A large, muscular man, roughly 2m tall, was approaching me with his crutches pounding.
The truth is that words are muscles. My personal trainer, who had been working out for a long time, wasn’t like that either.
The man who immediately stopped in front of me looked down at me with a cold gaze. No, it would be an appropriate expression to say that he was beating him with his eyes.
But don’t back off. The first impression is half, and even if I show hate here, the future will be difficult.
After thinking about it, I twisted the corners of my frozen eyes and opened my mouth.
“Nice to meet you. Father, mother.”
“It’s my father… … ?”
The heavy voice shook my ears, but I didn’t care and said it while showing the commercial smile that I had been practicing for so long.
Yeah, if I was going to step back, I wouldn’t have accepted such an offer in the first place.
“Yes, Father. My name is Yoo-jin, who is currently dating my daughter.”
“… … .”
Father, who had been looking at every nook and cranny of my body for a moment, looked back and walked towards the living room.
Crutches that creaked and moaned in a much faster and rougher movement than before. There were bruises like bruises underneath it.
No, this is not the time to just stare blankly. I bowed my head as I pushed my shopping bag to my mother, who was looking at me with my mouth covered.
“Mother, take this.”
“Oh my, my oh my. what is this You don’t have to give me this.”
I continued to speak in a voice that seemed to be sorry for the mother who pushed the shopping bag out as if in trouble.
“no. This item also contains the meaning of an apology for the fact that I should have visited you earlier, but I was only putting it off for the first time because of my shame. Please accept it.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll get it, so raise your head. What a pity that is.”
My mother said as Dasom slapped her sister on the back.
“Looks like he couldn’t come because he was stubborn.”
“Uh, Mom… … !”
“Shut up, you did something good. Does it make sense to not show your face once while meeting with such a genuine young man? How nice it would be to bring you here earlier.”
I intervened in front of Dasom, who was crying while holding her back.
“It’s a misunderstanding, sir. Noona was trying to introduce me to her, but I turned it down because I was shy because I was shy.”
“… … okay?”
“Yeah, so if you’re going to scold me—”
“How, how can I make my face look pretty even at the end?”
In an instant, the world turned white. His head was cloudy and his back felt like it had been struck by lightning.
“Oh, good. You come here often, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah… … . I will come often, yes, I will come often.”
I gritted my teeth and answered, Dasom’s sister ran up to me and stroked my back.
“Oh, what should I do, Dojin-ah, are you in a lot of pain? Mom! Why are you hitting a healthy kid, really! What to do if you have bruises… … .”
“Oh my, my oh my. Sorry. Did you have a lot of pain? It was just a light touch… … .”
“Yes, yes. It’s nothing. haha.”
light touch. That’s right, it was a light touch.
As I secretly wiped away the cold sweat running down my forehead, I noticed that the vibration that had been resonating with the momentum that had just broken the floor had subsided.
Just then, a bang sounded like something was being thrown from the inside. It was similar to the sound made by weightlifters when they threw a barbell at the Olympics.
As we were about to run into the living room, startled by the sudden roar, our father in a wheelchair jumped out with a squeaking sound from the inside.
… … Could a wheelchair be able to move so quickly?
After a while, my father stopped in front of me and grabbed my palm with one hand the size of the house.
“Nice to meet you, nice to meet you. Dasom is the person I have a crush on. I didn’t even get a proper greeting a while ago. your name is… … Did I say Yu-Jin?”
Each and every finger joint was crushed to pieces, and I almost screamed in reflex at the pain as if it were being stirred.
I answered, suppressing the moan that rose from my throat.
“… … Yes.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I can’t remember a single person’s name properly… … All of Lee Tae-hwan in the world is dead, but yes.”
“No, no.”
“But you have some faults.”
With those words, my father began to shake his hands violently up and down, and my shoulders began to shake precariously with a creaking sound.
“People, what do you do if you are not even mentally prepared, but suddenly call yourself ‘Father’ with such a sassy attitude? huh? Did you do that on purpose to make me die like you? I was trying to show my dignity as a father, but how can I bear it if you come out like that?”
“I’m sorry, uh, I’m sorry.”
“Hey, my daughter has caught a huge fish. There must have been a reason why men from all over the country didn’t even pay attention to them even when they offered them. That’s right, there’s a guy like this next to me, can I have a castle!”
“Dad!”
Dasomi noona, who pushed her father away while screaming, opened her mouth while blowing a hoho breath on the back of my hand.
“Dojin-ah, can you feel your sister touching you? Where are you in pain?”
“Uh, uh… … .”
“Ah, look at how red you are. what should we do… … No, what if you suddenly grab the hand of a child who has nothing but bones! If it ever broke… … .”
Upon hearing this, my father rubbed the pharynx with his index finger as if embarrassed, and then looked at me with worried eyes.
“… … Hey, are you in a lot of pain?”
“Is it possible? It didn’t hurt at all. haha.”
“Look at that. It didn’t hurt at all.”
Father, who pushed Dasomi’s sister away, once again clasped my hand tightly.
“Hey, thanks to my daughter-in-law, I’m just trying to have a conversation like a conversation after almost 10 years. It’s refreshing from the listener’s point of view, and how nice it is to say things like this over and over again. Guys these days don’t know what’s so dissatisfied, they mumble in front of people, and it’s frustrating.”
“Yeah, ugh, thank you for being nice to me!”
After shaking hands for a while, my father finally released my hand with a satisfied smile.
It looks like the little finger is wobbly, but you may be mistaken. maybe.
I was secretly clenching my right hand like that, when, suddenly, my mother started to tap my father’s wheelchair with his finger.
“No, even if I told you to ride like that, why did the person who used to only use crutches to lose muscle and get out of a wheelchair all of a sudden?”
“That’s right, because I was on crutches all day, my armpits hurt and I couldn’t hold Dojin-san’s hand. No, besides, if you sit down, you can see each other at the same eye level, so there is no added bonus.”
“It’s true too.”
Upon hearing this, the mother smiled and nodded her head.
“Then what was that sound? I was shocked to learn that you fell.”
“Ah, that… … .”
Father glanced at the living room at the end of the hallway and continued talking.
“Hey, you have crutches. It seems like I was in a hurry to put it down, so I didn’t even know I had strength.”
Crutches, that’s it.
It had been less than 20 minutes since I entered this house, but the common sense I had built up over the past 20 years was collapsing every 5 minutes.
* * *
“How old was our Dojin-san?”
While driving, I heard a voice from the passenger side. it was your father
“I am twenty-eight this year.”
“But how do you already drive a car like this?”
“Ah, I didn’t own my own car, I rented it.”
“No, then Dasom or a car would normally come by car, so what did you rent such an expensive car for wasting money?”
I’ve been waiting for that question.
I opened my mouth with an awkward smile as if embarrassed.
“If you want to serve it, you have to treat it with the best conditions.”
“Really?”
“If you score as many points as possible, won’t we have a chance to see you again in the future?”
When my father heard me, he laughed out loud.
“You two won… … . It’s good to be honest.”
I bowed lightly and concentrated on driving again, but this time I heard voices coming from the back seat.
“Hey, can I ask you something?”
Through the interior mirror of the car, a shyly smiling mother was reflected.
Maybe it’s because she has so much white skin that I don’t even think she’s over 50, or when she saw Dasom standing next to her, she seemed closer to her aunt or older sister rather than her mother.
Now that I look at it, the hairstyle is also quite stylish.
As I smiled and nodded, my mother spoke in an excited voice.
“Dojin-san, where do you like our Dasom?”
At that moment, countless saliva came out of Dasomi’s noona’s mouth with a “puff” sound.
