“Tia.”
“Mm?”
“Let’s pull your teeth slowly.”
“······?”
Tia tilted her head slightly.
She seemed to have a face that indicated she didn’t understand what I meant.
It looked like a kind explanation was needed.
“You’re being such a clumsy one.”
“Mm.”
“You need to pull that out for new teeth to grow.”
“How do you pull it?”
“Just quickly. You yank it out.”
“······.”
Tia’s face suddenly turned pale.
Then she bolted away in an instant without giving me a chance to catch her.
How foolish.
I should have blocked her escape and talked.
“Tia! Aren’t you coming here?!”
“Mmuuuuuu!”
I hurriedly chased after her and swung the door open.
Fortunately, Tia hadn’t run far.
She was clinging to Sasha, who had just arrived at work like a koala.
Sasha’s awkwardly smiling face told me just how heavy Tia was.
“Sasha! Mommy is torturing me! Mwaah!”
“She’s just pretending to cry. Don’t be fooled. She needs to get her tooth pulled.”
“Aha. Well, if that’s the case······.”
“Sasha! I trusted you! I really did!”
I took Tia from Sasha, who was pleading pitifully.
I intended to lift her with my hands under her butt, but she was too heavy, so I ended up dropping her on the floor.
I quickly grabbed Tia’s hand, worried she might run away again.
Tia then made the saddest face possible with her bright, sparkling eyes.
My heart almost wavered, but······
“It won’t hurt. Let’s just pull it out quickly.”
“Mweeeek! I don’t wanna!”
“Oh gosh. Your voice is irritating. You sound like a little demon.”
“You shouldn’t say that to a child, Julia······.”
I immediately dragged Tia inside the shop.
With Tia’s strength, she could have resisted, but she didn’t.
Maybe she was being compliant because she was worried I would get hurt if she tried to shake me off.
What a kind kid.
“It hurts! It hurts, doesn’t it?!”
“It doesn’t hurt. Probably?”
“Mweeeeh······.”
I recalled the time when I had my own teeth pulled.
What did I do back then?
It felt like such a distant memory now; I hardly remembered.
“Help me, Sasha!”
“Do you want to change your clothes? I’ll pull Tia’s tooth first then come right out.”
“Ah, okay······.”
“Sasha!”
After sending Sasha outside, I took the sewing kit out of Irina’s drawer.
I cut a piece of thread of suitable thickness and approached Tia, who was sniffling beside me.
“Okay. Open your mouth.”
“Mmuuuu.”
“Don’t shake your head. Just open it wide. We need to get this over with quickly.”
“Mmuuuu······.”
“Geez! Be frustrating! Open your mouth!”
“Mmhhmmh!”
I suddenly lunged in and gently tickled Tia’s armpit and side.
Desperately trying to keep her mouth shut, Tia bit her lips but soon burst out laughing.
Not missing that gap, I shoved my finger into Tia’s mouth.
As my finger touched the wobbly tooth, Tia froze, her struggling coming to a halt.
I had successfully subdued her.
“Open your mouth. Slowly. If you don’t listen, I’ll pull it out with my hand. That would really hurt, you know?”
“······.”
In an instant, Tia’s face turned pale, and she nodded her head in fear.
Her mouth opened, revealing the landscape of her small mouth.
Sometimes, looking at it made me impulsively want to poke at her cute little uvula.
Of course, I focused on making a loop with the thread and attaching it to the wobbly tooth.
Leaving the less wobbly ones for now, I decided to pull out the one that was almost ready to fall out.
That way, it wouldn’t hurt.
If I pulled out a tooth painfully from the first day, she might never want to do it again.
“Done!”
“Mwee······.”
Though my technique wasn’t great, after a lengthy struggle of three minutes, I managed to tie the thread tightly around the tooth.
With Tia keeping her mouth open all this time, her mouth corner was covered in drool.
Now, all that was left was to let the thread dangle and connect it to the door.
If I pulled with my hands, it might not come out well, so it was better to burst open the door.
“Mmuhhhh······. I’m scared······.”
“What’s so scary? It won’t hurt at all.”
As I wiped Tia’s tears or maybe drool, I couldn’t help but suppress my laughter.
She was just too cute······.
I felt increasingly eager to torment her more.
I wanted to take her on a drive and show her around Seoul, but obviously, that wasn’t an option.
I held back.
“Alright. I’ll count to three, and then we’ll pull it out.”
“I’m so scared!”
“What’s scary? Get away! If you get too close to your mom, I can’t pull it out.”
