Gong Pyeonghwa nodded.
Back then, Gong Pyeonghwa couldn’t find Shin Saebyeok any cuter as he eagerly accepted everything given to him. With nowhere to express this, he unconsciously let slip “Shin Saebyeok eating well is cute,” just omitting the subject.
“Because of that, that pig bastard started doing mukbangs, and our monthly food expenses hit 8 million won.”
“…”
From just one comment of mine? Such a big butterfly effect?
“Mom said she’ll kill you.”
“…”
I could actually get murdered. Gong Pyeonghwa stretched his neck out, surveying his surroundings. His heart skipped a beat whenever he spotted any middle-aged adults.
Among them were some adults who could actually stop his heart.
“Time out.”
Gong Pyeonghwa hurriedly ran to Saebyeok, bringing Iseul along.
“I’m going to mark my dad!”
“Ah, okay. Give me Iseul.”
Saebyeok took Iseul in his arms.
To execute Dol Party Plan A-2 (1:1 focused marking of each parent), Gong Pyeonghwa approached his father with a friendly smile.
“What utter nonsense! What kind of person holds a first birthday party like this!”
“Fath—Ow!”
Seeing his grown son’s face ignited Chairman Gong’s rage, and without greeting, he smacked his head first.
“What kind of first birthday party is this!”
“Dad, I was worried you wouldn’t recognize our marriage and would deny Iseul’s existence, so I planned a large-scale party as a preventative measure, and just in case, Plan B—Ouch!”
“I told you to stop watching those dramas!”
Slap, slap—the crisp sounds mixed with the classical music in the venue, creating an unbalanced harmony.
A famous BJ with 4 million subscribers was livestreaming 8-million-won worth of destruction content at someone else’s first birthday party, a K-pop idol’s fansite master was taking photos of the child, and faces you’d only expect to see at the Federation of Korean Industries were frantically searching for where to give their congratulatory money.
Guests were amazed by this unique first birthday party, while both families’ parents complained of slight headaches due to their children’s actions.
Regardless, Gong Pyeonghwa was just proud of the successful party, while Saebyeok was embarrassed by him.
But part of him also felt proud and pleased. After all, Iseul enjoyed it too.
She hadn’t cried once throughout the event and greeted guests with bright smiles.
“Is Iseul happy?”
“Yeshhhh.”
Wow… not just speaking but listening too. She’s a genius. Clearly, she inherited her looks from Gong Pyeonghwa and her inner self and intelligence from him.
Of course, Gong Pyeonghwa was smart too, but…
‘I’m still a bit smarter though.’
Unusually full of self-love, Shin Saebyeok gently rubbed Iseul’s soft cheeks with his finger.
Iseul, who would normally have been busy putting his finger in her mouth, held his hand and smiled brightly. As if aware she was today’s main character, her fan service was spot-on.
“Abamama!”
We really should stop letting her watch historical dramas…
He never imagined he’d be called “Abamama” (a formal royal address) instead of just mom or dad, so it was quite shocking when he first heard it.
“Woo!”
Yes, if she had expressed her emotions clumsily like this, I would have been less surprised—No!
“Who taught you that?!”
Flustered by Iseul’s bizarre behavior of suddenly throwing a fake punch at a passerby looking around the venue, Saebyeok firmly held her little hand down.
“I’m so sorry…”
He bowed apologetically to the guest who had suffered a fake punch from a baby on their precious Sunday after coming to someone else’s first birthday party.
Fortunately, the guest smiled as if it wasn’t a big deal, albeit with slight awkwardness.
“Ah, no. It’s fine. Um, well, it’s been a while.”
Informal speech? Is this someone I know? Though he knew it was rude, Saebyeok stared at the unfamiliar face.
“Is there something on my face?”
As the person scratched their cheek and smiled awkwardly, a familiar face overlapped with theirs.
It was Kang Gun, whom Gong Pyeonghwa had been so worked up about since yesterday.
“Oh. No. No. It’s been a while, Gun.”
***
“Who on earth does she take after…”
“Since it’s not me, she must take after you.”
Drawing the line early, Chairman Gong also got irritated.
“You both made her together, so why are you excluding yourself? Looking at her carefully, she’s your spitting image.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. Gong Pyeonghwa, you tell us. Do you look like your mom or your dad?”
Aren’t you focusing when your parents are speaking? Even with Gong Pyeonghwa’s parents glaring at him, he remained silent.
This was because Saebyeok was with an outside man. Actually, the outside man wasn’t the issue. But what if that man was Kang Gun?
Although he hadn’t told Saebyeok, Kang Gun had previously declared war on Gong Pyeonghwa.
‘I like Saebyeok, so don’t mess with him.’
The arrogant bastard dared to express interest in someone who was taken? Throwing such a challenging taunt right in front of the boyfriend?
There was a reason Gong Pyeonghwa disliked Kang Gun.
And now that guy was giggling with Shin Saebyeok? His blood boiled.
