Ch.41My Mom Was Awesome (6)

“Huk… Huk. Sister Joonsook, no, Doyoung’s mom. Just a moment… let me rest a bit.”

In the midst of the white breath rising softly above the bed, Semiconductor, Doyoung’s father, laid his aching body on the bed, covered with red marks all over.

“Phew… Would you like me to bring you some water?”

“Mmm… please do. I can’t put any strength in my waist right now.”

“It’s okay, just wait a bit. I’ll bring it right away.”

Joonsook, Doyoung’s mother, gazed with a gentle smile at her husband who was panting as if completely exhausted. She gave Doche a light kiss and quietly left the bedroom for the kitchen.

“Here, drink it slowly so you don’t get indigestion.”

“At my age, would I really get indigestion from drinking water carelessly?”

Joonsook handed a glass to her husband while sitting on the bed. Doche replenished the sweat he had lost with the cup Joonsook brought.

“Haah… I can finally catch my breath. Don’t you want to drink too?”

“I’m fine. I’m already filled up down below.”

“Pfft! Kuhuk!”

“I told you to drink slowly.”

“It’s your fault, noona!”

“Hehe, you’re so cute.”

The mandatory defense battle between husband and wife after six months. The result was always Doche’s defeat, as he was the first to run out of energy and collapse.

“Anyway, I have to give credit to your steel-like stamina.”

Putting down the cup he received from Joonsook on the dresser, Doche straightened his back with effort and sat next to Joonsook on the bed.

“I even increased my exercise for a week knowing you were coming today, but I’m still no match for you.”

As the master of a kendo dojo, he never neglected his training. This time, he had been notified of her return date in advance and had made preparations, replenishing his energy and all.

If he was really lucky today, perhaps he might see that tigress-like, brave and alluring Joonsook surrender first.

Moreover, today he had succeeded in somewhat depleting Joonsook’s stamina thanks to her match with their daughter Doyoung, so he thought he might have a slight chance of victory.

Such well-founded confidence supported him.

But the memory of repeated defeats in bed broke Doche’s spirit in half as soon as he saw Joonsook’s face at the airport, and once again, he was the one who collapsed first on the bed.

“It’s amazing that you’re still so energetic after taking an early morning flight, and then having a two-hour match with Doyoung in the afternoon.”

“When I’m doing what I love with people I love, I don’t get tired at all. Whether it’s practicing kendo with my beloved daughter or cuddling with my husband.”

“I guess… It must have been a long time since you’ve seen Doyoung practicing kendo. How was it? Crossing swords with Doyoung like that?”

Joonsook answered Doche’s question with a momentary smile on her lips. Perhaps because the room had been full of humid heat until just now, there was a slight moisture in the corners of Joonsook’s eyes.

“…It was good. Really. I never thought such a day would come again. I never even dreamed that she would spar with me so happily like that…”

“So that’s why your wallet opened so easily. You were happy that your daughter wanted to spar. And it wasn’t even your wallet, but mine.”

“Oh my, if you’re going to be stingy about giving your daughter allowance, you’ll never be called a good father. Besides, we compromised on 100,000 won, didn’t we?”

“Who knows what would have happened if you had exerted even a little less strength.”

Since Joonsook spent long periods abroad, managing the family finances fell to Doche.

“I wanted to let her win after about 10 rounds, but seeing Doyoung putting her heart into it, I found myself taking her seriously too.”

“That kid Doyoung. She’s always hated losing, then and now. If only she’d put that much effort into studying.”

“I think she does need to review the theory a bit. Her body remembers, but she seems to have forgotten some of the rules.”

“Ahaha, she’ll do well with that too, no doubt. She’s so enthusiastic that she’s volunteering to be Hamin’s teacher without even being asked.”

“…If that’s the case, then I’m truly glad.”

The couple exchanged light conversation on the bed. The topic that always made them bloom with laughter was stories about their children, their fruits of life.

Of course, what also brought tears to their eyes was, likewise, always stories about their children.

“It still feels like a dream. When I think about what I did to Doyoung… I wonder if I deserve this happiness.”

“What are you saying, Doyoung’s mom?”

Startled by Joonsook’s sudden words, Doche comforted her shoulder and asked her.

“Actually, I was a bit worried. When you came to the airport alone, you said Doyoung was paying for Hamin’s broken glasses, so you came by yourself, right?”

“Y-yes, that’s what happened.”

“When I first heard that, I thought: What if Doyoung doesn’t want to see me? What if she deliberately broke her friend’s glasses to avoid meeting me?”

“No, how can you say that? Doyoung might play rough sometimes, but she’s not the kind of child who would do such a thing. There was no problem between you two today, so why?”

“That’s right. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case… but I still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was awkward.”

Mom.

Doyoung, meeting her mother after a long time, addressed her affectionately and intimately. A daughter calling her mother affectionately shouldn’t feel awkward at all.

But that warmly spoken word “Mom” felt strange to Joonsook.

However, Joonsook deliberately didn’t show that she felt awkward with Doyoung. Instead, she actively reciprocated her daughter’s playfulness and tried to laugh along with her.

Revealing the strange discomfort she was feeling would be dismissing Doyoung’s efforts to show an affectionate side for her and the family.

“You… you were thinking that deeply about it?”

“Of course. I’m a bad mother who doesn’t deserve such treatment from Doyoung.”

And the discomfort she felt clearly came from her own sense of inadequacy as a parent.

