***
"Mister, can I have two sets of the sandwich combo, please?"
"Sorry, they're all sold out."
"Huh? Already? Ah, I came all the way from Gangnam after seeing it on Instagram."
It was just past 8 AM, but the sandwiches were already sold out. The customer couldn't help but be surprised.
However, Hae-jun was just as surprised.
He had prepared 20 sets just like yesterday, but they were all sold out within an hour of opening.
Yesterday's first customer, an employee at the law firm, had praised the sandwiches so much that she bought two more sets, and there were other new customers as well. Judging from the way they kept looking at their phones and the exit number, it seemed like they were customers who had come after seeing Min-ju's Instagram post.
Whatever the reason, today he was able to finish selling out faster than the rice cake grandma.
'I should prepare about 30 sets tomorrow.'
He felt a little sorry seeing customers who had come all the way here go back empty-handed.
"Oh? Are you not selling today?"
Min-ju asked Hae-jun, who had returned to the store and was unpacking his things.
It seemed like it was around the time she would come to paint the mural.
"No, I'm on my way back after selling out everything."
"Wow, already?"
"Yeah."
"Is it because of me?"
Min-ju pointed at herself with her finger.
Her contribution was definitely there. Especially since the last customer said they came after seeing Instagram.
"Come in. I'll make you a sandwich."
Hae-jun decided to make Min-ju a sandwich as promised.
He used the pre-toasted bread and generously filled it with ingredients, making a sandwich on the spot. He even made one for himself, since he had been up since dawn making sandwiches.
"Don't you have to go to school?"
Hae-jun asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.
"My classes usually start at 10."
"I see. But why are you painting a mural?"
"It's an assignment. It's about art in the city or something like that."
"I see."
Gulp, gulp-
After exchanging simple everyday conversation, they focused on eating again.
As expected, the taste of the freshly made sandwich was superb. Min-ju emptied her plate and took a sip of goat's milk before asking Hae-jun,
"But oppa, why don't you open a restaurant?"
"I told you. I don't have a chef."
"You can do it yourself. You make such delicious sandwiches."
Hae-jun scratched his head at Min-ju's words.
It wasn't something he could decide on so easily.
Hae-jun had no experience working in a restaurant, and the only things he knew how to make at the moment were sandwiches and salads.
Of course, he had his father's recipe notebook and the crops harvested from the farm, so it wasn't impossible, but the ingredients were too limited.
"What kind of business can I run with just sandwiches?"
"Well, how about it? You can just sell in the morning. What's the difference between selling at the subway station? And it's almost winter, so it'll be cold if you sell outside."
It made sense when he heard it.
It's not like a restaurant has to serve lunch and dinner.
Moreover, there was a limit to how much he could bring when selling in front of the station, and he was also concerned about selling without a permit.
'But even if I want to start a business, don't I have to go through the official process of getting a business license and all that?'
He was worried since he didn't know anything about the law.
Unlike the worried Hae-jun, Min-ju had an enthusiastic expression.
"I guess I have to show off my skills."
Min-ju took out an A4 paper from her bag and began to draw something. It was a diagram of the store, the name, and the menu.
As an art major, she drew the pictures quite well, and it looked neat.
"You're good at this."
"Hmph, I'm a girl who goes to art school. Make copies of this and hand them out tomorrow morning when you sell sandwiches."
Min-ju gave him the paper, saying it was instead of paying for the sandwich, and then coolly went out to paint the mural.
***
"So-eun-ssi, what was that sandwich you had yesterday? Where did you buy it?"
As soon as he arrived at work, Attorney Kim In-chul ran up to So-eun and asked her where she bought the sandwich.
So-eun narrowed her eyes with a sly smile.
"Keuk. You want to eat it again, don't you?"
"Yeah. It was so delicious. I was so distracted during the trial thinking about the sandwich. You know? I've eaten more sandwiches than anyone else for lunch. That sandwich. It was the best I've ever had."
