“Would it be a good idea to make potatoes an official menu item?”
Last night, right before he fell asleep, an idea came to Rowoon.
It was the potato that had really played the dutiful role of untangling their messy situation.
‘It is not just because it was a free service, it tasted good too, so the reaction was pretty great.’
There were plenty of customers who liked the freshly fried fries, peeled thin as if sliced.
But the response to the fluffy steamed potatoes was especially enthusiastic.
It was not only the golden balance of sweet and salty, but also because the warm, cozy look of them straight out of the pot caught people’s eyes.
Of course, the taste was the best, without a need for words.
Some of the customers who ate the steamed potatoes even heard that they were a local specialty, and said they should buy some, that they would stop by the mart on the way.
“Selling them is more of a loss.”
That was when the next door elder’s voice came back to him.
‘The quality is excellent too, and it would be such a waste to just let them rot like this, wouldn’t it?’
Potatoes that not only the staff, but even the customers had praised highly.
And there was even a plentiful supply.
Since most of the wide field next door was potatoes.
‘The problem is that there is not enough manpower to harvest them.’
He understood the reasons, the labor costs for calling people in, and the issue about potato prices dropping because it was a bumper crop.
The thirsty dig the well.
If that was the case,
‘Then why do we not just dig them up ourselves?’
When he woke up, he would definitely ask PD Han for her opinion.
Rowoon fell asleep with that resolve.
And as soon as dawn broke, he went to find PD Han and told her his idea.
“An official menu? Potatoes?”
“Yes. Since we have more people now, I do not think problems will happen like yesterday. So I thought, what if today we just serve fries and steamed potatoes as a pre meal appetizer service.”
“Service, as in free?”
“Yes. Yesterday, it seemed like a lot of people were interested. And rather than the kitchen having to push out dishes like we are being chased, it would be good to have a little breathing room, so we serve it as a pre meal service.”
“Oh, that sounds good. Potatoes are famous here as a local specialty too.”
“Right?”
“Let me see… then I will try connecting with the direct sales shop side.”
Before PD Han could show her usual drive, Rowoon spoke up.
“So, about that, I was thinking, what if we source the potatoes from next door?”
“Ah, right. These potatoes were the ones the neighbor gave us, right? Great. Let us go.”
It was also at this time that things reached a dramatic settlement with the neighbor.
“What? You need potatoes? Sure. Take them and use them.”
When they said the menu they put out using the shared potatoes was getting a good response, the answer came back readily.
“Um, sir. In that case, we will pay you……”
After that, the adults talked back and forth for a bit.
Looking at PD Han’s expression and the elder’s expression, you could tell a good deal had been made for both sides.
That satisfied expression cracked the moment the elder showed them a field that was far too wide and vast to call a garden.
“…There are no potatoes?”
“What do you mean there aren’t? This whole place is covered in potatoes.”
“Yes?”
In that moment, Rowoon thought.
‘Ah. I should have brought the camcorder.’
PD Han, who always snickered obnoxiously and fooled people, looking completely stunned.
It was such a rare sight, and it was a shame to be the only one seeing it.
But it was fine.
A few hours later, everyone would get to see PD Han’s stunned face.
“…Rowoon? What is this?”
“A hoe. It actually digs them up pretty well.”
“No, when on earth did you even… And more than that, why are you giving this hoe… to me…?”
“Because we have to dig them up? Ah, I thought of it before I went to sleep yesterday, so I packed it in advance.”
The closing was the elder’s genial, generous blessing.
“You can dig up all of them, so take as much as you need and use it.”
“Yes, thank you!”
They had decided to pay some amount, but since they had to dig them up themselves, it was practically like getting them for free.
After politely thanking the elder, Rowoon turned to PD Han.
“Then, PD Han, shall we start now?”
Their labor continued until the morning was fully bright.
“PD Han…? What are you doing here? And what even is that hoe?”
“Seonguk! Save me, please! I am dying, seriously!”
PD Han grabbed the main writer who had come looking for her and wailed.
“PD Han. If you lose your strength like that in the middle, it will just get harder.”
“Tell Lee Rowoon to stop! I think this guy is out of his mind!”
“…?”
PD Han, who had been forcibly dragged here to work, screamed, and Rowoon smiled calmly as if he could not hear, dragging PD Han back into the field again.
The main writer had come to find someone, only to witness the two of them suddenly working in a field.
One person cheerfully hoeing with a bright smile, and the other person screaming and wailing.
“Uh… PD Han. Wait. Just a second. Hold on.”
“Seonguk? Seonguk! You have to take me with you too! Where are you going!”
Where the main writer went was revealed soon enough.
Because when the writer came back, cameras came rushing along behind him.
“Why did you not tell us anything about this honey fun content, PD Han.”
“Does this look fun to you? This is sacred labor! Where in the world is the fun in this!”
“I am having so much fun watching it, PD Han.”
A PD like her, a writer like him.
The writer filmed PD Han for a long while with an extremely satisfied expression, even as PD Han got angry and told him to stop filming and help.
“Our Rowoon. He even gives us insanely fun self-made content like this… Honestly, what do we do with how grateful we are?”
In the end, they had to dig up potatoes diligently until just before noon, their opening time.
For Rowoon, it was extremely satisfying, and for PD Han, it was like hell.
It was only natural that the members, who heard the whole story an hour before opening, were horrified.
“So that is where you went…”
Kang Chaheon clicked his tongue as if he could not believe it.
“…You are probably the only one who would drag PD Han away and make her do labor too, Rowoon.”
Kim Bonggeun did not hold back his applause, genuinely impressed.
