episode_0040

Are you feeling bad?

I don’t know.

But now I feel like I’m in a very calm state.

The optimal mindset for focusing only on what you have to do without worrying too much about anything else.

I barely opened my mouth to say hello and went into the store.

The CEO and Jonghyun hyung came out early and were preparing.

“Are you here? Please take care of these first.”

“Yes.”

It’s good that we can get straight to work without any useless conversation.

After putting down my bag and taking off my coat because it was getting cold, I rolled up my sleeves and started preparing the ingredients.

The CEO and Jonghyun hyung both do their own thing without saying much.

I hope we can just keep preparing like this.

I’ll do it when I have to, but today I didn’t want to talk to people or bump into them.

On the one hand, I wished the store didn’t close today.

I was not prepared for the encounter with Yeonseo that would follow.

It’s strange. Until yesterday, I wanted to see Yeonseo so badly, but today, I feel like putting off meeting her.

Just thinking about it makes a familiar feeling of anxiety take root in my body and sprout like a sprout.

This feeling of anxiety that I always felt while living at home.

This feeling of anxiety that comes every time I realize that I have to go home at the end of the day.

As I get off the bus or subway and get closer to home, the smell gets louder and it becomes harder to breathe.

If you open the door to your main house and go inside, what kind of chaos will be happening inside?

Just because your home is a mess doesn’t mean it’s a total mess.

For some reason, my mom was angry again, and my dad was just watching TV, and the tension between them was giving me and my older sister a hard time.

Although not as much as before, I was now afraid of going back home, having left without resolving the problem.

“You’re coming at 6:30, right? Didn’t you say you might be late?”

“I will definitely come on time.”

“There are about 30 people? We can barely fit everyone in.”

“That’s right.”

“Will it be noisy?”

“You have to accept that much since you have to pay the deposit on top of the rent.”

As preparations get closer, we start checking the reservation status.

Just listening to that conversation gave me the feeling that this reservation would not be easy, and then I was confused as to whether there were two more charter reservations like this left or just one.

Besides, I said this was going to start this week.

If the veteran CEO and Jonghyun, who has been here for several years, are nervous, then I shouldn’t be so careless either.

Hard work isn’t always a bad thing.

Especially on days like today, when I’m just working like crazy and time flies, it’s great.

I don’t want to go home, but I also don’t want to not have the freedom to go home, so I wish work would hurry up and get off work.

“Hello!”

“Where are you?”

The serving part-timers also arrived one after another.

Excluding Jonghyun and me, there are one guy and three girls, Seyun and Hayeon.

There are a lot of part-time workers compared to the size of the company, but it is equally busy.

Even with this many people, you’re still nervous… It won’t be easy in many ways.

Even so, it won’t be harder than catching the Demon King.

“Today is a full-time reservation. Since it’s an omakase course meal, it’s not hard to take orders at first, but after the course is over, orders keep coming in and there are a lot of requests for drinks, so you might lose your mind. Let’s help each other right away and cheer each other on.”

Why does Jonghyun hyung always say things that set the mood in front of people?

“Jinhyun, you be nervous. There is no egg roll in the course. After the course is over, they will come right in. I will also be in pasta hell.”

I nodded, listening to the boss’s instructions.

“I posted on Instagram that it’s a full-time rental today, but there will be regular customers who won’t see it and come. We have to send them back as nicely as possible in our hall so that they don’t ruin the mood, and if it’s hard to deal with, call Nana, the manager… and Jinhyun.”

Me? Why me?

Did you solve a problem last time?

I don’t feel like dealing with anyone today, so I’d rather not be called out.

20 minutes before the guests arrived, let’s do our best! Yes! Under the leadership of Jonghyun, the serving part-timers pumped their fists to cheer each other on.

“Jinhyeon, fighting!”

Se-yeon comes all the way to the kitchen to cheer for someone she doesn’t want to receive.

“Fighting, Jinhyun oppa!”

Then Ha-yeon also sticks her head out and shakes her fist.

Don’t worry about this and just stay in the hall.

The boss raised an eyebrow, as if he was thinking the same thing.

Then, as was my natural habit, I raised my fist with a faint smile.

“Boss, fighting?”

“Don’t do that, Emma.”

As soon as I awkwardly lowered my arms, Jonghyun hyung appeared in the kitchen.

“Boss, fighting!”

The boss, completely unexpected, rounded his eyes and sighed again.

“Yeah, yeah.”

But it seemed like he didn’t completely hate it.

This is discrimination.

When the group first arrived, it was relatively spacious.

I worked with the boss to prepare the course meal with utmost concentration and served the food skillfully to each table.

“Yes, this is the main dish. You can eat it with aged sashimi prepared with seasonal fish, konowata, ankimo, crab, and rice wrapped in seaweed as you like. The theme is, if I were you, I would eat it like this.”

