A Child Who Resembles Me [EN]: Chapter 106

106. Alienation

Dobin was thrilled to visit his girlfriend’s house for the first time.

Finding a Pororo [a popular South Korean animated penguin character] doll in the corner of Yena’s room, Dobin said to Yena,

“I can do Pororo. Want me to show you?”

“Yes.”

“Hello, Yena. I’m Pororo! Just like him, right!”

“I can do Loopy [a character from the same animated series as Pororo]. Pororo, don’t stand there! Just like her, right!”

“I can do Crayon Shin-chan [a mischievous cartoon character] too. I’m Shin-chan! Ulla Ulla! [Shin-chan’s signature dance move] Just like him, right!”

“I can sing Elsa’s song! Into the Unknown! Just like her, right!”

Before they knew it, Jung-oh’s house had turned into a mimicry contest. The children competitively named characters they knew and showed off their voices.

Children love mimicry. If you ask them to do it, they readily imitate Pororo, Loopy, Crayon Shin-chan, and Elsa. The funny thing is that all their voices sound surprisingly the same.

They all sound the same, but they seemed to think they were different. It must be because Pororo, Loopy, Crayon Shin-chan, and Elsa all live inside the child.

While Jung-oh was watching the children’s voice competition with a pleased smile, the topic of their play changed again without any break. Dobin ran over with paper and crayons.

“Auntie, draw me a picture.”

“A picture? What should I draw?”

“Shinbi [a character from a Korean animated series about goblins]. A goblin.”

“Mom, I want Geumbi! [another goblin character from the same series]”

Yena shouted from beside him. Jung-oh took the crayons Dobin handed her.

“Dobin asked first, so let’s draw Shinbi for Dobin first.”

It wasn’t difficult to draw because it was a character on the crayon case. But of course, she put her heart into it. While she was focusing on drawing, the front door opened.

“Dad!”

Jiheon had returned from work.

“Dad, draw me a picture! Mom is going to draw Shinbi, so Dad, draw Geumbi.”

Yena ran to Jiheon near the front door and pleaded. Jung-oh flinched. She wondered if her dad could draw it properly.

“What’s Geumbi?”

Jiheon asked Jung-oh. Jung-oh tapped the character on the crayon case.

“Look and draw.”

Jiheon sat across from Jung-oh and picked up a crayon.

‘He can draw if he looks, right? He must have picked up the crayon without complaint because he could do it, right?’

Jung-oh secretly rolled her eyes toward Jiheon with both anxiety and anticipation.

“Wow! Uncle, you draw too?”

“Of course! There’s nothing our dad can’t do!”

Yena boasted in response to Dobin’s question. Jung-oh became more anxious at Yena’s boasting. Somehow, it seemed like the ups and downs of life were contained in the circle Jiheon drew. In fact, it was difficult to even call it a circle.

Sure enough. When Jiheon finished coloring with all his heart and handed the finished product to Yena, Yena’s eyes shook as if the earth had collapsed.

“What is this?”

Yena asked seriously. Dobin glanced at it, chuckled, and then shut his mouth again. Even a seven-year-old has eyes. Even a seven-year-old could accurately tell that this was not the character he was thinking of.

“What is thiiiis!”

She had learned the truth. Dad is the best, Dad is a genius, Dad is a magician. She was so sure that there was nothing Dad couldn’t do, but that belief crumbled.

‘How could he ruin my Geumbi like this.’

“I asked you to draw Geumbi, Geumbi!”

“It is Geumbi…”

Jiheon replied cautiously, looking embarrassed.

‘You asked him to draw Geumbi, but he drew a zombie. He can’t even draw by looking. Our Yena’s dad.’

“Yena, I’m sorry. Should I read you a fairy tale?”

“I hate Dad. Dad is all thumbs [clumsy].”

Jiheon’s eyes went blank at the child’s fact bomb. He became a dad who was hated for not being able to draw. There were basic qualities that needed to be possessed to become a child’s dad.

While Yena was tearful, Dobin was secretly laughing, and Jiheon was shocked, the doorbell rang and the front door opened again. Jinseo came in with Doyoon.

“Excuse me.”

“Mom!”

Dobin, who recognized his mother, ran over first. Jinseo greeted him happily when she saw that Jiheon was also there.

“Oh, Jiheon is here too!”

“Mom, Uncle Baduk [a playful nickname implying clumsiness, derived from the game Baduk or Go] draws really badly.”

A friendly greeting should have been exchanged, but because the tactless Dobin shouted the truth, Jinseo was embarrassed as soon as she visited someone else’s house.

Yena, Dobin, and Doyoon played for a while and parted late at night. Jiheon also put Yena to bed and left the house after 10 p.m. As always, Jung-oh followed him out.

Jiheon had briefly mentioned visiting his parents’ house during the day. Jung-oh was rather worried about his expression, which was so indifferent that he didn’t seem like someone who had cut ties.

“Are you okay?”

“About what?”

“Your mother.”

Cutting ties with his mother. It was something Jung-oh could never dream of doing. She felt sorry just asking, wondering how he must feel after doing such a harsh thing.

She would think of it from time to time even when she was living as usual. It would hurt as if a corn [corn kernel, implying a small but persistent source of irritation] was embedded somewhere inside her body.

“I’m okay.”

“Still, it must hurt.”

“But I really think I did the right thing.”

He replied with a firm expression as if he would not look back on the past. However, he smoothly changed the subject as if it were difficult to continue the conversation.

“Seunggyu was talking about it. He told me to move to that area.”

