A languid sigh fell on the room. Kaya leaned down on a pillow as big as her upper body. She felt dizzy. Her calf and her hands were numb, and she had a slight fever. But the pain was secondary. The mental exhaustion was too severe.
As soon as she closed her eyes, she remembered the things that happened in New York, before she came to Brisbon. When she went to her old house that she couldn’t organize yet because of her daily work, a familiar but not welcoming face went to look for her. It was Tess Gilly, the one who wrote bad things about her on the internet. Her family stopped her at first, but Kaya didn’t dodge her. She didn’t want to.
And the conversation they got to have like that was held in a calmer atmosphere than thought. In a room so small it made them stifled, Tess looked around the room with sickened eyes. And soon, she sneered and put on a vigilant smile.
“Now, you will also get out of this dirty house. You succeeded. Kaya Lotus. I acknowledge you.”
“I don’t really need your acknowledgement.”
“Don’t act that hard. We were once friends?”
“Right. In past tense just as you are speaking.”
“There’s one thing that’s in present.”
Tess talked like that and raised her golden hair that was covering the right half of her face. And below her hair, there was a scar that seemed to have been from a knife, that ran all the way down her chin. Tess took in a breath roughly and said as if she was spitting it.
“There won’t come the day when this scar turns past tense.”
“What is it you want to say? No, what do you want from me?”
In Kaya’s voice there wasn’t sympathy nor pity. In the case of Tess, she had the scar on her face, but Kaya had a scar on her soul that would remain for life. Kaya said in a cold voice.
“In the first place, do you still want to say that that scar was done by me?”
“You pushed me, and I fell, and I scratched my chin with an edge. Did I do something wrong here?”
“You didn’t say anything wrong, but there’s something you didn’t say. You should also tell the story before that. That a bitch like you that acted like my friend wanted to lynch me.”
“……..The one that made the situation like that was you.”
Tess was looking at her with resentful eyes. Just like she was speaking as if she was the victim. Kaya said with a young contempting voice.
“Sexual criminals always say the same thing. That the victim seduced them. That they don’t have any sin. You just resemble them. Still.”
“You were my only friend. All the others felt fake. You had something called realism, and was someone that knew how to think. You know, Kaya. That’s why I hate you even more. You made me lose her. My friend.”
Her eyes shook dangerously. Only then did Kaya realize that Tess’s hands were shaking like someone suffering from parkinson. When she felt that, Tess hurriedly pulled her arm back and stood up.
“I don’t want to see you doing well. And I also don’t want people to see you as someone nice, and as someone understandable. But I won’t upload comments like that anymore. Because it also annoys me that my name comes out of other people’s mouth. And.”
Tess smiled while facing Kaya’s fierce eyes.
“I know you. However you end, you will demolish everything by yourself. I will be waiting for it, how you will turn out. Ah, and one more thing. I will tell you one good news. You saw last time, right? Jessica Prada. Right. The woman that sought you out. There’s something that woman told me.”
Tess whispered at Kaya’s ear. At that instant, Kaya froze like ice and couldn’t do anything. Tess smiled like a winner and left, but even so she couldn’t curse out freshly.
She was still angered by that. On the bed. As she heard Jo Minjoon’s voice, she got a bit more comfortable but……. As she still couldn’t let out everything deep in her heart, a corner of it was still heavy. But she couldn’t say that. She didn’t want to. She was also an adult. Not a child. She felt too sorry for him to always be relying on him. Kaya rolled her body and embraced the pillow.
“……..Right. It would be weird for the life of Kaya Lotus to be going so well.”
The last words Tess left her still roamed in her ear.
‘Congratulations. Your father is looking for you.’
–
Time flowed so fast you would think that a day was this short. The next day at night, Jo Minjoon grabbed his swollen belly and was getting on the plane again. But of course, he wasn’t returning already. He was only moving to the next travelling place.
Everyone was surprised as they hadn’t imagined that they would be moving in only two days, but Martin spoke with a non-important voice that Brazil was only to taste the opening.
The day before, he did call Kaya but only the signal became longer. For Kaya, it was certainly a busy time because she had to participate in the events that opened in various places of the world.
“Minjoon, where did you travel to until now?”
“There’s nowhere aside of the US. Ah, now I will have to add Brazil.”
“The place we are going now will also be the first?”
“Yes.”
“It will be quite fun. They say that it’s the country with the most developed street stalls.”
Jo Minjoon just gulped instead of replying. He thought of a covered wagon (포장마차). Honestly speaking, the owners of the wagons didn’t have amazing cooking skills, but strangely enough it felt like he had never thrown his mouth away over there. Could he get easily satisfied as he doesn’t have that big of an expectation?
Looking at it on one side, you would be able to see street stalls as certainly having the most fundamental points in cooking. The people visiting street stalls are always busy and famished people, and those kind of people would be able to eat anything deliciously any time. And because they eat a meal quite nicely, there won’t be more of a stable choice than a stall.
