Unexpected Events! (3)
This dish had to fill her stomach and heal her at the same time.
The effect of the title Healer has been activated.
Using skill: Medicinal Food
As I worked the skill, I put on the finishing touches—sesame seeds, shredded seaweed, and finely sliced scallions scattered over the top.
◈ On consumption: grants Stomach Protection, Stamina Recovery, and Vitality Charge
◈ On consumption: Stamina +3 for one day
◈ On consumption: a lingering umami coats the mouth for one day
A good dish had come out.
"It's ready."
I set the steaming earthenware pot on a tray and placed it in front of her. Pearly slices of abalone floated on the surface of a porridge that glowed with a deep, golden light. The savory aroma alone was enough to make a shut-down stomach throw up its hands in surrender.
"Abalone porridge?"
"Yes. You said you hadn't eaten in days. Something like jjamppong would only turn your stomach inside out."
I handed her a spoon as I said it.
With the pot right under her nose, Ha-yun's nostrils flared. She drank in the ocean scent the way someone might breathe in a rare perfume. Maybe that was the final, irresistible lure.
"…Thank you for the meal!"
Her trembling hands lifted the spoon.
"Hoo. Hoo…!"
She blew on it carefully and took a bite. The moment the porridge touched her lips, her eyes flew wide open.
"Hup!"
Ha-yun clamped her lips shut without thinking. No scream, no gasp of admiration came out.
If this were a broadcast, the chat would be going insane.
Her machine-like streamer reactions had simply… stopped. She just sat there staring blankly at the pot, then at Kim Sunwu, then back again. Before long, her spoon work turned frantic.
Slurp. Gulp.
"Mmm…!"
The moment the porridge slid down her throat again, her shoulders gave a little jolt. Warmth—thick, heavy, and blazing—spread through a stomach that had been empty and cold for days.
Shaaa—
It felt as if some enormous heat were melting a body that had gone completely stiff.
It's warm.
Target Im Ha-yun's stomach has resumed normal function.
Vitality surges through parched blood vessels.
Color returns to the complexion.
Leaving notifications only Kim Sunwu could see, she savored the rich, deep savoriness of the abalone guts. The fragrance of sesame oil teased at the tip of her nose.
This scent is insane. Is this really just sesame oil?
The texture was even more astonishing. The thinly sliced abalone meat was the real star—she barely chewed before it melted soft on her tongue, then—
Twong—
—bounced back against her teeth with a clean, springy chew. Every time it did, the deep perfume of the ocean flooded her mouth.
"Hoo… haah."
She let out a ragged breath. One spoonful, two—her pace quickened. It was hard to believe this was someone who hadn't eaten in days. The Eating Empress's speed was back.
She had long since forgotten how hot the porridge was. She swallowed like a woman possessed, as if the taste cutting off terrified her more than a burned palate ever could.
"Hoo. Hoo!"
Slurp, slurrrp! Smack, gulp.
Color bloomed back into her cheeks, and beads of sweat gathered on her forehead. Light returned to her eyes. Strength flooded back into fingertips that had been trembling.
Condition is recovering at a rapid rate.
Severe malnutrition is being resolved.
Vitality overflows.
Ahh… something's changing. What is this?
She felt it again, purely by instinct—this was different. Wanting to confirm it, she scraped the earthenware pot all the way to the bottom.
Clack. Clack.
The sound of the spoon raking the bottom was almost loud. She scraped up every last grain of rice, every scrap of abalone, and put them in her mouth. There was nothing left that would even need washing.
"Ah…!"
Before she knew it, only an empty bowl remained. She stared at the pot for a long moment, as if it were a sworn enemy, then lifted her head.
"Boss."
The dying patient from moments ago was nowhere to be found. Porridge still smeared at the corner of her mouth, she thrust the pot out with eyes that glittered like a predator's and shouted:
"More! Hurry!"
I watched every second of it. I watched her scrape up the last grain of rice and set the spoon down. Even without the notifications, the flush on her face when she looked at me told me everything—she was better.
Thank god.
I let out a quiet breath of relief. The dish had landed properly. The emergency was over. Once a path had been opened, her body would adapt from here. When the senses it remembered returned, she would start being able to handle other food, little by little.
Though no matter what she eats, she'll still feel a faint thirst…
That much was beyond me. It wasn't my responsibility that her palate was sharper than other people's.
"Feeling a little more alive?"
I asked as I cleared the empty bowl. That was enough treatment for today. If she went home and rested well, she'd feel even better tomorrow.
But.
I had completely misjudged the Empress.
