# 89


    Chapter.20 A week in Korea


    Rurin said that and tried to mess up her hair with her mouth puffed out. I was startled and grabbed Rurin’s arm.


    “Let go. “If you don’t like it, I’ll take it back.”


    “No, that’s not it.”


    “No?”


    “Yes, your hair is pretty.”


    There’s a problem. Rurin’s hair always brings up this ridiculous feeling of wanting me tob it. I don’t even know why this thought suddenly appeared in my mind.


    He pped himself and stroked Lurin’s head.


    “Is that so? I thought so. It’s okay to be pretty. Hi-Hi.”


    Lurin nods as if she is satisfied with what I say. Looking at Lulin’s innocent face, the thoughts I just had feel ugly.


    After shaking off the strange, foolish feeling for a moment, I went outside with Lurin.


    And then we headed to a tteokbokki restaurant. Since yesterday, I have decided to eat tteokbokki today.


    Today’s dish, following Jjajangmyeon and Cheonggukjang, is Korean snack bar Tteokbokki. A shabby snack bar found in an alley. It was a nostalgic scene.


    I heard that I went there a lot when I was in elementary school. When I was short on pocket money, I used to be satisfied with cup tteokbokki. A time when I was very happy with just a few tteokbokki in a paper cup.


    “What are you eating again today?”


    Rurin looks up at me with a curious face.


    “That’s for funter.”


    I smiled and went inside the snack bar and sat down. Perhaps because it was already past lunch time, there was no one inside the store. It’s not peak time since school isn’t over yet.


    Snack bars tend to be crowded only after school dismissal time.


    “What can I get you?”


    “For one serving of tteokbokki, we give you a set of fried foods, an egg, sundae, and odeng.”


    “Wait just a moment.”


    Thedy nods and leaves. At the same time, Lurin suddenly intervened. The facial expression is bizarre.


    “What on earth did you say? “I can’t understand a word you just said.”


    “Eh?”


    “Deokbok? Fried set? egg? Sundae? fish cake? “What do you mean!”


    “Oh, that… .”


    Although you are a dragon who has no difort with Korean, it seems that the trantion is iplete for beings that do not exist in the other world.


    He gets so angry when his trantor starts malfunctioning a few days ago. It means don’t say things you don’t understand.


    “What kind of dragon can’t trante?”


    “weird. I am the great dragon! “Why don’t you know?”


    “I know.”


    “I don’t like the look on your face. I’ll scold you! It’s going up!”


    “Phew.”


    The expression on his face that seemed to explode with frustration as he brought his eyebrows together was actually so funny that he startedughing, so he got up and started ring at me.


    “Why are youughing! Ugh!”


    “The food has arrived. “You told me to, right?”


    “Ah yes. thank you.”


    And at that exact moment, the food came out. Good timing.


    Steam rises from the red tteokbokki. The fries on the side were crispy. And the sundae next to it looked plump and soft.


    The odeng soup is simr to the m stew I often make at restaurants, so there’s nothing special about it, but the odeng soup at snack bars has its own unique taste.


    “Youeeeeeeee!”


    “Wait a minute, calm down, idiot. This is this. Now, in order, this is tteokbokki. This is a fried food set. This is an egg. This is sundae. “This is oden.”


    “Was that the name of the dish?”


    “okay.”


    “Why is the name so unusual? Same with what I ate yesterday. So, doesn’t even a great being like me know this? “I hope you reflect on it.”


    “What are you reflecting on? What are you reflecting on? “Don’t be funny, just eat it.”


    “Start reflecting! Let your hometown itself reflect on this body. uh? oh! I know this! “It’s a Palenque egg!”


    While urging Korea to reflect, Rurin discovered a food ingredient she knew and her interest was drawn to it.


    “okay. “It’s the same thing.”


    Thanks to this, the confused look in my eyes calmed down a bit. On the topic of dragons, I hope you don’t make an expression like a scared puppy seeing food you’ve never seen before. Yesterday I was scared by the smell, but today I am afraid of the sight.


    “Now, try the tteokbokki first. “This is how you eat it.”


    I took a fork and pressed the center of the soft tteokbokki. I didn’te here with any intention, but it’s my favorite soup, tteokbokki.


    The soup is red and the tteokbokki is less red. Anyway, I tried one bite first.


    Yes, it’s sweet, salty and slightly spicy.


    Fortunately, it’s not that spicy. It’s spicy enough for even Lurin to eat.


    Tteokbokki requires an exquisite bnce of saltiness and sweetness behind its chewy texture. I don’t think one vor should be too strong. Of course, it’s personal preference.


    Anyway, this tteokbokki restaurant that I randomly came across is quite delicious.


    It’s tteokbokki mixed with a lot of flour, but honestly, I like this type of tteokbokki. Tteokbokki that I often ate in front of school in the past. A taste that brings back those memories.


    “But why is this so red? Also, isn’t that the one that’s more annoying than the Red Dragon Breath? I don’t like that. I will eat this… .”


    Lulin is not the red of tomato sauce, but the obvious red of red pepper paste. So, remembering the horror of the spicy chicken OO noodles that I ate at that time, I made a face of avoidance and reached for the egg, which I knew the taste of, first.


    Of course, Lurin doesn’t pick on food. It is an omnivorous dragon that eats anything. The body even ate the strong-smelling Cheonggukjang. Although I avoided it at first.


    However, I just couldn’t get over the spiciness of the Buldak OO noodles.


    I can’t eat things that are too spicy. When I first fed him BuldakOO noodles, I didn’t make a fuss with the breath being used everywhere.


    I put some tteokbokki in Rurin’s mouth and took it away.


    “Ahhh!”


    Immediately, his face bes extremely conflicted. Lurin says ah! I like to receive it like crazy. Because I don’t do it often, it’s an activity that has be more rare.


