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When Bae Won-woo first heard about the new part-timer, the part-timer was in the back helping with the grandmother.
"Hunter Bae! Did you hear?! There's a new worker!"
"Really? Someone finally responded to the poster outside? Is she a pretty auntie?" Bae Won-woo asks, thinking about how the poster the grandmother had posted outside a long time ago asked for Kitchen Aunties.
Team Leader Han laughs as he shakes his head, "Not a pretty auntie, but the grandmother's own grandson! I heard he's a second cousin eight times removed of the owner's grandnephew. He's a good kid, super smart too with how fast he's learning the ropes. Makes you wonder why he's not going to take the hunter civil servant exam or something, but a kid that filial's good too. Maybe he'll be the one who will pick up the owner's secret recipes and inherit the restaurant to keep it going."
Oh? As much as Bae Won-woo would love for someone to inherit the restaurant and keep it open, especially as each day goes by with things looking like the restaurant might close soon because of the grandmother's old age and declining health, that grandson of hers has to be super good to get any favor and compliments from him.
Bae Won-woo took his hangover soup seriously.
Team Leader Han smiled knowingly and said high praise for a fellow hangover soup fan like him. "I think the kid's going to pick it up. He really is a smart kid. But you know, in the mean time as he's learning how to master the owner's best hangover soup in the world, he's super cute." Team Leader Han winked. "Not an sexy or pretty auntie, but you'll see."
And Bae Won-woo soon does.
Bae Won-woo never thought he would be someone who fell in love at first sight, but the young man that walks out of the kitchen carrying two trays filled with dozens of earthenware bowls of hangover soup cannot be real. He's like an actor or a fae - something impossibly handsome and beautiful.
And when he smiles at customers, giving them their orders, and welcomes others and takes their orders, Bae Won-woo's sharp ears pick up the smooth cadence of his voice. It is like music to his ears.
"Welcome." The grandson makes it to his table at some point in time while Bae Won-woo is watching him utterly in a trance, so mesmerized by the grandson's appearance that he momentarily forgot his reason for being here, momentarily forgot his love for hangover soup.
"What would you like to order?" He asks gently, giving a polite bow of greeting. His lashes are fine as he looks up and their eyes meet.
"I... Uh..."
"You" "Two bowls of hangover soup and a lot of chili peppers." Bae Won-woo and Team Leader Han says at the same time, Team Leader Han having spoken up to help him order his usual order with a laugh.
Then they both turn to each other at the different replies, eyes widening as they take Bae Won-woo's words in.
And then Team Leader Han starts laughing, slapping Bae Won-woo on the back. "He really is super cute, isn't he?"
"No! He's more than that! He's really beautiful! Like I-don't-know-how-he's-real too beautiful!" Bae Won-woo automatically corrects. When he realizes that he had blurted that out like the idiot he is, he blushes and creakily turns to the grandson who is still there, waiting for their order.
The grandson blushes and Bae Won-woo wonders how it was possible for the grandson to be prettier.
"Um. Then I'll go get your order. I mean, not that order, but uh that order." The grandson finally says, flailing a little and then darting out of the room.
"He's going to have to learn how to master hangover soup before he can get your favor, huh?" Team Leader repeats Bae Won-woo's earlier words before bursting into laughter. The other Hunters, all traitors with super sensitive hearing, all laugh as well and Bae Won-woo buries his head into his arms on the table.
He's going to burrow himself into the center of the earth and never come back out. He thinks he has enough strength to dig such a deep hole.
The grandson returns with a fresh bowl of hangover soup and a bowl of peppers and Bae Won-woo's heart flips. He doesn't think it's possible to fall more in love. He's staying on the surface, so entrapped by this beautiful person with a beautiful soul and the best hangover soup in the world.
Not even a few months later, Bae Won-woo corrects himself in tears as he eats the hangover soup created by the grandson and somehow the grandmother's already perfect recipe is made better.
"Marry me." He pleads, proposes over the bowl he emptied within seconds. He wanted to eat this forever. He wanted to thank him, love him, show him his appreciation for just existing forever. He wants to hold onto him and never let go. "Please. I love you so much. How do you exist?"
Though Cha Eui-jae never answers that question, through Bae Won-woo's persistence and constant proposals and courting gifts, he eventually does give in.
Cha Eui-jae: his hangover soup fairy
The marriage is the best thing Bae Won-woo had ever done in his life.