Tteokguk
Tteokguk
"Seong-hwan-a! Make me tteok-guk, noona!"
"Tteok-guk?"
Seollal had already passed a while ago.
Come to think of it, during Seollal, I went to the orphanage and made a huge pot of tteok-guk in beef bone broth, and we all ate it together.
Back then, I'd made it really delicious, and everyone ate it together...
She probably remembered that taste and was asking me to make tteok-guk.
Of course, I tended to make anything A-ra wanted to eat.
Tteok-guk didn't take that long, so I could make it for her anytime.
"What should I do for the garnishes?"
"Meat and radish..... egg and... fish cake and... shrimp and.... and.... squid...?"
"Noona, that sounds more like tang-guk than tteok-guk, doesn't it?"
It was closer to what people commonly called tang-guk from the Gyeongsang-do region.
If you called it tteok-guk, the centerpiece wouldn't be the rice cakes but the meat, and rather than a light tteok-guk, it would yield a heavy, savory tang-guk packed with rich flavor.
To begin with, tang-guk was a dish placed on the jesa table, so it was bound to be heavy.
"Noona likes tang-guk too."
"Hmm... now that you mention it, I did make tang-guk every year."
I'd placed tang-guk on the table for A-ra's parents' jesa every time.
So she must have gotten accustomed to that taste.
I really loved that A-ra, who enjoyed eating so much, found my food delicious.
Was that why?
As time passed, it felt like my affection and love kept growing deeper.
"In that case, how about I make a huge batch and we can all share it?"
"Yeah, that sounds great! It's the weekend anyway, so everyone should be free."
"That's true. Since it's Sunday, Hojun will be home too."
That Hojun guy had tried to open his shop even on Sundays, so I imposed Tekken sanctions and made him rest.
And I'd also made it known that he's closed on Sundays, so no one would need to visit.
Had that guy seen his first month's sales and still didn't think he could afford to work at a relaxed pace?
Honestly speaking, Hojun's earnings were higher than mine.
Just one month after opening, he was already thinking about opening a branch in Busan.
From what I heard, A-ra had a building in front of the subway station entrance in Busan Seomyeon.
Was the first floor there vacant too, or something?
Well, I'd unpack that story later...
"Then I'll go to the store."
"Let's go together. Noona has something she wants to buy too."
"Shall we go to Costco then?"
A-ra smiled brightly and reached her hand out toward me.
As expected, whatever A-ra wanted to buy must have been at Costco.
I took her hand and stood up from my seat.
Since I was already wearing outdoor clothes anyway, there was no particular need to change, and I headed straight for the front door.
"Seong-hwan-a? Your clothes look a bit thin, don't they?"
"I'm fine, this is enough."
Even if they were thin, they weren't short sleeves or shorts.
They were proper long sleeves and long pants, and there was no exposure or anything like that which A-ra hated.
"That's not it. Even though it's spring, it's still really cold, right? So hurry back inside and put on a coat or something."
"....I'm warm though..."
"Tch! Are you trying to catch a cold again by dressing like that?"
That time I went to Busan with A-ra to have fun, I'd worn somewhat thin clothes and ended up running a fever.
Thinking back to that time, it seemed better to just listen to A-ra.
"Alright..."
"You see that brown coat at the front in the dress room? Wear that and come out!"
"Yes, yes."
Breaking A-ra's stubbornness was harder than breaking a deer's antlers, so I decided to just quietly listen.
Wasn't she saying all that for my own good anyway?
*
We bought all the ingredients for tang-guk at Costco.
While I was at it, I thought I might as well make some tasty vegetable side dishes for my wife and the kids, so I bought bean sprouts, spinach, bracken, seaweed, and hijiki, and piled a bunch of chonggak radish onto the cart.
A-ra was humming to herself and tossing everything she wanted to eat into the cart.
So we were each pushing our own cart and walking around together.
"Doing this makes it feel like we're on a date."
"Well, isn't it nice to think of it as partly a date?"
Even if it was a date wearing sunglasses and a mask, though.
Being able to have dates like this, since we couldn't do it often, was a very good thing.
It suited A-ra's heart, since she felt sorry she couldn't go on dates with me often, and it suited my heart too, since I wanted to live more enjoyably with A-ra.
Someone might ask if simply going to the store together was really that great, but for an idol like A-ra and her husband like me, this kind of ordinary, everyday life was truly wonderful.
Come to think of it, the Director had asked whether hiring a housekeeper might be a good idea.
As much as possible, I didn't want to let anyone other than family and acquaintances into our home.
Because I wanted to make all of A-ra's meals myself, and even if we called a house cleaning service, I wanted to clean together with her.
"But noona, what was it you wanted to buy?"
