeong let out a short sigh.

‘Tsk, seems they saw the broadcast of that noisy Westerner who came yesterday.’

Anyway, it was clear that groups who saw that broadcast had come here out of curiosity.

Jin Myeong, who approached with an indifferent face as if there was no choice, quickly untied the apron at the father’s waist and tightly tied it around his own waist.

“Eh! Ji, Jin-myeong······.”

The father who had the apron snatched in an instant called his son with a dazed voice, but Jin Myeong entered toward the inside of the kitchen with slow steps.

A kitchen with no preparation for business at all.

Chunjang wasn’t even fried, and not a single ingredient like onion or meat was sliced.

Moreover, normally the parents should have immediately pulled the son out saying the kitchen was dangerous.

But the two just stood blankly in place with their mouths half open.

‘What on earth is he trying to do like that······?’

A feeling as if the head had been emptied white from too great bewilderment.

The two, unable to grasp the situation at all, just blankly watched only the back of the son who entered the kitchen.

That was because the back of the son who had snatched the apron, tied it, and turned around just now was not the appearance the two had known all their lives.

Calm gait, and an unfamiliar energy.

With a strange overwhelming feeling, the parents seemed to have their feet bound in that spot and couldn’t move.

A bizarre premonition that for some reason they shouldn’t disturb that child now, which reason absolutely couldn’t explain, was pressing down on the two.

“...”

While the parents stood blankly as if entranced like that, the foreign couple approached the kitchen serving window with faces full of expectation and peeked inside.

Only then coming to their senses, the parents also stuck closely behind the couple as if entranced and carefully peeked inside the kitchen.

At that moment.

Tata tatata tatata tak!!

The light sound of knife cuts in a steady rhythm.

The two eyes of the parents peeking at that scene widened as if they would burst.

“...”

The two froze forgetting even to breathe.

Is it a dream or reality.

Even while clearly watching the son’s movements unfolding before their eyes with both eyes, it was hard to believe it was reality at all.

A child who had never cooked in his life.

Moreover, wasn’t he a son lacking in many parts.

But to be like that.

The large Chinese kitchen knife in Jin Myeong’s hand was elegantly dancing in the air.

On his face, the usual blank and blurry complexion was nowhere to be found.

Eyes sunk without shaking and tightly closed lips.

Every time the slender wrist lightly flicked, the round onion and cabbage on the cutting board, and the pork, were sliced at high speed.

The shape was consistent in thickness and length.

“Ho, how······?”

The father opened his mouth wide with a shocked face.

The mother standing beside also just blinked her eyes while clasping both hands.

Jin Myeong was immersed only in the ingredients.

Though a very short time, the effect of slightly opening the meridians was tremendous.

Thanks to that, there was no unnecessary movement in his motions.

Right after the ingredients were trimmed in the blink of an eye like that.

He opened the valve of the gas stove.

Hwaaaaaaaaak!!

Soon a bright red pillar of fire surged up from the huge gas stove as if exploding.

Jin Myeong lightly tossed the wok and began stir-frying after putting in the chunjang, the sliced vegetables and meat.

“Ho, honey··· our Jin-myeong··· had talent in something like that?”

“Right··· huh? Then those two bowls that were on the table yesterday···”

The mother muttered in a surprised voice.

Only then it seemed he knew.

All the empty bowls were ones Jin-myeong had made with his own hands.

Then did he sell them to someone?

Or did he eat them himself?

While the parents were submerged in confusion and shock, the foreign couple was completely lost in the wondrous scene unfolding before their eyes.

Every time the bright red pillar of fire surged up as if exploding, the couple inhaled and stepped back, but soon stuck closely in front of the serving window again as if drawn by a magnet.

“Crazy! Unbelievable!”

“Smell is amazing!”

The woman flared her nose and made an ecstatic expression.

The overwhelming performance and the smell ravaging the sense of smell that the legendary ‘Black Noodle Chef’ they had only seen beyond the screen was emitting right before their eyes.

They flashed their eyes so as not to miss even 1 second of this tremendous scene, and reconfirmed that the recording lamp of the small cam in their hands was lit red.

To capture even the momentary movements fully in the video, they held their breath and diligently pushed and pulled the lens zoom.

A moment later.

Two bowls of jajangmyeon came up on the serving window shelf.

“Oh! Yes!”

The foreign couple who had been filming inside the kitchen lost in a daze let out a cheer.

Then they quickly ran back to their seats and sat side by side in front of the table.

The eyes of the two who had finished preparing to receive the food sparkled.

“Ah···!”

The mother who had been lost in a daze also then suddenly came to her senses and carefully transferred the two bowls of jajangmyeon onto a tray.

Then she crossed the hall and placed the jajangmyeon bowls on the foreign couple’s table.

“En, enjoy your meal!”

The mother smiled brightly with a face where the daze still hadn’t faded.

“Oh! Thank you! Kamsahamnida! Kamsahamnida!”

The foreign couple brought both hands together and continuously bowed their heads while noisily conveying thanks.

But their gazes were already fixed on the jajangmyeon placed on the table.

The sweet yet savory aroma unique to chunjang and the smell of fire.

They were out of their minds from the smell that called tremendous appetite.

“Crazy smell...”

The man swallowed saliva and muttered with an ecstatic face.

The man hurriedly picked up the chopsticks.

“Wait!”

But the woman sharply shouted and slapped the back of the man’s hand to stop him.

“Video first!”

“Oh, please Linda! I’m going crazy from the smell. I want to eat right now!”

“Endure. A bit!”

“Ugh...”

The man made a crying face while holding the chopsticks and stamped his feet, but it was useless.

“Okay, now slowly mix!”

“Ah, it’s too hard.”

“No more words, slowly!”

“...Okay.”

At the woman’s instruction, the man forcibly smacked his lips and began mixing the black sauce with the noodles with the chopsticks.

Every time the chopsticks dug between the noodles, a pleasant sound of the sauce sticking was made.

The man couldn’t come to his senses from the smell while flaring his nose wildly throughout mixing the noodles.

“Done!”

Finally when the sauce was coated, the moment the man smacked his lips and largely lifted the chopsticks to bring them to his mouth.

“Wait! We have to eat together!”

The woman grabbed the man’s wrist tightly.

“Oh, please! I’m going to get dizzy right now!”

“I haven’t even mixed mine yet! Wait until I finish mixing!”

“...”

When the woman began clumsily moving the fork and chopsticks, the man stamped his feet as if he was dying from anxiety.

Because the fire aroma striking the tip of the nose was already paralyzing reason, but the speed of the woman mixing with difficulty was so slow it made his insides burst.

“Aoh, really! Give it here!”

In the end, the man who couldn’t endure anymore pulled the woman’s bowl forward in front of him.

Then he moved both hands at a tremendous speed that couldn’t even be seen and began mixing the noodles recklessly.

“Okay, perfect!”

In just a few seconds he mixed perfectly and quickly pushed the bowl back.

Finally the preparation was over.

“...”

The man and woman looked at each other’s faces as if by agreement.

The two’s pupils full of expectation.

“Finally!”

The two with faces full of expectation simultaneously largely lifted one chopsticks each and pushed them into their mouths without hesitation.

“······!!”

“······?!”

In an instant, the pupils of the two who stopped the chewing action simultaneously widened like crazy as if they would pop out.