Ramen and Symbiosis
“Isn’t it really okay if you don’t cook the ramen for me, Noeul?”
“I can’t eat it anyway—the part I already finished digesting. Just leave a little broth.”
“Ugh… when I’m on a diet, you eat even less than that….”
Even though it worried me a little that Gabi was concerned, it still felt good.
After all, resources were limited, and in a normal survival struggle you might risk your life for them. That kind of competition could even bring back species revival. It might wipe out rivals and create a cycle of mutual destruction. So in nature itself, coexistence was often chosen over ruthless competition—taking only what you needed and leaving the rest.
It felt like the symbiosis between top predators and scavengers who ate corpses, or between venomous creatures and their protected prey lower in the food chain. From a human perspective it might look like a criminal organization demanding protection money while staying out of each other’s way, but in the natural world protection was real.
That was exactly why I was thinking about it.
“True, Noel. Is it really okay if I don’t cook the ramen for you?”
“I can’t eat it anyway—the part I already finished digesting. Just leave a little broth.”
“Ugh… when I’m on a diet, you eat even less than that….”
Gabi was worried about me, and it tugged at my heart a little, but whatever. Without waste, resources could be used efficiently—that was good, right?
Ramen itself was tasty and moderately nutritious, but because it was salty for flavor, the recommendation was usually not to drink the broth. I could get a day’s worth of nutrients from just the ramen, so I usually drank it too. But I’d already had tteokbokki and chicken for lunch, so adding more salt here made no sense at all.
“So please boil the ramen and let me have some broth. Then we both win.”
“That sounds like the ideal symbiosis relationship.”
“Still, compared to other things, boiling bag ramen or cup ramen… feels a bit off….”
“Come on, bag or cup, what’s the difference? It’s the same ramen, isn’t it?”
“Hmm, you’re right.”
Technically the taste was different. The cup noodles had thinner noodles because the cooking method allowed the broth to soak in faster. But I hadn’t tasted real bag ramen in a long time, so I couldn’t judge. I could only say it was roughly the same.
I boiled water in the kettle and poured it into the cup-noodle container. While I carried the cup ramen to the table, Gabi carried me the whole way. The absurd thought that I was her hands because we were fused together was strangely satisfying. But Gabi hated those jokes.
So I just sat there quietly and waited for the noodles to cook. It was Gabi who broke the silence first—unable to stand the boredom.
“Ah, you must be drunk. Too lazy to go home. Do you want to sleep here until dinner?”
“I could just order dinner from a delivery app. But Gabi, you don’t even have clothes to change into.”
“Come on, Noeul. Just borrow my underwear and put it on. Ah, you’re wearing it well, aren’t you? You don’t need to take it off, right?”
Even if I tried to think of it as a joke, Gabi’s words sent a chill up my spine. And I couldn’t answer properly. The truth was, I wasn’t actually wearing any underwear at all. I only put it on when I went out. If I kept changing clothes unnecessarily, the laundry pile would only grow. Who even wore a coat and socks around the house all the time? I wasn’t wearing them because they weren’t necessary.
But if I stayed quiet like this, Gabi would notice. If she learned I really wasn’t wearing underwear, she’d force me to put it on immediately. I wasn’t good at lying, so I awkwardly tried to turn the conversation.
“Our sizes are different anyway… Gabi couldn’t wear my underwear even if she wanted to….”
“Noeul, are you teasing me about gaining weight? Huh?”
That was just exposing my own weakness. Even in high-school senior year, when I was still fat, Gabi had thrown fits about it. At the time I was young and couldn’t understand why she was so upset. The only thing I did was pretend to study or quietly move my chair away from her. In the end, I was the one who ended up scolded.
“That’s not it. We’re different in height and build…?”
“Ugh, you’re skinny and you’re calling me a pig! Fine, from today I’ll go on a fast and lose weight.”
“Sorry….”
“Sorry? Eat more and grow already. Like this, I couldn’t even eat you.”
“N-No, don’t joke so cruelly. Who do you think you are, calling me a vampire grandma?”
“Vampire grandma? Oh my, Noeul calls me a grandma because I’m a beautiful girl! That’s so unfair! I’ll learn some wuxia novel skill and turn back into a young woman!”
“T-That’s not turning back into a young woman… that’s the opposite.”
“What? You were reading wuxia novels instead of studying? Ugh, this sister fed you the best food and clothed you properly, and this is how you thank her!”
“No, you were the one who started talking about it. And why are you nagging so much? Did you read some wuxia novel and tell me exactly what your parents caught you doing…?”
“Ah, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. Anyway, I’m eating the ramen right now.”
It was a meaningless, pointless conversation. But this was just us. No matter how many meaningless words we threw around, laughter would come out. Even if we only talked at a toddler level, we could fill an entire study room with laughter.
Gabi and I were still friends like that. But my heart was a little unsettled.
Once I had finished the noodles and Gabi had sipped the broth, she handed me the cup ramen. I couldn’t tell if the lipstick mark or the ramen broth stain was more obvious on the rim of the container. Seeing it made my face feel hot. The age for indirect kisses and teasing was long gone, but I still didn’t understand why my chest was fluttering.
Honestly, the mark was a little uncomfortable even among girls. The spot where someone else’s saliva had touched it? If it had been a boy, I would have been grossed out. Biologically I felt an instinctive repulsion. The fact that someone said buying a new can was better than sharing a sip wasn’t wrong. In school, if someone asked for a sip of water and someone else told them not to drink from the thermos, there were always the guys who said, “What’s so special about it?” But in this case the other kids had taken their side and called it unsanitary.
But it wasn’t anyone else’s mark. It was Gabi’s lips—the one person whose mark was currently shaking my heart. Honestly, I wasn’t a teenager anymore. I could have just avoided the spot and drunk the broth, but because it was red… my eyes kept drifting there…
“What? You think I’m too gross to drink from the same cup? Anyway, Yoon Noeul, you’d better learn to be clean.”
Maybe because I hesitated too long, Gabi started teasing me in her usual playful way. Thanks to that, instead of blushing, I managed to answer calmly.
“What are you talking about? I was thinking I should set it aside and warm it up tomorrow for my meal.”
“Ugh. That’s so stingy. But is there actually any rice?”
“No. So I think I should just finish it right now.”
“AHAHA, what?”
So Gabi sat across from me and waited until I finished the broth. Only then did she start preparing to go home.
“Going already?”
“Yes. I have homework and dinner to do. Ah, you don’t want me to go, Noeul? I can just stay here and sleep.”
“Who are you calling ‘unnie’? Your parents are going to worry. Hurry up and leave.”
“Come on, what’s to worry about? I have a free pass because I’m coming from Noeul’s place. Anyway, see you later. Make sure to eat well, okay?”
“You really do look at me too much.”
“Before we went out to buy stuff, you weren’t wearing any underwear. So it’s only fair.”
“…….”
There was no way to refute that. Especially since I wasn’t wearing any right now. It was pure luck that Gabi hadn’t lifted my hoodie out of pure mischief. So Gabi left our house, and I walked her all the way to the door.
Good. Yoon Noeul. She had kept quiet and endured everything without a single reaction.
From now on, it would be fine if we just kept living like this.
Okay, time to get back to my real job.
The viewers were waiting, so I needed to turn on the computer.