TGMC 16

chapter 16

What on earth is going on?

The laborers lined up once again to scoop rice onto their trays.

They stood in a neat line,
every single one of them smacking their lips in anticipation.

When the noise outside grew loud, Mom—who had been working in the kitchen—came out alone to see what was going on, then widened her eyes in surprise.

Before the remodeling, this restaurant had been completely empty.

The only customers had been local residents.

And even then, there were only a few.

Most likely because of the restaurant’s poor location.

There was a beach and a swimming area nearby, but for residents, it was inconvenient since it was on the outskirts.

On top of that, the village already had a large Korean restaurant called Bugyeong Restaurant.

Because of that, locals didn’t bother coming all the way here.

Unless the food was exceptionally good, one place was pretty much the same as another.

But today—the very first day after finishing the remodeling and reopening—

business was booming like this, so Mom was probably feeling dazed.

“Are you the owner? The food is seriously so good.”

“The rice is insanely good.”

The laborers in line praised the food enthusiastically, one after another.

Mom blushed at their words.

“I didn’t really do anything. My kid just cooked the rice using water he brought from the mineral spring…”

“But the rice is really delicious. Can we get refills?”

“Of course. Eat as much as you like.”

With bright smiles, the workers scooped fresh rice from the electric rice cooker and continued eating.

It wasn’t just one or two people getting refills.

Every single one of them—

at the very least—was refilling once.

The unusual thing was that most Korean buffet restaurants had customers refilling side dishes.

But at our restaurant, people were refilling rice.

Just the rice alone was delicious enough.

“Whew, that was a great meal.”

“The rice was amazing.”

The customers finished eating and stood up.

After returning their trays at the return station, they walked over to me at the counter.

“Excuse me, can I ask something?”

“Yes? What is it?”

“Do you sell meal tickets here?”

“Yes. If you buy ten, we give you one extra for free.”

I took out the meal tickets from the drawer and showed them.

Two men pulled out cash from their wallets and said,

“I’ll take ten meal tickets.”

“Me too.”

“Yes, here you go. Would you like a cash receipt?”

“No, that’s fine.”

They casually bought the meal tickets and left.

After that, other workers who had finished lunch started coming out of the restaurant one by one.

“I’m totally full.”

“Maybe because the rice was so good—even plain side dishes tasted better with it.”

The workers evaluated the lunch they’d eaten at Happiness Restaurant.

Before heading back to work, they stretched.

“Ahh… my back hurts less today. It was throbbing like crazy when I woke up early this morning.”

“Is it because it’s cold? Huh? My shoulder was stiff too, but it feels better now.”

All of them tilted their heads in confusion.

Since they did physical labor at construction sites, it was normal for them to have some kind of muscle pain.

That was why they usually applied pain relief patches after work.

But today, for some reason, they felt much better than usual—just from eating lunch.

“Did you guys eat something good this morning or what?”

“If you ate something good for your health, you should’ve shared. That’s disappointing.”

Grumbling, they looked at each other, puzzled.

Thinking carefully, none of them remembered eating anything particularly healthy.

“So what’s going on?”

A situation they couldn’t understand.

Scratching their heads, they started walking.

But they weren’t heading back to the construction site.

They were going downhill—to the local supermarket.

They planned to buy cigarettes and drinks, then return to work.

Just as they were buying cigarettes, coffee, and snacks—

“Hey, why aren’t you all eating lunch? What are you doing here?”

A man suddenly approached them and asked.

He was the owner of Bugyeong Restaurant.

* * *

Bugyeong Restaurant was a Korean restaurant located at the center of Nagok Village.

The food was decent—nothing special—and it mainly relied on seasonal tourists who visited Nagok Beach during summer holidays.

During the off-season, it catered mostly to local residents.

But for the past few weeks, Bugyeong Restaurant had been unexpectedly packed every day.

On the outskirts of the village, there was an abandoned house.

It was being demolished and remodeled, and the construction workers had been coming down frequently to Bugyeong Restaurant for lunch.

Thanks to that, the owner of Bugyeong Restaurant had been smiling nonstop for nearly two weeks.

It was winter, with cold winds blowing.

He’d thought he wouldn’t see any outside visitors during the off-season—

yet dozens of customers were coming in daily for lunch.

But today, something was strange.

“That’s odd. Did construction stop?”

Normally, the workers would have flooded in before lunchtime to order.

He had even told the kitchen staff to prepare plenty of side dishes.

But for some reason, not a single worker showed up today.

“There’s no way construction stopped…”

Since this was the southern region, the weather was relatively mild even in winter.

The fact that workers who had been coming regularly until yesterday suddenly disappeared today felt suspicious.

“Should I go check?”

Sitting at the counter, the owner glanced at the wall clock.

1:00 PM.

“Lunch is almost over…”

In the end, he stepped outside to find out what was going on.

Just as he was about to head toward the construction site—

“Huh?”

At the supermarket right near his restaurant,

he saw construction workers buying cigarettes, drinks, and coffee.

If they were here, that meant the remodeling work was still ongoing.

Then where had they eaten lunch?

Walking over to the supermarket, he asked them,

“Why aren’t you coming to eat lunch? What are you doing here?”

The workers recognized him and smiled awkwardly.

