Ganghwa Island (2)
Ganghwa Island (2)
"Noona."
"Huh?"
I called out to A-ra, who was plunging a ladle into the spicy fish stew.
She was listening to me while heaping fish and radish from the stew onto her plate.
"Do you want to go to the beach and just dip our feet in a little?"
"Should we? The weather's gotten warm now."
It was nearly July, so the weather was already good enough to call it summer.
Rather than calling it warm, wouldn't it be more accurate to say it was getting hot?
"But, is there a beach here?"
"It'd probably be hard to find an island without a beach..."
"That's true."
Usually, since these islands are mostly tourist destinations, a beach is a must.
I heard there are cases with unique beaches too, like ones made of pebbles instead of sand.
"Ah, right!"
"Huh? What is it all of a sudden?"
"I didn't bring the fishing rod!"
Calling herself an idiot for coming to the seaside without a fishing rod, she started hitting her own head repeatedly.
Since we saw people fishing on the way here, it seemed her desire to fish had grown even stronger.
"Noona, can't we just buy a fishing rod here?"
"Huh?"
"I saw on the way here, there's a big fishing supply store over there."
Most fishing villages have at least one fishing supply store.
And if you go to the supermarket or a neighborhood mart, they even sell lugworms for cheap.
Because anglers spend just as much money as tourists,
seaside villages tend to take quite good care of them in their own ways.
"But this is surprising. You actually came to the seaside and forgot your fishing rod, noona?"
"Hmm... yeah, seriously..."
"Maybe you actually didn't want to fish?"
"No way. I was watching a fishing channel just this morning."
She's only 23 but watches channels like that.
I thought that was something only middle-aged women watched.
"Noona, you watch stuff like fishing channels?"
"Huh? I'm not talking about TV, I mean Qtube."
"Ah."
If it's Qtube, that makes sense.
I also watch fishing videos, or ones of people filleting fish.
It feels like watching things on TV itself has actually decreased.
"Then, should we just dip our feet at the beach and then go buy fishing supplies?"
"Umm... let's fish tomorrow."
"Then what about today, during the day?"
"We'll spend time at the beach, then go back to the hotel and grill some meat."
With the AC cranked up full blast... A-ra smiled brightly.
It seemed she was very hot.
"It's hot, right? Given the structure here, it seems there's no air conditioner."
"It's fine. We have cider, don't we?"
Sweat beading on her face from the spicy stew, A-ra reached for the cider.
But the cider bottle she lifted up was empty.
"Heu-ing... there's no cider."
"Ma'am, two bottles of cider here, please."
First, I poured her some cold water to tide her over.
It was ice water, with a few ice cubes still clinging to the bottom, not yet melted.
"Kkeuh..."
"I should have a glass too."
It was so cold I could almost feel the scorching heat escaping from my head—a fleeting illusion of relief.
Cold ice water really is the best in summer.
"Here's your two bottles of cider~"
"Thank you."
"And the shrimp..."
"Seong-hwan-ah, let's eat the shrimp for dinner."
"Should we? Then... just three bowls of rice, please."
"Three bowls of rice... just a moment, please~"
The lady checked the order sheet and went inside.
It was amazing how she could wear long sleeves and long pants in this hot weather without being bothered.
If it were me, I would've already collapsed from the heat.
"You wanted to eat rice, huh?"
"Yes, noona wanted to eat rice too, right?"
"Yeah. Rice is the thing with spicy stew, after all."
A-ra laughed, nibbling fish meat off her chopsticks.
Living under the conviction that bread cannot be a meal, A-ra absolutely had to eat rice.
She said bread was a snack and nothing more...
In that case, would a hamburger be just a snack too?
***
We finished our meal and headed to the beach.
As it turned out, the beach was right next to the restaurant, so it took no time at all.
The moment we walked past the area obscured by a building, the beach was right there.
Upon arriving, we rented a beach parasol and beach chairs.
It was a bit expensive, but what fun would there be if you didn't spend at least this much when on vacation?
"Let's set this up first..."
"Noona, leave your phone and bag in the car."
"Huh? I feel like I'll use my phone later."
"We can get it from the car then. I'll hold onto the key too."
"Okay. Got it."
If A-ra's bag got stolen this time, it would be a huge problem.
Never mind the cost of reissuing the key—I didn't even want to imagine how long it would take.
From what I heard, an engineer flies all the way to Korea to examine it, goes back to France to manufacture a new one,
then flies to Korea again to deliver it...
