Vol. 1 - Ch. 25

I was trembling, and I think I made a stupid expression without realizing it.“Uh? W-what?”

Before I knew it, I heard Ja-hyun put down the pot he was holding and click his tongue as if feeling pathetic.

“There were just 4 recipes I learned, but you couldn’t mean that is all, right?”

“Uhh… right, well?”

“Are you serious?”

“…”

“A person who runs a restaurant business says that all she has to offer, including meals and snacks, was this?”

Why do I feel like I am being scolded like this? As I just listened, I began to feel a bit uncomfortable.

“What?”

I felt like I could see a glimpse of his inner thoughts as he looked at me, like, ‘She doesn’t know how to work’, but it's probably just my imagination. I wanted to believe it as such.

“Wh-what? Normally, a restaurant is supposed to have a single menu. Rather, we serve small meals. For a restaurant to be a true gourmet, it has to be able to create deep flavor by focusing on a couple dishes and not serving too many.”

And so, my guesthouse is one of the best restaurants.

Ja-hyun looked shocked at my confident statement.

“Ju Eun-ri, you seem to be mistaken about something.”

“What?”

“Your cooking skills are poor enough to compete with just a small number of foods.”

“Yah.”

Well, it isn’t that bad, right? I looked at Ja-hyun with a straight face.

In all my years of business, I had never heard at least once that my food was not tasty.

I have heard people say that it doesn’t have a deep flavor like my father’s and that it was okay to just eat more, but this was the first time in my life that I have heard people speak of it as this terrible.

“Your tastes are too refined.”

I grumbled a little.

Ja-hyun, who I learned while living with him, was a picky one in his tastes, even though he probably wasn’t able to eat proper food when he was captive too. It was a guess, but maybe his previous life had an impact on him?

“Seems like there are a variety of foods on the menu posted on the stairs.”

“Ah, that.”

This guy saw it?

Ja-hyun nodded once in response to my question.

I didn’t know much about the menu.

When you go up the stairs, there is this small wooden board attached to the wall.

It was 3 years old when I asked Ju Cheol-rim and Wang Dae-geon to demolish it, but even after 3 years, no one has done it.

Most of the customers ordered by looking at the menu posted there, so I didn’t want to disappoint them anymore, so I just left it alone, but I didn’t know that Ja-hyun would notice such a shabby menu.

“Actually, what I just said was just a joke.”

I scratched the bridge of my nose and continued.

“As you saw, there were a lot more different types of food before, right? About 12 or 13? But when my father passed away, I drastically reduced the amount. I only selected the best-selling dishes.”

“…”

“I thought about doing it that way, but it was too much for me to do all alone. Since I couldn’t focus entirely on the kitchen. Well, I originally thought about hiring a professional chef, but I don’t think there would be enough money for that, and top of it all, there is this money-eating ghost in our guesthouse.”

I slurred my words and raised both eyebrows once.

Ja-hyun would have guessed from my actions that the money ghost meant Ju Cheol-rim on the 2^nd floor.

“But, since I am not alone in the future, wouldn’t it be possible to gradually increase the variety of food? I think we two can handle it; maybe one or two more types.”

Suddenly, I caught the lips of Ja-hyun moving.

Does he have something to say? I waited for him to open his mouth, but as time passed, he didn’t open his mouth.

For a while, I followed him in silence and then opened my mouth a second later, as I watched Ja-hyun turn around in silence.

“Ah, right. The 2^nd floor reminded me of the room you are staying in now.”

Instead of an answer, only a rattling sound came in. I continued speaking regardless.

‘That will all become debt later, so why don’t you just clean it up and come back to the house? I will tidy up the room.”

I had been thinking about it ever since Ja-hyun showed up at the guesthouse.

Our house had a vacant room that I wanted Ja-hyun to occupy so she could grow closer to my sister, the guest house, and this guesthouse. Yes, for instance, exactly like I did after being possessed.

For reference, this was the idea that Eun-ri also had in the original work. Although it was canceled due to Ju Cheol-rim’s insistence that he couldn’t live under the same roof with a man from outside the village.

After that, I remember that Ja-hyun ended up using the alcove next to the kitchen instead of Wang Dae-geon, who had informed Ju Cheol-rim about it.

"It's Wang Dae-geon who left the alcove and took the room on the second floor, not Ja-hyun, right?"

Because of this, though it was much earlier than the original, I saw it as the perfect time for Ja-hyun to move home with Ju Cheol-rim and Wang Dae-geon, but both were quite busy.

“You know, before…”

“…”

Do you remember the room you came into? Right, that one. Ja-hyun, how about moving there? I suppose that would be more cozy for you than a room full of people coming and going all the time.

Well, I can trust you, Ja-hyun, and if Eun-young likes you, she will like you.

Like this, I was just about to recite the line I had in my mind.

“Yah! This guy is…!”

At that moment, a loud noise came from outside.

A familiar voice caught my ear, and I turned my head involuntarily to face the door. It didn't take me long to figure out that one of the shouts was my name.

