Ch.175August Bride (6)

“What’s this fluttering feeling in my heart~ For some reason, I just can’t sleep~”

A few days after Doyoung’s group had visited the wedding shop.

Being a relatively quiet weekday morning,

the employee, thinking she was alone in the store, seemed to be in a relaxed mood,

humming a tune while cleaning various corners of the shop.

“No one tells me~ No one teaches me—”

*Chime*

The sound of wind chimes as the shop door opened.

Oh? Customers at this hour were quite rare.

Her senior had gone to the storage room to check on new arrivals,

and the owner had come in earliest this morning, claiming inspiration had struck, and was holed up in the workshop.

So this was definitely a customer.

The employee stopped humming,

composed her excited, lilting voice,

and headed toward the main entrance where the customer had arrived.

“Welcome to Mariage Wedding Shop, where we preserve your most beautiful moments…”

“Ah… hello. Is the owner in by any chance?”

“…Oh.”

*Clang*

The hollow echo of the mop hitting the tiled floor.

Surprised by the unexpected visitor, the employee had dropped the mop she was holding.

“It’s… it’s really her…”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s the legendary bride!”

“Pardon…?”

The youngest employee’s near-scream echoed throughout the shop, drowning out the clatter of the fallen mop.

Chuk Joonsook, the legendary bride who had graced the entrance of Mariage Wedding Shop for 25 years.

This was the moment she was revisiting the shop in person.

“M-ma’am…! This is an emergency! The legendary bride has come to see you in person…! Oh my!”

The youngest employee slipped and tumbled across the very tiles she had polished to a shine.

…

“It’s been a while, ma’am.”

“Indeed. How long has it been, Joonsook?”

“Since we properly faced each other… 25 years, I suppose.”

“If we include that time you ran away out of embarrassment after making eye contact with me, then it’s been 10 years since we last met, right?”

“…You remember that.”

“How could I forget the benefactor of our shop?”

The owner welcomed Joonsook, who had come as a customer, in her office-cum-workshop on the second floor of the store.

Unlike the owner who was clearly delighted to see Joonsook, Joonsook herself seemed slightly shy in her demeanor toward the owner, contrary to her usually composed attitude.

“How is it so hard to see your face when we live in the same area? I haven’t caught even a glimpse of you these past few years.”

“I was abroad for a while recently because of my youngest child’s studies. And besides…”

Joonsook hesitantly glanced at the frames hanging on the wall behind the owner.

“With all those photos at the shop entrance, how could I muster the courage to visit?”

“Oh, don’t be so shy.”

“You went overboard, ma’am.”

Sure enough, as expected, the frames hanging in the owner’s workshop were filled with photos of Joonsook in wedding dresses.

“So you stopped coming to this area altogether because of the photos at the shop entrance? Afraid someone might recognize you? You secretly have a celebrity complex, don’t you?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then why did you run away like you’d done something wrong when we bumped into each other in front of our shop 10 years ago? I was quite hurt, you know.”

“Well… Doyoung was with me and she saw the photos and started loudly announcing to the entire neighborhood, ‘Mommy’s boobies are everywhere!'”

“Hahaha! Your daughter is the best, absolutely the best! I knew there was a reason my inspiration exploded!”

Whether she was happy that her eye for talent hadn’t been wrong,

or simply genuinely enjoying Joonsook’s story,

tears of laughter welled up in the owner’s eyes.

“So how could I dare come here directly? You’re still using those old photos for promotion even now…”

“You agreed to be our promotional model in exchange for not paying for the dress, remember?”

“Yes, but I never imagined those photos would hang there for 25 years.”

“That just means I haven’t found anyone who could be my persona like you in 25 years.”

“Come on, I’m turning 50 soon. I’m a plump ajumma with three kids. You shouldn’t say such things. And ‘legendary bride’? Once Solyoung gets married and Solmi is born next year, I’ll be a grandmother, you know?”

“What kind of grandmother would you be? I’m still far from becoming one myself.”

The owner laughed heartily, alternating her gaze between the Joonsook in the framed photos and the Joonsook standing before her now.

“If you’re uncomfortable, how about trying on your wedding dress again while you’re here? It would be nice to reminisce, wouldn’t it?”

“I see right through your subtle attempt to recruit me as a model again. I told you before. Wearing a wedding dress once, at my wedding with the kids’ father, was enough.”

