Chapter 7 · 8 min

Chapter 7

Wasn’t This House Ruined?

After returning from the dawn market.

“Ji, Jin-myeong. Shall mom help even with peeling the onions?”

“...”

“Then... even washing the vegetables······.”

The mother asked with a worried face, but Jin Myeong only shook his head while fixing his gaze on the cutting board.

Tata tatata tatata tak!!

Seogeok, seogeok, seugeogeok!

The parents held their breath and watched that scene.

Jin Myeong in front of the cutting board seemed as if another person’s soul was possessed.

“Is that kid... really my son?”

“It even feels scary because he seems like a completely different person.”

The parents felt a strange feeling at the unfamiliar appearance of the son.

Normally they would have forcibly taken the knife, but it was difficult to even speak to the back so immersed now.

Right after all the ingredient trimming finished so quickly like that.

In Jin Myeong’s hand who came out of the kitchen were unexpectedly a few scraps of blank paper and a small bowl containing rice grains.

Jin Myeong approached the menu board hanging on the wall without hesitation.

Then he crushed and applied rice grains with his finger on the back of the paper, and began sticking the paper onto the menu board with taps.

“Eh, oh my? Jin-myeong! Why suddenly there...?!”

The surprised mother urgently shouted, but Jin Myeong didn’t stop.

Jjamppong, bokkeumbap, udon, tangsuyuk.

The dish names written on the menu board were covered by the white paper Jin Myeong stuck.

And what remained was only one.

Jajangmyeon.

“No, what on earth...!”

While the mother watched with a flustered face, Jin Myeong organized his thoughts inwardly.

Of course with the current hand movements and senses, he could have made other dishes like jjamppong or tangsuyuk quite plausibly by imitating.

But he was the best chef in the Central Plains.

Putting out sloppy dishes he himself wasn’t confident about on the customer’s table was something his pride absolutely wouldn’t allow.

In fact, even this current jajangmyeon was still an incomplete unfinished product by his picky standards.

Because with the modern unfamiliar ingredients and kitchen environment, above all with this frail body, it was far insufficient to reproduce the past skills.

Rather than increasing the number of clumsy dishes he himself couldn’t accept and putting them on the customer’s table, concentrating all energy and focus only on the one best dish he could put out right now.

That was the reason Jin Myeong left only jajangmyeon on the menu board.

“Haha!”

The father who had no way of knowing Jin Myeong’s inner thoughts just burst out a good-natured laugh seeing the son’s absurd action.

“Just leave it. What can we do when our Jin-myeong insists like that. Yeah, Jin-myeong. Do as you want to try!”

“Ahyu, really! You can smile when the kid is like that?”

“What does it matter? Besides there aren’t many ingredients anyway. Even if I want to sell other things, people say it tastes bad if I make it.”

“Still...”

“Well, seeing Jin-myeong like that before closing the shop, it also feels fortunate.”

“...”

At that time.

Ding!

Someone opened the restaurant door and entered.

The father who was mopping reflexively tried to greet but paused.

It was a foreigner in comfortable tourist clothes.

“Hello! Is this the Black Noodle Chef's place?”

“...!”

While the father was flustered, the door opened consecutively and another group rushed in.

This time also foreigners.

And the people entering again were also foreigners.

Blonde whites, blacks in flashy clothes, even those who looked Southeast Asian or Hispanic.

Truly multinational foreigners began pouring in in droves.

That was the start.

In an instant the inside of the Chinese restaurant was packed with no room to step.

7 tables instantly full.

Something that had never happened since acquiring the shop.

Among them, not a single Korean.

“Ho, honey··· what on earth is this?”

The mother said while holding a wet towel tray and looking at the father.

Why on earth were foreigners flocking to an ordinary neighborhood Chinese restaurant in the provinces that wasn’t even a famous tourist spot.

“Jja..jangmyeon!”

“Black noodle!”

“Jwajangmyeon!”

Even if called orders, anyway all were only one jajangmyeon.

What if this many people had ordered different dishes each?

Just thinking about it was a terrible thing.

Moreover the ingredient purchase was the same.

Weren’t they all the main ingredients of jajangmyeon.

“Honey! If Jin-myeong hadn’t insisted at the market, it almost became a big problem!”

The mother stroked her chest.

If they had bought only a little ingredients as originally planned, they wouldn’t have been able to fill even four tables and today’s business would have ended emptily.

Had Jin-myeong calculated the customers who would flock in his head in advance?

Even while thinking it was a pleasant coincidence created by the son’s stubbornness, the tip of the nose tingling from relief and overwhelming emotion was unavoidable.

But there was no time to be immersed in sentiment.

“Two jjajangmyeon please!”