He often had to skip lunch and make do with sandwiches or rice balls because he didn't have time to prepare for the trial.
Every time that happened, In-chul would grumble about how there were no good restaurants near his office.
The area near his office was the heart of Mokdong, where the school and the courthouse were located. Strangely enough, the taste of the simple snack bars or sandwich shops that you could easily eat at was only good enough to eat when you were hungry.
"Me too. I was surprised yesterday too. So ta-da! I bought some today as well."
Kim In-chul's expression brightened as So-eun pulled out a paper bag from under her desk.
"Hahaha. You're such a thoughtful person."
"You didn't eat breakfast, did you? Should we eat it now?"
"Of course. How can I wait until lunch?"
They spread out the sandwiches on the conference table used for client consultations and began to eat.
Each sandwich was for one person, but they disappeared in an instant.
"Aww... I'm still hungry."
"I know, right? I should have bought more."
"Should I go get some more right now? I'll run over there real quick."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I heard that they sell it at a stall in front of Exit 8. It looks like they only sell it for a short time in the morning."
"Ugh, that's too bad. By the way, I'd like to see the face of the person who made such delicious sandwiches."
"The person who sells them is someone you know, too."
"Me? How?"
A question mark appeared on Incheol's face.
So-eun smiled triumphantly, reveling in the fact that she knew something that he, a lawyer, didn't. Seeing Attorney Kim, who was dying of curiosity, she felt a brief sense of superiority. And then, she revealed that the person who made the sandwiches was Cha Hae-jun.
"He had that kind of talent? But why is he running a street stall? He has a store that he inherited from his father."
"Well, I don't know about that."
"I'm curious."
His curiosity was piqued again.
He wanted to dig deeper into Hae-jun, but he had a consultation appointment scheduled and had to leave.
***
"I'm hungry!"
Pote, who had been circling in the air, cried out as if he was screaming.
At his cry, Hae-jun and Chloe, who had been squatting in the field harvesting cherry tomatoes, straightened their backs and wiped their sweat.
"Already?"
"Already, nya. It's been 4 hours since we ate breakfast."
"Time flies."
He had been so focused on tending to the fields that he had lost track of time.
He had increased the number of fields to harvest crops for sandwich ingredients, and it was not easy to manage them all. However, it was rewarding because he was compensated for his efforts.
"I'm getting hungry too."
"Let's finish planting the cherry tomatoes and then eat."
"I'll plant these, so you go and bake some bread."
"That's right! It takes more than 30 minutes just to bake the bread, so hurry up and bake it. Chloe-nim and I will take care of the rest."
"Meow~!"
"Will you be okay?"
Hae-jun asked Chloe.
Since Mongchi and Pote weren't much help anyway.
"Of course. But in return, I'm going to eat 5 sandwiches."
"Me too!"
"Meow~!"
"Ha, okay. I'll call you when it's done."
Managing the farm had become much easier since Chloe arrived.
This was because Chloe would harvest crops with short harvest times when Hae-jun was away.
Hae-jun returned to the bakery and spread sunflower seed oil on the bread pan before putting in the dough. This was to make it easier to take out the bread after baking.
"Oh, there's not much sunflower seed oil left."
The only bottle of cooking oil he had was almost empty.
With this amount, it would only last a day or two even if he used it sparingly.
Now he had no choice but to get the ingredients and squeeze it himself. According to the notebook, he could extract oil from crops such as soybeans, olives, sunflowers, or grape seeds.
'Should I take a look around that mountain? I might find something if I'm lucky.'
Not long ago, a rocky mountain appeared as the fog receded.
It was a place he had given up on because it was a steep slope that was difficult for a person to climb, but he would have normally explored it with Pote. Maybe there was something there that Hae-jun desperately needed.
Hae-jun mentioned during lunch that he was going to climb the rocky mountain.
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"Are you sure? It's pretty high up."
