Jwibulnori and Roasted Sweet Potatoes
"Heave-ho!"
With a final grunt, Dojin moved the last remaining pile of weeds.
With this, all the weeds from Sekki House were gathered in the schoolyard.
"Whew, there really were a lot once we gathered them all up."
The pile of weeds was stacked higher than Dojin's head.
Since there were five of these piles scattered across the schoolyard, it was easy to see just how massive the volume of weeds was.
As Dojin took a brief rest while looking at the weed piles,
a few figures began to approach him.
Woof, woof!
"Oppa, are you all done?"
"Huh? Ah, all finished. Whoa! Ttorang-i, you rascal! Jumping on me again?"
When Dojin grabbed her muzzle and gave it a playful rub, a dazed Ttorang-i took a step back.
Snort! Growl!
"What? Why are you sulking now? That's what you get for jumping on me like that."
Ttorang-i shook her head at Dojin's words and turned her back to him.
It was a clear sign that she was pouting and wanted to be coaxed, but Dojin turned his head, pretending not to notice.
Lately, because he had been giving her a lot of attention, Ttorang-i had become quite spoiled.
Dojin knew that if he didn't keep her in check, she would become even harder to handle later, so he took every opportunity to humble her a bit.
Whine...
When Dojin didn't pay her any mind, let alone look back at her,
Ttorang-i slunk back toward him.
As expected, she hadn't actually been angry earlier.
Having thrown a tantrum only to be ignored, she lowered her tail in a complete declaration of surrender.
"Oh, you rascal!"
Thinking that was enough, Dojin patted her.
Besides, he didn't have the heart to keep ignoring Ttorang-i as she hovered by his feet, anxiously reading his expression.
Pant, pant!
Appeased by Dojin's touch, Ttorang-i let out a bright smile.
It was her signature goofy, innocent grin.
Watching this from the side, Dohee laughed in disbelief.
"Geez, look at her wagging her tail again."
"Are you walking Ttorang-i?"
"Yeah. Today is the day Sun-jam goes to the center."
Sun-jam's selective mutism was improving day by day.
However, since they were warned that her condition could worsen or relapse at any time, they were sending her to the child counseling center on a regular basis.
"She should be back around the usual time, then."
"Right. She usually gets back around four anyway."
At Dohee's words, Dojin looked toward the main building.
In the center of the main building, a digital clock displayed the time.
"A digital clock... I'm really feeling the generation gap."
"Huh? Oh, the central clock? Was it not like that in your day, Oppa?"
"Yeah. In our day, it was just an analog clock. A basic round one with numbers."
Back then, most clocks were like that.
But nowadays, digital clocks were the standard, and many of them even changed characters or emojis depending on the time.
"It was like that in my day too. Honestly, I'm starting to doubt your age, Representative. Aren't you in the same age group as me?"
Dojin turned toward the voice behind him and let out a dumbfounded laugh.
The person talking about being in the "same age group" was none other than Team Leader Hong.
"Excuse me, what kind of slip of the tongue is that? I'd be offended to be compared to an ancestor."
At Dojin's retort, Eun-seop wore a look of sheer absurdity.
He was thirty-five this year, which was hardly old enough to be called an "ancestor" anywhere.
Eun-seop spoke with a tone of deep grievance.
"An ancestor? I'm still in my early thirties, you know."
"Why are you sneakily using international age? If we go by that, I'm still in my mid-twenties."
"Ahem!"
Since Dojin was twenty-seven this year,
it wasn't a lie to say he was in his mid-twenties by international age.
Moreover, unlike Dojin, whose birthday had already passed,
Eun-seop's birthday was in a week.
Once that week passed, he wouldn't even be able to claim he was in his early thirties by international age anymore.
"Age is just a number. It's a bit embarrassing to say this myself, but when I go out, everyone thinks I'm in my twenties."
"Pfft!"
Dojin finally burst out laughing at Eun-seop's words.
Every single line was a classic cliché used by older folks.
