Chapter 48

More than a week had passed since we returned from Tongyeong.

No.

It felt as though an entire year had passed.

Being too busy wasn't good, but having absolutely nothing to do wasn't much better.

The second hand on the clock seemed to move as slowly as the minute hand.

I had never experienced anything like this in my life.

The Commercial District Analysis Team was so peaceful that it was becoming downright boring.

With no new events taking place, there was no reason to go out into the field.

The only thing bothering me was the division director, who showered me with compliments every time we crossed paths.

His eyes always seemed to suggest that there was something he wanted to say but was holding back.

Perhaps he still hadn't abandoned his plan to establish a New Business Planning Team.

I sincerely hoped he would continue holding back.

I wasn't going to accept the position anyway.

Rather than creating a permanent team, it would be more beneficial for the company to assemble a task force of suitable employees whenever a new business project arose.

I didn't know whether the director was trying to strengthen his position after taking office, but that wasn't what Seongun Development needed.

This recent vacation had taught me something important.

I had finally understood exactly what kind of work I enjoyed.

And it was directly connected to the problems Seongun Development needed to overcome.

Saving people wasn't exactly a hobby of mine.

Still, knowing that my abilities could bring happiness to someone else was incredibly rewarding.

It was the same reason I had joined this company ten years ago.

Should I be the one to bring this up with the division director?

Should I tell him I want to expand our responsibilities beyond commercial district analysis and into commercial district recovery?

That it's something essential for Seongun's future?

No.

I needed to think more carefully before making a move.

As my supposedly relaxing vacation had proven, I was the kind of person who always attracted far too much work.

Anyway, I wonder how Father's preparations are going.

Today was Friday.

The long-awaited opening of Halbaekase was only one week away.

There was a reason I had impulsively purchased that building.

A photograph that had appeared in the diary app.

It showed my parents and me smiling brightly in front of the Halbaekase sign.

Only one week remained until that photograph became reality.

Hoping to make time pass a little faster, I went into the break room and called my father.

-Oh, Jinhyeok. Is that you?

"Yes, Father. How are the preparations going?"

-So-so. Why? Did something happen?

"No. Nothing happened. I just thought I'd call and see if anything interesting was going on."

-Hmm. Must be nice having so much free time. I'm actually having trouble with the dessert. I'm not satisfied with it at all.

"The dessert? You mean the cold buckwheat noodles? They weren't bad. They worked well enough to cleanse the palate."

My father clicked his tongue loudly enough for me to hear through the phone.

-Tsk! Isn't that exactly the problem? They're neither bad nor particularly good. I want every course to be the best it can possibly be.

This was surprising.

My father was over sixty, yet he had somehow developed the mindset of a first-class chef.

"Don't push yourself too hard. The main attraction at Halbaekase is the meat, after all."

-You don't understand. Have you ever seen a barbecue restaurant that doesn't serve cold noodles? Huh? Come to think of it, maybe I should replace the cold buckwheat noodles with Korean cold noodles. Oh! That might be a good idea!

Was I listening to a one-man show?

My father was asking himself questions and immediately answering them.

That was how deeply he was concentrating on the dessert.

Actually, the timing couldn't have been better.

The ice-cold noodles I had tasted in Tongyeong.

Even back then, they had reminded me of Halbaekase's final course.

But could my father reproduce the flavor of the grandmother's noodles?

That was why I had avoided mentioning them.

However, since he was already struggling with the dessert, it might be a challenge worth attempting.

"Father, why don't you take a trip to Tongyeong? You could bring Mother along and enjoy a change of scenery."

-A trip? I don't have time for that. If I'm changing the dessert to cold noodles, I need to start preparing now. I don't want to serve ordinary cold noodles.

"That's exactly why I'm suggesting it. There's a restaurant in Tongyeong that serves incredible ice-cold noodles. If you taste them yourself, I'm sure you'll learn something."

I briefly explained what had happened in Tongyeong.

I also told him that the broth was the best I had ever tasted in my life.

-Hmm. How different can a bowl of noodles really be...?

My father sounded completely unimpressed.

Maybe I should have brought some of the broth back with me.

