Real Man

The kimbap was running out, but right now, he cared more about his grandmother.

“Grandma, you’re amazing. It must not have been easy to do this for over 10 years.”

“Yes. Today is my day off, so I only missed one day. You should quit working and rest.”

“I have to work to buy good clothes for our Doha.”

“Grandma, I told you I make a lot of money. You don’t have to worry about money anymore.”

Even if I said it was okay, she wouldn’t believe me.

It was obvious from the warm look in her eyes that she cared about her grandson.

Yoo-hyun smiled contentedly as he watched the two.

Park Young-hoon was dumbfounded as he saw the empty basket that had been full of kimbap.

“It’s their fault for not coming. It’s okay.”

“Oh, I should have brought more. I’ll bring more next time.”

The grandmother apologized, and the director shouted.

“There’s no need for that. Next time, we’ll go there and boost your sales.”

Ding-dong-ding-dong.

A strange cell phone ringtone rang in the office, and the grandmother looked embarrassed.

Nadoha tilted his head.

“Grandma, isn’t that the boss’s phone ringtone?”

“Huh? Oh.”

“You can answer it.”

Yoo-hyun gestured, and then the grandmother answered the phone.

But then it happened.

The grandmother’s face darkened as she exchanged a few words.

“Go, go to work now? I’m far away… Even so, there’s no way I can go right now…”

Why did they suddenly ask her to work in the evening?

Yoo-hyun felt puzzled for a moment, but Kang Dong-sik shouted loudly.

“Let’s go. I’ll take you there.”

“No, no. You must be busy. It’s okay.”

The director also felt sorry for owing her a favor.

He said firmly.

“That’s good. Since you mentioned it, I’ll help you increase your sales today.”

“Why don’t we all go together? Doha, are you okay with that?”

“It would be great to go together. I have a new camera, so I can take a group photo with it.”

Oh Jung-ho joined in, and Nadoha nodded eagerly.

The grandmother couldn’t stop him when he was so happy.

They all moved right away without changing into their sportswear.

It took them about 30 minutes by car to get to the kimbap shop.

The distance was not far, but the road was not very good because it was located on the outskirts of Seoul.

It took this long by car, how long would it have taken by bus?

And that was with carrying a heavy basket.

They felt the grandmother’s sincerity as they arrived at the kimbap shop.

Park Young-hoon said to Yoo-hyun, who was looking at the shop.

“This kimbap shop has been on all kinds of shows. There are a lot of celebrities’ signatures too.”

“Really. It must be a famous place.”

He didn’t know how famous it was, but it looked quite noisy.

It was obvious from the bright yellow signboard.

-Three Sisters Kimbap.

Next to the name of the shop, there were pictures of three sisters.

They had the confidence to put their faces on the sign, and below that, there were all kinds of flashy promotional phrases.

They looked like masters from the phrases.

He would have ignored it, but the reason why Yoo-hyun looked at it with a crooked eye was that these three sisters were the ones who called the grandmother.

Squeak.

The door opened and the eldest of the three sisters came out, holding the grandmother’s arm, who had gone into the shop first.

She smiled brightly, and the grandmother frowned.

“Sister, you promised me when I asked you to help me with the food preparation. If we run out of ingredients, we’ll close the shop.”

“Sis, I got a sudden call for a broadcast shooting. Just help me out. Please?”

The woman asked the grandmother with a ticklish voice.

They could have done the shooting or whatever themselves, since they put their faces on the sign.

Why did they call someone who took a day off?

Especially when the grandmother had helped them with the food preparation in the morning.

He was pondering the situation, and the grandmother looked at Yoo-hyun and his party with an apologetic look.

“You should have told me earlier. These people came all the way here to eat kimbap.”

“Sis, I’ll take care of them too.”

“When will you finish the preparation and make the food?”

“Grandma, it’s okay, you can go to work. We can come back next time.”

The director raised his hand to the embarrassed grandmother.

But the woman stepped forward and grabbed the director’s arm.

“No, no. You came all this way, you can’t just leave. You’ll be disappointed.”

“But…”

“Hey, just wait a little bit and you’ll be able to eat. Right, sis?”

“I feel like I’m making busy people wait.”

To persuade the hesitant grandmother, the woman stuck to the director’s side.

“Sis, I won’t charge them for the food. That’ll do, right?”

“No. We’ll pay for it. We came here to help you with your sales.”

“You have to accept it at times like this. You can sell it twice as much next time.”

“This is ridiculous.”

“Stop it and let’s go inside and talk.”

The woman dragged the director and the grandmother into the kimbap shop.

She was good at charming people, if nothing else.

Clatter clatter clatter.

The grandmother, who had changed into her work clothes and was preparing the food, looked different from before.

It wasn’t just her appearance.

The way she handled all kinds of ingredients was like a pro.

Thanks to the fact that they had put up a ‘sold out’ sign in front of the restaurant and didn’t take any customers, the grandmother’s performance was clearly visible.

The people from the gym exclaimed as they watched the open kitchen.

“Wow! It takes so much work to make kimbap.”

“I’ve never seen so much sauce go into frying burdock.”

“Look at that. She cuts the vegetables evenly. And she’s making fried food at the same time.”

“She seasons the rice differently for each type of kimbap.”

“It’s not a premium kimbap for nothing.”

