The next day.
From morning, Sanghyeon and I moved busily.
Since we had only had a quick beer the night before and gone to bed, we had no hangover and slept deeply.
“Did Mr. James say not to eat the hotel breakfast yesterday?”
Sanghyeon asked as he came out of the bathroom after washing up.
“Yeah. Mr. Chester said breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all booked. He told us to just go to those places.”
“It really is a full course.”
It seemed Sanghyeon had never imagined a trip like this; he clicked his tongue.
“He said the breakfast place is not even one that opens in the morning, but he asked as a 30-year regular.”
“Then could we not go on another day at another time?”
“Other days are already booked too, with different food.”
Sanghyeon blinked as if he could not understand what he had just heard.
“He is a person who takes food very seriously, so I guess he means do not fill up on something like hotel breakfast.”
I still had not forgotten the taste of the food I had eaten with Chester at Cannes.
So hearing he had unilaterally made reservations did not really bother me.
If anything, I was excited about what we would eat over the next seven days.
“Wow, honored guests, indeed.”
Sanghyeon and I threw on some clothes and went outside the hotel.
Right in front of the hotel, we saw James waving at us.
“How long would it take for me to get used to that visual?”
Sanghyeon asked, but the answer was obvious.
“Seven days is nowhere near enough.”
At my answer, Sanghyeon smirked and greeted James.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Ah, yes. Haha. It was wonderful.”
“I am glad. You as well, Mr. Sanghyeon?”
“Yes. I slept very well.”
Once we got in the car, James guided us to a shabby wooden building not far away.
“Let us eat here.”
From a run-down shop that looked like it might topple if the wind blew a bit harder, a man came out.
“Are these Mr. Chester’s Korean guests?”
“Yes. Sorry to trouble you, but please take good care of them.”
“Trouble what. If it is a request from Mr. Chester, I am always happy to oblige.”
The man chatted with James as if they were quite close, then looked at us and said,
“You folks from Korea. This place might look like this, but the taste is outstanding, so have a seat. It will be out in a moment.”
We went into the shabby shop and sat at a table and chairs that looked old enough that even the laminate had peeled off.
The sauce bottle was filled with a thick brown barbecue sauce, and the moment James saw it, he swallowed his saliva, then met my eyes.
“Haha, just seeing that sauce makes my mouth water.”
Looking a bit sheepish, James wiped his sweaty head once with the tissues in front of him and smiled as he spoke.
“Are you planning to follow Mr. Chester’s schedule as he arranged it?”
“Yes. For us, well. Haha.”
At my answer, he made a slightly worried face and said,
“I am worried that I might get in the way of the two of you traveling. Would you like to rent another car. I will just follow at a distance without drawing attention and focus only on your safety.”
“Oh, no need to go that far. It is fine. Looking at Mr. Chester’s plan, it was exactly the same places we had in mind. We also feel reassured and happy being with you, Mr. James.”
Sitting next to me, Sanghyeon chimed in.
“Yes, Mr. James. Let us go together.”
“Haha, then after we finish eating, let us head to the Hollywood Walk of Fame first.”
As soon as he finished the businesslike words, James switched the topic back to baseball.
At that, Sanghyeon’s eyes lit up.
“Oh. I like baseball too. I keep up with MLB as well.”
“Do you? Then…”
James looked at Sanghyeon like he had found a good piece of prey, and the two launched into a heated discussion about baseball.
Just as I was wondering whether Sanghyeon liked baseball this much, the man brought over some appetizing barbecue spare ribs.
“I took special care with these. I hope they suit your taste.”
I looked at the clock. Eight in the morning.
It was absurd to think that I was gnawing barbecue ribs at this hour.
But the moment we bit into the ribs, Sanghyeon and I looked at each other with eyes gone wide.
“This is insane.”
A curse slipped out in Korean on its own.
The sauce was so perfectly balanced that you could call it the epitome of sweet and salty, and the meat was grilled so well that every bite sent that sauce-soaked, huge, tender meat into my mouth.
The meat naturally melted in my mouth.
“Does that mean it is good?”
The man, waiting for our reaction next to us, looked at us with an expectant face.
Sanghyeon and I finished one cleanly, sucked the sauce off our fingers, and gave him a thumbs up.
“Good to hear. I am making Buffalo wings too, so take your time.”
A mountain of ribs piled in front of us, and on top of that, Buffalo wings.
From eight in the morning, we filled our stomachs to bursting with nothing but meat and started the day on a solid footing.
After a hearty breakfast, we headed to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
On the sidewalk blocks, the names of those active in the entertainment industry and animated characters were engraved inside pink stars.
We walked the two-kilometer stretch, taking a photo each time we saw a name I knew.
Then my steps halted at a name that stirred various feelings.
[PHILIP AHN]
As I stood with my eyes closed in front of the name for a moment, I heard Sanghyeon’s voice beside me.
“What are you doing?”
Then, looking at the name engraved in front of me, he asked,
“Is this person Korean? Philip Ahn.”
It seemed Sanghyeon did not know who he was; he asked me in front of the name.
