CHAPTER 74

“Hug time?”

At Rose’s voice, both Minhee and Taejun looked down at her simultaneously.

“Yep. It’s hug time, Rose, come here.”

Minhee gently freed her arms from Taejun’s waist, making space for Rose. Taejun scooped Rose up with one arm and pulled Minhee back in with the other. As he listened to the sound of Rose counting, Taejun buried his face between Minhee and Rose, taking a deep breath and savoring the soft, sweet warmth.

For Taejun, his parents’ deaths were like a book filled with guilt and trauma, a book he could never bring himself to finish. It could have stayed that way forever.

‘If not for these two.’

It was as if a mountain of weight had been lifted from him, a great mass that had fallen to the ground beneath his feet and shattered. Now it was his turn to stand on the rubble with his feet firmly planted.

It was like emerging from the depths of the ocean, taking a fresh breath of air after being submerged for what felt like an eternity. He realized he wasn’t an isolated island in a vast sea. He was a slender bridge, previously hidden underwater, the end of which connected him to another island in the distance. What he thought was a broken, discarded branch was actually a limb of a large tree with deep roots, bent sharply but not severed.

‘Can I now, without guilt, think of my family, and greedily desire a normal life like others, without hesitation?’

Taejun knew that his broken parts wouldn’t be fixed overnight. Undoing years of accumulated trauma would take time. But nestled between these two, he felt an unfamiliar longing for life. He wanted to be happy too.

“Miss Minnie, play the piano again, please!”

Rose, having finished counting, pushed Taejun’s head with her small hands and tugged on Minhee’s arm. Taejun stepped back, laughing silently, and let them go. Minhee bowed her head and tidied her hair, discreetly wiping her eyes with her sleeve. She was a woman who cried easily, pouring genuine emotion into Taejun’s troubles as if they were her own. His chest grew hot, and his heart raced uncontrollably.

Minhee sat at the piano, playing the clear notes of his mother’s old instrument. Rose sang loudly and enthusiastically, her pitch entirely off.

[Waddaly atcha! Waddaly atcha! Doodaly doo, doodaly doo-oo-oo!]

Taejun barely managed to suppress a laugh, covering his mouth with his fist. A warm, unfamiliar sensation spread from his core, tingling at his fingertips. He wanted to remember this feeling forever.

The ceiling of the apartment shook with the sound of a flurry of activity. His uncle’s family had arrived. His uncle’s first, second, and third children and their kids filled the space. Despite the fact that the children’s table was separated and put in another room, the dinner with the whole family was as noisy as a restaurant full of people.

“Taejun looks just like our side of the family, doesn’t he? I almost had a heart attack when I saw him walking down the hall! I thought it was Grandpa’s ghost. Hahaha!”

Sung-ah, his uncle’s second daughter, who was three years older than Taejun, laughed loudly.

“Ah, so noisy. Taejun, this is our family’s loudest member. As if the Busan accent isn’t noisy enough, when she’s around, it’s truly otherworldly noise. Stop laughing already, my ears are going to burst!”

Sung-eun plugged her ears and shook her head. Taejun’s eyes flicked to Sung-ah, then across the living room to Rose, who was eating with the other children, a large prize spread out on the table. Rose’s laughter rumbled out of the open doorway.

Taejun nodded slowly as if he had realized something, accompanied by a silent sigh. He met Minhee’s eyes as she held a plump shrimp fritter between her chopsticks. There was a twinkle of laughter in her round eyes. Taejun knew she shared his thoughts. To suppress his laughter, he clenched his jaw tightly.

“Our Taejun looks just like father. These days, they say the pretty boys on TV are good-looking, but our Taejun is a real man – tall, broad-shouldered, with thick eyebrows and a distinct nose. Even from a man’s perspective, he has a handsome face, a true beauty.”

His uncle stared at Taejun and let out an exclamation of admiration.

“Honey, Taejun is a real heartthrob. Do you hear this often, Taejun?”

“No, I don’t.”

Embarrassed by the blatant praise of his appearance, Taejun denied his aunt-in-law’s question and lowered his eyes. He could feel Minhee’s gaze flickering beside him.

Minhee’s eyes widened as she noticed a light flush near Taejun’s cheekbones. It was the first time she saw him like this. 

‘Cute!!’

“Alright, all of you, stop it.  Hyung here can’t lift his face anymore.”

