Swish… swish swish.

Sundae and vegetables tumbled together across the broad, hot griddle.

It had been a long time since I’d seen white sundae, the pride of Sundae Town. (TL Note: Sundae Town is the famous cluster of sundae restaurants in Sillim-dong. Its signature, white sundae, is the sausage stir-fried on a griddle with vegetables and glass noodles and no red chili paste.)

This was where I used to knock back soju with my old study group.

Granny Kkotsuni’s Sundae, the place a Hanguk University guy in the group had put us onto.

Thanks to Son Yu-ri, I’d found my way back to a place out of my old memories.

The granny was younger than when I’d known her.

“Hey! You little shit, what the hell kind of limp-wristed stirring is that! If you’re gonna half-ass it, then quit! Your wife’s gonna be real happy with you once you’re married!”

“Aw, Granny. I just can’t cook, that’s all—in that department, I’m a pro~. I’ve got energy to spare~ to spare!”

“Bullshit. One look tells me the whole story, boy. Wobbly thighs like yours, and you’re talking that crap! I can tell just looking at you—you’re a two-minute man~.” (TL Note: The Korean saying is “see one, know two” — one small sign tells you everything else about a person.)

“What? Two minutes? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Bunny rabbit!”

“Pwahahahahahaha!”

“She called him a bunny… heh heh heh.”

An office worker who’d gotten on the foul-mouthed granny’s bad side had just been shamed in front of everyone.

All because he’d been stirring his griddle any old way.

Tak tak tak.

I, on the other hand, stir-fried my sundae, onions, cabbage and glass noodles like a pro.

Thanks to Madam Dae Jang-geum, stir-frying was one thing I was an ace at.

I folded the vegetables and sundae together at exactly the moment the griddle wanted.

Too fast was no good. Too slow was no good either.

Stir-frying, too, came down to timing and a steady rhythm.

“Look at that young fella over there. Handsome, and he knows how to keep a beat. Strength matters in a man, but technique is everything. You dumbass!”

The granny pointed at me and tore into the office worker.

“Seriously… he’s gorgeous.”

“Isn’t that girl a model?”

“Is he a chef or something? How is he that good at stir-frying?”

“His sundae stir-fry looks way better.”

All around us people whispered, their eyes going back and forth between me and my stir-fry.

From the moment we walked in, Son Yu-ri and I had been eye candy.

I looked around; no couple in the place could hold a candle to us.

“Stuff your faces. That’s how you get some loving from the girl tonight~.”

The foul-mouthed granny came over and dropped this blessing(?) on us.

I didn’t bother telling her she had it wrong.

One wrong answer and she’d cuss me out as a damn fool who can’t eat what’s put right in front of him.

I’d been on the receiving end before.

I still remembered the time a bunch of us guys drank here without a single girlfriend between us. She cussed us out as ball-less bastards who couldn’t even land a broad.

That’s how good her cussing was.

“Hey, you. The sly little fox from the art school.”

“Yes~ Granny.”

“This is the first time you’ve brought a boyfriend in here, ain’t it?”

“He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just a junior.”

“Oh, don’t make me laugh. Hey! I can see you flirting with him, and so can every pair of eyeballs in this place, so don’t you lie to me!”

“…”

Son Yu-ri’s face turned red.

“You hang on to that one. One look and I can tell… he’s gonna pile his money up as high as Mount Tai… he’ll have girls swarming him… but whichever girl lands him has struck gold~. First chance you get, knock him flat on his back~. Got it?” (TL Note: Mount Tai — 태산, Taesan — the great Chinese peak, is the Korean picture for anything enormous, and it is spelled exactly like Tae-san’s name. The granny doesn’t know his name.)

The foul-mouthed granny’s instincts were uncanny.

Dealing with that many people had taught her to read faces without even trying.

I didn’t say yes or no.

“But I ain’t never seen you before… so how come you look familiar? You know me?”

“This is my first time meeting you.”

“That so? But… that mug of yours sure looks familiar… good grief, am I going senile already?”

Whoa! What’s with this granny?

She hadn’t regressed like me, yet she talked as if she knew me from my past life—a me she hadn’t even met yet.

I got goose bumps all over.