“Hmm… I suppose it might be difficult for you now. What good is it if your chest fits but your waist doesn’t?”

“What…? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’ve become a plump ajumma, just as you said.”

“I never said I couldn’t wear it because I gained weight. If I wanted to, even now I could…”

*Knock knock*

A gentle knock interrupted the two old friends’ conversation.

The youngest employee entered the workshop with coffee and snacks for the owner and Joonsook.

“Ex-excuse me, ma’am. I brought some coffee and snacks.”

“Oh, perfect timing! That’s our youngest for you. Serve Joonsook first; she must be parched from all the embarrassment.”

“I-I see! And I brought hot coffee without realizing! I’ll go change it to iced right away!”

“No, no. I like it warm, so please just give it to me as is. I’ll enjoy it.”

“Oh, I see…!”

The youngest employee, who was about to make a U-turn, returned to her original destination after Joonsook’s reassurance and placed the coffee cups and snack basket on the table.

“H-here’s your coffee! Please be careful, it’s hot…!”

The teaspoon on top of the coffee cup in the youngest employee’s hand rattled noisily.

The trembling in her hands clearly revealed her nervousness at meeting the legendary bride in person for the first time after only seeing her in photos.

“Thank you. Mmm, the coffee is really delicious.”

“Th-thank you…! It’s such an honor to meet the legendary bride in person after only being able to see you in the photos at the entrance!”

“That seems like a bit of an overreaction to me just saying the coffee tastes good…”

“…Hehe.”

A mischievous smile formed on the owner’s lips as she watched the youngest employee continuing to gaze at Joonsook with admiring eyes.

“Joonsook, do you know what our youngest wrote as her motivation when she applied for this job?”

“M-ma’am… that’s—!”

“She wrote that she was captivated by how beautiful the bride in the entrance photos was when she was young, and that’s why she applied…”

“Aack! I left the mop on the shop floor! That could be offensive to brides who visit! P-please continue your conversation comfortably! I’ll go back to finish the rest of my cleaning!”

The youngest employee covered her reddened face with the tray and fled back to the shop floor.

She wasn’t old enough to be going through menopause.

“See? That’s how much influence you’ve had on our shop without even realizing it.”

“Stop it, you’re making me more embarrassed.”

“Hahaha, this is great. Both the one giving the compliment and the one receiving it are blushing bright red.”

Joonsook fanned her heated face with her hand to cool down.

She was old enough to be going through menopause.

“But you finally came to visit in person now.”

“It’s not that I disliked you and avoided coming, ma’am. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have recommended this shop to Solyoung’s partner. I was just… embarrassed, that’s all.”

“You’re not embarrassed now, are you? You must have seen that the photos have changed when you entered the shop.”

“Of course I saw. I thought they would never change, so I’m quite relieved.”

At the entrance of Mariage Wedding Shop that Doyoung’s group had visited, a new photo was now displayed prominently.

It was the first time in 25 years that Joonsook’s photo, which had brightly adorned the shop’s entrance, had been replaced with another bride’s photo.

“The new display is getting a great response too. If our shop were in a slightly busier commercial area, I bet the marriage and birth rates in our neighborhood would have skyrocketed.”

“…It seems so. Everyone appears to be viewing it favorably.”

Joonsook watched people strolling around the wedding shop through the workshop window.

Though she couldn’t hear their voices, their bright expressions gave her a good idea of the conversations taking place.

After all, the reaction had been similar when her own photo was first displayed at the shop entrance.

“You managed to persuade my kids quite skillfully.”

“‘Persuade’ sounds so unfair. I paid a fair price and hired them properly.”

“I think if you had made the same offer to me back then, my child wouldn’t have accepted so easily.”

“Right? Even though I offered twice the usual rate for fitting models, she didn’t immediately agree and thought about it. Then Doyoung made a proposal.”

“…What kind of proposal?”

“She said she would do it if the groom model was ‘Hamin.'”

The owner showed Joonsook a couple photo saved on her phone.

It was the same photo that had newly replaced Joonsook’s at the shop entrance.

“You look quite proud.”

“Of course, a new persona that inspires fresh creativity is always welcome. I even gave this piece a special title, in the style of today’s youth.”

“…In the style of today’s youth?”

…

“‘A Couple with Only a Pure Love Ending’… what do you think of the title?”

“Is that really in the style of today’s youth?”

“I don’t know, that’s what Doyoung said.”