Because it was a rental, the owner personally explained to everyone every time a dish was prepared in the open kitchen.

Strangely, it felt like watching a theatrical performance, and it had the effect of making both me and the servers stand quietly at attention.

Somehow I feel like wiggling my fingers.

Up until this point, it was fine. As I said before, I had relatively much free time.

Except for the timing of the course menu, I only had to occasionally ask for additional drinks, and I could then focus on the next course.

But the real story came after the course was over.

“Here are 8 scrambled eggs!”

“3 mentaiko cream pasta, 2 Neapolitan, 3 yuzu sauce karaage!”

“Boss, is it Tuesday? Just ask for Tuesday!”

This is crazy. It is crazy.

Exactly 20 minutes after the entire Omakase course was served, excluding dessert.

Suddenly, orders for scrambled eggs came in from every table.

No, do you add pasta to this and eat it too?

“The raw fish here is delicious, and the scrambled eggs and pasta are delicious too. It’s no joke. Our employees absolutely have to try it! I’m paying for it, so just eat it!”

“Wow! Stop being so cool, boss!”

“Alcohol is sake and Tuesday! I only eat things like this. I don’t save money on parties. There’s a separate item in the accounting for year-end dinner expenses. Eat all of this today and go! My salary including incentives will be deposited tomorrow!”

“Eeee! Boss!! … Can I order some more sashimi?”

“Oh, then!”

The dinner party of worn-out business people was like a cocktail mixed with the usual, predictable flattery and the boss’s bold declarations that made him slightly drunk.

In comparison, the younger employees were still awkward in this atmosphere, but they didn’t seem to dislike it, perhaps because the food they were eating was delicious.

“Wow… It’s been a little over a month since you joined the company. How’s your marketing work? I’m also applying for that position….”

“I’m still learning, so I don’t know anything. It’s so hard.”

Because the atmosphere was good, the servers became friendly with the people at the table and chatted with them a little every time they brought food.

Among them, Ha-yeon was asking a woman in the marketing department who seemed to be around the same age as her about work.

When asked a question earnestly, the woman deliberately and subtly avoided giving a proper answer.

Ha-yeon, who couldn’t ask more questions since they were only talking briefly anyway, dragged her steps, dripping with envy and regret.

“Hayeon-ah, two Konowada ripening parties came out!”

“Yes!”

And those heavy footsteps ended up crushing Ha-yeon’s legs.

“Huh?! Ouch!”

Ha-yeon, who was turning around after receiving a heavy plate of soup, completely lost her balance and fell forward when her foot got tangled.

The face full of despair closed its eyes tightly with the feeling that it was about to be ruined.

Tub

“Be careful.”

My arm was around her collarbone, holding her up so she wouldn’t fall.

There, two plates of aged meat that had almost fallen to the floor were neatly placed on my other arm.

This is what is called the serving skill of a skilled waiter.

I tried to use my experience of carrying four items in each arm at a restaurant.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, yes….”

Ha-yeon, who still had a grasp of the situation, nodded her head in bewilderment, and when I saw her, I put on my usual fake smile.

“Thank goodness.”

As Seyun came and grabbed Hayeon, I calmly finished serving each table.

“Wow! That’s amazing! It was definitely in the kitchen, but when did it move?!”

The company president, who was the guest with the reservation, clapped his hands in admiration, and the employees also whispered in surprise.

“It’s cool to be relaxed.”

“It’s true that men look attractive when they do their job well.”

“Your face is a bit plain?”

Feeling embarrassed by the whispering of the female employees, I quickly returned to the kitchen.

“You… When on earth did you move?”

The boss looked at me with suspicion, unable to believe what had just happened, but he couldn’t deny what he had seen with his own eyes.

“I was right behind you. I just left the kitchen because I couldn’t find Junmai.”

“Even so, in an instant, he moved in front of the child and even the plate… No, no. Thank you. Thanks to you, I survived.”

I shrugged my shoulders exaggeratedly and made a joke.

“Can’t we say we’re alive only when this situation is over?”

“…Don’t make me realize reality unnecessarily.”

We laughed at each other pointlessly and went back to focusing on cooking.

Let’s work, work.

I just hope it ends safely.

“Hayeon, are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m really okay now.”

When Jonghyun asked worriedly, Hayeon smiled and reassured him.

While doing so, he glanced in the direction where Jinhyeon was.

‘You have to be careful.’

As she recalled that face that had been smiling while talking nonchalantly, Ha-yeon quickly turned her gaze away, fanning herself with her hand.

“Haha, it’s hot. Ha….”

Watching Ha-yeon making excuses on her own even though no one said anything,

Seyun smiled very brightly.

It was really nice to see the seasonings prepared so appropriately.