“Hah… Father, Mother. Your son must leave for a moment.”
At this random formal speech, Gong Pyeonghwa’s mother launched her attack, saying his speech pattern revealed how he took after her.
“Where do you think you’re going, you fool!”
“Man to man, ha! Just going to protect my family for a moment.”
I sent out the invitations, but I’m going to Shin Saebyeok instead of staying here?
Disliking just about everything at this point, Gong Pyeonghwa squeezed himself between the annoyingly cheerful Shin Saebyeok and Kang Gun.
“Daddy!”
Iseul babbled, recognizing Gong Pyeonghwa.
Gong Pyeonghwa sacrificed two fingers to Iseul and stuck firmly to Saebyeok’s side. Then he casually showed off the hand Iseul was holding, displaying his wedding ring.
Well. What. If you’re jealous, just get married. Or date Shin Saebyeok for 10 years. Or have a secret romance since high school with marriage in mind. Or have a baby angel like us.
It was the petty defense of a married man.
“Good to see you, Gong Pyeonghwa. I was surprised when I got the invitation.”
“I bet you were.”
That wasn’t really meant as an actual invitation though.
Fortunately, Gong Pyeonghwa didn’t outwardly express his petty thoughts.
“What were you two talking about?”
Why were you laughing like that? Surely you weren’t sharing useless, inappropriate, and potentially infuriating stories about how you had some sexual attraction in high school, were you?
“Nothing special, really…”
Let me be the judge of that.
“I actually thought you were a real school bully. You looked like you came from a wealthy family, and you had a lot of kids around you…”
“So what if I was popular.”
Hey, why are you acting like this? Even though Saebyeok poked his side repeatedly, it was useless against the jealousy-blinded Gong Pyeonghwa.
“The way you bumped shoulders and got angry too.”
“Haven’t you heard of skinship through love?”
“It wasn’t just that, I also saw you two coming out of the male teacher’s bathroom together. And Saebyeok’s lips were split…”
“That’s because we were passionately kissing and got too excited.”
“…”
Why do I have to bear the embarrassment? Saebyeok wanted to crawl into a mouse hole, but there were none to be found in the well-lit, spacious venue.
“…Anyway, it wasn’t just once or twice that I saw things like that, and well, so… I even spoke to our homeroom teacher, and, well, did that… Then suddenly you stopped coming to school, kids were saying your family had gone bankrupt, it was a bit… So I was just worried, that’s all I’m saying.”
Just for that reason, he was giggling with someone else’s spouse.
The notably narrow-minded Gong Pyeonghwa didn’t like Kang Gun’s intentions, whatever they might have been.
If it was that kind of conversation, shouldn’t he have it with me alone instead of Shin Saebyeok? He should request a private audience!
But showing this would make him the pettiest of the petty, so Gong Pyeonghwa swallowed his emotions.
“Well, fine. I sent out mobile invitations yesterday, so thanks for coming.”
Should I tell him to enjoy the food before leaving? Just send him away like that? Shouldn’t I emphasize one more time that Shin Saebyeok, whom you liked, was already secretly kissing me before that?
Gong Pyeonghwa, who wanted to be Shin Saebyeok’s first and only eternal love, couldn’t let go of his pettiness and put his arm around Kang Gun’s shoulders, pretending to be friendly.
“Hey, but since it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, it seems too cold to just send you off like this. Let’s go over there and have a cozy chat…”
“Honey. Where are you going?”
Not only did Shin Saebyeok grab him, but the term of endearment was too much.
A term he would rarely use except when asking for favors, when he was in an exceptionally good mood, or on anniversaries—and he was using it at this timing?
But today, the temperature of that precious “honey” was different. If normally it would be a bit more shy, about 37.9 degrees, today it was around 32 degrees.
He tried to recall if he’d done something wrong today, but nothing particularly stood out.
“Gun says he’s busy and just came to see our faces. He’s leaving now. Right?”
“Huh?”
This wasn’t like Saebyeok’s usual manners.
Kang Gun looked at Saebyeok as if he was cute—no, this is infuriating! Why is he smirking like that? Gong Pyeonghwa was upset. Isn’t it legal to kill a former classmate who makes eyes at someone else’s spouse? He was pretty sure the law had been amended.
“Come quickly.”
With their fingers interlaced, he had no choice but to be pulled along.
Even as Gong Pyeonghwa was being obediently dragged away, his gaze remained fixed on Kang Gun. He regretted not having practiced killing people with his eyes, instead only leveling up his childcare and housekeeping skills.
“But where are we going?”
“…Good question.”
“Our Saebyeok is acting strange today.”
“What do you mean?”
If he asks what’s wrong, where should I start explaining? Is this even something I should explain? Knowing that unnecessary explanations could lead to hurt feelings, Gong Pyeonghwa brushed it off.
“No, you’re just too cute today. You and Iseul in matching hanboks are so adorable.”
“What, what are you saying? Now go watch Iseul. My parents are here too.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
