Catch of the Day
The so-called Breathing Sea was, quite literally, a world submerged in water.
No one else was present besides Ji-oh. The water rose so high that even the sun itself seemed trapped within it, and every human trace—brick houses, fences, all of it—lay drowned exactly as it had once stood.
Among those ruins, Ji-oh sat on the very edge of a cliff.
“Being completely underwater like this, I have no idea how I’m supposed to fish.”
“Kkuuuuurung.”
“Honey, stop drinking the seawater. You’re getting way too big and the fish are all running away.”
Aquatic life thronged everywhere. A creature resembling an enormous hermit crab clacked clumsily across a red roof with its companions. A gentle-faced snake that looked like a water serpent kept popping out of the sand and vanishing again. High above in the watery sky drifted a pod of massive whales; pairs of brightly colored seahorses swayed in rhythmic, song-like dances; and schools of fish hid among the seaweed that sprouted between the bricks.
“Maybe I just have no talent for fishing.”
“…”
“Well, in a situation like this a fishing rod seems completely useless.”
“…”
“A landing net? That doesn’t sound half bad either.”
He was enjoying the dreamlike scenery, yet not a single fish had been caught.
“Not that I’m any great swimmer to begin with.”
Because Giovanni’s world had been so intimately bound to the sea, ninety percent of its people were skilled swimmers. Giovanni himself had belonged to the unfortunate five percent who were especially terrible at it.
“Even when I first met Aria, our connection only continued because she dropped me into the ocean. From what I’ve personally observed I can’t exactly call her a kind-hearted child, but she was still a diligent student.”
“…”
“Since Father doesn’t resent Aria, my own heart is at ease as well.”
Ji-oh wore his characteristic gentle smile for a moment, then his expression turned troubled.
“But… how am I actually supposed to catch the fish?”
Giovanni had been a poor swimmer, and while Seo Ji-oh could swim well enough, he had never tried to catch fish this way. No matter whose specialty he borrowed, he doubted he could snatch creatures that looked so sleek and agile just by staring at them.
“……”
“…”
“Yes?”
The Sun God was pointing—not at anyone else, but squarely at Honey. Ji-oh turned to the bright-yellow water bird. Bathed in the deity’s spotlight like an actor on stage, Honey sparkled. It was nothing short of a divine revelation.
“Honey?”
“……”
“Honey, can you catch them?”
“…Kkung…”
“Why are you avoiding Dad’s eyes?”
The look on its face clearly said I can do it, I just don’t particularly want to. Ji-oh tilted his head. If Honey simply hated work he would never force the issue, yet the reaction didn’t seem to be pure laziness either, which made it hard to read.
“Why don’t you want to?”
“Kkungkkungkkung…”
“……??”
As father and son failed spectacularly at communication, the Sun God quietly supplied the truth.
“…”
“……”
“…”
“…Ah.”
Only then did Ji-oh remember afresh that his water bird was far from ordinary.
Well, of course living water shaped like a bird was never ordinary to begin with—but still. Honey possessed far more potent potential than Ji-oh had ever expected.
“Our kid can evolve?”
“……”
“O Sun.”
Honey was extremely capable.
“To catch fish it has to evolve, but it doesn’t want that form so it’s being coy right now…? Really? Oh my goodness, that’s both amazing and completely ridiculous. So it has a firm conviction that it must maintain its cute appearance.”
His son clearly suffered from a full-blown prince complex.
“I told you thirty minutes ago that no matter how cute and adorable you act, the only one you’ll ever conquer is your dad. What are you trying to accomplish by being this recklessly cute?”
“…”
“I’m sorry, I was being a bit ridiculous. But Father, isn’t your grandson extremely cute?”
The Sun God merely laughed. The family atmosphere, he seemed to think, looked rather nice.
Though no clear explanation had been given, Ji-oh decided to be content. Right now the most important thing was for everyone to pool their strength, overcome this impossible situation, obtain fish, and put a proper meal on the table.
“…Hmm…”
Not particularly wanting to force labor, Ji-oh simply laid out the reality they faced.
“Honey.”
“Kkung.”
“Dad can’t swim.”
“…Kkung?”
“So I can’t catch fish either.”
“……”
“If you really refuse, it can’t be helped. But if you don’t catch fish for us, we’ll all have to starve. And if you still refuse even then, today’s lunch will have no choice but to be the leftover sausages from last time, grilled.”
At those words Honey’s pupils shook. Ji-oh had no idea where pupils even existed in eyes made of water, yet it was obvious the bird was trembling with shock at the grim reality before them.
Ji-oh nodded with the solemnity of a judge delivering a verdict.
“Yes. We are in a situation where we must eat the exact same menu two days in a row.”
For gourmets and big eaters like them, it was a miserable fate hard to accept.
“If you still refuse, then this dad will do his very best to prepare sausage stir-fry, sausage fried rice, and sausage soup for lunch.”
“……”
“……”
“……”
At the strange standoff the Sun God recoiled in horror. Even he thought sausage stir-fry, sausage fried rice, and sausage soup was going a little too far.
Having recently grown spoiled by the meals Ji-oh prepared, the Sun God watched the situation with anxious eyes.
“…Kku…”
The winner was Ji-oh.
“Kkureureuk.”
But there was a condition.
“Close my eyes?”
“Kkuk.”
“Dad can love our son no matter what form he takes. Why?”
“Kkuk.”
“Ah. Puberty has arrived.”
Well, even when the other party was a parent, everyone had secrets they wanted to keep. Though Ji-oh himself had never dated, married, or had a child, he at least understood the importance of protecting a child’s private space.
He closed his eyes and nodded.
