Ch.38My Mom Was Awesome (3)

The lunch at the restaurant ended satisfactorily.

I’m not sure how Dad would interpret the meaning of this meal,

but at least during the moment of eating, I think he enjoyed it.

“Phew, that was delicious.”

“Th-thank you for the meal. It was really tasty.”

“Whoa, I got full faster than I expected.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it. Was the portion enough? Since you gave half to Hamin, I thought you might not have had enough.”

“I’m fine. What about you, Mom? You didn’t even touch the eel. Why did you suggest coming here when you don’t like seafood?”

“Mom has ways of getting it all back later.”

Mom placed her chopsticks down on the modest rice bowl and gave Dad a subtle smile.

“Isn’t that right, Doyoung’s father?”

“…”

It seems the eel Mom was after was somewhere else entirely.

“By the way, this is unusual. Doyoung, you refusing food? You’re not like Mom who dislikes seafood. You seemed to be eating well earlier.”

“Haha, I guess I had too much cola and popcorn at the eyewear shop.”

The eel rice bowl served for lunch was quite substantial for a special menu item.

Having just emptied popcorn and cola at the eyewear shop, I wasn’t that hungry.

If I hadn’t given about half to Hamin, I would have ended up wasting this precious meal.

“Well, I can get the shared eel back later, right? Just like Mom.”

“Hehe, you’re looking quite far into the future.”

“I learned from you, Mom.”

Be grateful, future Ban Doyoung who will return to this body.

The harvest of these little crumbs I’m collecting one by one won’t be reaped by me in the end, but by you.

By then, I’ll have reached my conclusion and returned to my original world.

Please let me see that happy smile from the finale celebration on my laptop screen.

“The food was always great. I’ll make sure to visit again next time I’m back in Korea.”

“Thank you, Teacher Junsook. Please come again.”

After Mom took out her card from her wallet and paid the heart-stopping price,

we left the restaurant with satisfied steps and got into the car.

.

.

.

After the meal,

I came out with Hamin to see him off at the subway station we reached in Dad’s car.

“Did you enjoy the eel?”

“Yes. It’s probably one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten in my life. I feel a bit sorry for just eating and leaving, though…”

“It’s fine. From Mom’s perspective, staying at the dojo longer would probably be more troublesome. Our house doesn’t have great soundproofing. We don’t get complaints only because there are no other houses nearby.”

The original plan was to have a light training session at the dojo after getting Hamin’s new glasses,

but Hamin decided to go straight home after lunch, saying he shouldn’t take away time I could spend with my family after so long.

“You won’t get lost on your way back like you did coming here, right? Now that you have new eyes.”

“Oh, I didn’t really get lost coming here. I’m familiar with the route now.”

“Hmm, you shouldn’t say that. You’re missing out on opportunities to pretend you can’t see, don’t know the way, and bury your face in my chest. Isn’t that what you were hoping for today?”

“I never thought of such things…!”

Acting like it never happened when you’ve already done it once.

I’ve already seen it all and even guided you myself.

“Your mother just came back from abroad, you should spend more time with your family. I heard your aunt is going back up soon.”

“Yeah, I think she said her flight is early Tuesday morning.”

Mom would only be staying home for about three days.

Her sudden return to Korea this week was purely for personal reasons.

She hadn’t completely returned home yet.

After all, she couldn’t leave her beloved youngest daughter, only in 8th grade, abroad forever.

As the competition approaches, she’ll need strict care again.

While discipline and education cause stress to the recipient, they cause just as much stress to the one providing them.

Until the next competition, Mom probably needed her own time to recharge.

Only Dad ended up being pitiful.

“Ah, that’s too bad. I wanted to properly break in your new glasses today.”

“If you say things like that carelessly, the master might misunderstand.”

“Heheh, if someone gets scolded, it’ll be me anyway.”

“I-I don’t want you to get scolded because of me.”

