On a national holiday during the year when I became a middle school student, I made up my mind to help my mom a little as she was busy cooking. First of all, I followed her to a grocery store to prepare holiday dishes, pushing a shopping cart. When the cooking day came, I got up a little earlier than usual to help her.
The main dish of the day was Sanjeok (traditional skewered food). I sliced ham, an ingredient for the dish. Although I said confidently, “Ham-slicing is my specialty,” it didn’t get sliced as I wanted. Every piece was different in size and shape. My mom said, “What’s this?” but also said with a smile that I did a good job. At her words, “If you finished slicing, you need to stir-fry them,” I once again said, “Haha, stir-frying is what I do best!”
But . . . oh, well! Even stir-frying was not easy. I tried to stir the sliced hams, not to burn them, but the hams did not move at all in the frying pan. I barely stir-fried, but it was harder than I thought.
I ended up changing my major to “make mom laugh and cheer her up” instead of helping her cook. I took out a well-trimmed green onion and put it on the chopping board and gave a shout of concentration! My mom tried to stop me while grinning, but I showed her the feat of chopping the green onion and started cooking again after calming myself down. Even after that, I kept trying to make my mom laugh.
That day, my mom and I spent more time laughing than cooking. I was sorry that I could not help her much, but I was happy to have a good laugh with my mom.