Chapter 5
A few days later.
It happened while Munsik was chopping firewood at the entrance of the tavern.
“Is this Insaeng Jumak?”
“Yes? It is…”
Three sturdy-looking men approached the tavern.
They were faces Munsik had never seen around here before.
“I heard this is the place that gives you a bowl for free if you eat gukbap ten times?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I also heard they give out grilled fish for free…”
“Ah, that’s only being offered for one month as a grand opening promotion.”
“One month… That means we can still get it?”
“Yes. There are about three weeks left.”
“Good. Everyone, come this way.”
When the information matched what they had heard, one of the men turned around and beckoned to the others.
Rumble, rumble.
Then a large group of people, seemingly appearing from nowhere, began entering the tavern.
“Gasp!”
Munsik’s eyes widened at the sight.
Dozens of people had poured in all at once.
“W-What is all this?”
Hayun was momentarily flustered by the sudden influx of customers, but she quickly regained her composure.
“Welcome! Welcome to Insaeng Jumak!”
Hayun quickly scanned the customers and counted the total number.
“Auntie! Customers! Twenty-two people!”
“What? Twenty-two people?”
Ok-bun’s mouth dropped open at the unexpected number. Indeed, nearly twenty people had already filled the inside of the tavern.
“What on earth…!”
Seeing Ok-bun standing there dumbfounded, Hayun shouted.
“Don’t panic. First, get three potato jeons and seven dongtae-jeons ready. And grill only four fish for now.”
“They haven’t even ordered yet?”
The customers were still looking over the menu. They were so fascinated by the strange menu board they were seeing for the first time in their lives that ordering was the last thing on their minds.
But Hayun saw that time as an opportunity and instructed Ok-bun to prepare the food quickly.
“Based on the data we’ve gathered so far, that amount is definitely going to sell. So we need to start preparing now so we don’t fall behind.”
“Ah, okay.”
If Hayun said so, then it must be so.
By now, Ok-bun would believe Hayun even if she told her she could make fermented soybean paste with red beans. Ok-bun hurriedly got to work.
While Ok-bun was preparing the food, the courtyard began to resemble nothing short of a battlefield.
“Three bowls of Insaeng Gukbap here!”
“Yes, understood!”
“Five more bowls of makgeolli!”
“Yes, coming right up!”
“One more potato jeon!”
“Two plates of dongtae-jeon!”
“Three assorted sets for two!”
“Yes, yes, understood.”
Hayun was running around like a madwoman. Even while she was taking one order, another order came in, and she carried out trays loaded with five bowls of gukbap at a time.
But that was only the beginning…
“I heard the gukbap here is really good?”
“And the young lady is incredibly kind, too.”
“We heard the rumors and came all the way from the neighboring village.”
“Give us a bowl of gukbap, too.”
After that, customers continued to arrive without end.
The raised platform had already been packed for quite some time.
With no seats available, customers milled around nearby, watching other people eat.
Seeing this, Hayun quickly stepped in to organize the crowd.
“Okay, please line up in order starting from here. We’ll let you in as soon as the customers inside finish their meals and come out.”
“What? The place is already full?”
“Can’t we just wait here?”
“No. We might make the other customers uncomfortable. What if someone gets indigestion while they’re eating?”
“Good grief, she’s awfully strict.”
Following Hayun’s instructions, the customers grumbled as they walked outside.
The impact of the marketing was tremendous.
Before long, the customers had not only filled the tavern to capacity but were also lined up all the way along the wall, creating a huge crowd.
Now it had reached the point where customers themselves were attracting more customers.
“What’s going on? Are they having some kind of feast here? Why are there so many people?”
“Oh, I hear the gukbap here is supposed to be incredible.”
“Really? Then I should try it too.”
Even people who had never heard the rumors began gathering on their own.
It was rare to see this many people gathered in one place, so they came simply out of curiosity.
“Have some of this while you wait.”
