# Episode 19. Festival Preparations
After finishing the dinner dishes, Eun-chae sat on the veranda and turned her phone back on. There were even more comments on the post she had uploaded earlier.
*"Wow, I'm really looking forward to the kitchen garden experience!"*
Eun-chae replied to the comment.
*"Thank you! We're planning to hold it during next month's village festival. I'll post another announcement once the date is set :)"*
She moved on to the next comment.
*"The way you made kimchi looks so warm and homey haha"*
*"I got to properly learn the art of homemade cooking for the first time in ages! It might be fun to make it together with the guests next time haha"*
As she replied, an idea suddenly occurred to Eun-chae. She wondered if she could add making seasonal foods to the guest experience program.
She moved on to the next comment.
*"Where is the guesthouse located?? I'd love to visit too"*
Eun-chae thought for a moment before replying.
*"It's in a small village in Chungcheong-do! There's a booking link on my profile, so please check it out :)"*
She answered a few more comments, then noticed an interesting one from an unfamiliar account.
*"Can we bring our pets? I travel with my dog and I'm interested!"*
Eun-chae happily replied.
*"Yes, dogs are welcome! The yard is spacious, so they'll be able to relax comfortably. Send me a DM and I'll give you all the details :)"*
By the time she had answered each comment, thirty minutes had flown by. Eun-chae gave the entire post one last look and smiled with satisfaction.
"Gran, I just replied to every comment. People are really reacting well."
Grandma came out of the kitchen, sat beside her, and looked at the screen.
"Answering each one like this counts as advertising too?"
"Yeah. When you reply thoughtfully to comments, people trust you more. It makes them feel like you're paying attention to them."
Grandma nodded, seeming intrigued by the idea.
"Back in the day, all you could do was look each guest in the face and attend to them. Now you do it all through a screen, too."
"The method is different, but I think it's ultimately the same. Putting care into it."
Grandma gave a faint smile and lightly tapped Eun-chae on the shoulder.
"You've really grown."
"Doing it online is just good for promoting the place these days."
Eun-chae set down her phone as she spoke. Grandma nodded and looked out at the yard.
"Back then, word of mouth was everything. These days, one little screen like that can spread the word across the whole world."
"That's true. But it's not all good. If one bad review gets posted, that spreads just as quickly."
"Then you'll have to pay even more attention."
"Exactly. That's why I think it's become even more important to put real care into every guest. Before, you only had to worry about the guest right in front of you, but now you have to think about all the invisible people behind them, too."
Grandma mulled over her words as she looked at Eun-chae.
"Knowing that you understand all that puts my mind at ease."
"What does?"
"It makes me feel like I can hand this guesthouse over to you."
Eun-chae's heart swelled at those words. The proposal Grandma had cautiously made when she first arrived now felt completely different, carrying an entirely new weight.
"Gran, I'm really doing a good job, right?"
"You are. You don't have anything to worry about."
Eun-chae held those words close and picked up her phone again. As she calculated how much time remained until the festival, she began thinking through the things she needed to prepare, one by one.
"Gran, what should I do first to get ready for the festival booth?"
Grandma thought for a moment before answering.
"First, you need to ask the village chief about the detailed schedule and the booth size. You can't decide what to prepare until you know that."
"I should go see the village chief tomorrow."
"All right. Want me to come with you?"
"No, I'll go by myself this time. I can handle things like this on my own now."
Grandma looked pleased by her answer.
"You've really grown up."
Eun-chae opened a spreadsheet and created a new sheet. *Festival Preparations*. She began filling in the items one by one.
*Meeting with the village chief (confirm booth size and schedule)* *Plan the kitchen garden experience program* *Create promotional materials for the booth* *Pre-promote on Instagram*
As the list filled up, Eun-chae felt her heart begin to race again. It was a different kind of excitement from the first time she had welcomed guests.
"Gran, I really want to do a good job preparing for this festival."
"You will."
Darkness had fully settled over the yard before she knew it. Beneath the starlight, the lettuce and herbs in the kitchen garden quietly held their places.
The next morning, Eun-chae headed to the village hall to meet the village chief. Unlike during the kimchi-making gathering the day before, the hall was quiet.
The village chief was sitting at his office desk, sorting through paperwork.
"Hello, Chief. I came about the festival booth you mentioned yesterday."
"Oh, Eun-chae. Come on in."
The village chief pulled out a file and motioned for her to sit.
"The festival will be held over two days, Saturday and Sunday, on the third weekend of next month. It'll take place in the plaza in front of the village hall."
