Chapter 299
Chapter 299
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 299
Chapter Title: 92. Cottage Industry (3)
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Winter had run her campaign on a promise of hamburgers.
Conditions no different from the other candidates.
"Our Winter's so cute, maybe she'll get lots of votes!?"
"Nah. I heard this kid wrecked her image doing some shady business stuff."
"That was just with the sixth graders anyway, so it doesn't matter, right?"
The sisters chimed in one by one, and Winter gave an awkward smile.
No one could predict the vote outcome.
Because Winter had kept her conscience intact.
So Yoo Ji-tae was heading to the rented kitchen with the kids in tow.
Now they planned to make thirty hamburger samples to distribute to Winter's class.
Better to give firm expectations to a few than false hopes to a thousand—that was Winter's opinion.
That's right. This had been Winter's suggestion.
They arrived at the kitchen.
The clean, spacious space resembled a restaurant kitchen, with spices and utensils neatly arranged.
"I looked up the recipe," Bom said, pulling up her watch display with a hum.
"It's fine."
Yoo Ji-tae waved her off.
"Huh?"
"I know how to make them."
"Eh? How?"
Gaeul asked in a voice full of wonder.
And it wasn't without reason. In the four years they'd lived together, Yoo Ji-tae had never once made a hamburger.
Hamburger...
To the him of long ago, it had been a very familiar food.
Yoo Ji-tae set down the pre-prepared ingredients and began moving his hands with practiced ease.
He trimmed the lettuce to bite-sized pieces.
Sliced the tomatoes thin.
Chopped the onions and pickles to usable sizes.
In the pan, he melted butter and grilled the burger buns until they were scorch-marked. As the cut surfaces turned golden and crisp, the savory aroma of toasted bread filled the air.
"Whoa, what's this? You used to work at McDonald's?"
"Smells amazing..."
The kids watched in fascination.
And with good reason—Yoo Ji-tae's movements were utterly natural.
The last time he'd made these was in his second regression, he recalled. An incredibly distant time had passed, but his body moved on autopilot with such familiar motions.
Hamburger...
What a strange thing.
Making them now...
Suddenly, memories from a forgotten past resurfaced.
First life.
Back when Yoo Ji-tae was still living his first lifetime.
A long war raged on. Monsters and superhumans soared through the skies. Monitors broadcast daily deaths.
One boy lost his entire family and became a war orphan.
There were so many kids like him back then. Parents torn away by monster claws. Homes lost to bombings. Cast into the streets with nowhere to go.
He later entered an orphanage, and life there was utterly wretched too. But before that, his faint memories of street survival were of near-death hardship.
Like other beggars and war orphans, he scavenged trash bins for food, quenched his thirst with filthy river water, barely scraping by. Sometimes he fought other orphans over trash bin territories. He'd gotten sick from dirty water and spent half a day groaning on the pavement.
Beaten by a beggar until one eye went blind. Forced to sleep shivering in the rain, soaked to the bone.
He was eleven then.
After four days and nights of starvation and vomiting, his strength ebbed, vision blurring.
His wandering steps led to a corner fast-food joint in a bustling district, where he caught an astonishing smell passing the door.
Savory. Salty. Making saliva pool under his tongue...
It was shocking.
[Hamburger]
As Yoo Ji-tae stared blankly at the sign's burger illustration.
Someone emerged from the door. Startled, Yoo Ji-tae hurried away, then hid in an alley corner, clutching his pounding heart.
That was a hamburger?
The ones he'd eaten with his parents?
No. The smell he'd just caught was incomparable. Recalling it made his heart race wildly.
A maddening aroma lingered there.
"......"
From that day, Yoo Ji-tae observed the hamburger shop from afar. Patrons came and went in uniforms—post-war, only the affluent superhumans could afford it.
Through the clear plate-glass windows, superhumans ate burgers, dipped fries in ketchup, slurped cola.
Gulp...
He swallowed dryly.
He didn't know what possessed him.