"Hehe, follow me and you'll find out."
A-ra never said she 'wanted to buy' food she wanted to eat.
So with 100% probability, it meant she was buying some other 'item.'
Was it something sold at Costco?
In that case, it probably wasn't something like collectible cards.
"Even if I ask what it is, you won't tell me, right?"
"Yeah, you have to see it yourself for it to be fun."
A-ra, who never showed me things all at once, grinned widely and led me over to the electronics section.
Starting from simple blenders and hair dryers, to pre-built computers and TVs, refrigerators... and even things like mountain motorcycles started coming into view.
Last time we came, they were even selling boats.
"Hey... surely it can't be."
"What's wrong?"
"Noona, you're not thinking of buying something like a boat, are you?"
"A boat? If noona were going to buy something, it'd be a huge hundred-billion-won yacht..."
"O...okay. It doesn't seem like you're trying to buy a boat, so I'll be quiet."
True, someone with as much money as A-ra wouldn't come here to buy a boat worth two or three thousand.
What would she lack that she'd buy something like that?
So what on earth was she trying to buy?
Holding that question, I kept following right behind A-ra.
***
We were all gathered together, eating tang-guk even though it wasn't jesa, so it gave me a peculiar feeling.
Still, since everyone was eating it with such enjoyment, a smile automatically spread across my face.
"Oppa! Give me one more bowl!"
"Sure, sure... no one's going to steal it from you, so eat slowly."
"It feels like A-ra unnie is going to eat it all, though?"
Certainly... A-ra had already eaten three bowls.
Minji also quite liked eating, so maybe she was thinking she couldn't lose.
Hojun had only filled his bowl with a few rice cakes, ate just one serving, and was playing with Ggomul and Pipsqueak.
Apparently, diabetics absolutely must not eat foods like rice cakes that digest easily and cause blood sugar spikes.
And yet he ate a little just to fit in with us...
He was such a kind younger brother.
Hojun loved animals but tried to restrain himself from raising one at home.
What did he say again? His reason was that if he left for work and came back, the puppy would be home alone and he'd feel sorry for it.
In that case, raising two or more dogs would solve it.
As I observed through the smart home CCTV, when I wasn't there, Ggomul, Pipsqueak, and Tiny had so much fun playing with each other that they ran around without noticing the time passing.
"Hojun-a, do you want to take Ggomul and Pipsqueak out for a walk?"
"R...really? I can go?"
"Since I couldn't walk them yesterday, they're probably really restless. Just walk around downstairs for about an hour and come back."
"Okay!"
Hojun needed to lower his blood sugar after eating anyway, so he had to do some walking exercise.
But if he could lower his blood sugar while walking with dogs he loved, there could be nothing better than that.
I put the leashes on Ggomul and Pipsqueak and placed them in Hojun's hands.
A good point, if you could call it that, about our kids was that they stayed quiet without barking even when someone else held their leash, so we could entrust their walks to others.
"Ggomul, Pipsqueak, Uncle Hojun is going to walk you, so be good and go, okay?"
"Woof!"
"Woof."
Hearing my words, the two dogs tugged Hojun along, urging him to hurry outside.
Hojun smiled too as he opened the door and went out.
"Huh? Did someone just go out?"
"Hojun went out to walk Ggomul and Pipsqueak."
"Hmm... then noona will have to walk them tomorrow."
"We could just go out in the evening."
Since Pomeranian dogs are toy-sized, they prefer being walked multiple times for short durations.
So I also tried not to let walks exceed one hour.
"No, noona has something to do in the evening."
"That thing you bought earlier?"
"Hehe, it'll be fun, right?"
What A-ra had shown me was a puzzle.
And not just a regular flat puzzle, but a three-dimensional puzzle; it seemed to be a set sold exclusively at Costco.
It was a bit expensive, but it contained quite a lot of 3D puzzles, so it looked like there was enough to play with all day.
I felt like it would sell even better if they sold them individually, though.
"They can't sell these individually."
"Why not?"
"Because these puzzles all connect together. You might not know this, Seong-hwan-a, but each of these puzzles has a whole story."
What kind of story could possibly exist in such a disassembled puzzle?
A-ra's interest was piqued, so I got curious too.
"Then when you're done playing with it, lend it to me too."
"Hmm... once you take this apart, it's even harder to fit it back together."
"You can do it for your beloved husband, right?"
"O...of course! Noona will reassemble it for you as many times as you want!"
A-ra, who'd fallen for my scheme in an instant, smiled brightly and picked up her spoon again.
Just how much tang-guk was she planning to eat?
She ate freely because no matter how much she ate, she never gained weight...
Actually, hadn't she said it made her chest bigger?