“Yeah. Jinseo also said that today. It would be nice to raise the kids together in the same neighborhood.”

“What do you think?”

“I’d like it. Yena likes Dobin too.”

“Hmm.”

“Why?”

“I don’t like the part where Yena likes Dobin.”

“What’s wrong with liking each other? It’s good that they like each other and don’t hate each other.”

“Dobin doesn’t just like Yena. He loves her.”

“Why? Are you afraid that two little kids will make a fuss about getting married?”

“I think Dobin would do that.”

“Pooh.” Jung-oh laughed at his serious expression.

She had even cut ties with her mother, who opposed her son’s dating and marriage, but she didn’t want to see her daughter making a boyfriend. She wondered what to do with that psychology.

Leaving Dobin aside, she was a little worried about what this man would be like when Yena had a real boyfriend someday.

* * * * * * *

The next day. A happy Saturday.

However, Jung-oh suddenly had work to do. An advertiser urgently requested an internet advertisement.

She couldn’t play last week because she was helping Guksun organize the restaurant, so she was going to have fun this week, but she felt so sorry for Yena that she had another urgent matter.

“What should I do? Yena. I think Mom has to go to work today.”

“Okay.”

For some reason, the child accepted it calmly with a smile. Jung-oh was rather puzzled.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m okay.”

Her answer was even quite strong. Jung-oh repeatedly comforted Yena, thinking that she might be secretly sad but deliberately pretending to be stronger so that her mother wouldn’t worry.

“Mom will be back soon. I’m sorry.”

“You can be late. It’s okay.”

“It’s okay to be late?”

“Yeah. Because I’m going to play with Dad.”

Ah. Dad is here, so Mom can work now.

“Mom, go quickly. Go to work quickly.”

Rather, the child urged her to go to work quickly. Jung-oh was blankly pushed away.

‘Playing with Dad is that good. Hmm.’

She was grateful and thankful that she didn’t sadly call out for her mother, but on the other hand, she felt a little left out.

The two seemed to have become inseparable partners. They exchange secret messages every morning and evening, and sometimes they whisper to each other.

She had never been obsessed with secrets that others wouldn’t tell her, but since both of them were the people Jung-oh loved most in the world, she felt a slight sense of alienation.

Jung-oh felt empty and went to work. The team members were also called out urgently and came to the company, so everyone’s expression was not bright. Still, they don’t slack off. Everyone worked diligently with the determination to finish quickly and go home.

While they were busy creating work, Jung-oh’s cell phone rang. It was Yena’s number.

“Princess Yena!”

[Mom, we came to play!]

Jung-oh’s mood improved along with Yena’s bright voice. It seemed like she went on a picnic with Jiheon.

“Where? Where to?”

[It’s a secret!]

“Another secret?”

Jung-oh was annoyed that her daughter was teasing her like a sly person. If she was going to go out to play, she should have gone out to play when I was there, but she only went out to play with them.

[Are you curious? I’ll tell you later.]

She felt like she was being tortured. Her butt was shaking with the desire to finish work roughly and chase after her. But the cold-hearted daughter only put wind in her mother’s heart and hung up the phone.

While she was feeling depressed, she received a text message from Jiheon. 12 o’clock. As always, it meant it was Jung-oh time.

– We decided to go to our house today. We might be a little late, so go home first. See you later.

Jung-oh blinked a few times at the notification message.

‘You made a plan with Yena first without even telling me.’

Anyway, she had been thinking about showing Jiheon’s house to Yena and Guksun, so Jung-oh accepted it without complaint.

It was 6 p.m. when she finished all the work. She called Jiheon, but he didn’t answer. The same was true for Yena and Guksun. While moving, another text message came from Jiheon. It was the password to Jiheon’s apartment front door. It meant to press it and go inside on her own.

‘What are you doing that you can’t even be contacted…’

Slightly dissatisfied, Jung-oh entered Jiheon’s apartment. Jung-oh, who pressed the password she received from Jiheon and went inside, was faced with pitch-black darkness.

This space had never been so dark.

The entrance sensor light was also out of order and did not work. In addition, she didn’t know if they had poured air freshener into the house to invite the child, but the scent of flowers was vibrating from the entrance. It wasn’t a bad scent, but it was vaguely scary because she couldn’t see anything.

She regretted why she had come in first, thinking that she should have stayed outside and entered with Yena and Jiheon. Just as she was about to turn around and go outside, the lights in the hallway came on. The lights were turned on from below.

There were flower beds on both sides of the long hallway. Behind it, the lights were connected for a long time. Jung-oh closed and opened her eyes a few times, wondering what this was. Tears welled up in her eyes as she blinked.

Two photos were flashing and repeating on the TV screen. One was a photo of Jung-oh and Jiheon taken at the ‘The Crown’ restaurant in Australia seven years ago, and the other was a photo of flowers filling the screen.

A pretty garland was attached to the flower photo. A garland that read ‘MARRY ME?’ and the name ‘TO Jung-oh’ on the right edge of the photo.

Jiheon had said that he had prepared a proposal seven years ago, and that he had found the photo taken at that time after seven years, and that Jung-oh’s name was written on it.

Jung-oh was overwhelmed by the photo as Jiheon described it. Her hand unknowingly went up to her lips and sat down.

Soon, a tall man in a neat suit appeared in the distance at the end of the hallway.

From some room, the child’s laughter was heard.

Was that why the father and daughter were so close while preparing for this?

Her lips drew a happy arc, but her eyes kept getting wet.