The next day I wake up feeling like I could really use a few more hours of sleep. My eyelids are so heavy I can barely open them. I slept pretty late last night because Brenda wouldn’t let me go that easily, and kept on asking about the relationship between me and Joongie oppa. Even after I told her everything, she still wouldn’t let me sleep, and kept on teasing me about how we were “meant to be”. She even insisted that (according to her) we’re destined to be together, seeing how we had involved in a romantic situation (she meant the accident where I fell into his lap, accidentally, of course) like a scene in her favorite chick-flick movies. She’s always like that you know, always wanting me to have a boyfriend already, to the point that she’s set me up at least once with almost everyone she knows. Not seriously of course, thank goodness..she still respect my decision, and won’t do anything once I tell her no. Maybe that’s why we’re still best friend until now, she knows when to stop, while others (like Tiffany) doesn’t. But she really thinks that I should keep on looking for Mr. Right though, because who knows he might be around me somewhere (she said). Yeah, right, like I desperately need one anyway.

Our trip to Hanyang Tours this morning is quite smooth, if I didn’t count Brenda’s attempt to make Joongie oppa spills the beans on our relationship (like we even have one). She doesn’t seem to believe that nothing happened between us last night. Ignoring her curiosity, I quickly make myself busy with the brochures from Hanyang Tours. From what I learned, they have two kind of tours, the city tour and the Korea tour. City tour can be conducted on foot (also known as walking tour) or by public transportation, or by-request chartered bus. While Korea tour will cover various parts of Korea, including Gangwon-do, Busan to Jeju Island.

We are planning to create new tour routes, that are tailored for different preferences and also target market. We are planning to offer the drama tour (visit to various popular K-Drama shooting locations), K-pop tour (visit to various K-Pop related places, including a chance to watch music shows live in Korean TV Station), shopping tour (shopping trips in various famous shopping districts), culinary tour (visits to various places in Korea to taste their signature dishes), and adrenaline tour (hiking trips, trying various extreme sports, visiting the DMZ Zone, and camping).

Today, we are planning to do a quick survey on the possible travel destination for the drama tour. As an avid k-drama fan, I’m quite familiar with some of the famous places that are frequently used as a shooting set, though that doesn’t make me less excited to actually visit them. First stop is the Bukcheon Hanok village. This unique village consists of traditional Korean houses, or Hanok that are still being used by their owners. That’s why we’ll get to see some hint of modern technology on those authentic traditional houses, like for example electronic lock on the traditional wooden door.

“Lily, help me take a picture” says Brenda while offering her digital camera to me.

“Bre, why are you taking picture of yourself? We’re supposed to take pictures of the location for documentation and promotion..” I ask confusedly.

“Nah, it’s OK I’m just going to take a quick snap to make it my profile picture,” she says while hurriedly fixing her hair and posing

I can only shake my head and do as she told me to. A few snap later (she’s not really satisfied with just one apparently), I start to check on my camera for the pictures that we’ve got so far.

“I can take your picture for you if you want..” suddenly Joongie oppa has already stand behind me and he’s looking at the camera from my shoulder.

“Nah, that’s fine.. We still need to rush to more locations after this right? The sky’s starting to get dark anyway..We’ll have to hurry or we’ll get caught in the rain.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Brenda asks with mischievous expression on her face.

“Nothing, I guess I’ll just have to speak in English the whole time so you won’t get suspicious..” I put out my tongue at her, and she just laughs.

Next we head to Cheonggyecheon Stream. When we got there the sky has been covered completely in dark grey clouds, and the wind’s getting stronger. Looks like it’s going to rain soon. After we finished taking pictures, I can already feel small droplets of rain has begin to fall.

‘Can we go now? It’s going to rain soon, and I really don’t want to get caught in the rain in such an open place like this.” I look at the sky worriedly.

“Yeah, sure we can head to our next destination now. Gosh it’s so cold, it would be nice to have something hot to warm you stomach.” Brenda tightens her jacket.

“Well if you want we can grab a quick lunch at Gwangjang Market first before we head off to our next destination.” Joongie oppa offers while checking at his watch. I look at my watch, 12 PM, perfect time for lunch.

“Is it far from here?” Ask Brenda worriedly. We still have a few more places to go, and rain is definitely will start to pour anytime now. And none of us bring umbrella with us.

“No, it’s actually very near. We only have to go up here and cross the road, and we’re there. So?” I point to the stairs that leads to the road above us.

“Alright then, I’m kind of hungry anyway. Lead the way,”

Joongie oppa walks first while Brenda and I follow closely. As soon as we arrived at the market, the aromas of delicious foods assault our noses. This place is actually famous for two things: Mayak Gimbab – or the drug-like kimbab, so tasty that will leave you addicted and keep coming back for more; and the jeon or Korean pancake.

