Side Story: The Fried Food Shop
Side Story: The Fried Food Shop
It was a restaurant that seemed steeped in luxury.
Its interior closely resembled that of a high-end establishment commonly known as an omakase sushi restaurant.
If there was one slight difference, it was that what the chef cooked was a far cry from fish.
The food sold at this restaurant was not sushi, but fried food.
And not just any fried food, but proper Japanese-style agemono.
Since the Japanese term was a general designation meaning deep-fried things, they sold a wide variety of fried items.
But expecting the prices to be similar to ordinary fried food was a miscalculation.
At a snack shop, you could buy one kind of fried food for 500 won, but here, one type started at 4,000 won.
And the most expensive fried item was the one made from the neck meat of Mangalitsa, Duroc, and Ibérico pigs.
The portion was large, so it was naturally expensive, but the price was certainly far higher than what you would pay at an ordinary grilled meat restaurant.
However, there was something else that mattered to the people who came here.
That was because the person running this establishment was a cooking Qtuber with 15 million Qtube subscribers.
Every Wednesday, he visited the restaurant in person and directly attended to the guests.
Perhaps because of that, the competition for Wednesday reservations was so fierce you could call it a bloodbath.
While on other days of the week, you could comfortably get a spot by booking a month in advance, the Wednesday reservations were already fully booked on a yearly basis.
And if a reservation slot ever opened up...
"Senior, the server went down again."
"Again? Hurry up and call the service provider."
No longer surprised, the person addressed as senior ordered her junior to call the service provider according to the manual and get it resolved.
According to the proper manual, she, as the senior, should have done it, but this happened so often that all the restaurant staff had rotated through making that call at least once.
"The provider isn't answering either... maybe their servers went down too."
"Haah... What the hell kind of job are they doing over there?"
The server provider was currently unable to answer because they had deployed all their personnel to restore service quickly.
But there was no way the two women knew that, and no reason they should.
"Tell me about it. Trying to run a server business when they can't even handle that much traffic..."
The two of them did not even consider the sheer number of people swarming to book a table at the restaurant where they worked.
They had not only worked Wednesdays, but had also shared drinks with the boss in private, which is why the excitement of ordinary fans didn't really resonate with them anymore.
The boss at their workplace was a celebrity.
They'd been fans themselves, but oddly enough, their fan hearts had simmered down.
At first, it had felt like seeing a celebrity, but as time went on, it increasingly felt like looking at a younger brother.
"Senior, why don't we just make a suggestion to the boss?"
"Suggest what?"
"Since things have come to this, let's suggest using Amazon servers."
"Isn't that incredibly expensive?"
"So what? Can't a rich person like the boss afford just one of those?"
"Hmm... I suppose that's true."
The boss was someone who gave all the employees a special allowance every time he came on Wednesdays.
He certainly wouldn't mind an expenditure of that level.
"Phew... Anyway, wasn't that new person supposed to come soon for their first day?"
"They should have arrived by now. Maybe they're standing outside?"
"Yaaawn... Well, shall we go out and check?"
The two exchanged greetings with the chefs who had been trimming ingredients since early morning and the people working as servers, then headed outside on their own.
There, they could see their junior servers giving the new recruit various pointers.
As soon as the two stepped outside, the junior servers who were briefing the newcomer looked over and greeted them. Given how relaxed the atmosphere was and how close they all were, it was a very casual greeting.
"The Senior Sister has arrived."
The senior smiled wryly at her junior, who had offered a greeting that was eccentric to the extreme.
Having already worked together for over four years, they had grown far too comfortable with one another.
"Senior Sister who freezes to death. Are you reading martial arts novels these days?"
"I'll have you know, I was a woman who once belonged to the Hwasan Sect."
"Right, sure. Probably the Beggars' Sect or the Haomun."
"If I'd joined the Beggars' Sect, I'd at least be a Six-Pouch Elder!"
"Right, a One-Hundred Rags Elder."
Sighing that she had never heard such nonsense, she turned her head toward the newcomer.
Looking at the new recruit, who looked like someone who might have made a few men cry, she extended her hand.
"I hope we do well together from now on."
"Pl-please take good care of me."
"My name is Kim Ji-young. And our junior's name?"
"I'm Lee Seo-young."
Lee Seo-yeong.
She was the younger sister of this restaurant's owner, Yoo Seong-hwan.
The reason the brother and sister had different last names was that she was not his biological sister, but a younger sister he had grown up with at the orphanage.
But there was no way the employees could know that.
The owner, Yoo Seong-hwan, had deliberately kept it to himself as well.