“Of course. Do you know who this person’s father is.”
“Uh…”
“Teacher Dosan Ahn Changho.”
“Huh.”
Sanghyeon blinked at a name he had not expected to hear.
“A remarkable person. There is no need to even say how great Ahn Changho is, but Mr. Philip Ahn is truly incredible too.”
The racism of 1930s Hollywood, which must have been on a different level from now.
Overcoming that discrimination and entering the Walk of Fame with pride—his name naturally inspired respect.
I saw Sanghyeon bow his head and close his eyes following my example.
Then he opened his eyes and said to me,
“Do you think the day will come when you make a film here?”
“It must. Without fail.”
“Then I had better live in America too and cling to you to get by.”
“Suit yourself.”
At my reaction, Sanghyeon smirked and poked my side playfully.
“You take jokes in such a boring way. You are supposed to say no here so I have something to say.”
“Just stay healthy. That is enough. Do not get hurt.”
“That again. All right, all right.”
Sanghyeon shook his head and walked ahead of me.
Just then, someone behind me slammed hard into me.
Thud.
“Hey, you Chinese punk. Watch where you are going.”
When I turned around, a white man with a cigarette in his mouth was glaring at me.
Behind him, a few guys who looked like his friends were snickering.
“What did you say?”
“Oh, are your eyes too slanted to see well. And I guess you cannot hear either.”
The white man made a gesture of pulling his eyes into slits with two fingers and grinned.
The group behind him burst out laughing at that, drawing the attention of the people nearby.
Pathetic human beings.
Trash like this who cannot do anything but sneer at skin color—Mr. Philip Ahn must have dealt with them.
Thinking about how he endured Hollywood at a time when racism was rampant, something boiled up in my chest.
“Sigh.”
I was going to back down, figuring I could not cause a scene in a foreign country, but when I spotted someone running toward us quickly from a short distance away, I could not help but smile.
“You are laughing. Hey, this guy is laughing. This is ridiculous. Is this funny to you right now.”
“It would be better for you to just move along quietly. But if you do not, that is fine too.”
The white man, who had been sneering, seemed flustered by the unexpected response and hesitated for a moment.
Then, after glancing at his group behind him, he jerked his chin at the camera around my neck and said,
“I will not ask you for hospital money. Just hand over what is around your neck.”
Up ahead, Sanghyeon saw that I had been surrounded by the white guys and ran over in a hurry.
“Who are these guys?”
“Animals.”
“Are you okay. Uh… but over there, Mr. James is running over.”
“I know.”
That is why I pretended to stall a little. I was just waiting for that huge moving object running up behind them to get close.
And soon, at the sound of James’s huge footsteps approaching, a few of them turned around with faces gone pale.
“What do you think you are doing?”
At James’s heavy question, the man who had picked a fight with me gave a snort and said,
“What is this lump?”
“Lump.”
James rolled up his shirt sleeves, and the bulging veins on his forearms stood out.
Then he asked me,
“Director Gyeong, are you all right?”
“Ah… yes.”
“My apologies. I took my eyes off for a moment. But what did these guys do?”
At James’s question, the white man who had picked the fight said,
“What could we have done? This damn Chinese bumped into us and will not even apologize.”
“He is not Chinese. He is Korean.”
“China, Korea, whatever. Slanted eyes are the same wherever you go. You primitive son of a— mmph…”
The white man could not speak another word.
James had grabbed his face with his massive hand. Then he lifted him lightly.
“Mmph.”
The group behind him stared, mouths agape, at their friend whose face was now being held, as if they could not understand what was happening before their eyes.
James flashed a killer smile at them and flung him toward a building wall, and his body flew like a piece of paper, limp and powerless.
Bang.
“Ugh…”
Clutching his nose, which was streaming blood, the thrown white man shouted to his crew,
“You bastards, all together now. We can take one lump like that.”
Hearing that, James only became more excited and took off his shirt.
“Come at me all at once.”
He took off his watch and lightly rolled his neck.
“These gentlemen have a long way to go today.”
When the group of five men rushed him, he moved lightly, striking each one at their vital points, all with a bright smile.
He looked as if he was actually enjoying the situation.
That expression made me wonder what on earth he had done for a living before.
“See. Was I right? He really is a lethal weapon. Is that even human?”
Watching James’s action show, there was nothing Sanghyeon and I could do but look on.
If we got in there, we would only get in the way of James’s fun, so we did nothing.
It took less than a minute to deal with them all.
“Unbelievable.”
People gathered at the noisy scene and the police came, but it was the group that ran away instead.
James briefly explained to the police what had happened, and the police nodded and left.
“Are you both all right? I apologize once again.”
After finishing with the police, James came over and bowed.
“I am, I am fine… haha.”
“Me too. I am all right.”
At our words, James frowned slightly and said,
“I hear they are famous for extorting tourists. Tsk, scum like that should be caught and half killed…”
Judging from James’s eyes, he was not just saying it.
It was the look of someone carrying murderous intent, as if he really would kill them if he caught them again.
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