Between
Kwon Sungha
The exams ended well.
The previous week, I fell asleep while studying at Kang Sehyun’s house two days in a row, and thanks to saving time, I was able to take Monday and Tuesday’s exams without problems. After Tuesday’s exam ended, I collapsed as soon as I got home on Wednesday, catching up on the sleep I’d postponed because of work.
Fortunately, I’d arranged to have Thursday off in advance, so I stayed up all night at home preparing for Friday’s exam. Thanks to catching up on sleep on Wednesday, my condition wasn’t bad, yet strangely I couldn’t concentrate well. Maybe I’d gotten too accustomed to such a good environment—the hard desk chair and desk lamp I sat at after so long felt a bit awkward.
But anyway, the exams ended well. After the last exam finished on Friday, I slept continuously over the weekend until I had to go to work in the afternoon.
Two hectic weeks passed, and the exam results I received this week were quite satisfactory. Friday’s exam grade was a tiny bit disappointing, but the lacking points seemed like they could be sufficiently made up with assignments.
After returning to normal daily life, the group chat that had been quiet for a while also returned to normal. The noisy lunch time was the same.
Instead of seeing the hyungs again on campus, there was no occasion to see Kang Sehyun. Kang Sehyun, who said he had his last exam on Tuesday, hadn’t contacted me once this week, and worried I might be a disturbance, I also didn’t contact him first.
It was natural not to contact each other if we had no separate business, but one corner of my heart felt uncomfortable. It was a different emotion from emptiness.
And today, after checking a familiar name on the reservation list, I immediately sent a message. Actually, it was a message I didn’t need to send, but after sending it, my uncomfortable feelings became okay.
Me: [Confirmed your 7 o’clock reservation. Won’t there be a lot of people at that time though?]
Kang Sehyun: [Doesn’t matter]
Me: [I’ll try my best to keep the table clear]
Kang Sehyun: [Is that possible?]
Me: [If I move walk-in customers to other tables as much as possible]
Fortunately, there was only one reservation at Table 4, so I planned to unconditionally move customers who came without reservations to Table 4. Of course, I felt sorry for the chef there, but it couldn’t be helped.
Kang Sehyun: [Isn’t that normally not allowed?]
It’s true it’s not allowed. But surely they won’t say anything to a customer the owner personally accepted.
I texted that it normally isn’t allowed but would be okay. And a little later, a reply arrived.
Kang Sehyun: [Not my fault if you get fired]
* * *
“Sungha. Don’t take walk-ins¹⁾ at 7 o’clock today.”
There was no need to worry about getting fired for doing something not allowed. Far from saying anything, as soon as the owner checked the afternoon reservations, he told me not to accept other customers at his table. I didn’t expect him to say it directly though.
“What should I do about the reservation that already came in?”
“We have to keep that, what else. There’s only one party anyway, right?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, if I’d known in advance I wouldn’t have accepted it. How many people?”
“Two people.”
“At least that’s fortunate.”
Because the owner spoke to reception in advance not to accept 7 o’clock reservations, the only reservation received this week was Kang Sehyun’s reservation. But the reservation that had come in before couldn’t be canceled, so we decided to keep it as is. Fortunately, it was only one party of two, so Table 3 at 7 o’clock would have only 4 people total.
After checking the reservations once more, the owner called the manager separately.
“Gyeongsik. Tell reception too. No walk-ins at my table at this time.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“Tell them to pay attention when the reservation customers over here arrive too.”
“Will Sungha do the serving?”
“Sungha, what table number are you? Table 2?”
“Table 4.”
When the question suddenly flew at me and I answered like that, the owner gave different instructions to the manager.
“Then tell someone else to help over there just at 7 o’clock. Sungha needs to focus on my table.”
The owner, who always emphasized treating all incoming customers the same, was going this far, so I really thought Kang Sehyun was amazing. Just what kind of relationship does he have with the owner? Useless curiosity kept arising.
“Sungha, you leave Table 4 to someone else too and stay attached here as much as possible.”
“Yes.”
“Hey— and everyone gather here for a moment.”
At the owner’s call, everyone gathered with 15 minutes left before break time.
“Today at 7 o’clock, I can’t take anyone except reservation customers, so other customers will be sent to tables that aren’t busy. Everyone know that. The manager will explain the rest, so someone help Sungha at that time too.”
Without me needing to deliberately ask other tables for understanding, the owner directly asked the chefs and serving staff to understand even if they’re busy. And after leaving the remaining explanation to the manager, he hurriedly went toward the kitchen. He looked particularly busy today.
“Um… Jiyoung, you have Tables 1 and 2 today, right?”