"You have a pretty name. How old are you this year?"
"I'm twenty."
"Oh... still young, and admirable. What about university?"
"Ah... university...."
"Oh, don't worry. Every last one of these women here didn't graduate from university."
"Senior Sister, I graduated from university, you know?"
"You literally just dropped out. What are you talking about, a person who dropped out in her first year?"
At that one line, all the surrounding employees burst into laughter.
Naturally, the butt of the joke pouted, but the remark was made knowing she wasn't the type whose feelings would be hurt by just that much.
"How is it? The atmosphere's nice, right?"
"Yes... it's really nice, just like I'd heard..."
"Heard? Well, anyway. Let's work hard together. The work itself isn't terribly difficult."
With that, she extended her hand to the newcomer once more.
This handshake was not for meeting someone for the first time, but a handshake between colleagues who would now work together.
"You have a broad idea of what this work is like, right?"
"Yes. It's quite a bit harder than I thought."
"Hey, it might look that way in the beginning, but you'll see it's not that hard once you're actually put in the field."
She tapped her on the shoulder encouragingly, but perhaps because the nervousness was unavoidable, Ms. Seo-yeong merely nodded with visible effort.
Well, I myself had been frozen solid like that when I first worked, so all I could do was smile wryly.
"Guests will be arriving soon, so go grab a glass of water and come back."
"Yes, understood."
"I told you, there's no need to speak so stiffly."
While Ms. Seo-yeong went to get a glass of water, I considered doing some light stretching and gave a big stretch.
It was a bit risky since guests would be arriving soon, but if I didn't stretch at least once before working, I would feel stiff and ache more later.
As I was concentrating on loosening up my legs, arms, and shoulders, the sound of a bell came from the entrance.
Once the staff member waiting at the front escorted the guests in and seated them, it was my turn to work after that.
"Huh?"
I was about to escort the arriving guests and confirm their reservation, but that became unnecessary.
It was a guest who came about twice a month, someone I couldn't possibly not recognize.
She was the wife of this restaurant's owner and the only person with a designated personal seat.
And she was Song A-ra, the idol who had once sent Korea and the world into a frenzy.
"Mommy, I smell something yummy."
"You do, don't you?"
And the child in her arms was Song Ah-rin, her daughter with the owner.
Just being the daughter of those two was enough to make her a child who drew a lot of attention.
No, this was not the time.
"Ma'am, you have arrived."
"Hello. I can sit over there, right?"
She pointed to the seat she usually occupied.
Naturally, since that seat was designated exclusively for the boss's wife, it was a spot where no one but her could sit.
"Of course. I will bring out the child's chair right away."
"Please do."
Perhaps pleased with the quick service, she smiled brightly and stroked her daughter's head, and I let out a sigh of relief.
This sealed the bonus, then.
Running calculations in my head about how to use the bonus, I picked up a menu to bring it over to her.
At that moment, Ms. Seo-yeong, who had returned from drinking water, came out wiping her hands.
Naturally, that sight was not good behavior to show in front of a guest, so the seated boss's wife and her little daughter....
"Oh! Auntie!"
"That's right. Did you say Seo-yeong is starting work here from today?"
Instead of being offended, the boss's little daughter had not only called Ms. Seo-yeong 'Auntie', but ran right over and flung herself into her arms!
Auntie?
Wasn't 'Auntie' a word meaning the father's sister?
"Our Arin, did you miss your auntie that much?"
"Yeah!"
"But we met just yesterday?"
"Hehe, pat my head!"
"Okay, okay...."
"I'm sorry. My little girl loves her auntie so much...."
"Ah... no, not at all! That's only natural!"
Flustered by the boss's wife suddenly apologizing, I bowed my head.
Apparently, it was true that Ms. Seo-yeong was the aunt.
Whoa...
The boss's younger sister was working at the shop.
At a different kind of company or somewhere, she might have been called a parachute and cursed out, but the story changed when it came to being a waiter at a restaurant like this.
Making his younger sister work as a waiter, which could be considered a 3D job category — didn't that mean that no matter how much of a younger sister she was, he wouldn't give her preferential treatment?
Moreover, if you were a fan of the boss, you would know that he grew up in an orphanage.
That was also something you could easily figure out from the start, if you knew that all his siblings had different last names.
And Ms. Seo-yeong would be as much as seven years younger than the boss.
Making a younger sister like that do hard work surely carried the meaning of having her learn so she could advance into society.
"Our boss... is a way more amazing person than I thought...."
I'd always thought he was someone you couldn't help but admire, but... I hadn't realized it was to this extent.