In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

“Phew.”

He wiped the sweat beading on his forehead and the back of his neck with a handkerchief.

His whole body was drenched in sweat.

It was hard work, but the heat pouring out of the oven made it feel like he was going to die.

He took a moment to catch his breath as he watched the bread turning golden inside the oven.

“Hoo...”

He grabbed the corner of the kitchen table and took a deep breath. Thick drops of sweat rolled down his sideburns.

Why did he feel so out of it?

His vision turned white for a moment, then colorful spots drifted across his sight.

He sniffed as he wiped his sweat with the handkerchief.

“Bi-ju, why does this handkerchief smell like a rag?”

“It actually is a rag, hyung.”

“Oh.”

He laughed awkwardly and put down the rag, earning a twitch of the cameraman’s cheek.

Bi-ju smiled and handed him a glass of iced fruit juice.

“I had a little free time, so I made some fresh juice. Drink it to cool down, hyung.”

“Oh, thanks. What’s in it?”

“Apple.”

He hastily pulled his mouth away from the straw and looked at Bi-ju’s drink.

“What’s this?”

“This is apple ade. Want me to swap them?”

“...Ah, no. It’s fine.”

“Please taste it quick and tell me how it is, hyung.”

Since Bi-ju’s eyes were shining as he looked at him, he took a sip and gave a thumbs-up.

When he said it was good, Bi-ju smiled happily.

He brushed a strand of Bi-ju’s hair off his forehead and asked,

“Is it manageable?”

“Yes, it’s manageable. It’s fun too.”

“If it gets too hard, just tell me anytime. We have our priorities.”

What mattered most for them was tomorrow’s showcase.

Being energetic on the variety show was important, but if they overdid it and something went wrong, that would be a bigger loss.

Just then, Myeong Se-jin, having finished talking with Chef Park, approached.

“How are you doing? Are you resting a bit?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Wow, everyone’s sweating so much. I’m sorry. It’s tough, isn’t it?”

When the pâtissier looked apologetic, he made a joke.

“I’m realizing anew that this isn’t something just anyone can do.”

He meant it sincerely.

It made him think there was a reason professionals existed.

You had to know various theories and facts about desserts, handle kitchen equipment well, and have an aesthetic sense. On top of that, you needed strong muscles.

The work he and Bi-ju were doing was just the part that required strength without much thought, yet it was hard enough.

He looked at the tiny pâtissier who usually did this work alone with admiration.

“You’re amazing. Bi-ju and I are exhausted just doing this for a bit, dripping sweat all over.”

“You’re too humble.”

She chuckled softly.

“You both did so well. Watching you knead the dough made me jealous. How did you get it right on the first try?”

“It’s thanks to Chef’s advice.”

“No, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) it’s not....”

She mumbled to herself, looking puzzled, and he just smiled.

It was after watching a master that he managed to imitate her, but she seemed to think he had talent.

He couldn’t explain otherwise.

Fortunately, her gaze shifted to the oven, averting the moment of crisis.

“...”

Maybe because of the reddish glow from the oven, her round eyes seemed to sparkle unusually.

Watching the cookies and bread with loving eyes, he asked,

“You really love bread, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

She kept her eyes fixed on the oven, smiling.

“Watching it makes me happy. Touching the dough does too. I love bread. When I feel down, I knead dough to lift my spirits. It relieves stress, you could say.”

He understood the feeling.

It was like how he made songs to relieve stress.

Myeong Se-jin, smiling warmly at the bread, turned to look at them.

“Thank you. Really.”

“Oh, no.”

“Yes, please don’t. It’s embarrassing... for us.”

He and Bi-ju waved their hands awkwardly, but she shook her head.

“It’s been my dream for a long time. Introducing my desserts overseas. Without Chef Park and the NewBlack members, today would have been terrible.”

“...”

“Thank you for your help.”

Watching her sincerely thanking them, he and Bi-ju waved their hands, then smiled with pride.

The warmth transmitted fully, making him feel soft inside.

As the friendly atmosphere lingered, she said,

“We’ve secured enough quantity now. Chef Park and I can handle the rest. How about you two take a break and head to the hall?”

He asked,

“Are you both sure you’re okay on your own?”

“Yes, it’s enough.”

As if saying they’d done more than enough, Myeong Se-jin told them to rest. Chef Park Jae-woo nodded and joined in.

“You both worked hard.”

“We...”

“Go on! Take a little rest.”

The chef and the pâtissier gently pushed them out of the kitchen.

He wondered why they were being so forceful until he saw his reflection in the dressing room mirror and realized why.

Bi-ju blinked.

“We look like we just got hit by a flour bomb, hyung.”

“...Right, it really was too much to look at.”

Flour covered their sweat-soaked faces, decorating their nose bridges and cheeks.

