I am back – Chapter 216

The children were always loved.

In a way, that’s to be expected. There wasn’t a single person around me who had gone astray.

“……”

Whenever Mom looked at our two children, she would fall silent. With just a light smile on her lips, she would endlessly gaze at the two kids.

Perhaps, to Mom, these two children were nothing short of miracles.

Her son, whom she thought was dead, had returned.

But the son who came back was no longer the one she had known.

Even if it was a woman’s body, she could have children. Naturally, the other party had to be a man.

However, the child that had come to be was just from a different woman whom he had liked for a long time.

You can’t have a child between members of the same sex.

And yet, somehow, in a way that defies the logic of science, both people produced a child.

So, every time Mom looked at the two kids, she couldn’t help but wear a look of disbelief.

“How was Siyun?”

My wife asked Mom while holding A-yeon.

“Siyun?”

At Mom’s words, the living room fell silent. No, it was already quiet; I just felt that way.

It wasn’t a day for celebration, but Ga-young had brought a cake she made for practice, and we all shared it a bit. Unfortunately, the kids still couldn’t eat any cake.

Ga-young aimed to make a proper cake by the time the two children turned one. Even now, she still made cakes that could be deemed presentable, but it seemed she wasn’t fully satisfied yet.

Since the cake had arrived—especially since it had A-yeon and Se-yeon’s names on it—we gathered everyone around the cake for a photo. The cake was sweet and delicious. After all, it’s hard to find a cake that isn’t at least somewhat tasty.

After having dinner and eating cake, everyone sat back lazily. It was as you’d expect; since the day I was born as a Korean, my mom, my wife, and Ga-young sat right next to the table on the floor, while Dana, Pia, Arna, and Kalia, who had relatively Western lifestyles, were sat on the sofa.

Sometimes, when we were sitting like this, there would be moments when no one said anything special.

It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. We were just full and lazily sprawled out. We had finished doing the dishes right after the meal, cleaned well before eating, and the laundry was already hung out, so, in fact, there was nothing much left to be done.

The TV was too loud to really enjoy, so I didn’t turn it on much. My friends, who had just arrived in this world, occasionally found the TV fascinating, but… a lot of time had passed since then.

“Um, well…”

It seemed everyone was curious about Mom’s story.

After all, I didn’t usually talk about my childhood experiences in front of others.

In fact, there wasn’t much to share. My recollection of my early childhood is almost only from the time I spent with my older sister. Either my sister or Mom. Occasionally with neighborhood friends.

So, there wasn’t much I could tell my sister.

It was the same when my friends, or my ‘party mates,’ were around. Even back then, the stories I could share were only from a few years ago. As I traveled further back, memories faded slowly, and by the time I reached my early nursery days, honestly, there was very little I could remember.

Thinking about it this way, I felt like I was pretty young back then.

Just ten years have passed since then, but suddenly I found myself with so many things worth talking about in my life.

“Siyun was… really well-behaved.”

Mom slowly opened her mouth. Her gaze was directed at A-yeon in her arms, who was wrapped snugly in a blanket and slightly opening her mouth while her eyes were closed. She must be feeling very warm.

Holding a child and feeling their body heat brings a sense of peace. It’s not just because I feel that way; perhaps there’s some natural influence too. Humanity has evolved to protect children.

“When she was held like this, she didn’t cry much. So, it didn’t seem so difficult to live alone with Siyun.”

That’s impossible. No child doesn’t cry.

She was simply recalling the time she spent with me.

From the earliest memories I have of myself, it was always just Mom and me. Clinging together in that damp basement, we lived grateful that we had a ceiling to shield us from the rain.

Basements are damp. If we had air conditioning in the room, we might have made it through the summer; if we could freely turn on the heater in winter, the mold wouldn’t have sprouted in the corners of the ceiling during winter.

But we didn’t have the money for that.

In the summer, we endured by spinning a single fan. On days when the rain forced us to shut the windows, even with the fan on, the temperature wouldn’t come down. So we’d take frozen water bottles from the fridge to hold onto.

In the winter, Mom and I lived together on the same electric blanket. The electric blanket alone couldn’t warm the air in the room, so it was unbearably cold outside the blanket.

But even so, Mom always tried not to lose hope. She made an effort to smile at me and even tried to celebrate my birthday. When payday came each month, we walked together to the nearby hamburger shop and shared a kids’ meal…

“But, I remember that too.”

Hearing Mom’s story, my sister… my wife interjected.

With eyes as round as the moon, she teased me playfully.

“I don’t think I ever threw a tantrum or whined while I was with you.”

…….

It was a ticklish remark, but honestly, it was a bit hard to laugh freely.

In fact, I think I somewhat resigned myself during those childhood years. I just knew I couldn’t ask Mom for things because she couldn’t afford them.

But… Mom probably saw me doing that and thought I was just being good.

“…….”

Mom was silent for a moment. She simply held A-yeon in her arms with a light smile on her lips.

Both Se-yeon and A-yeon were daughters. Whether it was mere coincidence or perhaps due to the limits of magic, I couldn’t tell.

“I never once thought it was a hardship. I was just so happy that this child was by my side. If she weren’t here, I wouldn’t know how I would have managed alone.”

It wasn’t so much that I existed, but rather that my existence must have given Mom a sense of responsibility. Preventing her from leaving this world.

“I remember when I entered elementary school. She was so happy about the new bag I bought.”

“Really?”

I unconsciously asked back at Mom’s words.

“Yeah. She kept asking when the entrance ceremony was….”

Although her gaze was on A-yeon, her eyes seemed to be looking off into the distance.

“Honestly, it wasn’t even that good of a bag. Just something bought from the local market, with no brand to speak of… But it must have been so great to her.”

“……”

“I was planning to buy her a better one, but I never did in the end.”

I remembered that school bag from my elementary school days. I think I carried it for quite a while into middle school. Looking back, it probably was a bit too big for an elementary student.

I wonder… what happened to that bag? In my memories, it had become something precious.

“……”

The room where we were listening to Mom’s story had quietly fallen into silence.

“Um….”

My wife seemed to fall into thought for a moment, then spoke up as she opened her eyes.

“Anyway, tomorrow is a day off. You two should go out.”

“Hmm?”

At my wife’s words, Mom looked up with wide eyes.

It was true that tomorrow was a day off. It was a Wednesday. This was the day my friends gathered, after all.

“I’ll be watching the kids.”

“Oh, but….”

Before I could say that it’s just once a week I get a day off, Pia quickly spoke up.

“Of course! Go and have fun! If you don’t go now, you might forget later.”

Starting with Pia, the other friends nodded in agreement.

“You don’t need to worry about watching the kids. We’re here.”

“There are quite a few people at home. One day isn’t something to worry about.”

“Not that I’m actually worried….”

“We’ll take good care so your wife doesn’t suffer. Just go and enjoy your day off while you can.”

At Arna’s words, Ga-young, who was listening beside us, nodded vigorously.

“I’ll help too!”

“……”

Seeing all my friends in the living room saying that, my mom and I glanced at each other, slightly open-mouthed.

“Ta-da!”

Se-yeon, sitting on the thick blanket spread on the floor, held onto her older sister’s finger and let out a giggle.

Her voice seemed to have no concept of awkwardness at all.