Volume 1 - CH 10

Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room

Book 1: The Storm is Coming

Chapter 10

Ai Qing and Dt didn’t get to talk much before Solo arrived.

Dt was still the same, always the king of awkward silence.

Ai Qing remembered that the last time they met in an official tournament was in the Warcraft national preliminary in 2010.  That year Solo had easily won the championship in the Beijing region and Dt had qualified in the Guangzhou region.  They played against each other in the Chinese Regional final that year and Solo defeated Dt.

But now, Solo had already retired.

Ai Qing walked behind them and couldn’t help but feel sentimental. She looked up and exhaled a breath of white mist to the night air.

Really……Time was passing so fast.

The three of them went to a BBQ restaurant in Myeong-dong.

The entire restaurant was quite empty, only the owner was watching TV.  When he saw them, he walked over to welcome them enthusiastically and pointed to a long wooden table to them.

They took off their shoes and sat cross-legged around the low wooden table.

Ai Qing looked at menu while talking about tomorrow’s arrangement with Solo at the same time.  They had come in on different flights and one led the men’s team and the other the women's team.  They didn’t have much chance to talk in the last two days, so naturally they had more to talk about when they had some spare time.

When she finally remembered the always quiet Dt, she had already finished ordering.

“I’m ordering two beef ribs, three pork belly, and tofu soup.  Is it enough?”  Ai Qing pushed the open menu to Dt and indicated that he could order more if he thought it was not enough.

“It’s enough.”  Dt closed the menu.

Solo called the owner over and talked to him in Korean.  He also ordered some liquor.

“How did you guys get in touch with each other?”  Ai Qing rested her chin on her hand and slanted her eyes to look at Dt sitting across from her.

“We always have contact.”

“You guys always have contact?  By phone?  By email?  Or you watched the competition also?”

“Uhm.”

……

The conversation did not really proceed smoothly.

Luckily the owner began to serve dishes on the table.  A whole array of various vegetables and a grill plate filled with what they ordered on the charcoal furnace.

Ai Qing’s attention was distracted by the kimchi on the grill plate.  She asked Solo who had come to Korea for competitions many times,  “Do we grill this too?”

Solo nodded slightly and said,  “It tastes pretty good.  You can try it.”

She grinned.  She fixed her eyes on her share of the grilled kimchi.

After all the meat was cooked, Dt spit out the chewing gum, wrapped it with napkin, and threw it onto the plate for bones.  Then he used chopsticks to stir the grilled kimchi and move them right in front of her.

Though Solo and Dt had been friends for many years, it didn’t change the fact that Dt was not good with words.  During the whole time they were eating, Ai Qing at first spoke with Solo but later the three of them were more focused on eating their own food.

The situation was a little quiet but fortunately it was not awkward.

When it was time to pay the bill, Dt, who kept silent all the time, surprisingly took the initiative to take money out of his pants pocket.

He did not carry a wallet, so he just had a stack of money sorted in order by denomination.

Ai Qing felt bad about it and dragged his arm.  “You are the youngest here.  Why are you paying the bill?  Let Solo pay for it.  Now that he is one of the SP bosses.  We should take advantage of him.”

Dt did not speak.  He glanced at her.  His look made Ai Qing inexplicably feel that she had said something wrong.

Solo didn’t mind it.  He took out his wallet and placed a hundred thousand Korean dollars down.