There were plenty of stalls lined all over the place, flourished and styled with vibrant and bright colors. The stalls ranged from game stalls, food stalls to small goods stalls. It was a place worth spending that credit card on.
Haneul wanted to try everything. Yes, by everything, she wanted to try every single stall regardless of what it sold. Yeom Tae was actually surprised to see her energy. It was almost like a child who was taken to a festival for the first time. Maybe it wasn't almost like that, in fact it was completely like that.
"Haneul?" Yeom Tae asked the woman walking excitedly in front of him, stopping at a rice cake stall; safe to assume of it as his demise.
"Hmm?" She hummed and asked, her eyes and attention given only to the scrumptious and spicy rice cake skewers. "Ahjussi," She called the salesman. "Can I have 2 rice cake skewers and 2 fish cake skewers? Extra spice, please."
"Sure thing."
Then the sizzling began, of the scrumptious white, cylindrical rice cakes stacked on top of one another, shallow frying on the flat iron skillets. The salesman loaded the brush with a red sauce and started to paint the white rice cakes red, finishing up with sesame seeds.
He handed over the rice cake skewers to Haneul before pulling out the freshly boiled fish cake skewers from the aromatic soup cauldron, handing them over to Haneul as well. Haneul paid herself, making sure the crowd kept Yeom Tae away while she paid.
"Thank you, Ahjussi." She smiled and expressed her gratitude before turning around to finally give her attention to Yeom Tae, second to only rice cakes.
She smiled and offered a rice cake skewer and a fish cake skewer. Obviously, she had to try everything else too. Why would she eat 4 whole skewers by herself? That would be ridiculous!
Yeom Tae hesitantly accepted the skewers, though he was still unsure of how to act.
"What were you saying earlier?" Haneul asked before taking a bite of the warm rice cake and humming in pleasure right away.
"Uh…" Yeom Tae murmured, trying to recall what he had been wanting to say. "Oh right!" His thoughts clicked upon it, "I wanted to ask if this is the first time you've seen a festival… as dumb as that sounds." He chuckled.
"Yeah." Haneul nodded while munching.
"Yeah?" Yeom Tae was caught off guard.
"Yeah." Haneul nodded again.
"This is your first time?!" He almost couldn't believe it.
"... Yeah."
Damn, people had ridiculous lives, he thought. Imagine being so indulged in your studies that you never got to see a festival. That honestly sounded ridiculous. But Yeom Tae respected that as everyone had their own ways to live.
"Why are you so surprised?" Haneul asked, her focus on the fish cakes now.
"Well, I don't know." Yeom Tae chuckled. "I just thought it'd be normal to have attended festivals before." He added.
Haneul nodded. "Rice cakes are yummy."
Right. Rice cakes were definitely the priority right now. Yeom Tae took a bite of the rice cakes too, as much as he considered them to be his enemies. The rice cakes were chewy, but soft and soaked in the spicy, savory, sweet sauce. The fish cakes were also very soft and soupy.
They were a nice and comforting snack, but oh, how Yeom Tae wished to take their spot! Only if the woman would give him a good look, he could prove to be much better than mere, temporary rice cakes.
Perhaps rice cakes weren't the only thing above Yeon Tae as Haneul was found giving everything attention but Yeom Tae.
That was okay though. She had never been to a festival before so it was normal for her to ignore Yeom Tae.
There were so many stalls to visit but Haneul's excitement wasn't going to die down so easily. With so much to see, there was no way she was going to get bored. Even she hadn't thought that she could enjoy something. All she knew were the hospital walls.
The sun was slowly setting and all the stalls and streets lit up with orange lanterns. As the sun slowly disappeared and the dark blanket of the night took over, the orange lanterns changed to bright yellow. While it was nostalgic for Yeom Tae, Haneul could only stare in awe.
"Haneul, Haneul!" Yeom Tae asked for her attention.
Haneul looked at him, a face mask on the side of her head. Oh, today had been fun if she was being honest.
Yeom Tae reached for her hand and gently grabbed it. "You have to see this!"
He sounded excited, leaving Haneul in anticipation as he walked her out of the crowd. She was confused as to why they had to leave the festival so early.
"Where are we going?" She had a defenseless voice, as if she wasn't really curious about where they were going.
Yeom Tae gripped her hand slightly tighter.
"You're going to love this." He said slowly.
With that being said, the two walked out of the festival streets then onto the road. A small pavement in the middle of the side path across the road they had been walking on caught their attention, mostly because Yeom Tae started to walk towards it.
There were a few steps leading uphill, the steps were covered with long bushes from either sides. The two walked up the steps and reached another road. From that road, the entire festival streets were showing. That part was the corner of the Dong-gu district, an area which Yeom Tae very clearly knew about.
"Wow." Haneul expressed a little exclamation, it wasn't too pretty. Just an overview of the festival. She liked the festival itself more.
"Oh," Yeom Tae murmured. "Wait for it."
Good thing there was another climax to it, Haneul looked up at him and nodded. Haneul wasn't short but the man was quite tall.
Bang!
Startled, Haneul looked back at the streets to look for the origin of the sound while a bright, vibrant and flourished film of light displayed in front of her.
Fireworks!