The Phoenix Tea

The sound of rain hitting the tent perfectly mirrored the mood of a dejected-looking woman sitting inside it. It vibrated on the tent’s plastic material, mixing with the chatter and glass clinking of the other customers. The woman, whose name was Holly, gazed through the transparent plastic squares onto the flooded Busan street and imagined her own ambitions flowing away down the river of rainwater.

A table full of men erupted in a roar of boisterous laughter, but it was the vibration of her phone that forced her out of her trance momentarily. She let it ring until the table stopped shaking, as she knew who the caller was. Despite her low morale, she felt her heart rate quicken at the thought of why her brother called her this time. Fortunately, the entrance of her friend Minji wiped all thoughts of her brother away instantly.

Minji had been one of Holly’s first acquaintances in South Korea. They had met at a campus party for international researchers that Minji helped organise a year ago, and although they clicked immediately, they were both too busy to meet up as frequently as they had liked to.

They exchanged greetings and ordered some drinks and snacks for their table. Minji went straight to the point.

‘Are you really leaving?’, she said with great disappointment in her voice.

‘Yes, my train to Seoul is tomorrow morning, and from there, I’m going back to London.’

‘You’re leaving tomorrow?!’ Upon raising her voice, she quickly apologised to the owner of the tent bar, who had almost flipped the tray with their order. The middle-aged lady reached the table with a reproving look towards Minji and placed the assortment of alcohol and snacks, which included dried squid – a favourite of Holly – on the table.

‘Why are you leaving all of a sudden?’, Minji said more quietly once the bar owner left their table. She started mixing beer and soju into thin glasses.

‘It’s not exactly all of a sudden. I’m sorry for not keeping in touch the past few months, but my research has been completely fruitless, which is why I lost my sponsorship from the research institute.’ Holly drank the contents of the glass Minji had poured for her at once after they made a toast.

‘You’re researching tea, right?’, asked Minji while taking a piece of the dried squid.

‘Yeah, but not just any tea. I read about this green tea with incredible healing powers during my studies, and since then I just couldn’t forget about it. For the past few years, I’ve been obsessed with finding it, spending almost every hour of the day in libraries. Maybe it was all just a hoax.’ Holly took a piece of dried squid, finding a bit of comfort in the pungent smell of ocean.

‘How can you be sure that it actually exists?’

‘I don’t know. It was a chance to discover something new. Or maybe I just wanted to find a way to help my mother… It was a Korean source, you know, where I first read about it. A nobleman purchased tea from some Chinese merchants, who promised him that it could cure any illness. He was so desperate to cure his dying child that he gave it a try, and it worked!

‘He ran home with the tea and ordered it to be brewed immediately. He forced his son to drink a whole tea pot of it at once. After one day, his son’s condition improved slightly; after three, he could stand up and after five, he was completely cured! Because he felt like ´his son was born once again, the nobleman called the tea "Phoenix Tea".’

Although Minji had listened intently to the story, chewing on dried squid and finishing her glass halfway through, her face betrayed her dubiety. Holly caught onto it immediately.

‘It wasn’t just some legend or made-up story’, she insisted desperately. ‘Something about his depiction of everything seemed genuine and real. It wasn’t some fairytale or myth; it was more like a journal than anything else.’

‘So that’s why you’ve been in China before coming to Korea!’, said Minji with an enlightened expression. She looked thoroughly invested now. ‘Makes sense since the tea he bought was from China.’

Holly gave a sad nod, and the two sat in silence for a few moments, only chewing on some squid. Her eyes followed the river of rain water again and then drifted over the people in the tent. They were all immersed in their own conversations, laughing, drinking and eating heartily while enjoying each other's company. Holly’s eyes locked with those of a young man who was sitting at the table right next to theirs. The sudden eye connection seemed to startle him as he broke it immediately, apparently embarrassed at being caught.

For the rest of their meet-up, Minji kept suggesting theories to Holly of what kind of medicine – or drug – the tea could have been, for each of which Holly had a plausible argument ready as to why it had to have been a tea and why the sudden recovery was certainly brought about by it.

After four more bottles of beer and soju, the topic of the mysterious tea, unlike Minji and Holly, still wasn’t exhausted. They reluctantly paid the old lady and stepped out into the humid air, which smelled like wet asphalt.

‘Maybe it wasn’t a green tea at all! Maybe it was merely green-coloured tea he described’, said Minji incredulously, amazed at her own observation.

‘I’ve considered that, obviously. But the source clearly said that–‘

‘E– Excuse me?’, said a voice behind them, making them spin around curiously. It was the same guy that Holly had seen at the table next to theirs. 

‘I’m really sorry, I don’t want to interrupt, but I- I heard you talking earlier…,’ he said timidly.