"That's right. If you get hurt for no reason... I'll just go and take a quick look around."
"No. I'll go."
He wanted to see for himself with his own eyes.
He thought that even if he didn't find anything, it wouldn't be a waste of time. Maybe there would be traces of his missing father there.
After finishing his meal, Hae-jun took a rope and a shovel from the warehouse and headed towards the rocky mountain with his bag.
It was a small rocky mountain about 30 or 40 meters high. Looking at it carefully, it seemed like he could climb it if he stepped on the protruding rocks here and there.
I blew dry air into my palms, which were sweaty due to tension, and carefully stood on the stone. Mongchi, the cat who had followed Hae-jun, jumped ahead of him as if to tell him to follow. As expected of a feline, his climbing skills were excellent.
"Meow!"
"I know. I'll go there."
Hae-jun slowly moved his body up, following the rocks that Mongchi had stepped on.
When he was doing his military service, he wouldn't have even thought about it, but thanks to the physical training he had been doing while tending to the fields recently, he was able to climb easily. When he was about halfway up, Mongchi stopped moving and started to meow.
"Why? Is there something there?"
"Meow~!"
"What is it? Is it something to eat?"
"Meow~."
"Just wait a minute."
He climbed up the rock and there was a small tree with lush green leaves.
The fingertip-sized leaves had tiny silvery scales on the back, and reddish buds were getting ready to bloom between the leaves.
"A tree."
"Meow~."
A tree that had not yet borne fruit.
If it were in the past, he would have passed it by without knowing its value, but now it was different.
"An olive tree."
Pote's ability allowed him to know.
"So this is what an olive tree looks like."
He had eaten olives occasionally, but this was the first time he had seen the tree.
According to the description, olives can be eaten by pickling them in salt or by squeezing the oil out of them and adding them to salads.
It was perfect since he had just run out of sunflower seed oil. It says that it has a low smoke point, so you have to be careful when using it for frying, but it's better than nothing. Looking through the notebook, he found a few other recipes that his father had written down. It was a crop that could be used in many ways, so he decided to take it with him.
He carefully dug it up so as not to damage the roots and put it in his bag.
Hae-jun, who had collected the olives, moved his body towards the summit again.
"Heave-ho!"
With a final heave, he barely reached the summit.
The summit of the rocky mountain was about as high as the 15th floor of an apartment building.
He could see the entire farm at a glance.
'Hmm... I can't see the place where the fog hasn't cleared even from up here.'
Hae-jun sat down on a rock, wiping his sweat. Unlike Hae-jun, who was drenched in sweat, Mongchi walked around leisurely, licking his front paws. As expected, a cat is a cat.
After cooling down his sweat for a while, Hae-jun looked for any traces of his father, but it was difficult to find any clues.
He couldn't see any other plants besides the olives.
Just then,
"Meow~."
Mongchi meowed, looking down at the cliff on the other side.
"Why? Is there something else over there?"
"Meow~!"
When he went to where Mongchi was, there was a grapevine growing about 2 meters below, just within reach.
It was lucky that he found the olives, but grapes on top of that!
'But can I get it?'
He lay down on the ground and stretched out his arm, but it didn't reach.
Still, he couldn't give up on the grapes. They were delicious even if you just ate them, but you could also pickle them to make a drink, or squeeze the oil out of them like olives. In addition, grapeseed oil has a high smoke point and is a stable oil.
"Ah~! I can't reach it."
Unfortunately, he couldn't get his hands on the grapevine right before his eyes.
He got up and looked around. Hae-jun found a rock that could support his weight, tied a rope to a large boulder, and wrapped the other end around his waist.
He moved his center of gravity towards the cliff and stretched out his arms, and the end of the vine and his hand gradually got closer.
10cm... 5cm... 1cm.
"Just a little more... I got it... Eek!"
The moment he grabbed the vine, the rope wrapped around his waist came loose, and Hae-jun's body fell straight down the cliff.
