Miss Jins hamburgers

“Annyeong Haseyo!”-she said cheerfully as every customer opened her shops door chiming those Korean bells attached with the door frame.

“A cheese burger please”-said Hoon selecting the least priced burger available.

Tired of aimlessly walking almost 1500 meters from his office trying to cut himself off from the daily schedule he entered this small shop with an aim to find nothing but silence. He was hungry too but the thirst of tranquility had to be quenched first.

“mol won hae? Set?” she asked with that effervescent smile which seemed to have been her companion for a long time.

As for Hoon, he could not interpret her Korean words as he came from a land unknown speaking a language which no one in a thousand kilometer radius understood. Probably he was frustrated because of a language barrier or was it the work load only he knows.

His confused expression cleared it out to her that he was far from understanding anything and so she pointed it out on the menu and asked “Du yu wont a set?”

And that’s when he realized she was asking him whether he wanted the burger single or with coke and french-fries which she called it a set. He saw it costs another 1800 won and although he was hungry decided to stick with the single burger and said slowly “n---o .....s---e---t”

He was deep into his thoughts to observe the colourful restaurant with a perfect luminance to create an atmosphere for a hungry man to eat his lunch peacefully. The traditional Korean handicrafts and painting hung on the walls gave the German-American burger joint a Korean authenticity.

“Cheese burger” she said cheerfully and served it on the loners table. With the first bite Hoon time travelled into the past imagining himself sitting in his mother’s kitchen on the kitchen table which seemed to have been the only place where he was genuinely happy.

“Wow!” he exclaimed like a callow child.

“Aww….Kasahamnida” she said with her eyes glittering with joy just the way his mother’s did.

He paused for a moment and suddenly he could see reality painting in his mind making him aware of those colourful walls and his taste buds imagining his mother sitting on the opposite chair looking at him and smiling like always when he had food.

He took as long as he could with the burger and after taking that last bite and further bits of the last bite he paid her the trifle 3000 won in exchange of a priceless feeling.

It’s been a week and he walks everyday those 1500 meters twice which seems a very small distance for his journey back to his mother’s kitchen-The only place where he was genuinely happy.