There was some strange business going on, and it had nothing to do with the declining restaurant. Or, well, maybe it did, but so far the bad omens seemed directed at her. First it was the fortune cookie and then the mysterious note, not to mention the strange gift with the rose. Someone clearly did not want her here, and she was going to look at Koreyums in further detail.

"Suzy," Ji Eun called her dongsaeng over from where she had been clearing a table. Lunch hour was over – not to say that there had been a rush of patrons – but it meant that she would be able to talk to Suzy in private.

"So it's been awhile, and nothing has really improved," Ji Eun started and held up a hand to cut off a protest from Suzy. She continued, "There's nothing wrong with the restaurant itself, nor the food or the staff. But I do think that there's something off about dinner, specifically the end of it."

Suzy looked confused. "Dessert?"

Ji Eun shook her head. "Fortune cookies."

Her eyes widened slightly and she blinked. She ran a hand through her side bangs. "Fortune cookies? What's wrong with them?" Suzy peered down at the older with inquisitive eyes. "Did you get a bad fortune?"

Ji Eun hesitated, but she had the urge to tell her dongsaeng everything, so she did. Suzy had her hands to in concern, and she never took her eyes off her while Ji Eun retold some of the latest event, even when Lee Sungmin came in.

"That's horrible!" Suzy quavered and Sungmin peeked over her shoulder.

"What's horrible?" he inquired and Suzy jumped. She looked at Ji Eun to see if it was okay to tell him and she nodded. Like Suzy, he gave them his full attention and his cute face turned hotly serious.

"That's terrible," he sympathized and looked firm when he said, "We have to do something about this."

Ji Eun nodded. "It's probably not just me, because after all the guests open their fortune cookies, they look at it weirdly, and then at each other..."

"Huh. That's weird. We get our cookies from a trusted supplier..." Suzy shrugged. "So what do we so? Open every fortune cookie?"

******

"Why did I ever ask?" she grumbled as she cracked open another parting treat.

Even among the three of them giving the task their full attention, it took hours to unwrap, break and quickly read through the fortune cookies. By now, Suzy had gotten a mini hammer and smashed the cookies to release her impatience.

"I can't believe we didn't find anything," Ji Eun expressed her frustration as she tossed another cookie into their pile. They were all seemingly harmless enough. 'You will meet a good friend in the future.' 'Be kind to others. You might find it rewarding,' etc.

"Well, at least now we don't have any chance of giving out a bad fortune," Suzy said, referring to the empty manufacturer's box. Ji Eun was about to apologize for the wasted efforts and money, but Suzy simply smiled good-naturedly to show that she didn't mind.

"I don't understand," Ji Eun frowned and brushed away a lock of her hair that had fallen in front of her face. "I could have sworn that was it."

There was a long pause. "What did that note say again?" Sungmin queried. "Something about you working as a chef?"

"Oh." The words showed up clearly in Ji Eun's mind, as fresh as the first and only time she laid eyes on it. "It was, quote, 'Working as the chef, now? It's the most dangerous job at the restaurant. Did you hear what happened to the last few?'"

Sungmin's eyebrows knitted together in concentration and Ji Eun had to note how different he looked when he was serious.

"What did happen to the last few?" he asked, turning to Suzy.

Suzy looked more than a little uncomfortable and took a sip of water slowly before answering. "I don't really know the details," she avoided. "Dad usually handles the management of the restaurant and all that."

"Does he tell you everything?" Sungmin persisted.

Suzy defended herself quickly by saying, "Of course!" The hot flash in her eye that had arisen cooled down just as quickly as it had appeared. "Sorry," she apologized. "We got into a fight recently."

"No problem," Sungmin replied easily, not questioning the incident and his eyes coaxing her to go on.

"We've only had three chefs before Ji Eunnie," she began, resting her forearms on the table and leaning forward slightly. "The first one didn't last very long – only a couple of years—"

"What happened?" Ji Eun couldn't resist interjecting. Curiosity got the best of her.

Suzy fidgeted. "He... died. But he was old," she hastened to say. "Shisus bless him."

They allowed a moment or two to pass with complete silence out of respect. "The other one?" Sungmin urged.

"The second one lasted the longest – five years ish? Six? He quit. Said something about not getting paid enough for what he did." She shrugged. "Then again, he also kind of cut his finger off on the job..."

Ji Eun and Sungmin exchanged looks of horror, disgust, and astonishment. "Too much information? My bad," Suzy glanced down sheepishly.

"The third...?" Ji Eun didn't even want to know at this point, but it was best to get it over with.

"He's been here for about three years. Nice guy," Suzy mused. "He called in sick the other day. I'm not sure what it is, but I think it's serious. We've only heard from his wife, who said that he couldn't even come to the phone."

"That's really unfortunate," said Ji Eun somberly.

"And unlucky," Sungmin added, still deep in thought. "There doesn't seem to be a pattern, does there?"

"No, not really," Ji Eun answered, shaking her head.

"Huh. Has anything bad happened to anyone else who works here?" he asked no one in particular.

Suzy thought for a moment. "No, I don't think so. We're a family-run business, so the only outsider we've hired was the chef. Oh, with the exception of unni, here," she said, smiling at Ji Eun fondly. "But you know we consider you family."

Ji Eun gave her an eye smile. She was about to comment when Sungmin asked Suzy another question. "So you said that this place used to be really successful – what happened?"

Suzy shrugged. "I don't know. We opened about eleven years ago, so I was only six. I only started working here about three years ago. They said that after a year, business dropped. Economy or something."

"Economy…" Ji Eun was never all that into that kind of stuff. So why did she not believe it? She wasn't one to judge.

"I thought that the economy was actually growing fast at that time." The two girls looked at Sungmin blankly and he shrugged. "I'm like, six years or more older than you guys. I have to know this stuff."

"So the economy was growing, but abeoji – Suzy's father – said that the economy hit them? And business dropped?" Ji Eun inquired curiously, looking between the two. Suzy looked puzzled and Sungmin just nodded.

"It was – and is – still growing. Well, save for the post Miracle on the Han River, which I won't get into since I see that I've already lost you guys." He regarded their bored expressions with amusement.

"I see." It was strange. There was, of course, the possibility that the restaurant was very unlucky. But, there must be a reason why no one wanted to come to Koreyums and she said so.

"You know, newspapers tell it all," Sungmin remarked and they looked at him like he was suddenly an adult figure – not that he wasn't already. He just didn't look like one. "Really," he said, not unlike a salesman convincing them to buy a product. "Back then, the Internet wasn't so predominant and more people looked to the newspaper for news. They almost always report on bad news or gossip."

"Huh. Well, my dad always collects newspapers," said Suzy. "Or more like – he never throws them away, even if they're really old. He keeps them in there." She pointed to the podium across the restaurant at the front, where there must have been a storage space. "We can check there," she offered.

"Let's do it," said Sungmin and they got up, leaving the mess of forgotten fortune cookies for the poor janitor to clean up.