***
"Mister, can I have two sets of the sandwich combo, please?"
"Sorry, they're all sold out."
"Huh? Already? Ah, I came all the way from Gangnam after seeing it on Instagram."
It was just past 8 AM, but the sandwiches were already sold out. The customer couldn't help but be surprised.
However, Hae-jun was just as surprised.
He had prepared 20 sets just like yesterday, but they were all sold out within an hour of opening.
Yesterday's first customer, an employee at the law firm, had praised the sandwiches so much that she bought two more sets, and there were other new customers as well. Judging from the way they kept looking at their phones and the exit number, it seemed like they were customers who had come after seeing Min-ju's Instagram post.
Whatever the reason, today he was able to finish selling out faster than the rice cake grandma.
'I should prepare about 30 sets tomorrow.'
He felt a little sorry seeing customers who had come all the way here go back empty-handed.
"Oh? Are you not selling today?"
Min-ju asked Hae-jun, who had returned to the store and was unpacking his things.
It seemed like it was around the time she would come to paint the mural.
"No, I'm on my way back after selling out everything."
"Wow, already?"
"Yeah."
"Is it because of me?"
Min-ju pointed at herself with her finger.
Her contribution was definitely there. Especially since the last customer said they came after seeing Instagram.
"Come in. I'll make you a sandwich."
Hae-jun decided to make Min-ju a sandwich as promised.
He used the pre-toasted bread and generously filled it with ingredients, making a sandwich on the spot. He even made one for himself, since he had been up since dawn making sandwiches.
"Don't you have to go to school?"
Hae-jun asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.
"My classes usually start at 10."
"I see. But why are you painting a mural?"
"It's an assignment. It's about art in the city or something like that."
"I see."
Gulp, gulp-
After exchanging simple everyday conversation, they focused on eating again.
As expected, the taste of the freshly made sandwich was superb. Min-ju emptied her plate and took a sip of goat's milk before asking Hae-jun,
"But oppa, why don't you open a restaurant?"
"I told you. I don't have a chef."
"You can do it yourself. You make such delicious sandwiches."
Hae-jun scratched his head at Min-ju's words.
It wasn't something he could decide on so easily.
Hae-jun had no experience working in a restaurant, and the only things he knew how to make at the moment were sandwiches and salads.
Of course, he had his father's recipe notebook and the crops harvested from the farm, so it wasn't impossible, but the ingredients were too limited.
"What kind of business can I run with just sandwiches?"
"Well, how about it? You can just sell in the morning. What's the difference between selling at the subway station? And it's almost winter, so it'll be cold if you sell outside."
It made sense when he heard it.
It's not like a restaurant has to serve lunch and dinner.
Moreover, there was a limit to how much he could bring when selling in front of the station, and he was also concerned about selling without a permit.
'But even if I want to start a business, don't I have to go through the official process of getting a business license and all that?'
He was worried since he didn't know anything about the law.
Unlike the worried Hae-jun, Min-ju had an enthusiastic expression.
"I guess I have to show off my skills."
Min-ju took out an A4 paper from her bag and began to draw something. It was a diagram of the store, the name, and the menu.
As an art major, she drew the pictures quite well, and it looked neat.
"You're good at this."
"Hmph, I'm a girl who goes to art school. Make copies of this and hand them out tomorrow morning when you sell sandwiches."
Min-ju gave him the paper, saying it was instead of paying for the sandwich, and then coolly went out to paint the mural.
***
"So-eun-ssi, what was that sandwich you had yesterday? Where did you buy it?"
As soon as he arrived at work, Attorney Kim In-chul ran up to So-eun and asked her where she bought the sandwich.
So-eun narrowed her eyes with a sly smile.
"Keuk. You want to eat it again, don't you?"
"Yeah. It was so delicious. I was so distracted during the trial thinking about the sandwich. You know? I've eaten more sandwiches than anyone else for lunch. That sandwich. It was the best I've ever had."
