At meals, Yangjin and her daughter served the food noiselessly while the lodgers talked brashly about politics. The Chung brothers were illiterate, but they followed the news carefully at the docks and liked to analyze the fate of the country at the boardinghouse table.
It was middle of November, and fishing had been better than expected for the month. The Chung brothers had just woken up. The evening shift lodgers would soon be heading home to sleep. The fishermen brothers would eat their main meal before going out to sea. Well rested and feisty, the brothers were convinced that Japan couldn't conquer China.
"Yes, the bastards can take a nibble, but China will not be eaten whole. Impossible!" exclaimed the middle Chung brother.
"Those dwarves can't take over such a great kingdom. Chia is our elder brother! Japan is just a bad seed," Fatso, the youngest brother, cried, slapping down his cup of warm tea, "China will get those sons of bitches! You watch!"
The poor men mocked their powerful colonizer within the shabby walls of the boardinghouse, feeling secure from the colonial police, who wouldn't bother with fishermen with grandiose ideas. The brothers boasted of China's strengths-their hearts yearning for another nation to be strong since their own rulers had failed them. Korea had been colonized for twenty-two years already. The younger two had never lived in a Korea that wasn't ruled by Japan.
"Ajumoni," Fatso shouted genially. "Ajumoni,"
"Yes?" Yangjin knew he wanted more to eat. He was a puny young man who ate more than both his brothers combined.
"Another bowl of your delicious soup?"
"Yes, yes, of course."
Yangjin retrieved it from the kitchen. Fatso slurped it down, and the men left the house for work.
The evening-shift lodgers came home soon after, washed up, and ate their suppers quickly. They smoked their pipes, then went to sleep. The Women cleared the tables and ate their simple dinner quietly because the men were sleeping.
mock
feisty : showing courage
I. the champion is faced with a feisty challenger
plucky, spunky
II. quick to take offense
fatso : a rotund individual
I. a rotund individual
fatty, fat person, rolypoly, butterball
puny : inferior in strength or significance
I. inferior in strength or significance
a puny physique, puny excuses
II. (used especially of persons) of inferior size
runty, shrimpy
slurp : eat noisily
I. eat noisily. He slurped his soup
Many people told me a big part of the noodle-eating experience is the slurping noise. 많은 분들은 제게 라면 먹을 때의 큰 포인트가 후루룩거리는 소리라고 합니다.