“If this airs, I think a lot of people will find it really funny.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. A ton of people have gotten screwed by PD Han until now, so if they see PD Han getting screwed by you, Rowoon, they will start out liking you right away.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Someone who suddenly kidnaps us and tells us to run a shop, do you not get it?”
Rowoon had gone purely for potatoes, but people’s reactions were different.
The comments followed that it was surprising and funny just from the fact that that PD Han got caught by a cast member and did physical labor.
Otherwise, would the main writer have brought the camera over while snickering instead of stopping it?
“And there is no need to worry, because if PD Han really hated it, she would not have done it. Maybe it was hard, but she might have actually liked it because it was fun.”
It really was just as he said.
“…Rowoon. You do not look like it, but you are really vicious…….”
PD Han, muttering as if she was dying, carefully set down the potato she had been peeling.
“Ever since yesterday, I feel like I keep getting dragged along by Rowoon, but it is just my imagination, right?” PD Han muttered hollowly.
Because somehow, she had even ended up doing direct kitchen assistant work.
Of course, no one forced her.
It was just that.
“I cannot possibly leave my children that I dug up myself to someone else!”
She said something incomprehensible like that, so it ended up that way, but anyway, since they had to serve it as an appetizer service, the amount of potatoes they needed to prep was quite a lot.
It was too much for Rowoon to handle alone.
But since PD Han even volunteered to be in charge of prep ingredients, and with additional helper staff brought in, they had a decent amount of leeway.
“I am grateful that PD Han helped so readily. Thanks to that, the elder was happy too, and I am glad the customers enjoyed it. The response is good too.”
Everything he had planned went well.
As he relaxed, a smile naturally rose from deep inside him.
Then, as PD Han was peeling potatoes, she suddenly lifted one hand and blocked the front as if the light was dazzling, and groaned.
She looked almost like a zombie seeing sunlight for the first time.
And then.
“Huuugh… how can this be? Am I… weak to the sunshine character type…?”
She spouted something incomprehensible again.
A second unidentified thing, following the earlier comment about calling the potatoes her children.
And so business proceeded smoothly, and the last, third day dawned.
“Whew. After doing this for a few days, I am completely used to it now.”
Kim Bonggeun, whose mental state had been ground to dust on the first day and then scattered away, now showed the bearing of a complete veteran.
No matter how many orders came in at once, how many additional orders came in, or even if someone changed their order in the middle.
Maybe that first day had tempered his mind into diamond, because he handled everything briskly.
Of course, it was also thanks to having helper staff attached.
“Now that I am finally getting used to it, it is already the last day. I thought it would feel super long, but time goes faster than I expected…….”
Now he could even talk smoothly while cooking on all four burners at the same time.
“But Rowoon, do you not need to go out too? It is the last day.”
Day 3 of running the shop.
In other words, today was the day the planned seven days of filming would end.
“Me? Go out?”
“Yeah. You, Rowoon. Yesterday too, you were in the kitchen all day.”
“Well, that is because we added menu items and all…….”
Of course, Rowoon was not only in charge of potatoes.
He washed and peeled the mountain of potatoes they dug up.
And it was also Rowoon’s job to organize the orders Kang Chaheon brought in from time to time, pass them to Kim Bonggeun, and check them.
On top of that, he checked ingredients that were running out ahead of time, prepped them, and refilled them in advance.
In every way, he was busy beyond words.
And today, the third day.
‘Today, we even added a sweet potato menu too.’
After a second dramatic settlement with the neighbor two houses over, they added sweet potatoes to the menu.
PD Han, who once again ended up holding a hoe by unanimous staff vote, cried out in desperate opposition, but it was naturally ignored.
“PD Han. You have to think about the purpose of our program.”
For the record, yesterday’s sweet potatoes sold out completely.
It was a perfect sell out.
It was also because, with Kang Chaheon standing there smiling perfectly, asking if they did not need sweet potatoes, there was no one who could coldly refuse.
“Revitalizing the local economy…”
“Aaaagh! Rowoon, you are seriously a scary person, you know? Who sent you! You did come to assassinate me, right!”
When Rowoon whispered it softly, PD Han had stared at him like she was looking at something unforgivable.
But hard is hard, and ratings are ratings.
And since she had said those things herself while kidnapping people, she could not even argue back.
Thanks to that, Rowoon, receiving praise from the entire staff, was able to welcome a fulfilling dawn digging sweet potatoes together with PD Han.
Because the menu had been expanded and their hands were even busier, Rowoon had to tilt his head.
“I am busy, so where am I supposed to go out to?”
“Where else! You have to go out to the dining area!”
“Huh? The dining area? Is Kang Chaheon busy?”
That could not be.
They had put more people on the dining side too, so compared to the first day, Kang Chaheon also had relatively more breathing room.
Since there was now an employee doing the checkout, Kang Chaheon’s role was taking orders and stamping out the fish shaped buns.
Maybe he had built up some know how, because after taking all the orders, he started stamping out the fish shaped buns right away, and with his hands used to it, that side was also running smoothly without issues.
“I do not think he asked for help.”
“No, I am not saying go out to help, I am saying we did not come here just to work for real. Right? This is a healing variety show. Healing.”
“Ah.”
Thinking about it, this was a variety show.
Somehow, he had ended up working more seriously than anyone.
“It is healing, sure, but there are probably fans who came to see us too. They came all the way here, and if they leave without even seeing your face, would that not be so sad? So you too, Rowoon, go out and show your face. I thought you would go out on your own at least a little, but I did not think you really would not go out even once yesterday. So today, go out a bit. Say hello to the fans too.”
“…?”
There are fans?
Me?
Leave a Reply