He often had to skip lunch and make do with sandwiches or rice balls because he didn't have time to prepare for the trial.
Every time that happened, In-chul would grumble about how there were no good restaurants near his office.
The area near his office was the heart of Mokdong, where the school and the courthouse were located. Strangely enough, the taste of the simple snack bars or sandwich shops that you could easily eat at was only good enough to eat when you were hungry.
"Me too. I was surprised yesterday too. So ta-da! I bought some today as well."
Kim In-chul's expression brightened as So-eun pulled out a paper bag from under her desk.
"Hahaha. You're such a thoughtful person."
"You didn't eat breakfast, did you? Should we eat it now?"
"Of course. How can I wait until lunch?"
They spread out the sandwiches on the conference table used for client consultations and began to eat.
Each sandwich was for one person, but they disappeared in an instant.
"Aww... I'm still hungry."
"I know, right? I should have bought more."
"Should I go get some more right now? I'll run over there real quick."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I heard that they sell it at a stall in front of Exit 8. It looks like they only sell it for a short time in the morning."
"Ugh, that's too bad. By the way, I'd like to see the face of the person who made such delicious sandwiches."
"The person who sells them is someone you know, too."
"Me? How?"
A question mark appeared on Incheol's face.
So-eun smiled triumphantly, reveling in the fact that she knew something that he, a lawyer, didn't. Seeing Attorney Kim, who was dying of curiosity, she felt a brief sense of superiority. And then, she revealed that the person who made the sandwiches was Cha Hae-jun.
"He had that kind of talent? But why is he running a street stall? He has a store that he inherited from his father."
"Well, I don't know about that."
"I'm curious."
His curiosity was piqued again.
He wanted to dig deeper into Hae-jun, but he had a consultation appointment scheduled and had to leave.
***
"I'm hungry!"
Pote, who had been circling in the air, cried out as if he was screaming.
At his cry, Hae-jun and Chloe, who had been squatting in the field harvesting cherry tomatoes, straightened their backs and wiped their sweat.
"Already?"
"Already, nya. It's been 4 hours since we ate breakfast."
"Time flies."
He had been so focused on tending to the fields that he had lost track of time.
He had increased the number of fields to harvest crops for sandwich ingredients, and it was not easy to manage them all. However, it was rewarding because he was compensated for his efforts.
"I'm getting hungry too."
"Let's finish planting the cherry tomatoes and then eat."
"I'll plant these, so you go and bake some bread."
"That's right! It takes more than 30 minutes just to bake the bread, so hurry up and bake it. Chloe-nim and I will take care of the rest."
"Meow~!"
"Will you be okay?"
Hae-jun asked Chloe.
Since Mongchi and Pote weren't much help anyway.
"Of course. But in return, I'm going to eat 5 sandwiches."
"Me too!"
"Meow~!"
"Ha, okay. I'll call you when it's done."
Managing the farm had become much easier since Chloe arrived.
This was because Chloe would harvest crops with short harvest times when Hae-jun was away.
Hae-jun returned to the bakery and spread sunflower seed oil on the bread pan before putting in the dough. This was to make it easier to take out the bread after baking.
"Oh, there's not much sunflower seed oil left."
The only bottle of cooking oil he had was almost empty.
With this amount, it would only last a day or two even if he used it sparingly.
Now he had no choice but to get the ingredients and squeeze it himself. According to the notebook, he could extract oil from crops such as soybeans, olives, sunflowers, or grape seeds.
'Should I take a look around that mountain? I might find something if I'm lucky.'
Not long ago, a rocky mountain appeared as the fog receded.
It was a place he had given up on because it was a steep slope that was difficult for a person to climb, but he would have normally explored it with Pote. Maybe there was something there that Hae-jun desperately needed.
Hae-jun mentioned during lunch that he was going to climb the rocky mountain.
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"Are you sure? It's pretty high up."