Perhaps because he lived a somewhat isolated life here,
Eun-seop's remarks sounded far more like an old man's than his actual age suggested.
Though I suppose I'm not one to talk.
If he factored in his age before his regression, Dojin was actually much older.
It wasn't for nothing that Eun-seop joked about them being in the same age group.
But of course, no one knew that secret except Dojin.
"Well, age is important, but let's just leave it at that. More importantly, is the preparation I asked for ready?"
"...It's right here."
Looking slightly aggrieved for a moment, Eun-seop brought over a box containing the items he had prepared.
"Oh, there are quite a lot?"
"The team members helped out a lot."
When Dojin cried out in surprise at the items piled inside the box,
Eun-seop proudly gave credit to his team.
"Thank you. Thanks to you, today's event will go smoothly."
At Dojin's words, Eun-seop shook his head.
"Not at all. It's an event we're all participating in. If anything, I feel bad because it seems like the scale grew too large because of us."
"Don't worry about that. Jwibulnori is more fun when everyone does it together, and since we're showing it to Sun-jam, I wanted to do it properly."
With those words, Dojin looked down at the box.
Inside were peculiar large-capacity cans, each riddled with holes and fitted with a wire handle.
They were fire cans, commonly used for the traditional game of Jwibulnori.
It's been so long since I've done this that I'm a bit nervous, but this should be plenty.
As Dojin inspected the fire cans, the events of a few days ago flashed through his mind.
"...Uncle."
"Hmm?"
Dojin, who had been checking on Cheongdung-i and Hwanggeum-i's nest, turned around at the sound of Sun-jam's voice behind him.
But there was another familiar face standing behind her besides Sun-jam.
"Obei?"
"Hello..."
"Oh, uh, hello."
Anyone could see that Dojin's greeting to Obei was a bit awkward.
But this couldn't be helped.
Out of Shan-hun's family, he had the least contact with Obei.
She's not the same gender like Begter, nor is she a complete child like Sun-jam.
Obei was eighteen years old, which meant there was nearly a twenty-year age gap between her and Dojin before his regression.
For Dojin, who hadn't even talked much to girls his own age back in high school, interacting with her was naturally a bit difficult.
This is unexpected. I thought Obei found me difficult to approach too.
Since she usually only communicated with Dohee or Seung-wan,
Dojin had assumed she felt uncomfortable around him.
But seeing her come to find him with Sun-jam like this, it seemed that wasn't entirely the case.
Just then, Sun-jam stepped right up to him and asked,
"Uncle, what is Jwibulnori?"
"Huh? Jwibulnori? Why the sudden interest?"
"Korean school homework. The teacher told us to find out."
"Ah..."
At the mention of the Korean language school, Dojin understood why she was suddenly asking about Jwibulnori.
I heard they give out assignments for every lecture. I guess this time they were told to research Jwibulnori.
He had enrolled them in the online basic Korean language school run by Gyeonggi Province because he heard good things about it, and the curriculum seemed surprisingly substantial.
Even many Koreans didn't know much about traditional games like Jwibulnori, so seeing them cover such details showed how thorough the program was.
"You don't know either, Obei?"
Dojin turned to Obei and asked.
Dojin had enrolled the entire family in the language school, not just Sun-jam.
The fact that they had come together meant Obei didn't know either.
"Yeah. Aunt Obei doesn't know either."
"Can't you search for it? Even if Sun-jam can't use a computer, Obei should be able to."
At Dojin's question, Obei shook her head with an embarrassed look.
"I searched, but I don't understand. The explanation is hard."
"Hmm, did you ask Dohee or Seung-wan by any chance?"
"I asked the Madam and Sister Seung-wan. They explained it, but I still don't really get it."
"Ah..."
Only after hearing Obei's explanation following Sun-jam's did Dojin realize why the two had come to him.
Jwibulnori... Well, people who lived in Seoul might not know it well.
There was a big difference between knowing something as a fact and actually experiencing it.
Under those circumstances, even if they tried to explain it to foreigners, there was no way they would understand it easily.
"Do you want to watch this first?"
