Never Underestimate Korea Again
The department store.
It was the perfect place for shopping—or for a change of mood.
"So you two are that kind of couple?"
"……."
Women, you see.
On the way down to the underground parking garage, we ran into Suhyun.
Phew. She came alone.
Casual outfit. Look closer, though, and the shoes and bag were pure luxury. She had clearly come to shop. I brought her here often enough; of course she would show up.
"That's right. We're dating."
"Doesn't look like it."
"Then what does it look like?"
"Sex friends?"
"?!"
For Rachel it was a bolt from the blue. She had been frozen solid since earlier, unable to get a single word out.
Well, of course.
She couldn't help but care. She must have thought the humiliation would end with the day. Instead it could be carved into lifelong black history. If word ever got out at school…
Thump. Thump.
My hand slid down to her chest. The pulse of her heart came through direct. Even a cold-blooded woman like this still had warm blood running through her. Proving that much was already enough.
"That's right. Sex friends."
"Doesn't look like it."
"You figured it out?"
"The vibe between you two isn't the 'we've done it' kind."
I had already gotten plenty of entertainment out of this. Suhyun, though, still seemed to want more and kept poking.
Index finger and thumb. She formed a little circle and shoved a finger in and out—shuk, shuk.
Rachel went even stiffer. She clearly had zero immunity to this kind of talk.
"That's right. She's still a virgin right now."
"Oh."
"See her tomorrow and maybe she won't be."
"Oh~!"
"!!"
From here on, things could change. I squeezed a little harder and her heart hammered faster against my palm.
As expected, sexual harassment always gets the best reactions.
I used to provoke her the same way in my last life. This time I was going to make her mine completely.
Swaah—
I flung open the coat I had bought her for cover. Today's deliberately slutty outfit was on full display.
"Oppa really means it, huh."
"That's why I dressed her like this."
"What kind of dirt did you dig up on her? I never thought unnie would give in that easily."
"Heh."
The department store's icy air-conditioning slipped straight under the coat. Whether from cold or pure shame, Rachel was biting her lip hard.
Want me to kill her?
She was doing a perfect princess-knight routine. For all I knew she was deliberately seasoning herself so I would devour her more deliciously later.
"For the record, it hurts like hell when it goes in."
"!!"
"This oppa is pretty big… ah, but compared to Western guys it might feel different."
"Mine's bigger."
Suhyun just had to add that unnecessary line. In terms of hardness and shape there was no comparison.
Once she's had it inside her, she won't even glance at a soft dick again.
A woman who looked like she had never had anyone worth comparing. Noble and haughty sat only a hair's breadth from lonely.
"You're actually planning to do that kind of thing with this man…"
"I am."
"You—shut up for a second!"
"Want to shut up together?"
I was the only man in the world who had ever tasted this body. Handling her was second nature by now. I caught Rachel's chin and lightly claimed her lips. When I squeezed her breast hard she couldn't even resist.
So soft.
Sora was springy—almost firm enough that kneading her made my hand ache. Rachel was all trembling softness. The bare chest I had exposed undulated like waves with the slightest movement.
"You've already gone that far."
"Right?"
"Still, go easy on her. If you wreck her the way you wrecked me, she might never bounce back."
Ppeong!
The wet sound she made with her mouth. Rachel flinched; Suhyun just wore a playful little smile. Experience gave her the edge no matter the age or status. This would probably be the last moment Suhyun ever got to one-up Rachel.
"Enough jokes."
"Shall I stop?"
"Oppa will give you spending money. Go shop and play."
"Hush money?"
"You're getting cocky."
I pulled out a card and pressed it into her hand. Ever since I started buying her luxury goods, Suhyun's spending habits had ballooned. Modeling was just the excuse. When my woman wanted to get prettier, I had zero interest in pinching pennies.
"Fine. I'll keep the secret."
"Good."
"You two heading off to do it that way?"
"Want in on a threesome?"
"I have to go meet Heon-u~!"
"Aww."
Not my woman, but still. She claimed she was getting along fine with Heon-u again after their huge fight last time.
That only makes it hotter.
His understanding toward his girlfriend might have been the highest at Hankuk University.
"You have a boyfriend?"
"Yeah."
"So you're the ex…"
"No."
"What?"
Rachel's face twisted with pure disgust. She simply could not grasp other people's circumstances.
Prejudice and discrimination are what manufacture disgust, you know.
Truly, I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her. Everyone in the world has their own complicated reasons.
Squeak—
Stocks have their reasons too.
I took Rachel to the next location. Fifteen minutes by car. A restaurant good for a simple meal.
"Do you know why you took that loss?"
"I already told you I don't."
"Because you know nothing about Korea."
"Korea…?"
No—the restaurant. From a foreigner's perspective the difference probably wasn't huge.
Mallard Duck Stew
Once you taste it, you understand.
We parked and walked in together.
"What is this?"
"Hm?"
"Everyone's staring at me…"
"Because no other crazy bitch walks into a Korean restaurant dressed like that."
"What did you just say?!"
Given the menu, the place was packed with men and women over fifty. Plenty of them still wore hiking clothes from the mountain.
But these are exactly the places that taste the best.
