As soon as the judo class ended, Lee Jong-Suk and Kim Young-Woo gathered their things and left the auditorium.
“Hey, when did you start improving on your judo?” Kim Young-Woo asked.
Lee Jong-Suk looked at Kim Young-Woo while he was busy massaging his chest, ignoring the other students who were coming in too.
“My chest still hurts a lot,” he complained.
“Earlier, I thought that you were going to die. What, with those sounds you were making.”
“Aigoo, I will die.”
Kim Young-Woo helped others and went into the class. He changed his clothes along with Lee Jong-Suk.
“By the way, when did your body get this good?”
Lee Jong-Suk didn’t answer. Kim Young-Woo must have seen his body while he was busy in the judo class. Kim Young-Woo looked like he was expecting a reply. Other students had paused in their tracks to stare at him.
“Oh! It looks like Jong-Suk has been working out lately,” someone said.
“I didn’t know that Lee Jong-Suk’s body looked this great,” another remarked.
“I also saw it earlier. Cho Hyun sunbae went over to Lee Jong-Suk, right?”
“A player was watching another player. Is there any person here who overthrew Cho Hyun sunbae?”
“But even then, it seemed like Lee Jong-Suk was about to collapse at the end.”
Lee Jong-Suk smiled slowly as he heard what his classmates were saying. He couldn’t even start to explain to them when he started to exercise. That was complicated. No, there was no way he could explain it. He couldn’t say he read words in a book, slept, and woke up with developed muscles.
Students changed out of their judo uniform and started getting for class. He followed his classmates back to class and comfortably settled into his seat.
***
As soon as the last class of the day ended, Lee Jong-Suk returned his books inside his bag and was picking up his bag when Kim Young-Woo walked over to where he was.
“Let’s go home,” he said.
Kim Young-Woo, who already carried his bag, looked ready to go. Lee Jong-Suk nodded and Walked to his locker. He pulled out the judo uniform from his locker.
“You’re going to hold it like that?”
“I don’t have a shopping bag with me so I have no choice but to hold it.”
“Why don’t you put it in your bag?”
“Dump this into the bag? No way.”
Lee Jong-Suk folded the uniform into a bundle and held it tightly.
“What are you doing this weekend?” Kim Young-Woo asked him.
Most kids usually went to the academy during the weekend to study, but he and Kim Young-Woo didn’t have any interest in college, so they rarely went there. Originally Lee Jong-Suk had planned to graduate from high school and then join the army. He later changed his mind and decided he wanted to be a government official. But he now had a new plan after using the experience book.
“I’m going to the bookstore,” he said.
“The second-hand bookstore?”
“Why, will you come too? If you are, then uncle will give you rice too.”
Kim Young-Woo burst out laughing and looked at him incredulously.
“Are you crazy? I’m not going to a bookstore!”
“Do what you feel like then.”
After laughing and talking for a while, Lee Jong-Suk and Kim Young-Woo took off from school and went their separate ways.
When they left the school premises, Lee Jong-Suk went into a park for a minute and pulled out the experience book. He opened it and stared at it for a while. He slowly walked around the park while thinking and stroking his chin. Kun-Gong was definitely a helpful thing, but he wasn’t so sure about the Moon-Il-Ji experience. While the Kun-Gong experience was related to the body, Moon-Il-Ji was related to a ball.
It was said that when one learned something, they also developed the skill and learned to analyze it. However, in today’s class, the complete effects of the skill could not be seen. What was tough was felt as tough, and what was easy was felt as easy. A tough one could not be performed easily. He wondered if there were other things related to martial arts in the experience book.
Lee Jong-Suk put the experience book into his school bag. It was probably very crowded and busy at home with all the customers. Lee Jong-Suk immediately headed for home and picked up his pace with the thought to help them out.
