TGMC 24

chapter 24

“Thief!”

The weather was gradually getting warmer.

The cold winter wind had stopped.

Spring was quickly approaching.

Lunch service ended, and it was break time.

While Mom was tidying up after Bangul finished the dishes, I went out to the backyard.

It was a fairly large backyard.

At first, the cats had been busy growling at each other, but they had grown much closer.

Some of them had relaxed their guard and greeted each other by touching noses.

Even the cats that used to glare at me with hostile eyes had become much gentler.

Now, when I approached, they would just quietly turn away instead of running off like before.

Of course, there were always exceptions.

“Jeomsun. Hey! Jeomsun, you!”

The cat that had been holding its tail straight up just moments ago bristled its fur as soon as I showed up.

I had learned this while unintentionally acting as their caretaker.

When a cat puffed up its fur like that, it meant it was on guard.

“Hey, I saved you, took you to the hospital, and even got you all three rounds of vaccinations. And you’re still this cold to me?”

But the cat ignored me and walked off without a care.

Still, one cat soon came up and rubbed its tail against me.

It was Samsaek.

“How are you Jeomsun’s daughter? It’s really amazing. Right?”

I gently petted Samsaek as she rubbed against me.

She started purring happily, then immediately flopped over and exposed her white belly.

When I tried touching her belly, Samsaek grabbed my hand with her left paw.

It seemed her belly was not yet permitted territory.

So I took out a toy.

A cat fishing rod.

Samsaek instantly got up.

As I lightly waved the fishing rod,

she began swishing her tail from side to side.

At the same time, her hips wiggled.

Lowering herself into a stalking position, Samsaek fixed her eyes on the toy dangling from the end of the rod.

Then she charged like lightning, claws out, and caught it.

“Wow, Samsaek. You’re strong, huh?”

She grabbed the toy in one go and bit down on it.

I tried to pull it back to keep playing, but she refused to let go.

Meanwhile, other stray cats started gathering one by one.

They showed curiosity toward the cat fishing rod.

One cat tried to snatch the toy before Samsaek but ended up getting scolded by her.

Looking at how much Samsaek had grown, it was hard to believe she was the same scruffy kitten from not long ago.

After playing with the cats, I was about to put snacks into a bowl for them.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

Thinking it was Mom, I checked—but it was an unfamiliar number.

Still, the number felt oddly familiar.

‘Huh? Wait.’

I pulled out a business card from my pocket.

<Freesia Content Strategy Team 2 / Team Leader Choi Yuna>

The number on the card matched exactly.

She was the one who had taken a two-serving pack of duruchigi, saying she would try to make a meal kit.

That had already been a week ago.

Since I hadn’t heard anything after that, I thought she had failed.

I didn’t expect her to call.

Did she succeed?

But Bangul wasn’t there—how?

“Hello?”

[Hello, sir. This is Choi Yuna, team leader from Freesia.]

“Yes, I know.”

[Oh! You must have saved my number. Ah—well, that’s not important right now.]

“What is this about?”

[What on earth is different? Our product development lab has been working on this nonstop for a week, and there’s been no progress. None at all!]

As expected.

There was no way they had succeeded in making the meal kit.

My mom’s duruchigi wasn’t that different from other restaurants’.

It did use her special sauce, but—

There was no incredible secret hidden in it.

The real key was water.

Spirit water. Bangul’s spirit water was what made the taste drastically different.

Of course, I couldn’t tell her that.

It was a secret Mom and I would take to our graves.

“I told you. The taste is bound to change over time.”

[But we vacuum-sealed it properly, so why—]

She was still completely lost.

I understood how she felt.

Hundreds of people came every day to our restaurant in this remote countryside.

She probably wanted to turn our duruchigi into a meal kit no matter what.

Even after paying royalties, it would still be profitable.

[Do you really think time alone can change the taste that much?]

“That’s what I believe. That’s why we don’t do delivery or takeout.”

I thought she would give up by now.

But she was persistent.

[No! I won’t give up. I’ll do everything I can to make this a meal kit with you. There must be customers who can’t come to Happy Restaurant because of circumstances. I want them to taste our duruchigi too.]

Team Leader Choi Yuna shouted confidently.

“I don’t think I can help you. But I wish you luck.”

[W-wait! At least give me a hint—]

“There’s no hint.”

I hung up.

I didn’t plan to stop her from trying.

As long as she didn’t interfere with me, she could do whatever she wanted.

‘Is break time already over?’

Time had flown by.

It felt like I had just come outside, but two full hours had already passed.

‘I should head back in.’

It was time to prepare for dinner service.

I lifted the blinds and looked outside.

“Wow… a lot of people again today.”

Quite a crowd had gathered.

They were the ones who had received waiting numbers first.

People who came to Happy Restaurant to eat dinner.

Most of them had lined up early in the morning.

Because of the waiting system.

We set the waiting machine to activate at 10 a.m., when the restaurant opened, and people started lining up from early morning.

That wasn’t all.

There were even people working as “waiting part-timers.”

They would come early, wait until the machine activated, enter the number for their client, and then leave without eating themselves.

