“Sungha-ya. This one goes to that table over there.”
“Table 8?”
“Yeah.”
I took the California roll loaded with avocado and flying fish roe and headed to the table at the very back. While serving, I received calls from two other tables. Even though it wasn’t the weekend, two-thirds of all the tables were full.
I took the additional orders to the chef and delivered the fried dishes separately to the kitchen. When I went to the salad bar at the end of the hall to get the salads that go out as standard, someone wearing the same clothes as me spoke to me first. It was Jinho hyung, who had started working here at my age and was now in his third year. Even though I had only seen him on Tuesday and this was barely our second meeting, his friendly personality made us grow close quickly, so it wasn’t awkward at all.
“Ah, why is it so busy today? There’s no time to rest. Sungha, you must be going crazy too, right? Isn’t it tough?”
“I’m okay.”
Today was definitely busier than Tuesday. Although my body was tired, I was secretly happy about the fact that more tables meant more money I could take home.
I had knocked on the door of this place after seeing an ad in a Korean newspaper, initially thinking it was just an ordinary Japanese restaurant, but it turned out to be a famous restaurant that customers visited from quite far away.
The actual main attraction was teppanyaki, and sushi and other Japanese dishes were served in a small hall that was set up separately in one part of the restaurant. So even though it was the same work, it was divided between the large hall handling teppanyaki and the small hall handling Japanese cuisine. Today, I was assigned to the small hall.
“But even though it’s your first time at a Japanese restaurant, you’re doing well. Don’t the menu items confuse you?”
“No. I took it home on Tuesday and memorized it roughly.”
“Wow, great. Please work here for a long time. There’s nobody here who works long-term. It’s a bit intense, but there’s no place that pays as well as here.”
“Okay.”
I nodded with a smile. There was no better news than hearing it paid well.
Even at 9 PM, well past dinner time, the hall was crowded with customers. But the customers who seemed like they would never leave gradually decreased as closing time approached, and after 10:30, except for one table on the Japanese cuisine side, none remained.
At 10:35, the couple who had been drinking cocktails left, and I was clearing the last table when I heard noisy sounds from far away. When I looked up, the teppanyaki chefs who had already taken off their cooking uniforms and changed into casual clothes were noisily pulling out chairs at one of the tables and sitting down.
There were still 20 minutes left though.
Anyway, closing time was 11 PM. I wondered if that was okay, and while I was thinking that, the boss, also wearing casual clothes, settled into a seat among the chefs all too naturally.
“Isn’t there still time before closing?”
When I asked the female employee helping with cleanup next to me, she looked where my gaze was directed and spoke as if it was nothing.
“Teppanyaki takes a long time for the food to come out because of the show, so meals usually run long. That’s why from 10 PM, we deliberately don’t accept anyone except reservation customers. Once the existing customers leave, you can consider it pretty much over.”
“I see.”
“After the last customers leave, they always gather over there under the air conditioner. It’s hot since they’re in front of the fire all day.”
“The boss too?”
“Yeah. Since the boss does it, everyone does the same. Let’s finish cleaning up quickly too.”
Thanks to having cleaned up the remaining tables in advance, cleanup only took 5 minutes. After dividing tips among those of us who handled the Japanese cuisine hall today and changing clothes, there was still one tick of the clock hand left until closing time.
“Oh, oh, who was it, that—”
“Sungha.”
“Ah, right. Sungha-ya. Come here for a second.”
At the boss’s call, I went to the large hall, and everyone who had been chatting among themselves turned their gaze to me all at once. I had expected there would be more people on the teppanyaki side since the large hall had far more tables than the small hall, but sitting together like this, it somehow felt like even more people.
“On Tuesday it ended late so I couldn’t introduce you. Come here and say hello. Here, this person is new to the hall. He’ll only work afternoon shifts and handle Japanese cuisine on weekdays, and daebbang on weekends.”
“Hello.”
I bowed my head a little awkwardly.
“Wow. He’s got a refreshing look.”
“He’s handsome, right?”
“You really have a nice impression.”
“He came from New York.”
“Oh— New York—”
Just from one greeting, the atmosphere changed in an instant. I had expected some people with large builds and rough-looking faces to be gruff, but the person with the biggest build actually even pulled out a chair for me and told me to sit down.
“Why did you come all the way to Chicago from such a nice place?”
“Because of university.”