When he walked, it took him thirty minutes to get home, but it took him just ten minutes when he ran. When he reached home, Lee Jong-Suk went to the snack shop. There were many students there, even more than yesterday, and some were already eating the spicy rice cakes. Sundae and fried foods were being dipped in the sauce and eaten.
“Auntie, give me more spicy rice cakes, please!” someone shouted.
“Me too!”
With all the children’s noise, Lee Jong-Suk wondered if his parents would hear him when he addressed them.
“I’ll change my clothes and come right down!” he yelled.
“Okay, son!”
Lee Jong-Suk went up to his bedroom and changed his clothes. When he was done, he went back to the snack shop. He carried the used dishes from the tables and put them in the kitchen. A lot of kids came in and ordered, and he barely rested.
When it was becoming dark, the number of kids who came in reduced. The prepared rice cakes were all gone.
“Are all the rice cakes finished?” someone came in and asked.
“Yes. Please, come back tomorrow.”
“Could you give me some soup to eat then? I was told the rice cake soup is very delicious.
The kid looked disappointed that the rice cakes were finished, and he feared the soup would be all gone too. When Lee Jong-Suk’s mom saw his face, she brought out one fish cake, dipped its sauce, and gave it to him.
“This is our secret,” she said. “Don’t tell someone else I gave you this.”
“You’re giving this to me?”
“Yes, now eat.”
“Thank you.”
The kid hurriedly ate the fish cake, and his face brightened’.
“It’s delicious.”
“It is, right? The spicy rice cake here is tasty, but this a bit better.”
“Yes, it is.”
The kid finished his fish cake and left the shop. Lee Jong-Suk’s mom looked at his retreating figure and frowned.
“He went with the skewers.”
She laughed and took the rice cakes plate into the kitchen.
All the dishes were done, the business was doing well, and his parents’ faces had brightened considerably over the past few days. Lee Jong-Suk was happy they were happy
“But, how did the food get completed quickly today?”
“The kids were asking for packaging.”
“Packaging?”
“Since the line was long, packing the food for them made it easier for everybody.
Lee Jong-Suk nodded in agreement and started clearing the things they used. When he was done cleaning Lee Jong-Suk informed his parents of something about the sauce.
“According to the temperature and humidity of that particular day, the quantity of the ingredients needs to be adjusted.”
“But, son do you have interest in cooking?”
“Hmm?”
“Well, do you?”
“Um, I have a little interest in it.”
“That’s a good thing. Chefs are making good money these days.”
“I’m not really interested in being a chef. Hold on, taste this once.”
Lee Jong-Suk’s mom looked at it and then tasted it.
“Tasty.”
“Try making this once while I watch.
Things that Lee Jong-Suk usually made were done within ten minutes, depending on the quantity. It was not as if he was feeling too lazy to make the sauce, but if his mom did it while he was watching, he’d be able to assess her and correct any mistake she made.
His mom started to make the sauce the same way Lee Jong-Suk did. He watched her carefully as she made the sauce.
“You put in quite a few seasoned radishes.”
“So?”
“When the radish later starts to lose its water, the sauce will get too liquid.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Think about it and put in a little more red pepper. And also put in a little more chochung.”
Lee Jong-Suk added the red pepper and chochung himself.
“Son, if you put in ingredients as you wish, won’t there be a difference?”
Lee Jong-Suk looked at the sauce, picked up a spoon, and tasted it.
“Seems good”.
“It’s good?”
Lee Jong-Suk slightly moved his head. It wouldn’t be considered a reply to his mom’s question by moving his head that way. The sauce still had a problem with it. With the Absolute Taste, he could figure out where the inadequacy was, but his mom would not understand this.
Like what he told Kim Young-Woo that day, just one drop of water was needed to make all the changes. However, his mom would find it hard to comprehend the one drop of water theory.
“I can’t help but show her.”
Though she knew the recipe too, she didn’t know the one drop of water theory. He didn’t see himself as the head of the rice cake house in the future. He should make sure his parents were independent and could make the sauce perfectly well on their own.