“Noona, did you fall into the water here a long time ago?”

“What?”

How did he know about that? She had been so young that she had no memory of it at all, but the words of Kim Deoksu, who had called himself the village boss, flashed through her mind.

‘Back then, she fell right into that river and the police came and everything, it was a whole commotion. Don’t you remember?’

When she had asked whether it had been her father who carried her out.

‘No. It was a tall, sturdy young man. Come to think of it, he looked familiar somehow… hmm…’

She had definitely resolved to find out who that man was, the one said to have carried her on his back, but with everything that had been going on, the only thing she had managed to uncover was the goblin tree.

Yeon-ah tilted her head and waited for Yul to continue. Yul, apparently full enough, speared a neatly peeled slice of apple with his fork, popped it into his mouth, and chewed with a crisp crunch.

“Noona, want me to tell you a secret?”

“A secret?”

A secret out of nowhere. More than that, how did this child know she had fallen into the water? Yeon-ah’s ears perked up.

“My uncle said he once saved a little girl here a long time ago. Said she nearly drowned. That was you, right, noona?”

What was this now?

“What do you mean? Can you tell me more?”

“Hmm, I don’t really know the details. If you’re curious, ask uncle yourself! Hehe!”

Yul took aim at a plump Kyoho grape with his fork and speared it cleanly. He opened wide and chewed with a munch munch, which was adorable, but Yeon-ah was not in her right mind.

Seo Hwido had saved her? That meant the man said to have come as a guest to her grandmother’s house back then was him?

But looking at Seo Hwido’s face, he appeared to be in his early thirties at the very oldest. Even giving him the benefit of the doubt and putting him at his mid-thirties, he would have been a teenager at the time. That was a stretch from the tall, sturdy young man she had heard described.

As Yeon-ah sank into confusion, Yul kept talking.

“Oh right! Noona! And I’m going home tomorrow… Uncle told on me for not studying and just bothering noona, so mom scolded me… I’ll come back when things settle down! Hehe.”

“Oh… already?”

It was hard to keep up with the stream of information coming one after another, but Yeon-ah stopped her thoughts from running further and answered.

“You’re really leaving tomorrow? That’s such a shame… Then should we have a party today?”

“A party? What kind of party? Where?”

“Hmm… at home? Should we buy a cake and some snacks, blow out some candles, and have a snack party? What kind of cake do you like, Yul? Fresh cream? Chocolate?”

“Cake? Hmm… but I don’t really like cake… Can’t we do something else?”

Yeon-ah’s clear eyes went wide.

“What? How can an elementary schooler not like cake? Really? Then what do you like?”

She wondered what kids these days were into.

She thought through hamburgers, pizza, tteokbokki, and had just gotten to malatang when Yul, amused by something, pulled up the corners of his mouth and broke into a wide smile.

“Yul likes meat! I love meat!”

“Oh! Meat? You like meat? What kind? Pork cutlet? Steak? Or… chicken?”

“No! Not that kind! I like samgyeopsal¹pork belly, and I like hangjeongsal² a cut of meat from the neck of a pig! My absolute favorite is gabrisal³a premium cut, from the loin to the back, sometimes called pork rib finger… hehe!”

He looked like the son of a well-to-do household, yet his taste in food was thoroughly Korean through and through. Yeon-ah let out a laugh and took in the bus stop far below at the foot of the mountain.

“Then… should we go for lunch? I don’t think we’d have to go far for a grill place.”

“No! Noona! Who eats samgyeopsal at lunchtime? Meat is for nighttime. Oh right! But… can our uncle come too?”

Of course he couldn’t. She hadn’t fully shaken off last night’s dream yet. In this state, if their eyes even met, her legs might give out from under her.

She was just about to say that might be a little difficult. A shallow crease formed between Yul’s brows, and his eyebrows and the corners of his mouth drooped. It was like a puppy that had lost its owner. The pitiful sight made her swallow the words sitting at the tip of her tongue.

“Actually… mom and dad are so busy that I don’t have any memories of eating out together… My friends go shopping and watch movies and eat all kinds of good things with their moms and dads… I want to look like a kid who gets a lot of love from their parents too. To other people.”

“Hmm… Yul. That…”

Yeon-ah had been about to say he did not need to worry about what other people thought.