One day, unable to hold back any longer, toward closing time, young Yoo Ji-tae entered as if entranced. He begged the owner for just one hamburger.
Back then, Yoo Ji-tae was fiercely proud yet painfully timid. He wouldn't beg even while starving—but that hamburger smell was that shocking.
'This one's left over. Eat it.'
And there...
Yoo Ji-tae met his benefactor.
He devoured the hamburger. Bowed in thanks. Turned to leave.
The owner called him back.
'Kid. You live under that underpass, right?'
'How old are you? Your parents?'
'Hmm... Wanna work here?'
She was a woman.
Much older than him.
He couldn't recall her name or face.
'The government's expanding orphanages. One's coming here too, in about three months. Until then, if it's okay with you, live here with me.'
She would've been around his mother's age.
So the wary Yoo Ji-tae let his guard down slightly.
What he'd thought was just a shop was her home remodeled into one. Beyond the kitchen door lay two rooms and a bathroom.
She bathed him. Fed him. Gave him a room and bed. Next morning, she taught him to make hamburgers. Quick with his hands, he picked it up fast.
'But I can't pay wages.'
His work didn't bring more customers. And she wasn't well-off.
Her sick brother lived in one room—kind but wheelchair-bound.
He remembered thugs showing up on weekends demanding debt repayment.
Yet she was endlessly kind to Yoo Ji-tae.
On free days, she'd take him out (having him help her brother into the passenger seat), to rivers and mountains.
Once, she gave him pocket money. 'Go buy what you want.'
'Another orphanage opens in Nonhyeon-dong next month. You can go there.'
And she showed him a future.
Whenever she did, Yoo Ji-tae always wanted to ask something.
Too timid to voice it.
'Thanks for everything.'
Thus, until the parting day approached.
The question swirled inside him.
'Thank you so much...'
He bowed and turned away.
But then, afraid he'd never understand if he didn't ask now.
Eleven-year-old Yoo Ji-tae turned back.
Called to her as she headed to the car.
"Wait...!"
That was when Gaeul snapped Yoo Ji-tae from his reverie.
Doubt flickered in her golden eyes.
"Huh?"
"What's that meat?"
"Why."
"It's not beef. Or pork?"
"Ah... Something delicious."
Yoo Ji-tae shook off the past thoughts.
Pointless old memories.
Either way, the key to this operation was the meat.
The meat he'd brought was "Aeu"—baby minotaur flesh. Umami-packed, chewy yet tender. The ultimate gourmet meat still unknown. In about ten years, its flavor would be discovered and popularized, but for now, few knew.
With familiar motions, he carved a portion, ground and formed it.
Seasoned with salt and pepper. Placed oil-free on the hot griddle.
The meaty aroma exploded salivary glands.
This irresistible scent made baby minotaurs rare in dungeons. Mana-derived, even monsters craved the taste.
Yoo Ji-tae layered the ingredients.
Hamburger. Complete.
"Whoa...! Insane......!"
"What? What's that?"
Yeoreum and Gaeul approached with shocked faces.
Look. Smell. Perfection.
"Aaaah~"
He quartered it and handed pieces to the kids.
After a big bite, Gaeul freaked out in shock.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa...! This is insane!"
"This is sex..."
Even Yeoreum was genuinely delighted, a rare sight.
Bom and Winter were the same. Amazed, they praised Yoo Ji-tae.
"This should do it?"
"...Y-yeah, yeah."
Such fervent reactions were rare.
Good.
"Then let's all make them together."
After that, things proceeded smoothly.
They made thirty samples and distributed them to the class.
Classmates who tasted the hamburgers were stunned.
"Insane..." "So good.... I'm shocked..."
"You made this yourself? Who?"
Winter beamed her answer.
Here at school, she could say it.
'My dad.'
"Ah, him..."
"Oh......"
Recalling her fearsome dad, they briefly debated what meat it was.
Kids are honest. No qualms about sales.
Talk of the killer hamburger spread through sixth grade, reproduced endlessly.
