I am back – Chapter 64

Ever since then, my life has become quite colorful.

Of course, nothing major has happened.

It’s just that there are more people around.

While I was working, there were times when my older sister would be there, but Yu-ri, my older sister, would often come to visit while I was working. Sometimes, her now-husband, Park Hyun-seung, would come along too.

Pregnancy leave literally lasts until the pregnancy period is over, so it seems like there’s quite a bit of room to move around before then.

“Still, on regular days, I rest at home more often.”

Right now, it’s not that hard yet, but she seems to feel that her body is getting heavier day by day.

People say that the most rapid growth happens in a mother’s womb.

Well, considering it’s a period of growing from just one cell into a complete person, it’s no wonder it grows quickly. After all, in just ten months, a single cell becomes a whole human being.

Yu-ri would come over and just chat about her everyday stories. Things that happened at home, mistakes her husband made, and gifts he had given.

Sometimes, there were brief mentions of our mom.

Most of the time, it went by with things like, “How’s that aunt doing lately?”

“So, are you hanging out with your friends now?”

“Yep.”

Yu-ri would frequently strike up conversations with me. True to her sociable nature and her dislike for ignoring people, she didn’t want to leave me out while chatting with her friends.

“Do your friends work during the day?”

“Ah, well…”

I was about to say, “They came from abroad,” but I paused for a moment.

If it were because they came to travel from abroad, it would make sense they wouldn’t work. Unless they were on a working holiday, it’s illegal for tourists to work.

However, the four people currently at our house are all Koreans. They are legally Koreans, so strictly speaking, it’s not that they can’t work, but rather that they choose not to. It might come off a bit wrong to say it like that, but from an outsider’s perspective, they seem unemployed. Even if they each have jobs they handle in Irrelaysia, there’s no way to prove that here.

If I say that my friends aren’t working here, it would come across weird for several reasons.

Ah-yoon, my older sister, had been worried about me since the moment I first arrived here. If she hears that they are just living off me, she might think something’s off.

But saying that would feel a bit dishonest too.

I’ve been in this world for five years. Of course, their jobs probably don’t take that long, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wouldn’t be finishing my work in just a couple of days and returning.

“Not yet, actually…”

So that’s how I ended up with a vague answer.

“I’m just a new arrival from the provinces…”

And tacked on that pretty poor excuse.

“Oh, I see.”

Still, I was relieved that Yu-ri didn’t take my story too seriously.

“Well, it is tough to find work these days…so I can understand coming to Seoul.”

“Right.”

As I said that and glanced over at Ah-yoon, she was staring at my face intently.

…Hmm.

It seems she’s thinking differently from Yu-ri.

Somehow, I think I need to align my story with the four of them.

If I explain that I’m paying rent while living here, they’ll probably believe that, at least.

*

Yu-ri usually came over in the mornings. She’d arrive around ten, stay for about an hour or two, and then head back. The place where she lives isn’t that far, but it seems she makes it look like a quick stop to leave room for customers to come.

I really appreciated that thought.

While she’s there chatting with me in the middle of all the customers coming and going, the shop gets really busy. But sitting idle while visiting isn’t ideal either.

To be honest, if we’re being precise, interrupting someone while they’re working by coming to ‘hang out’ can seem quite intrusive.

Given how perceptive Yu-ri always was, she probably acted that way with that in mind.

“Hello!”

During dinner time, Seogayang came to look for me.

Seogayang had come to the bakery with her mother the day after her interview with Yu-ri.

“Please take good care of my daughter.”

And with a hand on Seogayang’s shoulder, her mother said that cautiously.

All my theories about Seogayang came crashing down. She hadn’t come secretly and wasn’t being abused by her parents.

The sight of her mother with a hand on Seogayang’s shoulder looked really warm.

“…”

Yu-ri and I exchanged quick glances, and we had no choice but to nod at them.

In the end, I didn’t know the reason, but there was no longer a reason to refuse.

After that, Seogayang worked part-time, coming in at around 6 PM on weekdays except for our day off, Wednesday, and working until we closed the bakery.

“I’ll do it!”