    Even during Cheonggukjang, I was very conflicted. You shouldn’t use secret techniques too often, but it can’t be helped.


    “What is it? Suspicious. These days, I feel so bad! “I do it often.”


    Even as he says that, he opens his mouth. It’s a great instinct. The brain is rejecting it, but instinct is opening its mouth.


    So I quickly put the tteokbokki in his mouth.


    His face was frowning and he was scared, but soon he started chewing.


    Again, Lurin and dragons are not afraid of any beings. But Buldak OO-myeon is so scared. Anyway.


    But it’s not actually spicy.


    Of course I was scared, but then little by little, or rather suddenly, my face began to brighten.


    “Oh wow, this is delicious. also! also! “Aaaah!”


    Then he immediately opened his mouth again. I immediately gave him a look that told him not tough. The draw is over now. After using it for two days in a row, the freshness is deteriorating.


    “Eat it yourself. “What about Aang?”


    “You just did it? It’s so shameful! Protest! “I demand improvement!”


    “Come on, let’s eat. let’s eat.”


    I can’t hear you. I ignored Rurin’s im and stuffed some tteokbokki into my mouth. As the number of tteokbokki decreased, Rurin also gave up the fight and started stabbing the tteokbokki with her fork.


    “Wait a minute. wait. There are things we have to eat together. “I feel sad if I only eat tteokbokki.”


    We put our tteokbokki, which was in harmony with the red soup, to the side and first dipped the fried dumplings with our forks. These are the unique t snack restaurant dumplings. It tastes best when dipped in tteokbokki soup.


    I cut the dumplings into two pieces and dipped them in the tteokbokki soup. And ate. I also eat some tteokbokki with it.


    Ugh. It’s a storm of taste. The vor of these crispy yet empty dumplings goes well with the tteokbokki soup. If your stomach is full, it might not be that good.


    Not only dumplings, but also fried foods from snack bars be the best when mixed with tteokbokki soup.


    “Oh oh. “This is delicious!”


    Lulin followed me and ate the same fried food, then obediently acknowledged it and took his fork to another fried food.


    In order of fried seaweed rolls and fried vegetables, I divided half with Rurin, dipped the fried food in the soup, and then ate the tteokbokki over and over again.


    Lurin ate so much that her lips were covered in tteokbokki soup. Well, you can just wipe it offter.


    “Wait a minute. There’s more. “There is one more.”


    This time he pointed to sundae. Lurin made a happy gluttonous face as she asked, “Why is there so much?”


    “This is delicious even if you just eat it. The chewy intestines and vermicelli inside are the best. “If you don’t like the smell, it’s perfect to eat with tteokbokki.”


    “Hoooh. i get it.”


    “Is it delicious?”


    Nod. With a satisfied look on her face, Rurin began to feast on the tip of her fork, eating the sundae as is, dipping it, and even contemting what to eat.


    And when there was little tteokbokki left, I threw in an egg. This is honestly my personal preference.


    Because there are quite a few people who don’t like it.


    I don’t feel like I’ve eaten tteokbokki unless I finish it like this.


    First, cut the egg in half, take out the yolk, pour in the tteokbokki broth, and then stab it with a fork.


    When the yolk ispletely soaked in the tteokbokki broth, you can eat it with tteokbokki. It subtly shows another taste. It’s like eating a different type of tteokbokki.


    “you! “There’s not enough tteokbokki!”


    Rurin began shouting while banging the empty tteokbokki te with her fork. From the looks of it, it seemed like he liked tteokbokki the most out of everything.


    I also felt like it wasn’t enough, so I immediately ced an additional order. And then he started wiping Lurin’s mouth with a tissue.


    ***


    After having a big lunch of tteokbokki, I went out into the street. There aren’t many people on the streets on weekday afternoons.


    It can be said to be quietpared to the crowds that pour in during holidays.


    Rurin is holding my hand tightly. And they are satisfying their curiosity by asking various questions about traces of civilization they are seeing for the first time.


    The ce I stopped at was a w machine room.


    It was a ce that stimted my curiosity, not Rurin’s. Today is not the only time I saw a ce called a w machine room.


    Whenever I walk down a busy street, I’m sure to see one or two of them. There was a w machine 15 years ago when I lived in this country, but it waspletely different now.


    Since I had plenty of time, I went into the store with curiosity.


    The machines in the w machine room have improved significantlypared to what I knew 15 years ago. 15 years ago, I mostly looked down and pulled out small dolls. But these days, the dolls are big, the clips are big, and in a word, it’s a new world.


    As technology developed, w machines also developed. It has an arcade-like atmosphere, but the only thing there is a w machine. An unmanned store with no clerks or anything.


    The lottery machines were filled with dolls, and characters from animations I watched as a child were also visible here and there.


    It’s really surprising that Pocket O, which I loved in elementary school, is still popr. It’s a bit bittersweet to think that Pocket O was still popr here while I was living and experiencing war on the other side of the world.


    In any case, it is these Pocket O’s that ount for most of the w machines.


    They are also monsters after all.


    Of course, it is a cute monster that is iparable to the monsters I risked my life fighting in the other world.


    “Where where?”


    My hands started to itch. He was a ghost that caught monsters in the other world, so he was a monster in this world. Plus, when I was young, I was a w killer.


    I put money into the bill changing machine. Lurin doesn’t seem to be interested in dolls at all. In a way, this is a natural inspiration since Lulin is not a cute monster like this, but a guy who can control real, vicious monsters as he pleases.


    I am also very interested in Lulun, the newly brought monster from the northernnd. Would you say I think of it as a kind of pet?


    Dragons think of monsters as pets. Who can stop this? Especially when I talk to Lulun and the others, I also add Rune! at the end of my words, which is both funny and cute.