Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 31⟩
“Yeah! This is this taste!”
“That’s the taste of memories! Delicious!”
More of the hungry ghosts outside gathered.
「I can’t… I can’t…」
They mumbled like this, but they were dragged over as if possessed with an ‘Ah, hungry!’ shout. Everyone pressed their faces against the door and stared inside. The appearance of hungry ghosts was hideous, but the expression of envy was evident.
Creak.
Finally, one hungry ghost couldn’t endure any longer and its foot entered. Other hungry ghosts followed.
The strong desires felt from them looked like blazing flames in Yu Dan’s eyes. Even without approaching them, he could read them clearly.
“Japchae[1] made by grandmother!”
“Bindaetteok[2] assistant manager-nim bought!”
“Gimbap[3] partner packed for a picnic!”
He shouted and glanced back again.
A kindergarten kid walked out of the corner. Bruises on arms and legs were plainly visible. Chaeu knealt down and gently spoke to the child. And then ran up.
“They earnestly asked for fried tofu rice balls shaped like bears and octopus sausages… Is it possible, nunim?”
“Don’t worry!”
Heuk-yo opened a sausage pack.
Following the serpent yokai’s dazzling movements, appetizing smell spread out. In front of the hungry ghosts, which eyes lit up with expectations, all kinds of food of memories were served one after one.
“Delicious…”
“I’m full…”
“I’m happy…”
Those voices attracted the hungry ghosts more than anything else.
The bell sound rang without rest. At some point the shop was filled with hungry ghosts.
Do-ssi brought out antique furniture and hastily prepared tables. He made the hungry ghosts, which looked a bit more docile, sit together.
The twins rushed between the kitchen and guests. The scene of them running while holding trays piled up like towers showed almost godly skills.
Baek Ran was absorbed in frying pancakes. But for some reason his speed was very slow.
Looking closely, Yu Dan understood why.
Each time he poured batter, a pancake of perfect shape and exactly the same size as all the others were formed. Then, Baek Ran devoted himself to destroying the things he measured so carefully, and naturally changing them.
Who the hell makes pancakes like that?
Yu Dan repeatedly shook his head, while peeling another potato.
“Hyuu…”
At the sound of ‘I’m full’ sigh, Baek Ran turned his head and looked towards the cafeteria.
The child, who ate the entire gimbap, wiped their hands clean with a napkin. The moment they bowed their head and said ‘Thank You for a meal’, they suddenly disappeared.
Baek Ran stared at the place the child left. The light which blinked like a firefly while disappearing, left a clear trace on the fox’s pupils.
Was there something special about it?
Yu Dan tilted his head.
Even when he saw that, he just thought ‘There they go, huh…?’ and nothing else. However, did it look a bit different for a yokai, who lived for a thousand years?
The knife peeling a potato slipped.
“Ouch.”
“Come to your senses. There is not many left.”
The serpent yokai held a nape cabbage and ran while speaking.
Indeed, the guests, who poured in without any break, were decreasing little by little. The seats gradually became empty.
The last remaining was a certain woman.
Looking carefully at her short hair under an askew feather hat and remains of turquoise two-piece outfit, she was old. The thing she was eating with her legs crossed was ice cream.
“There was a chaos that a comet like star appeared. In the ‘Sun Room’ hotel visited only by the high society and foreigners, I tagged along and surrounded by the gentlemen, I tasted that vanilla ice cream for the first time. The sunlight pouring through the glass ceiling and exotic hardwood tree… taste of memories. The taste of success.”
She mumbled as if reciting a song lyric. The music slowly flowed out from the radio.
“I never thought I would end up like this.”
The woman put her finger on the glass bowls which piled up like a mountain.
She picked up a cigarette case with a drawing of a parrot, and took out a cigarette to put it in her mouth. Smoke billowed.
“Starving is horrible. I tried to somehow endure, but it was all useless. I’ll go back now.”
She extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray and stood up.
“The ice cream was delicious. I’ll also give You the last gift.”
After she sent them a kiss with her hand, she opened the door and walked out.
Yu Dan who mindlessly followed her back, was startled.
Between the people filling the street, a woman was walking. Her hair was divided into two ponytails, and she was wearing a one-piece outfit with a white blouse and shoulder belt, while holding a big bundle in her arms.
Her emaciated and sunken face was familiar.
“Look at that woman over there!”
Everyone followed Yu Dan’s gaze. The yokai soon also discovered the woman, who walked breaking through the crowd.
“At last, she appeared, eh?”
Baek Ran spoke.
