NOVEL NEXT 84
“Chef Song…!”
Jung Jun-ha looked at me with a dejected expression. Despite his hulking frame, his eyes resembled those of an abandoned puppy.
To be more precise, it would be more accurate to say that only his eyes were visible.
“What’s this?”
The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them.
I had rushed over after receiving the call, but seeing Jung Jun-ha’s appearance – hidden cameras everywhere, a hat and mask covering his face – anyone would have said the same thing.
“Oh, this?”
Jung Jun-ha suddenly seemed to realize and pulled down his mask.
“It’s a condition that we have to do business while hiding our identities. Using our name value would turn it into a popularity contest… But the problem is that nothing’s selling right now!”
Ah.
I hadn’t considered this aspect.
‘With Jung Jun-ha’s name, people would easily try an unfamiliar menu. That’s why I gave him the recipe for a unique but delicious dish.’
Who would have thought he’d be doing business with both his name and face hidden? I hadn’t been informed of this beforehand, so I couldn’t take it into account.
‘No wonder it’s not selling.’
The location is a bit out of the way, and an unfamiliar menu being sold by someone with their face completely hidden?
Even I would be hesitant to try it.
“I took a big risk and tried… But we’ve only sold three so far. In two hours!”
It’s more impressive that you sold even three. Those must have been some brave customers.
Sigh. What to do now.
‘I even shared the recipe, but if it ends in failure like this, it won’t reflect well on me either. Now that I’m here, I should do something.’
Moreover, looking around, there were numerous things that needed fixing. It didn’t seem like mere verbal advice would be enough to improve the situation.
I finally let out a deep sigh and rolled up my sleeves.
“You’ll have to pay me well for this part-time work. I’m a very high-quality worker, you know?”
“O-of course!”
“First, let’s stop the business. We need to change locations.”
“Huh? Why? This is a residential area, so there are plenty of people passing by…”
“True, lots of people pass by. The problem is that most of them have no intention of buying this kind of snack.”
Seeing Jung Jun-ha’s puzzled face, I explained step by step.
“There’s Junhoe Station nearby, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s less than a 10-minute walk, so isn’t this considered a good location?”
I can see what he’s thinking. He intended to do business targeting local residents in an area close to the station and adjacent to a residential zone.
But there’s a big misconception here.
“Do you know that there are several food trucks near Junhoe Station too? Selling things like takoyaki, electric chicken… It’s an area where food trucks roam around.”
“Yes, I know. That’s why I deliberately targeted this spot because the competition seemed too fierce there! This is a blue ocean, isn’t it?”
Oh ho. So you moved away from the competition and settled here because it seemed emptier, thinking it was an opportunity?
There’s a reason why food trucks cluster in certain areas.
“What that means is, most customers looking for street food have already bought something near the station before entering this alley.”
Just then, a passerby walked by with a plastic bag marked ‘XX Chicken’ in their hand.
See? Just like that.
As I shrugged and gestured with my eyes, Jung Jun-ha finally seemed to understand, inhaling sharply with an “Oh!”
“So this location is a bust from the start. If we’re going to do this, we need to go right next to the station.”
“Ugh….”
“Let’s go.”
At my urging, Jung Jun-ha began packing up the food truck with a gloomy face.
Alright, time for a fresh start!
⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱
“This should do.”
I positioned us maintaining a decent distance from the other food trucks. It’s near the entrance where there’s good foot traffic while still respecting business etiquette.
After donning an apron, sanitary gloves on both hands, a mask on my face, and a hair net to keep my hair in place, we’re finally ready to start business.
Despite the ‘OPEN’ sign flashing brightly, people show little interest.
One or two people glance curiously at the menu, but perhaps due to its unfamiliarity, no one approaches readily.
“See…! No one’s coming. They just glance and pass by.”
“It’s because they don’t know what kind of menu it is. People hesitate to order unfamiliar food.”
It’s natural and unavoidable psychology. I wonder if I should have come up with a more familiar menu.
‘No. This tastes better. Let’s give it a try.’
Right. Once one or two people try it and react, others will quickly become curious.
Whoosh!
I fired up the empty pan. Jung Jun-ha was startled beside me.
“Huh? But we haven’t received any orders?”
“Pretend to be working on something. If we just stand around idle because there are no customers, even potential ones will be driven away.”
“Oh! Okay!”
Jung Jun-ha at least worked hard at what he was told. I’m not sure if he was doing it well… but he was at least pretending to prepare ingredients clumsily.
Though all he was doing was needlessly fiddling with the mozzarella cheese. For a beginner, even that’s something.
I spread a thick layer of peanut butter on the bread and topped it with thinly sliced bananas.
