16
16. Manager (2)
There was always one thing I was careful about whenever we ate outside.
‘Wild animals.’
In Canada, there had even been cases where people were harmed by wild animals while staying inside their homes.
There were many huge animals, such as moose and bears, that could destroy a house without hesitation.
Since large animals could come after smelling food, we had to be as careful as possible.
‘I even had a coyote hanging around once.’
There had been a time when we were filming a video of ourselves grilling beef, and a coyote suddenly appeared.
It was something between a wolf and a fox in appearance. It was a carnivore and was notorious in Canada as an animal
that could harm humans.
“What are you doing?”
“I need to get the angle right. Every single video can potentially make money.”
“.....I know how to get a good angle too, you know?”
“You do?”
“No?”
“You’re saying that was you getting the angle right?”
“......”
“You’re holding the camera too low, so you can’t even see the food properly.”
Normally, I mostly used a selfie stick when filming outside, so I didn’t pay much attention to the angle. But in the
yard, I lowered the camera.
Emma and I didn’t mind showing our faces, but Jeongmin didn’t want his face to appear.
“I’ll just blur my brother’s face, so don’t worry.”
“Ah..... Then I guess it’s fine.”
Since I had already entrusted it to her, I decided to trust her and began making a fire as well.
‘Meat covered in marinade..... burns quickly, so it’s better to cook it with residual heat.’
When using a griddle, the meat wasn’t cooked directly at extremely high temperatures, so it didn’t burn easily. But if
you simply grilled marinated meat over charcoal, the marinade would burn quickly.
Since the residual heat was enough, once the firewood had burned down to a certain point, I pulled the charcoal out.
“All right. Let’s grill it.”
“Ah. Wait a second, Oppa.”
“Why?”
“Let me film the charcoal one more time.”
“.....The charcoal?”
Why?
Ignoring my puzzled expression, Mina began filming the charcoal with the camera.
She filmed the red embers glowing between the gray-colored pieces of wood for quite a while before eventually nodding.
“Now you can grill.”
“Why did you film the charcoal?”
“Oppa, you don’t know what fire-gazing is?”
“.....Fire-gazing?”
It meant staring blankly at a fire without thinking about anything.
Since spacing out was practically my specialty, I could do it anywhere, but staring at the mesmerizing flames of a fire
allowed me to do it for even longer.
“Do you have to film something like that too?”
“Oppa’s video concept is ‘healing’ and ‘daily life,’ right? Fire-gazing is also a form of healing, so of course we have
to film it!”
“Ah..... How do you even know things like that?”
“We did it in our department club.”
“You film MuTube videos in a club too?”
“What era do you think we’re living in? You have to do things like this just to add another line to your résumé.”
“Hmm......”
I gave up on thinking about it.
If I kept putting too much thought into filming MuTube videos, things would get complicated, so I decided to leave
everything to Mina.
“Can I start now?”
“Yes.”
I stacked bricks beside the charcoal and placed the grill grate on top.
“Can I put the meat on?”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
For some reason, it felt like I needed permission for every little thing I did, but it wasn’t particularly
uncomfortable.
Once I filled the grill grate with dak-galbi, Mina began filming the dak-galbi with the camera again.
‘She looks like a camera director.’
The way Mina adjusted the focus and zoomed in while filming looked just like the camera directors I had seen on variety
shows.
“You’re really good at filming. Is it because you major in filming?”
“Ah..... Are you trying to become a filming director? Or a camera director?”
“Who knows? I’m not interested in that kind of thing.”
“.....You’re her brother. Show a little interest.”
“Then do you know what Hyerin wants to become in the future?”
“She went to a university in Seoul, so she’ll figure it out herself.”
“You’re the same.”
“I guess.”
I trusted Hyerin, and Jeongmin trusted Mina.
It was simply because we trusted them that we didn’t ask them anything.
In fact, Jeongmin at least knew that Mina had gone into a department related to video production, while I didn’t even
know what department Hyerin had entered.
“Now flip it.”
“Do I just flip it?”
“Of course. Just make it look natural.”
“Okay.”
I put on work gloves, grabbed the grill grate, and used tongs to turn the meat over.
“Ah. Oppa, is that the only kind of tongs you have?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“You should buy some tweezers-style tongs later. Since you guys eat so much, it might look more appealing on camera if
you eat using those kinds of tongs.”
I didn’t watch MuTube very often, but Mina watched it frequently because of her major, so perhaps that was why she knew
exactly what we needed.
“......Okay.”
“And what about makguksu?”
“Why makguksu?”
“You’re supposed to have makguksu with dak-galbi!”
“......!”
“......!”
At those words, Jeongmin and I felt as though a huge boulder had dropped onto our heads.
Whether it was beef, pork, or dak-galbi.
We had completely forgotten the existence of the refreshing noodles that always accompanied grilled meat.
“What is makguksu?”
“It’s kind of like a dessert.”
“Ah! So it’s sweet?”
“Yeah. It’s sweet.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie.
I had heard that when you went to Chuncheon, people sprinkled sugar over their makguksu.
“I want some too!”
When Emma, who normally loved sweet things, said she wanted some too, I could only scratch my head.
“We don’t have any makguksu..... We’ll have to eat it next time.”
Unfortunately, we had also run out of bibim noodles, so we had no choice but to go without noodles.
‘If we were using a griddle, we could have made fried rice too.....’
