Refreshing Fruit
Refreshing Fruit
"Boss, I'll be heading out now."
"Great work today. See you next week."
The door opened with the jingle of a bell, and the last remaining employee walked out.
It was only 5 p.m. and they were already off work.
Could there possibly be another white-collar company like this?
I sat still and stared blankly at that sight, then let out a big yawn.
Hojun, who was tidying up the merchandise, chuckled.
"Hyung, if you're tired, go home and get some sleep."
"We agreed to eat together today."
"Oh, right. We did."
It had already been four months since Hojun started his business.
At first, he seemed to struggle a lot because the work was unfamiliar, but he was gradually getting used to it.
Every day, he looked happy at work, a smile on his face.
I needed to start preparing my own business soon too.
The interior work was underway, and the ingredient supply arrangements were all finished, but there were still a lot of small things left to do.
A restaurant, unlike a regular business, had more than just one or two inspections it had to pass.
"Right. About the shop you're going to run, hyung. Have you decided on a name?"
"Not yet... a Japanese-style name would be good, right?"
"It's a Japanese-style fried food place, so isn't that a given?"
"Well, things are a bit noisy these days because of that issue."
Recently, the country had been in an uproar over the boycott of Japanese goods.
Because of that, companies with parent companies in Japan were laying low,
and even domestic marts and shopping malls were implementing policies to stop selling Japanese products.
"True. Japanese products haven't been selling well at our shop recently either. Instead, domestic product sales have gone up a lot."
"Really? Then maybe I should go with an English name for the shop instead of Japanese..."
I had two brand names in mind.
The first was 'Sakura Ebi' in Japanese.
Since the secret flavor came from grinding sakura shrimp and mixing it into the frying batter, I thought it wasn't a bad name for the business.
The second was 'Blossom Shrimp' in English.
This also meant the same thing: sakura shrimp.
"...The latter isn't bad either, huh?"
"Right? So I was thinking of just going with the English one for now, and then adding the other one below the sign once things quiet down."
"Isn't that okay? Considering the current situation, I think that's better."
"Then I'll just go with the English one."
It was better than causing unnecessary trouble.
I had to be careful not to do things half-heartedly and end up causing problems for the agency.
Even after putting up the 'closed' sign, Hojun spent a long time cleaning the store.
Starting by dusting the products, he ran three robot vacuums and walked around inside the store with a handheld vacuum himself.
Then he went to the men's restroom, washed the mop clean, and made another round, spinning it around.
Watching him, he didn't look like the owner of a large, high-revenue store, but more like an employee who enjoyed cleaning.
"Hojun, can't you get the employees to do the cleaning?"
"We take turns doing it. Today's my day."
"Really? Then do you want hyung to help out a little?"
"It's fine. Was it about five years ago? When we were doing the big clean, you collapsed once, hyung. I was so shocked back then that I can't help but worry whenever you're doing something."
He remembered every little thing.
Five years ago, I was still at the orphanage.
On the monthly big cleaning day, I was holding a rag, wiping here and there, when I bumped into a pillar, wasn't it?
I fainted back then.
I remembered telling him several times that I collapsed physically from the impact, not because I was sick, but he wouldn't listen to me.
In my case, it couldn't be helped since I had so many previous incidents, but still...
"Phew... done."
"You're done? Then let's go quickly."
"Wait a moment. I haven't organized the basement storage yet."
It looked like it would take a while longer before he finished cleaning.
Who on earth did this guy take after to be such a perfectionist?
*
"Minji, what do you think?"
"Umm... Blossom Shrimp..."
Minji thought about the shrimp while putting meat in her mouth.
When I asked her which was better between Sakura Ebi and Blossom Shrimp, she couldn't answer right away.
As expected, she seemed to be weighing the matter, taking the current social climate into account as well.
"Personally, I think Sakura Ebi would be better... but with that issue lately..."
"Right? So I was planning to use Blossom Shrimp for now, and add it below once things settle down."
"Yeah. That's better. Let's not get cursed out for no reason and do it that way."
Minji nodded in agreement and put a piece of meat in her mouth.
As expected, asking others for their opinions was better than just thinking about it by myself.
"But what is a sakura shrimp? I know what a flower shrimp is though."
"It's just a small shrimp. You know the shrimp they use for making salted shrimp?"
"Ah~ that really tiny shrimp? But then, does the unit cost work out?"
Since I planned to put it in the frying batter, it would cost more than expected.
The unit cost would probably go up a lot.
But I had no intention of raising the price.
The per-person price was already 120,000 won, and if I raised it further, customers might not come.
