“My hair is what? ” I asked, trying not to laugh as my hyung-nim stared at me from the front seat. “It looks like you didn’t finish setting it. Like a total mess,” he said, grinning.
I had just met up with him for the night. We were heading down to Taean to do some beach foraging for a new video, and I’d barely fixed my hair before running out the door. Now I was sitting in the passenger seat, still holding the rubber boots I’d nearly thrown away two weeks ago. “Should I put these back here?
” I asked, holding them up. “Why did you bring those? ”
“I didn’t buy them. I just didn’t throw them away after the penalty round we did a while back.
Honestly, I never thought I’d use them again. But here we are, not even two weeks later, and I’m actually bringing them to the beach. ”
We laughed about it, and then he started talking about the other streamers who’d be joining us. It was going to be a long night.
We had a two-hour drive ahead of us, and we planned to hit the shore around low tide, which was supposed to be around 1 a. m. That gave us some time to kill, so we stopped at a convenience store on the way. “Let’s grab something to eat,” he said, parking the car outside a small store.
We walked in and started looking around. I spotted some triangular kimbap and grabbed one. “Are you going to eat that? ” he asked.
“Yeah, I haven’t eaten yet. ”
“You should pick two, then. Nabbi hasn’t eaten either. ”
Nabbi was another streamer meeting us later.
I grabbed another one for her, and we moved toward the snack aisle. “Oh, I was hoping they’d have those chocolate rolls I had yesterday when we went bowling,” my hyung said, scanning the shelves. “They don’t seem to have them here,” I said. “Really?
That’s disappointing. ”
“You could try the other snack, the one with the moist chocolate filling,” I suggested. We grabbed a few things, paid, and headed back to the car. As we got in, he pulled out his phone and checked the time.
“We still have a while before we meet the others. You want to start streaming from the car? ”
“We could,” I said. “But I was thinking we could just wait until we’re at the beach.
Is that okay? ”
“Yeah, that works. ”
We drove for a bit, talking about the upcoming stream. He told me about a friend of his who had recently started doing YouTube and asked if I’d heard about it.
“I heard something like that,” I said. “But I haven’t been keeping up with him much. It’s been a while since we talked. ”
“He’s doing well.
He’s been posting some videos,” hyung said. We passed a few more minutes in comfortable silence before he brought up the topic of the boots again. “You know those boots are going to get completely caked in mud, right? Taean is messy this time of year.
”
“I know. But I figured it was better than not having them. I don’t want to be walking around barefoot with all the debris and broken shells. ”
“Fair point.
”
We reached the beach a little before the others arrived. The moon was high, and the tide was still creeping out. The air smelled like salt and wet sand. We waited by the car, watching the water pull back further and further.
“Do you think we’ll catch anything? ” I asked. “I’m hoping for at least an octopus or maybe a conger eel. If we drop the trap early enough, we might get lucky.
”
“What do we need for the trap? ”
“Fried chicken. I read that eels love it. We’ll grab some on the way to the beach.
”
We heard a car pull up behind us. It was Nabbi. She stepped out, looking around at the dark shore. “You guys ready for this?
” she called out. “Ready as we’ll ever be,” I said, pulling on my boots. The other two streamers arrived soon after. We stood in a circle, going over the plan.
We’d walk out along the exposed sandbar, look for pools of water where shellfish might have collected, and drop the trap near a rocky area where eels were known to hide. “Just be careful of the mud,” hyung warned. “It gets slippery near the channels. If you step in the wrong place, you could sink up to your knees.
”
“Noted,” I said. We started walking. The wet sand squelched beneath our boots. I was carrying a small mesh bag for any shells we found.
Nabbi was holding the trap, and hyung had the fried chicken. We made our way out to the sandbar, stopping every few feet to dig into the wet sand. At first, all we found were broken shells. “Keep looking,” hyung said.
“The good stuff is usually hidden under the rocks. ”
I flipped over a flat rock and found a small crab skittering away. Right under it was a cluster of tiny mussels. “Got something,” I said, scooping them into my bag.
Nabbi found a clump of oysters growing on a large rock. She carefully worked them loose and added them to her own bag. Hyung set up the trap near the edge of the water, baited with the chicken, and weighed it down with a heavy rock. “Let’s hope this works,” he said.
We continued foraging for a while, moving further along the sandbar as the tide kept receding. The moon cast a pale glow over the water, making the wet sand shimmer. As we walked, I started thinking about how far I’d come. A few months ago, I was just settling into my new job, still trying to figure out where I fit in.
Now I was out here, in the middle of the night, covered in mud, with a group of people I barely knew but already felt connected to. That thought made me smile. Nabbi had wandered a bit ahead and was crouching near a small pool. “Hey, I think I see something moving,” she called.
We hurried over. She pointed at a dark shape in the water. It was a small octopus, tucked under a ledge. “No way,” I whispered.
She slowly reached in and scooped it up with her gloved hand. It clung to her glove for a moment before she dropped it into the bucket. “That’s dinner,” she said, grinning. “You’re crazy,” hyung laughed.
We kept going and found a few more mussels, some sea snails, and a starfish that we threw back. The trap was still sitting in the water, undisturbed, but we figured we’d check it before heading back. After another hour, we decided to call it. We walked back to the trap and pulled it up.
Inside was a single eel, wriggling around. “We got one,” hyung said, holding up the trap. “Yes! Our eel soup is happening,” I said.
We carried our haul back to the car, laughing and talking about what we’d cook. The sky was starting to lighten by the time we made it back to the rental house. We set up a portable stove in the yard and boiled water for noodles. We threw in the shellfish, the octopus, and a few slices of the eel.
“This is the reward,” hyung said, stirring the pot. We sat around the fire in the early morning, eating the seafood ramen and talking about random things. The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon. “This was worth it,” I said, taking a sip of the broth.
“You know, I wasn’t sure about tonight,” Nabbi said. “But this is actually really nice. ”
“Let’s do it again sometime,” hyung said, finishing his bowl. We packed up the equipment, cleaned the site, and headed back.
The boot that I almost threw away was now caked in dry, cracked mud. I looked at it and laughed. “Guess you earned your keep,” I said to myself. We dropped off the gear, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways.
I checked my phone and saw a message from hyung: “Good work out there. That was fun. Let’s plan the next one. ”
I smiled and put my phone away.
It was still early morning, and the day was just beginning. I had a long drive back, but I didn’t mind. Some nights are just worth it.