Hayun handed cool sikhye to the customers waiting in line.
“Oh, thank you.”
“I hear that young lady is really good at her job.”
“Really? No wonder she was so kind.”
“Ahh, this sikhye is wonderfully refreshing!”
Customers who normally would have complained simmered down their irritation thanks to the sikhye Hayun handed them and quietly waited their turn.
‘Phew. At least that takes one thing off my shoulders for now…’
And so, the war-like situation that had begun in the morning showed no sign of calming down even with the sun already high in the sky.
“Auntie! The gukbap still hasn’t come out!”
“Just a moment! It’ll be out soon!”
Ok-bun’s hands moved frantically as she answered.
“It was two regular gukbaps and three Insaeng Gukbaps, right?”
She ladled out broth, placed meat on top, and sprinkled green onions, repeating the motions without pause.
She had no time to think. She focused solely on making the food according to the orders, like a machine.
“Ugh, next is five potato jeons and seven dongtae-jeons…”
Sweat poured down her face, and her wrists began to ache, but she couldn’t simply stand around when customers were waiting.
She had been running a tavern for more than thirty years, but she had never experienced anything like this. For Ok-bun, whose usual daily life consisted of watching flies buzz around an empty tavern, there was no way she could disappoint the customers now, even if it meant her body fell apart.
“Three Insaeng Gukbaps are ready!”
That desperation kept Ok-bun moving.
“Hyah!”
Meanwhile, her husband Munsik was just as busy chopping firewood and hauling water.
Bang! Bang!
The sound of his axe rang out from behind the tavern.
It was five times the usual amount of work, but he didn’t feel tired at all. If every day could be like today, he felt as though he could chop down every tree on the entire mountain.
“Honey! Firewood! Put some more firewood in the cauldron!”
“I’m already doing it!”
He couldn’t remember the last time they had been this busy.
It hadn’t even been this hectic when they first opened the tavern. There had been days when customers occasionally crowded in, but nothing like this.
The vitality radiating from the customers.
The lively atmosphere inside the tavern was something Munsik and Ok-bun were experiencing for the first time.
That energy made them forget their fatigue.
Meanwhile, Hayun was just as overwhelmed.
“One Insaeng Gukbap!”
“Yes! Coming!”
“Check, please!”
“Yes, I’ll be right there!”
Welcoming customers, taking orders, carrying food, and clearing tables continued without end.
The soles of her feet had swollen, and her neatly arranged hair was drenched in sweat, but Hayun didn’t care much.
“Whew, if I’d known it would be like this, I should’ve kept things a little more manageable…”
Despite her grumbling, Hayun’s face was filled with a satisfied smile.
If there was one moment that was most glorious for an advertising professional, it was watching a project they had planned succeed like this.
Looking at the satisfied customers, a sense of pride welled up inside her.
‘I’d forgotten… The reason I became an advertising planner.’
She couldn’t even remember the last time she had thrown herself into the field and worked with her own two feet like this.
At some point, she had only taken on projects that would lead to success rather than work she actually wanted to do.
As a result, her affection for her work naturally faded, and she had simply been forcing herself through each day, whipping herself onward.
And now, for the first time in a very long while, Hayun was experiencing the pure emotions she had forgotten.
It felt as though she had returned to being the little girl who helped her father with his antique business when she was young.
The reason Hayun had dreamed of becoming an advertising planner had originated from one pure desire: she wanted to help her father’s shop.
Those feelings were coming back to life.
“Huh? We’re out of broth.”
“We’re also out of the wood we brought yesterday.”
“What? Already?”
Fortunately, even this situation that had seemed as though it would last forever finally began to come to an end.
They had thought they were sufficiently prepared, yet their ingredients had run out in just four hours.
“What about all the people waiting outside?”
“Exactly. Looking at them, it seems like some of them have already been waiting for hours…”
“Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
When Munsik and Ok-bun fretted anxiously, Hayun went outside and made an announcement.
