Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 32⟩
This hungry ghost’s feeling of starvation wasn’t simply a hunger. It was also a dream for a new world, and sorrow.
It was so powerful because of those things.
‘Okay.’
The soul’s inner thoughts were passed over.
‘Now bread, egg, ham, butter and milk are nothing special. Anyone can enter a cafeteria or a coffee shop as they like, and anyone can study to their heart’s content.’
She couldn’t see that scene during her life, but even so…
Her face melted.
“What a magnificent flavor. I’m so happy.”
With the end of those words, the maid fell into her inner world.
What was it like to starve to death? Yu Dan thought.
He once starved himself for two meals playing a game. Perhaps it was possible because he was a middle schooler, but when he thought about it now, it was a really pathetic and foolish action. What he drank, while he thought ‘This is how I’m going to die, huh?’ and barely took it out of the fridge, was milk. It seemed that he wouldn’t be able to forget that taste until he died.
However, besides that, if he was to pick out the most delicious food of his entire life, it would be…
The sound of a fork being placed down brought him back to reality. No, it wasn’t reality, right? Anyhow. Yu Dan looked at the maid again.
“I ate well.”
She slowly stood up with a satisfied face.
The people, which chatted and clamored in the cafeteria, at some point disappeared. The maid packed her bundle again. The moment she brushed past Yu Dan, she whispered quietly.
“Thank you.”
In that instant, her memory also brushed past. The word he didn’t know suddenly appeared in his head.
‘Boutique’.
He saw an imposing old mansion. A lady wearing fur and a pearl necklace, slapped the maid’s cheek. She said that one of the jade buttons on the rabbit fur durumagi[1], which the maid went to the boutique to find, was missing.
“You can’t let Joseon people[2] do anything!”
The madam, who always spat out such words from her mouth, while being a Joseon person herself, dragged the maid and locked her up in a backroom.
That was her end. The maid’s hand was handcuffed, and she was tied to a pillar, and then starved to death.
“I didn’t particularly want to know that…”
Yu Dan mumbled.
“She didn’t tell You it, it was just something she left behind.”
Baek Ran replied.
All yokai stood by the window and observed.
At some point, the sun set. The evening glow illuminated edges of sparkling Ford cars. Among the busy passersby of Gyeong-seong[3], the maid gradually grew smaller and disappeared
“Tsk-tsk. In the end she was like this because she was too kind, eh?”
“True. Even though she died from starvation just like them, instead of becoming a crazy and wild hungry ghost, she sacrificed her body, trying to feed others until they’re full?!”
“So she made things very difficult for us, but being kind is good. Isn’t that right, unnie?”
“I’m not sure. Now she has to come back to her senses and start anew.”
Heuk-yo replied like this and turned around.
Yu Dan abruptly came back to his senses.
The kitchen was a mess. All kinds of strange ingredients were taken out, and empty dishes piled up like mountains. Heuk-yo stood in place, staring at the sight.
She was going to spit out fire again, huh?
Yu Dan made mental preparations.
However, it didn’t go according to his expectations. Unexpectedly, Heuk-yo smiled.
“As expected, food is the best. Memories, love, comfort, dreams… It contains all sort of things. The humans make them for each other to share their feelings and soothe starving souls, so I think it wasn’t so bad.”
“Indeed, sister.”
Do-ssi slowly nodded.
“I also think it wasn’t so bad. To be submerged in memories after a long time, eh?”
The twins also smiled widely.
“Isn’t it strange? We were suddenly swallowed by that maid noona, and then did a heavy labor because we were chased by hungry ghosts. No matter how I look, it wasn’t fun, but when I think about it, it was fun.”
“And did you notice? We safely served so many guests. And we didn’t even make the slightest misstep. I think it would be better to open a cafeteria instead of a tea shop. Cheonho-nim, how about it?”
“Please count me out.”
The fox yokai shrugged.
“The most effective way to soothe hungry ghosts is still ‘Sejong year 1426’. But because of the souls’ stubbornness, we had to use such a cumbersome and difficult way. Today’s afternoon was wasted like this, eh? I’ll have things to finish when we return. Anyhow, the bad dream is over.”
Everyone nodded.
The silence fell.
And the silence continued.
Yu Dan looked at Baek Ran.
“… It’s not ending?”
Baek Ran was embarrassed. While looking around the surrounding, which didn’t change in the slightest, he frowned slightly.
“It’ll end.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Because she is a bit weak, it’s a bit slow.”