“Yes. For reference, I have 8 reservations.”
“Oh my, then you won’t work. Seonghyun, what about you?”
“I’m almost full too.”
The tables close to Table 4 were all full of reservations, so they couldn’t lend a hand. Then the manager, who was checking tables in turn, asked a different question.
“Who has one table today? Who’s on salad bar?”
Since there were 9 teppanyaki tables total, four people each handled two tables, and one person handled only one table but simultaneously took on the task of refilling ingredients at the salad bar.
Calling it a salad bar makes it sound grand, but since you only had to move ingredients from the kitchen about twice in the middle, there was actually almost nothing to do. So this role that everyone coveted was fairly taken turns handling once each.
“Me.”
Ah… This is terrible.
When Jinho hyung, the one I hoped it wouldn’t be most, raised his hand, a sigh flowed out inside me. Seeing his expression full of dissatisfaction, I had a bad feeling.
“Handle Table 4 together at 7 o’clock. It’s only for one hour, so you can do it, right?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Okay. I’m counting on you.”
Jinho hyung had been in bad shape since he arrived. He should have come by 4 o’clock to prepare for dinner service, but he was nearly 30 minutes late and went in and out of the bathroom as soon as he arrived. Yesterday afternoon was his day off, and he’d definitely drunk freely thinking he only had one table today.
His condition was already a mess from a hangover, and now he had to take on work he didn’t need to do, so there was no way he’d just accept it nicely.
“Ah, fuck.”
As expected, as soon as the manager left, hyung got irritated and spat out harsh words. The face that had been smiling just moments ago saying we should help each other was completely crumpled.
When the rough curse was heard, the atmosphere instantly froze. I should say I’m sorry and thank you, but it wasn’t an atmosphere to say such things, so I couldn’t easily bring it up. The other employees who usually got along cheerfully also just blankly watched the situation. Like that, after just watching each other’s reactions in the frozen atmosphere for several seconds, I gathered courage.
“Um, hyung—”
I barely started, but because he spoke at the same time, I couldn’t finish my words.
“Unlucky bastard.”
It was blatantly directed at me.
“……”
“……”
Silence came once more. For me, who hadn’t experienced something like this, it was hard to endure the awkward silence and heavy atmosphere.
I disliked this kind of atmosphere, but even hearing words like that didn’t make me feel bad. I thought that since he’d been continuously dissatisfied with me, his condition wasn’t good so he was more sensitive, and on top of that having to do work he didn’t even like, he could say harsh words out of feeling wronged.
But that was always just my thought, and someone might not be able to accept this situation well.
“Hey. Kim Jinho. Stop it already. Can’t you see the kids are watching because of you? Let’s just let it slide.”
The female staff member who always played the mediator role in between couldn’t stand it and intervened. The noona, who entered a year after Jinho hyung, was the same age as Jinho hyung, so the two were quite close.
“Ha. Is it my fault the atmosphere is like this now? Who created this shitty situation?”
“I told you to stop. Don’t talk carelessly. Considering how much Sungha has helped you until now, even if others don’t know, you shouldn’t say things like that.”
“Fuck, who are you to butt in and make a fuss? Did I curse at you?”
Jinho hyung, already irritated beyond measure, poured harsh words even at noona. Noona’s expression changed to something fierce in an instant. It seemed like something tremendous would come out, but I could see her forcibly swallowing it. It was the worst situation.
Naturally the atmosphere sank further, and thinking it would get more serious if we kept gathering like this, I secretly pulled noona’s arm. I couldn’t let even those two fight.
That’s when it happened.
“Sungha— come see me for a moment.”
When the manager walked out from reception, everyone scattered as if planned. Jinho hyung and noona, who’d been fuming, also immediately hid their expressions and disappeared to different places.
Right before work, noona called me aside and told me several times not to worry about it, but there was no way I couldn’t worry. My heart felt uncomfortable the entire time I was working, and I kept looking at where hyung was in between.
If you ask why, it was because I felt sorry. Because of today’s matter, even his relationship with his close noona seemed to be growing distant, so even if his resentment toward me grew, I had nothing to say. It wasn’t something I caused, but anyway it was something that happened because of my existence.
Others might curse me as a fool if they knew, but even if I didn’t act with bad intentions, if someone’s feelings were hurt because of me, I found it easier to just think that I did wrong.
“This way please. Boss, the reservation customers have arrived.”
While having these various complicated thoughts, a familiar figure walked in behind the reception staff. It was Kang Sehyun. And standing next to him was someone other than his girlfriend.
The two resembled each other so much that anyone could tell they were family.
—
¹⁾ Walk-in: Customers without reservations
