Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Chapter 22

“Oh, man! I was served a cup of citron while you have a cup of coffee?”

“Do you want coffee?”

“No thanks. I think I will have a couple of more coffee until noon.”

Taking out the meeting material, Hojoon examined her face. She looked relaxed after he proposed to her that he would connect her to the man she loved. She was no more the same woman that he met at the police station that night.

“I looked at your proposed idea. It’s good to visit the houses of soon-to-be newlyweds and give them tips on geomancy.”

“Doesn’t my idea look good? I watched your video lectures. Some of your advice was easy to translate into action.”

“For example?”

“Cleaning the house.”

“That’s the point. If you can clean your house well, you’re guaranteed half the success. Though cleaning is not geomancy, you have to get some heavy or negative off your chest. In terms of geomancy, a good house is one with good ventilation and cleaning.”

“Right. But newlyweds have never lived in such houses, so I think it’s important to decide how to display their home furnishings instead of cleaning, right?”

Hojoon nodded his head and said, “Besides, they don’t know what to buy.”

Hojoon was bothered by what she casually said.

Arum must have had a hard time getting rid of her packages after she broke up. Were the boxes piled in her veranda the very packages she hadn’t yet disposed of?

Come to think of it, isn’t it so stressful for her to see the newlyweds?

“Do you really have to carry out this project? Can someone else take your place?”

At his unexpected question, Arum replied, “Well, it’s my specialty.”

“Are you sure you can meet newlyweds comfortably?”

“Oh, you were worried about me. I’m alright. As long as I don’t get drunk.”

“No, never. Don’t ever drink alcohol.”

“Never, never!”

“Let’s go out for lunch.”

“This early?”

In the end, Arum had to go out, as demanded by Hojoon.

***

It was a small snack stand that Arum and Hojoon visited.

Though she didn’t expect any great meal, she felt it could be uncomfortable to eat face to face in a small space with the dining table between them.

She looked at the plain menu board on the wall. The snack stand specialized in gimbap (laver rolls) and ramen.

“This place is the best snack stand when it comes to gimbap. Would you want it with ramen?”

“I’d like to have gimbap only.”

Hojoon called someone and said, “We want three rows of gimbap and one ramen.”

The owner of the snack stand stared at Arum instead of taking the order.

“Your girlfriend?”

“Oh, no. My girlfriend is more beautiful. This lady is working as an intern with our company.”

“Oh, I see. Let me come back in a minute.”

The owner began to make gimbap right away.

“I’m a regular customer in this place. The old woman, who is the owner here, raised her four children by selling gimbap and donated as much as 100 million won last year.”

“Really?”

Arum counted the number of gimbap that the owner had to sell for a row of gimbap at 2,000 in order to make 100 million won.

“You probably won’t be able to count it.”

“I can if I try,” said Arum.

“It was only 1,000 won for a row of gimbap five years ago.”

“1,000 won? That couldn’t cover even the rice material.”

“When my company was struggling with financial difficulties in its early days, the owner let our staff eat gimbap on credit. So, we paid off the debts later and renovated the kitchen as a token of our appreciation. Do you see that building over there?”

Arum looked at the high-rise building through a small window of the snack stand. It was the best life insurance building in Korea.

“The murderous spirit of that building is directly coming into this snack stand. So, I had the owner install a large mirror outside to create an optical illusion. In other words, I had the murderous spirit reflect outward. Over-sized or overwhelming buildings often emit enormous spirits.”

“And then did the owner here make more money?”

“I think so, believe it or not,” said Hojoon confidently.

“There is another secret in the sales increase.”

“What is it?”

At that moment the owner brought gimbap.

“This gimbap.”

Holding his chopsticks, Hojoon pointed at gimbap. She carefully examined it.

Secret?

No matter how hard she stared at it, it was just ordinary gimbap.

“Won’t you try it?”

Instead of answering, he asked her to eat gimbap.

‘I wonder if there is a secret in the taste of this gimbap.’

She quickly had one.

It tasted delicious, but it was just gimbap that she used to enjoy.

