Jjajangmyeon

Jjajangmyeon

Han A-rin was taken aback by Chae-a’s words and quickly waved her hands as she spoke.

“Jjajangmyeon doesn’t refer to black people, it’s a food called jjajangmyeon… Anyway, I wasn’t talking about black people.”

Not knowing how to explain it properly, she rambled on.

Then, with a long sigh, she said to Chae-a.

“So there’s no need to worry.”

At those words, Chae-a let out a sigh of relief and then said with a giggle.

“Is jjajangmyeon delicious? Chae-a has never tried it before.”

“You’ll probably love it. I’ve never seen a baby who doesn’t like jjajangmyeon.”

“Waaah. But Chae-a is not a baby. I’m an adult.”

“Okay, okay. Even among adults, there are hardly any who don’t like it.”

 

Chae-a seemed satisfied with that answer and shook her puffy cheeks while giggling.

So it was decided to eat jjajangmyeon.

Since it would take a little while for the delivery to arrive, they decided to move the belongings from the hospital room during the waiting time.

To be honest, I thought there wouldn’t be much to move.

But when we actually went to the hospital room, we realized there was a mountain of things to move.

‘Snacks and dolls…!’

After piling up the gifts like a mountain, they had become so accustomed to them that they were perceived as decorations that had always been in the hospital room.

Of course, thanks to Han A-rin using magic, moving these things wasn’t too difficult.

While I was struggling to carry a doll slightly smaller than my body, thinking it was embarrassing, Yuna says glumly.

“I liked it here too.”

It seems she had grown quite attached to this place.

I put the doll down on the floor for a moment, then patted Yuna and smiled brightly to reassure her as I said.

“It’s okay. We’ll come again…!”

When I told her we could come anytime, Yuna’s expression brightened a bit and she nodded quickly.

I was glad Yuna’s mood had improved, and as I was hugging the doll tightly again.

The counselor who was slowly following behind us spoke up, watching us.

“I’ll be in a different place from now on. So come to the room across from here, okay?”

“Yes!”

“You must come visit. Otherwise, I’ll feel very sad.”

As I nodded at the teacher who was smiling playfully.

Chae-a, who was walking with us, says to us with a truly puzzled expression.

“Huh? Why isn’t teacher coming? Can Chae-a go with you?”

Then she runs over and grabs the counselor’s hand, trying to pull her home.

The counselor, realizing that Chae-a meant to live together at home, was momentarily flustered before slowly opening her mouth.

“Um. You see, Chae-a, from now on, I need to be in a different place.”

She spoke to Chae-a in a calm voice to avoid stirring up emotions.

But Chae-a, unable to accept that they can’t be together, tilts her head and looks at the counselor.

I was about to say something to prevent Chae-a from feeling sad when I saw her reaction.

“The teacher also said she has to go home. So we have to go somewhere else.”

Yuna explained this instead.

Hearing those words, Chae-a stared blankly at the counselor teacher, then waved her hand with a bright expression.

“Bye-bye!”

Perhaps because she said goodbye too easily, it seemed like the counselor teacher was the one who felt hurt instead.

Still, thinking it was fortunate that Chae-a didn’t cry in the end, I decided to finish moving the luggage and grunted as I picked up the doll.

*

After moving the luggage, the jajangmyeon had already been delivered.

We gathered closely together, laid out newspapers, and placed the jajangmyeon and sweet and sour pork on top.

While jajangmyeon was common, sweet and sour pork was not something we could eat often, so as I was staring at it with shining eyes, Seo-rin giggled and poked my cheek, saying.

“You’re practically drooling.”

At those words, I swallowed the drool that had reached my lips and shook my head.

Seo-rin hugged me as if she found me cute and said.

“Should unnie cut the jajangmyeon for you while you wait?”

I shook my head at the offer to cut the jajangmyeon.

I much preferred eating it as is rather than having it cut.

After emphasizing ‘It’s okay!’ about twice, I sat politely waiting to eat the jajangmyeon.

Yuna looked at me, giggled, poked my cheek, and said.

“Does Ha-eun want to eat alone? Should Yuna take care of you?”

It seems my desire to eat jajangmyeon was too obvious.

I became unnecessarily embarrassed and buried my face in my tail to calm down, when Seo-rin put some jajangmyeon on a small plate and placed it in front of me.

“Let me know if it’s not enough. Now, it’s Chae-a and Yuna’s turn.”

After carefully lowering my tail under me while looking at the jajangmyeon placed in front of me.

I slowly pressed it with a fork and pushed it into my mouth.

‘Delicious…’

It’s so delicious that my tail is wagging enormously without me even realizing it.

As I was dazed, feeling the unique nuttiness, saltiness, and sweetness of jajang spreading in my mouth.

Seo-rin put a small piece of sweet and sour pork on my plate and said.

“Ha-eun seems to have a hard time eating even one noodle, maybe because her mouth is small.”

