‘The place is pretty big. They said it was a converted pension. PD Han sounded confident, and I guess she had reason to be.’
He remembered how PD Han had bragged regardless of whether people were too stunned to react.
The problem was….
“There are two rooms.”
There were three people, but only two rooms.
At least the rooms were big, which was something.
Rowoon noticed cameras already installed all over the house. It reminded him of PD Han’s doggedness, setting up cameras everywhere from the very first meeting.
“How do you want to divide them?”
Kang Chaheon spoke up, asking who would use which space.
“Um… should I take the living room?”
Kim Bonggeun offered carefully.
Rowoon shook his head at him.
“No. I’ll take the living room. You two can each take a room.”
At that, Kim Bonggeun’s eyes went round, as if he had just heard something unbelievable.
“Huh? Really? I mean, why?”
He even looked Rowoon up and down like he was staring at a very curious specimen. The little murmurs of “What is this? Seriously, what?” were a bonus.
Either way,
‘I can sleep anywhere as long as I have a pillow.’
Rowoon was something of an expert at sleeping well. As a trainee, he had lived in a cram-packed dorm where it was hard to even stretch his legs. After debuting in Garion, in the very beginning the five of them had all stayed in a one-room place that was basically a studio. Even the last place he lived before he died had been like that.
Compared to that, this was heaven.
‘This living room is way bigger than the studio you used to live in.’
With a soft sofa here, if he had a blanket and a pillow, sleeping would be nothing.
But…
“You are giving up a room on first meeting like this? That is practically a marriage proposal…”
Kim Bonggeun’s attitude suddenly turned very warm.
Even more telling was:
[Your Karma score has decreased by 3.]
The most reliable indicator that the other person had changed.
Kang Chaheon stepped in and settled things in an instant.
“Why are you posturing like a martyr? The rooms are that big. Why would you leave them and sleep in the living room? Sleep in a room.”
“… There are only two rooms.”
“What, are you going to be prudish with me? Do you thrash around in your sleep?”
“No? My manager says I sleep very quietly.”
“Then fine.”
It was quickly decided, as if there was nothing to think about.
“Mr. Kim Bonggeun can use one room. I will share the other with this kid.”
“Gasp… Shouldn’t Mr. Kang Chaheon get a room to himself…?”
“You are older than we are, so it makes sense for you to have one.”
“Oh my. If you put it that way, then thank you…”
The three of them split up and roughly organized their luggage.
Right then, as if she had been waiting for the cue, PD Han swung open the door to the second-floor lodging and burst in.
“Everyone, have you finished introductions and unpacking?”
It was hard not to suspect, quite reasonably, that she had watched everything on the cameras.
‘Wait. If we are not careful, they might air everything from the meeting on…’
Thinking about how his dazed face might go out as-is from that unexpected chaos already made his head swim.
But there was no time to panic.
Because PD Han, who had popped in out of nowhere, tossed another bomb.
“Then please accept this.”
She pulled a neatly folded envelope from her jacket.
It looked ominous.
He had the feeling that opening it would set off something irreversible.
“Hah… what now.”
In the end, Kang Chaheon took one for the team.
Rustle.
His long fingers slowly opened the envelope.
“A mission?”
Inside was a mission. And its contents were bewildering.
“‘Procure the ingredients for the dishes to be sold at the restaurant’…? PD, are we supposed to decide that?”
When Rowoon asked, half hoping it was not true, PD Han smiled brightly as if to say that was exactly right.
“Exactly. This place is the restaurant you will run for the next week. So start with the grocery shopping.”
“…”
“…”
Excuse me, PD?
You said earlier we only had to run it.
“How do we know what to buy?”
“You have to decide that yourselves.”
“…?”
The man dragged here as the cooking lead, Kim Bonggeun, now had a question mark hanging over his head.
“The first guests will arrive three days from now. If you do not want a bad review, you had better move quickly.”
She said that way the three of them could get in sync a bit and prepare.
“For reference, except for today, you can only use a vehicle once per day, for a total of four times.”
“What? We can only use the car once per day?”
“That is correct. Today is the first day, so it will be an exception.”
Thinking he must have misheard, Kim asked again.
“Wait. Then how do we do the shopping?”
“You plan well in advance before you go.”
“Whoa…”
He looked at PD Han as if he were gazing upon a demon.
“If, if we forget something. Then going back to get it…”
“No.”
“Wow…”
Rowoon raised his hand, quietly.
“You do not have to raise your hand, Mr. Rowoon.”
“Then would walking be allowed?”
“Walking? Hm. That…”
Caught off guard, she paused to think, then whispered a bit with the head writer and answered.