“What is the secret?” she demanded.

Hojoon held up one gimbap.

“Don’t you think it’s in beautiful shape?”

“You mean this gimbap?”

“Look inside it. Ohaeng, or the Five Elements are evenly included in it. In the Orient, we believe that when the Five Elements are in good harmony, the spirits of the body are also smoothly circulated.”

Though she heard the word ‘ohaeng’, she couldn’t understand exactly what it was.

‘Well, I have no idea what ohaeng means.”

Arum suddenly got cold feet when she heard ohaeng.

She couldn’t understand why ohaeng, which she never learned in school, was so important in feng shui.

Hojoon explained,

“Look! There are Five Elements or ohaeng, such as mok(tree), hwa (fire), toh (earth), kum( iron ) and su (water), are included in this gimbap.”

He held up one gimbap close to her nose.

The principle of the ohaeng of gimbap was simple.

There is a color representing ohaeng, namely mok representing green, hwa red, toh yellow, kum white and su black.

As spinach (green), carrot (red), pickled radish (yellow) are wrapped in white rice and rolled with black gimbap rolls, gimbap has all the Five Elements of ohaeng.

“That’s why gimbap is selling the most in our country,” said Hojoon.

“Really?”

“Well, that’s my opinion. The signature food of our country uses five colors. Gimbap, bibimbap (rice mixed with vegetables), gucholpan (platter of nine delicacies). Right?”

His explanation seemed plausible.

“As for gimbap, in particular, what can our students have for snack without gimbap? Which snack can those cash-strapped employees buy without gimbap? That’s why there are so many gimbap houses around the country.”

Hearing his explanation, Arum quipped, “It looks like your explanation is missing something, but it’s quite logical.”

Hojoon laughed at that.

“Even food has such a harmony in it. It’s all the more important for man. For the male and female relationship, the harmony of yin and yang is very important.”

While listening to his lecture, Arum felt that gimbap tasted more delicious.

“Geomancy of love is not the fundamental of geomancy.”

Arum showed sensitive reaction when he mentioned that.

“What are you talking about? You promised me that I could find my love through geomancy of love.”

“Who told you I would not? What I mean is that geomancy of love is not all about geomancy. And if you want to succeed, you should be able to find out who is the one you genuinely love. Please open your five senses wide to be able to feel that spirit.”

“How can I open? Is there any special way?”

“It depends on you, and you take the responsibility for that.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Taking another gimbap, she asked again, “By the way, do you even call food geomancy?”

“Food is not geomancy . I just interpret it in terms of geomancy. Let’s think about the tea of citron you had a minute ago. What’s the common thing between love and citron?”

“No idea. It’s too difficult.”

“Love has to bear fruit. It would be better if your love bore sweet and fragrant fruit. That’s why I used citrons smelling sweet fragrance as a prop. A citron tea creates a romantic atmosphere. The fruit that signifies successful ending makes the lovers’ relationship smooth. That’s why I use decorations with fruits as props when I turn to the geomancy of love.”

Hojoon’s lecture started with a row of gimbap.

Arum could understand it more easily as she already watched his video lectures.

“By the way, I’ve got one question. In some lecture a geomancy specialist says that if we get to like water, we become rich. Is that true?”

“Who told you so?”

“Well, I heard in another geomancy’s lecture.”

Hojoon made a ridiculous expression while enjoying ramen.

“In agrarian society water is the most important. With water available nearby, crops are harvesting a lot and bring lots of wealth to farmers. And that’s why our ancestors dug a pond inside their houses and tended to live near water. These days it isn’t necessarily true.”

“Really?”

“Don’t you tap water in your house?”

“Of course, I do. These days everybody has tap water.”

“Right. Why is water important?”

“Because the lecturer insists we can become rich. We need to like water, I think.”

Hojoon glared in his eyes at that, staring at her.

“Oh man, think about it rationally. If that’s the case, the president of the aquarium company should be the richest in our country, right?”

Arum thought that Hojoon was logical sometimes.

And she felt geomancy was more rational than she thought.