Ch.234The effect was tremendous.

“But were you really thinking of serving gukbap and gamjatang fried rice?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, realistically, that doesn’t make sense to sell from a food truck.”

In response to Sujin who was clinging to my side.

“Of course not, I was just throwing ideas out there.”

I shrugged my shoulders as I recalled that moment.

‘The direction was decided instantly, accompanied by a brief silence.’

What came out then wasn’t an immediate answer.

If expressed in writing, it would have been a response with about three dots worth of delay.

‘Gukbap and gamjatang fried rice… everyone must know how ridiculous that is.’

It could be prepared.

It’s not that strange.

Even at marketplaces, they use pre-prepared broth.

And meat can be prepared and sliced the day before.

But from an entertainment perspective, that would be a flop.

‘The time-to-efficiency ratio is terrible… and the performance aspect is slightly lacking.’

Plus, it’s currently mid-May.

By the time we get everything set up, it would be at least late May.

Gukbap at this time? It’s not seasonally appropriate.

Despite all the effort, it wouldn’t feel like it’s in season.

‘Maybe in winter, but not now.’

That was a trap menu.

The gamjatang fried rice and cheese potato pancake were real options.

As for gukbap, how should I put it?

‘It’s like creating a hole where everyone can offer their opinion.’

That’s how things work.

‘There are five of us including me… we need some division of labor.’

Thinking that, I hugged Sujin tightly.

“Anyway, we’ll spend the first week planning the menu and figuring out our movements, so we can take our time.”

“That’s true.”

The reason for the four-week filming schedule is that they’ve set a very generous timeline.

We won’t be operating every day,

And using the food truck’s mobility, we’re planning for 4 days a week.

The goal is to operate at least 10 times.

‘Plus we’ll be traveling across the US, so with travel time and everything else, it’s 4 weeks.’

I don’t know what the others’ schedules are like.

But I concluded that they all agreed because of the good pay.

Since Netflix is controlling the purse strings,

Funding wasn’t something we needed to worry about.

“So we’re going to spend the whole week like this?”

Sujin smiled brightly as she casually placed her leg over mine.

“I think someone’s stamina is too weak for that.”

I tickled Sujin’s waist while sneaking a peek under the blanket.

“It’s already so hard to breathe, how could we stay this close?”

“Heek… that tickles! Kim Donghu, you’re crazy. Your playfulness has increased while we were apart.”

And my stamina has improved a lot, you know?

Sujin said this while raising just her upper body from the bed.

I smiled gently watching her.

“Really? Have you been exercising a lot?”

“…That’s completely different from this, you know? Dummy?”

“But you said your stamina improved.”

“I just meant I want to stay close to you longer!”

I should just shut those lips that keep teasing me.

Smooch!

Sujin launched a lip attack with those words.

The effect was tremendous.

I couldn’t think of anything to say.

And I became completely focused on it.

After that day.

We spent the entire week together, working through our schedule.

Actually, there wasn’t much of a schedule to speak of.

All we did was endless menu deliberation and recipe research for the already decided menus.

Just those two things.

‘Of course, those two things consumed a tremendous amount of time.’

Given the food truck’s nature, food needs to come out very quickly.

And when there are no customers, you need something to attract attention.

So a menu item that involves wok cooking, like fried rice, was essential.

‘Something like cheese potato pancakes would be perfect for Western palates.’

So what remained was figuring out what menu item would replace gukbap.

“How about homemade burgers or hot dogs?”

“Those are very common in America, easy to approach. But they seem far from Korean cuisine.”

“You mentioned gukbap initially because of its Korean-ness, right?”

“Yes. I want the last item to really showcase the taste of Korea!”

Various opinions emerged during this process.

The most promising was bibimbap, but

it was rejected due to ingredient preparation.

Not just any thrown-together bibimbap.

A proper, elegant bibimbap takes a lot of time.

‘There are too many ingredients to prepare, making it unsuitable for a food truck.’

Plus, we already have fried rice and cheese potato pancakes.

Considering the number of burners, adding another menu item that uses fire would be risky.

‘Eventually, customers will crowd in. So at that time, something we can prepare in advance….’

The best option.

Something so obviously Korean that I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it properly before.

One of the most Korean foods flashed in my mind.

“Kimbap, let’s go with kimbap.”

“Kimbap? Isn’t that similar to bibimbap?”

“It has the advantage of being prepared in advance.”

“What if we run out?”

“We just change the wording slightly. Not ‘limited quantity’ but… ‘special limited edition.'”

