“Heewoo-ssi, did something good happen today?”
“Yes, yes? Me?”
Lee Heewoo, who had been sweeping every corner of Cafe Bonita with a broom on the closing shift, poked his head up. Then his eyes met with the owner who had been organizing the coffee machine. The owner made a strange laughing sound toward Heewoo, “Euheuheuheu.”
“Your butt’s been wiggling since earlier?”
“M-mine?”
Heewoo was startled and fumbled around his buttocks area. He’d just been sweeping diligently, yet his butt had been wiggling? Thinking that couldn’t be, Heewoo made a flustered expression.
“Like, like this. Like this. My goodness. You were always looking half-dead like you couldn’t even eat gruel, but lately you’re especially overflowing with vitality.”
“I was like that?”
“Of course. Heewoo-ssi, even when I tell my part-timers to feel free to drink any cafe beverages they want, you always only drink exactly one cup. But you’re too skinny. Or is it the other way around—is that why you’re skinny?”
Heewoo closed his mouth for a moment. The Bonita Cafe owner often said to drink cafe beverages as much as he wanted, but he was too conscious of others to do so. If he could really drink without being self-conscious, Heewoo probably would have drunk about five cups of hot chocolate a day to fill his stomach completely.
However, for that, he was too self-conscious even for a part-timer who only worked 2 hours. Moreover, the time when Heewoo worked, from 5 PM to 7 PM in the evening, was peak hours, so he was busy enough to barely drink one beverage.
Bonita paid a higher hourly wage than other places, but the working hours were correspondingly shorter and the labor intensity was higher. After moving around diligently here, by the time he arrived at Matgal Meat Restaurant, he’d be incredibly hungry. Then he had no choice but to fill his stomach with tap water.
At first, Heewoo had also filled his stomach with the beverages that Matgal Meat Restaurant offered for free. But only one can was provided, and if he gulped down water, drinking a whole bottle meant the part-timers would ultimately have to refill it, so even that was difficult to do freely.
Having once been fired from a previous part-time job for drinking water as much as he wanted without being self-conscious when told to freely drink beverages, Heewoo couldn’t carelessly drink beverages at his workplaces after that.
“Anyway, a person who was so skinny and listless suddenly overflows with energy, so I’m asking because it’s fascinating. Has something pleasant happened lately?”
“Just……”
Heewoo considered saying he’d become a guide, then recalled the owner of Oneul’s Rice Soup, who worked the time slot right before. The rice soup restaurant owner seemed to have fallen halfway into guide hatred. In the end, Heewoo decided to hide the fact that he was a guide from the Bonita owner as well.
“Just, I’ve been eating a lot of delicious things lately……”
“Delicious things? What delicious things?”
“I, I eat different things every day. Yesterday it was a hamburger, and today it was toast and……!”
Heewoo launched into a long speech about how amazing the hamburger and toast he’d eaten yesterday and today had tasted. In the midst of it, his saliva kept going down gulp, gulp.
“So Heewoo-ssi likes those kinds of things? Then sometimes make a waffle and eat it! Our waffles are really delicious too.”
“Really……?”
“Of course, would there be a problem with sales just because a part-timer makes and eats one waffle? If that were the case, that shop would have gone under long ago, Heewoo-ssi.”
The Bonita owner waved her hand while laughing heartily. Though Heewoo had been permitted to drink beverages, he’d never been permitted waffles, so his heart pounded.
“Um, then, owner……”
Heewoo, holding the broom, slowly approached the cafe counter. The coffee machine was almost finished being organized so it couldn’t be used, but the waffle maker hadn’t been washed yet. Having noticed what Heewoo wanted, the owner nodded with a smile.
“Yes, yes. Heewoo-ssi, you know how to make them yourself, right? I’ll go organize the storage for a bit!”
“Yes, yes!”
Standing in front of the waffle maker, Heewoo began preheating it with a tense face. Normally he’d be too busy to pay much attention and would just pour the batter, but today was different. After gently brushing on butter with a brush and letting it preheat sufficiently, he poured the ivory-colored batter from the center to the edges without letting it overflow.
After having a simple lunch with Heichi and then working consecutively at the rice soup restaurant and Bonita, dinner time had swiftly approached. Heewoo felt his stomach lining make another resounding sound upon smelling the waffle. Though there was no one to hear since he was alone, the embarrassed Heewoo patted his stomach.
Recently, thanks to Heichi, Heewoo, who had been eating all three meals a day, found himself fascinating. When he could barely manage one meal a day, it was natural to be hungry, but to be hungry whenever time passed even while eating three meals a day—this was a fact he wouldn’t have known if not for Heichi.
-Crackle.