"That's right. If you get hurt for no reason... I'll just go and take a quick look around."
"No. I'll go."
He wanted to see for himself with his own eyes.
He thought that even if he didn't find anything, it wouldn't be a waste of time. Maybe there would be traces of his missing father there.
After finishing his meal, Hae-jun took a rope and a shovel from the warehouse and headed towards the rocky mountain with his bag.
It was a small rocky mountain about 30 or 40 meters high. Looking at it carefully, it seemed like he could climb it if he stepped on the protruding rocks here and there.
I blew dry air into my palms, which were sweaty due to tension, and carefully stood on the stone. Mongchi, the cat who had followed Hae-jun, jumped ahead of him as if to tell him to follow. As expected of a feline, his climbing skills were excellent.
"Meow!"
"I know. I'll go there."
Hae-jun slowly moved his body up, following the rocks that Mongchi had stepped on.
When he was doing his military service, he wouldn't have even thought about it, but thanks to the physical training he had been doing while tending to the fields recently, he was able to climb easily. When he was about halfway up, Mongchi stopped moving and started to meow.
"Why? Is there something there?"
"Meow~!"
"What is it? Is it something to eat?"
"Meow~."
"Just wait a minute."
He climbed up the rock and there was a small tree with lush green leaves.
The fingertip-sized leaves had tiny silvery scales on the back, and reddish buds were getting ready to bloom between the leaves.
"A tree."
"Meow~."
A tree that had not yet borne fruit.
If it were in the past, he would have passed it by without knowing its value, but now it was different.
"An olive tree."
Pote's ability allowed him to know.
"So this is what an olive tree looks like."
He had eaten olives occasionally, but this was the first time he had seen the tree.
According to the description, olives can be eaten by pickling them in salt or by squeezing the oil out of them and adding them to salads.
It was perfect since he had just run out of sunflower seed oil. It says that it has a low smoke point, so you have to be careful when using it for frying, but it's better than nothing. Looking through the notebook, he found a few other recipes that his father had written down. It was a crop that could be used in many ways, so he decided to take it with him.
He carefully dug it up so as not to damage the roots and put it in his bag.
Hae-jun, who had collected the olives, moved his body towards the summit again.
"Heave-ho!"
With a final heave, he barely reached the summit.
The summit of the rocky mountain was about as high as the 15th floor of an apartment building.
He could see the entire farm at a glance.
'Hmm... I can't see the place where the fog hasn't cleared even from up here.'
Hae-jun sat down on a rock, wiping his sweat. Unlike Hae-jun, who was drenched in sweat, Mongchi walked around leisurely, licking his front paws. As expected, a cat is a cat.
After cooling down his sweat for a while, Hae-jun looked for any traces of his father, but it was difficult to find any clues.
He couldn't see any other plants besides the olives.
Just then,
"Meow~."
Mongchi meowed, looking down at the cliff on the other side.
"Why? Is there something else over there?"
"Meow~!"
When he went to where Mongchi was, there was a grapevine growing about 2 meters below, just within reach.
It was lucky that he found the olives, but grapes on top of that!
'But can I get it?'
He lay down on the ground and stretched out his arm, but it didn't reach.
Still, he couldn't give up on the grapes. They were delicious even if you just ate them, but you could also pickle them to make a drink, or squeeze the oil out of them like olives. In addition, grapeseed oil has a high smoke point and is a stable oil.
"Ah~! I can't reach it."
Unfortunately, he couldn't get his hands on the grapevine right before his eyes.
He got up and looked around. Hae-jun found a rock that could support his weight, tied a rope to a large boulder, and wrapped the other end around his waist.
He moved his center of gravity towards the cliff and stretched out his arms, and the end of the vine and his hand gradually got closer.
10cm... 5cm... 1cm.
"Just a little more... I got it... Eek!"
The moment he grabbed the vine, the rope wrapped around his waist came loose, and Hae-jun's body fell straight down the cliff.