Because the one fighting through this rough world was none other than himself. Worrying about how he appeared to others was better left aside.

But knowing how much the absence of parents could weigh on a child who was still only eight years old, she gently stroked Yul’s head.

“Alright! Then let’s do that. How about we tell Uncle Hwido and the three of us go into town, get some food, and head for karaoke?”

“Really!? For real? Wow! Noona really is the best, the best!”

Looking at Yul’s beaming face, the tangle of complicated thoughts piled up in her head seemed to fall away. Right, just for today, no other thoughts. Just be Yul’s family.

What happened with Seo Hwido was a dream anyway. And whatever feelings she had harbored toward him, no one would ever know, so there was no need to make a big deal of it.

With that resolution made, Yeon-ah smiled as she popped a grape into Yul’s wide-open mouth.

***

It was a barbecue restaurant, neither large nor small. But with few decent options in town, the place was already packed with customers well into their drinking.

Sizzle.

In the middle of it all, Seo Hwido, who looked entirely out of place in the rowdy atmosphere, radiated an air of intimidation as he grilled the meat.

Yul looked at the pile of meat heaped on Baek Yeon-ah’s plate, then at the empty seat where its owner should have been, and let out a short laugh.

“Wow… d*mn, Seo Hwido. Is my mouth just a hole? How come I’m not getting any meat?”

“Wasn’t this your idea, wanting to come here? To show people the sight of a dad taking good care of his wife.”

“Wow, incredible. You heard all that? You didn’t make a peep the whole time noona was getting ready to go on the picnic and heading out, and then you followed us all the way up the mountain and listened to everything?”

“Watch your mouth, Kim Yul.”

“This insane dad.”

When Yul’s indignation boiled over, a wave of heated stares came from a table not far away. No, in truth those stares had been fixed on Seo Hwido long before that.

He was the kind of man whose looks were striking from a hundred meters away.

A strikingly handsome man who simply sat there grilling meat in silence. It was only natural that the eyes of the women customers who had just walked in would drift toward him.

“What is this scheme of yours? Just a few days ago you were saying love was a load of nonsense.”

“Still a load of nonsense. Love doesn’t put food on the table.”

The words were a complete mismatch with his actions. Yul glared at the pile of meat heaped on Yeon-ah’s plate and tilted his mouth to one side.

“So what, is she emergency rations? Fatten her up nice and then devour her?”

It was then. Thud, a piece of meat landed on Yul’s plate. Well, landed was generous. It had practically been flung.

“A little kid who’s still wet behind the ears and there’s nothing he won’t say. Enough. Eat fast and get lost. Mom and dad don’t have enough time to love each other as it is.”

“Ha?”

At the same moment, Hwido snatched Yeon-ah’s plate and mercilessly dumped the pile of meat stacked on it onto Yul’s plate. Then he began placing the freshly grilled, piping-hot pieces from the grill onto her plate one by one.

Yul watched and clicked his tongue.

“What, you don’t love her? You’re insane, you’re already in a thousand-year love affair! Wow…! Seo Hwido.”

“Father.”

“Wow, what kind of devoted father gives his one and only son cold, leftover meat! Oh, heartless father of mine!”

It must have looked to anyone watching like a perfectly harmonious father and son, because a part-timer who came to the table handed over a complimentary bottle of cider. Hwido, playing the part of a devoted father, carefully poured the cider into Yul’s glass and spoke.

“If you don’t want the meat, drink your cider and go, son.”

***

Yeon-ah had just stepped into the restroom and turned on the cold water to wash her face. She was the type who flushed red after even a small amount of alcohol and generally avoided drinking.

But with Seo Hwido seated directly across from her, she had not been able to tell whether the food was going in through her nose or her mouth, and had started throwing back drinks without thinking.

The vision of the Seo Hwido from her dream, touching her body as he pleased, sucking and whispering, kept following her right before her eyes.

She had hoped that getting a little drunk would help her forget, and had diligently sipped at her beer, but the fact that everything only grew clearer made her wonder what was going on.

Was it because she was too tense?

“Just get a little drunk, Yeon-ah.”

She murmured softly to herself, looking at her face in the mirror, flushed red as a radish. Only after fixing herself up several more times was she able to head back out of the restroom.