He and Bi-ju laughed for a long time, then stood before the mirror and took a selfie.

After changing into their spare uniforms and putting their mics back on, they headed to the hall without a moment’s rest.

It was to return to their original mission.

Bi-ju asked anxiously,

“They should be doing fine, right?”

“Don’t worry too much. They’ll be fine. Surely nothing disastrous will happen while we’re gone, right?”

He smiled confidently.

He had already warned the younger members about what to watch out for before starting the serving part-time job.

As long as they followed that, there’d be no problem.

Walking down the corridor from the kitchen toward the hall, Bi-ju said,

“I’m still a bit nervous. Even though Senior Yoo Chang-hyun is there, Jung-hyun and Ji-ho...”

“Don’t worry too much. Those guys... oh my. What is this.”

Clang!

A loud crash made them stop in their tracks.

“Sorry! I’m so sorry!”

They first saw the shattered plates everywhere.

And their youngest, frozen in panic, stammering.

“...”

Yoo Chang-hyun, carrying plates back toward the kitchen, called out in a flustered voice,

“Clean that up, you guys!”

“Yes, we’ll go right away!”

Ri-hyuk, using a dustpan to collect the shards, hit his head on a nearby table and burst into tears.

“Ágh!”

Jung-hyun looked around bewildered, trying to remember which menu was where.

Watching this novel disaster, he and Bi-ju could only stare in disbelief.

“...”

Then Ri-hyuk, having spotted him and Bi-ju, hurried over.

His face had turned as white as paper.

“Help me.”

A short, desperate plea. He asked,

“What happened here? It was fine when we left.”

“It was okay at first. At first. The atmosphere was good.”

Listening to the sequence of events, it made sense.

At opening, customers had come in steadily, but as time passed they came in at a rapid pace.

Once it surpassed a normal level, the inexperienced part-timers panicked.

One thing got tangled and then everything else got tangled.

Like earphone cords that, once brushed, got completely knotted.

“Because it’s for broadcast they’re laughing it off, but we’re one step away from an explosion.”

Ri-hyuk nodded toward a table, and indeed it looked that way.

Some customers just tapped their phone lock screens to check the time, or fiddled with forks or napkins.

With expressions that said “When will our order come?”

He murmured,

“...This is a real problem here too.”

In the kitchen, the bread baker had sprained his wrist, and here the younger members were overwhelmed by the flood of customers.

To him, this was even more serious.

After all, today they were on the show as part-time workers.

They were surprise baking helpers, a useful addition, but their real job was serving.

“What should we do, hyung?”

At Bi-ju’s question, Ri-hyuk also looked at him.

They seemed to expect him to know a solution, so he turned away.

He quickly scanned the hall situation.

After grasping the main issues, he told Ri-hyuk to gather the others.

“Bring the others over.”

They needed to divide roles.

Having roughly finished the dishes and returning to the hall, Yoo Chang-hyun scratched the back of his head in annoyance.

“This is insane.”

He didn’t know when it happened, but the hall had turned into a mess.

“Why are there so many customers?”

He had tried various part-time jobs before passing the comedian audition, but never with this many customers.

Orders came pouring in, he ran between kitchen and hall, washed dishes.

Everyone was working hard, yet the more they worked, the more dissatisfied the customers seemed.

“Excuse me, we ordered a while ago, but their order came out before ours.”

“Pardon?”

“Theirs came out first.”

“I’m not sure I understand...”

The biggest problem was the language.

Although they could speak some Chinese, it was so noisy that unfamiliar languages didn’t register well.

“We need Jin-min here. Of all times, the bread god descended....”

If Sun Woo-joo weren’t so skilled at kneading, he would have swapped him with another member and brought Jin-min in at once.

Yoo Chang-hyun let out a small sigh out of the camera’s view.

“What are we going to do with this.”

Just when he felt overwhelmed, he saw Woo-joo and Bi-ju returning, and brightened.

Woo-joo gathered the members and spoke to them calmly.

“Then let’s do it that way. Okay?”

Seeing everyone nod, Woo-joo smiled and patted their shoulders.

“He really is a leader.”

Admiring how maturely he reassured the members, Yoo Chang-hyun nodded, and then approached.

“Did you have some kind of meeting?”

“We divided up the tasks a bit.”

“Task division? What... ah, an order’s come in. Woo-joo, could you go take the order there?”

“Yes, sunbaenim.”

Woo-joo strolled between the tables and greeted the customers. Yoo Chang-hyun moved when someone called him from elsewhere.

And then.

“What is this?”

From that moment, the oppressive scene—like hundreds of cars stuck in a tunnel—began to change gradually.

He hadn’t noticed at first, but he could feel it in the atmosphere.

Something tense had loosened, becoming more friendly.

Before customers who asked him to recommend dishes, Woo-joo crouched to their level and took orders with ease.

