Chapter 9
"Where exactly are we going?" Jennie asked Lisa for the third time. She'd been driving for the last twenty minutes and her patience was starting to wear thin.
That. And the fact that they haven't spoken a word for the last twenty minutes except Lisa telling her directions and Jennie asking Lisa about their destination. If there was any. Because Jennie was starting to believe that they're going nowhere.
"Please, just drive," Lisa answered patiently. It's the same answer that she had been telling Jennie for the third time.
"You do know I can drop you off anytime I want, right?" Jennie said irritably. "Where exactly are we going? Are you sure we're not lost? Yet?"
Lisa chuckled. Which annoyed Jennie a whole lot more. The blond was not someone who can be easily intimidated, Jennie realized. Maybe she had to work that one out some other time.
"Oh, we're here! We're here!" Lisa suddenly exclaimed as she pointed the landmark that clearly said Dongdaemun written in bold letters.
"Dongdaemun?? What are we supposed to be doing here?" Jennie asked, slowing her speed down because the street of Dongdaemun was still packed and crowded with busy people even on midnight.
"Eat. What else? If you're a midnight eater, Dongdaemun is the right place for you," Lisa answered matter-of-factly. "Can you please make a turn right there on the next block?" she asked Jennie, pointing the narrow alleyway a few meters ahead of them.
Dongdaemun is the shopping capital of Seoul. It's a 24-hour bustling hub of shoppers bargaining for deals and wholesalers running around, delivering clothes across the country. And it's also where the best pojangmachas are located. Midnight eaters and drinkers happened to gather in Dongdaemun because the pojangmacha in the district offer a wide variety of Korean street food and anju.
"Alrighty! Here we go," Lisa proclaimed after she asked Jennie to pull over in front of a tent.
Lisa opened the door excitedly beside her and was about to jumped off from her car seat when Jennie suddenly grabbed her arm and stopped her from going out of the car.
"Wait! Lisa!" It was the first time that Jennie said Lisa's name out loud. It wasn't dramatic. Nor romantic. If anything, it sounded nervous. Jennie looked nervous. "I...I don't think I can do this," Jennie said, clutching Lisa on the arm like a little child in a park.
"Why? What's the matter?" asked Lisa. Concern was on her voice. She felt Jennie's hand shaking against the bare skin of her forearm.
Jennie exhaled. She couldn't lie about it.
"I...I don't...I haven't e...eat..."
Lisa's round eyes became even rounder. She looked surprised and amused with Jennie's confession.
"You mean you don't eat in a pojangmacha?" she asked, which Jennie answered with a slow, shy nod.
First it was The Beatles. Now, it was her lack of experience in pojangmacha. Lisa must have think of her as ignorant. But in her defense, it wasn't her fault that she was born with a silver platter. Or that her parents never bothered taking her to her first ever pojangmacha experience. Or that she was surrounded with people who did not bother taking her or inviting her for a midnight gastronomic adventure in a pojangmacha. She should've asked Jisoo about it. Or anyone from the household staff.
"You mean you haven't been to a pojangmacha? Ever?" Lisa asked in total disbelief. "Whoa! I've never imagined meeting someone who haven't been in a pocha before. That's weird."
Jennie expected Lisa to laugh and make fun of her lack of experience. To mock her for being an ingenue and a coward. She expected Lisa to look at her with disgust or whatever for being a full-blooded Korean but haven't been in a pojangmacha. But instead, Lisa grabbed her hand gently and guided her inside the tent.
