Seia's One-Day Chef Mission
Seong Ye-eun knew it too.
That none of it was Seo Se-yeon's fault.
But back then, it had seemed impossible to endure any other way.
There had been the guilt of not being able to stay by her side until the very end.
After that day, she could no longer live with the other children.
The sense of loss that arrived in equal measure to the happiness of being together was something she never wanted to experience again.
Still, the greatest enemy of emotion is time.
As the days passed, even the resentment she had directed at Seo Se-yeon slowly faded before that relentless adversary. And now, standing face to face like this, the events of that time had lost their emotional weight, remaining only as memories and experiences.
So it was merely a little awkward, nothing more. She felt nothing particularly special.
“Oh, it’s been a while. Haha…”
Seo Se-yeon offered the first greeting, smiling bashfully.
Seong Ye-eun flinched for a brief moment, but she returned a faint smile.
“Yes. It has.”
“Cat Sister, did you come to eat?”
“Ah, I…”
She was about to explain when two voices rang inside her head.
The words were different, yet both carried the same request: it would be best not to mention anything related to Hunters.
“Uh, yeah. I came to eat.”
“Sister. Seia brought a baby kitty.”
That had been part of the reason Seo Se-yeon stopped by.
Taking in lost or abandoned kittens was part of her work, after all.
Of course, she didn’t rescue every single one.
Cats tended not to reclaim their young once humans had touched them.
So if a kitten had been handled even briefly, she would take it in herself.
The tiny kitten before her was no different.
Since Seia had touched it, there was no returning to its mother now.
If left behind, it would have lost its life.
That, too, was not wrong. Nature simply worked that way.
Now that survival had decided the outcome, Seo Se-yeon’s task was to care for it well and raise it properly.
“Where did your mom go, leaving you all alone?”
At the arrival of the enormous cat capable of speech, the kitten resting in Seia’s arms for warmth answered with effort.
It didn’t know where its mother had gone.
“Come with me. I have lots of friends.”
An unexpected reply came back.
It wanted to stay with its mom.
It had just said it didn’t know where its mother went, so it couldn’t have forgotten already.
That meant, to the kitten right now, Seia—who had rescued it—had become like another mother.
“Hmm… You can only do that if you eat well and grow up strong.”
It didn’t seem to understand completely, but she intended to take it anyway.
“Is the kitty hungry?”
“Seia saved it and it’s saying thank you—”
“Hehe. Seia saved the baby kitty.”
“Looks like the cat knows that too?”
Seia’s face brimmed with pride. The satisfaction of having rescued a cat in danger shone clearly in her expression.
“Oh? When did you arrive?”
“Just now.”
“Since we’re all here, how about some snacks?”
“Yay! Snacks!”
Yuhyeon, who had been quietly listening, spoke up.
Even the diligent student Seia brightened at the word.
Wasn’t it rude to visit a restaurant and order nothing?
Jungwoo and Seia didn’t seem bothered, but Yuhyeon saw it differently.
“I’m fine with that. My mouth was feeling rather empty just as that delicious smell started drifting over.”
While Seia chatted, Jungwoo had nearly finished preparing the ingredients for the lunchboxes.
A savory aroma now filled the restaurant.
“I-I’m fine with it too.”
Seo Se-yeon quietly agreed. All that remained was deciding what snacks to make.
And Seona’s Restaurant happened to have plenty of suitable options.
It was nearly school dismissal time, so they turned to student-friendly snacks.
“Hehe, then leave it to me.”
Somehow the situation had flipped—rather than the customers ordering, Jungwoo had taken charge of hosting.
Besides tteokbokki, there were countless dishes perfect for snacking.
What should he make?
Jungwoo himself was beginning to feel peckish, so the suggestion had come at the perfect moment.
Tteokbokki was decided first—a light, delicious treat.
Shall we make some jeon as well?
He could use the flavorful kimchi he had prepared himself for kimchi jeon, or create other varieties with different ingredients.
The pantry at Seona’s Restaurant was as varied as its menu.
First he would prepare the tteokbokki using the rice cakes he had already soaked.
The ingredients had been prepped while making the lunchboxes, so they only needed heat.
He left the tteokbokki to simmer and turned to the other preparations.
There were many candidates for jeon: seafood, potato, kimchi, meat, and more.
Well, I can just make them all.
Worried about too many options? The simple, clear answer was to prepare every one.
“Seia.”
“Yeah?”
As he was about to begin, Seia had slipped into the kitchen.
“Seia wants to help too!”
“Haha. You want to help?”
“Yes!”
They had cooked together once before—when making pork cutlets.
The kitchen was a place of sharp knives and open flames, so he had never easily allowed her inside.
After what happened today, his worries felt even heavier.
“Hmm…”
“Seia wants to make something yummy too!”
