They Threw Out the Maid's Daughter, Now She Sits at Their Table novel · Chapter 5 of 32
Chapter 5: Burned Rice
Ye-rin could not sleep in the big bed, so at midnight she gave up and went to the kitchen with her exam notes.
She had a stack of index cards held with a rubber band and a bag of cold rice her mother had sent.
Under the cards lay the lawyer's letter, with four days left on it.
The apartment was dark except for the city in the windows.
She had read the same card about knife cuts six times when the front door opened.
Seo-jun came in with his tie pulled loose and his jacket over one arm, and stopped when he saw the light.
"You're up," he said.
"I live here now. I'm allowed."
"I've never come home to a light."
He said it plainly, as a fact about the apartment, and walked toward the bedroom.
He got three steps before the smell reached him.
She had put the rice into a heavy pot over a low flame to dry out.
It had caught on the bottom and begun to crisp.
It was the smell of toasted grain and sesame oil and a little smoke.
Seo-jun stopped.
"What is that?" he said.
"Burned rice. The crust. My mother scrapes it off and boils it with water for breakfast." She grimaced. "I was going to throw it out. I wasn't paying attention."
He turned around.
He crossed the room slowly and stood over the pot.
"Don't throw it out," he said.
She looked at him.
"It's scorched, Seo-jun."
It was the first time she had used his name, and she saw him hear it.
"Don't throw it out," he said again.
So she scraped the golden crust from the bottom and poured hot water over it.
She let it steep, salted it and added a spoon of her mother's pickled radish.
She set the bowl on the counter in front of the stool.
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