"You don't trust my judgment? I'm the person who gave your Jjapaguri fifty points. Those noodles deserve a perfect score. If I had to compare them, I'd give your cold buckwheat noodles about seventy points."

-...A-Are they really that good?

Was it my imagination?

I could almost hear my father's heart pounding through the phone.

-Where's that restaurant?

"I can give you the address, but it won't be easy. If you could learn someone's secret recipe simply by tasting their food, it wouldn't be a secret recipe, would it?"

-Hey! You little rascal! You really know how to toy with your father's feelings! I'll go and find out for myself. If I taste it in person, I'm bound to learn something!

My father was suddenly burning with enthusiasm.

Good.

He would definitely gain something by going there.

The moment he tasted the grandmother's noodles, his standards for what a great broth should be would rise considerably.

Curious to see just how far my father could go, I sent him the address of Grandma's Noodles.

But what was this?

About an hour after I finished speaking with him, an unexpected package arrived.

"Team Leader, a package came for you."

An employee from the General Affairs Department handed me a small box.

The recipient's name was definitely mine.

But the sender...

Huh? Mr. Park Dongsu?

The hardworking man who had moved down to Tongyeong and was now serving two hundred bowls of noodles every day.

He called whenever he had questions, and his voice had become noticeably more cheerful.

I peeled off the tape and removed the bubble wrap.

Something small fell out.

An old notebook, about the size of my palm.

Wondering what it was, I opened the first page.

The yellowed paper was filled with crooked handwriting.

[XX/XX. Three geun of clams. Two handfuls of anchovies. Five hours. Too salty and bitter. Reduce the anchovies by one handful. Clean the anchovy innards more thoroughly. Perhaps the anchovies should only be added briefly toward the end.]

It was a record of experiments from the days before she had become the grandmother we knew today.

Red lines had been drawn across various parts of the writing.

I turned a few more pages.

At first, entries had been recorded every single day.

As the pages went on, the intervals between dates gradually grew longer.

That meant she had slowly found a flavor she was satisfied with.

The final entry was dated about ten years ago.

Not even the smallest ingredient had been neglected.

The notebook was filled with the secrets behind a flavor that had been refined over several decades.

Why would she send this to me...?

I tilted my head and looked inside the box.

There was a single sheet of paper at the bottom.

[To Team Leader Kang.]

The handwriting was even shakier than the writing in the notebook from her younger days.

[I started writing in this notebook when I was twenty-eight. At first, even I thought my noodles tasted awful. Some customers spat them out the moment they tasted them and cursed at me. But what else could I do? I had to sell something to make a living, so I gritted my teeth and kept going.]

I continued reading the story of how the grandmother had first started her business.

Then I came to the reason she had given me the notebook.

[When I said I was going to close the restaurant, the truth is that I was a little frightened. They might be nothing more than cheap noodles, but it felt as though my entire life was about to disappear. And then you came along and solved everything. Business is going well, and you even sent my son back to me.]

[Thank you. That's why I've decided to give this to you. It's the only thing I have that I can offer you. Consider it my way of repaying you for helping an old woman you didn't even know. Please don't refuse it. Thank you. Thank you so much. I hope you'll come and visit again someday.]

For a long time, I couldn't bring myself to put down the letter.

It wasn't because I had obtained her secret recipe.

It was because I understood that she had entrusted me with her entire life's work.

No.

This wasn't the time to get lost in my emotions.

I felt that the notebook shouldn't be sitting here.

I immediately picked up my phone.

-What is it now? I'm driving just fine, so stop worrying. I'm already on the Gyeongbu Expressway.

"Already? Father, why don't you turn around? The grandmother from the noodle restaurant just sent me her recipe notebook. It arrived a moment ago, and it contains forty years of records. I don't think you need to go all the way there anymore..."

After a brief silence, my father said something unexpected.

-That's fine. Keep it safe.

"What? What do you mean?"

-A secret recipe isn't something that can be reduced to words. I'm going to taste the noodles myself first, so leave it at that.

Click.

Was it because he was driving?

My father had hung up.

It didn't look like I would be able to persuade him to turn around.

