Ch.385385. As Always, Together with Someone Precious. [End]

Sometimes when I close my eyes, I remember it occasionally. The image of myself and Hwa Nabi when we first met and had playful conversations.

Looking back, we were so innocent then. Blushing when our faces got a little close, flinching nervously when our bodies barely touched.

And then. If by chance I was about to hold her hand, I’d get so tense, anxiously worrying whether my sweaty palms would leave moisture on Hwa Nabi’s hand.

Yes, in my memories, we were that innocent. But apparently, Hwa Nabi, who shares these same memories with me, saw things differently.

“Husband, what are you talking about? I had my eye on you from the moment I realized you were my fiancé.”

“…What do you mean you ‘had your eye on me’?”

“What else? I mean I thought to myself, ‘Oh, I like this guy. I need to make him mine.’ Didn’t you notice all along?”

“…”

It’s not like I can read other people’s minds. How was I supposed to notice if she didn’t say anything?

I stared at her in bewilderment, and Hwa Nabi looked back at me with a smile.

“What, you really didn’t know? Husband, you were so clueless. Ah, well. If you had noticed, you wouldn’t have pulled away like this back then.”

Hwa Nabi pointed to one of the old photos in the album. Looking at it, I saw it was a cozy selfie of us taken in Jeju Island during our first year of high school.

“Wait a minute. So you’re saying you didn’t know I was giving you signals that I wanted to kiss you? No wonder you kept acting like a block of wood. You weren’t playing hard to get—you genuinely didn’t know!”

“What are you talking about? When did you ever give me such signals?”

“I kissed you on the cheek! When a woman makes the first move like that, shouldn’t a man step up and, you know, take it from there?”

She must be talking about that selfie with the cheek kiss we took while dating. It’s a vivid memory, but at the time, I had no idea that’s what her kiss meant.

What did I think back then? Hmm, I probably thought vaguely that she was just teasing me.

No, that’s not it. I knew she wouldn’t kiss me if she didn’t like me at all, so I think I just assumed she had some positive feelings for me.

“…Don’t you know how dangerous the world is these days? Kiss someone without consent and you’ll end up at the police station. That’s why I deliberately held back even though I knew.”

I thought I’d made a reasonable excuse, but she tapped my shoulder as if to say “don’t give me that nonsense.” It didn’t hurt since there was no force behind it, but I took the hint and kept quiet.

“Be honest, you didn’t know, right?”

“No, I really did know! I deliberately…”

“Don’t lie. There wasn’t the slightest hint that you knew. And besides, if I hadn’t asked you first how you felt about me that day, would you have ever kissed me?”

“…”

Well, I might have thought it was a shame to let the moment pass, but I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to go that far, so I would have just let it slide.

“You wouldn’t have, right?”

“Hmm, I guess not.”

“See? That proves it! Our relationship was created by me, not you.”

“Well, I agree to some extent… but not completely. I was the one who confessed first.”

I flipped through several pages of the album, pointing at photos of Hwa Nabi and me taken during our first year high school festival.

Photos taken at school, group photos with classmates. Photos taken with close friends, and in the back section, I could see photos we took together the night I confessed to Hwa Nabi and stayed overnight at her house, pictures taken before we went to sleep.

“You really liked shower robes back then too.”

“Yes, they look good, don’t they? They’re sexy because they cover yet don’t cover at the same time.”

“Speaking of which, do you know how difficult that made things for me…?”

It might sound perverted, but something partially covered is actually more provocative than being completely naked. It’s the aesthetics of concealment that only men can appreciate.

I can’t explain in detail for the sake of my dignity, but anyway, during our school days, Hwa Nabi would often come out wearing just a shower robe when we were alone. Seeing that made all kinds of thoughts run through my mind… to put it simply, it was hard to resist.

Think about it. I was a vigorous teenage high school student in my prime.

Self-control… well, I’m not particularly strong in that department even now. Back in high school, I had even less of it.

So it was really torturous. I shouldn’t touch her. 9 o’clock news, front page headlines, irreparable incident, broken engagement, public shame… such keywords swirled in my head, while another part of me kept tempting: wouldn’t once be okay? If we use protection properly, if we don’t cause any accidents…

Well, it really turned my mind upside down. It felt like I would die from holding back then, but looking back now, I think I did the right thing by restraining myself.

“Nabi, you probably didn’t realize it because you weren’t self-aware, but I was really fighting the devil’s temptation. Every night I was afraid I might not be able to control my impulses and do something to you…”

“Then why didn’t you just pounce on me?”

Did I hear that wrong? I blinked, confused, and Hwa Nabi rested her chin on her palm and looked up at me with raised eyebrows.

“That’s why I dressed so provocatively.”

“…What did you say?”

