The Night I Failed to Drain the Water🌃 I Discovered 'Ajipon-Scented Yakisoba'!

I messed up.

I was hungry and wanted to fill my stomach as soon as possible.

I had a Nissin sauce yakisoba on hand, the kind where you add hot water and wait 5 minutes.

I poured the hot water and set the timer.

Everything was perfect up to that point.

Those 5 minutes spent waiting while looking at my smartphone are truly a blissful prelude.

However, the sound of the alarm ringing must have caused a bug in my brain.

Direct injection of the jet-black liquid.

For some reason, before opening the 'drain spout,' I tore open the sauce packet and poured that jet-black liquid into the container, which was already filled with hot water.

'Oh.'

By the time I realized it, it was already too late.

The rich sauce was creating a beautiful marble pattern on top of the hot water.

For a moment, my thoughts froze.

However, I was hungry.

When humans are cornered, they tend to do strange things.

I don't know what I was thinking, but I came up with a logic that ignored the laws of physics:

'If I just manage to drain only the hot water now, wouldn't it be safe?'

The result was clearer than day.

From the container tilted toward the sink, the sauce, which held all the deliciousness, literally flowed away as if to say 'Goodbye' along with the hot water.

What remained was just 'soggy noodles' that were slightly dyed brown and had no flavor.

The despair of the refrigerator, and 'it' was there

I opened the refrigerator to try and recover in a hurry.

'Sauce... none. Soy sauce... none. Mayonnaise... absolutely none.'

It's over...

Every single seasoning had completely disappeared from my refrigerator.

All that was left was a tube of karashi renkon (mustard lotus root) and some leftover pickled ginger.

Is this the end!

Just as I was about to give up, a single bottle was emitting a divine light from the very back of the refrigerator door pocket.

It was 'Ajipon'. Why are you here? Ajipon on yakisoba? Are you sane? But I had no other choice.

I took a gamble and drizzled the Ajipon in a circle over the steaming noodles.

Time to eat.

Trembling, I picked up the noodles with my chopsticks and brought them to my mouth.

Slurp...
...

'It really is Ajipon-scented yakisoba.'

It was nothing more, and nothing less.

It lacked the richness of the sauce.

It also lacked that junk-food punch unique to yakisoba.

But, the refreshing citrus acidity and the umami of the soy sauce spread throughout my mouth.

And the unmistakable scent of 'Ajipon' rode on the warm noodles and wafted through my nose.

If you ask me if it was delicious or not, I'd say, '...not bad.'

In fact, it was a flavor that even made me feel as if the kindness of Ajipon was gently wrapping around my desolate heart after failing to drain the water.

In life, even if you fail to drain the water

If you ever have a night where you fail to drain the water in life and lose all your precious sauce, please try searching the back of your refrigerator.

Because there, surely, an 'Ajipon' that won't let you down will be waiting for you.