Every time I tried to lift something heavy, Seogayang would rush over to help me.

It seemed like she didn’t think it was that heavy when I was carrying it alone, but after a few attempts, it must have been impossible for me to carry alone; in the end, she was satisfied just helping out.

But it didn’t bother me at all.

She didn’t slack off and didn’t have a prickly personality. Even though we hadn’t exactly set a strict time to come, she arrived right at six and started preparing and working immediately.

The hour after six turned out to be quite a busy time for customers, and honestly, she was a big help.

I was curious why Seogayang was working so hard, but Yu-ri and I decided not to ask. We thought that if it was a really important reason, she would tell us sometime separately.

“Thank you for your hard work!”

She didn’t speak to us in a way that would annoy us… No, honestly, she hardly talked about herself at all. Given her bright character, you’d think she would have lots of stories to share, but that wasn’t the case at all.

She just came at the time we had tacitly agreed on and worked until we closed the bakery.

Before we could even say we were leaving together, she would quickly go off, making it impossible to catch her.

Still, for some reason, there was no strange atmosphere, and slowly, Seogayang’s visits began blending into our routine.

*

And when I returned home—

The delicious smell tickled my nose.

Objectively speaking, the cooking skills of my party members, including mine, aren’t at a professional chef level.

But that doesn’t mean they completely ‘can’t cook.’ Of course, among us, I’m the least talented. I could barely manage grilling meat over a fire, but the others were different.

Pia learned to cook while doing humanitarian work, and Arna had a phenomenal talent for trimming vegetables and making them tender. Dana memorized cooking recipes with her usual meticulousness and created the dishes, and Kalia said it was something she learned as one of her general skills when she was young.

Even though we lived the adventure life, moments to cook outside weren’t frequent. Making a fire would give our enemies an exact location. Still, every time there was a rare moment to showcase our skills, I honestly marveled at their abilities.

“Oh, you’re back!”

It appeared that today’s cook was Dana.

She had on an apron with geometric patterns, and with a ladle in one hand, she looked like a picture painted.

As I stepped into the living room, Kalia, Pia, and Arna were all spending their time in their own ways.

Kalia had turned on the TV, looking at the global political situation with interest. It seemed she had no intention of gaining power here, but she was nonetheless curious about how this world, with nearly 200 countries, operates.

Pia was reading the Bible. She couldn’t read Hangul accurately like Dana, so she was reading the pages that Dana had translated during the day. In fact, what she had in her hands was a paper page. Even though the Bible was open, she’d probably find it hard to read anything beyond the numbers. For Pia, it seemed that the religion of this world was quite fascinating.

Arna had brought in a few more plants. She was diligently growing them by placing them by the living room window, and they all seemed to be plants that grow in deserts, like cacti or carnivorous plants. They were types of plants I had never seen in that other world, and if I were to return, she said she wanted to look for something similar in the deserts of Irrelaysia.

All three of them directed their gazes toward me.

“Did you return?”

“Ah, welcome back!”

“Were there any hardships?”

All three greeted me in their own ways.

I nodded and smiled at them, then followed Dana to the kitchen, where a large pot was bubbling with meat soup.

Is it galbitang?

Looking at the open recipe book for galbitang, it seemed that was indeed the case.

Dana had told me that the fastest way to gauge one’s reading skills is to look at something and create it based on that. And according to that method, making home-cooked meals was the safest way in terms of not risking one’s life. I had said that mixing potions chaotically could result in an explosion.

…Still, I’d hope they could hold off on conducting chemical experiments at home.

“It smells delicious.”

Despite having those thoughts in my head, when I honestly voiced my appreciation, Dana nodded with a proud expression.

“It’s delicious. I tasted it myself. It’ll be done soon, so wash up first!”

“Okay.”

The house, which had just moments ago been shrouded in silence, was now bustling.

Well, then again, some people might not like this kind of thing. There are likely those who’d prefer to be alone.

But still… having spent the last five years entrusting my life to those four, this wasn’t the case for me.

Just knowing that these four are here brings me peace of mind.

I sincerely smiled, set down my things, and headed to the shower room.