A Woman Who Shows Up at All Her Exes’ Weddings

4 Korean mystery book picks 📚

안녕! It’s Ari, your chatty Korean friend and weekend reminder. 🎉 Today’s newsletter covers a cold noodle recipe, 4 Korean book recommendations, and how to bring someone out of darkness. Let’s dive in!

Summer Survival Noodle 🍜

I wouldn’t have survived this sweltering South Korean summer—where the temperature hits up to 38°C 🥵—without cold noodles. In this kind of heat, nothing is more life-saving than a bowl of icy and quick-to-cook noodles.

One of my favorite Korean food accounts on X, 밥녹 (@JN_eats), recently shared a brilliant recipe for cold buckwheat noodles with perilla oil (들기름 막국수). 👆 I’ve actually shared at least one of her recipes before in a past newsletter—her simple, honest dishes always hit the spot, and this one is no exception.

How to make it is incredibly simple. Just boil some buckwheat noodles or other noodles you have and rinse them well in ice-cold water—the colder the noodles, the faster you escape to icy noodle heaven. 🥶 If you have frozen cooked buckwheat noodles, it’s even better because they boil much faster and save time.

After that, just toss the noodles with the sauce. The sauce recipe is below:

Sauce (for 1 serving):

• 1.5 tbsp tsuyu (noodle soup base)

• 1/2 tbsp brewed soy sauce

• 1 tbsp sugar (allulose works too)

• 1 tbsp vinegar

• 3 tbsp perilla oil

• 1 tbsp ground sesame seeds

Before serving, sprinkle a handful of chopped scallions and a pinch of crushed seasoned gim on top. Mix everything well, and bon appétit! 😋

📚 My Summer Reading List: 3 Korean Mystery Novels (And One More)

It’s that time of year again—when the heat makes you retreat into the shade of a park or stretch out under the blissful blast of an air conditioner. And what better way to pass the time than with a chilling mystery? Here are three Korean mystery books I’ve either already read or plan to read this summer and something more.

Photo by me

1. 여름의 시간 (The Time of Summer) by 한새마 and 6 more

Published in 2021 | Romance Mystery | Finished reading | Rating 💔💔😱😱😱

I borrowed this book from a local library just because of its title—it felt perfect for summer. I had no particular expectations, but to my surprise, the stories were so gripping that I finished the book in just three days.

The novel is a collection of seven short romance mystery stories written by seven different authors, and while all of them were enjoyable, two stood out to me:

• 웨딩 증후군 (Wedding Syndrome)
  This story follows a woman who shows up at every one of her ex-boyfriends’ weddings—dressed in white, crying, and always dropping her belongings behind. It’s told from the perspective of her current boyfriend, who accidentally discovers her strange and unsettling habit.

• 환상의 목소리 (The Voice of Fantasy)
  A woman works at a customer service call center by day and moonlights as a narrator for erotic novels by night. One day, she receives a lucrative offer to narrate a self-written erotic story. After accepting the job, people who had mistreated or harassed her—both at work and in her personal life—begin to suffer serious accidents or even die.

2. 러브 스타카토 (Love Staccato) by 박하루

Published in 2024 | Romance Mystery | Plan to read

If The Time of Summer offers a dark and brooding take on romance and mystery, Love Staccato promises a much brighter atmosphere—despite sharing the same genre. Based on reviews and the book’s cheerful tone, this novel leans into lighthearted mystery wrapped in nostalgia and music.

The story begins when a hidden demo tape—created by legendary idol singers from the 1980s—is discovered in a Korean household, where it has been sleeping for decades. Three young people gather to recover the music on the tape, and in the process, they begin uncovering the idol’s secretive past.

With a retro vibe and music-themed storyline, Love Staccato looks like a fun, refreshing read perfect for summer. Can’t wait to read!

3. 여름, 어디선가 시체가 (Summer, Somewhere a Corpse) by 박연선

Published in 2016 | Comedy Mystery | Plan to read

This book caught my eye because of its irresistible title—summer and corpse in one phrase? You can’t go wrong with that for a summer read.

The author, Park Yeon-sun, is a well-known K-drama writer behind the hit series 연애시대 (Alone in Love, 2006). This is her novel debut, and it promises a mystery that’s quirky, comedic, and smart.

The story is set in a quiet village where four girls went missing during the 100th birthday celebration of the village’s oldest man—15 years ago. It’s long been a cold case, abandoned by the police.

Now, fifteen years later, Kang Moo-soon—a jobless woman who has just returned to the countryside from Seoul—unexpectedly stumbles upon clues that could solve the long-forgotten mystery. With humor, heart, and a few surprises, the story slowly unpacks the secrets that have been buried for years.

And one more… 🥹

If getting hold of the Korean novels above feels a bit tricky where you live, how about a story you can start reading right now?

I Like You, but Not Your iPhone is a short read I wrote about South Korea’s anti-feminism movement and the rise of the 4B movement. It also contains mystery elements—like the tragic deaths of two sisters, a teenage girl who threw herself into the sea for a shocking reason, and what happened at my grandmother’s funeral.

👉 Check out the book here—and grab a copy to learn more about South Korea while supporting my work!

Mini Korean Lesson: You Are an Amazing 🧅

In South Korean elementary schools, there is a common classroom experiment where two onions or plants are treated with kind words and harsh words respectively, to show how environment and language might influence growth. It’s just a fun little activity for children—meant to teach them that words have power.

Recently, a Korean woman shared her childhood memory of this experiment on social media, 👆 and her story was so cute and heartwarming that it went viral. Here’s the translation of what she wrote:

When I was in elementary school, we did an experiment with two onions—one treated with bad words and one with good words.

I thought about how the bad-words onion must have been born only to hear mean things until it died… and I got so, so sad.

After class, when no one was in the classroom, I whispered to the bad-words onion in the science corner:

“You’re actually a good onion. You’re an amazing onion.”

I secretly said kind things to it every day.

Maybe it was because of my influence, but the bad-words onion ended up growing better.

Though the experiment’s theory is not scientifically proven, the story reminded me that maybe we only need one person’s kindness to bring someone in the darkness back to light.

And I think everyone deserves someone who secretly—or publicly—whispers in the ear:

넌 멋진 양파야 (You are an amazing onion)

If you don’t want to be called an onion, try this version instead:

넌 멋진 사람이야 (You are an amazing person)

Tip: The word 양파 (onion) ends with a vowel (ㅏ), so it’s followed by 야. But 사람 (person) ends with a consonant (ㅁ), so it’s followed by 이야. Sorry, Korean sucks 😇

Thanks for reading! 🥰 If you’d like to support my work, consider grabbing my book, I Like You, but Not Your iPhone! 📕 Or buying me a coffee. ☕️ I’ll be back next week. 안녕!