When Heewoo lightly scraped the waffle surface with silicone tongs, he felt through the tong surface that the golden surface had crisply cooked. Heewoo, who took out the waffle and placed it on packaging paper, continued the cafe closing that he’d briefly postponed.
Eventually, after Bonita closed for business, Heewoo came outside with a steaming fresh cream chocolate waffle in his hand. The prettily sliced banana placed on top looked appetizing. Heewoo’s lips curved up into a smile.
However, even after coming out of the cafe, Heewoo only stared at the waffle without thinking to bite into it.
“Are you off work?”
Today too, Heichi approached as if he’d been waiting. Since Heewoo had been fired from Matgal Meat Restaurant and went home at 8 PM, he would also come out to meet him around this time. Knowing this fact, Heewoo smiled broadly, showing his teeth, as soon as he saw Heichi.
“Would you like to try this……?”
“……What is this?”
“It’s a waffle, a chocolate fresh cream banana waffle……! This is the most popular menu item, and I, I made it myself.”
Heewoo bashfully confessed that he’d made it himself.
In truth, Heewoo didn’t really know what waffles tasted like. He’d look at the ingredients going on and roughly imagine it would taste like this. Of course, he’d eaten a few failed waffles at Bonita without toppings, but he’d never made and eaten one so lavishly and properly like this.
So although Heewoo didn’t really know what this chocolate waffle he made would taste like, he thought it would be very delicious. Because he’d put on more toppings than usual. And he hoped Heichi would be happy eating this waffle.
Having no money, Heewoo couldn’t feed Heichi delicious things or buy him nice things unlike Heichi. But wanting to return what he’d received from him, he’d accepted the owner’s proposal that he would have normally declined out of self-consciousness and made the waffle.
“Is it…… delicious……?”
Fortunately, Heichi didn’t seem to dislike waffles and calmly accepted it. And he opened his mouth wide like a basin, as large as his build, and took a big bite. The chocolate, fresh cream, and banana piled up in abundance poured mixed into Heichi’s mouth. Heewoo asked again with an expectant voice.
“Wh-what does it taste like……?”
Even though he knew it was just ordinary chocolate, fresh cream, and banana flavor, Heewoo asked because he was curious. It was natural to be curious since Heewoo, who didn’t even have money to eat meals, couldn’t possibly afford to buy such snacks.
“……Would you like to try some?”
“Yes, yes!”
Heewoo, who had just been swallowing his saliva gulp, gulp, eagerly bit into the waffle at Heichi’s suggestion. The waffle held in Heichi’s hand was in a state where the toppings were flowing out, just perfect for eating. As soon as he put it in his mouth, the sweet chocolate, soft fresh cream, and banana sweetness hit him intensely.
“It’s really delicious……!”
Heewoo, who didn’t know it would be this delicious even though he’d made it himself, trembled with happiness. Recently there were frequent opportunities to eat delicious foods he’d never eaten in his life, and each time he was particularly happy, and though he knew he was being unsophisticated, once he actually put the food in his mouth, he completely forgot about such things and his mood floated up buoyantly.
“Heewoo-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“……Is it delicious?”
“Yes……! Ah, ah. Please eat all the rest, Heichi-ssi!”
Since it wasn’t a waffle made for his own portion to begin with, Heewoo hurriedly pushed the waffle toward his mouth. However, at Heichi’s suggestion, the waffle disappeared cleanly in an instant as Heewoo and Heichi took turns eating one bite at a time.
“You know, Heichi-ssi. Actually, today is my payday for me……!”
After finishing the waffle and walking along the road, Heewoo couldn’t control his excited steps. Actually, before getting off work, he’d checked his account balance by phone, and perhaps because he hadn’t had food expenses lately, his balance was the most generous he’d ever seen. Thinking of buying Heichi something delicious with that money made him happy enough to fly.
“Is that so?”
“Yes! I’m going to buy you something really, really delicious. Really……”
Unable to control his laughter seeping out feebly, Heewoo moved his steps in a different direction instead of toward home with Heichi. His steps, which had been heavy from being plagued by hunger and poverty, were exceptionally light.
As the two chatted amiably like that and arrived at the store Heewoo had targeted, Heewoo’s cell phone vibrated briefly. Feeling the vibration, Heewoo slyly took out his flip phone. There was a text message.
📶✉️ 🔋
Text Message
Sender: 010XXXXXXXX
Do you want to end up like your old man? Deposit while I’m asking nicely
📶✉️ 🔋
Text Message
Sender: 010XXXXXXXX
What’s our Heewoo doing for part-time work? Rice soup restaurant and cafe? If you don’t put in money by today let’s meet there tomorrow
