He tossed it over Sunja's head to his friends.
"Give that back," Sunja said in Korean calmly, hoping they weren't getting on the ferry. These sorts of incidents happened often on the mainladn, but there were fewer Japanese in Yeongdo. Sunja knew that it was important to get away from trouble quickly. Japanese students teased Korean kids, and occasionally, vice versa. Small Korean children were warned never to wal alone, but Sunja was sixteen and a strong gril. She assumed that the Japanese boys must have mistaken her for someone younger, and she tried to sound more authoritative. "What? What did she say?" they snickered in Japanese. "We don't understand you, you smelly slut."
Sunja looked around, but no one seemed to be watching them. The boatman by the ferry was busy talking to two other men, and the ajummas near the outer perimeter of the market were occupied with work.
"Give it back now," she said in a steady voice, and stretch out her right hadn. Her basket was lodged in the crook of her elbow, and it was getting harder to keep her balance. She looked directly at the skinny boy, who stood a head taller than her.
They laughed and continued to mutter in Japanese, and Sunja couldn't understand them. Two of the boys tossed the yellow melon back and forth while the third rummaged through the basket on her left arm, which she was afraid to put down. The boys were about her age or younger, but they were fit and full of unpredictable energy. The third boy, the shortest, pulled out the oxtails from the bottom of the basket. "Yobos eat dogs and now they's stealing the food of dogs! Do girls like you eat bones? You stuupid bitch."
Sunja swiped at the air, trying to get the soup bones back. The only word she understood for certain was yobo, which normally meant "dear" but also a derogatory epithet used by the Japanese to describe Koreans.
The short boy help a bone, then sniffed it. He made a face.
"Disgusting! How do you these yobos eat this shit?"
"Hey, that's expensive! Put that back! Sunja shouted, unable to keep from crying.
"What I don't understand you, you stupid Korean. Why can't you speak Japanese?