“Ah. So you’re a student. Then you’re doing this part-time?”
“Yes.”
“Are your parents in New York?”
“No. They’re in Korea.”
“Then you’re an international student. Ah, what did you say your name was?”
“Sungha. Kwon Sungha.”
Various questions poured out, but no one asked difficult or mischievous questions. A question did come up in the middle about whether I could drink a bit, but when I answered that I wasn’t of legal drinking age yet, I got responses saying I was well-behaved. Fortunately, everyone was fun and cheerful people, different from their appearances.
Jinho hyung, who came out late from the kitchen, asked with a bewildered expression.
“What’s this? Why is everyone like this?”
“Because Sungha’s new.”
“Who’s new that the atmosphere is this good? When I came, you didn’t welcome me like this, did you?”
Despite hearing his disgruntled voice, everyone laughed at the same time.
“You weren’t this cute.”
“Right. Look at him. Are you the same as him?”
Likeable even when staying still. A face that makes you want to keep doing things for him. An appearance that makes you want to look after him.
These were the words that everyone who had seen me so far said in unison.
‘You should really be grateful to your parents.’
Even Sora, my closest friend, said such things, so I once seriously looked in the mirror and examined it. But no matter how much I looked, it was impossible for someone to objectively evaluate their own appearance, and I couldn’t find the standard for what people commonly called a “good impression.”
Anyway, what was certain was that this appearance that everyone liked could become the most hated appearance in the world to one person.
‘How is it that the more you grow, the more you resemble your father.’
If I had resembled my mother, would it have been a little better than this?
“Hey, isn’t everyone going home? Let’s go now.”
“Huh? Look at the time. Let’s go, let’s go.”
“Good work.”
“Everyone worked hard.”
The weather, which had been hot when I came to work, had become cool in the meantime. Twenty minutes by car to get home. I opened the windows instead of using the air conditioning and drove down the empty road, feeling a bit refreshed.
It was something I hadn’t felt when I was in New York. I was always surrounded by tall buildings and packed cars, so even holding the same steering wheel, I had never felt a sense of ease.
Once again, I thought I had made the right choice to come here.
* * *
“Imo, when is the calamari coming out?”
“It’ll be out soon. Take this first.”
“The salmon isn’t out yet either.”
“Table 7’s steak got backed up. Everything will come out at once.”
“Over here! Here too!”
Friday evening. I had prepared myself in advance after being told it would be busy, but I didn’t know it would be to this extent. Even with the small hall taking care of Japanese cuisine orders coming from the large hall, it was so hectic I couldn’t handle it. I had been told that on Fridays and Saturdays, two more teppanyaki tables were added, but I had thought it wouldn’t be much different since serving staff also increased—my expectation was completely off.
It was because I failed to factor in that people before the weekend would definitely drink alcohol while eating dinner.
This was only my third day working, and moreover, teppanyaki work was completely my first time today, so I was only assigned one table.
As the number of customers increased, employees handling multiple tables made frequent mistakes. Especially Jinho hyung, who made consecutive order mistakes, didn’t look very happy.
“Huh? Table 3, is there a reservation at 10:40?”
“Yeah.”
At 10 PM, the last reservation teams came in, and since only my table had no reservation, I was looking through the reservation list to help with the busy tables when I noticed a reservation at the very bottom.
“Table 3 is the boss’s table though. Aren’t the last reservations until 10 PM?”
“Yeah. But just for today, we’re specially taking one more team. The boss worked at a famous restaurant in Korea before coming to America. Apparently they’ve been a regular customer since then.”
It didn’t make sense to reserve teppanyaki at 10 PM at night, but a reservation at such a late time, close to 11 PM, no less.
I wrinkled my face without realizing it, and the female employee saw me and chuckled.
“It seems they wanted to come when there are as few people as possible, but when is our restaurant ever not crowded? I tried to convince them to come during break time, but then they said that time didn’t work, so we ended up booking this time. Really, what does it mean that 3 PM in the afternoon is no good but 11 PM at night is okay? I absolutely don’t understand it either, but if the boss says it’s okay, who’s going to say anything?”
“Still, if the boss is accommodating them that much, they must be really important customers. There might be a separate reason why they can only come when there are few people.”
“……Sungha, you get told you have a good personality a lot wherever you go, right?”
“No.”
“Then know it from now on. You have a good personality.”
The other person laughed at me once more.