Students with younger siblings convinced them it was amazing.
Time passed, voting happened.
Thanks to those efforts?
Winter was elected class president.
For the next two full days, Yoo Ji-tae and the kids made hamburgers. No trouble for a regressor and dragons.
The fresh batch delivered another shock to the school.
"...Hee hee."
Winter giggled.
"...Hee hee hee."
Clutching 500,000 won in each hand!
"...Kee hee hee hing hing!"
She ran to Bom, fanning herself with the money like a fan.
"That happy?"
"...Yeah."
"How much?"
"...I'd die happy."
Bom chuckled.
Winter turned serious, glancing at Yeoreum. Yoo Ji-tae had covered facility rental, but this was unavoidable.
Yeoreum had toiled twenty hours.
At 5,000 won per hour.
Winter approached Yeoreum. Meeting her red eyes, Winter looked at her like a bug and spoke.
"...Y-you, filthy, bitch."
Yeoreum thought she'd misheard.
"...You think, I don't see, creeps like you, once or twice?"
"What the hell, kid?"
"...You approached, our Ji-tae oppa, for money, ...right?"
Winter offered 100,000 won.
Then Yeoreum realized.
That morning drama she'd seen recently—the mother-in-law handing over money had stuck.
"Typical brat..."
Winter cackled, then dashed to Gaeul.
Gaeul hugged her smiling, with congratulations.
Then they buried heads, whispering.
"So, how much left?"
"...Huh? Oh."
Yeoreum watched the kids, shaking her head.
They giggled hysterically over whatever thrilled them.
Last was Yoo Ji-tae.
Winter ran to him. Stood before him, carefully separating bills to offer 800,000 won.
"......"
Her expression resolute.
"What. Hazard pay?"
"...Yes."
"Why give it. Keep it."
"...Ajusshi, ...helped with everything."
Even miserly Winter giving money like this? Yoo Ji-tae silently extended his hand and took it.
But there was faint resistance.
Winter stared piercingly at his hand, resisting ever so slightly.
When his hand paused, Winter realized with an 'oh no' glance up, eyes brazenly saying take it.
As he tugged again, faint resistance returned.
Why offer so reluctantly?
Meanwhile, Winter's attitude...
Reminded him of those long-buried memories stirred while making hamburgers.
'Wait...'
Recalling that scene, everything was hazy.
The old woman's face. Clothes. Name. Background. Time. Season. All...
But one voice remained vivid in his memory.
'Why were you so kind to me?'
'I'm a beggar. An orphan.'
'I might never repay this kindness.'
Young Yoo Ji-tae...
Asked the woman from a time he'd never revisit.
She smiled and answered.
'When I was your age, I got lost abroad and became a lost child.'
'A Filipino missionary took me in, fed me, gave me a bed. No strings attached.'
'Grateful, I asked why he helped me at parting. He said someone had helped him that way when he was young and struggling.'
The first hamburger from her was shocking in smell and taste.
But her final words at parting were slightly more impactful than the burger.
'You don't have to repay kindness.'
'Someday, if you see a child in need.'
'Help them once.'
To young Yoo Ji-tae, it was incomprehensible,
a bizarre form of 'altruism.'
The world had changed now.
No starving kids anywhere. And he'd lived too many harsh years to hold such altruism. He'd become too selfish for pure goodwill, no great sage to inspire others.
The child's small hand offered 800,000 won.
But maybe Winter was different.
"Keep it, you do it."
"...Really?"
"In return, hold my hand?"
"...Huh?"
Winter's eyes widened holding Yoo Ji-tae's hand.
His hazy memories flowed into Winter's mind.
Shocked, Winter stared at Yoo Ji-tae.
"If you meet a child in need someday. Help them once."
That era's hamburger had been encouragement for someone's life.
"Got it?"
The unknown someone's encouragement,
through that middle-aged woman to him.
Through him now to Winter,
"...Got it."
would reach some unknown someone far in the future.