Is the Catering Restaurant a Good Place?
Two days later. Morning.
I had spent the entire day off doing nothing but browsing the gallery.
With no strength left in my body and my mind far from sound…
I couldn’t even muster the will to do anything at all.
By the time I came back to my senses, it was already the morning I had to return to work.
Still, I had picked up quite a few useful tips from the concept posts, so I suppose it wasn’t a complete waste.
“Hmm.”
I got dressed and headed for the dormitory cafeteria.
Apparently every meal was provided free of charge.
After all, what else sustains a Korean if not rice?
A spacious building located a five-minute walk from the dormitory.
With the thought that I would be using it regularly from now on, I opened the restaurant door.
The moment I stepped inside, a mouthwatering aroma rushed in.
The interior was unrealistically vast compared to the building’s exterior size.
Tables prepared for every group size from one to ten people.
Countless trays brimming with every kind of dish imaginable.
It felt like standing before a buffet that would easily cost hundreds of dollars per person.
To think the dormitory cafeteria was this kind of place.
I should have come yesterday.
I had ordered chicken, but it arrived strangely cold and completely tasteless.
I’d better start coming here often.
Welcome. This is the Catering Restaurant Bureau Branch.
This establishment may be used free of charge by Bureau employees only.
The restaurant operates twenty-four hours a day. Please note that the menu changes at midnight.
For smooth operation, all patrons are kindly asked to observe the following rules.
1. Use of mobile phones is prohibited inside the restaurant, except when receiving calls.
2. Please refrain from speaking loudly enough to be heard in the kitchen. It disrupts the chef’s concentration.
3. Food is always replenished without shortage. Therefore, do not share dishes that other patrons have taken.
4. On very rare occasions the restaurant may become completely full. In such cases, please fill your tray first and shout loudly, “No seats! No seats!” The chef will then prepare a place for you.
5. If any patron violates the rules, the restaurant will suspend operations until the following morning. We need to eat as well.
6. Occasionally a dish containing abnormal ingredients may appear on the trays. If you notice one, please press the bell on the wall. The person who reports it will receive one Special Meal Voucher.
Please enjoy your meal!
— Catering Restaurant —
As expected, a person should trust their instincts.
I had nearly become the next meal for the Catering Restaurant staff.
The Bureau life tips I saw in the gallery only mentioned that the cafeteria food was delicious. They must have deliberately omitted the impossible rules.
Even then, rules two and four already contradict each other.
Don’t speak loudly versus shout loudly.
Truly a magnificent set of regulations that make the heart swell.
Until I figured out which one was correct, I would simply have to starve on days when the place was full.
They probably wouldn’t tamper with the early rules, so number four was likely the false one. Still, I had no desire to gamble with my life from the very first day.
The coward inside me was screaming to run away, yet the thought of eating cold delivery food every single day was equally unappealing.
Aah, how reed-like humans are.
I gathered various dishes and sat down at a one-person table.
Even if someone I recognized showed up, I didn’t have any close acquaintances yet anyway.
Whether that would change in the future remained to be seen.
My friends are all in the gallery.
After teasing my palate with salmon salad, I sampled the various dishes I had collected.
Every single one was above average, without a single flaw.
Had I not seen the chef’s face, I might have shed tears of joy knowing this food was free.
It felt like eating while staring at a kitchen with questionable hygiene.
Yet the taste was undeniably good.
The sweet aroma of braised short ribs spread through my mouth.
Normally I would have been scrolling through humor sites or watching NewTube while eating.
Focusing solely on the food and savoring each bite wasn’t bad at all.
That said, I wouldn’t be doing it in my own room.
I finished the plate cleanly and stood up to get another, thinking a nice dessert would make for a pleasant start to the day.
At least until the human head resting on top of a cake spoke to me.
“You there. Could you press the bell on that wall for me?”
I take back everything I just said.
The severed head of a middle-aged man sat neatly atop a pristine white cake, cream still smeared around the neck stump. It looked at me with calm, familiar eyes.
“Manager Kwak Choon-bong?”
“Oh, it’s the new recruit I saw a few days ago.”
The head belonged to Manager Kwak Choon-bong, who had conducted our orientation.
To think he remembered me, someone who had entered through the Human Rights Waiver Admission.
Now that I thought about it, every trainee that day had been from the same track.
“We can talk later. For now, I must ask you to press the button first.”
“Yes, sir.”
Eeeeng—!
The moment I pressed the red button, a chime resembling a wealthy family’s doorbell rang out.
