The plan to eat a living octopus started shortly before our plane departed for Incheon International Airport in South Korea. I know it was then, because the idea came from a video on Brian's phone, and I remember that shortly thereafter a flight attendant reprimanded Sarah for using a phone while the plane was driving down the tarmac.
Brian, being a large man and thinking himself secretive, turned in his aisle seat so that passengers looking into our row could only see his back. He handed the phone to poor Sarah, his sister and my girlfriend, who had the middle seat on account of being the smallest and the social link between Brian and myself. "Brian," The reproachful manner in which Sarah said his name is an amusing catchphrase from our travels together. Even as I write it I can hear the exact cadence of her voice, rising on the first syllable with exasperation, and falling on the second, acknowledging the futility of whatever the ensuing lecture will have. "The plane is already moving, you have to turn your phone off. You're gonna make the plane crash." Brian tapped the play button, still held reluctantly in Sarah's hand. The video started with an American tourist sitting in a restaurant with Korean characters on the windows. In front of her sits a bowl with a baby octopus, wriggling in the shallow water. "That woman, she's about to eat that octopus," Brian whispered. "Like the whole thing. Still alive?" I asked. "Yeah. And we should do it, too."
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