In episode 5 of the tvN Monday-Tuesday drama ″Becoming a Cooking Soldier,″ starring Park Ji-hoon, Kang Sung-jae (Park Ji-hoon) is shown helping his mother Gong Soo-yeon (Seo Jung-yeon), who runs a food truck, during his first vacation. Even after returning home, Kang Sung-jae did not stop his passion for cooking and made various efforts to improve the taste of his mother’s tteokbokki.

During his vacation, Kang Sung-jae visited the food truck to personally check the cooking and analyze the problems. He pointed out that the sauce was too spicy and did not go well with the rice cakes. Together with his mother, he purchased ingredients and tried using rice cakes made from rice instead of wheat to improve the tteokbokki’s flavor. He also visited the famous local ″Ghost-Catching Tteokbokki″ restaurant and learned cooking from the owner Ha Byung-dae (Jin Goo).

In the process, Kang Sung-jae showed filial piety by giving the allowance collected by his seniors to his mother and spent time with his younger sibling Kang Eun-jae (Jo Yoo-ha). The tteokbokki shop owner gifted Kang Sung-jae a persimmon, which he added to the tteokbokki to enhance its umami and sweetness, attracting customers back to the food truck.

Meanwhile, in the military unit, Yoon Dong-hyun (Lee Hong-nae) had to postpone his vacation due to Kang Sung-jae’s leave. Kang Sung-jae received the allowance collected by the barracks members and went on a comforting vacation for new soldiers. Yoon Dong-hyun attempted cooking in the unit but failed to achieve satisfactory results. Also, Jo Ye-rin (Han Dong-hee) raised suspicions about the true nature of ″Nampyo Distribution,″ which supplies goods to the unit, and Yoon Dong-hyun boiled beef bones gifted by a member of the National Assembly for 20 hours to make beef bone soup.

Kang Sung-jae built a special bond with the owner while learning to cook at the ″Ghost-Catching Tteokbokki″ restaurant, and the owner expressed affection by inviting him to come with his girlfriend on his next vacation. Kang Sung-jae visited the tteokbokki shop with Jung Min-ah (Jeon So-young), who caught attention by confessing her feelings for Kang Sung-jae in front of the unit members.

After finishing his vacation and returning to the unit, Kang Sung-jae was assigned to the KCTC specialized opposing force training and received a quest to boost the morale of the unit members and succeed in the training.