“I’m hungry.”
“I have a great idea!”
Chaeu suddenly spoke up.
“Shouldn’t we also eat something? If so, before this magic disappears…”
He was right.
Because hunger swept him in that instant, Yu Dan’s ears could no longer hear their words.
It was natural. He was already hungry when he came to Banwoldang, but what’s worse he had to feel hungry ghosts’ hunger for over dozens of times, while reading their memories.
At some point, there was no longer a sound of rumbling. It just felt like his stomach became a bottomless pit.
Yu Dan wobbly walked to the dinning table and sat down.
“Anyway, what should we eat? That’s the problem.”
Chaeseol replied to Do-ssi.
“Anything is good for me. But I hope for something which the hungry ghosts ate a moment ago if possible. Perhaps because they ate it so enthusiastically, if they just weren’t hungry ghosts, I would ask just for one spoon.”
“In fact, it seems there is still one hungry ghost here.”
Baek Ran glanced at Yu Dan.
“Hey, You decide, please. The food so delicious you won’t be able to forget it even when You die. Is there such a thing?”
While smiling, he asked.
As he happened to think about it a moment ago, Yu Dan replied without hesitation.
“Curry.”
Everyone looked interested.
“Curry? What kind?”
“A homemade curry. We ate it often at Friday dinners.”
“How did it taste?”
Heuk-yo asked.
“Um…”
It was difficult to describe, but he tried this best to explain.
“With a lot of potato and meat… it tasted somehow reassuring… how should I say. It tasted like nothing bad would happen?”
The yokai all fell into thoughts, as if they were imaging how it tasted like.
“Good. Then curry.”
Heuk-yo stood up.
“Gyeong-seong’s curry. The so-called ‘Rice curry’ from the department store cafeteria. Curry on top of white rice, and pickled vegetables on top of it. It was served with a bowl of doenjangguk[4]. In those days it was popular for families to hold hands and go to the department store cafeteria.”
Yu Dan was stunned.
“What? That isn’t curry I was talking about at all. Why did you ask if you’re going do it your way?”
“Calm down. Unnie is like this because she is worried that if Yu Dan eats the curry he asked for, he will ascend.”
“Right. We can’t let that happen, right? You have to buy me over a hundred cakes in the future.”
“Ah, right…”
Remembering the fact he forgot, Yu Dan’s face turned pale. Chaeu abruptly stood up.
“Hey, think about later things later. Now please put this napkin on Your knees first.”
“Yes.”
Baek Ran was first to accept the napkin. He was secretly smiling while at it.
“Ah, it’s really good here.”
Chaeseol looked around with a fresh eye, while saying it.
“It is. Isn’t it the place where the finest modern boys and modern girls of Gyeong-seong gather?”
The eyes of the ginseng girl curled up.
Yu Dan ended up giggling.
The orange glow from the lamps made out of stained-glass. A jazz music from a silent movie, flowing out of the old gramophone horn.
In it, the smell of curry spread out gently.
“Here, all done!”
“Looks delicious!”
Everyone grabbed their bowls and sat around the dinning table.
On pure white rice sat brimful of curry with ample of vegetables and meat. The twins took big spoons of steaming curry rice and put it in their mouths.
“That’s it! That’s it!”
“That’s the taste of that time!”
The scene of the twins givings thumbs up, overlapped with some other scene.
“What to do! We’re waiting because they said they would make sure to come, but…”
“I guess they completely forgot about our store again! What are we going to do with those army funds!?”
“It can’t be helped, right? We worked so hard to gather this money, putting our blood and sweat into it. If this is how it is, we will go to Shanghai[5] personally…”
Behind the twins, who wore winter hats and held rusty rifles, Heuk-yo frantically screamed.
“Kids-ah! Did you forget that we, yokai, can’t interfere into human’s history?”
“Ack! Noona! Run!”
The scene from memories abruptly disappeared. But…
“Really? It’s exactly that taste? I was so shocked when I ate it for the first time.”
Over Heuk-yo’s face, who spoke proudly, another scene came up.
“It’s okay. I have money.”
The miss, with black skirt and unusually shining eyes, grabbed Heuk-yo’s hand and dragged her to the department store cafeteria. Heuk-yo looked at the prices of the food in the display case and was shocked once again.
“Even so, it’s too expensive!”
“You always help a lot on our night writing school, so I wanted to treat You to something special, not noodles today. I have this much money. And…”
The miss grinned, opened the menu and pointed.