As I busily prepared something, I could feel people’s gazes turning towards us with interest.
This is the crucial moment.
I held up the white chocolate and grater high, ostentatiously grating it.
Shhh-shhh-shhh!
The chocolate piled up softly like falling snow.
“Wow~”
People involuntarily opened their mouths in admiration. Unfortunately, we can’t do a fire show here.
Still, food trucks should have something visually appealing. It makes things much more fun and special.
‘And next, this.’
I sprinkled mozzarella cheese from above, making a show of it. It makes the surroundings a bit messy, but we can clean that up later.
The important thing is to entice the people in front of us to become customers.
Sizzle!
I melted a large pat of butter on the hot pan. By deliberately using much more than the usual amount, a rich buttery aroma wafted around.
“Smells good.”
“Looks delicious.”
I placed the toast on the buttered pan, turning it this way and that to shape it. Actually, we’re slowly melting the cheese on low heat, so there’s no need to do this much, but don’t we need to look busy to attract interest?
After all that bustling, the Calorie Bomb Toast, wearing a golden buttery coat, is complete!
As I displayed it prominently in front, people who couldn’t resist their curiosity began to approach little by little. They probably wanted a closer look.
Seizing the moment, I smiled brightly and greeted them.
“Hello~”
“Oh, hello.”
They seemed a bit surprised that I spoke to them. Unfazed, I continued naturally.
“It’s delicious, why don’t you try one? Though, as you can see from what’s inside, it’s not exactly diet food~”
My cheeky statement of the obvious made the customer smile. Then, holding up one finger, they ordered a single toast.
“Then I’ll try one.”
“Alright~ One order received!”
As I packaged the freshly made toast for easy eating, I signaled Jung Jun-ha with my eyes.
‘What are you doing? Take care of the payment.’
As if reading my mind, Jung Jun-ha hurried over to handle the transaction.
“Here you go~ It’s best eaten while it’s hot!”
I handed over the toast with a bright smile. The customer bowed slightly in thanks and stepped back.
“How is it, how is it?”
“Let’s try it.”
The surrounding companions showed intense curiosity, gathering around the single toast. They all seemed curious but had been hesitant to try it themselves.
I could feel people’s attention focused in that direction.
‘Pretend not to notice, pretend not to notice.’
I deliberately looked elsewhere and started preparing the next toast. Just as I was laying banana slices on the bread…
“Wow! It’s delicious!”
“Right? The flavor is so intense~”
Hehe. Hearing the praise from the side, even those who had been hesitating stepped forward.
“I’ll have one too, please.”
“Two for us, please!”
“One for me too!”
Faced with orders flooding in from all directions, Jung Jun-ha looked bewildered, muttering, “Huh? Wha?”
“W-what’s going on? I only made one toast, why are so many people suddenly coming?”
Why, you ask?
I suppose to Jung Jun-ha’s eyes, it looked like I was ‘just’ making toast. Most people don’t notice these details.
I smiled and answered:
“I cast a spell. A spell to attract customers.”
The Song Woo-yeon magic, as it were. There is such a thing.
Jung Jun-ha looked unsure whether this was a joke or serious.
“What are you doing? Hurry and take orders.”
“Huh?”
“This food truck is too small for two people to work in. It gets in the way of movement. And there’s only one stove.”
In other words, it’s better for one person to handle all the cooking. Of course, having a kitchen assistant would be nice, but I shouldn’t expect that kind of sense from Jung Jun-ha.
“Go down and take orders, write numbers on paper and give them out as order tickets. Then give me the order slips with the numbers and what menu items were ordered. Can you do that?”
As I gripped Jung Jun-ha’s shoulders tightly while speaking, he nodded, his large frame belying the frightened look in his eyes.
That’s right. Let’s do this.
Jung Jun-ha hurried down and started taking orders one by one.
“Yes, yes. Please line up here~! We’ll take orders on a first-come, first-served basis! Yes, yes. Number 1, one toast, Number 2, two toasts…”
Now we’re dividing the labor properly. With each of us focusing on our tasks, toast orders came flooding in.
The people who were initially curious lined up, and then others who saw the line formed joined in as well.
As this continued, a rather long queue for toast stretched out before us.
It’s tiring to keep my hands moving so busily, but it seemed like sales would certainly be good at this rate.
‘At this rate, we might come in first?’
By now, Jung Jun-ha and I felt almost like a team. I don’t know what the other members are selling, but there probably aren’t many places where an expert like me jumped in to expand the business like this.
Aren’t the toasts we prepared selling like hotcakes?
Even after subtracting my labor costs, the sales would surely be quite substantial.
It was right then.
The situation suddenly changed.