“Why would that bother you? It’s not like you’re the one getting scolded.”

“W-well, of course…”

Hamin turned his head away from me, seeming momentarily flustered.

I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him toward me.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“I think others might hear us. Even a model student like you should keep it down. Your voice only gets louder when you’re embarrassed.”

Hamin’s and my faces were close enough for our hair to touch.

Unlike Hamin’s naturally soft voice that only rose when he shouted,

Ban Doyoung’s voice was fundamentally different in its volume and clarity.

Since possessing Ban Doyoung’s body, I’ve been warned several times to keep it down whenever I raised my voice even slightly.

Unless I consciously control it,

my normal speaking voice would likely be clearly audible to those around me.

So I whispered to him in the softest voice I could manage,

in a voice only Hamin, whose shoulder was pressed against my arm, could hear.

“You said you don’t want me to get scolded because of you, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“Then cover for me when that happens.”

So no one else could hear.

So only this guy whose shoulder I was holding could hear.

I gently blew my breath into his ear.

“You’re on my side, aren’t you? Keep being on my side from now on too.”

“Is that… enough?”

“Hmm? You don’t want to be on my side? Then what do you want? The other side?”

“Damn it, there you go again…!”

“Hahaha, look at how quickly your face reacts!”

“Stop laughing!”

I spoke so only he could hear, but

his reaction was so obvious that I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

After that, we sat on the bench for a while, bickering as we waited for the approaching subway.

That day, the time spent waiting for Hamin’s subway felt particularly long.

[The train scheduled to arrive at 2:15 PM has been delayed by 10 minutes and will arrive at 2:25 PM.]

“Oh, the train is delayed.”

Shit, it really was delayed.

“Ugh, what’s this? We’ve already waited 20 minutes, and now we have to wait another 10? Is your train always like this?”

“No, it’s not like this every day. Today’s unusual. Don’t worry about me and go ahead. Your parents are waiting upstairs.”

“…”

A considerate remark from Hamin.

At first, I slightly lifted my butt from the seat, thinking of following his suggestion.

“No, it’s fine.”

-Thud

But I pursed my lips and sat back down in the seat I had just started to leave.

If I were to follow Hamin’s words and go back up the stairs, the 20 minutes we spent waiting together would become meaningless.

“I’m okay with it.”

“No. Then the 20 minutes we waited would be wasted. And… it would be embarrassing to leave right after saying we’re on the same side.”

“…Pfft. You sound like my friends from middle school.”

“What kind of girl was she?”

“…They were boys.”

“Ah, right.”

I was a BL fan, that’s right.

“Here, take this.”

“Huh? What is it?”

Hamin took out a drink can from the bag that contained his uniform and handed it to me.

“What’s this, Zero Lime… Hey, I told you buying from subway stations is a ripoff.”

“No, no. I didn’t buy it here. I bought it at the convenience store near my house. Just like you said, buy one get one free. No ripoff.”

“Then why did you bring this in your bag?”

“Well, I was expecting to get training from you, so I brought my uniform. Naturally, I had to bring the training fee too. At least one can of Zero Lime per lesson. Right?”

I took the cola can he handed me.

The fulfillment of our promise not to buy from price-gouging places like subway stations and vending machines,

and the promise to accept this as payment for teaching him kendo was now in my hands.

“It-it’s gotten a bit lukewarm since more time passed than I expected… Maybe you could drink it while we wait for the delayed train. Oh, no. If it’s too warm, should I get a cold one from the vending machine here instead?”

“No, this is perfect.”

-Tsss

The lukewarm fizz sound as I opened the cola.

I downed the cola he gave me in one go.

I hiccupped as the intermittent carbonation attacked my throat,

making my chest bounce, but I didn’t mind.

“Kaha…”

“A-are you okay?”

“So this is what Hamin tastes like.”

That lukewarm warmth, that weak carbonation.

I emptied what must be the world’s most unappetizing cola

without a single pause.