Hearing the voice full of laughter, I looked down at my plate.

I noticed a single noodle cut in half.

I thought I had pushed as much as possible into my mouth, but seeing it cut just a little was embarrassing.

‘But if you put it another way, it means I can eat more than others with the same amount.’

Thinking it wasn’t all bad, I chewed diligently.

“Try the sweet and sour pork too. It’s sweet and delicious.”

At the mention of sweet and sour pork, I quickly nodded, and after swallowing all the noodles.

I tried to take as big a bite of the sweet and sour pork Seo-rin had put on my plate as possible, but.

“This looks really cute, like a puppy took a bite. Oh, I can’t resist. Can I take a picture of this?”

Perhaps because my mouth was too small, only a tiny bit was taken out of the side of the sweet and sour pork.

I tilted my head, looking at Seo-rin who was taking a picture of the sweet and sour pork I was eating.

Just as I was about to focus all my attention on the jajangmyeon again, Yuna and Chae-a started continuously putting sweet and sour pork on my plate.

“Sweetie, eat a lot, okay?”

“Here, have some more. It’s delicious.”

As I was flustered watching my plate quickly pile up with sweet and sour pork.

Han A-rin, who had been observing this, spoke to me with a very pleased expression.

“Ha-eun must be happy to have her older sisters taking care of her, right?”

After pondering for a moment at those words, I nodded.

Seeing my reaction, the two of them sparkled their eyes and tried to move more sweet and sour pork onto my plate again.

‘If this continues, my plate will turn into a mountain made of sweet and sour pork.’

As I decided to escape and grabbed my plate to stand up.

Suddenly, Somteol came forward with a ‘peep!’ and then opened its mouth wide, gaping repeatedly.

Thinking it meant it wanted some sweet and sour pork too, I carefully picked some up with a fork and held it out.

“Peep!?”

It showed a very surprised reaction, bouncing up and down.

Then it started hopping around us, peeping continuously.

‘It must be really delicious.’

While I was thinking it was good that it liked the taste.

Chae-a, who was stuffing jajangmyeon into her mouth, asked one question.

“By the way, how do they make this? Is it made with chestnuts because it’s black?”

“Chestnuts?”

“Yeah. When it gets dark in the evening like this, I think they make it this way!”

Chae-a starts gesturing with her hands as if catching something.

It seems she’s trying to express that she’s capturing darkness, and I’m trying to hold back my laughter because it’s so cute.

Han A-rin, who was next to us, spoke with a surprised expression.

“Oh my, how did you know? This is actually made from night, just like Chae-a said.”

Hearing that, Chae-a’s eyes widened in surprise.

She admired the jajangmyeon in her bowl, then lifted it up and said.

“Amazing… Chae-a should make it later too.”

“Meung meung.”

“The black ones say so too.”

Chae-a brushed the hair sticking to her face with her palm and told us.

“So, should we go catch Ha-eun and Yuna too? You know?”

“I know. Yuna is good at jumping high, so we can catch her well.”

“That’s amazing…!”

As I listen to their lively conversation, blinking and chewing diligently.

Han A-rin makes a suggestion to us.

“Oh, right, kids. If you’re bored while your sisters are away, would you like to try the children’s academy in front? It’s not really an academy, more like a playroom concept, so it’ll be really fun.”

As we tilt our heads at those words, Han A-rin added an explanation.

“Yes, it’s a caretaker service created by the association for welfare purposes. You can learn various things, have snack parties, and they say it’s fun. What do you think?”

I guess she’s making this suggestion because she thinks the mana circulation research might take longer than expected.

I nodded, thinking it might be good to go at least once after pondering for a moment at those words.

Yuna and Chae-a froze and said.

“Once you go in, you can’t get out. They say you can’t play. They say it’s a scary place.”

“Yeah…! And they only teach boring things, you have to sit for a long time, and they say you can’t bring animals!”

“Huh?”

At those words, Han A-rin flustered and waved her hands quickly.

“Th-that’s a regular academy, and what I’m talking about isn’t a real academy, it’s more like, what should I call it? Something similar to an academy, so don’t worry!”

She must have been so flustered that she’s speaking strangely.

After calming those two down, I spoke to Han A-rin first.

“I’ll go when I get the chance later! It’s okay for now since I have things to do.”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“Hmm, then I should ask someone else to take care of it for a while. Maybe I should ask Seong Na-yeon.”

As I heard the voice pondering in front of me, I was smiling awkwardly.

Chae-a and Yuna approached me and said something.

“If they say you have to go, you should run away to the mountains. You know?”

“You can go with the black ones! Ha-eun, you don’t have to worry too much…!”

The fear of academies that Jin-a had instilled in them seemed to be bigger than I thought, as they were already making escape plans.

As I listened to their words, I smiled awkwardly and wondered how to reassure them.