“You come around a lot~. Bring a different girl every time, I won’t say a word.”

“Excuse me?”

“Be my pretty face out front, will you. Can’t you see the girls drooling and flirting all over you?”

Oh, I see it all right.

Not that it would change anything.

Right now, the only one I could see was Son Yu-ri, sitting in front of me.

“It’s ready. Try it.”

The sundae stir-fry had come out just right.

I went to put some on a small plate for her.

“Hey, hey! You dish it out and the flavor’s gone! You’ll be slurping each other’s spit when you kiss, so what’s with acting all prim? Just shovel it in with your chopsticks!”

Granny! You’re the best!

Son Yu-ri went bright red.

Real innocent, for a third-year in college(?).

In the working world, a joke like that wouldn’t even count as seasoning.

“And you’re just sitting there sober, not drinking a drop? Gotta get some alcohol in you if you want to get anywhere!”

“Soju and beer, please.”

“Ooh, you know how to mix ’em, too? Well, all right! You’re a real man. Drinks are on the house tonight!”

The granny went all out and treated us.

“Granny! I’m about to get my feelings hurt. You can’t play favorites by looks~. I’ve been a regular since I was a student, and you never gave me so much as a bottle of Coke!”

The bunny office worker she’d been teasing pretended to sulk.

He’d probably been a regular since college.

“Hey! Don’t make me laugh! When you were a sophomore, about to go into the army, that girl, what was her name… Mi-suk? Yeah, that little fox—didn’t I give you money for a room so you two could spend the night? You rotten little shit! You know better than anybody how much pounding a hundred thousand won got you!” (TL Note: The Korean has her paying for them to “build the Great Wall of China” — from the saying that two lovers can build the Great Wall in a single night. “Pounding rice cakes” is crude Korean slang for sex.)

“Oh! You still remember Mi-suk?”

“Get a grip, bunny boy! That Mi-suk, your army girlfriend, came in here with some other girls and said it herself. She could never live with a bunny!” (TL Note: The Korean calls her his “rubber shoe” — army slang for the girlfriend waiting at home while a boy does his military service.)

“Granny, that’s so mean! That’s slander!!!”

“How’s that mean! Blame your wimpy equipment and your ancestors!”

“Pwahahahahahahahaha!”

“Kyaaaah~.”

“Hohohohoho~.”

The whole place erupted.

Well-timed X-rated jokes were this granny’s specialty.

Caught up in the fun, the young crowd got down to some serious drinking.

I cracked open the beer and soju the part-timer had brought over.

“What? You’ve been here before?”

“First time.”

“The granny thinks she’s seen you before. And why are you so good at stir-frying sundae? You’ve been here lots, right?”

“Cooking’s a hobby of mine.”

“Hmph.”

Son Yu-ri pouted a little.

Cute. All of it.

“Soju? Beer?”

“You drink too? You’re still a minor.”

Son Yu-ri said it in a whisper.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking a minor isn’t a man, or can’t drink.

Besides, back in my past life I could hold a lot.

“The granny’s eldest son is a Division Chief Prosecutor at the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office. Her second son is a senior official at the National Police Agency. And her youngest, her daughter, is a judge. There will never be a raid here.”

“H-how did you know that?”

Huh? Then how do you know?

I knew it because a friend told me, in my past life.

Top secret, whispered to me by a study-group friend who, unlike me, passed the bar exam and became a prosecutor.

But it looked like Son Yu-ri knew it too.

What’s going on? Who is this art school noona, really?

“Some law school seniors from my high school told me.”

I brushed it off with a quick lie.

If I told her I knew because I’d died and regressed, there wasn’t a person in the world who’d believe it.

“That’s weird… it’s supposed to be a secret.”

It was a secret now, but back in my days as a state-exam drifter, the story had gotten around everywhere.

A sundae shop owner in this alley ends up filing a complaint with the Blue House to smear the granny.

Saying she serves liquor to underage college students.

Instead, the shop that complained got hit with every kind of administrative inspection and went under.

It turned out her family had somebody in a post everywhere, all the way down to the cousins.

Once you proved you were a Hanguk University student, drinks were always okay.

“Want me to mix it?”

“What???”