The time-consuming slicing can be easily solved by doing half-cuts.

Like eating a hot dog, if you will.

That would save a tremendous amount of time.

And it would definitely showcase the advantages of Korean cuisine.

‘Of course, now we’ll spend a lot of time preparing ingredients the day before.’

It was perfect as an easy-to-eat food truck menu item.

“So our menu will be kimbap, gamjatang fried rice, and cheese potato pancakes!”

“Yes!”

And so, on the first Saturday.

The moment all the menu items were decided.

We hurriedly started shopping.

++++++

To be honest.

Gamjatang fried rice wasn’t really suitable for a food truck either.

‘We need to boil the gamjatang itself first.’

Since it uses that broth and meat to make fried rice.

We needed to boil the gamjatang first.

Of course, the end result is fried rice so we don’t need to keep the broth simmering, but.

We still needed to prepare in advance.

Despite this, the reason I really wanted to include this menu was personal greed.

‘Originally, frying rice at the end is the most delicious part.’

I was curious what it would be like to sell that from the beginning.

And actually, since Will It Work Here? isn’t about sticking with the initial menu but making adjustments along the way, there was no need to fear failure.

Anyway.

We finished all our preparations very quickly.

On the first day of the second week.

We decided to set up near a university campus.

Since there would be many young people there, it would be easier to spread on social media.

That was the approach we were taking.

But.

“…Donghu, it seems like no one is coming?”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect this either.”

Forget social media spread, we didn’t have a single customer.

Our menu selection was good, and we had adapted the recipes to suit foreign tastes.

But in that process, we overlooked the biggest problem.

‘Existing market.’

More specifically, competition.

It’s not like our food truck was the only one in the world.

We just thought that if we prepared well, business would naturally be good.

“But there are so many food trucks around… they all have lines except us.”

Sujin looked around and continued.

“Our location isn’t bad either, but…”

“Should I go out and do some juggling or something?”

Kim Hyunjun and Ahn Suhwan also showed concern, having not expected this situation.

Obe continued preparing ingredients with a positive mindset that customers would come.

By the end of lunch time.

“…Zero sales.”

We hadn’t sold a single item.

No customers came our way, pushed away by the long lines at surrounding food trucks.

We adjusted the menu board, did fire shows, but to no avail.

It was unbelievable how few customers we had.

“Should we just eat the kimbap we prepared ourselves?”

“…I never thought we’d actually have to say ‘the staff ate the leftovers deliciously.'”

And so our lunch service ended in complete failure.

Some suggested changing locations, but

I firmly refused and proposed continuing our evening service here.

“Do you have some clever plan?”

Sujin asked.

“I have a definite face.”

I decided to take action myself.

+++++

The prettier the PC bang employee, the higher the store’s sales.

This was a proven rule, an absolute truth that never failed.

In other words.

‘Appearance and store sales are highly correlated.’

Some people even visit cafes just to see the attractive staff.

Appearance is an element that cannot be ignored when running a business.

In that sense.

‘This time we’ll actively utilize that.’

Sujin and I would step out from the kitchen to attract customers.

Meanwhile, the remaining members would cook diligently.

We decided on a promotional strategy that leveraged our appearances.

Whether this strategy would work or not would be confirmed in the evening.

+++++

The evening in the university area remains bright.

The laughter of energetic students and the sounds of drinking.

These all come together to create an atmosphere completely different from lunch.

A feeling of liberation, you might say.

In this atmosphere, delicious snacks are essential.

“What should we eat? Tacos? Burgers? Or hot dogs?”

“I want to try something new today, hmm…”

Since there are too many delicious things in the world to always eat the same thing.

The drunk female duo, Jaynie and Makie, were seriously contemplating the menu.

“Huh?”

At that moment, they spotted an unfamiliar food truck.

More precisely, they saw the man in front of the truck.

A man sitting alone on a chair under the food truck’s lights.

As soon as they saw him.

“…Wow, how can someone be that handsome?”

Jaynie was surprised.

“I think we should just go there?”

Makie was already moving her feet as she said this.

Like moths gathering around a flame.

People naturally began to gather around the chair-sitting man, Kim Donghu, drawn by his appearance.

A face sculpted by the gods.

The feeling of first love at first sight.

An encounter with an ideal type you might never see again in your life.

Kim Donghu’s full-fledged customer attraction began just by sitting there.

‘Unbelievable.’

The production team was shocked.

‘With that face, even I would go if he just sat there quietly.’

A customer attraction method only Kim Donghu could pull off.

The effect was tremendous.