“I wanted to make sure to tell You. In Japanese it’s written like this ‘Ra, i, su, ca, re (rice curry)’, but you can get much closer to the foreign word with our language. It’s ‘Ray, i, su, cu, ri (rice curry)’. Isn’t it fun?”
She continued with sparkling eyes.
“As hangul is so good, our people already have a great asset. In the future, hangul will become our people’s strength. The great independence movement is to also protect this hangul.”
“Aha.”
Heuk-yo nodded, and took a spoon of the yellow thing in front of her and put it in her mouth.
In the instant, her eyes grew wide.
The miss exploded into giggles.
“Look at that! Delicious, right?”
Heuk-yo’s memory disappeared and Do-ssi’s memory appeared.
“Ha, really!? It’s not enough to take out money, I also have to deliver it?”
“Well, don’t You have to be a loafer[6], like older brother, to naturally enter without drawing any suspicion? Isn’t it a time to use that good-for-nothing appearance of Yours? Don’t say useless things please, wear something nice and go in and out in a flash. I’ll make You some kind of delicious noodles.”
“Hmm…”
Following the sister’s request, Do-ssi dressed up tastefully and holding a new cane, he found the place in-question.
When he opened the door, cigarette smoke clouded his vision. Movie posters were plastered everywhere, and people gathered in groups of twos or threes to chat.
Do-ssi found the person he was asked to, novelist called ‘Any Kim’, and handed him a bag full of money.
“Here. Manuscript bundle You left at our family shop.”
“Yes?”
The novelist blinked in surprise and suddenly grabbed Do-ssi’s hand.
“Thank You! Really thank You, comrade!”
“Comrade? What? Me?”
Do-ssi turned around to leave straight away.
At that moment.
“You came all the way here, so please at least have a cup of coffee.”
He looked back at the voice that he suddenly heard.
A woman in her forties, with a beautiful French pleat and spring green western-style clothing, was standing there, smiling gently.
Do-ssi couldn’t say a word, as he looked at her.
The noise rose around.
“No, what’s the matter, madam? Did this gentleman catch your fancy?”
“This Person is our comrade.”
The novelist put a hand on Do-ssi’s shoulder, as he announced.
“Uuh….”
Do-ssi ended up sitting down on impulse.
“It’s really the taste of that time, huh?”
The afterimages of memories all disappeared, and in front of him was the face of Do-ssi, smiling widely.
“You, don’t you know how good-looking I am? If I just came out in a straw hat and white shoes, even those prideful courtesans lined up to have a word with me. When you have time, I’ll teach you that skill.”
“Uncle! Don’t do that! That was a skill hundred years ago!”
“Right. Do You want to ruin one human’s entire life?”
Chaeseol and Chaeu said that and burst into laughter. Baek Ran also smiled.
“There is nothing worthy to exactly call food of memories for me, but…”
“Lies! There is food Cheon-ho enjoyed since He was young.”
Pretending he couldn’t hear Chaeseol’s words, Baek Ran continued slowly.
“The thing about eating the food of memories is that You can taste again the memories contained in them, correct? The taste of that time, including even the smell of air. So isn’t it something everyone misses their entire lives?”
“Probably so.”
While recalling the Sunday afternoon, the sunlight that entered the living room and the sound of piano everyone at home listened to…
Yu Dan took a big spoon of the rice curry Heuk-yo made.
***
The restaurant was white and full of fake flowers just like before.
He had some secret hopes, but the cafeteria’s interior wouldn’t change in a barely few days. The key customers also didn’t change. Like before, everyone except him were female. The air seemed to reek with a candy smell.
Yu Dan was suffering.
It was truly difficult for a dreary male highschooler like him to butt in into the world of nunims.
To appease his awkwardness, he decided to think about them as a tribe with unique habits. Nunim tribe have a habit of making piercing noises when they find something cute, and when something is really funny, they hit each other. And…
“Order anything. Because you worked hard.”
His thoughts were cut off at Mia’s voice. Yu Dan turned his eyes and stared at his maternal cousin noona.
“I didn’t do anything in particular?”
“You went and informed master Baek-nim.”
“Wait. That wasn’t quite right. I sprinkled sweet water, I looked into hungry ghosts’ memories, I helped with making food…”
“And when was it when you did nothing? Really, I’ll cover the expenses for cakes for Heuk-yo unnie.”