"How big will the booth be?"
"About three meters wide and two meters deep. We'll set up the table and canopy for you."
Eun-chae took notes in her notebook and asked another question.
"What got the best response at past festivals?"
"Hands-on activities were popular. Things people could make or eat themselves. And it's important to have something good for taking pictures, too."
Eun-chae nodded. The kitchen garden experience she had thought of yesterday seemed to be headed in the right direction.
"I was thinking of having people pick fresh lettuce from the kitchen garden and make lettuce wraps to eat. What do you think?"
The village chief looked interested.
"That sounds good. But you can't pick the lettuce right there on the day of the festival, so you'll have to think about how to prepare it."
"Oh, right. Then I'll have to pick it ahead of time and bring it with me."
"Keeping it fresh will be the key. It should be fine if you bring it in a cooler."
Eun-chae wrote that down in her notebook, too. There was more to consider in setting up a single booth than she had expected.
"You'll also need to fill out a booth application. Here, this is the form."
The village chief handed her a sheet of paper. There were spaces for the business name, a program description, necessary supplies, and more.
"Do I need to fill this out and submit it today?"
"No, you just need to turn it in by next week. Take your time filling it out."
Eun-chae accepted the form and left the village hall. The booth size, the direction of the experience program, the application—she now had a clear idea of what she needed to prepare just from the information she had gathered that day.
On the way back, Eun-chae opened her spreadsheet and updated the list.
*Meeting with the village chief (confirm booth size and schedule)* → Complete *Plan the kitchen garden experience program (lettuce-wrap experience, figure out how to keep it fresh)* → In progress *Fill out booth application* → Not started
When Eun-chae arrived back at the guesthouse, Grandma was tending the kitchen garden in the yard.
"Gran, I met with the village chief. I confirmed the booth size and schedule."
"How did it go?"
"He said hands-on activities are really popular. I want to do a lettuce-wrap experience, but keeping the lettuce fresh is the problem."
Grandma thought for a moment before speaking.
"Just fill a cooler with ice and take it with you. It's nothing difficult."
"Oh, right."
Eun-chae laughed at how simple the solution was. There was no need to worry about it for days; one sentence from Grandma had settled the matter.
Eun-chae spread the booth application out on the veranda and began filling in the blanks one by one.
*Business name: Sandeul Haven Guesthouse* *Program description: Pick fresh lettuce from the kitchen garden and make lettuce wraps to eat*
Her hand stopped at the section for necessary supplies. A cooler, ssamjang, plates, wet wipes. As she wrote down everything that came to mind, the list grew longer.
"Gran, take a look. I wrote down everything we need. Is this right?"
Grandma looked over the form and pointed out a few more things.
"You'll need disposable gloves, too. The guests will be handling everything themselves."
"Oh, right. I almost forgot those."
Eun-chae added disposable gloves to the list. Once she finished the form, she realized anew that there was more to prepare than she had expected, and that she needed to be thorough.
"Gran, do you think this is enough?"
"Plenty. We'll figure out the rest when we get there that day."
As she put the form into an envelope, Eun-chae opened the spreadsheet again. She moved *Fill out booth application* to the completed section.
"Gran, now all I have to do is refine the kitchen garden experience program."
"It might be nice to serve something besides ssamjang and lettuce."
"Like what?"
"Those herbs you've planted over there. You could make rosemary-scented wet towels or something."
Eun-chae's eyes lit up at the idea.
"Oh, that's good! Rosemary wet towels would look great on Instagram, too."
"See? I know a thing or two now."
Laughing, Eun-chae added a new item to the list. *Prepare rosemary-scented wet towels*. There were more things to do with each passing day before the festival, but strangely, it didn't feel burdensome.
That evening, Eun-chae sat on the veranda and looked back over the day. The meeting with the village chief, filling out the application, the new idea. The closer the festival got, the more excited she felt.
"Gran, I'm really looking forward to this festival. It's the first time I'm preparing something together with the people from the village."
Grandma looked at Eun-chae, knitting needles in hand.
"You've really become one of this village's people now."
"I think so. It felt unfamiliar at first, but now this really feels like my place."
The yard was glowing red in the sunset. The lettuce and herbs in the kitchen garden swayed quietly in the evening light.
Author's Note
The festival preparations are officially underway. I'll continue showing Eun-chae fully settling into the village. Starting next chapter, we'll move on to the festival-day episodes. Thank you for staying with me this far.