"Is Seong-hwan oppa getting some kind of support from the fisheries center or something?"
"No? I'm using my own money."
When I said I'd do it 100% with my own money, Minji's expression changed.
It was a face that seemed to say, 'Is there really an idiot like this?', so I felt a little dejected.
"Wow... you're not trying to run it at a deficit, are you? As soon as I get my medical license, do I have to support you, oppa?"
"This kid..."
Her tone was a bit sarcastic, but somehow I felt a slightly happy resonance in her words.
Like, 'If oppa messes up, I'll support you...' was the kind of feeling I got.
"Our Minji, don't say weird things and eat lots of meat."
"Mmm... the meat is delicious. Oppa, you're the best."
"Yeah, yeah."
If meat that costs 100,000 won per serving didn't taste good, that would be a problem.
Should I buy some meat here and take it home?
If I bought about ten servings and dry-aged it, it would probably turn out even better.
***
"Seong-hwan, do you have any tangerines?"
"Wait a moment. I should have some oranges I bought."
I stroked A-ra's head after her sudden request for tangerines and headed to the kitchen.
I remembered that there were still oranges left over from filming a Qtube video yesterday.
"Hmm... this is kiwi... this is carrot... ah, here it is."
Oranges are hard to peel and eat, just like tangerines, so I decided to cut them up and bring them.
Since I was cutting fruit anyway, I thought I might as well rummage through the fridge and make a fruit platter.
I cut apples, kiwis, oranges, and melon into appropriate sizes and placed them nicely in a bowl.
Arranged like that, it looked just like a fruit platter from an expensive bar—really nice.
"Noona, here's a fork."
"Hehe, thanks. There's gold kiwi too."
She said she wanted oranges, but what she picked with her fork first was a kiwi.
As if she really liked the gold kiwi, I kept hearing the sound of her fork poking the kiwi,
and before I knew it, she'd eaten all the kiwi, leaving the spot where it had been completely empty.
"Seong-hwan, is there more kiwi?"
"There is. Wait a moment and eat the other stuff."
"Okay. The kiwi tastes especially good today."
"Yeah. This is the first time I've seen noona go after nothing but kiwi like this."
A-ra didn't usually like kiwi that much.
She only ate it from time to time when I made fruit salad, and it was the first time I saw her gobbling it down like today.
I went back to the kitchen, cut all the kiwi that was in the fridge, and put it on a different plate.
"Noona, do you know that?"
"Know whaaat?"
"Actually, a kiwi is a bird."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
I took out my phone, searched for a kiwi bird, and showed it to A-ra.
Seeing the kiwi bird's body, which looked exactly like a kiwi fruit, she must have gotten goosebumps—I could see goosebumps rising on both her arms.
"Th-this isn't real, right? It's edited, right?"
"Nope. This is real. Kiwis are sold in New Zealand after they genetically modify them to degenerate the kiwi bird's head, wings, and legs."
"L-liar! Seong-hwan, you..."
"Ahaha!"
A-ra, who'd been wavering between believing and not, saw through the lie, shoved a kiwi into her mouth, and put the plate down on the table.
Then she clung to me, climbed on top, and kissed me on the mouth.
"Mmm..."
"N-noona slurp..."
Through A-ra's mouth, the chewed kiwi was transferred into my mouth.
The tangy taste of kiwi spread inside my mouth, and I could also feel the slight stickiness of A-ra's saliva.
Naturally, my third leg, which had suddenly grown, touched A-ra's spot as she sat on top of me.
Because of the squishy texture, blood rushed there to the point I thought it might burst.
Where else in this world was there such a pleasurable torture?
Down there, it hurt like hell, but my brain perceived it as feeling good.
"Puhah... sheesh..."
"Hehe, that's punishment for teasing noona."
"Khm... to me it felt more like a reward than a punishment..."
I let out a sigh and slowly sat A-ra down beside me.
As if she still had some kiwi in her mouth, she munched on it, then picked up the plate she'd set on the table and placed it on her knees, and started picking at it with her fork again.
Because she had finished the kiwi again, this time she started poking and eating the oranges and Shine Muscat grapes, which were her original targets, one by one.
She enjoyed skinship and then went back to eating fruit.
Our A-ra seemed to have a great capacity to think about two things at once.
And me?
Naturally, now that things had come this far, I wasn't the kind of man who would leave his wife alone.
I put the fruit bowl that A-ra was eating from so diligently back onto the table.
"Ah... the fruit..."
"Noona, you can eat the fruit later, can't you?"
"Munch munch... well, that's true, but..."
Then how should I prepare this... first, should I slowly start taking her clothes off?