When this started getting out of hand and threatened the restaurant’s image, we banned both the part-timers and the people who hired them.

Only customers who actually intended to eat could enter waiting numbers.

After that, the waiting part-timers disappeared.

There might still be a few, but whenever someone with the same “smell” showed up, Hoya caught them immediately.

“Mom, should we open?”

“Yes. Let’s do it.”

We opened the tightly closed door.

Waaaah!

Cheers erupted from outside.

I could clearly picture how long they had waited for this moment.

There was only one thing we could do.

Serve delicious food to those who had waited so long.

Spring drew even closer.

The weather grew warmer.

People put away their padded jackets.

They started wearing short sleeves.

Clothes became thinner—and shorter.

As the seasons changed, there was some small news.

The people I had traveled to New Zealand with.

The so-called “New Zealand family.”

We kept in touch through a group chat even after returning.

Then, about a month ago, someone posted a YouTube link.

A viral video uploaded to Kim Hajun’s YouTube channel.

“Uljin Famous Restaurant, Happy Restaurant.”

Our place.

The group chat exploded.

—You said it wasn’t a famous restaurant! Do you know how shocked I was when I saw this video?

—Oh my, was that really your mom’s restaurant? I thought it just had the same name.

—When should we meet? I’d be fine even tomorrow, hehe.

They had realized that my mom’s restaurant was the nationally famous Happy Restaurant.

So on one of our restaurant’s off days, we decided to invite the New Zealand family for dinner.

Most said they would attend, and PD Park Yujeong, who had returned to the broadcasting station, also said she would come.

—The cats are doing well, right? Especially Samsaek. She seemed really friendly. I want to see her soon.

PD Park seemed more interested in the cats in our backyard than the famous food.

Time continued to pass.

It was finally time to properly till the vegetable garden.

Given its size, it was going to be tough work.

During break time, Mom sighed as she looked over the garden.

“Do you think the two of us can really plow all of this?”

About 660 square meters.

When we first moved here, Mom tilled it herself like Grandma used to, but it was too much for her alone, so she hadn’t touched it since.

She wanted to rent a machine or ask villagers for help.

But I told her not to.

I was confident I could manage it alone.

How?

Because I had a reliable helper.

“Deomdeom.”

Deomdeom had been rolling around in the backyard.

At my call, he perked up his ears and rolled over.

[…]

He stared at me silently.

“From here to there, we need to plow the whole garden. Can you help?”

[…]

Still no response.

Then Hoya, who had been licking his tail, spoke.

[He wants compensation.]

‘Compensation? What kind?’

[You remember the waste he ate last time, right? He wants more of that.]

The construction waste from tearing down the old hanok.

Deomdeom had eaten all of it.

Calling it junk food, but enjoying it greatly.

And what he ate turned into compost.

That was eco-friendly too.

‘Hmm. I’ll have to look into it, but… okay.’

[Really? He says he’ll finish it today.]

Today?

All of that in one day?

But since he sounded confident, I decided to trust him.

“Mom. I don’t think we need to worry about the garden.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yes. Remember the spirits I told you about? There’s a soil spirit, and he says he’ll finish today.”

“…O-okay. I’ll trust you.”

The next day.

I woke up early and went to the backyard.

“My goodness.”

The entire garden had turned into rich soil.

Glossy, fertile land—anyone could tell it was good soil.

Deomdeom had kept his promise.

“I thought it would take days just to plow it… Amazing. Is this how Grandma used to farm too?”

Mom couldn’t stop marveling.

“It’s still cold, so we should wait until next month to plant, right?”

“Yes. We can plant seedlings together then. It gets hot quickly these days.”

Potatoes, spinach, mallow, peppers, lettuce, chives, green onions, cucumbers…

There were so many crops to plant.

Just as we were planning to wait and see—

Bangul spoke.

[Uncle! You don’t have to wait until next month. You can plant them now. They’ll grow well!]

Right.

I had spirits.

There was no reason to farm the same way as everyone else.

Following Bangul’s advice, I went to the market and bought seedlings and seeds.

The restaurant happened to be closed that day.

Mom and I carefully planted the seedlings and sowed the seeds all day.

After the hard labor, Bangul flew over the garden and sprinkled water.

“Will it be okay?”

“Yes. It’ll be fine.”

Anyone else might have thought we were crazy.

But I trusted Bangul.

One more day passed.

As I struggled to sleep in like usual, my phone rang.

It was Mom.

“Mom? What’s wrong?”

[Come to the backyard. Now! Hurry!]

She sounded urgent.

Yawning, I headed outside.

The moment I stepped into the backyard—

I gasped.

“W-what happened here?”

“It must be thanks to those spirits you mentioned. I came to check if they froze, and they’d already grown like this.”

All kinds of crops had grown rapidly.

Crops that should have taken months were already fully grown.

As I thought about harvesting some to make side dishes—

“Minwoo! Come look at this!”

Mom called out urgently from deeper in the garden.

I rushed over.

Part of the field where we planted sweet potatoes had been dug up.

All the sweet potato leaves were torn off.

Footprints were scattered all around.

A thief had come.

“Thief!”