Chapter 191
Chapter 191
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 191
Chapter Title: A Sudden Awakening
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I let out a soft chuckle, muttering to myself inwardly.
‘Thanks for the comfort, but isn’t this kimchi smell the real culprit?’
But I had a feeling I knew what Do-kyung was getting at.
I’d never gone around flaunting my CEO status anywhere, and I generally let things slide pretty easily. Even during the shoot, there were folks whose attitudes were a bit off sometimes.
Whether they were looking down on me for being young or whatever.
It was that ambiguous attitude that’s hard to call out directly, so I’d just pretended not to notice.
‘Is this the first time they’ve seen me properly lose my temper?’
Come to think of it, yeah. Outside of franchise inspections, I didn’t raise my voice like that much either.
‘Talk about perfect timing.’
This scolding seemed to have straightened out the somewhat soft image I’d been projecting.
“Thanks.”
Do-kyung froze at my casual remark, then grinned sheepishly.
“Was it that obvious? I was trying to play it cool and look out for you.”
“A little. Not something you chase someone down here to talk about.”
“Yeah, figured.”
Looks like he’d been worried about it deep down.
“Sigh. You don’t know how this industry works, Woo-yeon. I figured someone like me, who knows a bit more, should watch your back. Guess that was arrogant of me.”
Do-kyung leaned against the wall and flashed a big smile.
“You seem to handle everything on your own just fine.”
Splash, splash. I turned the water on again to rinse my arms and replied.
“Not quite.”
“Huh?”
“Whether it’s the jungle or this shoot, I know you’ve been helping me out bit by bit.”
“Gasp. That obvious?”
“Not obvious, exactly.”
Just that I was pretty quick on the uptake. Like Do-kyung said, I was still clueless about the entertainment world’s inner workings. Technically, I was a newbie who’d debuted in variety less than two years ago.
Meanwhile, Do-kyung was a top idol who ruled the music scene. The treatment on set was bound to be different.
Still, I’d managed to get through the shoots smoothly because Do-kyung had subtly looked out for me.
“Thanks for caring.”
“Oh, no. I haven’t done much. I’m basically just the pretty face here anyway…”
Do-kyung’s expression turned a bit downcast. Seemed like that’s how he really felt.
Fair enough. He didn’t have a clear-cut role. I provided the solutions, Im Hye-eun handled MC duties, and Do-kyung did the reactions.
In this trio dynamic, his part looked pretty minor.
“You’re doing plenty well.”
“Huh?”
“No, the PD shared some edit previews with me last time. Explained the direction and all.”
I’d been surprised when I saw the edits. Idols practice even their facial expressions for the stage, they say. And sure enough, his were incredibly expressive.
“Viewers will empathize with you and watch the situations through your emotions. In a way, you’ve got the most important role.”
Exactly.
It’s not easy to hurl silent f-bombs with just a look.
Thanks to his zero knowledge of the food industry, Do-kyung perfectly mirrored the viewers’ feelings with his expressions. Plenty of people must’ve felt that satisfying thrill watching him.
“Anyway, we’re helping each other out.”
“Oh? Y-yeah.”
Do-kyung smiled faintly.
It was an idol-worthy, picture-perfect smile, but I had something else on my mind.
“By the way. What about Lee Hyo-soon?”
“Why the Owner?”
“I was wondering how she reacted after I left. They must’ve seen it from the control room.”
Scrub, scrub.
I soaped up my arms once more and sniffed. Finally, the rotten smell seemed to be fading.
“Well… she just stood there blankly. For quite a while.”
“Hmm.”
What did that mean?
Maybe she was fuming inside, thinking some young punk dared talk back to her like that.
Or perhaps she was reflecting on her past actions and regretting them.
Only Lee Hyo-soon herself would know.
“We watchers were shocked, so it must’ve been a real shock to her too.”
“Who knows.”
Do-kyung ventured cautiously, but I remained skeptical.
“People don’t change that easily.”
“Well, true, but…”
“You’ve seen it plenty. People are the same in any industry.”
I doubted the entertainment world was all that different. There were surely rotten apples here too, and getting them to turn over a new leaf was about as likely as the world turning upside down.
Do-kyung’s face said a few trainees flashed through his mind—he got it.
