Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
52. Holidays and school anniversary (6)
The Eungwang Brilliant Light Children’s Home spent the most boisterous Chuseok holidays since its opening.
It was because the number of children nearly doubled, thanks to the remodeling made by the Hwang Myeong Constructions, it grew multiple times larger and the donations the children’s home received grew even more than before.
‘I didn’t expect the number of children to increase.’
Recently, the children’s homes, besides the Eungwang Brilliant Light Children’s Home, was increased by one by the Hwang Myeong Foundation donation, but because many facilities were outdated, the children from there were taken care of here, while the Hwang Myeong Constructions’ side was doing a safety inspection.
The two children’s home directors, who had no previous exchanges, opened up to each other through this matter and grew very close, while spending the Chuseok together.
Somehow a talk started that the two children’s homes may be merged.
“Han Yi noona, the tigers came!”
The child with a docile impression pointed at the other side.
This child, who was currently the 3rd grade at the Gwangli Elementary School, which Han Yi attended, immediately grew close with Han Yi.
Moreover, besides Han Yi, this child followed the four men and women well, who did voluntary activities at the children’s home everyday, while calling them tigers.
After Han Yi asked this child why is he calling them tigers, the four men and women urgently cut in and spoke like this instead of the child:
— Didn’t we play tigers the last time? I guess we look like tigers!
— Uh… Roar!
She had no idea how the hell they played tigers, but perhaps it was because that child really liked it when the four often played with him while roaring?
In any case, the four that got called tigers hesitantly approached Han Yi.
“That, so…”
“If You could accept this…”
They stretched out a box of the size of a watermelon towards her.
The box was wrapped in a blue Korean paper, and on the blue[1] silk on the handle ‘Moon Rabbit Rice Cakes’ were written in small letters.
‘Rice cakes? I ate Moon Rabbit Rice Cake’s limited ramie songpyeon[2] on Chuseok Day, so why again today…’
When Han Yi hesitated, the four men and women were close to tears.
The children’s home’s people, including Han Yi, who saw them abruptly cry a few times, thought ‘I guess they have some circumstances’, ‘They seem to be mentally ill, so let’s treat them well’.
For the sake of good holidays, Han Yi accepted the box before they cried.
“… Thank You.”
“No, it’s us who should thank You!”
“Please open it!”
When Han Yi accepted the box, their expressions changed straight away, and they asked her to unwrap it and look inside.
The content of the box was a rice cake cake.
Starting with the five color duteoptteok and chapssaltteok[3] coated in sugar, all sorts of rice cakes pilled up in the form of a cake.
As if honey and sugar were generously added, the sweet scent waffled over and Han Yi’s face turned bright.
The men and women, who saw that face smiled broadly.
“We wanted to make sure to eat together with You today.”
On impulse, Han Yi grabbed the seat and ate the rice cake cake with the four men and women.
Every bite had a delightful taste worthy of the rice cake cake made by the Moon Rabbit Rice Cakes.
‘Teacher Gong Cheong-hwon-nim said He will come today’s afternoon, so we should eat together!’
Gong Cheong-hwon didn’t like sweet things as much as Han Yi, but the taste of the rice cake cake was so good that she would recommend it even to him.
… But for some reason, there seemed to be a lot of dried persimmons rice cakes.
* * *
October 3rd, morning.
I visited MITRON early.
The result of checking through Ok Toyeon was that two rice cake cakes were ordered, but both of them had an absurd amount of dried persimmons rice cakes.
In particular, the rice cake cake scheduled to be delivered to Hwang Myeong-ho’s great mansion had special dried persimmon decorations made in the tigers’ image.
‘If that continues Baek Ho-gun won’t be able to eat a cake!’
I decided to choose the best cake for the sake of my main Playable Character.
“Hello.”
“You came.”
At MITRON, where there were always many people, was only me and the patissier.
Yesterday, when I followed Kim Sinrok’s suggestion and made a cake reservation through the application, I got a call directly from the MITRON’s patissier.
The patissier explained that he planned to close MITRON for the holiday period, but because an error occurred in the middle[4] of setting the holiday period for the reservation section, and it seemed to had taken the reservation by mistake.
When I worried if I have to find a different bakery instead of MITRON, he asked:
— There are a lot of request specifications. Is it perhaps a celebration cake?
As I replied yes to those words, he said he will go to work that day and make the cake.
— The 1st year class 0’s students often visit our shop, but student Jo Uisin is our biggest customer. I’ll make an exception just this once.
As I visited MITRON with the 1st year class 0’s children, or Bread Shuttle Bang Yunseop often came to pick up bread reserved under my name, it seemed that he memorized my name.
I hated that he would work in the holiday’s morning for no reason because of me, so I tried to refuse, but the patissier laughed, saying he already started the measurement.
— If I rest throughout the entire holidays, my hands will go stiff. It’s fine to make just one cake.
The patissier spoke as if he was going to make a simple cake to lose up his hands, but the result wasn’t like this.
“How is it?”
