Eun-Yul, who was hiding was leaning against the wall, but couldn't keep his breathing as steady as his heartbeat. He wondered who he had just met multiple times, but no matter how hard he tried, the answer was Kang Ha-Joon.
Eun-Yul was patting his chest because he was clearly breathing but his frustration wouldn't go away and he sat down. When he hit his chest, he felt the pain in his stomach.
"Why is Ha-Joon here?"
Eun-Yul was shocked and lowered his head.
'Let's take a deep breath. He was undoubtedly with someone. So it appears that he was compelled to come here, but he is not coming here twice.'
Even though he kept telling himself that it wasn't true, he couldn't calm down.
"Have you already become dented by the difficulty of bringing only an onion to the customer?"
Eun-Yul raised his head blankly at the sound of Lim Bong-Soon's tongue clicking.
"Grandma."
"What's with those hazy eyes?"
"How am I now compared to when I first saw you?"
"What do you think? At first, you looked like paper, and now you still look like a paper but with good stains."
"So it still feels the same... Have I changed since then?"
"What nonsense are you saying?"
Lim Bong-Soon began to raise her voice, perhaps she was becoming reluctant to match Eun-Yul's mood.
"No, I mean... When you look at me now, do you think of me then?"
"Of course. Did you change your eyes or did your lips turn upside down?"
Lim Bong-Soon turned around, after hearing all these stupid questions. Eun-Yul lowered his head while looking at Lim Bong-Soon's back, who was diligently lighting a torch. There was nothing to be disappointed about his grandmother's beatings. His question was stupid in the first place.
"But I won't recognize you right away."
"...grandma?"
"When a guy only ate steak and hangover soup for 5 years, does it mean he's not going to change?"
"Is it a compliment?"
"It's a compliment. Your face used to be pale, but now you are chubby. Who can tell?"
Eun-Yul's face was gradually melting despite Lim Bong-Soon's screaming.
"But grandma, you're good at pronouncing steak now, aren't you? In the past, you used to... No, it's not."
When Eun-Yul saw Lim Bong-Soon holding a knife, he closed his mouth on his own. Anyway, his earlier frustration is gone.
'No wonder he didn't recognize me.'
He just slept with Kang Ha-Joon for a day. He chose thinking it could be anyone. Eun-Yul was the only one who believed it was significant. He spent a night with Kang Ha-Joon thinking he was his designated omega. Kang Ha-Joon had never met Eun-Yul before that night, but he kicked out the omega that wrapped around him that night and touched the main character whom Kang Ha-Joon would love for the rest of his life.
Did he bother looking at him one last time? As a result, Sung Eun-Yul was never a memorable figure for Kang Ha-Joon, and there was no way to identify him.
"What am I doing? I was nervous for no reason."
He was so surprised that exclaimed, "Kang Ha-Joon?" Kang Ha-Joon should have pondered, "Who is this guy?" Eun-Yul trembled feeling the fog in his head had cleared.
"Perhaps it's because I grew up eating my grandmother's food that I'm gaining weight."
Eun-Yul looked at her asking if he was doing something wrong, and only received a pitiful look from his grandmother's eyes.
"Are you not going to pick-up Ha-Neul?"
"Oh, that's right. I'll be back."
Eun-Yul rose from his seat, opened the door to the kitchen wide open, and went out. Lim Bong-Soon, who was putting hangover soup in a bowl, clicked her tongue when she opened the door to the kitchen like breaking it.
"They're breaking everything down because it's not a standard household item."
Lim Bong-Soon shook her head and approached Kang Ha-Joon's table with a tray.
"Eat it."
Kang Ha-Joon examined the hangover soup in front of him and noticed another table with the same dish. Every other table has earthenware pots, but only this one has a regular bowl. A narrow bowl that cannot be used for soup.
"Don't think about sticking your butt and go quickly."
Before Kang Ha-Joon can frown at the store owner's discrimination, Han Cheol-Seung laughed as if it was fun. He didn't get the pot, but he didn't feel bad. He seemed to be a little closer than before, perhaps because he was about to be kicked out as well.
"Are you having fun?"
"There's no reason not to be happy."
Even before Han Cheol-Seung finished laughing, he held up a spoon and stirred the soup.
"Look at this amount, she did not put it on the the earthen pot so it would cool down quickly. I brought it so that you could die of fullness. This is all thanks to me for being a regular customer."
Kang Ha-Joon looked at the bowl with an amazed gaze. So, it's his fault that this plate is changed, and it's thanks to Han Cheol-seung that there's a lot of food?