“Isn’t that a maid uniform?”
“That’s correct. Everyone among the Gyeongseong[4]’s wealthy used such maids.”
Do-ssi nodded.
Yu Dan abruptly felt a sense of incongruity.
Why only that woman didn’t have an appearance of a hungry ghost?
The maid laboriously only looked forward, as she walked holding a bundle. But then, she saw the short-haired woman come out outside for a moment and abruptly stopped.
The maid’s eyes grew big. She ran with an excited face and opened the door with a bang.
“That woman who just came out! It was Her, correct? The movie actress…”
In the instant the scene outside entered her eyes, she hesitated and her words stopped.
“Are You closed?”
“No!”
Everyone replied in unison.
“I’m glad.”
She smiled widely.
“Even though I went down this road dozens of times, I had no idea there is such a tea shop here. To see a real movie actress! Today I’m truly lucky.”
As she looked around, while mumbling, her words mixed with a little bit of a dialect, she discovered the framed posters hanging on the walls, and quickly ran up to them, looking up on them with longing.
Even while the maid they were waiting for came and was walking around, none of the yokai moved. Yu Dan approached them and whispered.
“Shouldn’t we do something?”
Baek Ran replied.
“It was so hard, I can’t even move a finger.”
“Hey, it’s almost the end now, so—“
Yu Dan halted his words.
The fox was grinning since some point. A strange hunch. He was obviously playing a joke again.
What?
“Because my entire body aches too, I have to rest for a moment.”
Do-ssi tapped his waist as he walked towards the gramophone. He took out one of the records and showed it to them.
“Isn’t this the album You liked Cheonho-nim?”
Do-ssi put a record disk in the gramophone. Old jazz flowed out from the golden horn. The song had a feeling similar to a faded black and white photograph. The twins smiled as they looked at each other, and Heuk-yo stretched out her legs and yawned.
Yu Dan was embarrassed.
“Why are you suddenly like this? Isn’t that ghost a key? Don’t we have to chase… no, don’t we have to soothe it and send it back, so the hungry ghosts won’t stick again?”
“It is. You know it well, eh?”
Baek Ran replied leisurely.
“Please personally do the thing You can.”
Yu Dan stood for a moment, thinking.
“It’s something I can do?”
“But You don’t know that.”
Baek Ran stretched out his hand and picked up a newspaper lying on the table. Yu Dan’s vision was covered by ‘White like snow, blooming like flowers…’ advertisement for some kind of cosmetic and ‘Chocola-TE’ ad.
Can he really do that?
Anyhow, if none of the yokai were going to step out, he couldn’t help it but step out personally.
Yu Dan looked at the other side. The maid was standing in front of the bookshelf and glancing through a magazine 『New Woman』.
He realized a new fact.
Looking now, this maid’s features extremely resembled Eunbi. It was difficult to recognize at a glance, because one was skinny and the other was plump, but the more he looked, the more they looked the same.
What was the relationship between the two?
While thinking deeply, he approached her.
The slow music mixed with noises flowed out of the gramophone like before.
The maid put down 『New Woman』 and took out another 『New Woman』. She lost herself, while turning the pages, but then came back to her senses at the presence.
“Ah, what am I doing here? I have to go.”
She put down the magazine, and urgently lifted the bundle she left on the sofa.
Yu Dan stole a glance at the bundle. Between fabrics, he saw a face so dried up, it turned black. It was a gaze of a maid, who died from starvation.
Shocked, he halted in his steps.
But he had to pull it off.
He stopped the maid, who was just about to leave.
The maid looked at him. Her face was filled with doubt having no idea why this student was acting like this. She tried to avoid Yu Dan and leave, but he blocked her way again.
“Wait.”
“Why? I have to go. Because I got distracted, I briefly forgot that milady ordered me to find a rabbit fur durumagi[5]. I have to go back quickly.”
He stared at her anxious face.
He thought about Baek Ran’s words.
Even when dying, they die in vain, and don’t realize the reason of their death.
He seemed to understand what it meant now. There is a kind of souls even now, who don’t realize anything and wander around. Someone has to tell them.
“You aren’t trying to return to milady. You’re going back to call hungry ghosts again.”
The maid was shocked and looked at Yu Dan with a confused face.
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
In the silence, only music was heard. Matching the jazz violin accompaniment, someone was singing with a soft voice.
“I…”
The maid’s face changed. It appeared that the realization gradually reached her.
“Yeah. I know how it is to die from starvation. I know very well. So we ate together. Because I invited everyone. Because everyone was pitiful…”
As she mumbled blankly, her face overlapped with Eunbi. Crossing hundred years, the two faces merged into one.
