Five coins can get three mung bean popsicles, the product of pea-sized army-green beans boiled in water until soft and split open and the water a cloudy brown, at which point white sugar ideally would join the pot for an extra coin which he’d have to steal from his brothers’ stashes but his large heart renders him wimpy and he settles without any heaven in the form of crystallized sucrose, all frozen overnight in trays. Five coins can also get one ice milk bar, containing not only Adzuki red beans that have their own mild, nutty sweetness made sweeter the longer it sits on your tongue like waking up in the morning to bikers on the street carrying sacks of rice in their rear carrier baskets, the scent of Chinese crullers in a bubbling pot of oil and a coolness in the air marking the end of an inferno of a summer, but also fresh milk to complement the creaminess of the beans (or perhaps the beans complement the creaminess of the milk). Empowered by the choice that his economic freedom enables, he wipes the sweat from his forehead and begins to walk along the side of the street where apartment buildings lend him some shade, a no longer squinting gaze following the mung bean vendor across the street. Quantity over quality today.
BIO: Lucy Zhang is a software engineer and holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science. She watches anime, writes poetry and fiction (when patient enough), and sleeps in on weekends like a normal human being. She can be found at https://kowaretasekai.wordpress.com/ or on Twitter (@Dango_Ramen).
