The Scent of Perfection
“That was so delicious.���
“It’s been a while since I had such a hearty lunch. I’ve been so busy lately I could barely eat properly.”
“Thank you for the meal. I’ll come again next time.”
The customers had finished their meals with obvious satisfaction.
The plates that had been piled high were now completely empty.
“Bye-bye, Seia…”
“We’re leaving now…?”
Somehow they had grown this close already. The people waved at Seia with wistful eyes.
“Bye-bye! Come again soon!”
Seia bowed politely, then broke into a bright smile and waved back just as enthusiastically.
“Ahem. This uncle isn’t a scary uncle at all, you see? Hehe.”
“…Yes! You’re a nice uncle!”
“Haha! That’s right. A nice uncle. Very good, very good indeed.”
The case worker’s gaze toward Seia had changed completely from when he first arrived. For such a young child, she showed remarkable consideration for others, and on top of that, she was incredibly adorable.
If only my granddaughter could grow up like her…
He couldn’t help thinking that once his granddaughter was born, he would have no greater wish than for her to turn out just like Seia.
“Well then, this nice uncle should be on his way. You’ll remember me when I come next time, right?”
“Yes!”
His steps were reluctant to leave.
He had only thought of this as a routine field visit, but at the end of that path waited things he had never imagined.
At first, he had assumed the father and daughter were related to Park Geon-su—perhaps family or distant relatives.
But after spending today with them, he realized it didn’t matter whether they were blood-related or not.
From the moment he first stepped into this small restaurant until the moment he left, he hadn’t once lost the smile that bloomed in his chest.
And it wasn’t just the case worker.
The other staff members who had come with him to the restaurant shared not only the same thoughts, but the same warm experience.
After seeing off these unexpected guests who had become something like benefactors, Jungwoo returned and immediately began cleaning up.
“Like this…”
Seia was helping with the cleanup too, but he could see her struggling to figure out how to carry multiple plates at once.
She stacked them this way, then that way, experimenting.
Thus began Seia’s very own game of Tetris.
Trying different arrangements and thinking for herself about how to stack them more efficiently was, in itself, a form of education.
Once the kitchen cleanup was mostly finished and he stepped back into the dining area, Seia had nearly completed her personal Tetris masterpiece.
Granted, it was simply a matter of gathering all the wide plates at the bottom and stacking them in order of size.
“Hnnng…!”
All that remained was to carry the stacked plates into the kitchen. Once that was done, there would be nothing left in the dining area except wiping down the tables.
Of course, with Seia’s strength, she couldn’t even lift the plates, let alone move them.
“Wow. You stacked them really well. Daddy will take care of moving them.”
“Huu… Did I do good?”
“Haha. Yes. You did amazingly well.”
Seeing her proud little smile, it was clear she was quite satisfied with herself.
While Jungwoo carried the dishes to the kitchen and started washing them, Seia wiped down the now-empty tables.
It hadn’t been that long since they opened the restaurant, yet the father and daughter already showed a perfect division of labor.
“Daddy! I made it all clean!”
“Really? You must be hungry. Daddy will make dinner right away. Do you want to keep watching TV?”
“Yes! Bunny!”
After making sure Seia’s attention was fully back on the television, Jungwoo headed toward the meat he had taken out earlier.
The beef, which had been cold while he was serving customers, had thawed to just the right degree.
“Mm, perfect.”
It was top-quality beef in the best possible condition.
For this single piece of meat, he had prepared both a thermometer and the precious frying pan he had been saving.
He poured olive oil into the pan, heated it to the proper temperature, then placed the meat on it.
The key was to sear the surface quickly without flipping it too many times.
At the sound of the meat sizzling, Seia, who had been watching a documentary, turned her gaze toward the kitchen.
—Among the natural predators of the Arctic hare are humans as well. Like this…
With exquisitely bad timing, the documentary was showing a tribe happily eating meat.
Huh? Did they switch to a different documentary?
Animal documentaries usually only featured animals.
Apparently this one just happened to include Arctic hares.
It was a relief that Seia’s eyes had already moved to the kitchen at just the right moment.
If they hadn’t…
Ah, Daddy! The bunny! The bunny…!
She definitely would have started crying.
In the meantime, Jungwoo had added butter, let it melt, and was carefully drizzling it over the meat.
It would have been nice to add other seasonings, but unfortunately he hadn’t prepared any.
Instead, he used garlic and asparagus.
When sprinkled generously over the meat, the aroma of butter and garlic would soak in beautifully.
Now all that remained was to cook it properly.
It might seem simple, but delicate control of heat and timing would determine the final taste of this meat.
Let’s go for medium.
Jungwoo didn’t eat steak often, but on the rare occasions he did, he always preferred it medium.
The internal temperature for medium was around sixty degrees Celsius, maybe a little over.
He would have to focus completely, measuring the internal temperature with the thermometer he had prepared.
“Hoo… Time to concentrate.”
When the sizzling sound had become familiar, he flipped the meat. A much louder sizzle rang out.
But simply cooking the meat to the right internal temperature wasn’t the end.