Although Holly was in no state to make a proper judgement, he seemed sincere. Still, neither of them actually spoke to him; they merely stood there with curious looks, swaying slightly.

‘I- I’m sorry. I heard what you said, and it sounded kind of familiar. I’m from the countryside, you see. My family owns a tea farm, so I know a little bit about tea, and I think I’ve heard about the Phoenix Tea from my uncle’, he finished.

‘What’s your name? And how old are you?’, asked Minji suspiciously after stepping forward. She regarded him with narrowed eyes.

‘Oh, sorry! I’m Jinsu and I’m 22 years old. My hometown is Boseong, you know, it’s famous for green tea.’ Holly observed that he had his shoulders drawn up stiffly, making his head look oddly big.

‘You’re quite young! He’s 4 years younger than us, Holly’, Minji stabbed her in the side with an elbow.

‘I know how old we are. Thanks, Minji’, said Holly sarcastically before addressing Jinsu. ‘It’s really nice that, er, that you want to help me, I assume? But, obviously, I know that Boseong is the centre for green tea in Korea, and as a matter of fact, I have visited it and I’ve been to their library and all… What I’m saying is, if you listened to our conversation, you should be aware that I have tried everything and I’ve exhausted all of Korea’s academic resources to find this tea, but it was no use’, concluded Holly with a deep sigh.

Jinsu looked at her with a defeated expression. Something about his eyes told Holly that he was certain he could help her without knowing how to express it. She avoided them.

‘My family owns quite a large tea farm that has been handed down for generations. My uncle is currently the head of it all, and I know that he has quite a big collection of books and other media concerning tea and its history. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard him tell the story of the nobleman Kim Yongshik who cured his child with tea. I’m actually–’

Holly’s eyes had widened into circles, and her lips had parted in silent surprise at Jinsu’s words.

‘I don’t believe I mentioned the scholar’s name even once to Minji earlier. You really do know the story, if you remember his name.’

Minji drew a sharp breath in surprise and clasped her mouth with one hand.

‘So why are you telling me this exactly?’, demanded Holly.

‘I’m going to Boseong tomorrow, and I wanted to offer to take you there,’ said Jinsu more confidently due to the validation he received.

‘No way!’, cried Minji, ‘she doesn’t know you at all! You could be some perverted serial killer, for all we know!’ Once she realised that Holly was actually considering the offer silently, she lowered her voice and whisper-shouted in Holly’s ear, ‘You can’t possibly think of joining a complete stranger!’

‘What have I got to lose?’, said Holly tensely. ‘This is my last chance!’

‘What about your flight tomorrow?’

At that moment, Holly’s phone started vibrating in her pocket again. She denied the call and said, ‘Where should I meet up with you?’

*

After Jinsu and Holly had discussed the details of the time and place for their next meet-up, he left the two friends in a heated argument. Minji had strongly contested this rash decision to join him, and she didn’t drop it until Holly had closed the taxi door on her, although Minji continued bombarding her with text messages until the next morning.

Holly didn’t need Minji’s constant reminders of the dangerous scenarios she might find herself in after meeting up with Jinsu again, but his mention of Kim Yongshik’s name was the best trace to the tea she had found in the past six months. There was no way she could ignore it now. So, instead of taking her train to Seoul, she came to the train station to meet Jinsu.

Holly checked her phone to see that she was a few minutes too early. There was also no new message from Minji, who had stopped spamming messages an hour ago. Holly thought that she might have fallen back asleep, but was proven wrong when she heard Minji’s voice calling from afar.

‘What are you doing here?’, said Holly, her arms stretched out in surprise, which Minji mistook for a hug.

‘Do you really think I would let you go all by yourself? You’re lucky I’m free today.’

Despite having mixed feelings about this unexpected turnout, Holly felt grateful that Minji was looking out for her.

‘Here he comes!’

During the ride to Boseong Holly felt herself enter another trance, but this time it wasn’t caused by the weight of failure that had pressed on her back but by an anaesthetic hope that was once again blooming in her chest. The rainy weather of the past few days was replaced by a bright blue sky, coupled with a warm summer breeze, which Holly felt through her open window. She admired the mountainous landscape of Korea, fully aware that she might have to leave it behind sooner rather than later. Lost in her own thoughts, she completely drowned out Minji’s mistrustful questioning of Jinsu, of which the latter grew visibly tired after thirty minutes as he turned on the radio at full volume, leaving Minji sulking in the backseat.

Two and a half hours later, Jinsu parked the car in front of his uncle's house, which was surrounded by winding fields of green tea as far as the eye could reach. Despite her disappointing departure the last time, Holly’s heart could not resist quickening its pace as her senses were overstimulated by the old building and beautiful green fields, which emitted an earthy scent.