There were plenty of things to be disappointed about, but that thought only lasted for a moment.
“Damn..... That smells incredible.”
The sight and aroma of the beautiful dak-galbi, which naturally made my mouth water, made me swallow involuntarily.
“Let’s eat now.”
“Ah. Wait a second. We’re having beer too, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then say cheers before you eat.”
“.....I usually eat a lot of food first and then drink beer.”
“Normally, when you go to a restaurant, the alcohol comes first, right? Then don’t you say cheers first?”
“I do?”
“Then do it.”
“.....Okay.”
This was why I liked drinking alone in Korea.
Anyway, following Mina’s instructions, I raised my can of beer, while Emma raised her cola.
“To us!”
Cheers.
The beer cans clinked, and I quickly poured the beer into my mouth.
Gulp..... gulp......
“Ahhhh......!”
I didn’t particularly like drinking beer on an empty stomach, but there was nothing better for cooling down a body
drenched in sweat from making a fire on a summer night.
The beer that went down my throat quickly spread through my body, cooling down the heat.
‘Let’s see.....’
The dak-galbi, filled with the aroma of charcoal, began releasing smoke as if proudly showing off its existence.
‘Gulp.’
My throat began producing saliva as though urging me to hurry up and put food into it.
Unable to resist the urge, I put a piece of dak-galbi into my mouth.
Chewy, chewy.
‘Mmm..... This is good.’
Perhaps because we were using larger chickens than the ones in Korea, the texture of the meat was slightly different.
However, since it had been thoroughly marinated, the moment the chewy texture passed, it quickly became tender.
‘This is how charcoal-grilled dak-galbi should be.’
The rich juices were followed by the deep aroma of charcoal.
If it weren’t for that charcoal aroma, I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of making charcoal.
‘And now..... beer!’
The moment my mouth became greasy and the spicy flavor reached the tip of my tongue, I immediately drank the beer.
Gulp..... gulp......
The small beer can was practically vertical, but I didn’t care and continued moving my throat.
“Hahahahahaha! This is heaven!”
The combination of cold carbonation and spicy dak-galbi.
Every worry and concern I had been thinking about until now disappeared completely in that moment.
“Mina. Come eat too.”
“I want to tell you not to call my name while filming if possible..... But whatever, we can edit it out. Please put some
on a plate for me.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll edit this video and upload it tomorrow. Ah. I’ll upload the raccoon video too.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
I never concentrated on filming when I was eating.
I only paid attention while preparing the food. After that, I focused entirely on eating.
“Hey, hey. Grill some more.”
“We’re going to run out of charcoal. Should we burn more firewood?”
“Hmm.....”
“.....You pigs.”
As always, Emma gave us a look of contempt, but we were already used to that expression.
Incidentally, there were many viewers who liked Emma’s expression because they thought it was cute.
“Emma, what did you do today?”
“I read a book at home.”
“And?”
“I finished reading [The Nine Snakes] today.”
“Ah. Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you only read a book?”
“What else am I supposed to do?”
“.....”
In Canada, summer vacation lasted about two months, while winter vacation was only about two or three weeks at most.
I didn’t know why, but ever since Emma started her vacation, she spent her time doing nothing but reading books at the
library or at home.
“By the way. What happened with [The Woman in New York]?”
“I don’t know. I think I’m supposed to hear from them sometime next week..... Or maybe not.”
Since it was a work long enough to fill one book, I thought the proofreading and editing would take quite a while.
They hadn’t even discussed how many copies the first edition would have, when it would be published, or which bookstores
in which regions would receive it.
“I’ll upload today’s video in about three days.”
“Okay.”
“I guess I’ll have to think about the concept for the videos going forward too.”
“Concept? You said it was daily life and healing.”
“There’s also mukbang and travel introductions in there. More importantly, you guys are naturally suited for
broadcasting.”
“We are?”
“We are?”
Jeongmin and I looked at each other in confusion.
“Of course you are. You have blessed stomachs, and as for Jeongmin Oppa..... You may look messy, but you have muscles on
your body.”
“......I have muscles too.”
Mina ignored what I said and continued.
“How many people can eat that much and still maintain their physique? Especially when two people can devour more than
ten servings of food between them. That’s honestly incredible.”
“......”
Come to think of it, she was right.
Normally, when you watched mukbangs on MuTube, there were many people who ate enormous amounts of food, and because of
that, there were even controversies over whether they were eating the food or spitting it out.
We weren’t spitting anything out.
We simply wanted to eat more.
“You two have talent. Just trust me. I’ll get you more than a million subscribers!”
“......Okay. Do whatever you want.”
Jeongmin and I weren’t particularly interested in filming anyway.
“Emma. Isn’t it spicy? We put a lot of chili peppers in it.”
“......You can obviously tell, can’t you? Hurry and bring me some milk.”
“Okay, okay.”
Since we had used a lot of chili peppers in the marinade for this dak-galbi, it was far too spicy for a young child like
Emma.
‘Do we have any milk?’
I put down my chopsticks and went inside, thinking that if we didn’t have any, I would bring her some candy instead.
-Brrrrrrrring~♪
But suddenly, my phone rang.
I casually checked my phone and tilted my head at the unfamiliar number.
‘Who is it?’
Thinking it probably wasn’t a voice phishing call, I brought the phone to my ear.
“Ah. Author. This is Aaron. Aaron.”
“Aaron?”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t saved his number.