Chapter 100: Latte is horse...(8) "Everything's loaded! Thanks every time!"
"It's almost been a month already."
Vrrrm.
Jinseo's food truck, its extra trailer packed full of goods, left the ingredient factory and merged onto the road.
In the Francia Continent, you saw trees and brush everywhere. Here, just looking at the buildings packed tight along both sides of the road made Jinseo feel stifled.
It used to be a landscape he was far too familiar with—back before he started driving the food truck—but the more time passed, the more unfamiliar it felt.
It's almost been a month already.
Remembering the time he spent with the dwarf delegation, Jinseo turned the steering wheel to the right.
The dwarf delegation's schedule, which ran far longer than planned, ended when they returned to Falstead Castle.
Leaving behind their lively memories with Jinseo's food truck and the dragon, Charlotte, they went back to the Ashured Continent.
Still, a few dwarves decided to stay on the Francia Continent and saw off the companions returning home.
After that, Jinseo stayed only in Korea for nearly a month without going to the Francia Continent.
I tried to rest, but I think I was even more hectic in Korea.
He meant to take things easy and recharge, but contrary to expectation, life in Korea was just as busy.
He tried making dishes he still hadn't properly mastered.
And whenever he started thinking about what kinds of bunsik and food would suit the different tastes of the people from the Francia Continent, the night would fly by in no time.
More than anything, just restocking the ingredients and processed foods he had used and sold while traveling all over the Doren Kingdom ate up a huge amount of time as he ran around to all his suppliers nonstop.
On top of that, he had to drive the food truck around to buy items people had requested individually.
If he bought everything in bulk by category, he could have saved a lot of time.
But to other people, there was no way it would look normal for him to haul far more ingredients and processed foods than the extra trailer could possibly hold.
In the Francia Continent, he could brush it off as magic. In Korea, it would only invite suspicion, so he had no choice but to make the hassle-filled rounds—visiting the same suppliers multiple times, a day apart.
Even so, today marked the end of everything he needed to buy, so he could finally make time to see people he knew in Korea after a long while.
Maybe it was because he had told army stories in front of Count Magus's troops.
Jinseo set a meeting today with the army buddies and juniors he hadn't seen for a while.
Including Jinseo, there were supposed to be four of them meeting up to catch up.
But at the actual meeting spot, only two people showed up—Jinseo and one other.
"Hyung Jinseo!"
Seo Jeongguk, two years younger than Jinseo and one year his junior, recognized him and greeted him happily, rubbing his blond-dyed hair even though it was still cut short like during service.
Jinseo arrived thirty minutes early and waited with Jeongguk, who had been there first, for the other two.
But even after the scheduled time passed, no one else came.
"I suddenly have something urgent, so I can't make it. Sorry."
"I took leave, but my company told me to come in. I'll treat you next time."
Only after ten more minutes did Jinseo check the two KakX messages, then turn his steps toward the barbecue restaurant he had reserved.
It was a place he never even dared enter before he started driving the food truck, because the prices were so high.
Now he could go without worrying about money, but when he saw the automatic glass door, Jinseo stiffened and stopped in place.
"Hyung, what are you doing? Aren't you going in?"
"Uh… sorry."
Jinseo laughed awkwardly and went in, sitting at the reserved table.
Have I really been on the Francia Continent too long?
He had felt it before, but after staying in the otherworld so long, everything he saw and encountered in Korea felt unfamiliar.
Even the menu board written in Hangul—rather than the Francia Continent script he still couldn't read—was the same.
"Are you okay? You're not forcing yourself to come out when you're tired, right?"
At Jeongguk's worry, Jinseo—who had been staring at the menu with a serious face—smiled and pressed the call button.
"Ah, sorry. I was just thinking about something for a moment."
"You're sure nothing's going on?"
"I've been pretty swamped lately. Let's order first."
Jeongguk said any meat was fine, but Jinseo insisted he was the one who invited him, so he would treat him properly, and ordered hanwoo.
"Sorry I couldn't keep in touch."
"Come on, you were never the type to keep in touch much in the first place. If anything, I should've reached out, but I've been too busy."
"Yeah. From now on, I'll contact you whenever I can."
Jinseo picked up the soju bottle and filled Jeongguk's soju glass.
Gulp, gulp.
Jeongguk drained the glass in one go and held the empty glass out again.
"Man—today, alcohol is going down easy."
Even before the meat came out, Jeongguk finished a whole bottle quickly and cracked open the next one.
"You can really drink."
Jinseo looked at Jeongguk—who was drinking soju like water without hesitation—not with envy, but with pure curiosity.
"So soju still doesn't suit your mouth?"
"I tried to drink it recently, but yeah—still no."
Jinseo never liked alcohol to begin with, and once he started driving the food truck, the chances to drink got even rarer.
In Korea it might have been fine, but on the Francia Continent, Jinseo was the only one who knew how to drive, so he couldn't afford to get drunk.
