275 – EP.11 Living Together-3
***
A woman with chestnut brown hair habitually smoothed out wrinkles that had recently increased with her hands.
“MZ… Nabal….”
It didn’t seem like a good sound would come out from someone who was meeting her for the first time, so she closed her mouth.
“Ahahahaha… That’s right, I’m a tutor. My personality is a bit 4D.”
Her nephew put on an exaggerated smile and got between her and her man.
“Okay, I figured it out.”
She stepped back while looking at the man with eyes full of distrust that was still unresolved.
If her nephew is okay, it’s okay. Rather than believing in her nephew, it was because she felt that her nephew was making the choice.
The man began taking out the purchased items one by one and putting them in the refrigerator.
“Wow, but what brought you here?”
“I have some business to take care of in Seoul for a while. Well….”
“Oh, that? I guess you’re ready?”
“Yes.”
When Kim Seong-ah spoke in a cheerful voice, Lee Jeong-ha nodded with a bitter expression.
“Anyway, why can’t I contact you?”
Kim Seong-ah’s aunt, Lee Jeong-ha, asked her nephew, who was standing vaguely, in a questioning tone.
“Contact?”
Seongah Kim took out her cell phone from her pocket. 8 Missed calls alone.
The sender was all written as [Her aunt].
“Yes, suddenly an emergency disaster text message comes, and they say a swarm of giant bats has appeared outside… I can’t even contact them!”
Lee Jeong-ha’s nervous expression on her nephew’s face brought out her worries that she had barely suppressed.
“Ah… I’m sorry about that.”
“Since we live so far away that we can’t meet often, I told you to keep in touch.”
“Yes, I did.”
Seongah Kim lowered her eyes and looked at her own toes.
“…….”
Her aunt, who had stopped crying, and Kim Seong-ah, who had heard her sudden visit from her aunt and scolding her, kept their mouths shut.
In short, uncomfortable silence.
Lee Jeong-ha, who had been wrestling with the empty space for a while, caught her breath and opened her mouth.
“I don’t have much time to take care of you anymore…”
Flinching, strength went into Kim Seong-ah’s hands.
“It’s okay, Auntie. I can handle it on my own.”
Pulling up the corners of her mouth, Seongah Kim made her smile.
“Yes, I see that the house is a bit clean. I’m glad to see that you seem to be living well.”
Her aunt said, looking around her living room. Kim Seong-ah laughed bitterly inwardly.
“Please take good care of Seong-ah. He has the ability to study, so please let him study in Seoul.”
Her aunt looked at Kang In-ho. Just as he was putting her eggs in the refrigerator, he hesitantly turned to her aunt.
“Ah, yes… Well, don’t worry. All the students I taught went to good universities.”
“Then I’m glad.”
“Ah, ah~ Auntie! Are you going to sleep here today?”
In order to prevent the conversation from continuing any further, Seongah Kim hurriedly spoke up.
“No, I decided to stay overnight at my friend’s house. I’m going down to Busan tomorrow.”
“I see.”
“Yes, I just stopped by for a moment.”
Her aunt went to her front door and put his foot in her shoe. She then opened the front door.
Kim Seong-ah followed her aunt to see her off, and Kang In-ho briefly glanced at the door they left through, then went back to organizing her things.
Two women walked in a quiet yard.
“I need to do some weeding.”
Kim Seong-ah nodded as her aunt spoke, looking at her lush weeds.
Although he spoke without hesitation like a close friend, the topics of conversation were barely scratched the surface.
When Kim Seong-ah talked to her aunt, she felt cold and a sense of obligation.
Perhaps she sees in herself a vision of her older sister.
“Then, I’ll go.”
“Yes, goodbye.”
Greetings at the front gate.
“I will definitely graduate this year.”
Kim Seong-ah laughed weakly at her nagging.
“Okay.”
“The choice is yours, but if your aunt were to give you advice as an adult, it’s better to go to college.”
“Yes, thank you.”
She has let go of the people she could possibly call her family and she has closed the door.
Clap, bang, bang!
The huge, rusty iron door closed heavily. Just like her heart.
***
Kang In-ho noticed Kim Seong-ah’s strangely depressed mood after her aunt’s visit.
At a glance, Kang In-ho’s eyes followed Kim Seong-ah as she brought her curry to her mouth.
Red hair roughly plaited with a rubber band, clear eyes, and small, light pink lips.
Her short stature that only reached her solar plexus and her long legs that did not suit her height.
“Why?”
Kim Seong-ah felt his gaze and looked at him.
“Would you like some more curry?”
It was uncomfortable to eat with only the sound of clinking dishes, so he didn’t say anything.
“It’s okay.”
“Why? Doesn’t it taste good?”
“It’s delicious. It’s just that I feel like I’ll be full just by eating this.”
“Really? I guess I’ll have to eat the rest tomorrow.”
“…Are you curious?”
