Seoul Spankings by Anastasia Vitsky Page B

swallowed and opened my mouth for another taste.
    Hyunkyung laughed when she saw it. “No more turning your nose up at good food,” she said with satisfaction.
    Spank .
    Yum.
    Swat .
    Delicious.
    Mesmerized, I watched her wrap a piece of red leaf lettuce around a bundle of grilled meat, kimchi, and a slice of garlic. She slapped the back of my dress, and I couldn’t taste my prize fast enough. The garlic stung my taste buds, but the lettuce added a soothing moisture to the salt and spice. I licked my lips, cheeks bulging.
    Hyunkyung fed herself, watching me with evident pleasure. I jiggled my leg in impatience, reaching for the extra pair of chopsticks. She swatted the back of my hand. I should have been outraged, but instead I laughed. I scooted next to her, and she put her arm around me.
    “I was born here,” she said, looking out at the countryside. “ Halmoni insisted her first grandchild should be born in the Cheongju countryside where our ancestors lived, instead of the pollution of Seoul. My mother had to travel, nine and a half months pregnant, miserable, and angry.”
    “Nine and a half?” I must have heard wrong.
    Hyunkyung nodded. “Ten months, we say for a pregnancy. Not nine months like Americans. I came into this world a country girl, as Halmoni wished. Down that way is a stream where she taught me to catch fish. We won’t find any now, but I used to come here every once in a while.”
    “Let’s go.” I jumped to my feet. “I want to see you catch the fish.”
    For the first time, Hyunkyung looked nonplussed. It was a nice change from her self-composure in every area. “The stream is much smaller now,” she demurred. “We’ll have to take the flashlight with us, and that will scare the fish away.”
    But she led me toward the stream, and I followed with the flashlight tied to a stake. When we got to the stream, she motioned for me to secure the light. Still shoeless, she stepped into the water while crouching and holding her hands together. I held back, afraid to disturb her. What we would do if she actually caught a fish, I had no idea. I didn’t eat fish or like it, but I had a feeling Hyunkyung would enjoy teaching me otherwise.
    She waded through the water, gliding as if she were part water creature. “Shh,” she mouthed, but I hadn’t made a sound. She dipped her hands in the water, walking them across the sand on the bottom. It was too dark for me to see any fish, and I didn’t want to walk closer and startle any she might have found. I waited next to the flashlight, holding my breath.
    Hyunkyung laughed, holding up a fish so small it must have been a minnow or its Korean equivalent. “Got it!” She held it aloft, cupping the wriggling baby in a double handful of water.
    “Poor thing!” I couldn’t help pitying the desperate fish. At the same time, I was relieved we wouldn’t have to filet and roast it on the grill. Hyunkyung in her pantsuit back at the office building might not have done it, but this happy-in-nature Hyunkyung looked capable of anything. “Let it go home to its mama.”
    For a split second, Hyunkyung’s frown made me think of a six-year-old denied a cookie. Then she lowered her hands and released the terrified fish back to its wild. I stepped into the stream, shivering with cold. Hyunkyung was tougher than she looked.
    In a flash, she propped one bare foot on a rock and pushed me over her knee, and I straddled her leg in the most arousing position possible. I yelped but gave only a token fight. She raised my skirt, and I shivered once more but not from the cool night air.
    “You are not impressed with my talents?” She hiked my dress up and wrapped it around her left wrist, sliding a cool hand over the nylons Miss Cha had chosen with such care.
    “Let me go!” I gurgled with laughter, my stomach spinning with something crazy and wonderful. “If that’s what you call a fish, no wonder everyone thinks American stuff is big. We like to see our fish without