Holiday special collection

🌕 Chuseok special: The beautiful and chaotic dash through the night market

The Chuseok night market was like a dazzling, noisy maze of white steam rising from the stalls, glittering string lights, and shouting vendors all mixed together. If the festival’s other spaces focused on traditional rituals and etiquette, this market square was full of pure, unfiltered, 100% raw energy. And right in the middle of all that immense energy was Jiseok. He swept between stall and stall like a storm on a special mission.

"You’re walking way too slowly! The best food will be sold out before midnight."

Jiseok broke into a bright grin and pushed through the crowd while firmly tugging my hand. Tonight, he looked effortlessly radiant, and his eyes were sparkling with excitement.

Our first destination was a stall wrapped in thick steam that smelled savory and delicious. Jiseok ordered a large seafood pajeon, a crispy green onion pancake packed with seafood. Before I could even pick up my chopsticks, he tore off a piece of the golden-brown, perfectly cooked pancake, blew on it hurriedly to cool it, and held it straight out toward my mouth.

"Ah, say ah."

He said it in a commanding tone with a playful smile.

"If we sit down to eat, we’ll waste precious time."

I took a bite of the crispy pajeon. The deep, savory flavor spreading through my mouth made it feel like my whole body was melting.

"Oh my god, this is seriously so good."

I said with my mouth full. Jiseok cheered excitedly, took a big bite of the pajeon himself, and then led me straight to the next stall, lined with long red tents.

In less than twenty minutes, we had successfully conquered three stalls. We shared skewers of nicely grilled meat and drank sikhye together, with its sweet, warm cinnamon aroma. By the time we reached the game stall deep inside the market, I had laughed so much at his dramatic, over-the-top food commentary that my cheek muscles were practically numb.

"Okay, look over there."

Jiseok abruptly stopped and pointed at a wooden platform packed with people.

"This is where my real talent shines."

A crowd of people had gathered to watch a ddakji tournament. On the ground lay several square ddakji folded from thick, colorful paper. The rules were simple: the game was won by slamming your ddakji with the perfect angle and enough force to flip your opponent’s.

"I’m the ddakji champion of my neighborhood."

Jiseok proudly declared, cracking his knuckles with exaggerated, theatrical gestures.
He climbed sturdily up onto the platform and challenged the stall owner, taking a wide, dynamic stance with his feet shoulder-width apart. Then, with a dramatic shout, he slammed the blue paper ddakji he was holding toward the red one on the ground. A huge crack! echoed through the entire market, and the red ddakji flipped perfectly over. The watching crowd burst into cheers, and Jiseok turned his head toward me and gave a relaxed wink.

"See? Easy as pie."

"Seriously, of course you’d say that. This is physics, not luck, okay?"

I teased as I stepped up onto the platform next. I picked up a thick green ddakji and weighed its solid heft in my palm.

"I’ll show you how it’s really done. Watch and learn."

Jiseok sucked in a breath as if his pride had been badly wounded.

"You dare challenge the king right now? Fine. If you flip my ddakji in just one round, I’ll carry all your bags for the rest of the night. But if you can’t, then you’re paying for the next snack tour."

"Deal."

I lined up my shot and focused every ounce of my attention on the blue ddakji sitting on the wooden floor. After taking a deep breath, I raised my arm high and brought my green ddakji crashing down with all the force I could muster.

Bang!

The impact was heavy and incredibly loud, but my angle was completely off. Instead of flipping Jiseok’s ddakji, the one I threw struck the wooden floor at a bizarre angle, bounced away, hit a nearby wooden post, and then flew straight into a stall display stacked high with prize plush toys.

"Whoa, careful!"

Jiseok screamed, eyes wide.

He lunged forward to get me out of the way, but that sudden movement threw him completely off balance. His foot caught on the edge of the wooden platform, and with a huge shout he toppled sideways, taking me down with him in one great heap. We crashed right onto a large stall piled high with giant full-moon plushies and rabbit toys.

The cardboard partition supporting the pile of plushies collapsed with a loud racket, and dozens of soft, fluffy toys rained down over us like snow.

For a brief moment, complete silence hung over the entire corner of the game stall. Then Jiseok poked his head out from beneath a giant full-moon plushie. A rabbit plush was sitting absurdly on top of his tousled hair. Covered in plush fuzz, he looked down at me and burst into a clear, contagious laugh loud enough to echo across the whole night market.

"Okay."

Wiping away tears from laughing, Jiseok held out his hand to help me up from the wreckage.

"Your aim is seriously lethal. But that was absolutely an all-time legendary scene. Come on, let’s get out of here before the stall owner makes us pay for the display!"

We giggled like total thieves as we scrambled out of the mountain of plushies. Then we quickly snatched the leftover meat skewers and sprinted toward the safe middle of the bustling market. Because of the beautiful, chaotic rush of adrenaline the night had given us, our hearts were pounding so hard it felt like they might burst.