But when Hyeol saw the fish flesh placed on top of his rice, he hardened his expression.
Why is he acting like that…? Does he dislike fish…?
Hyeol had a somewhat reluctant expression to that degree.
“…Those are the chopsticks daddy was using.”
“Huh? That’s true, but…”
Oh my. He must have received strict hygiene education too. Still, it’s not just anyone, but between father and son who share blood…
“If you don’t want it… I’ll take it back.”
I became unnecessarily disappointed and picked up the fish flesh to take it back. Just as I was about to put it in my mouth, Kkotsu beside me lightly pulled my arm.
“…Hm?”
When I turned my head, Kkotsu looked at me and opened his mouth wide. He meant to give him the fish flesh instead of Hyeol. I readily put the fish flesh in Kkotsu’s mouth. Kkotsu, who received it with an “ah,” chewed several times then smiled brightly.
“Ta… tasty…”
“Really?”
His smiling face was so cute that I unconsciously raised my hand and stroked his round cheek.
Thud.
That’s when it happened. Hyeol suddenly put down his utensils loudly and said.
“I can debone and eat fish myself.”
“…Huh?”
As I looked at him in surprise, Hyeol picked up his chopsticks and started poking at the fish flesh. But it seemed harder than expected, and after poking around, all the tender flesh crumbled.
In the end, Hyeol couldn’t pick up any of the crumbled flesh and withdrew his chopsticks again. Looking at the ruined fish flesh, Hyeol became despondent.
“Even adults find deboning fish difficult.”
I was about to debone the braised fish in front of me when I realized I needed to use new chopsticks…
“Daddy.”
That’s when it happened. Hyeol suddenly opened his mouth wide like Kkotsu.
“……”
I put the fish flesh in Hyeol’s mouth again. His mouth closed with an “ah,” and after chewing several times, he muttered the same words as before: “It tastes good.” That behavior was so like Hyeol that a small laugh escaped me.
Thinking this was enough, I was about to take a spoonful myself when Baek Woojin, who I thought had finished eating, suddenly spoke.
“…I also can’t debone fish.”
Baek Woojin told an obvious lie that even the kids could see and put down his utensils with a thud.
“Then shall I debone it for you…?”
“Yes.”
“……”
“It would be really nice if Chae Seungyeon-ssi deboned it for me…”
It was a joke, but this man took my words seriously.
“…Open your mouth.”
Though I was a bit dumbfounded, in the end I repeatedly deboned fish and fed it to them as if feeding baby birds gathered in a nest.
*
After finishing the meal, Hyeol and Kkotsu were watching a TV program. It was said to be a popular cartoon these days, and seeing Hyeol sitting on the sofa blankly watching TV made me realize that even this adult-like kid was inevitably still a young child.
Meanwhile, I had just showered in the bathroom and come out, drying myself with a towel.
“Are you done washing? Come this way.”
Baek Woojin, who approached me as if he had been waiting, led me to the dressing room. As soon as we entered the room, he sat me in front of a large vanity and picked up a hair dryer.
“Oh… Woojin-ssi, I can dry my hair myself…”
“No, for some reason I feel like it would take a long time if you dried your hair alone.”
“……”
How did he know? Even in the real world, I had thick hair so it took quite a bit longer than others. But surprisingly, Chae Seungyeon was the same. Despite having such a small head, how could his hair be so voluminous… Even though it was good quality natural hair, it was thick.
Whirrrr.
The machine noise rang out loudly along with the wind. Baek Woojin grabbed my wet hair in one hand as if shaking it out and dried my hair. Warm air blew through my hair. He even adjusted the wind strength and temperature so as not to irritate my scalp as much as possible.
I had felt his touch was unusual when he dried Kkotsu’s hair too…
As he continued to caress my hair, drowsiness quickly came over me.
“So what was that tremendous thing that happened?”
Then, Baek Woojin reduced the wind strength and asked me.
“Ah.”
I blinked my eyelids that were starting to feel drowsy and cast my gaze toward Baek Woojin visible beyond the mirror.
“No, it’s just… what should I explain first…”
“Take your time.”
“Ah, well, this is inside a novel, right?”
“That’s right, this is inside a novel and you’re in a state of possession in Chae Seungyeon-ssi’s body.”
Baek Woojin chimed in as if he knew well, as he always did.
“Yes, yes, but my younger sister who wrote this novel really loved makjang dramas in real life too, you know? So maybe that’s why… my in-laws completely kidnapped me. You said it looked like I got hit earlier, right? That’s right. My face looks like this because I got hit a few times by Chae Seungyeon’s mother-in-law.”
“…I see.”
Baek Woojin replied with a slightly more serious expression.
“Ah, don’t worry too much. It’s not like I just got hit one-sidedly either. She grabbed my hair first, so I grabbed hers the same way and shook her, and used her like a shield… Ah, the high heel attack was really funny…!”
I giggled for a moment, then frowned at the sharp pain in my lips.
“Are you alright?”
Baek Woojin, who had been listening to my story, turned off the hair dryer and asked.
“Oh, I’m fine… Seriously, I even went through all this…”
“You really had a difficult day…”
“Yes, yes, that’s right…”
I briefly recalled what happened today, then glanced back at Baek Woojin.
“Um… Woojin-ssi, but you know.”
“Yes.”
“I really… even though I heard harsh words from a mother-in-law I was meeting for the first time… strangely, rather than feeling wronged or angry… more than that… I felt so sorry for Chae Seungyeon.”
Baek Woojin, who had been quietly listening to me, looked into my eyes and asked.
“What made you feel that way?”
“Well… it turned out that all this time, he had no friends… no one to help him, no one at all… so…”
Somehow my throat felt blocked. Maybe because the noisy machine sound had disappeared, my voice seemed to sound overly calm.
“Chae Seungyeon… what kind of life had he been living…?”
As I turned my head away and muttered to myself, Baek Woojin stroked my head with his large hand. My hair had dried completely at some point.
“Then what kind of life did you live?”
“What? Me?”
Baek Woojin suddenly asked a question about me that I hadn’t expected.
“Yes, your life, not Chae Seungyeon’s.”
“My life, not Chae Seungyeon’s…?”
I became nervous when he suddenly asked that. I felt like I shouldn’t answer easily.
“You don’t need to think about it too hard. Just talk about your relationships, values, life goals or dreams, things like that.”
Should I say he’s professional indeed? Baek Woojin briefly summarized how one should express a human’s life.
“Hmm…”
I thought for a moment, then opened my mouth.
“I… well, among my family there’s my younger sister who wrote this novel. My dad and mom both work at companies, they’re dual-income. I also have a few friends, though everyone’s busy right now since we’re all job hunting… Also… I really love children, so I wanted to become a kindergarten teacher. But in the world I live in, the perception isn’t very good if a man becomes a kindergarten teacher… So I always thought I wanted to live in a society without such discrimination… But I… compared to Chae Seungyeon, I seem to have lived quite an ordinary life, so there’s not much to say…”
I only spoke up to that point, then grabbed his wrist that had somehow moved from my head down to my cheek.
“Why did you ask me such a question?”
Only then did I ask, puzzled. I felt like I had somehow been swept up in Baek Woojin’s pace. Then Baek Woojin removed his hand from my cheek and looked at me with unwavering eyes.
“Perhaps your life was the life Chae Seungyeon-ssi wanted?”
“What? My life?”
When I asked back because I didn’t understand what he meant, Baek Woojin gently touched my shoulder.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
