Page 41 of Demon Hunger
“I did.” Kody nodded.
For the next few minutes, the three of us ate without saying a word. The dumplings and something that Kody called tteokbokki were spectacular. In fact, everything was amazing—even the sticky rice was cooked to perfection.
“You’re an amazing cook,” Jenna said, picking up a piece of broccoli with her chopsticks.
“You really are,” I added, thinking that Kody’s mother must be crazy for calling her son’s food nasty. This was the best I’d had in a long time.
“You think?” he asked, a frown etching his forehead.
“Yes, we think!”
We looked at him as if he was dense. It seemed his mother had truly convinced him his food was bad. Why would she do that?
“Did your mother teach you to cook?” I asked.
“Oh, no, I taught myself. I’ve always enjoyed cooking since I was very little, but my mother wanted me to become an engineer, so she taught me math instead, and when her knowledge ran out, she hired tutors.”
Jenna met my gaze. There might be something there… perhaps the reason why Kody had given himself over to food and excessive eating.
Growing up, my mother wanted me to learn how to make fresh pasta. In my infinite teenage wisdom, I told her it was a waste of time since they sold it for cheap at the store. I pissed her off badly. But really, the fastest way to get me to do exactly the opposite of what she wanted was to try to force me. Reverse psychology anyone? That was likely what happened with Kody.
“She says pots are for girls,” Kody finished with a crestfallen expression.
Yes, there was something here, all right.
“Was it your love of food that made you decide to go into mukbang?” Jenna asked, putting on a journalist’s interested expression.
Kody’s demeanor changed immediately. He straightened and smiled. It took a moment for the gesture to reach his eyes, but it did. Being interviewed made him genuinely happy.
“I guess it was,” he said, though he didn’t sound very sure.
Jenna seemed to pick up on his doubt, same as me. She frowned.
I pointed toward the camera on the tripod. “Do you always film from home?”
“When I do the cooking, yes. Sometimes I go on-site to a restaurant and order everything on the menu. I can’t do that often because it’s more expensive. But one of my McDonald’s videos is the most watched.”
“What are your aspirations as it relates to mukbang?” I asked.
He lit up at this question. “I want to reach one million views and likes!” he announced, his eyes shining and bouncing from Jenna to me and back again.
Jenna looked as baffled as I felt. That sounded like a lot of views and likes, but the truth was I didn’t have any concept of what that meant in the scheme of YouTube and social media. It did, however, seem senseless. I’d never been the type of person to worry about that sort of thing. When I was in high school—when most of my friends were addicted to the number of hearts in their Instagram stories and pictures—I’d been too riddled with pride to care what anyone thought, so I’d never developed an interest in any of it, which made it hard for me to fully understand Kody’s goal. It felt like an empty desire. If he got all those views and likes, he would just want more after that, wouldn’t he? It wouldn’t be fulfilling. I could understand money as a motivation, but not this.
Kody pushed his bowl aside with disinterest. And that was when it hit me.
He wasn’t a glutton for food. Kody was a glutton for adulation.
He thought that being famous would bring him happiness. Except that wasn’t true, was it? Famous people got divorced, died of drug overdoses, were constantly comparing themselves to more famous people… To me, most of them seemed miserable.
“Maybe one day,” he said wistfully as he started picking up the dishes from the table and transferring them to the sink.
Jenna made a gesture toward my jacket pocket and put her hands palms up in question.
I patted my chest, feeling the envelope Drevan had given me. Should I give it to Kody? That was what Jenna was asking. We had to decide if the L.A. thing would help or hinder our cause. If Kody went and won, his popularity would grow, and he might get some of the notoriety he seemed to crave. That could be a bad thing.
On the other hand, if he stayed here, nothing would change, and he would continue craving and hoping for the wrong things, when perhaps what he needed was to search for happiness elsewhere. But to do that, he had to see that his current pursuit was futile.
Making my decision, I gave Jenna a quick nod and pulled out the envelope.
