Chapter 54: Mr. Dojin, what do you like about our Dasom?

A muscular man, seemingly about 2 meters tall, approached me, thumping his crutches.
To be honest, to call it muscle was an understatement; it was more like a rock. Even my personal trainer, who had been working out for a long time, wasn’t that big.

Soon, the man stopped in front of me and looked down at me with a cold gaze. No, it would be more accurate to say that he was beating me with his gaze.

But I couldn’t back down. First impressions are half the battle. If I made a bad impression here, things would get tough from now on.
Having made up my mind, I twisted my frozen-stiff eyes and opened my mouth.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Father, Mother.”

“Father…?”

A heavy voice shook my ears, but I ignored it and put on the business smile I had been practicing.
Yes, if I were to back down here, I wouldn’t have accepted such an offer in the first place.

“Yes, Father. I’m Yu Dojin, currently dating your daughter.”
“…”

After examining my body from head to toe with a sharp gaze for a moment, Father turned around and walked towards the living room.

His movements were much faster and rougher than before, and the crutches creaked and groaned under his weight. The marks on the floor looked like bruises.

No, this wasn’t the time to just stand there blankly. I held out the shopping bag to Mother, who was watching me with her hand over her mouth, and bowed my head.

“Mother, please accept this.”

“Oh my, oh my, oh my. What, what is this? You didn’t have to get me anything.”

I continued in a apologetic tone to Mother, who was pushing away the shopping bag as if troubled.

“No, please. This is also a token of my apology for putting it off day after day, saying I was too shy to visit sooner. Please accept it.”

“Ah, okay. I’ll take it, so lift your head. It’s not something to be so sorry about.”

Mother said, slapping Dasom’s back.

“I bet you couldn’t come because she was being stubborn.”

“Uh, Mom…!”

“Be quiet, what did you do so well? Is it right not to show your face even once when you’re dating such a fine young man? How nice it would have been if you had brought him sooner.”

I stepped in front of Dasom, who was clutching her back and whimpering.

“It’s a misunderstanding, Mother. Unni consistently tried to introduce me, but I refused because I’m very shy.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, so if you’re going to scold someone—”

“Oh my, oh my, he’s handsome and he speaks so beautifully.”

Suddenly, the world turned white. My head was cloudy, and my back felt like it had been struck by lightning.

“Oh, I’m so happy. Come often from now on, okay?”

“Yes, yes… I will come often, yes, I have to.”

As I answered through gritted teeth, Dasom rushed over and stroked my back.

“Oh, what should I do, Dojin? Does it hurt a lot? Mom! Why did you hit a perfectly fine person? What if he gets a bruise…”

“Oh my, oh my, oh my. I’m sorry. Did it hurt a lot? I just touched him lightly…”

“Yes, yes. It doesn’t hurt at all. Haha.”

A light touch. I see, it was a light touch.
As I secretly wiped away the cold sweat dripping from my forehead, I soon noticed that the vibrations that had been shaking the floor as if to break it had subsided.

Just then, a loud crash, as if something had been thrown, came from inside. It was a sound similar to what you’d hear when weightlifters drop their barbells at the Olympics.

Startled by the sudden loud noise, we were about to rush into the living room when Father emerged from inside, in a wheelchair, with a creaking sound.

…Could a wheelchair move that fast?

Soon, Father stopped in front of me and gripped my hand with his house-sized hand.

“Nice to meet you, nice to meet you. I’m Dasom’s father. I didn’t get to greet you properly earlier. Your name was… Yu Dojin, was it?”

I almost screamed reflexively at the pain, as if every knuckle was being crushed and stirred.
Suppressing the groan that rose in my throat, I answered.

“…Yes.”

“Ah, my apologies. This, I can’t even remember a person’s name properly… The great Lee Taehwan is all but dead.”

“No, no, not at all.”

“But it’s somewhat your fault too.”

Father said that and started shaking our clasped hands up and down roughly, and my shoulders began to creak and shake precariously.

“You know, you can’t just call someone ‘Father’ with such a cheerful attitude when they’re not mentally prepared. Huh? Did you do it on purpose to make me happy? I was trying to show my dignity as a father, but how can I resist if you come out like that?”

“I’m sorry, ugh, I’m sorry.”

“Wow, my daughter has caught a big one. There was a reason she wouldn’t even glance at all the men in the country. Right, how could she be satisfied when she has a man like this by her side!”

“Daddyyy!”

Dasom, who shouted and pushed her father away, blew on the back of my hand and spoke.

“Dojin, can you feel me touching you? Does it hurt anywhere?”

“Uh, uh…”

“Ah, look at how red it is. What should I do… No, what if you suddenly grab the hand of a kid who’s all skin and bones! What if it breaks, really…”

At those words, Father awkwardly rubbed his philtrum with his index finger and then looked at me with a worried expression.

“Of course not. It didn’t hurt at all. Haha.”

“See? He said it didn’t hurt at all.”

Father, who had pushed Dasom away, gripped my hand tightly again.

“Wow, thanks to my daughter, I’m having a decent conversation for the first time in 10 years. It’s so refreshing to hear someone speak their mind so clearly like this. Nowadays, young men just mumble in front of people, I don’t know what they’re so dissatisfied about.”

“Yes, ugh, thank you, for thinking so highly of me.”

After a long handshake, Father finally let go of my hand with a satisfied smile.
My pinky finger feels strangely wobbly, but it must be my imagination. Probably.

As I secretly clenched and unclenched my right hand, Mother suddenly started tapping the wheelchair Father was sitting in with her finger.

“No, you were the one who insisted on using crutches, saying you’d lose muscle if you used this. Why did you suddenly come out in a wheelchair?”

“Well, you see, my armpits were getting sore from using crutches all day, so I couldn’t hold our Dojin-ssi’s hand. And besides, if I sit, we can see each other at eye level, so it’s a win-win.”

“You, you really.”

Mother chuckled at those words and nodded.

“Then what was that noise earlier? I was so surprised, I thought you had fallen.”

“Ah, that…”

Father glanced at the living room at the end of the hallway and continued.

“Well, the crutches, you know. I was just trying to put them down gently, but I guess I got too excited and used too much force.”

The sound of crutches, he said.
It hadn’t even been 20 minutes since I entered this house, but the common sense I had built up over 20 years was crumbling in 5-minute intervals.

****

“How old did you say our Dojin-ssi was?”

A voice came from the passenger seat while I was driving. It was Father.

“I’m twenty-eight this year.”

“Then how are you already driving a car like this?”

“Ah, it’s not my car, I rented it.”

“No, then you could have just come in your own car or Dasom’s car. Why waste money renting such an expensive car?”

I had been waiting for this question.
I smiled awkwardly, as if embarrassed, and opened my mouth.

“Since I’m escorting you, I wanted to treat you with the best possible conditions.”

“Really?”

“I have to earn as many points as possible to have a chance to visit you again, right?”

Father laughed heartily at my words.

“You, you… You’re honest, I like that.”

After a light nod, I focused on driving again, but this time, a voice came from the back seat.

“Um, can I ask something too?”

Mother’s shyly smiling face was reflected in the rearview mirror.

Perhaps because of her incredibly white skin for someone over 50, she looked more like Dasom’s aunt or an older sister with a significant age gap when she was next to her.
Now that I looked, her hairstyle was also quite stylish.

As I smiled and nodded, Mother spoke in an excited voice.

“Dojin-ssi, what do you like about our Dasom?”

At that moment, with a “puhap” sound, countless droplets of saliva flew out of Dasom’s mouth.