There was still the final step of resting.
It was a crucial process that allowed the juices concentrated in the center to spread evenly throughout the meat.
Skipping the resting step could make even the best cut turn tough.
And this was good meat. He couldn’t let that happen.
Since it needed five to ten minutes of resting time, he lifted the perfectly seared steak so it wouldn’t touch the plate and covered it.
“Hm?”
Seia had been watching the entire process.
The documentary was rolling its ending credits.
“Hehe. What is it?”
“The smell! It smells so good!”
“Haha. What about the smell?”
“It’s yummy!”
Whether it was the chicken or any other dish, there was always a delicious aroma in the air at mealtime. But this was clearly on another level.
With no immunity to such a scent, she couldn’t think straight.
She hadn’t eaten anything yet today, but her mouth was already watering. It was obvious how much her appetite had been whetted.
“But why aren’t we eating it now?”
“We’re waiting for it to taste even better.”
“It can get… even more delicious?!”
“Yes. You can look forward to this one.”
Seia’s expectations were soaring higher and higher, but Jungwoo was confident.
The meat had been cooked perfectly.
While waiting for the resting period to finish, he had a brief moment of free time.
It was too short to start anything substantial, but too precious to waste. Just then, something occurred to him.
The app the case worker had mentioned earlier.
He hadn’t given it much thought before, but if the case worker had gone out of his way to recommend it, it was definitely worth looking into.
When he downloaded and opened the app, he saw one related to restaurants managed by the Association.
“The Association even does things like this?”
“Daddy! What are you looking at?”
“Oh, it’s an app.”
“An app?”
“It works like this…”
In truth, Seia didn’t know much about phones.
He had deliberately kept her away from them at this age, worried she might become addicted, but teaching her little by little should be fine.
When he gave her a simple explanation about the app, a giant question mark naturally appeared over Seia’s head.
With a small chuckle, he patted her head and continued checking the app.
It looked complicated but was well organized.
The fact that an app managed by a public institution had such high ratings was proof in itself that it was properly maintained.
“Oh? There’s Seona’s Restaurant.”
“There’s Seona’s Restaurant?!”
The restaurant was already listed in the app.
It showed the operating hours.
There were no menus, prices, or other details yet.
Moreover, perhaps because it was synced with Jungwoo’s phone, he had been given permission to edit the restaurant information.
“Look at this, Seia. Our restaurant is listed here.”
“Whoa…”
Seia didn’t really understand what it was, but it must be something good, right? She gazed at it with a mixture of awe and a bright smile.
But in the review section for Seona’s Restaurant, stars had already been left.
Five stars had been neatly placed alongside the review.
If the customer had eaten both the stir-fried pork and kimchi stew, then this was the unofficial first guest who had visited before Seona’s Restaurant officially opened.
So they left something like this.
A warm smile rose to his lips without him even realizing it.
Once for saying the food was delicious, and once more for calling Seia cute.
It was a double dose of emotion.
“So I can set things like this here.”
For now, no one would come looking for Seona’s Restaurant through this app.
Considering how quickly a place that had only been open for a short time and was still small in scale had been registered, there must be tens of thousands of restaurants listed here.
“Still, it’s better to have it set up than not.”
He adjusted the operating hours for today because of Seia’s circus show. Instead of closing at ten, they would close at eight.
“Now for the menu…”
He was about to register the menu items that hadn’t been added yet when he realized he had almost forgotten something very important.
“That’s right. Seia?”
“Yes?”
“Let’s eat first!”
“Rice!”
Instead of answering with “Yes!” Seia answered with “Rice!”
Jungwoo gently stroked her head, then walked over to the steak that had finished resting.
“Hoo…”
Just how good would it be?
With a trembling heart, he lifted the cover. The rich, deep aroma of the steak burst forth and filled the entire restaurant.
“…Perfect.”
When he picked up the meat with his hand, it showed such incredible elasticity that it felt almost like pudding.
When he gave it a light slap, it bounced back with a satisfying spring. Even without biting into it yet, he could already imagine the texture.
When he sliced it with the sharpest knife?
Juices would flow from a perfectly cooked steak.
The asparagus he had cooked alongside it served as the only garnish, but the meat itself was flawless.
Seia was already sitting at the table, fork in one hand and spoon in the other.
“Here, it’s done!”
“Hehe…”
Steak was originally best enjoyed when you cut it yourself, but that was still too difficult for Seia.
The pieces were a little bigger than what she usually ate, so putting an entire bite in her mouth was slightly challenging, but she was smacking her lips in anticipation.
The meat that would fill her entire mouth.
She wondered if it might be hard to chew, but that wasn’t the case at all.
The moment she moved her jaw, the meat seemed to melt away and disappear.
Seia, who was used to tender but still chewy meat, found the steak to be nothing short of a whole new world.
“…How is it?”
A slightly mischievous question, even though he already knew it was delicious.
Seia, who had been savoring the steak with her eyes closed, slowly opened them.
Her eyes were so moist it looked like she might cry.
She immediately raised her thumb and declared:
“…The best!”