Spicy pork kimbap, cream cheese walnut kimbap, charcoal grilled beef kimbap, anchovy tuna kimbap, shrimp fried kimbap, and so on.

She had to make all kinds of kimbap to match the broadcast, so the preparation was no joke.

She also had to consider the kimbap for Yoo-hyun and his party, so she prepared a lot.

Yoo-hyun evaluated the grandmother.

She was kind-hearted and very skilled.

Various voices were mixed, and Park Young-hoon suddenly asked a question.

“Yoo-hyun, what do the three sisters do?”

“Why? Are they not helping with the food preparation?”

“Yeah. They said it was urgent. But they’re only giving orders.”

“I don’t know. Maybe they don’t know how to do it, or maybe they’re just dumping it on grandma.”

To Yoo-hyun, it seemed like both.

The three sisters were busy with the interior setting and the interview preparation, while the grandmother was working alone.

They could have at least taken out a frying pan or helped with the cleaning, but that was also the grandmother’s job.

Was the grandmother being treated properly?

They acted like family and called each other sister, but it felt like something was off.

But he didn’t know the backstory, so he couldn’t say anything.

‘I’ll have to ask Doha when he comes back.’

Yoo-hyun was thinking of Nadoha, who had gone home to get his camera, when it happened.

The second of the three sisters came over with a bright smile.

She had a round face with prominent cheekbones, similar to her sisters.

“Are you very hungry? I’m so sorry.”

“No, no. We already ate a lot before we came. We can wait this much.”

Oh Jung-ho joked, and the woman suggested as if she had been waiting for it.

“Thank you. Then, can I prepare the food for the shooting first? The shooting team said they’ll be here soon.”

“Haha. Sure. Can’t we wait that much?”

“Hoho! I knew you would be understanding.”

She winked one eye and walked over to the grandmother, shaking her hips.

“Sis, these people…”

Squish squish.

The grandmother looked very sorry when she heard the woman’s words.

She felt like she was causing trouble, and the gym people all raised their hands.

There was no one who could tell the grandmother to hurry up with the food.

She was like family to Doha.

When the grandmother finished the preparation, the shooting team arrived.

They were from a cable channel, and the host was not a very famous announcer.

On the table next to the host, there were a lot of ingredients that had been prepared.

They had gathered all the ingredients that needed to be cooked for the shooting.

The people who saw it were dumbfounded.

“If they have all that there, when are they going to make our food?”

“Don’t tell me we have to wait until the shooting is over.”

“This is ridiculous. We’re not even audience members, we’re just straw mats.”

What was more ridiculous was the attitude of the three sisters.

They took the ingredients that the grandmother had prepared with the exact proportions and rolled the kimbap diligently.

Then they handed the kimbap to the host as if they had done it all themselves.

The host tasted each kimbap and praised them.

“Wow! The kimbap tastes amazing. How are you all so good at this?”

“We just think of it as giving it to our children.”

“Of course. The boss’s heart shows in the taste.”

The eldest, who spoke as the representative, shrugged her shoulders, and the second and third sisters also bragged as if they couldn’t lose.

“When I make kimbap, the part that I pay attention to is…”

“I follow my two sisters and roll the kimbap while…”

They sounded like they had the mindset of a top hotel chef.

The grandmother, who had actually done all the preparation, was hiding her face behind her hands, as if she didn’t want to be seen by the camera.

The three sisters dragged the grandmother in front of the camera.

“She’s been helping us in the kitchen for 10 years. We’re like family. Right, sis?”

“Huh? Oh, oh…”

“It’s not easy to have a long relationship and help each other. The boss’s are really kind.”

The host, who didn’t know the situation, complimented the three sisters’ character.

Meanwhile, the confused grandmother didn’t know what to do.

She eventually slipped away to the staff room.

A sneer came out of Yoo-hyun’s mouth as he watched.

“They’re unbelievable.”

Yoo-hyun was like this, but the gym people, who were impatient, were even worse.

“What are they talking about? They did it all? That’s ridiculous.”

“They’re taking advantage of the kind grandmother. Is that okay?”

“Let’s tell the truth in front of the camera.”

The director calmly stopped the excited officials.

“Stop it. If you go out now, you’ll only hurt grandma.”

“But how can we just sit here and watch? How do you think Doha would feel if he knew?”

It was at that moment.

Clang.

The door opened and Nadoha appeared, wearing a big camera around his neck.

He saw the people and the empty table and blinked his eyes.

“Huh? Why haven’t you eaten yet?”

“…”

“And why is the mood like this? Huh? Who are those people? Is there a shooting?”

Nadoha kept tilting his head, and everyone felt awkward.

The director gestured to Nadoha.

“They’ll come out when the shooting is over. Just sit down for now.”

“Huh? Why? We can do it now.”

Nadoha was puzzled, when the eldest of the three sisters came over and put her index finger on her lips.

“Shh! Doha, lower your voice a little.”

“Hohoho!”

There was laughter on the shooting table.

Nadoha threw a tantrum.

“Auntie, these people are very important guests. Please give them kimbap quickly.”

“I know. I’ll roll it for you, so just wait a little bit. Okay?”

“When?”

“I’m doing it now. I’m sorry for making you wait so long.”

The eldest apologized to the people again.

Nadoha was in front of them, so they couldn’t say anything.