“Sajangnim, double! Double please!”

“Ah, yes, yes!”

As orders poured continuously from the hall, the father urgently ran into the kitchen.

“Jin-myeong! Dad will pull the noodles so you just concentrate on frying the chunjang!”

The father shouted with a face covered in sweat and headed straight to the noodle machine.

He pressed the switch of the old noodle machine with skilled and fast skill.

Wiiing.

Deoldeoldeol!

When the aged flour dough passed through the rollers and poured down as chewy noodles of consistent thickness, the father quickly snatched it and dropped it into the pot boiling vigorously.

Right at the moment the father was stirring the noodles with a strainer and tightly pulling the kitchen’s breathing.

Hwaaaaaaaaak!!

A pillar of fire surged up as if exploding from the stove in front of Jin Myeong.

The tremendous order volume pouring in without rest.

But on Jin Myeong’s indifferent face there was not the slightest urgency or shaking.

Rather his hand movements were becoming dramatically skilled.

Tak!

Chwareureuk!

When the father scooped the noodles, shook off the water with taps, and put them in the bowl, as if waiting the jet-black sauce Jin Myeong had fried poured down on top.

“Jja, jajangmyeon is out!”

The mother hurriedly put the jajangmyeon on the tray and began carrying it.

Every time the jajangmyeon was placed in turn on the 7 tables, screams burst out inside the hall.

“Oh my god! Look at this!”

“Unbelievable smell! Crazy!”

“Delicioso! Muy bien!”

“Sugoi! Really oishii!”

They began pushing the noodles into their mouths recklessly using clumsy chopsticks or forks.

At that time, neighborhood residents began gathering one by one in front of the restaurant as if entranced by the noisy foreign language sounds and the strong jajangmyeon smell.

And they peeked inside from outside the restaurant and whispered.

“What? Wasn’t this house ruined and closing?”

“Right. What’s going on there?”

“All just foreigners crowding, no idea what on earth it is.”

“······But the jajangmyeon smell is really killer.”

“Shall I try a bowl after a long time?”

“Aei, if you go in now it seems you’ll have to line up outside for a long time?”

“Still if the smell is this much you have to try it unconditionally. Right?”

“Right, right. Living in this neighborhood, there was never a time this house’s smell was this good.”

In the end as even the neighborhood people who couldn’t overcome the temptation of the smell began lining up behind the foreigners, in front of the restaurant there was truly no room to step.

And around 1 PM in the afternoon just past lunch time.

Hwaaaaak!

Jin Myeong who had fried the last remaining sauce put down the heavy wok from the stove and locked the gas valve with a tak.

The rough roar that had been shaking the restaurant without rest stopped and a short silence momentarily descended on the kitchen.

“······.”

Jin Myeong who lightly wiped the sweat on his forehead with the towel around his neck scanned the empty ingredient containers with a calm gaze.

Then he opened his mouth toward the father who had been continuously pulling machine noodles with an indifferent voice.

“Ingredients all ran out.”

“···Huh?”

The father who had just been scooping noodles with the strainer paused and turned his head.

His gaze headed toward the empty workbench following Jin Myeong’s chin gesture.

“Uh, uuh?”

The father’s two eyes widened in startle as if they would pop out.

He hurriedly approached the workbench.

“...Really!”

The father opened his mouth wide.

That many ingredients had all bottomed out in just a few hours.

“Ho, honey! Big problem! Ingredients all ran out!”

“Wha, what?!”

The mother who was clearing empty bowls stopped right there.

“No, those many ingredients... really not a single one left?!”

“Yes!!”

A thrilling chill rose along the parents’ spines.

But the joy was only momentary.

Because outside the restaurant there were still waiting customers lining up in order.

“They’re waiting like that outside, what do we do···”

The mother moved her steps toward outside the restaurant with short steps.

“Th, there······ customers. Really, really sorry!”

The mother bowed deeply at a loss.

“Just now the ingredients all ran out. So we can’t take any more orders. You waited a long time, really sorry!”

At the mother’s repeated apologies, deep sighs of regret first burst from the mouths of the Korean customers standing at the front of the waiting line.

“What?”

“Of all times in front of me... haa!”

On the other hand, the foreigners, without noticing the sudden change in situation, only looked at each other’s faces blankly and murmured.

“······?”

“······What?!”

At that time, one blonde foreigner among the group who understood Korean widened his eyes greatly and urgently interpreted and informed the situation in English.

“They say the ingredients the chef prepared today all bottomed out! Sold out! They say they can’t do business anymore today!”

At those words people despaired.

“Oh, no! Unbelievable!”

“How can I just go back after smelling this!”

“Oh my god, I waited over an hour!”

“The worst day of my life!”