This was before somac had taken off with ordinary people.

The only mixed drink going was the bomb shot—whiskey dropped into beer.

Nobody knew the working man’s bomb shot yet.

I filled a soju glass about two-thirds full and poured it into a beer glass.

Then I topped it off with cold beer.

“Y-you’re mixing your drinks?”

“I’m making somac.”

“Somac?”

Son Yu-ri’s eyes were full of questions.

I gave the soju and beer a light stir, rapped the glass with a spoon—tak, tak—and the somac was perfect.

A thick head of foam over beer and soju as clear as dew, blended just right.

Somac, for the first time in ages.

Just looking at it made my mouth water.

Gulp, gulp.

While Son Yu-ri stared, I downed it in one gulp.

“Khaa!”

Sweet and fizzy, it slid down my throat with a kick that nearly brought tears to my eyes.

That was the taste.

The working man’s bomb shot. Even death couldn’t make me forget it.

“Is it good? Isn’t it bitter?”

I carefully laid sundae and a slice of Cheongyang pepper on a perilla leaf and ate it with my drink.

As a drinking snack, it was unbeatable.

Maybe not soul food, but it was on my past life’s top-ten list of unforgettable dishes.

Son Yu-ri was still asking how the somac tasted.

“Want me to fix you one?”

“I feel like I’d get drunk fast…”

“If you don’t want it, don’t drink it.”

I’m not one of those bastards who get a woman drunk to make a move on her.

Bumping into the art school noona had been pure chance, a meeting neither of us planned.

Just being here was plenty to be grateful for.

Good food, cold somac, and a lovely art school noona to talk with—perfect.

Wanting more than that would make me a bad guy.

Besides, today was my first day at school since I’d been accepted.

“Pour me one.”

“You don’t have to drink it.”

“I’m a third-year art student! Drinking all night with my seniors till we’re plastered is nothing!” (TL Note: The Korean is “drink till your nose goes crooked.”)

Hahahaha. This one deserves a laugh.

The cute college noona was showing some fighting spirit.

Swish, swish-swish. Glug-glug-glug.

I fixed one fast and set it in front of her.

“First glass, bottoms up!”

She held out her glass.

Danger signal detected.

The art school noona was out to defend a third-year’s pride.

She had no idea that the moment the somac slid sweetly down her throat, her life would hit another turning point.

Cheers!

Our glasses clinked.

And… she drained hers in one swallow.

“Kyaa~.”

Glass drained, Son Yu-ri let out the drinker’s ultimate groan, right there in front of me.

“You okay?”

“What is this? Why is it so good? The flat taste of the beer is totally gone!”

Discovering a whole new world is always a shock.

Son Yu-ri held out her glass, her eyes suddenly bright and clear.

“Fix me another one~.”

A Hanguk University student through and through—quick on the uptake.

She’d caught on to fix me one right away.

“You’ll get drunk that way. There’s soju in it, so it’s stronger than it tastes.”

What a nice guy I am, never forgetting to warn her.

“Don’t worry. I told you, I can hold my liquor.”

When a grown woman insists she can hold her liquor, it’s silly to stop her.

I quietly made another somac, the silent assassin.

I handed her the glass.

“Hee~. So good.”

She wrapped some sundae in a perilla leaf, pushed it into her little mouth, and looked perfectly happy.

Son Yu-ri looked like the type who lived on buttered bread and salad, yet she knew how to eat sundae the right way.

Everything she had on looked designer, but her tastes were down-to-earth.

So Son Yu-ri and I clinked glasses and had a great time drinking.

“Oh! Yu-ri!”

Right up until I heard a familiar woman’s voice behind me.

“A-rin~.”

Son Yu-ri’s voice went sweet.

“What’s this? You came here to drink?”

“Yup~ came to knock one back. What about you?”

“I’m a group leader for freshman orientation, so I brought the kids to pass on the romance of college life. But… who’s this?”

Not recognizing me from behind, Senior Kang A-rin asked who I was.

“Well…”

Son Yu-ri and A-rin obviously knew each other.

But all Son Yu-ri knew about me was my name and that I was a law freshman.

I turned my head.

“Huh! Y-you’re…!”

(End of Chapter 82)