Now he could be certain.
“Stop. Eunbi noona.”
“Uh…?”
Eunbi, not a maid, looked at him with a blank face.
“It’s not the same like the twins. It’s just the two of you are the same soul. That maid died and was reborn as Eunbi noona. Because the memory of dying from starvation was so vivid, even when you were born again, you kept attracting hungry ghosts. The powerful force that Mia noona and I felt was your wish to feed hungry ghosts until they’re full. Right?”
“I…?”
The maid had a blank expression as before.
“You can stop now. All those hungry ghosts ate until they were full and left.”
“Is it possible…”
“It’s true.”
He showed her a hand hurt by a potato knife a moment ago, but there was no way to explain it with this. He had no idea how he should explain it.
At that moment, the fox yokai stood up.
“Alright. I can’t even rest, eh?”
After Baek Ran waved his sleeve in the air, numerous silhouettes appeared. They were the hungry ghosts, which left a moment ago. Everyone sat in their seats, smiling with happy faces and for a moment the air became noisy with chatter.
“It’s real.”
Tears gathered in the maid’s eyes.
“It’s really okay to stop now?”
“It is so. Everyone ate their fill and left.”
“Then… I want to eat too.”
She fumbled with her words.
“When I sometimes came to the Gyeongseong area, when returning, I deliberately wandered around to pass by that cafeteria. When I looked at that shop, it seemed like I too became a modern girl[6], even if just for a moment. A modern girl, who is served by waiters, who put a newspaper on the table, and has refined chats with handsome gentlemen while eating breakfast. On the table… ham and egg, butter, toast bread, fruit, milk and coffee. Even though I only heard names, it was marvelous, modern girl’s breakfast…”
Like a hallucination, he saw a young girl staring at a cafeteria, in front of a window.
Wealthy, well-dressed people chatted in loud voices in Japanese as they entered inside.
— Don’t stare!
Unnie grabbed her head. It was like she meant ‘the eyes are dirty, and the ears are rotten’.
However, every night, the teacher-nim, who taught her how to write, would say ‘you can look’.
— Knowledge is power, we have to learn. If we learn so diligently to fight, a better world will certainly come. Anyone will be able to enter a cafeteria or tea house freely, and because they work diligently, they will be able to buy clothes to wear, read books to their heart’s content, learn foreign languages…
She couldn’t believe that even while not being Japanese nor a Japanese collaborator, anyone could live like this. However, if teacher-nim said it, wasn’t it an undeniable fact?
Then…
“I- I want to be born as a modern girl in the next life.”
She smiled, dripping with tears. And she raised her hand to elegantly draw attention.
“Ham and egg, butter, toast bread. And fruits, milk and coffee.”
“Yes! Ham and egg, butter, toast bread!”
“And fruits, milk and coffee!”
The twins shouted one after another as if singing.
“The ones sold in the cafeteria, here in the Gyeongseong area—“
“Modern girl’s breakfast!”
Heuk-yo, who at some point ran to the kitchen, replied.
“Got it!”
The maid wiped her tears. Following the dokkaebi’s guidance, she sat at the sofa, and looked towards the kitchen with the face full of expectation.
On the table laid pure-white and crisp table cloth. The twins brought tableware. The silver forks, spoons and knives sparkled brilliantly. Napkins on the golden-rimmed plate.
“It’s really exactly the same…”
The maid couldn’t take her eyes off everything.
Food was served in order.
Thick and yellow toast. Fried egg and slightly blanched thin slices of ham. A butter in a small ceramic bowl and glass filled with milk. With each one being placed in front of her, the maid’s eyes turned round.
Do-ssi poured hot coffee from a silver kettle with a suburb skill. The maid closed her eyes and she savored the smell. Even though it was just that, it seemed she couldn’t control her overjoyed heart.
“Then…”
She cut the toast and smeared butter, and while everyone watched, she slowly put it in her mouth.
Everyone looked at her with nervous hearts.
*~*~*
[1] Japchae — stir-fried glass noodles with vegetables.
[2] Bindaetteok — Mung Bean pancakes.
[3] Gimbap — seaweed roll, like Japanese sushi.
[4] Gyeongseong — a name of Seoul during Japanese occupation.
[5] durumagi — a hanbok’s man overcoat.
[6] modern girl — in 1900, it was a term that referred to a woman wearing western style clothes and expressing western values and ideas.
Translator’s note: *looking at what was considered modern* Oh how the times changed.
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