He drank beer occasionally in Korea, but after tasting dwarf-made beer, even that stopped satisfying him.
In the end, Jinseo chose cola.
"Wow, hanwoo really is different. It just melts in your mouth…"
Jeongguk ate the meat the staff grilled and looked blissful.
Jinseo still hadn't eaten a single piece, but just watching Jeongguk happily eat was enough to make him feel full.
I could just grill hanwoo and sell it, but I should try making bulgogi and selling that. Pork belly's good too, but it'd be nice to show a new kind of meat. And on top of that… no.
Without realizing it, Jinseo had started thinking about what to sell on the Francia Continent again, and he shook his head.
Right now, he needed to set food truck work aside and talk with the junior he was meeting after so long.
Jinseo asked how he had been, and Jeongguk launched into a long story as if he had been waiting for that question—about how he drifted for a while after discharge.
"You remember that time I talked to you on the phone for over two hours, right? I was really struggling then."
"I figured something must've been going on, but I didn't know you had reasons like that."
Meanwhile, Jinseo couldn't talk about what he had gone through in the otherworld over the past year, so he only spoke about things up until he shut down Jinseo Bunsik.
"Still, thanks to you, I could pull myself together. Like I said back then, seriously—thank you."
"No, I'm the one who should thank you. Out of everyone I met in the army, you were the only one who came to my father and mother's funeral."
"They're your parents, hyung. Of course I had to come. And every time they came for visitation, how much bunsik did I get fed?"
During Jinseo's service, whenever his parents visited, they brought bags full of bunsik.
At first, the whole squad would go down to the visiting room and eat it, but later, most people stopped coming even when he told them to.
So until the very last time Jinseo's parents came to visit, the only soldier who still came to the visiting room to eat bunsik was Jeongguk.
"The moment I heard you switched industries to a food truck, I kind of guessed… but Jinseo Bunsik being gone…"
"If you'd told me earlier, I would've gone before it disappeared."
"I was so out of it back then, it didn't even occur to me to contact anyone."
"And you even broke up with your sister-in-law… I was hoping it would work out."
"We weren't even married. What sister-in-law… It's in the past now."
Jinseo smiled bitterly and looked down at the smartphone on the table.
Even after the breakup, his ex-girlfriend's photo stayed on his lock screen for a while, but it had long since been replaced with a landscape photo from the Francia Continent.
"You said you're not dating anyone now, so want to try a blind date?"
"No. For the time being, I don't want to date anyone. Work's busy."
"Then no woman you're in that 'talking stage' with?"
"'Talking stage,' huh."
For a moment, Jinseo thought of someone's face, then erased it from his mind.
They lived in completely different worlds, and the gap in status was too vast—by common sense, it was a relationship that could never go anywhere.
"Sounds like there is someone."
Jeongguk grinned slyly and held out his empty soju glass again, and Jinseo filled it with a wry smile.
Gulp, gulp.
After drinking three bottles of soju by himself, Jeongguk set a soju glass down in front of Jinseo this time.
"Hyung, want a glass too? I think we'll only really talk properly if you drink a bit."
"No. I'm not drinking today. I drove the food truck here."
Jinseo found another reason—within Korea—to not drink.
He was afraid that if he got drunk, he might ramble about what happened in the otherworld.
No one would believe it, of course, but he absolutely did not want to end up in a situation where he was treated like a lunatic.
"So the food truck's doing well?"
"Yeah, more or less. What about you—what do you do these days?"
"Somehow, I ended up working in this field."
With his face slightly red, Jeongguk took out a business card and handed it to Jinseo.
"It's just a private detective agency."
"Yeah?"
Jinseo reacted like it was nothing and put a properly cooked striploin into his mouth.
"Hyung really is different."
"Different how?"
"Other people frown the moment they see the card. Even family… too."
"Hm… I don't really know what to say."
"You were different even in the army. Out of all the older guys, you were the only one who never laid a hand on me too."
Jeongguk poured soju into his mouth as he revealed secrets he had never been able to say during service.
"So if you ever need something, just tell me anytime. It's you, hyung, so I'll do it much cheaper. Honestly, I want to do it for free, but I'm not in a position for that yet…"
"Well, I don't really have anything to ask—"
Jinseo was about to answer that he didn't, but when he saw his phone's lock screen, he changed his mind.
Up to now, he had thrown himself into selling food from the truck to achieve his wish, and he had accepted the abnormal situation—being able to go back and forth between worlds—without doubting it too deeply.
It wasn't that he never wondered who made this food truck, or why.
He had also questioned why the food truck existed in Korea—of all places—where there was no magic.
But from Jinseo's perspective, he had no way to resolve those questions, and it did not seem like something a private detective could solve either.
Still, he thought it might be worth finding out at least the food truck's concrete origin, if only to prepare for any sudden situation.
"Can I ask you a favor?"
Jinseo pulled a crumpled business card from his wallet and handed it to Jeongguk.
It was the card he received when he bought the food truck.
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