Chapter 8. Preparing Dinner
After finishing the room tour, Eun-chae went into the kitchen, tying on an apron.
"Gran, is there anything I can help with?"
Without stopping her hands in front of the cutting board, Grandma answered.
"Wash your hands and come back to mix the greens."
Eun-chae hurried to wash her hands and stood beside her. Blanched spinach sat in a colander.
"Do I just mix this?"
"Squeeze all the water out first. That way, the seasoning will soak in."
Eun-chae took the spinach in small handfuls and squeezed hard. More water came out than she'd expected.
"Is this enough?"
Grandma touched it with her fingertips and nodded.
"That's good. Now add some sesame oil, salt, and minced garlic, then mix it."
Eun-chae added everything in order and gently tossed it with her hands. The smell of sesame oil clung to her fingertips.
"Gran, are we making dinner for the guests and ourselves together tonight?"
"No. We're only serving breakfast today. The guests said they'd go out and find dinner themselves."
"Oh, thank goodness."
"What's so great about that?"
"I wasn't sure I could handle worrying about dinner, too."
Grandma gave a short laugh and moved on to the next side dish. It was stir-fried anchovies.
"I'll take care of this, so you get the table ready."
Eun-chae took bowls out of the cupboard. This wasn't a dinner table for the guests, but for the two of them. As she counted the bowls, a thought occurred to her.
"Gran, how many servings of breakfast should we prepare for tomorrow morning?"
"Two guests and the two of us. Make enough for four."
"How do we decide how much to make?"
"Make plenty of soup, but just enough side dishes. It's a waste if there's leftovers, and if there's not enough, the guests will feel awkward."
Eun-chae wrote that down in her notebook, too. In just a few days, the notebook had gotten noticeably thicker.
The smell of stir-fried anchovies filled the kitchen. Grandma turned off the heat and transferred them to a plate.
"All right, let's set the table."
Together, they carried the table out to the veranda. The evening sunlight was turning the yard red. Through the second-floor window, the guests' shadows moved as they unpacked their luggage.
"Gran, when I was giving the room tour earlier, didn't my voice sound weird?"
"It shook a little. But that much is fine."
"Do you think I can stop shaking next time?"
"You'll get better after you do it a few more times. My hands shook, too, when I first started."
Eun-chae smiled as she picked up her spoon. Across the yard, the guests seemed to have finished unpacking and were taking pictures of the scenery with a camera.
Still holding her spoon, Eun-chae asked,
"Gran, tell me about the first time you took in guests. I'm really curious."
Grandma took a spoonful of soup and fell briefly into thought.
"It was more than thirty years ago, so my memory's fuzzy... But guests came that afternoon, too."
"How many were there?"
"A married couple. They said they were on their honeymoon. Pretty similar to those guests now."
Eun-chae stopped with her chopsticks halfway to her mouth and looked at Grandma.
"So what happened?"
"I gave them the wrong room number. I told them 203 instead of 202. They stood outside the door for quite a while, apparently."
"Oh my gosh. How did you find out?"
"They came down at dinner and told me. Laughing."
"They weren't mad?"
"They thought it was funny. They said, 'That's how country guesthouses are, right?'"
Eun-chae laughed at the story. When she imagined it, it seemed like a cute mistake.
"Did you make any other mistakes?"
Grandma picked up some stir-fried anchovies and continued.
"Once, I knocked over an entire pot of soup while setting out breakfast. Thirty minutes before the guests were supposed to arrive."
"And then?"
"I hurried and made it again. I told the guests breakfast would be a little late and asked them to understand."
"What did they say?"
"They said it was fine and to take my time. They felt bad that I was apologizing, so they ended up apologizing even more."
Eun-chae nodded at that. It was strangely comforting to realize that it was okay to make mistakes.
"So you made a lot of mistakes, too, Gran."
"Of course. Who goes thirty years without making a single mistake?"
"But why do you seem so perfect now?"
Grandma gave a short laugh.
"I'm not perfect. I've just gotten better with every mistake I've made."
Eun-chae turned that over in her mind as she took a bite of rice. More than half the side dishes on the table had disappeared before she knew it.
"I think I must've made a few mistakes today, too."
"You did. You mixed up the order of your words when you greeted them."
"Wait, they noticed?"
"The guests probably didn't. I was the only one who knew."
Eun-chae set down her chopsticks and burst out laughing. Darkness had settled over the yard by then. As dinner was nearly over, they heard movement upstairs.