Seeing Taejun’s embarrassment, Sung-tae stepped forward to help him, but no one listened to the youngest.

“Father was born at the end of the Joseon Dynasty, so he’s patriarchal, strict, and stubborn, that’s why. But back in the day, he was famous for his good looks in Busan, wasn’t he, mother?”

His uncle dragged his maternal grandmother into the conversation.

“Is that a criticism of Grandfather or a compliment?”

Sung-tae asked, but his voice was drowned out by Sung-ah’s.

“If you look at Grandfather’s old photos, he was so handsome, like a movie star. But Taejun is a bit more, um, how do I say it, more in the modern style of handsome. Grandfather had a classic good look. It’s like an ‘out with the old, in with the new’ kind of upgrade.”

“Sigh. Nobody listens to me. I’ll just eat, and eat.”

Grumbling, Sung-tae scooped up a spoonful of rice.

“Right. It wasn’t just his looks. In Busan, if you ask about the person with the best memory, they’d say it’s Actuary Jeong Deok-ho. Almost everyone who did business knew him.”

The grandmother, her face made up with white powder and pink lipstick, chimed in.

“Actuary? Grandma, what’s an actuary? Wasn’t Grandpa an accountant?”

Sung-eun paused scooping her soup to ask.

“It was around sixty-five or sixty years ago. Before the national accounting exam was established, accountants were called ‘Actuaries’. Back in the 60s, there were only a few certified public accountants in Busan. But any company that was considered a bit successful in Busan had your grandfather handling their accounting work. Once he saw or heard something, he never forgot it. He could do calculations in his head, more accurately than anyone using an abacus. Even people he had seen just once thirty years ago, he never forgot their faces and names.”

Minhee’s gaze involuntarily shifted towards Taejun. Taejun stared at his maternal grandmother in a daze, then slowly nodded.

“Oh, Grandma, Taejun worked at a securities company in New York, you know.”

Minhee’s eyebrows arched, as if questioning this information. Taejun gave a small shake of his head so Minhee shrugged. 

“When Yoojin was raising Taejun, she said he took after father, with a good memory and talent for math. Sure enough, he ended up choosing a profession that deals with numbers, just like his grandfather. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

The uncle continued.

The people around the table nodded in agreement.

“Taejun, how old are you this year?”

The grandmother asked Taejun.

“Thirty-two.”

“It’s about time you start looking for a spouse.”

“Mother, these days, young people don’t like it when you say things like that.”

The uncle tried to dissuade the grandmother.

“Oh, did I say something wrong? Your cousin, Jeong-sik, already had two kids when he was thirty-two.”

“Oh my, guys these days are not the same as in our time. Taejun, you’re the only grandchild in this house who hasn’t married yet. What are we going to do? You’ll have to endure a little longer until you get married.”

The maternal grandmother’s eyes fell on Minhee. She sat quietly beside Taejun, enjoying a seafood-filled home-cooked meal and watching the family conversation that was more entertaining than a sitcom. Minhee flinched and delicately placed down her chopsticks.

“How old are you this year, Teacher?”

“Twenty-five—”

“Mother, the teacher is so kind and beautiful, isn’t she? She teaches at Rose’s private school, and she even studied for a master’s degree at a prestigious university in New York. Her father runs a Japanese restaurant in Florida.”

Before Min-hee could finish her answer, Taejun’s aunt-in-law interrupted her excitedly.

“Oh, Florida—”

“The teacher is only 25, so marriage might be a bit early, but if she finds a good match, it wouldn’t be bad to get married soon. I was thinking of trying to arrange a meeting for her.”

Minhee glanced at Taejun out of the corner of her eye. A faint frown crossed his brow for a moment.

“Right. If there’s a good match, you should quickly reel them in. Taejun, don’t go looking for someone far away.”

The grandmother smiled at Taejun.

“Oh my, oh my! Now that I think about it, they suit each other well. Right, Unnie?”

Sung-ah nudged Sung-eun’s arm playfully. Taejun silently continued eating, while Minhee lowered her head and stirred the soup with her chopsticks.

“That’s right, they do look good together. Mom, the teacher’s face is turning red and she can’t even raise her head! You two, is there something going on between you?”

“Oh, come on, sisters! Stop teasing people while they’re eating.”

Sung-tae’s words were drowned out once again by the various noisy chatter.