“Ha ha ha, did you really make this?”

“It was hard to make. Shall I bring this as a side menu?”

“Yes, please!”

“And what would you like for drinks? My recommendation? This one—it’s tasty and low on sugar.”

Joking that a diet cola would suit greasy food drew smiles from the customers.

“He’s good at this.”

At first he thought it was because Woo-joo spoke Chinese fluently like a local.

But the more he watched, the more he realized it was something else.

There were still plenty of customers and a bustle, but everything seemed so much more relaxed.

“Ah!”

Only then did he notice the change and recall Woo-joo’s words.

–We divided up the tasks a bit.

And indeed, tasks were divided.

He first saw Ri-hyuk with his notebook.

“Ri-hyuk, two injeolmi bingsu and a cream-filled donut for table ten.”

“Ri-hyuk hyung, table eight wants an ade refill!”

Whenever members called, Ri-hyuk recorded the sequence of orders like a central control tower and then relayed them.

“Bi-ju, take that menu to table seven first.”

By serving earlier orders first, the customers’ complaints eased.

“Are those two on simple tasks?”

Jung-hyun and Ji-ho, who struggled with complex tasks, were given simple but important jobs.

They noticed empty cups or napkins and immediately refilled them.

Jung-hyun moved around with a friendly smile carrying a pitcher.

“Need more water?”

“Yes...”

“Here you go. Water.”

“Wow, say it again. What you just said.”

Somehow, the customers clapped and cheered among themselves, seeming very satisfied.

“I’ll bring you a refill.”

Ji-ho also went around cheerfully offering whatever customers needed.

Since they avoided complicated tasks, they both looked much more at ease.

“The dishes must be Bi-ju’s job...?”

After taking orders, Bi-ju washed dishes whenever Jung-hyun and Ji-ho cleared plates.

“And Woo-joo....”

He was everywhere.

Wherever he went, Woo-joo greeted with a gentle smile.

“Sunbaenim~”

If he carried plates to the kitchen, Bi-ju was already at the sink wearing rubber gloves.

“Sunbaenim~”

“...?”

If he went to take orders, he approached bored-looking customers with a warm smile and spoke.

“Sunbaenim~”

“....”

When they went to set a new table, Woo-joo had already neatly arranged forks and spoons side by side.

He flicked a napkin lightly with his hand and folded it perfectly in an instant.

He looked like a waiter with ten years’ experience at a high-end restaurant.

“He appears everywhere in an instant....”

Like an ideal part-timer in other realms.

Then Woo-joo turned, saw him, and greeted,

“Sunbaenim~”

“...Tell me honestly. How many bodies do you have?”

“Um... just one.”

Don’t overthink it. It really looks like more than one.

Watching him move around as if using a cloning technique, he could only click his tongue.

Suddenly, Yeo Hee-yeon’s voice floated into his mind.

–You’re good at your work. Really good.

When he helped with the baking it was just amazing, but seeing him serve like that...

“He really is amazing.”

If he were an employer somewhere, he would hire him immediately at a high salary.

In plain terms, he had an incredible knack for work.

He picked up unfamiliar tasks in an instant and, in spare moments, found more tasks and handled them himself.

“Woo-joo, you’re on bingsu duty, right?”

“Woo-joo, you’re refilling the dish soap here, right?”

Each time people called him, the cast watched in admiration as Woo-joo moved like he was teleporting.

Chef Park Jae-woo said,

“That kid could survive anywhere. Just one rookie like that and you wouldn’t envy anyone.”

“NewBlack are all like that. They work well.”

Not only Woo-joo, but all the members received praise.

Of course, the other members also handled unfamiliar work smoothly.

But to Yoo Chang-hyun, that was possible because someone led them well.

“They’re in perfect sync.”

Quickly sorting tasks and assigning them according to each member’s strengths.

At first, he couldn’t understand why the NewBlack members spoke with pride and looked at their leader with familial trust, but now he understood.

“I don’t know about other teams....”

He didn’t know how part-timers fared with teams abroad, but to him, NewBlack were the best part-timers.

Yet on the other hand....

“Sunbaenim~”

“Ah! You startled me!”

He stopped as Sun Woo-joo flung open the bathroom door behind him, making his heart race.

“What kind of fragrance ad is this? Please announce your arrival, Woo-joo.”

“Sorry.”

Woo-joo gave an awkward smile and was about to move away when he noticed something unusual about his footsteps.

Now that he thought about it, the way he appeared silently seemed connected to those peculiar steps.

“Woo-joo.”

“Yes?”

“What kind of walk is that?”

“Oh, this?”

Woo-joo smiled and answered,

“It’s Masai walking.”

“....”

Watching Woo-joo slip away smoothly like that, Yoo Chang-hyun blinked.

“He’s not normal either.”