“How do you make a fishing rod?” Junho asked.
“Do we really need one?” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. Why not just go in the river and grab the fish? Impossible, you say? Don’t make me laugh. I’ve caught fish with my bare hands in the ocean. Not just fish, either. I’ve fought with the Dragon King before and caught his most loyal servant named Jara. Well actually, I dragged him out because he threatened to eat my liver. Anyways, moving on.
“Look. They’re making one,” Junho said, pointing across the river. He was watching the other team with a spark of admiration in his eyes since they definitely knew what they were doing. They soon had a working fishing rod in no time.
“We should’ve brought Byung-hoon,” Junho said wistfully.
“We don’t need him,” I said, picking up a stout stick. I took a knife and began shaving one end into a point.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m making a spear.”
“A spear?”
“Yep.”
It was finished rather quickly. The point was nice and sharp – good enough to pierce a fish clean through.
“Here,” I said, handing it over to Junho.
“I thought you needed bamboo to make spears,” Junho said, taking it.
“Says who?” I said as I started to make another one. Just then, two men from the other side jumped into the river.
Splash!
The ripples came as far as us.
“Huh?”
I momentarily put down my spear and stared at the two men in the water. For a moment, they stayed under, but they came up soon afterwards. Empty-handed.
“The fish are too fast!”
“Yeah. There’s no way we can catch them with our hands.”
“Alright then. Out of the water,” Areum said.
The two men jumped out of the water and returned to making fishing rods. But waiting for them to finish was taking up time. It’s already been fifteen minutes.
“Um, excuse me,” Lobster Head said, holding up his camera.
“What?”
“This seems to be taking a while. How about we just have both teams catch 10 fish and the first one to do so wins?”
“Fine,” I said.
“Great. How about you guys?”
“Okay,” the other team agreed. And with that, they returned to making more fishing rods. Junho and I were already done and waiting with our spears.
“Hey, Sian.”
“What?” I snapped.
“Oh…sorry…” Junho apologized.
“Oh, sorry,” I said. Guess I was a little harsh. “Go ahead. Ask.” I gave him a smile for a good measure.
Feeling reassured, Junho held up his spear.
“How do we catch fish with this?”
“With strength and enthusiasm.”
What a stupid question.
“What do you mean…”
“Just do as you want.”
I held up my spear and walked to the water’s edge. Drawing up my powers, I looked down and into the water.
“Ugh.”
Great. I couldn’t see the fish at all. It was all dark and muddy, but I could see the water moving. The fish were making the water move by swimming to and fro. Seeing how big the river was, there was probably tons of fish.
“Hey, Junho.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s make a plan.”
“How?” Junho asked. He didn’t seem to take any issue with me being leader. Probably because he already knew that I was skilled enough to do this. And it helped that I was pretty as well. Nothing like getting a man to do what you want than using your looks.
“I’m going to throw these two spears into the water.”
“Okay.”
“After that, you need to go into the water and take them out.”
There. That was easy.
“Oh, okay. I can do that. So you’re going to catch the fish by throwing the spears into the river?”
“Yep.”
“Will that work?” Junho said, looking skeptical.
“It will.”
“Hmmm…”
“Trust me.”
“Okay.”
Looking determined, Junho gave a firm nod. Then, we sat back and waited for the other team to finish with their rods.
“Well, at least they’re making it quick,” I said sarcastically.
“Hey, have you guys given up already?” Areum asked.
“You sure talk big. How about you hurry it up instead of moving your mouth? Or do we have enough time to take a nap?”
“….”
They didn’t answer, but turned back to their work. Finally, they finished and plopped them into the water.
I took my spear and aimed it at the water.
“I’ll throw one in first as a test. You need to go in and get it right away, okay?”
“Got it,” Junho answered. He took off his shirt and jumped into the water, bracing himself.
“Alright. Here we go.”
I threw the spear down.
Whoosh.
Splash~
Junho dived into the water and disappeared.
“Go, Junho!” I called out to him. Junho didn’t hear as he was too busy swimming towards the spear. The other team just laughed.
“Hey, Sian, how do you expect to catch fish like that? What do you expect Junho to do? I think someone’s been watching too many Chinese hero movies.” Areum snickered, so did the rest of his team.
If only he knew that I’m the hero that inspired those films. After about a minute, Junho came out of the water.
Spew!
He spit out the water from his mouth.
“Sian! We got them!” he cried out, holding up the spear. Everyone watched. Then, everyone gasped in shock.
***
“Whoa!”
“No way! How…?”
“What the…”
“Oh my god.”
“Wow…”
Everyone’s jaw fell open. Mine too, actually. The spear had actually gotten all ten fish. I had expected one, maybe two. But not all ten.