"Boss."
"Yes?"
"It's not enough."
She had just finished a whole pot. And not an ordinary pot—a massive one.
"…Excuse me?"
"It didn't even register with my liver. My stomach just woke up—how can you cut me off here?"
The look she fixed on me was anything but ordinary. Her eyes burned like a beast locking onto prey. She pointed at the empty pot and cried out, almost indignant:
"More. Something to chew. Not porridge this time—something I can actually bite into!"
"Ha…!"
I swallowed a hollow laugh.
Is this really the same person who was dying five minutes ago?
She had cleaned out that enormous pot like a crab vanishing under a rock, and she was still demanding more. For an ordinary person, that volume alone would have left them too full to continue. But her eyes were dead serious.
Did the treatment work a little too well?
This didn't feel like healing so much as detonating a sleeping appetite.
You've got to be kidding me.
Normally this was where things ended. Of course she was no ordinary customer.
"Aren't you pushing yourself a bit hard for a patient?"
"I'm not a patient anymore. I'm better now, so feed me!"
She slapped the bar table for emphasis. At that bold demand, a laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it.
Yeah. This is more like it.
A customer who nibbled was one thing—a customer who looked ready to chew the plate itself was a hundred times prettier. As a chef, what dopamine hit could possibly beat this? The finest gourmet in the country, clinging to my food and saying nothing else would do.
"All right. Special service, just for today."
"Whoa…!"
I opened the fridge again. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Fine. Let's see how far this goes.
The porridge had opened the road. Now it was time to put something real on it.
"Don't come crying if you explode."
"Just hurry up and cook!"
Humming under my breath, I took up the wok again. It had been a while—my hands were itching for it.
That day, Ha-yun and I went completely off the rails.
The next evening.
Notifications pinged for Ha-yun's subscribers.
The moment the stream went live, the chat poured in like a waterfall. It couldn't have been otherwise. Just look at Im Ha-yun on the screen.
Rumors about her health had been circulating for a while, and yesterday she had even skipped her broadcast as if to prove them. Today, though, she was radiant enough to laugh those rumors in the face.
Ha-yun smiled and waved at the camera. The pale complexion was gone without a trace; a peachy flush sat on her cheeks. Her looks were shining even brighter than usual.
"Hello, it's Ha-yun! Everyone, you were worried, right? I'm fully revived! Waaaah!"
She declared it with confidence and pointed at the table. Today's menu was a Factory Restaurant special takeout set.
"Today's food is everything I swept up from the place I've been obsessed with lately. Where, you ask? The place that made me surrender last time!"
Even while delivering her banter, she naturally showed off the food. There was the extra-large abalone porridge I'd prepped for her since dawn, and the black-pepper konjac ramen that still tasted good cold.
"You think I'm playing favorites with one place? How am I supposed to help it when it's this good? Oh, and for the record—this is not a sponsored post. I paid for this myself!"
Lastly she showed off a mountain of lasagna gimbap. Special orders she'd specifically requested.
"I won't drag this out. Eating first!"
She picked up her chopsticks. No hesitation. No dainty little pretenses of elegance. She grabbed three pieces of lasagna gimbap at once and shoved them into her mouth.
"Mmm~!"
Chomp chomp. Her cheeks ballooned. With every chew, the crackle of fried somen and the snap of fresh vegetables came through the mic with perfect clarity. This wasn't ASMR-adjacent. The crunch filled the entire audio track.
The second she swallowed the gimbap, she cracked open the abalone porridge. Steam still rose in soft curls from the golden surface. For a moment the screen went white—and even that became a shot that sold the flavor.
In that blur she scooped up porridge with a ladle and, without even transferring it to a bowl, drank straight from it.
From the ladle!
Whoa… look at that angle.
Even I, who already knew how it tasted, swallowed hard.
She didn't care whether porridge stuck to the corners of her mouth. Then her brow furrowed hard—the infamous Truth Frown. The one real reaction that only appeared when she ate something truly delicious, and that no amount of acting could fake.
"Haah… everyone, this is it. This is what living tastes like."
She murmured it with a rapturous expression. The viewer count climbed in real time toward a hundred thousand, and looked ready to punch through. Higher than usual—high enough that she might even break her previous record.
Then a sharp-eyed viewer spotted something she hadn't introduced yet.
In one corner of the table, nestled among the lavish spread of food, sat a plain plastic bottle. The barley tea I'd packed for her.
Ha-yun glanced at the chat, huffed a little laugh, and picked up the bottle.
"Ah, this?"