A restaurant only locals ever find. You have to taste real Korean food for yourself.
"Medium mallard duck stew coming out!"
We took a table. After a short wait the pot that needed long, slow boiling arrived.
"Not taking the coat off?"
"Please just ignore it."
"You'll have to take it off at the hotel anyway."
"You fucking bastard…"
She had even learned Korean swearing. In truth it was the first Korean every foreigner picks up the moment they land here.
It's the country of curses, after all.
Stimulating. Never a dull moment. That was Korea's real identity.
Bubble-bubble!
You understand once you eat. I had hammered the same point home when I traveled with Sora.
Korea is no exception, of course.
A country's food and liquor. Taste them and you taste the culture. This was not empty talk.
"Is this… like shabu-shabu?"
"For starters."
"For starters?"
"You start by soaking everything thoroughly in the broth until it cooks."
Minari came with it. Float the greens on top of the broth and they wilt perfectly.
Slurp—
Fish them out and chew. That was the first proper step of eating duck stew.
"A kind of salad?"
"You could see it that way."
A little strange, sure. It might look like dipping salad into fondue.
Munch, munch.
The taste, though. Even among Koreans, minari was a love-it-or-hate-it ingredient. Rachel's expression while chewing was not bright. I had expected that.
"If it's really hard to get down—"
"?"
"Try it with liquor."
Food has to be enjoyed with alcohol. Only then can you claim you've experienced a country's real table culture.
King Sejong's Royal Wine
I had brought the bottle myself. Paid the corkage fee and opened it. A traditional liquor brewed from nothing but rice and yeast.
"I felt it last time we drank, too."
"Hm?"
"Similar to nihonshu, yet the texture is completely different…"
Nihonshu. What Koreans simply call sake. A clear, refined base on which countless variations bloom.
Sake and Japanese cuisine both have Japan itself melted into them.
Weak self-assertion. Delicate. Those Japanese traits were reflected perfectly.
What kind of bullshit was that supposed to be?
Eat every cuisine on earth and you eventually realize food and nation are welded together.
"Then what about Korea?"
"Try the food."
"Huh?"
"The food and the liquor together."
Traditional liquor was the same. One mouthful and the flavor detonated across the tongue.
Self-assertion so strong it punches you in the face.
Korea's yakju—clear rice wine—used a heavy hand of glutinous rice. Sweeter and denser than ordinary rice. The yeast carried wild, complex aromas. Not delicate. Wild charm in a bottle.
Munch, munch.
The food was no different. Nothing bland about any of it. I dunked minari deep in the sauce, then took a sip of liquor.
"The taste…"
"Not to your palate?"
"Not that. It's just hard to put the tasting notes into words. If I had to force it… violent."
"Like me?"
Her food commentary was always over the top. Coming from a good family, her tongue was mercilessly picky.
She must be shocked.
Even she was tasting this for the first time. The fierce green punch of minari and the deep umami of the traditional liquor collided inside her mouth. A flavor that snapped you wide awake. The deliberately off-kilter balance made you chase either the food or the liquor next.
"Meat should be ready soon."
"So the stuff inside was the main event?"
"Scoop some broth with it and try."
I ladled duck leg and a full spoon of broth onto her plate. As if the earlier resistance had never happened, she started gobbling food and liquor with desperate speed.
A truly unique phenomenon.
With Japanese cuisine, one side always folds. One side says sumimasen and bows out. The higher-end the pairing, the more extreme it becomes. The loser of the head-on clash smashes its face into the table. Expensive food or expensive liquor suddenly tastes shockingly bad.
"Is it good?"
"It feels almost addictive."
"Exactly. I actually put meth in it."
"What?!"
"I didn't. Eat in peace."
It lined up perfectly with Japanese national character, too. That was what "food and country are connected" really meant.
Korea as well.
Korean national character needed no explanation. Just like the duck stew and traditional liquor in front of us, they fought each other with everything they had.
"Hoo…"
Violent was a fair description. The Korean "hurry-hurry" lived inside the food and the liquor alike.
But they somehow make it work on their own.
Efficiency bloomed inside the chaos. Yield what must be yielded, take what must be taken, and the synergy rose. Rachel's face, catching her breath, looked bright. She had eaten so hard she never even thought to wipe the beads of sweat on her forehead.
"Unique… but delicious. Definitely."
"Right?"
"This small duck is adding deep umami to the broth. The aroma and sweetness of the minari that went in several times have melted in, and the meat soaked all the way through with that broth stands up to any main course at a first-class restaurant."
Korean food was aggressive. Even the simplest side dishes were fermented from top to bottom.
The only thing that can form a real mariage with this many dishes is traditional liquor.
An astonishingly unique method. The Korean trait of somehow making everything work was melted straight into it. Different from every other country on earth. Try to judge Korea by foreign standards and you would walk away with a broken nose.
"Korea really is a dynamic country. No other nation has been recorded growing this fast."
"Never underestimate Korea again."
"The stock market is the exception, though."
"Ahem!"
Stocks sat on the exact same line. Rachel had not known that, and that was why she had taken the loss.
Never underestimate K-stocks again.
You big-nosed Yankee bastard.
I began teaching the arrogant Rachel the real secrets of the Korean market.