I was at a loss for words, because the result was more amazing than I asked for.
I ordered a custom cake matching the image of the main character of the party held on the Hwang Myeong-ho’s great mansion today, Baek Ho-gun, Hwang Jiho and Jeok-ho.
There were two things I asked for.
First, the cake should have white, gold and red colors.
Second, if possible, there should be tiger-shaped decorations.
I thought the first request wouldn’t be difficult if whipped cream, caramel and red sugar beet were utilized.
‘I didn’t expect the tigers to be this much…’
What I thought was deformed tiger faces made with a whipped cream.
But what the patissier presented in front of me right now was a tiger work of art.
On the three part area, the three tigers Baek-ho, Hwang-ho and Jeok-ho made into sugar crafts, looked so life-like it seemed that they could jump out from the cake at any time.
I had no idea how did he make such an artwork.
“… Did You personally make them from sugar?”
“I learned sugar crafts.”
The patissier pointed with his eyes towards the certificates in the frame.
As I followed his gaze, I saw the patissier and chocolatier certificates written in French, and sugar craft certificate written in English.
At the side of the certificates were awards from all kinds of competitions, including the Worldskills in the art category of confectionery and baking, arranged in a row.
‘With this much skill, it’s strange he isn’t a main patissier at an air hotel.’
I felt doubt why he was operating bakery around the highschool, but thinking it was his artist philosophy, I shut my mouth.
Abruptly, while wrapping the cake, the patissier stopped and spoke as if mumbling to himself.
“Isn’t it cool? Isn’t it a pretty and sweet artwork?… Excluding the fact that it easily melts if the temperature is high, isn’t it perfect?”
His eyes reflected the cake shining with three colors.
From the patissier’s tone, I felt the pride of an artist and the love for his craft.
“What do You think?”
The patissier, who was looking at the cake, quietly looked at me.
There was no need to give a pretentious answer to this question.
Because all products made by the MITRON’s patissier was pretty and delicious, and our class children, who ate them and looking forward to new ones, made happy faces.
“I also think it’s cool.”
The patissier put on a smile on his face.
That smile was overflowing with humanity much more than the soft smile he usually showed on his face when running the shop.
The patissier, who finished wrapping, spoke up:
“This is a gift.”
“Yes?”
I was dumbfounded by the abrupt putpocket attack.
I made him go out on the holidays to make a customized art-like cake, and he wasn’t even going to accept money?
Then I said that I’ll pay a proper price, but the patissier stubbornly refused.
“Instead, please come often in the future.”
As the appointment time drew closer, I couldn’t prolong the quarrel, so after saying I would visit more often, I turned around.
‘Shouldn’t I go play somewhere with the class children after the midterm exams end? I’ll buy snacks at MITRON and…’
I headed to the side-building outside of the maze garden of Hwang Myeong-ho’s great mansion, while making after-exams plans.
Inside of the circular’s outbuilding used as a banquet hall was decorated with five colors.
The curtains and decorations in white, gold, red, blue and silver placed around caught an eye.
‘Shouldn’t have I asked for five colors when ordering the cake?’
It seemed it was a mistake not to include the colors of Cheong-ho and Eun-ho, who weren’t here today.
“Come here, Jo Uisin. Good that you came.”
With Hwang Jiho, who looked to be in a very happy mood, the tigers, who were the main characters, appeared in order.
From how they were wearing the clothes in the color symbolizing them, it was obvious they were thinking about their birthdays.
Eun-ho’s descendants, who were waiting with me at the banquet hall, were also wearing silver full dress.
Because there was no mention of a dress code, I came wearing just a casual jacket, so I was even more bothered by it.
“Then let’s sing a song and then cut the cake!”
“Uisin oppa, sing with us!”
Unexpectedly, the tigers, who lived for over five thousands years went with a celebration close to an ordinary birthday party.
Instead of preforming the birthday celebratory song with a Korean Peninsula traditional tone or foreign classic, we sang the ordinary ‘Happy Birthday’.
It was probably because Eun-ho’s descendants, who live close to the humans had great influence.
Compared to the flashy decorations, the number of attendants was small, and the party was ordinary, but the tigers’ birthday banquet was warm.
After placing the rice cake cake, Hwang-ho summoned five knives.
“Then let’s cut the cake together. I, as the Ho tribe’s head, will cut Cheong-ho’s share, and Baek-ho, as Eun-ho’s brother, will cut Eun-ho’s share instead.”
Baek Ho-gun was Eun-ho’s brother, huh?
After coming to my main Playable Character’s birthday party I learned a hidden setting.
Amidst my and the tiger descendants’ applause, the three tigers divided the cake into five parts.
The cake divided into five large parts, was divided into several smaller slices, but Jeok-ho cut Baek Ho-gun’s share with one hand and handed it to him.
“Baek-ho, please try this dried persimmons rice cake. I said to deliberately make it match the recipe which appeared in ‘Profound Duty Revision[5]’. Hey, son-ah. Here is your share.”
Jeok-ho handed a pile of dried persimmon rice cakes to Kim Sinrok and Baek Ho-gun each.