“That’s just how it is. Not that I distrust Owner Lee Hyo-soon in particular. People changing is just hard in general.”
Of course, excluding rare exceptions like Kim Jong-chun, who still sent me dawn check-in pics every morning.
Any other counterexamples I’d seen? I racked my brain, but nothing major came up.
‘Oh, Ji Sang-woo maybe? He got good marks during the last franchise spot check.’
Before my regression, he’d been the type to beg for one more chance, selling out his liver cancer-stricken mom.
Luckily, after my intervention, he’d stayed on the straight and narrow and was thriving.
‘But calling that a full turnaround might be a stretch.’
Better to say I’d nipped it in the bud early. How many franchise owners had I seen go bad before regressing?
Practically impossible, realistically speaking.
‘Unless it’s that one-in-a-million case.’
I dried off the water with some tissue and said.
“Alright, shall we head to the next place?”
“Oh my god! Owner, what are you doing standing there?”
The owner of the Japanese-style pork cutlet shop next to Lee Hyo-soon’s place jumped in surprise as he entered and spotted her.
Lee Hyo-soon was standing stock-still in the middle of the kitchen, like a nail had been driven through her feet.
“Uh, uh. I was just busy… What brings you here?”
“Song Woo-yeon just stopped by our place! I mean, I knew we were selected, but no way I expected him today. He really comes out of nowhere, wow…”
The neighbor owner gushed excitedly, still buzzing. He went on at length about what Song Woo-yeon had said and done just moments ago.
But none of it registered with Lee Hyo-soon, her mind consumed by other thoughts.
-Can you even serve this?
Those icy, piercing eyes!
The moment they met hers, it felt like her ugly insides were laid bare. Even locking eyes had been overwhelming.
‘I’ve never seen a girl with such a venomous glare in my life.’
Having lived long and seen all sorts of people, even Lee Hyo-soon felt Song Woo-yeon had some extraordinary aura.
‘She’s the type to either make it big or crash and burn spectacularly.’
But standing there alone for so long wasn’t from some euphoric thrill at meeting someone special.
Quite the opposite.
‘…When did it start? When I began serving food I couldn’t eat myself.’
Lee Hyo-soon hadn’t always been like this. Restaurant work was grueling. Closing up exhausted and collapsing into bed, only to wake at dawn—that was daily life.
Cleaning fell by the wayside, and just dragging her aching body through the day became the goal.
One day, ingredients ran low, but with a rare order in, she hesitated to cancel. So she used slightly expired eggs, and that snowballed into this mess.
Little by little.
This complacency had been eating away at her from the inside, unnoticed even by herself at some point.
-Look at it properly.
But the moment she was forced to face the reality she’d ignored, the shock was indescribable.
‘The kimchi was spoiled. Completely rotten and festering.’
That’s why she’d screamed involuntarily when Song Woo-yeon grabbed it with his bare hand.
She’d known it was a bit off. Kimchi’s fermented, so she thought it was fine. She hadn’t realized it had rotted away in the fridge.
Lee Hyo-soon had been caught utterly off-guard, bare-faced.
So she’d stood there frozen.
‘What the hell have I been doing all this time…?’
Her despair was beyond words.
“…So he told me to think up a new menu item. But nothing’s coming to mind. Sigh, what a dilemma.”
The neighbor’s rambling was just wrapping up when Lee Hyo-soon knew exactly what she needed to do first.
She slipped on a pair of rubber gloves.
“Owner?”
The neighbor looked puzzled.
“What’s with the gloves? Washing dishes now? There’s not even that many.”
“No.”
Lee Hyo-soon replied firmly, her face set with resolve. She flung open the freezer.
“I need to clean.”
“Huh? Clean? Right now?”
The neighbor sounded baffled. And why not? It had been ages since he’d seen her properly clean the place.
But Lee Hyo-soon bellowed like thunder.
“Right now! So quit fussing and step aside. Today, I’m taking that freezer and fridge down for good!”
The neighbor backed away, stunned.
As Lee Hyo-soon pulled out the freezer’s packed pork, she muttered to herself.
‘Gotta clear out the old junk before new stuff has room.’
Lee Hyo-soon resolved to thoroughly purge the freezer.
Along with her past.
And then, a bit earlier than expected, on a certain winter day.
The Fair Trade Commission’s investigation results were announced.