“Is that so?”
At the very least, the kitchen was Jungwoo’s domain.
Worrying about accidents was natural, but if he let worry rule him, it would never end.
Hadn’t the time apart from Seia today turned out to be no big deal?
He must not lose sight of his original wish for the restaurant to become a window to the world.
For Seia, cooking could be part of discovering that new world.
“All right. Then I’ll give a very important mission to Seia, today’s one-day chef.”
“One-day chef…?”
“Yes. It means you get to be a chef for the day.”
“One-day chef…!”
At the weighty words, Seia put on a solemn little face.
This was different from the pork cutlet last time.
Today, Seia’s task would be the most crucial part.
“Now, the dish we’re making is jeon.”
“Jeon?”
“Yes. Remember last time? Great-uncle gave you a bite of something.”
“Great-uncle…?”
Seia thought hard about what Park Geon-su had given her. The first memory that surfaced was the spiciness.
“Ah! Kimchi jeon!”
“Haha. That’s right. But Seia probably can’t eat it, right? Kimchi jeon is spicy.”
“N-no! Seia can eat it too!”
Oh, was this what they called a spicy-food bravado?
Though she usually cried for her dad the moment anything spicy touched her tongue.
“Haha. All right. To make delicious jeon, you need an equally delicious batter. That’s the heart of it.”
He brought out the pancake mix from the pantry.
Adding water would complete the base.
This was the standard ratio, but it also carried all the know-how Jungwoo had gathered over time.
Last time he had simply mixed the water and powder one-to-one.
Today would be different.
He added an egg and a bit of the frying powder left over from the chicken.
This would make the finished jeon truly crispy—not just the edges, but the entire pancake.
Now it was Seia’s turn.
“Here, scoop one ladle at a time into this big bowl. Understand?”
“Yes!”
The ladle was nearly as long as her arm.
She could hold it with one hand, but filling it was still too heavy.
“Hnnng…!”
She tried her best, but effort alone didn’t grant strength.
In the end, Seia used her other hand to push the powder into the ladle.
“Haha.”
Jungwoo watched his daughter with a soft smile.
It was fortunate she had washed her hands thoroughly beforehand.
Seia packed the powder firmly into the ladle, pressing it down like building a sandcastle at the beach.
There was no need to tamp it quite so hard, but perhaps this was how Seia left her own touch.
Once she successfully filled one ladle, she brushed her forehead with her hand, smiling proudly as if celebrating.
Exactly so.
She had brushed her forehead with that very hand.
The pancake mix coating her fingers now streaked across her brow.
Her forehead was covered in white powder, but the important thing was that she still had more to do.
“…Next, let’s add the water.”
Noticing the flour on her forehead, Jungwoo barely swallowed his laughter and guided her to the next step.
“See this line? Can you pour water up to here?”
“Yes!”
When he showed her using the measuring cup, she managed to pour the water neatly to the mark.
Next came the egg and a splash of soy sauce.
A little seasoning in the batter would make the jeon even more delicious.
“All done!”
“Really? Then shall we mix it now?”
Seona’s Restaurant was a place that cooked real food.
They did have an electric mixer, but it was still too soon for Seia.
Everything has its proper time…!
Only by doing it by hand could she later appreciate the mixer’s worth. So this time, he would have her mix it manually.
“You mix it well like this. Think you can do it?”
Seia nodded with a determined expression.
She took the whisk with solemn care and carefully pushed it deep into the batter.
“Like this…?”
She stirred up and down, then side to side.
“No…!”
The batter was thicker than she expected and refused to combine easily.
Up-and-down or side-to-side alone wasn’t working.
What if she combined both?
Up, then right.
Right, then down.
Then left, then up again.
As she repeated the motion, the stubborn batter gradually began to come together.
“Whoa…”
The separate ingredients were slowly becoming one.
The mixture grew thick and sticky, the kind of texture that made you want to plunge your hand in.
“…….”
Could she touch it?
Dad had touched the ingredients with his hands earlier.
In the end, Seia could not resist the temptation of the thick white batter.
“Hehe…”
The sensation was far better than she had imagined.
When she squeezed, it gave a strange grip before slipping through her fingers.
The brand-new texture made her forget, if only for a moment, that this was something they would eventually eat.
And Jungwoo watched the entire scene from behind.
“Hmm… Is it fun, my daughter?”
She flinched, shoulders jumping.
Seia turned to look at her father and gave him a bashful smile.
“Heheh…”
“Dad will bring you something similar later. All right?”
“Yes! Definitely!”
Come to think of it, there was something called sensory play.
It might be nice to try it when the chance came.
“Please taste good—”
Hoping with all her heart that it would turn out delicious, Seia’s hands moved faster and faster as she stirred the batter.