Dojin searched for a video on MeTube and played it.
It was an old broadcast from a program called My Hometown at Seven.
On the screen, a child shown only in silhouette was vigorously spinning a fire can.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The fire can, which spun slowly at first, gradually picked up speed.
As it did, sparks began to shower from the holes in the can.
Just as the circle of fire drawn by the can and the falling sparks reached a crescendo,
the child let go of the fire can't's handle.
Whoosh!
Freed from centrifugal force, the fire can flew in a gentle arc and landed right on top of a pile of straw.
And then...
Whoosh! Crackle!
The fire heating the can instantly began to consume the straw pile.
"This is what we call Jwibulnori."
"..."
"..."
Once the video finished, Dojin rewound it to the beginning.
Then, he began to explain the contents of the video step by step.
However, Obei and Sun-jam weren't listening to his explanation.
"...Uncle."
"So like this, you see... Huh? What is it, Sun-jam?"
"Is that person you, Uncle?"
"...Huh?"
Dojin, who was cut off by Sun-jam just as he was about to explain the most important part, was left speechless by her follow-up question.
Her question was completely unexpected.
And for good reason...
"How did you know? It's so dark you can barely tell who it is."
Dojin scratched his head in embarrassment.
The video he had shown them was from fifteen years ago,
filmed when Dojin was only fourteen years old.
"The place where I used to live did Jwibulnori every year. A broadcasting station happened to film this scene. I only found out later."
If it were today, it would have caused an uproar.
Filming without consent and broadcasting it as they pleased would never fly now.
But back when Dojin was young, such things were tolerated to some extent.
It was a time when saying you were from a broadcasting station acted like a free pass.
Well, thanks to that, the camera angle is a mess.
Since it was filmed surreptitiously without any lighting, no one would have known the boy was Dojin unless he pointed it out.
Yet Sun-jam had recognized him after seeing it just once.
Wait, looking at her reaction, it seems Obei noticed too. Are Mongolian people just exceptionally observant?
While Dojin was marveling at their powers of observation,
Sun-jam tugged on Dojin's sleeve and spoke.
"I want to do it too."
"Huh?"
"I want to do Jwibulnori. Please let me."
"Oppa, we're all ready on this side."
"You can start now."
At the voices of Dohee and Seung-wan, Dojin snapped out of his reminiscence of a few days ago.
Before his eyes, he saw the security team, Shan-hun's family, Dohee, and Seung-wan gathered in front of the massive piles of weeds.
This has gotten way bigger than expected.
Initially, he had planned to keep it simple.
He only needed to show Sun-jam and Obei what Jwibulnori was, after all.
The problem started when Dohee and Seung-wan heard about it and insisted they wanted to join in too.
"I want to do it too! I've never done it before either!"
"This is perfect. Many subscribers have been asking for a video of Sun-jam. Why don't we film a Jwibulnori video together and upload it? It would make great content for teaching Korean culture."
Following their suggestions, the original plan was modified.
The Jwibulnori, which was supposed to be held on a small scale at the incinerator,
turned into a full-fledged folk festival content where they burned a bonfire in the middle of the schoolyard.
On top of that, Eun-seop, who had been watching, decided to jump in as well.
"You're preparing for Jwibulnori, right? By any chance, could we participate too? Some of the security team members said they'd like to try it."
And this was the result of the steadily growing list of participants.
Number of participants: 42.
Five large bonfires made from all the weeds gathered at Sekki House.
And with seventeen cameras deployed, it had literally become a village-scale event.
Of course, the only participants are the people from our Sekki House.
At this rate, the video quality would be far superior to the episode of My Hometown at Seven that Dojin had appeared in.
"If we edit the video well, various places might even buy it to use as reference material,"
Seung-wan said with a smile, seemingly sharing Dojin's thoughts.
Dojin nodded in agreement.
There was a surprising lack of decent video footage when it came to traditional folk games.
Given the circumstances, if the video turned out well, there was a high chance that various associations or broadcasting stations would purchase it for their archives.
