Thank You For The Confinement, Grand Duke! - Chapter 28
Translator and Editor: Effe and Nabi
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Chapter 28
A familiar ceiling came into view.
An ordinary, plain white ceiling with a fluorescent light hanging right in the center, so dazzling that I unknowingly closed my eyes again.
And then I thought.
‘Oh, I’ll probably get scolded by Grandmother again.’
“This crazy woman! Won’t you get up quickly? What is this woman doing, lying in bed until now? And leaving the light on! Does electricity come for free!”
‘…Ah, as expected.’
My body wouldn’t move properly. It felt like wriggling in a bathtub filled with jelly. Although I felt awkward about my limbs not moving properly, perhaps it seemed like I was pretending to be sick.
Grandmother hit my back with the stick she always had.
“Get up quickly! Our grandson must be hungry!”
“Just a moment… my body feels a bit strange…”
“It’s because you wear clothes like that! Not thinking of dressing properly, instead wearing loose clothing like that, what’s that all about?”
“It’s just pajamas, Grandmother…”
“Why do you need pajamas?! Just pick up something and wear it. Ahh. Hurry up and come out, prepare some food!”
Grandmother’s voice echoes. My head…
Was it a fever?
I forced myself to get up and went outside. It was still dark at dawn. Even though I tried to remember what I bought while grocery shopping yesterday while putting on an apron, I couldn’t recall it properly.
In the end, I checked the refrigerator.
Come to think of it, my younger brother kept talking yesterday, asking for braised short ribs, so I prepared it properly and drained the blood.
First, I boiled water and began cooking the bones before I took out the flatfish for breakfast and soaked it in the rice water collected in a bottle as usual. Since he tended to sulk if there was only fish, I also took out some spam.
I beat the eggs and placed the spam in them. The boiled bones, reduced in volume after cooking about one kg of it, were placed on a plate. It felt heavy.
After rinsing them in cold water, I started preparing the vegetables.
I coarsely chopped radishes, cut onions into thin slices, and chopped scallions into large pieces. Meanwhile, I finely chopped some radishes for the radish salad. I sliced red and green peppers and trimmed enoki mushrooms by cutting off the roots.
Let’s prepare some bean sprout soup.
Despite complaining about the smell of beans and not liking them, he strangely liked bean sprouts. The crispy texture of the part without the beans is said to be good. It was hard to make a broth with the bean heads removed.
With a small sigh, I began detaching each bean’s head, and then I took out the anchovy broth, which I had prepared in large quantities in advance over the weekend, and poured it into the pot.
I let it boil and started roasting seaweed on the side.
There were talks about the store-bought seaweed being salty and greasy, but when roasted in advance, it doesn’t become too damp. However, everyone was fussing, so I roasted seaweed every morning.
I took out the seaweed, turned on the gas stove, and brought out an old frying pan.
I flipped five sheets, waving them with my hands as the seaweed crisped up on top. Since leaving it still quickly imparted a burnt smell and I would get complaints that it lost its taste, so though it was hot, I swapped it and roasted five more sheets.
Thankfully, they only eat this for breakfast. If I had to roast ten or twenty sheets every day, my hands would never recover.
While roasting the seaweed, I added a tablespoon of minced garlic to the broth that was boiling and placed soybean sprouts in it. Since the bean heads were removed, the soup needed to have a rich flavor, even if it was from green onions. I added the coarsely chopped green onions and soy sauce for soup and continued to boil it.
I finished roasting the seaweed in the meantime.
After turning off the frying pan, I cut the seaweed and placed it in a bowl, then headed to the pot of soup. After adjusting the seasoning and adding peppers for a spicy flavor, I let it simmer a bit more. The distinctive refreshing aroma of soybean sprouts permeated the air.
Because he tended to complain if it was too hot or too cold, I pre-scooped about half a bowl and cooled it down. Later, I would fill the remaining half with hot broth to reduce the complaints.
I filled only my brother’s soup bowl, and this time, I took out the pot for braised ribs.
Soon, I added the meat and seasoned it with soy sauce, sugar, pear juice, apple juice, garlic, ginger, cooking wine and water. Since I couldn’t taste it, I had to adjust the seasoning later. I closed the lid and boiled it over medium heat.
It was not bad since it was easy, except for flipping it occasionally to ensure it was evenly cooked. In the meantime, I prepared other side dishes.
While doing so, Grandmother went in to wake up my brother.
“My grandson, wake up quickly, let’s eat.”
“Ah, I don’t want to… Let me sleep a bit more.”
“If you sleep too much, it won’t taste good. Just eat and go back to sleep, okay?”
“Ahh, I said no…”
He would complain again if he woke up early, saying it was a long wait.
Well, braised ribs would only be eaten during lunch anyway, so I could just let it continue boiling. Now, let’s prepare the grilled flatfish.
I took out a clean pan, lightly coated it with oil, and while it was heating up, I dusted the flatfish with a little flour. The fussiness came from my brother, who complained if the shape got distorted, claiming it would affect the taste.
There was hardly any difference in taste, even if the shape got a bit distorted. Tricky guy.
I placed the flatfish on the pan and dusted it with flour before taking out oyster mushrooms this time. He wasn’t fond of vegetables much, but surprisingly, he liked mushrooms. So, there always had to be two or more types of mushrooms on the table.
After lightly rinsing the oyster mushrooms in water, I tore them apart with my hands.
It was quite satisfying and stress-relieving, as long as I didn’t tear too hard. When we were younger, it seemed fun, and my brother used to join in.