“It’s alright. She said that I can’t buy them too often, because she would hate to get diabetes. But I hoped to get rid of that debt fast. Won’t I have to buy them until I die?”
Mia smirked.
“Don’t smile. Don’t people get goosebumps when noona smiles slightly?”
“What? Do you think a smile suits you?”
“Better than noona.”
“No! I’m better! Do you want to stop people at the street and ask them?”
While they were arguing, they heard a voice behind them.
“Uh? Are you fighting?”
Yu Dan turned around. And was startled.
“Who are You?”
There was a slim female university student in a flowery one-piece outfit standing there. Her good-natured face was shining so brightly, people around stole glances at her.
“Did you already forgot? I’m Eunbi.”
Even if the person in question said that, he couldn’t simply believe it. Yu Dan whispered to Mia.
“Where the hell one third of her went?”
“Naturally, as the hungry ghosts were taken off, she lost her weight extremely quickly. Even people around were worried… but Eunbi, are you really okay?”
“Indeed! I’m fine.”
But Eunbi, who sat on the chair, lost her balance and fell down with a bang.
“In fact, I’m not okay. I can’t adjust to my body being so light.”
As she awkwardly stood up, she smiled kindly at Yu Dan, who stared at her with eyes wide open, still in the state of shock as before.
“I’m truly sorry for the previous time. I thought I wasn’t in quite a good condition that day, but I didn’t expect to collapse like this. Were you very surprised? Sorry. And thank you Mia for calling help so quickly. I live thanks to you.”
“Why are you so stubborn that you have to keep saying it? Do you think I’ll forget if you don’t do that?”
Mia winked.
In fact, he was a bit worried.
People possessed by supernatural ask others for help to survive. Didn’t Eunbi also approach Mia to help with her supernatural? If everything ends, wouldn’t she also completely forget about Mia?
However, it didn’t happen.
Eunbi couldn’t remember the strange thing that happened to her body, but she was looking at Mia with a bright smile like before. It was real friendship. It was a look given when looking at a real good friend.
But…
For some reason Eunbi was sending a similar gaze towards him. Yu Dan shivered a bit.
Why did I also leave a good impression?
First of all, he changed the atmosphere.
“Anyhow, it all ended, so what…”
“Ooh. Right.”
Eunbi smiled and nodded.
Abruptly, Yu Dan realized.
Dazzling sunlight entering the cafeteria. The newspaper Eunbi brought lying on the table. The surrounding filled with chatter of female university students…
Didn’t she say that if she was born again, she wanted to become a model girl? Did she finally achieve her dream?
That subtle feeling was also just a moment.
“But, say.”
Eunbi suddenly spoke up.
“When I saw your dongsaeng, I suddenly thought about something. It seems that before I collapsed I went to some really good place. There were many antique and pretty things, and everyone was friendly and… ah, right! I think there was a kid with something like fox ears.”
Both Mia and Yu Dan were embarrassed.
“No! Eunbi! Hallucination!”
“Right! It was a hallucination! How can a person have fox ears on their head?!”
The two fell into panic and shouted in unison.
Why the hell was that female university student, the so-called ‘Mia’s only friend’, like this? Was it like the fox yokai said, ‘because she is too weak, it’s a bit slow’? If not, was it because she was too innocent?
While he worked hard to deny it, ‘it’s not it’, ‘that seems wrong’…
He kept recalling the magic of that day that soothed the starving ghosts, the taste of the ‘rice curry’ the serpent yokai made, the subtle feeling he felt when he saw Eunbi, who returned to normal, etc., and felt embarrassed again and again.
Yu Dan stealthily scratched his cheek.
That was a really strange feeling.
*~*~*
[1] durumagi — a hanbok’s overcoat.
[2] Joseon — Kingdom of Joseon/Empire of Joseon was the name of Korea, before the Japanese occupation, and establishment of ‘Korea’ after the WW2.
[3] Gyeong-seong — name of Seoul during the Japanese occupation.
[4] doenjangguk — A soybean paste soup.
[5] Shangai — a lot of military equipment for Korean resistance were produced and smuggled from Shangai, therefore making it somewhat of a center of Korean (or at the time, Joseon) resistance. If you saw the film ‘The Age of Shadows (2016)’ its storyline hinges on it.
[6] loafer — 한량 (halryang), refers to someone, who passed military exams, but doesn’t serve in the army during Joseon, later started to be used as a term for an unemployed person, who plays around.
Translator’s note: End of second story ⟨Soul’s restaurant⟩.
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