Kim Sinrok, who liked dried persimmons, happily accepted the rice cakes given by his father, but Baek Ho-gun didn’t.
“…”
Baek Ho-gun quietly accepted the plate, but his expression wasn’t so good.
The change in his expression was minuscule, but there was no way that the rotten water like me would miss it.
Woof woof!
At Baek Ho-gun’s feet, jumping around as it made its request to him.
It seemed that the kind Snare wanted to eat it instead.
“It’s a gift.”
The angel already stepped out, but I handed out the prepared gift to rescue Baek Ho-gun from the crisis.
The cake didn’t have five but three colors, but luckily the tigers happily accepted the gift.
* * *
As the majority of students returned home, the dormitory became quiet, but because there were children, who caused incidents just like before, the Earthly Wings Council couldn’t rest even during the holiday period.
The main character of the holiday incident this year was the 2nd year class 0, and it happened on Chuseok.
On the Chuseok day, with Geun Chansol and Wang Chansol in the lead, over ten class 0’s students decided to spend Chuseok with Jegal Jaegeol and remained at the dormitory.
They spent it noisily, coming out in front of the dormitory building with mortars and pastels and grinding rice into flour and pounding songpyeon.
At a glance they looked ordinary, but some courageous people changed small portion of songpyeon into herbal medicine, and it so happened that the first to taste them,Jegal Jaegeol, was that changed songpyeon.
— Teach Jegal-nim, how does it taste?
— We studied the recipe really diligently!
— This time the concept was half salty half sweet. The odd numbers on the attendance list were in charge of the sweet ones, and the even numbers were in charge of salty. Which one did You eat first?
— …
Jegal Jaegeol, who couldn’t lie because of Thoth’s blessing, couldn’t say it was sweet nor salty.
That songpyeon couldn’t just be said to be sweet or salty, but rather it was tasting like disgusting herbal medicine.
The 2nd year class 0’s students, who thought something is strange when Jegal Jaegeol didn’t say a word, realized too late what occurred.
— No, what kind of crazy bastards made our teach Jegal-nim eat such piss thing!
— I’m annoyed… I more annoyed that teacher Jegal-nim first ate the thing made by those bastards rather than us!
— I died!
As the result of the uselessly amazing 2nd year class 0’s stubborn investigation, the culprit group was revealed to be the Broadcasting Club.
It seemed that the Broadcasting Club had the poison tasting dacquoise revenge incident in mind just like before.
The enraged 2nd year class 0 mixed the taste test solution for the bitter flavors and PTC solution into the water of the purifier in the Broadcasting Club’s clubroom as revenge, and besides that committed small acts of revenge in the dormitory, so the school fell into chaos.
As a member of the Wings Council, Bak Seung-hyeon had to handle the mess that occurred in the residential zone.
Mok Uram, who listened to Bak Seung-hyeon’s adventure story nodded, understanding his hard work.
“You have worked hard.”
“Hahaha… if senior Gye Idam-nim wasn’t there, something big would certainly happen.”
Bak Seung-hyeon didn’t forget about Mok Uram after he entered the dormitory.
They were close enough that when the two meet, they would greet each other or chat.
“I’m really glad the 1st year class 0 isn’t like the other class 0s. Hahaha, frankly I was worried at the first school day…”
“At the first school day?”
“Ah, you didn’t hear from the class kids? On the first day of school, the 1st year class 0 played a prank in the dormitory building…”
Bak Seung-hyeon told a story of what happened on the first day in the 1st year dormitory building.
Bak Seung-hyeon was the witness of the suicide jump incident that day, which was known as a prank.
The scene of the long haired girl suddenly plunging outside of his window in the middle of the night was clearly engraved in his brain.
The expression of Mok Uram, who heard that story, gradually turned subtle, but Bak Seung-hyeon didn’t notice.
*~*~*
[1] blue — ‘cheong’ blue. (Rest of the chapter uses a different word for blue.)
[2] songpyeon — half-moon shaped rice cakes.
[3] duteoptteok and chapssaltteok — duteoptteok (두텁떡) a thick layered rice cake with various fillings and red bean paste topping, was said to be served on the king’s birthday. chapssaltteok (찹쌀떡) a traditional rice cake made from glutinous rice (that’s what is most often sold in the west as rice cakes or mochi as far as my knowledge goes).
[4] middle — =-= 도중 (do-jong) mean in the middle of something, but you know how 도 (do) also means dao and 중 means in the middle/center
[5] Profound Duty Revision — 고사신서(攷事新書), probably messed up translating this title (edit, apparently I didn’t do that badly ^^;;). It’s a book from Joseon which was kind of encyclopedia on all things an official should know. From first book which dealt with astronomy, heavenly steams and branches, and energies of the universe, to other volumes which dealt with geography, cattle and silkworms raising, celebration and burial rituals and rites, traditional medicine… etc. It had fifteen volumes.
Translator’s note: Happy birthday to the tigers and happy revenge holiday apparently?
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