“What do you want to eat Bre? They have various foods here, from gimbab to pancakes. And I think I saw some soup stalls over there,” I ask Brenda.

“What about you guys, what do you want to eat?” Brenda asks back to Joongie oppa and I.

“Well, I’m okay with any food here, and I think Ms Felicia here likes almost every food here. So it’s up to you miss, since maybe you have special food preference?”

Brenda eyes Joongie oppa weirdly after he said that, then she look at me, as if trying to find a confirmation.

“He’s right, we used to come here a lot and they really have lots of delicious food here.”

“All right then, since you know best about the stalls here, why don’t you choose our menu for lunch?” she says.

“OK, do you like Korean pancakes? It’s very nice to eat Korean pancake in gloomy cloudy days like this.” says Joongie oppa.

“Is it the round fried pancakes like that one?” Brenda points to a stack of haemul pajeon on the nearest stall. The ahjumma who owns the stall looks busy frying some more haemul pajeon on her flat frying pan.

“Yes it is, do you think you’ll like it?” I ask Brenda back.

“It seems nice, shall we eat here then?” Brenda gestures to that stall.

Joongie oppa shakes his head.

“I know a stall who makes the best jeon in Korea, follow me,” he says as he walks into the market and make a right turn on one of the alleys. As far as the eye can see there are stalls after stalls of jeon. Joongie oppa explains to Brenda that this market is divided into alleys of different kind of goods, including special alleys for gimbab and jeon. And this very alley we’re at is the jeon alley.

My mouth starts to water as I walk deeper into the market. Rows and rows of shop selling various kinds of colorful banchan displayed in bog bowls have succeeded to make me craving some of it.

“This is the stall I told you earlier. I’ve been eating here since forever, and the taste hasn’t change a bit,” he sits on one of the long bench that is provided in one of the stalls.

Brenda and I follow suit, and Brenda starts to inspect the food that are displayed in front of her. She finally decides to order a portion of haemul pajeon, while I order bindaetteok and haemul pajeon (I’m starving, ok?), and Joongie oppa orders kimchijeon and gimbab.

When Joongie oppa calls the owner to give our orders, suddenly she smiles at him.

“Aigooo..Jaejoongie, you haven’t come over in such a long time. Have you been busy working? Oohh.. is this lady your girlfriend? Why do you only take her here now??“ she teases Joongie oppa.

Joongie oppa only chuckles and answers “Injoo ahjumma, it’s Felicia, you still remember her right? She used to live with us..”

“Felicia? That little girl who were always with you??” she asks disbelievingly.

I smile at Injoo ahjumma, which I remembered now used to live next to our house.

“Annyeonghaseyo Injoo ahjumma, long time no see,” I bow in greeting to her.

“Aigooo, you’ve grown into such a beautiful young lady. I’m so glad to see you again. How are you dear?” she asks warmly while patting my shoulder.

We don’t have a chance to catch up since after that there are some more customer queuing to order. Injoo ahjumma finally resorts to chat with us while frying and serving other customers. When our order arrive, I can see that our pancakes are bigger than normal. Special service she says.

My bindaetteok, or the mug bean pancake, is demolished in minutes. This is one of my favorite Korean food because it is actually tasted like bakwan, the Indonesian-style vegetable fritter snack. It used to be my comfort food back then because the taste reminds me of my mom’s home made bakwan. The haemul pajeon also tastes very good and I quickly finished it too. Still feeling a little bit hungry, I take a fried vegetable skewered with crabstick from the display pile in front of me.

Suddenly someone places some pieces of gimbab on my plate. I look questioningly to Joongie oppa who sits next to me.

“You look hungry,” he answers curtly.

Since I am still a bit hungry, without any protest I ate those gimbab. I try to convince myself that the cold weather has something to do with my increasing appetite (yeah right).

After we finished eating we bid our goodbyes to Injoo ahjumma who flatly refuses our payment. She even tell me to visit her again before I come back to Indonesia. The road is drenched when we walk o ut of the market. Looks like it’s been raining hard when we ate, but luckily the rain has stopped now. We walk to Joongie oppa’s car and continue our journey.

 

 

Author's Note:

Uhm..hello? I'm really sorry for the slow update. I've been busy with work and real life and didn't have time to translate or write (this story I mean). So two deadlines after the last update, and here I am now. I hope you won't give up on this story.. I'll try to update more often, but I can't make any promises for now. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this update and as usual, any grammatical mistakes is all mine. Inputs or grammatical corrections are highly appreciated! I'll see you in the next chapter ^^