“Why is that person…”

It was obvious who the owner of the voice was. As I mumbled the words, Ja-hyun stood next to me and added a word.

“I guess that is the uncle.”

“Ah, yes.”

I responded to Ja-hyun’s words.

Interestingly though, it appears that Ja-hyun and Ju Cheol-rim have never met, right?

‘Well, my uncle must be a busy person.’

This was due to the fact that he was drinking and gambling while hanging out at the guesthouse, making it impossible for Ja-hyun to meet that individual.

Of course, I wouldn't even intend to greet the two individuals face-to-face, even if I did have the intention to do so.

“I will be back in a bit.”

I squeezed out the voice of disapproval from my throat.

If I didn’t leave, I could see that Ju Cheol-rim would rush into the restaurant, calling my name till I went for him.

"What's the point of talking to him?"

Really, he is a person who is of no help to me or Eun-ri.

I continued to think back as I passed through the hallway and lifted the wooden handle with one hand. I noticed this middle-aged man with a familiar face sitting with his legs crossed at a long table in the middle of the restaurant.

I could tell just by looking at the back. He was Ju Cheol-rim.

“Ugh….”

Evening time was already coming, and Ju Cheol-rim was yawning, looking as if he had just woken up.

“Uncle!”

Even when he saw me approaching, he just yawned.

“Ah, Eun-ri.”

“Ah, did you call?”

“Yes. I called to see my beautiful niece’s face for the first time in a while.”

“Haha, yes.”

This guy was lying through his teeth.

“Hmm, but why does your face look so dark? You worried about something? Why isn’t the business going as planned?”

“Ah…”

Ju cheol-rim’s face looked quite bright as he asked about the guesthouse, the man who was responsible for me and Eun-young’s life.

I barely controlled my face as he grinned at me.

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I hate seeing his smile. Actually, Ju Cheol-rim’s smiling face wasn’t bad to look at.

Was it because the blood of the Ju family was flowing through him? Looking at this objectively, he was pretty well looking.

In addition, he was tall and bulky, so he was nothing compared to a below average guy like Wang Dae-geon.

Because of that, he tended to look down on Wang Dae-geon and Wang Dae-geon stayed silent to badmouth Ju Cheol-rim behind his back.

On the surface, they couldn’t help but look funny, with no one to depend on, but themselves.

‘Well, men’s jealousy is scary. In my opinion, that guy is one of those.’

Ju cheol-rim, is a good enough man in the village. Wang Dae-geon is barely managing in the average ranks with just his physical strength.

At first glance, they seemed to have nothing in common, but what they had in common was that they were both useless humans.

Even now, what would be the purpose of calling me, who was working, to ask if the business was alright?

If I respond that the business wasn’t going well, he would probably say,

“Right, I told you to get rid of this guesthouse and get married. Why go through all the trouble…tsk”

And give me a long speech.

“It’s because I feel bad about everything. Since it is unnecessary.”

Trying to get lucky in this way.

“Eun-ri, aren’t we a single family? Have you ever considered how your uncle feels, how beautiful you are, staying in your guesthouse, missing out on marriage, and withering away day by day.?”

“Of course…”

“Right, you don’t know. If I knew you would be this stubborn, I would have stopped. Eun-ri, why don’t you think about the marriage I mentioned? Although it may feel like you don't know anything yet, age plays a significant role in marriage. After all, when it comes to a man, you should consider their abilities rather than only his age and appearance. A true man is one who can take care of his woman, feed her, and take responsibility. On the other hand, those incompetent bastards of the street? If you go after such men, you will be the only one suffering. Right?”

“…”

“There is a time for everything to happen. Just accept it that way now. What are you going to do when you get older? When someone shows interest, just accept it like you cannot do anything. Then, you can sit in a nice house and live without working hard and Eun-young. Right, Eun-young. How many would the little kid want to eat, wear, and do? Even if you think about that child…”

Eun-young would probably feel guilty for this, and his intention was to do that too.

I heard it often enough to be able to predict what he would say next. But we didn’t have much time for dinner.

To avoid being caught up by him and wasting my time, I promised myself that I wouldn’t choose the option of “business not going well.”

Then there was just one thing to do.

“Eh, well. The fact that things are going so smoothly truly worries me.”

“Is that so?”

It wasn’t a lie.

Although the second floor was silent, the number of dining customers on the first floor had increased significantly over the past 2 days.

‘Kyung-ju did a great job for me.’

In my head, I thought of Son Kyung-ju, a friend who liked to talk.

Thanks to her spreading the word that 2 handsome men were staying here, women from the village came to our guesthouse for the first time in their lives to see a handsome man, asked how I was doing after seeing them after a long time, and chatted heartily with their friends.

Regardless of whether he saw them or not, he went back after taking a bowl of soggy noodles.

I shouted out loud because there was no way Ju Cheol-rim, who had no interest in guests or the guesthouse, would know about it, even though it was all temporary and would leave tomorrow.

“That is good.”

Ju Cheol-rim said that, but unlike before, his expression wasn’t so good.

He must have been waiting for the guesthouse to collapse, so in a way, it was a natural reaction.