“Walking is allowed. Only vehicle use is limited to once per day.”
Beside him, Kim Bonggeun looked at Rowoon like a savior.
His eyes had been sparkling at Rowoon from a moment ago, practically gleaming now.
“Here is the list of places you can use.”
It was a sheet with simple maps to a farm direct-sales market and a wholesale market.
“If you need to, you can also use the vegetable garden behind the building.”
“Pardon? That is not a garden. It is basically a full-fledged field…”
No matter how he looked at it, the scale was far too big to call it a garden.
“Yes. The owner said you can use as much as you want.”
“I was told this was a food variety show…”
They were suddenly about to become small-scale farmers too.
“Now, please carry out your first mission. For reference, you must also cook tonight’s dinner yourselves as practice and for team bonding.”
There was nothing to do but marvel in many ways.
‘They will make content out of absolutely everything. So this is what makes her a star PD.’
He was starting to see how every show she touched was a hit.
After she delivered all that, PD Han left.
The three who remained started thinking hard.
“First, we should decide the menu.”
“Right. Otherwise, we will not know what ingredients to buy.”
At Kang’s words, Rowoon nodded.
“Why, why are you looking at me…?”
The only one present who could cook was getting shy under their gazes.
“Please speak comfortably.”
“R-really? Then… you two speak comfortably too.”
However, he had flinched at Rowoon earlier, now Kim was completely disarmed. It seemed giving up the room had been effective. His attitude relaxed even more at Kang’s words.
‘When he is like this, he seems like a normal person.’
Kang might act like a lunatic to Rowoon sometimes, but he was basically a reasonable man. That would be why he could maintain a clean image in an industry where a whole truckload of people was ready to tear you apart at the slightest chance.
“What do you cook well?”
“… Me?”
“Yes, hyung, you.”
“It feels odd to be called hyung by the great Kang Chaheon. Hm… I can do most things. I have both Korean and Western cooking licenses.”
That was surprising.
“So PD Han did not suddenly go crazy and randomly decide on a restaurant show.”
“Right. You are the key man, hyung.”
“Now, now. It is not that big a deal…”
Kim scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.
“Will the PD really not decide the menu for us?”
“That person is exactly the type who would do this. She might even be happier the more we flounder.”
“True. The YouTube show we do together has no script at all.”
“Classic PD Han. Anyway, it is nice the range of choices is wide, but that makes it tricky.”
“What is?”
“There are too many possibilities. Since we will be running a business, it would be better to choose dishes that do not require too much work, that most people will not dislike. Faster table turnover would be good too.”
“Hmm. Then a few things come to mind…”
From extremely safe choices like pasta to street food that could be cooked in batches, several ideas came out.
Watching the two exchange ideas, Rowoon thought,
‘If we could narrow the scope, that would help.’
Even dividing by cuisine type, there were already more than five fingers’ worth: Korean, Western, Chinese, Japanese, Southeast Asian, and so on. If they got more granular, the list would be endless.
‘… Then maybe we should decide on a theme first.’
In other words, give this restaurant a story and a through-line.
‘The show’s premise is healing anyway…’
Ideas started rising in Rowoon’s mind.
He sorted them out, then raised his hand carefully.
“Why do you keep raising your hand? Just say it if you have something to say.”
“I should not interrupt while you two are talking. Anyway, I have an idea.”
“What is it?”
“How about we decide on a theme for our restaurant?”
“A theme?”
“Yes. The menus you just mentioned are all fine, but they are also things you can eat anywhere.”
At that, Kim nodded.
“True. If you came all the way out here, those would not feel special.”
Of course, not everyone agreed right away.
“That would be the same no matter what dishes we pick. We live in an age where you can eat food from all over the world without leaving home.”
“That is true too. Which is why we give this place a story. We create something special you can only eat here.”
Listening, Kim let out an “Ah” of realization.
“Ah-ha. You mean we should build in some differentiation.”
“Yes, something like that. The whole point of this program is healing.”
“Right.”
“People from the busy city come out to nature for once, to heal and eat well. If that is the show’s theme, we should match it.”
“Oh…”
“Hm…”
The two looked genuinely intrigued.
“Then what is the theme you have in mind, Rowoon? You must have thought of something, or you would not have brought it up.”
Rowoon nodded at Kang’s question.
“When in life does nature feel most familiar? Mostly in childhood.”
“Ah, true. Where we ran around was parks or the little hill behind the neighborhood. And when we followed mom or dad to the countryside, we played our hearts out there too.”
A bit older than the others, Kim caught on at once and his eyes lit up.
“So I was thinking that since we came out to heal in nature anyway… what if we make ‘the taste of memories’ our theme?”
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