"Did everyone fill their fire cans?"
"Yes!"
"We're ready!"
Responses echoed from all directions at Dojin's question.
Perhaps because it was their first time participating in Jwibulnori, a hint of tension could be heard in their voices.
"Alright, helpers! Please light them up."
At Dojin's signal, the security team members holding blowtorches went around lighting the fire cans.
As the fire cans, packed tight with paper, small wood chips, and dry leaves, instantly caught fire, Dojin shouted,
"Once the fire can is lit, you can start spinning it slowly. The most important thing here is keeping your distance. Spread out so you don't hit the person next to you!"
At Dojin's warning, the crowd spread out even further.
They had already been about two meters apart, but now a safe distance of nearly three meters was secured between each person.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
As the fire cans began to spin here and there, the schoolyard instantly lit up.
The schoolyard, which had been dark due to the early winter sunset, was suddenly flooded with unexpected sources of light.
"Wow."
"It's beautiful."
Exclamations of awe escaped the lips of those watching the Jwibulnori.
While the ones spinning the cans focused intently to avoid flying sparks, the spectators had no such worries.
Just as the fire in the vigorously spinning cans began to die down,
Dojin gave the signal right on cue.
"Now, throw the fire cans onto the bonfires!"
At Dojin's signal, the fire cans rained down one by one onto the bonfires made of gathered weeds.
Normally, we should make them out of rice straw, but this should be fine.
The moderately dry weeds caught fire in an instant.
As the bonfires, taller than a person, began to blaze, people gathered around them in small groups.
They were trying to warm up their stiff bodies in the now quite chilly weather.
"Ah... this is nice. It feels so peaceful."
"Yeah. I guess this is why people love spacing out in front of a fire."
Dohee and Seung-wan approached Dojin's side and spoke.
Perhaps because they had spun the fire cans so hard, both looked quite tired, yet satisfied smiles graced their faces.
Of course, there was someone else wearing a similar smile.
"Heheh."
Sun-jam, who had just thrown her child-sized fire can, snuggled into the arms of Shan-hun and Altani with a happy grin.
Seeing that alone made Dojin feel that all the preparation was worth it.
"Ah, what a shame. The fire is almost out."
As the fire, which had lasted for about thirty minutes, began to die down,
Dohee spoke with regret.
"Well, it can't be helped. We burned weeds, not logs."
Despite her words, Seung-wan also looked disappointed.
In fact, most of the people gathered here shared the same sentiment.
Seeing this, Dojin realized it was time to reveal the second round he had prepared.
"Team Leader Hong! Let's get started!"
"Yes, sir!"
At Dojin's call, Eun-seop and a few security team members brought over tongs and began to dismantle the bonfires.
Just as the onlookers began to look puzzled by their actions,
the items Dojin had prepared for the second round revealed themselves.
"Huh? Sweet potatoes?"
As foil-wrapped sweet potatoes emerged from the collapsed bonfires, people rushed forward to pick them up.
"It would be boring if we only did Jwibulnori. So I put sweet potatoes in the bonfires beforehand."
As Dojin spoke and peeled back the foil, the sweet aroma of roasted sweet potatoes wafted through the air.
Gulp!
Hearing the sound of salivation around him, Dojin took a large, deliberate bite of the sweet potato.
"Hah! Hot! But it's so delicious! Try some."
Dojin's words were the starting gun.
Foil was peeled back here and there, and the scent of roasted sweet potatoes filled the schoolyard.
"Ow, hot!"
"Hah! Whew! Ow, it's hot! I think I burned my tongue!"
"Is there any kimchi? Kimchi is the perfect match for roasted sweet potatoes."
The mouths that had been marveling at the flames just moments ago
were now pouring out praises for the taste of the sweet potatoes.
Of course, the loudest voice among them belonged to a specific person.
"Daddy! This is yummy! It tastes like meat! Give me more!"
The sight of Sun-jam, who had already eaten four by herself and was now peeling another foil wrap, was captured perfectly by the dedicated camera.