“You really don’t want to show your evolved form that much? Dad is extremely, extraordinarily curious… but if closing my eyes will put your mind at ease, Honey, I’ll do it as long as you want.”
“Kkureureuk.”
“Teenagers going through puberty really aren’t easy.”
A great surge of water rumbled once, followed immediately by the sound of the sea being violently churned. Not long after he pricked up his ears to those noises—
“Kkungkkureureureuk.”
“…?”
Already?
“Can I open my eyes, son?”
“Kkureureuk.”
“Alright.”
And Ji-oh saw.
“Oh.”
Honey’s body, plump and swollen with seawater, held roughly thirty fish trapped inside.
“Amazing.”
“Kkureukkkureuk.”
“You’re just like an excellent pig.”
“……”
“It was a compliment.”
Honey had been getting this large ever since they arrived in the Breathing Sea, so this form was probably not the evolved one.
He must have swallowed the fish in his evolved form and then returned to his usual shape.
Anyway, it was funny and wonderful.
“Pig…”
“Kkung.”
“A pig with fish inside…”
“Kkungkkungkkung.”
“Nice.”
Giovanni smiled radiantly with his characteristic cheerful smile.
“How reassuring this is.”
Ji-oh had always been the generous type.
Back at the cabin, Ji-oh went straight to work preparing the fish.
“Exactly thirty-three.”
It was a number that promised his hands would be thoroughly wrecked by the end of the day, but he decided not to mind.
Showing weakness in front of a mere thirty-three salmon-sized fish would be a profound shame for a pig officially acknowledged by Grandmother.
“Fortunately they’re all edible, so I can prepare them with peace of mind.”
“Kkureureureureuk.”
“Honey, spit one out.”
“Kkuk.”
Ptooey.
Still-enlarged Honey spat out a single fish.
“……”
Catching the slippery thing while staggering, Ji-oh felt his mind go blank for a moment.
What kind of challenge have I gotten myself into?
Anyway, it was time to prepare seafood for which freshness was everything.
Even though food never spoiled inside this painted world, he had no idea whether that protection extended to keeping already-dead fish from growing fishier with time.
Ji-oh poked the first fish’s forehead with an awl and sent it off to the Dragon Palace.
“Mm.”
He prided himself that the technique was every bit as sharp as an assassin’s from a martial-arts novel.
“Worth all the fish I’ve ever filleted.”
“Kkureuk?”
“The taste of slicing and eating fish the moment it’s pulled from the water is something special.”
Recalling a fond past, Ji-oh’s hands moved swiftly. He cut away the fins, scraped the scales off with a satisfying swish-swish, then inserted the knife to just the right depth so the guts would not burst and sliced cleanly down to the vent.
“Looking at how even the guts barely smell fishy, these must be incredibly fresh. Now that the innards are out, next…”
“Kkurungrungrungrung.”
“Honey, if you only eat the guts you’ll eventually get as fishy as guts yourself.”
Where on earth had that terrible habit of snatching only the entrails while Dad was cooking come from?
…More than that, the way they selectively dissolve things is amazing no matter how many times I see it.
The water birds loved to decorate themselves by storing objects inside their bodies. Honey, who adored gems, was no exception—yet when it came to food rather than mere ornamentation, whatever entered its body melted away at remarkable speed.
More precisely than “melting,” it seemed the nutrients themselves were converted into water. The swallowed food grew steadily more transparent, wavered, and finally vanished from sight.
“……”
Whose son was this, to be born so endlessly entertaining?
Fascinating.
Even the way it ate was funny; Honey was definitely Ji-oh’s own son. A creature for whom even breathing counted as excellent content.
“Umm…”
“Kkung?”
“I was just estimating how long it’ll take to finish preparing all of them.”
If these had been pre-cleaned supermarket fish he would have bought them by the armful without hesitation, but preparing live fish by hand was considerably more work.
“Let’s keep going.”
Once the guts were removed and the belly emptied, he still had to scrape out every drop of blood pooled along the inside of the ribcage—exactly as one would with a person. Ji-oh carefully washed the cavity clean, then continued dismantling the fish.
“……”
“……”
And then he discovered something astonishing.
“…Was this actually salmon?”
“Kkureuk?”
“No—it’s definitely not salmon.”
Yet the flesh inside was extremely peculiar.
“The texture is white-fleshed fish, but the color is orange like salmon or trout.”
When he separated it as carefully as sashimi, the meat mashed softly under the lightest pressure, just like salmon. Yet the grain was round and springy, closer to flounder or sea bream.
“……”
Chew.
“……”
The taste was similar to salmon as well. The bright, almost watermelon-like freshness that felt cool on the tongue suggested trout might be closer.
But the texture is far bouncier and chewier than either…
The sensation was strangely amusing. Even in a fantasy world, having two familiar elements overlap like this still felt subtly ridiculous.
“Uh…”
“Kkung?”
“…It’s delicious, so it doesn’t matter.”
Thanks to the soft flesh, preparation went quickly.
“I’ll slice some for sashimi, and prepare others to deep-fry whole in oil.”
“Kkureuk?”
“It’s tastier than I expected. There’s no way deep-frying something in oil could ever turn out bad. Honey, you just relax and wait for the fried fish.”
“Kkureureureu…”
“Originally, adding a spicy sauce makes it even better.”
“Kkungkkungkkung…!!!”
“Do you have to hate the idea that solemnly? There’s plenty of fish left—can’t we make at least one spicy fry for this dad, son?”
By the time every dish was finished, Ji-oh was half-fainting.
“……”
“Kkururung.”
“It was a record-breaking day.”
The conclusion was clear: thirty-three large fish had been too much.
Emphasized, repetitive labor was precisely what exhausted Ji-oh.
(To be continued)