Kang Ha-Joon also picked up the spoon without realizing it, he was different from usual, biting about trivial things.
A savory smell penetrates his body.
***
"Ha-Neul."
A young boy stepped off the yellow kindergarten bus, clutching his teacher's hand, and looked up. With his wide eyes, round nose, and plump lips, he had a lovely face that made you want to bite just by looking at him. He was so adorable that he burst out laughing when he realized who had called him.
"Daddy!"
When Ha-Neul ran toward him with his arms open, Eun-Yul hugged him. As he was rubbing his cheeks against Ha-Neul's face, He made eye contact and waited for the kindergarten teacher to say hello.
"Did you have a good time?"
"Yes."
"Was it fun?"
"Yes."
After briefly being sidetracked by Ha-Neul's adorable face, Eun-Yul bowed deeply and apologized for grating on the teacher's nerves. The teacher only said hello and left after Ha-Neul confessed to her that he loved her by painting a heart above her head.
"What was fun?"
Eun-Yul lowered Ha-Neul and held out his hand. Ha-Neul held the hand and looked up at Eun-Yul.
"Forest experience."
"Today was the day to experience the forest."
Eun-Yul nodded, thinking of going in and out of the forest attached to the kindergarten once a week. And he stopped when the small hands he was holding did not follow him.
"Huh? Ha-Neul, what's wrong?"
"I can't walk because my legs getting old."
Ha-Neul pulled out his hand and opened his arms again. Perhaps because he was with Lim Bong-Soon for a long time, Ha-Neul often mimicked her.
'My body is too old to move. I don't know how much longer I can endure with this worn-out body, but those rotten humans go as if they don't have hands or feet, why do they keep coming to eat hangover soup?' It is a pure expression from the perspective of a child.
"Then daddy should carry you."
Eun-Yul sat Ha-Neul in his arms after picking him up. When he lifted him, he practically floated, and he burst out laughing. Eun-Yul, who was listening to the child's laughter in his ears, returned his gaze to the Ha-Neul's face.
"It's nice that I'm the only one he saw. If he saw you I would have been in real trouble."
Eun-Yul smiled as if it was nothing at Ha-Neul's blank expression, not knowing what it meant. He was really glad Kang Ha-Joon only saw him. Because Kang Ha-Joon's face was sculpted several times to create the face of heaven.
He recognized Kang Ha-Joon right away thanks to the help of the media, but it is also because of Song Ha-Neul.
"Why did you come out like this? Why are you so cute and lovely?"
That person was bleak, scary, and charismatic.
Eun-Yul tapped Ha-Neul's round nose with his fingertips. In return, Ha-Neul covered his nose as if to protect it.
"You can't do that. It's already round, what if it gets pressed down and becomes more round?"
"Don't worry. It'll go up high if you lose baby fat. The tip of your nose will get sharp, too."
"How does Daddy know that?"
"That's it...."
Because Kang Ha-Joon's nose looks like that... Eun-Yul wanted to say but he couldn't say that.
"Because mine was round like you when I was a child."
"Daddy, yours is still round."
"...."
"And you have baby fat, too. My grandmother said that when she saw us two, she kept getting angry."
"Grandmother Lim Bong-Soon is really...."
Eun-Yul frowned as he wondered where to start. Since he is a grown-up adult, should he just tell him about the muscle, not the baby fat, or should he make an excuse that the tip of his nose is a little round, but on average, it is never a low nose, and Ha-Neul's face will be as big as Kang Ha-Joon....
"Let's not talk about it."
Eun-Yul hugged Ha-Neul. He was going to the restaurant again, but Kang Ha-Joon came to mind.
'Maybe he already left?'
***
"I would leave early today because I have a companion, but next time I'll be here until the sun sets."
Lim Bong-Soon snorted at what Han Cheol-Seung said while calculating. Although he was a great lawmaker in the country, he was treated harshly because he was one of the elderly who had a difference in his feet.
What can a member of the National Assembly say when we are old?
"Then let's go."
Han Cheol-Seung went out first, followed by Kang Ha-Joon, and looked back for a while. He wondered where the young man from earlier went because no other sign of him could be heard from the kitchen.
"Where's your grandson?"
"Grandchild? The one from before?"
When Kang Ha-Joon nodded, Lim Bong-Soon frowned.
"Why do you keep calling that ugly guy my grandchild? You wouldn't say that when you see my face when I'm young...."
"So where is the young man now?"
"There's a line all the way there. It was crowded with people who came to see my face." Kang Ha-Joon's mouth was closed as he heard the endless story of the grandmother's youth that came out of nowhere.
In the end, the young man, could not hear where her grandson went.