“Ah, hello, sir.”

“Good afternoon.”

“What are you all doing here? Lunch time passed ages ago.”

“Well… we came to buy coffee and cigarettes.”

“What about lunch?”

“Oh, you haven’t heard yet? The Happiness Restaurant up the hill—
they opened today. So we ate lunch there.”

The Bugyeong Restaurant owner nodded.

Geographically, eating at Happiness Restaurant made sense.

It was right across the road from the construction site.

But overall, Happiness Restaurant’s food wasn’t very good.

Maybe for a day or two, people would go there out of convenience—

but these workers were picky eaters, something the owner knew well.

‘They’ll be back to my place in a few days.’

With a friendly smile, he said,

“Haha, I see. Well, that happens. It’s no big deal.
But that restaurant’s side dishes aren’t exactly great—”

He was about to brush it off when—

‘Huh?’

His eyes were drawn to something sticking out of one worker’s pocket.

It was a meal ticket.

If he remembered correctly, that worker was especially picky.

Once, he had even complained that the rice was undercooked and asked for a replacement.

But now—not just one ticket, but a whole bundle?

“You even bought meal tickets at Happiness Restaurant?”

“Oh, this? You’ve got a sharp eye. Yes, that’s right.
We’re planning to eat lunch there for a while.”

“To be honest, between us, that place’s side dishes are kind of plain…
You’re really going to keep going there?”

“Well, the rice is really good.
I wanted to refill again, but I ran out of time, so I only refilled once.”

“The rice is good? That doesn’t make sense…”

“When you eat really good rice, don’t you feel that chewy, soft savoriness and subtle sweetness?
That’s exactly what their rice tastes like.”

The Bugyeong Restaurant owner frowned.

He had eaten there himself long ago, and it hadn’t been worth such praise.

It was just ordinary rice you could find anywhere.

‘Did they change rice varieties?’

As he tilted his head, another worker nodded and spoke up.

“Yeah, and the water was really good too.
Our mouths were spoiled today. Haha.”

“Is that so? That’s interesting.
Maybe the owner changed.”

“We’re not sure about that.”

“Well, I get it. If there’s a good restaurant near the site, it’s natural to go there.”

He smiled brightly as he spoke,
but inside, his stomach churned and his heart sank.

After sending the workers off, he returned to his empty restaurant and fell into thought.

‘They said the rice got better… and the water tasted good too?’

He wondered how they had managed such an effect.

Unable to resist his curiosity, he closed his restaurant and headed uphill toward the village outskirts.

After walking for a while, he could see Nagok Beach and the vast East Sea below.

The view was beautiful, as always.

Walking along the hill overlooking the sea, he spotted a pension under renovation.

He’d heard it was going to be a traditional-style pension; it looked like they were working on the roof.

Across from it stood the newly remodeled Happiness Restaurant, clean and modern.

‘Hmm… but even so, the road here is like this…’

That was exactly why villagers didn’t come often—the distance from the village center was too far.

Even if construction workers kept coming for now, once the pension was finished, they would stop visiting.

In the long run, there weren’t many reasons for Happiness Restaurant to keep doing well.

And yet—why did it bother him so much?

He quietly stepped inside Happiness Restaurant.

‘It really is spotless now.’

Impressed despite himself, he looked over the side dish containers.

Compared to before, nothing seemed drastically different.

Then he heard the voice of a man sitting at the counter.

“Will you be dining in? Payment is upfront.”

The owner’s son didn’t recognize him since they had never met.

“Ah, please charge it to card.”

“Yes.”

After paying, he filled his tray with side dishes one by one.

Last, he scooped a large spoonful of rice and returned to his seat.

The side dishes tasted ordinary.

Exactly the same as before.

‘Just how good is this rice supposed to be…’

Skeptical, he took a bite.

The moment he tasted it, he understood why the workers had bought meal tickets on the spot.

The rice was unbelievably good.

This was the first time in his life he had eaten rice so chewy, glossy, and delicious.

‘Where did they get rice like this?
Or is it the water?’

Questions filled his mind.

First, he cleaned his tray completely.

He refilled his rice twice.

“Thank you for the meal.”

“Have a good day.”

Walking out of the restaurant, the Bugyeong Restaurant owner held a paper cup.

Inside it was water—half-filled—from Happiness Restaurant.

The water had tasted just as good as the rice.

Unless they had changed rice varieties, the water was the most likely reason.

So he discreetly filled a cup and brought it out, intending to uncover the secret behind the water.

Walking back downhill, he carefully carried the cup into his restaurant.

Looking at the kitchen staff auntie who stared at him curiously, he said,

“Auntie. Try drinking this water.”

“Is it safe to drink?”

“Of course. I brought it from the restaurant up the hill.”

Only then did she take a small sip.

Staring at her, he asked,

“So? Does it taste sweet?”

“It just tastes like plain water.”

An unexpected answer.

He looked baffled—but seeing her expression unchanged, he took the cup and tasted it himself.

“…Why does it taste like this?”

It was water from Happiness Restaurant—

but it was completely different from what he had drunk there.

The sweetness was gone.

It was just plain water.

Staring at the paper cup, the Bugyeong Restaurant owner muttered to himself,

“What on earth is going on?”