“We did it, Sian!” Junho said, doing a happy dance before he climbed out of the river. I began to dance as well. All it took was one throw. Just look at their faces. They were shocked. A few of them even lost their grip on their fishing rods, letting them fall into the river.
“So we’re done, right?” I asked Lobster Head.
“Um…y-yeah,” Lobster Head answered. He looked at us with his mouth agape in shock.
“Hey, look over there,” I said, pointing at Areum. Junho held up the spear with all ten fish, still dancing.
“Hey~ Look over here~”
Areum stared at Junho and I started to dance again.
Happy dance~
“It only took us a minute!”
“….”
“Why did you guys make fishing rods~? Was it all for show? Come on! I thought you guys were the experts? Why are you so impractical and wasting all your time making those useless fishing rods? Well, we’ll be off~ Have fun fishing! Oh, and here! A present.”
I threw a spear into the water.
Splash~
Areum quickly jumped into the water and disappeared. Will it work a second time?
“Bye, then~”
With a hearty wave, I turned around and walked away. Junho followed, both of us practically skipping.
***
As we were walking, Lobster Head came over to my side.
“Hey, Sian.”
“Yes?”
“The other producer just called.”
“Yeah?”
“You remember the spear you threw?”
“Yeah?”
“There was only one fish on the spear.”
“Oh, really?”
Darn it. Only one?
“But the thing is…”
“Yes?”
“It was an eel.”
“Right.”
Still only one.
“And the other thing is…”
“What?”
“You got the spear through the eel’s entire body.”
“What?” I asked. What does that mean?
“In other words, the spear went through the eel’s tail all the way through its mouth.”
“Whoa.”
That’s even harder. The eel must’ve been shocked.
“How did you do that?” Lobster Head asked me, an amazed expression on his face. And to be honest, so did I. How did I do that?
“I don’t know. I just threw it and got lucky, I guess.”
The poor eel. What was it sticking its tail up in the air for?
“So what happened to the eel?”
“They’re roasting it over a fire now.”
“I bet it’s delicious.”
I should’ve just taken that spear with me.
***
“Yohooo~”
At my call, Byung-hoon lifted his head up towards me. The moment he saw me, he smiled. Well actually, he was smiling at the fish.
“Fish!” Byung-hoon cried out, running over to us. He eyed the fish-laden spear and let out a roar of approval.
“How did you catch all these?”
“Now don’t be shocked, okay?” Junho said. “We caught these in one blow. Well, Sian did.”
“What?!” Byung-hoon gasped.
“Sian caught them,” Junho repeated. “She threw the spear and it went through ten fish at once. I was shocked as well.”
“Whoa.”
“Really?”
“No way.”
The last one was Minwoo, his face full of skepticism.
“Can we eat now? It’s getting late,” I said.
“Yeah!” Miyeon answered. This girl. It’s only been two hours and she already looked like she’s lost half her size. Her metabolism must be top-notch. On top of that, why is her skin so white? I’m sure her sweat had wiped all the makeup off, and yet her skin still looked so white. It made me want her even more. No, don’t think about those things Sian.
“Let’s make a fire!” Byung-hoon cried out. As expected, he was definitely hungry. He quickly built a fire before I propped the spear over it. Now for the giant rat. How do we eat that?
“How…” Byung-hoon stared at it, making a face. Like I said before, it really was just a rat. It didn’t look very appetizing…
“Let’s just put it into the fire,” I suggested.
“Yeah…? No. I can’t do it. I’d rather just not eat it,” Byung-hoon said, a resigned look on his face. Soon, the others began to agree.
“Me too. I’ll just have the fish.”
“Me too.”
“I don’t think I want to eat it either.”
“Yeah. I’ll pass.”
“Hmmm…” I began to contemplate. To be honest, I didn’t want to eat it either. A rat…ugh. No.
“Let’s just bury it.”
I dug a hole in the ground and tossed the creature in. Then, we turned back to the fish. They were cooking nicely.
“What kind of fish is it?” I asked. They looked about the size of my hand and were very fat.
“They’re called mini blue,” Lobster Head answered.
“Mini blue?”
“Yeah. There’s a huge river over there where the Giant Blue lives. These fish look a lot like that one so the locals call them mini blues.”
“Oh, okay.”
A Giant Blue? Suddenly, I wanted to eat that one too. Lobster Head continued.
“Apparently, it’s really good. I hope you guys get to have it while we’re here.”
“Okay.”
We turned back to look at the fish. They were almost done.
“Since there’s five of us, we can have two each,” Byung-hoon said. The staff all looked sad, and so did Lobster head. They all turned to look at me. With a shrug, I got up.
“Hey, Junho. Come on. Also, bring the spear.”
“Yaaaay!”
“Wow! Thanks!”
“Sian, you’re the best!”
The staff began to cheer as Junho and I made our way back to the river.