That was my father, all right.

Once he made up his mind, there was no stopping him.

Should I at least call Mr. Dongsu and let him know?

I suddenly felt a little worried.

He was already struggling to handle the flood of customers.

If my father showed up too, things might become even more chaotic.

No.

Looking at it another way, perhaps it would be fine.

Wasn't it an unspoken rule in the culinary world that anyone hoping to learn a skill had to start by doing menial work?

Right.

The rest was up to my father.

Even if it meant working a little harder, I sincerely hoped he would manage to recreate that flavor.

Inside the Seongun Development division director's office.

An anxious Taesik was biting his nails.

Surely Team Leader Kang has changed his mind by now, hasn't he?

Before the Commercial District Analysis Team left for its workshop, Taesik had planned to establish a New Business Planning Team and transfer all related responsibilities from the Future Strategy Office to Seongun Development.

If he didn't establish a dedicated team, the question of which department should handle each new business project would inevitably become a matter of debate.

That was why he had asked Jinhyeok to take charge.

Unfortunately, Jinhyeok had rejected the proposal outright.

He had also given a perfectly reasonable explanation, saying that it would be better to select suitable personnel for each project based on its nature.

Taesik wasn't unaware of that.

He simply had his own objectives.

Still, how could things turn out this way?

An employee had actually rejected something his superior wanted him to do.

Taesik had eventually realized something.

He had been far too hasty.

Without offering Jinhyeok any reward for his work on the Creative Village business plan, he had immediately tried to give him another assignment.

Office workers lived for recognition and were deeply affected when their efforts were ignored.

Naturally, outstanding performance should have been rewarded.

That was why Taesik had changed his approach.

He personally resolved the Mullae-dong property purchase issue that had been blocked by the Audit Team and promised to recruit more employees.

He had even given the entire team a week's vacation under the name of a workshop.

He didn't consider any of it a waste.

After all, Jinhyeok always brought back results that exceeded whatever he received.

But that was precisely why Taesik was feeling uneasy.

In just one week, Jinhyeok had already repaid everything he had been given before leaving for the workshop.

Do I need to reward him again...? He doesn't seem to need anything else...

An employee who casually drove a car worth three hundred million won.

An employee who bought buildings whenever the opportunity arose.

That made him an extremely difficult subordinate to manage.

And this time was no different.

Taesik had expected Jinhyeok to bring something up after returning from vacation.

But there had been nothing.

Jinhyeok had submitted a routine workshop report and said nothing else for an entire week.

He didn't even appear particularly busy.

At this rate, Taesik was going to run out of fingernails.

He picked up the telephone.

"Good morning, Director."

Jinhyeok entered the office and sat on the sofa across from him.

Taesik carefully concealed his expression.

He couldn't let Jinhyeok see that he had been eagerly waiting for this moment.

"I read your report. I sent you away to rest, but it seems you ended up working even harder. You must have had a difficult time."

"Not at all, Director. It was something I naturally had to do."

Something he naturally had to do.

Those words sounded wonderful to Taesik.

Good. Then let's talk about the other things you naturally ought to do.

He opened his mouth, intending to honestly explain why he wanted to establish the New Business Planning Team.

But before he could begin...

"Actually, Director, there's something I'd like to ask."

Jinhyeok made the first move.

"How is the recruitment you mentioned last time coming along? Have any plans been finalized?"

Taesik's eyes instantly lit up.

Recruitment? Does that mean he wants more people so he can take on new responsibilities?

Having arrived at a conclusion that was only half correct, Taesik suppressed his excitement and nodded as though he were perfectly composed.

"The HR Department is already handling it. I gave them the order as soon as your team left for vacation. They said the initial document screening would take two weeks, so the second-round interviews should be coming up soon."

Believing he had finally addressed Jinhyeok's concerns, Taesik continued with a satisfied smile.

"But why are you suddenly asking? You seem to have some breathing room with your current responsibilities. Is there something new you want to start urgently?"

Taesik stared intently at Jinhyeok's lips.

A moment later, Jinhyeok gave an answer that Taesik had never expected.

And just like that, Taesik froze.