“I’m sorry, but since we’ve run out of ingredients, we’ll have to end business for today. However, as a token of our appreciation to those who waited, I’ll give each of you one stamp.”
Hayun handed out exchange vouchers and stamped them, and even the customers who had waited nearly an hour turned around and left without much complaint.
“What? They’re already sold out?”
“Can’t be helped. I guess we’ll just have to come back tomorrow.”
“We got a stamp without even eating gukbap. Isn’t that actually a good deal?”
“At this rate, we’ll just stand in line here every day and end up getting free gukbap. Hahaha!”
The waiting customers were happy to receive stamps, and Hayun was happy because she had secured new customers.
It was a win-win strategy that left everyone smiling.
“That was a good meal. I’ll come again next time.”
“Take care on your way home.”
And so, when the last customer finally walked outside, Hayun, Munsik, and Ok-bun immediately collapsed where they stood as if completely exhausted.
“Haah… It’s finally over…”
“Good grief! Every bone in my body aches! I wonder if one of us might actually die at this rate.”
“Ugh, I’ve never chopped this much firewood in my entire life.”
All three groaned in pain, but their faces were filled with the sense of accomplishment that came from having pulled it off.
“Urgh!”
Ignoring the throbbing pain, Hayun got back up.
Munsik and Ok-bun watched her with worried expressions.
“Don’t push yourself. Rest. We can clean up later.”
“No. There’s still the most important thing left, you know? I can’t rest until that’s finished.”
“There’s still work left?”
At the mention of unfinished work, Munsik and Ok-bun’s eyes widened.
Hayun smiled and said,
“The accounting.”
“Ah!”
As she said that, Hayun emptied the sack filled with old coins.
A small mountain made of yeopjeon formed on the raised platform.
Clatterrrrr!
“Good grief! How much is all this?”
“One, two, three…”
Munsik began counting the yeopjeon one by one.
“…Ninety, one hundred!”
“That’s one nyang.”
“Don’t just sit there. Help me count.”
“Alright.”
Once the number of yeopjeon surpassed a hundred, Ok-bun joined in as well.
Ten pun made one jeon.
Ten jeon made one nyang.
And they had already passed ten nyang.
“Ten nyang… twelve nyang…”
As the number climbed higher, Munsik and Ok-bun’s voices began trembling along with it.
“H-Honey…”
“Don’t make such a fuss and keep counting.”
“Nineteen nyang… twenty nyang!”
“Twenty nyang?”
A short while later, after finishing the accounting, Munsik and Ok-bun stared blankly at each other, unable to find the words.
A brief silence followed.
“A-Are you saying this is all the money we made in a single day?”
“It seems to be twenty times what we usually make…”
“T-Twenty times!”
Normally, it was difficult for them to earn even one nyang a day.
One and a half nyang at best. But today, they had earned twenty nyang.
And that was in just four hours.
It was nothing short of unbelievable.
“Hayun, thank you!”
Munsik and Ok-bun tightly embraced Hayun.
“Where in the world did such a lucky charm come rolling in from?”
“Honey! You’ve worked so hard all this time!”
The three of them remained in each other’s arms for a while, savoring this moment.
Tears welled up in the corners of Ok-bun’s eyes.
Hayun gently patted the two of them.
“It’s too early to celebrate already. We’ve only just begun, you know?”
“Hayun…”
“Compared to the kindness the two of you showed me by saving me, this is nothing. We have to make several times more than this from now on.”
Hayun’s first project in Joseon, Insaeng Jumak.
After successfully making Insaeng Jumak a tremendous success, Hayun was already planning her second project.
***
At the same time. Sanmaru Jumak, the long-established tavern that had been the local powerhouse at the Mungyeong Saejae Pass.
This place, which would normally have been packed with customers, was now so empty that only flies were buzzing around.
“Tsk, tsk!”