"Excuse me."
The male guest came down the stairs and spoke hesitantly. When Eun-chae started to get up, Grandma gestured for her to sit back down first.
"Go ahead. What is it?"
Grandma answered for her. The man hesitated at the bottom of the stairs before asking,
"Would you happen to know of any restaurants nearby that stay open late? We got the time wrong, and the place we'd booked had already closed."
Eun-chae's mind went blank. That question hadn't come up during yesterday's practice. She had no idea what to say, so she looked at Grandma.
Instead of answering for her, Grandma gave Eun-chae a meaningful look. It was her way of saying, You try.
"Um... just a moment. Let me check."
Eun-chae took out her phone and opened the map app. Her hands were shaking, and she kept mistyping her search. It took her three tries to finally search for "restaurants nearby."
"There's a gukbap restaurant about ten minutes away by car. It says they're open until nine."
"Oh, thank you."
The man bowed his head and went back up the stairs. Only then did Eun-chae let out the breath she'd been holding.
"Why didn't you help me earlier? I was completely lost."
Grandma picked up her spoon again and answered,
"If I helped you, you wouldn't learn anything."
"But I was so awkward."
"You gave him an answer, even if you were awkward. That's enough."
Eun-chae fidgeted with her chopsticks, replaying what had just happened. Her hand shaking as she searched the map, the typos—all of it felt embarrassing.
"Gran, how many mistakes did I make just today? I got the greeting mixed up, and then I got completely lost just now."
Grandma set down her soup bowl and looked Eun-chae straight in the eye.
"Becoming perfect doesn't mean never making mistakes."
Eun-chae raised her head.
"Then what does it mean?"
"You don't become perfect by counting how many times you make mistakes. You become perfect by learning how to make up for them. No one can be perfect from the start. You make mistakes because it's your first time."
Eun-chae couldn't answer. The mistakes she'd made throughout the day suddenly looked different.
"So every mistake you made today is an asset. You won't make the same ones next time, will you?"
"...I guess not."
Eun-chae picked up her chopsticks again. Darkness had completely settled over the yard, and warm light spilled from the second-floor windows.
After clearing the dinner table, Eun-chae started washing the dishes. Grandma dried them beside her and set them on the dish rack.
"Gran, I should write that down from earlier."
"Write what down?"
"A list of restaurants nearby. So I won't get lost every time a guest asks."
Eun-chae dried her hands and brought over her laptop. She created a new sheet in the spreadsheet. *Around Here*—restaurants, convenience stores, hospitals, pharmacies.
"The gukbap restaurant is ten minutes away and open until nine."
Eun-chae muttered as she typed. Grandma called out a few more places beside her.
"The market in the town center is open until eight. The pharmacy closes at seven."
"I'll write those down, too."
The list filled up one item at a time. Eun-chae happened to notice the new tab she'd opened beside the to-do list she'd made a few days earlier, and smiled. It was similar to the documents she'd made at the office, but her mindset was completely different.
When she finished washing the dishes and tidying up, Eun-chae stepped into the yard. The night air was cool. The light from the second-floor windows cast a soft glow all the way into the yard.
"Gran, what time did the guests say they were leaving tomorrow?"
"Checkout at ten. Breakfast at eight."
"Then I have to get up at six thirty tomorrow."
"Go to bed early tonight."
Eun-chae sat on the veranda and looked up at the sky. There seemed to be an unusual number of stars. When she worked at the company, she hadn't even had time to look up at the sky.
"Gran, today was such a long day."
"It was. But tomorrow will be even longer."
"Why?"
"You have to handle checkout, clean the rooms, and get ready for next week's guests. The fire inspection is Tuesday, too."
Eun-chae let out a small laugh. Her workload seemed to keep growing instead of shrinking, but strangely, it didn't feel overwhelming.
"You were right, Gran. There really isn't a day when everything is finished."
"But that's not a bad thing. Having things to do means you're alive."
Eun-chae turned that over in her mind and looked up at the sky again. One star was shining especially brightly.
Before going into her room, Eun-chae took out her phone and flipped through the pictures she'd taken that day. Pictures of the yard, the kitchen garden, and the potted plant by the window that the guests had liked.
The last page of her photo album held the whole day just as it was.
"Let's do our best tomorrow, too."
Eun-chae murmured to herself and closed the door.
Author's Note Eun-chae's day of welcoming her first guests has come to an end. I'll continue depicting how she gradually finds her place, even as she makes mistakes along the way.