A woman appeared at the entrance with an overjoyed expression that made her otherwise smooth skin split into many wrinkles, betraying her age. Jinsu bowed before giving her a hug and then introduced the two women he brought along. Minji quickly bent her back forward, and Holly mirrored her greeting unnaturally. Despite not speaking the language, Holly could deduce from the interaction that Jinsu’s aunt was surprised to see her nephew bring a foreigner and was about to start asking questions, which Jinsu seemed to evade. She guessed that he told her he needed to see his uncle quickly, as she led them into the house a few seconds later.

On any other day, Holly would have admired the traditional interior of the house, but she began to feel extremely nervous about meeting the uncle. What if he really did know something about the tea and she hadn’t been a fool all this time by thinking it had really existed?

A few nerve-wracking moments later, Jinsu’s uncle entered the room with a big smile. He was a sturdy man that was a bit thinner than it suited him, most likely due to his continuous work on the tea field. They exchanged greetings again, and Jinsu had to downplay the unexpected presence of a foreigner that had sparked his uncle’s honest curiosity right away. The uncle’s head kept going from Jinsu to Holly, while the former seemed to give a quick summary of Holly’s career as an academic. Holly was impressed that Jinsu seemed to remember so much from what she had told him during the last half hour of their car ride. When she deciphered the name Kim Yongshik from the conversation, she saw the uncle’s kind expression turn dark.

‘Kim Yongshik is no exist!’, he said aggressively, addressing Holly. ‘Tea is just myth.’

Jinsu attempted to say something, but his uncle interrupted him furiously, disregarding all of the politeness he had shown them earlier. Although his reaction was highly suspicious, Holly couldn’t stop the humiliating feeling that blossomed in her chest.

Crestfallen, the three entered a guest room that they were offered, slumping onto any of the vacant seats around the room. After another moment of pregnant silence, Minji burst out into a rant she had suppressed the whole time, apologising to Jinsu every few seconds.

‘It’s alright. I’m also very upset with him. I can’t believe, he really said he won’t let you into his library… I’m really sorry that I made you come all this way here. You even missed your flight,’ said Jinsu sincerely, but Holly was neither able to answer nor look at him. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket again and held back tears.

‘Well, obviously we have no other choice, right?’, said Minji to both of them. ‘We have to sneak in anyway! No way we’re just going to leave when he is obviously hiding something.’

Jinsu looked conflicted. Although Holly didn’t know him well, she could tell that he was not the kind of person that would betray someone easily, but the disappointment seemed to persuade him more than Minji’s arguments.

‘Let’s sneak in when he’s away. He’s going out onto the field soon’, he said determinedly, looking at Holly until she met his eyes and nodded her head.

They waited for another 10 minutes after hearing the front door shut before proceeding down the stairs into the entrance hall, from where Jinsu checked the rooms for his aunt, who was nowhere to be found. It was eerily quiet in the house. Jinsu led them down the corridor to another door that opened to a staircase into the basement.

‘Is this the door to the library? I expected it to be locked’, whispered Minji.

‘Why would he lock a door in his own house?’, answered Jinsu while shutting the door behind them. He pressed the light switch and told them to go down the creaking stairs, at the bottom of which both Minji and Holly gasped in awe.

Although the rest of the house had a traditional touch to it, the library looked as if it had been ripped from the 19th century. The interior was entirely made of wood, which was painted with floral details in mint green on the upper one-third of the wall, while the lower two-thirds were occupied by bookshelves in a reddish brown colour that probably held over a thousand books.

‘I know, it’s beautiful, but we need to hurry up!’, said Jinsu, urging them deeper into the room. ‘I’m not exactly sure where to start… Let’s hope the books are sorted.’

‘Let’s look together, Holly. I doubt there are any English-language books here’, said Minji, who started checking the shelf closest to her.

An hour and a hundred books later, they had barely made any progress, and yet Holly could tell that these books were leading them nowhere. For the fifth time, she walked around the room, looking for a hint, and then something metallic caught her eye on the bookshelf right across the staircase. There was a drawer with a metallic lock built into the shelf.

‘Jinsu, Minji, I think I found something!’, she said, and they all went to examine it.

‘This has to be it!’, said Minji excitedly.

‘But it’s locked! How are we supposed to find the key to that? It could be anywhere in the house’, said Jinsu with frustration straining his voice.

They brooded in silence for a few minutes, contemplating what to do, when they suddenly heard footsteps coming down the stairs. The three of them looked around for a place to hide, but there was no time; they were caught. To their surprise, it wasn’t Jinsu’s uncle that came down the stairs but his aunt, who greeted them with a kind smile. She remained silent until she reached the three of them, who held their breath nervously, waiting to be thrown out of the library, but to their utter astonishment, she held out a key to Holly and said something in Korean, which Holly understood immediately.

Are you looking for this?