Kim Seong-ah was the first to open her mouth at the sight of Kang In-ho grunting like a puppy that wanted to poop.
“Huh?”
“My aunt.”
“Ah… Well…”
He scratched his head and expressed vague positivity.
“I wonder if I should see him once or twice a year. It’s hard to see him often because we live far away.”
“You seemed friendly.”
“It just seems that way. Neither my aunt nor I are that interested in each other. If we were that interested, do you think we would have simply believed you when you said you were a tutor?”
“Ahahahaha….”
Kang In-ho laughed awkwardly at the sight of her criticizing him with her slanted eyes.
“To my aunt, I am ‘my sister’s daughter’, and to me, my aunt is ‘my mother’s younger brother’… Our relationship is exactly like this. We can’t take care of each other very much, but we just ask how we are.”
“It’s complicated.”
“… But my aunt talked about bats earlier. Is that okay? Her memory will be erased just fine, right?”
Kang In-ho changed the topic.
“One day must pass. To be exact, when the sun rises the next day, memories and records disappear.”
“Are you using magic?”
“It’s not me… It’s the power of the stars.”
“What is the principle?”
“What principles do you look for in magic?”
Kim Seong-ah asked back, saying it was absurd.
That’s true too. Kang In-ho laughed. Kim Seong-ah’s face became softer than before due to his bright smile.
“Did you eat everything?”
Kang In-ho started cleaning up the empty dishes.
Kim Seong-ah stared at his back as he carried the empty dishes, put on rubber gloves, and wiped the dishes with detergent even though no one asked him to.
Watching someone prepare a meal, chat with someone, clean the dishes, or wash the dishes.
In this spacious house, I miss the scenery that is now unfamiliar.
She gulped down the water in the cup.
She choked for no reason.
***
After the dishes were finished, Kang In-ho sat across from Kim Seong-ah, who was still sitting at her table.
“Why are you here instead of the sofa in the living room?”
“Director Nam. Wherever you are.”
Kang In-ho laughed as if it were absurd to see her pouting for no reason.
“Well, you are the landlord. What can I say?”
He took a plastic box containing house tangerines from the refrigerator.
It wasn’t ripe yet, because it was green.
He handed a tangerine to Seong-ah, then took out another tangerine and started peeling it for her.
“Oh, I have a question.”
From Noble mtl dot com
When I opened the shell halfway, he said.
“What?”
“You’re going to transform. Do you really have to memorize that spell? [Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star] This.”
“Is it [The power of the brilliant, sacred star]?”
“Anyway.”
“Actually, you don’t have to do it. But it’s a kind of self-suggestion, so it’s a necessary process to bring out your full power. You know what sports players do. What is it…”
“Routine?”
“Ah, that’s right. Routine! And now that I think about it, when I first became a magical girl, I couldn’t transform without chanting. As I was doing it, I was able to chant without chanting.”
“Beginners need chanting, and experts don’t need chanting… But for efficiency, chanting is necessary.”
“To summarize, that’s it.”
“What happens to magical girls? Something white and red-eyed comes along and says, “Make a contract with me and become a magical girl.”
“…Not really.”
Her face, which had relaxed, hardened again. Kang In-ho felt like something had touched him.
“I inherited this power from another magical girl. Should I say that the knowledge came into her head as soon as she inherited the power? It just came to me on its own.”
“It’s magic.”
Kang In-ho spoke seriously.
“It’s magic.”
Kim Seong-ah spoke seriously.
Kang In-ho ate one of her peeled tangerines in her mouth, and Kim Seong-ah put a piece of her in his mouth and licked it.
“I have another question.”
Kang In-ho, who had munched a sour tangerine down his throat, placed his hand on her second tangerine and asked.
“Mister, you were a talkative character.”
Kim Seong-ah frowned as if she was tired, but a subtle smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
“What did I look like when I was the Four Heavenly Kings? I wouldn’t look the same now, right?”
“Hmm… I fought wearing a mask. When I change the mask, my abilities change…”
“If you go?”
“Yes, the mask. Let me see… Just a moment.”
After Kim Seong-ah got up from her knees, she went up to the second floor.
Kang In-ho tried not to pay attention to her back, which was wearing a baggy T-shirt and dolphin pants.
A moment later, she came down the stairs, holding a ballpoint pen and white paper in her hand.
“You wouldn’t know it if I explained it to you a hundred times. Let me draw it for you.”
“Are you good at drawing?”
“Really?”
She triumphantly picked up her ballpoint pen and began drawing on her white paper.
Kang In-ho admired her drawing while putting half of her tangerine in her mouth.
“Oh….”
Kim Seong-ah, who had finished drawing her drawing by tracing her lines several times without stopping, made a sighing noise and pushed the paper in front of her eyes.
“It looked like this. How do you feel?”
“…Don’t go into art.”
“???!!! Why???”
Anyway, just don’t go. Kang In-ho said that and put some of her tangerines into his mouth.