Tia kept whining and trying to cling to me.
I needed to stretch the thread tightly to pull the tooth out.
So I had to keep turning Tia back away from me repeatedly.
But I was starting to get tired.
Was pulling out this one tooth such a huge deal?
Soon, Tia really began to cry, catching me off guard.
I had no choice but to sit her down for a moment and pet her head to calm her down.
“Tia. Look at mommy’s face.”
“I’m looking······.”
“Has mommy ever lied to you?”
“No.”
“Well, there were a few times. But still, have I ever lied to you when we’re talking face to face like this? Right?”
“Mm.”
“This won’t hurt at all. But if we don’t pull it out now, your teeth might grow in crooked and make you look ugly. You don’t want to look ugly, do you?”
“I don’t want to······.”
“Then let’s trust your mom and quietly pull out this tooth, okay?”
“Mm. I’ll do it······.”
Tia stopped crying immediately.
Even before pulling it out, I already felt drained.
Still, all that was left was a simple task of yanking the door wide open.
I wanted to surprise her by suddenly pulling the door open, but if I did that, Tia might sulk for a whole week, so I decided to announce it properly and go on three.
“Okay. I’m counting. One······.”
“Tia! Did you pull it out?!”
“Ah.”
With a bang.
Without even touching the doorknob, the door suddenly swung open, and Sasha appeared.
The expression on Tia’s face, which had looked tense, suddenly stiffened.
In the gap between her open front teeth, one clear empty space could be seen.
“Ah. It came out.”
“You lied again! Mweeeh!”
A loud crying sound burst out, completely different from before.
How was I supposed to calm that down······.
A headache throbbed through my head.
*
“Let me see. Hmm. It came out well. How’s that? Didn’t hurt, right?”
“Mm······.”
Tia nodded her head, refusing to drop her sulky expression.
It was the look of someone who was pretending to be angry even though the anger had already subsided.
“Sasha. Isn’t she heavy?”
“Haha. I’m fine. I have strength!”
“I’m grateful, but······.”
And Tia was still clinging to Sasha.
Sasha pulled out the tooth, but why was she mad at me and clinging to Sasha?
What a strange kid.
By the way, seeing a third party holding Tia made me realize just how much she had grown recently.
She used to be able to be lifted with one hand, but now she had become so big that I had to squeeze her into my arms.
Her size was now enough to graduate from kindergarten, yet she still acted like a baby. It was truly ridiculous.
“Ah, Sasha. I have a question. Can I ask?”
“What’s up?”
“Have you ever broken a horn?”
“Excuse me?”
“Or pulled one out. If a horn gets pulled out, does it grow back? Or does it just stay pulled out?”
“······.”
Sasha froze and stopped moving.
I thought she might have experience regarding horns since she had them, but no matter how long I waited, there was no answer.
Instead, from her gradually paling face, it seemed today wasn’t a good day for her.
“Julia! I have good news and bad news!”
“Irina Aunt!”
“······!”
The front door swung open with a loud voice.
Irina was holding a small paper bag in her hand.
Tia immediately escaped from Sasha’s arms and rushed to hug Irina’s waist.
It was impressive to see Sasha’s eyes instantly turn vacant.
“What’s the good news? What is it?”
“Ta-da! ID card.”
“Wow······!”
Irina elegantly opened the bag with a knife and pulled out a card, placing it on my palm.
Julia. My name was engraved on the identification card.
Going to church diligently every Sunday and regularly slipping bribes to public officials had finally paid off.
I now had a means to prove that I was a free citizen residing in this city.
At least the worry of getting beaten up in the streets as a gypsy with an ambiguous background was gone.
From now on, finding a proper job would be much easier.
Tears felt like they were about to burst out.
“Irina. Thank you. For everything you’ve done so far, really, thank you.”
“Mm-hmm. But there’s still the bad news…”
“Bad news?”
Now that I recall, she did say there was good news and bad news.
Irina seemed to be awkwardly avoiding my gaze, which was quite strange.
I wondered if she had done something wrong to me at that moment.
The door creaked open, and the sound of heavy shoes stepping on the shop tiles echoed.
“Actually, a customer has come to visit. I clearly told them we weren’t open yet, but they insisted on coming in…”
“Long time no see, Julia.”
“Ah.”
As soon as I recognized the owner of those shoes, a sigh automatically escaped my lips.
The hero. The leopard was grinning foolishly and waving at me.
No matter when I saw him, his face made me feel nauseous.