The chef approached with heavy footsteps. “Oh. It appears an improper ingredient has been mixed into the dish.”
He handed me a coated slip of paper.
◈ Redeemable at the Catering Restaurant
◈ High-class course meal for up to two
“Do not leave. Wait just a moment.”
The chef lifted the cake tray bearing Manager Kwak Choon-bong’s head and lumbered back into the kitchen.
My head was spinning from the moment I started breakfast.
A short while later, Kwak Choon-bong emerged from the kitchen with his body fully intact.
“Thanks to you, I was able to come out sooner than usual. I am grateful.”
“Is this not your first time, sir?”
“I enter once per week.”
Why?
“Do not look at me with such eyes. It is all part of the job.”
“The job, sir?”
“It is not as if I enjoy having my head placed on a cake.”
Cream still clung to the area around Kwak Choon-bong’s neck. I handed him a napkin. He wiped himself clean and then drank a caramel macchiato.
“Hoo. There are employees who get caught up in this while simply coming to eat.”
His gaze swept across the restaurant.
“Fortunately, that entity is satisfied with one person. If I feed it in advance, it remains quiet.”
Voluntarily becoming the cafeteria’s prey so others would not be dragged in…
“Using an entity as part of the cafeteria—doesn’t that deviate from normality?”
“You are still a new recruit. In such moments, you must think, ‘Why is the Bureau forced to use entities?’”
From the company’s perspective.
Was that the mindset one had to adopt once reaching manager level?
“Ask your superior later. This is not information I am permitted to teach.”
“Are you not my superior, Manager Kwak Choon-bong?”
“I do not belong to the Field Response Team, after all.”
Kwak Choon-bong, having emptied his cup, rose from the bench.
It was almost time to start work.
“Then let us meet again. Most likely in this restaurant.”
“Manager.”
“What is it?”
I asked the question that had been bothering me as he prepared to leave.
“Between rules two and four, which one is the false regulation?”
“No comment on that.”
The contradictory rules on the cafeteria notice.
Do not make loud noises and do make loud noises.
I had a guess, but it would be better to know for certain.
It seemed the manager had no intention of answering.
“If you consider which rule feels more natural within a restaurant, the answer will come.”
Kwak Choon-bong left those words behind, waved his hand, and walked toward the main building.
“Aigoo, Manager.”
What a truly warm-hearted person.
The fingers on his outstretched right hand numbered exactly four.
A rather pleasant? start to the morning.
“Good morning, sir.”
“Nice to see you, Mr. Park Seong-bin.”
“Are we the only two again today?”
When I entered the office, Team Leader Lee Mi-na greeted me with her usual languid smile.
“No, the other team members will be coming today as well.”
“I see.”
“Are you disappointed?”
“Not at all. I simply haven’t had the chance to greet the others, so I was wondering when they might arrive.”
What was there to be disappointed about?
I felt nothing in particular toward the team leader.
We had merely… held hands a little longer than necessary, that was all.
“Is that so? But I’m disappointed~.”
The team leader slumped across her desk like a mollusk.
Team Leader, we have only known each other for four days.
And never for more than an hour at a time.
Behavior that could cause misunderstandings was troublesome.
The moment I sat down, the clock struck nine. Work hours had begun.
“So what exactly does our team do when we aren’t managing entities?”
“What do we do?”
“Yes. Since we receive a salary, shouldn’t we be doing something?”
“There isn’t anything in particular right now. We have no new entity information.”
So the Field Response Team really had no work unless they were dispatched to the field.
“We usually do personal training or study until a call comes in. Truthfully, you don’t even need to come to the office.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”
“I forgot?”
“Aigoo.”
To think this was a department where regular attendance wasn’t even required.
If she had told me sooner, I could have slept in without eating breakfast and spent more time on the gallery.
“I feel like I’ve wasted the entire morning.”
“That’s too much~. It gets lonely being here by myself.”
Watching the team leader remain in her liquid-monster state, a question arose.
Wasn’t this person the most capable member of the team?
Why was she the only one left behind while the rest were dispatched?
“Team Leader.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you the only one remaining in the Field Response Team?”
“Does it seem strange?”
“Given the current situation, the Field Response Team appears extremely busy. Yet the most capable person is staying behind.”
“Aha.”
The corners of her mouth rose as the liquid monster reverted to mollusk form.
“Because if an entity causes trouble within the Bureau, someone has to clean it up?”
“…By yourself?”
“Most likely.”
I made up my mind.
No matter what happened, I would never mess with the team leader.