“Good, so it works for you?” The sergeant asked as we stood at the steps leading to the front of the station. I nodded.

“Yes, two days from now works fine,” I confirmed.

“And your friend Monique is ok with doing it?” I lost the smile.

“Umm, just give me a second,” the sergeant lifted his arms up for a moment while I called Bunny.

“Hey Bunny.”

“Hey where are you?”

“Um at the station, listen we need someone to be a mole.”

“A mole, like the weird animal mole?”

“No I mean a spy mole,” I lowered my voice speaking closer into the phone, “it’s to catch Curtis Patrick.”

“Oh, umm…” She was being an airhead again. Not one of her finest qualities.

“Would you like me to do it?” I don’t think she understood what I meant.

“Bunny, you do know what it involves right? It’s not like the secret agent games that kids play.”

“Yeah I know that,” Bunny agreed, “but Curtis Patrick he really makes me mad, I hate having to see that ugly mother…”

“I’m at a police station Bunny,” I cut in before she added another word to mother, “you could be charged with something.”

“For what?” She laughed, “ok it’s cool Slots. I am happy to help out.”

“Good, I will see you when I get back.”

“Ok, bye love you.” I nodded and hung up.

“Ok she’s in,” Tony gave himself a face palm and I didn’t blame him.

“Ok well see you later,” the sergeant said, “You take care both of you.”

“Sure and thank you,” I called after him, waving as I did. He gave a wave before disappearing in.

“Oh we should get going,” I said seeing the time on my phone; “come on you can join us.”

“But you two will be on a date,” Tony protested as I dragged him to his car.

“We are not dating.” I told him as he unlocked the driver’s door.

“Yeah but didn’t you go out?” I opened my mouth but ended up saying zilch.

“Well…” I didn’t want to be reminded of the disaster that happened at the end.

“So that wasn’t a date because you snapped at him?” I gave Tony a death stare. I lightened up a bit but still felt remorse. I opened my door and he did the same.

“I…” I sighed, “I knew he was right in the end. I told him that and that was when… We kind of said we liked each other.”

“Then?” Tony was not convinced, “gee he’s a cunning bas…”

“Please don’t call JiHoon that.” I said, “and why did you start to say that?”

“Well, from what I saw of him.” Tony said starting the engine, “whenever you were in the room, his whole mood seemed to change. It was like he was a school boy crushing on his teacher.”

“Ha ha,” I gave him a light punch in the elbow, “yeah because JiHoon is totally like that.” Tony laughed at this.

“Ok so, where is it that we’re going to again?”

“I think it’s next to the Chinese restaurant along Grace St,” I said trying to remember the map on Google.

“Oh yes I think I’ve been past it before.” Tony indicated and to the street.

***

We cruised for about ten minutes until we pulled up in front of a noodle restaurant with a smaller one next to it. A white sign with a symbol like the Pepsi logo said ‘Kimmy’s Kim chi’

“Looks like the place,” Tony opened his door a few seconds after me. It looked like any other Asian restaurant. I didn’t see any sign of Rain.

“He must be inside,” I started walking to the entrance while Tony locked the car. We opened the door and went in; it was full of people, mostly Asian, sitting in walled off tables talking loudly. I saw Rain walk towards us a happy grin on his face.

“You’re early,” he said patting me on the head. I heard Tony smirk and I gave him a death stare.

“Not by much,” I joked with Rain, “how long have you been waiting?”

“Only this many minutes,” he held up one hand. He turned to Tony holding out a hand.

“How are you?” Tony shook it.

“Good dude,” he said nodding, “so… What is this place?”

“It specializes in Kim chi,” Rain held out his arm towards a table, “let’s take a seat.” We sat down at one of the tables and picked up the menu. Wow they ate a lot of vegetables, no wonder Rain is the way he is (handsome I mean).

“Good afternoon,” we were greeted by a man of average height, short brown hair sticking up at the front and with eyes like Rain. Rain said something to him in Korean and the waiter replied nodding.

“Mmm neh (I’m guessing that is yes) so what would you like to order today?” Me and Tony both stared at the menu.

“Umm,” I looked to Rain feeling lost, “can you help me out here?”

“Same thing, I don’t know what’s what,” Tony agreed. Rain scanned the menu he then turned back to the waiter. He spoke again to the waiter and the waiter nodded.

“Coming right up,” he finally said in English leaving us be.

“So what did we end up ordering?” I asked him.

“We are having their season banquet, contains four dishes of Kim chi so you can try them all.”

“Four seasons?” Tony asked. Rain nodded.

“In Korea there are particular kinds of Kim chi which are eaten during different times of year, so it’s a flavor for every season.” We nodded but didn’t understand. We were served glasses of water and also offered a beverage. I had lemonade Tony, coke while Rain had herbal tea.

About fifteen minutes later the same waiter appeared with a trolley containing a tray holding four white bowls of steaming dishes and a much larger one with a brown mixture inside. It looked like a rice dish.

“Here is your season banquet,” the waiter carefully placed small bowls before us with chop sticks and other cutlery before placing the dishes on the table. Rain said thank you to him (I think it was thank you) and then he left. We looked at Rain, not sure what was what.

“That is Daenamu Dongchimi for winter,” we both looked at the rather watery dish. Tony sniffed.

“Hmm what’s that I smell?” Tony asked as Rain lifted the bowl and tipped some into his.

“Bamboo,” he held it to Tony, “want to try?” Tony paused. I gave him a silent nod, not wanting Rain to be offended.

“Sure,” Tony watched, worried as Rain poured it into his bowl. I watched Tony stir the mixture and then lift the spoon to his mouth. I held my breath.

“Hmm, good.” I released the breath I was holding.

“Here you try some?” Rain offered it to me. I shook my head.

“No thank you,” I said focusing my attention on a rather leafy looking platter with something in between them.

“Baechu Kim chi,” Rain picked up a bit and ate it, chewing happily, “cabbage leaves with stuffing,” he got another bundle and held it.

“Say ah,” flustered by his request I opened my mouth and he put it in. I nearly choked but was able to chew.

“Mm,” I said with a mouth full,” that’s tasty.” I swallowed. “What are the other two?” I asked as he finished the bamboo soup off and helped himself to one of the other dishes.

“We have here Yeolmu Kim chi which has radish and cucumber,” I nodded as I recognized the vegetables.
“And that one is Gimgang Kim chi,” he said putting some in my bowl without warning, “it’s nice you’ll like.” I grabbed my fork and stabbed a bit, it had cabbage in it. I wasn’t that fond of cabbage but I didn’t want to be rude. I put it in my mouth and ate. Surprisingly it was nice. I nodded and helped myself to more.

“Oh and don’t forget about the Kim chi rice,” Rain added pointing to the biggest bowl, “it’s one of the nicest dishes.” We all ate some of that, Rain and Tony probably having three bowlfuls each.

When the bill arrived me and Tony fumbled for our wallets but Rain stopped us.

“No my treat,” Tony seemed more surprised than I was.

“You sure?” He asked, “I did… Well… Disturb your date.”

“Oh it wasn’t a…”

“That’s alright,” I stopped, registering what Rain had just said. He smiled at Tony, “glad you enjoyed,” he added and we both nodded.

“Mm very much so,” I told him, trying to cool my cheeks.

(This chapter was hard to write >_< I’ve never had Kim chi so I had to research beforehand. Hopefully to any Koreans reading this I haven’t made too many mistakes. Now that picture I put is making me hungry)