**

Joonsook’s family had been involved in kendo since her father’s generation, running a dojo. She too taught her children what she had learned from her father since childhood.

‘In kendo stance, the sword must always be centered on the right hand and right foot, with no exceptions.’

‘If you hold the sword with your left hand, your left foot also steps forward, bringing your heart—a weakness—closer to the enemy.’

‘Therefore, being left-handed is disadvantageous in kendo.’

These were the words she passed on to her children, who might have inherited her kendo talent, or perhaps even greater talent. Joonsook taught them as she had learned from her father.

And those words naturally became constraints for Doyoung, who had kendo talent but wasn’t born right-handed.

‘Mom will take care of you. I’ll be right beside you.’

‘Doyoung, you want to be good at kendo too, don’t you?’

‘It’s okay, if you just change that hand, you’ll surely become an even better athlete than mom and dad.’

Doyoung loved her mom and dad, and she loved kendo—the catalyst for her parents’ meeting and what they taught her.

Though it took quite a long time, under her mother’s thorough training, Doyoung gradually changed her dominant hand from left to right.

Through countless repetitions, she learned to move like a right-handed person in the dojo and repeated those postures many times more than others to avoid moving like a left-handed person.

It was the same in daily life. By forcing her to write notes with her right hand or eat with her right hand, they naturally made her dominant hand shift from left to right.

The amount of notebooks she filled with writing practice could have filled the entire dojo and more, incomparable to the punishment writing assignments given at school.

Even if she disliked studying, she couldn’t help but develop beautiful handwriting.

Slowly, gradually, Doyoung changed from being left-handed to right-handed.

But innate qualities one is born with cannot easily change with time or training.

She could desperately rise to a certain level, but in sparring matches that required quick judgment, Doyoung’s limitations eventually showed.

The day this was proven was when she suffered a crushing defeat in a match against her younger sibling who had started kendo two years after her.

Against a sibling who had inherited the kendo talent and was born right-handed.

Just like today’s match between Doyoung and Joonsook.

“It was the day Siyoung beat Doyoung in a match. That’s when Doyoung said she would quit kendo. Because Doyoung quit, the kendo scholarship that was originally meant for her went to Siyoung instead.”

“…”

“…After telling her so persistently that she could do it, that she could be the best, I ended up choosing Siyoung, who had more talent, instead of Doyoung.”

“Why do you think of it that way? Doyoung herself said it was better for Siyoung to go than for her to go, and both of them accepted the conclusion.”

“Yes, but accepting the result doesn’t make the resentment disappear.”

Joonsook’s once proud shoulders gradually hunched as her true feelings emerged.

“When I met Doyoung today, I was prepared for her not to treat me as her mother. I would have understood. I’m a mother who deserves such treatment from that child.”

Joonsook had anticipated the worst possible reunion with Doyoung. She thought she deserved it and steeled herself.

But the Doyoung she reunited with after a long time showed no hatred toward her, no resentment toward a mother who had shaken up her life only to choose her more talented sibling and run away.

Even during their sparring match, Joonsook found only pure competitive spirit in Doyoung, not resentment toward herself.

She had thought that as they continued to spar, at some point, the child’s true feelings would emerge through her sword.

But even throughout those 40 rounds, Doyoung never once showed a left-handed habit. When she saw Doyoung, fueled solely by competitive spirit, thrusting at her chest as a right-hander, even Joonsook momentarily froze, wondering if she was seeing things.

“The way she called me was so affectionate, and so pure as if she knew nothing, that it scared me. What if this child is pretending to be a kind and affectionate daughter toward me? What if she doesn’t really think I’m a good mother, but is showing a friendly and affectionate daughter’s face for the sake of family harmony?”

If she couldn’t avoid her mother coming home, then just give up.

For the sake of family peace.

Be an affectionate daughter to mom.

Become right-handed as mom wanted.

Love kendo as mom does.

The discomfort Joonsook felt from the reunited Doyoung made her think that she might have become not just an object of resentment but an object of resignation for Doyoung.

“If Doyoung really feels that way about me, what should I do… Is it okay to pretend to be a good mother like today, as if nothing happened?”

“Joonsook noona.”

“Yes…?”

-Thwack

Doche picked up a mini shinai from the drawer and hit Joonsook on the head.

“I should have aimed for the head from the beginning.”

“Doche, what are you doing?”

“Noona, go sleep in Doyoung’s room tonight.”

“…Huh?”

“Instead of sitting here alone imagining our good Doyoung’s mother creating a bad daughter with grudges, go see for yourself what kind of daughter our daughter is.”

It was a first for the couple—Doche driving Joonsook out of the room.

…

Joonsook headed to Doyoung’s room on the third floor.

What words should she use to start the conversation?

Should she pretend to be the same untroubled mother as during the day?

With such concerns, Joonsook carefully knocked on Doyoung’s door.

-Knock knock

“Doyoung, are you sleeping? Can we talk for a bit?”

Joonsook carefully opened Doyoung’s closed door.

-Thump!

Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps approached the door.

“Oh, Mom…? Why at this hour?”

Doyoung greeted Joonsook through a small opening in the door, showing just her face. Despite the chilly early spring weather, Doyoung’s face was inexplicably flushed, and beads of sweat dotted her forehead.

“Well… I wanted to talk to you for a bit… But Doyoung.”

Joonsook lowered her gaze, scanning Doyoung through the gap in the door.

“Why are you only wearing a top…? Where are your underwear?”

“Ah….”

The problem with Doyoung’s house was its poor soundproofing.