You have to cover two round-trip flights, hotel bills, and business trip expenses, and I heard it takes a good month.
In that case, you'd have to either leave the car abandoned on this island for a month or have it towed to the parking lot at home...
But that seems just as difficult in its own way...
It was a problem I could solve by just being a little more careful.
"This has a clip, so if I hook it to your waistband, it won't fall."
"Oh..."
A-ra slowly approached and tilted the parasol down slightly.
Standing in front of me so others couldn't see, she pulled out the waist tie of my pants and hooked the key onto the belt loop.
Perhaps she sensed me looking down at her.
She grinned and patted my butt.
"My husband, you mustn't drop it, okay?"
"I'm not a kid... I won't drop it."
If I did drop it, I might really get scolded by a furious A-ra.
Anyway, we were just going to dip our toes in the water and then relax on the beach chairs.
"Then let's go dip our feet in."
"J-just a moment.. I still need to fix my clothes..."
"It's not like your skin is showing or anything."
In the end, I was dragged out before my clothes were properly straightened.
It just wasn't visible at this angle, though...
***
"It's a relief we brought extra clothes."
"Hehe, sorry."
A-ra splashed me with seawater the moment we got in, so I retaliated by pouring water on her like a downpour.
In the end, the winner was A-ra,
and both A-ra and I got completely soaked in seawater, our entire bodies drenched.
But still, after putting the parasol away and lying on the beach chairs for a long while, all the moisture dried,
and you could visibly see a white residue of salt forming on our skin.
"We can just grill meat for dinner with this."
"W-with this? That won't be enough."
As if she'd taken me seriously, A-ra was brushing her clothes and checking the salt residue.
To grill meat using the salt on your clothes, you'd probably need dozens of outfits.
"It was a joke. Let's change clothes and go to that mart over there."
"Yeah. The key?"
"Here."
I unfastened the key dangling from my waistband and handed it to A-ra.
It seemed to be waterproof, so it didn't break even after touching the seawater.
"If it had broken..."
"That would still be a problem."
"Yeah. Of course, you can start it with the phone, but you'd still need to reissue the key."
"You can... start the engine with your phone?"
"You didn't know? Probably all the new cars can do that."
So, did that mean it worked for the Porsche Cayenne I drove around?
As soon as A-ra opened the car door, I searched it up on the internet.
"Wow... it does have remote start..."
"You really didn't know, huh."
"I thought starting the car and doing things with the car key was already impressive enough..."
I never imagined you could connect it to your phone and start the engine.
I had to try it out when we returned home in two days.
"Seong-hwan-ah."
"Yes?"
"Noona wants to eat shrimp too."
"Of course we have to buy shrimp."
How could grilled meat be complete without shrimp?
It's so delicious when you grill it.
"But wouldn't buying shrimp at the market be tastier than buying them at the mart?"
"Are the market shrimp alive?"
"I think I saw a seafood market over there."
I saw earlier that there was a seafood market of considerable size.
It might be that all the sellers had already packed up and left since it was getting late, but it wouldn't hurt to go check.
"Let's just dust off our clothes and go."
"Without changing?"
"Come to think of it, we're dry already, so there's no real need to change."
We could always wash up and change later.
If we changed clothes now and walked around, the sweat might make the new clothes damp.
*
"Ahjumma, how much for this shrimp?"
"15,000 won per kilogram~"
"These are alive, right?"
"Eoyu, do these guys look like they're lying down in a straight line sleeping to you?"
I nearly burst out laughing right then.
In other words, they were basically all dead shrimp.
"But they were caught and brought in just this afternoon, so they're fresh."
"Umm...."
They'd been packed in ice and salt, so they'd be fresh.
Summer hadn't even properly started yet, and the inside of the seafood market was cool, after all.
"Then, just give me one kilogram of these."
"They're good salt-grilled, good boiled in spicy seafood stew, or just steamed~"
She filled a large colander and weighed it on the scale.
The colander had holes poked all throughout, so no ice or salt remained, and it could measure only the weight of the shrimp.
I had been worried about fraud being fairly common, but it seemed it wasn't the case here.
"Here you go~"
"Thank you. Hope you sell a lot."
I took the shrimp and exited the market.
A-ra, who was doing grocery shopping at the mart, should be arriving soon...
"Hmm..."
She was running later than the promised time, so maybe I should give her a call?
It was getting dark out of nowhere, and that made it a little scary.