Lately…
“Hey, don’t tear them too small. It won’t taste good if it’s too small.”
“Alright.”
“But is it still long? Have you not finished making breakfast yet?”
“It’s almost done. I’ll finish up after washing.”
“You consider washing up as almost done? Ugh, so annoying.”
After coming closer and expressing his annoyance, my brother, who only ever complained, headed to the bathroom. Due to his picky eating habits or lack of exercise, he occasionally suffered from constipation. It would take at least twenty minutes, so I still had some time.
I took out the pre-peeled onions and sliced them thinly. Adding carrots would enhance both color and taste, but since my brother hated carrots, I decided to stick with green onions.
After preparing the ingredients, I flipped the flatfish while grilling and placed it in a bowl. Then, I wiped it clean with a kitchen towel.
After thoroughly cleaning to eliminate any fishy smell, I coated the pan with oil again and sautéed garlic. Once it turned slightly golden, I added vegetables first, and when they softened a bit, I added mushrooms and stir-fried until fragrant.
Sautéing vegetables in oil releases a unique sweet smell that I could faintly detect. It was natural, considering I had been smelling the oil since a while ago.
After exhaling softly, I added oyster sauce, sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, and sesame salt to the pan. After thoroughly mixing and sautéing, I turned off the heat and placed the portion for breakfast on a separate plate while the rest went into a serving bowl.
After lightly wiping the pan, this time, I grilled the spam.
It would probably be better to boil it once due to its strong taste, though if I did, my brother would complain that it tasted bad, so this was, in fact, a menu specifically for him. Nevertheless, I grilled generously, as he would almost finish half of it alone in the morning.
Meanwhile, I took out kimchi from the kimchi container and sliced it thinly.
When I heard the sizzling sound, I looked up, and something was overflowing from the pot where the braised ribs were simmering.
“Oh, shoot!”
I quickly lowered the heat. I distinctly remembered setting the heat to medium, but now it seemed my brother had changed it to high. It wasn’t wise to mess with the heat control when you didn’t know how to adjust it.
I took out the peanut side dish and shredded squid from the night before, placing them in a dish.
I also took out the lotus roots and stewed burdock side dishes for Grandmother. Since she only ate the soup from the bean sprout soup, I seasoned some bean sprouts with salt and sesame oil, adding them as a side dish.
This variety makes it look good.
I took out the nicely grilled spam and placed it on a plate. As I grabbed two small dishes and filled them with ketchup and honey mustard, I coated the cleaned pan with sesame oil and added sliced radishes.
After stir-frying them for a while, I added water and salt for seasoning, mixed well, and stir-fried until they were evenly cooked before closing the lid. Afterward, I scooped out the rice and poured the hot soup into the pre-cooled broth.
Grandmother, who was ready to eat her soup, checked the clock.
It was already 6:30.
It always took this long because my hands were slow.
I exhale softly, check the table setting, and scoop out the radish side dish. I would have to prepare the fish cake stir-fry and vegetables for dinner., and I needed to wash and clean up in the meantime.
Normally, I leave at 8:30, but today, I had to leave by 8:00 since we had an audit coming up, and things were hectic. Today would be really tight.
I should have woken up earlier, but why did I sleep in?
Exhaling softly, I take off my apron.
In the meantime, my brother comes out, faster than usual. Thanks to him, I could wash up quickly. Sitting in front of the dining table, my grandmother called my brother.
“Come here, Soohyuk. Let’s eat.”
“What? The braised ribs isn’t ready yet?”
“That’s for lunch…”
“Ah, geez, why are you making lunch now? I was looking forward to it for nothing.”
“Why do you always mess with Soohyuk’s mood from the morning? Anyway, you don’t know anything.”
“Oh, I’m not eating.”
“Oh my, Soohyuk. Don’t do that, just take a little. Your favorite s…s…s-what is it is here too. Okay?”
“Ah, geez.”
Even though he grumbled, as the smell of food wafted through, he sneakily sat at the table and picked up a spoon.
Why did that kid hold chopsticks like that, seriously?
No matter how much I taught him, he didn’t seem to have any intention of fixing it. How could he remove the fish bones like that?
Well, Grandmother would do everything, so it didn’t matter.
“I’ll wash up a bit and come out. Please put it in the sink after eating.”
I hastily washed my hair and came out. In the meantime, it looked like a battlefield at the dining table. As expected, they didn’t put away the dishes.
I sighed again and started doing the dishes with a towel on my head. Normally, I would have eaten breakfast before doing the dishes, but today was urgent, so I couldn’t help it. I would just have to go hungry.
Actually, I’d like to do the dishes later, but if I postpone it, it would be too difficult when I come home in the evening, so I had no choice.
After finishing this, I’d comb my hair, clean up my brother’s room, which was probably a mess, and prepare the side dishes for later. Hopefully, by that time, my hair would be dry.
Why was I washing dishes like this?
Suddenly, tears welled up.
I was bewildered, seeing my vision blur. If I let go of the dishes and they break, it would be a big problem.
…Snap out of it. There was no way I could escape from this hell. That was just a dream.
The dining table, filled with a sweet fragrance. A room where everything was perfect without me lifting a finger. The kind people.
People who cared about me.
All of that.
…A dream.
— Chaperil…
I wished for it so much.
If it were a dream, I’d rather wake up quickly.
Like this, reality… was always the same.
Thinking like that, I closed my eyes tightly and opened them.
“…Are you okay?”
Enfrise appeared.
—
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