Dal-jae, the owner of Sanmaru Jumak, stared at the empty tavern with displeasure.
A lavish drinking table had been laid out in front of him.
Sanmaru Jumak had been built several years later than Insaeng Jumak, where Hayun was currently staying.
Originally, opening another tavern in the same commercial district was considered contrary to business ethics, but Dal-jae didn’t care.
He scraped together every bit of money he had and opened the grandest tavern in Mungyeong Saejae.
Once Sanmaru Jumak was completed, customers began flocking in, and as a result, the original tavern operated by Munsik and Ok-bun was pushed to the brink of closure.
But now, the positions of the two taverns had been completely reversed.
“Tsk! This liquor tastes like absolute garbage!”
The tavern, which normally should have been packed with customers until late at night, was now so empty that only flies buzzed around.
In a fit of anger, Dal-jae threw his drinking cup.
Crash!
Then he staggered to his feet.
“No, why are there so few customers these days? Where the hell is everyone eating and drinking?”
Just a month ago, Sanmaru Jumak had been packed with customers. But suddenly, the customers had stopped coming.
It wasn’t as though their numbers had merely been cut in half. The customers had disappeared altogether.
“Something must have happened. Otherwise, a tavern that was doing so well wouldn’t suddenly end up like this. Surely.”
Dal-jae suddenly shouted toward the kitchen.
“Wife! Did you put liquor in the gukbap? Why does the gukbap taste so bitter?”
“Liquor, my foot! You drink so much liquor every single day that you can taste alcohol even in the gukbap!”
His wife answered irritably.
“Do you think customers are staying away because the owner does nothing but drink all day? Instead of wasting your time like that, go outside and do some promotion!”
“Hmph! If that’s the case, then how do you explain how well business did before? Whether I drank or not, the business was doing fine.”
“Because this was the biggest and nicest tavern in the area! It wasn’t because you were any good!”
“Che…”
Dal-jae had no way to refute his wife’s words, so he shut his mouth.
That was when it happened.
The voices of passersby walking nearby drifted over the wall.
“Whew, the gukbap I had today was incredible, wasn’t it?”
“Absolutely! It’s the best tavern I’ve ever been to.”
“The food is delicious, too. Grilled fish, exchange vouchers… Good heavens, where else can you find a tavern like that?”
At the mention of a tavern, Dal-jae’s ears perked up.
“And that’s not all. The young lady working there was so gentle and pleasant… I’m planning to go again tomorrow just for that young lady.”
“Exactly! That young lady with the unusually short haircut. She was really kind.”
“Insaeng Gukbap! From now on, I’m eating gukbap there, no question.”
“Me too! Hahaha!”
With that, the people’s voices gradually faded into the distance.
Dal-jae’s expression turned cold.
“Insaeng Jumak? Was there such a place?”
It was a name he was hearing for the first time.
Every tavern in this area was either on the verge of going under or had already been driven into ruin.
If a new tavern had appeared, there was no way he wouldn’t have known. He had the power to make sure of that.
Then, suddenly, a certain memory flashed through his mind.
“Wait. Could it be…?”
There had been a rumor that a rundown tavern at the top of the pass had suddenly changed its name, after which people had begun flocking there. But he hadn’t thought much of it and had let it go in one ear and out the other.
He heard rumors like that several times a day, after all.
‘Could it be that was actually true?’
Realizing how serious the situation was, Dal-jae’s face hardened.
The alcohol suddenly seemed to leave his system all at once.
“I need to go check it out.”
Dal-jae hurriedly put on his clothes and rushed out of the tavern.
His wife’s nagging followed him from behind.
“Where are you going all of a sudden? At least clear the table you were eating at before you go!”
“That’s not the problem right now, so don’t bother me! The fate of our tavern is at stake!”
“Good grief, that fool…”
Dal-jae, drunk in broad daylight, began staggering toward Insaeng Jumak.
Comments (0)