He thought of the restaurant they went this morning by Rachel’s guidance. He thought of the feijoada that was lacking in flavor. Even if Jo Minjoon was to make a really good dish, and if he were to make a 10-point dish and serve it to customers…….After some days passed, they would turn around and say. ‘Douglas, can you give me some feijoada?’
Although he didn’t agree that a dish could be not delicious, it was a meal that made him feel how many things a dish could have aside of flavor. A snug feeling high-class restaurants can’t have. If he wasn’t envious of it, that would be lying.
‘Won’t there be a restaurant that has all of that?’
Actually, he knew that there wasn’t. At least, it was like that for Jo Minjoon’s common sense. When Kaya said that she wanted to sell cheap and good quality food, didn’t he think that it lacked realism as soon as he heard it?
Jo Minjoon turned to look at Rachel unconsciously, who was at the back seat. He got the hope that if it was her, she would have the answer. But he throwing that question didn’t happen. Maybe she was tired, but it seemed like she was trying to sleep as she closed her eyes. Anderson, that was next to her, raised his brow as if asking what did he want. Jo Minjoon shook his head and sat down.
“It seems like you have something to ask her?”
“I just had a thought. If I would be able to run a restaurant that has all the positive qualities that comes and goes between the customers.”
“That’s a nice thought. It would be good if I could answer that for you, but the only thing I know how to do is to eat.”
“Emily, you don’t have anything like that? A perfect restaurant that would only appear on dreams.”
At Jo Minjoon’s words Emily moaned and closed her eyes. Quite a long time passed for her to reply. It wasn’t that her thoughts got long. The plane that was driving on the runway started to float on the air. At the moment’s feeling, Jo Minjoon smiled. He did seem like a child, but every time a plane got off, he felt amazement for nothing and he always smiled.
But Emily was the opposite. She grabbed the armrest tightly with a frightened face and when the plane stabilized a little, she barely sighed.
“I’m really scared of this. This is why I don’t ride things like rollercoasters, but I can’t not ride a plane…….. What were we talking about?”
“A restaurant you wished you had.”
“Mmm…… A restaurant that handles dishes of all countries of the world, but honestly speaking as you won’t be able to eat it all at once it will be meaningless, right?”
“You don’t know. If you go there a lot it may hold some meaning. But will there be a need to only be on one place?”
“If it’s near your house, the story changes. Near your house, a place that has everything you want to eat, on top of that dishes that are perfect. Don’t you have any thoughts of running a restaurant like that?”
“I’m really scared of this. This is why I don’t ride things like rollercoasters… but I can’t not ride a plane…….. What were we talking about?”
Jo Minjoon thought. If he could just do it, it wasn’t a bad proposition. But.
“It’s difficult. No, impossible. Even if I were to master dishes of all the world…… Always being supplied with those many ingredients freshly will be impossible for anyone.”
“Ey, how can you face reality like that on an age you have to have many dreams? So boring.”
At Emily’s words Jo Minjoon smirked. Although his real age was enough to face reality rather than dreams, even so he didn’t dislike those words. Emily asked with a gentle voice.
“Your dream of becoming a chef is still up, right?”
“It’s a truth so clear like that the hair of Emily is blonde.”
“Uh, I dyed it.”
Jo Minjoon opened his mouth absentmindedly for a moment and was at a loss for words. Emily smiled merrily and said.
“I’m joking. Don’t put those eyes.”
“……I got really perplexed as to what to reply for a moment.”
“Anyways, I also feel good seeing that your dream didn’t falter. I think that I was just seducing someone that was walking his own path really well for nothing.”
Emily talked up to there and then yawned while covering her mouth. Jo Minjoon asked.
“Are you sleepy?”
“I am but……Thinking about the food I will eat when I arrive, I feel flustered. Aren’t you like that?”
“Flustered……”
Jo Minjoon placed his hand over his heart for a moment. And then nodded.
“I think so. Actually if I were to choose between flavor, texture, and aroma, I put importance to aroma the most. Because the factor that shows the colour of the food the most is in there. Honestly speaking, the aroma is the best worldwide.”
“Taking into account that you have an absolute sense of taste, it’s an unexpected answer.”
“…….Take that into account, but I’m also worried about the language. There were some people in Brazil that knew how to sloppily speak in English at least.”
“What’s there to worry about when we have body language?”
Emily twisted her hand and put on a comic face.
Time flowed. A distance of 20 hours. One transference, three in flight meals, and one snack. When five drinks and a deep sleep passed, the tasting country they were expecting under the fluster was below their feet.
The country of freedom, country of tasting, and the country of fun.
Thailand.
< The envelope that embraces the street stall (1) > End
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Translator : Subak
Proofreader : Saihikawa