“Do you know how frustrated I was when all you did was kiss me even though I was half-dressed, practically begging you to touch me? Honestly, I couldn’t sleep at night wondering if you had some kind of sexual dysfunction…”

“…”

“If I had known you were such a prude, I would have pounced on you myself the day you confessed to me. Then we would have naturally progressed much further, but I hesitated for a moment because of your sweet talk and couldn’t eat you u—”

“…What were you about to say just now?”

“Huh? What do you mean? What did I say?”

I thought I heard something inappropriate—something that sounded like “eat.” I narrowed my eyes at her, and Hwa Nabi obviously cleared her throat and changed the subject.

“Well, anyway, it all worked out in the end, right? We didn’t have any accidents along the way, and now we’re living together like this.”

“As for not having accidents, we did have our first child when we were barely twenty.”

Flipping a few more pages in the album, I could see photos of us taken at the hospital before Woohee was born, and then photos of the three of us taken after Woohee was born.

Seeing the photos seemed to bring back memories, and Hwa Nabi laughed softly with nostalgic eyes.

“Ah, so cute back then.”

“Who, Woohee?”

Is she saying Woohee isn’t cute now? I asked without thinking, but Hwa Nabi shook her head.

“No, you! Look at your face in this photo with me. You’re so tense, with your lips tightly pressed together.”

“Ah, that…”

Of course I was tense. It’s not just anyone, but my woman about to give birth to my child—if you’re not nervous in that situation, are you even human?

Whatever the reason, I was indeed nervous, so I pretended not to hear and quickly flipped through the album.

“Oh? These are baby photos of Woocheon.”

“Nabi, did we have Woocheon at the same hospital as Woohee?”

“Yes, right? Not just Woocheon, we had Woojin at the same place too.”

“Ah, that’s right. It’s already been two years, so my memory is a bit hazy.”

In the photo, I’m holding our third child, Woojin, with a bright smile. Judging by the angle, it seems Hwa Nabi secretly took the picture from the side.

“Woojin, who was like this, will soon be three years old. Time flies, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, time really has passed quickly.”

It feels like just yesterday that we visited the naming office for Woohee, but she’s already in third grade.

Feeling the swift passage of time, I glanced at Hwa Nabi.

I don’t know if it’s just my perception, but she seems to have become much more beautiful than when I first met her.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Huh? What’s wrong with my eyes?”

“Right now, you look like you’re having very lewd thoughts.”

How did she know? Though I was already caught, I pretended not to know anything and gently embraced her.

She didn’t seem to mind my advances, and although she made a show of pulling her hips back, she didn’t actually retreat.

“Nabi.”

“Yes?”

“Should we make a fourth child?”

“I don’t mind… but are you sure? You haven’t been eating well lately, so you seem quite weak.”

“Well, you can check that for yourself.”

How exactly would she check? There was no detailed explanation, but both of us understood. Seeing Hwa Nabi shyly nod, I didn’t hesitate to lift her up in my arms—

—BANG!

“Mom, Woojin is sleeping.”

…I put her back down just before lifting her.

“Oh? Ah, yes. Thank you for helping mom. Thank you, Woohee.”

“…Woohee, would you like dad to make you some citron tea?”

“What? Oh, yes. Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”

I jumped up and headed to the kitchen. Where was the citron?

As I rummaged around with my back half-turned to Hwa Nabi and Woohee, the look-alike mother and daughter sat close together and began browsing through the album.

“Oh? Is this an album that mom and dad made?”

“Yes, it’s an album of photos mom and dad have taken since we were students. Look at this, it’s dad when he was in high school. Isn’t he handsome?”

“Wow, he looks like a celebrity…! Dad, is this really you?”

“Mom’s right there next to me, isn’t she? It’s definitely me.”

I put citron in a mug, added lukewarm water to make citron tea, and handed it to Woohee.

After sipping the citron tea, Woohee stared intently at our wedding photo where Hwa Nabi and I were embracing affectionately, then asked with a curious face:

“Is this a photo taken at mom and dad’s wedding?”

“Yes, that’s right. Doesn’t mom look beautiful?”

“Yes, mom looks like a celebrity on TV!”

Seeing how excited she is looking at the album, she’s definitely a child. I gently patted Woohee’s head as she spoke adorably, then lowered my gaze toward the album. Looking at it like this, we really do have a lot of memories.

They say that in the end, all that remains with the passage of time are photos, and that’s really true. As I was reminiscing about what happened during our wedding photoshoot and slowly turning the pages, Woohee tapped the back of my hand.

“Dad.”

“What is it, Woohee?”

“Dad, why did you marry mom?”

“Hmm… why did I marry mom?”

I glanced at Hwa Nabi. Our story, filled with our memories. My gaze held a question—would it be okay to tell this to Woohee, our daughter?

“Oh, I’m curious too. Yes, husband. Why did you marry me?”

Hwa Nabi asked mischievously with a bright smile. It was essentially permission. I tapped my cheek with my finger, pondering.

Where should I begin this long story filled with our memories?

“Woohee.”

“Yes, dad.”

“This is a story from when dad and mom became first-year high school students…”

The End.