episode_0074

Two days have passed since I returned from vacation.

Today is the first day I tutor Sae-ah.

I thought about teaching him quietly at my desk in my room.

He was sitting in the living room, leaving the comfortable desk behind, spreading out a table and teaching us to study.

The reason is my mother and mother-in-law who are behind me.

The mother was curious about how her son-in-law taught his studies, and the mother-in-law was curious about whether her son-in-law was really teaching well.

Even now, I feel like there are eyes staring at me from behind, so I am teaching my older sister.

It was my mother and mother-in-law who held back their itch for a long time before speaking.

“Son. Isn’t it really natural? Why are you teaching me so well when it’s my first time teaching you?”

“I’m just telling you what I know.”

I did private tutoring for several years to make a living in my previous life, but it was something I couldn’t reveal.

“Son-in-law! There aren’t any books at home. How on earth do you know that?”

“I found out while reading a positive older sister’s book.”

My mother-in-law was sharper than my mother.

Actually, the one I don’t know the most is Sae-ah Noona.

My older sister, Sae-ah, has known that I know the college entrance exam questions for the past three years, but she has never asked me about it in detail.

Of course, he kept his promise for 3 years and I trust him enough, but if it were me, I would ask him the opposite.

The way he doesn’t ask about it at all.

I wonder if he believes he is a genius like his positive older sister.

I have no idea what the hell he’s thinking.

It’s not really a problem, and even if you say it somewhere, it’ll just look strange, but it won’t be a problem.

I’m more curious about what my older sister is thinking.

“Son-in-law. Then how far can you solve it, son-in-law?”

“Huh? Haha, I can only solve high school level problems. ”

“How is this really possible? This is so amazing?”

“…..”

“This is all because my son resembles me since he was little~”

“Madam, the kids are studying. I’ll listen later. Haha.”

“Ah. Right. I have to study.”

The mother-in-law and mother, who had sharply cut off the mother’s boasting about her son, became quiet again.

After telling me a total of two hours, the study session ended.

“Thanks to my son-in-law, I won’t have to go to Sae-ah’s academy?”

“I will continue to learn from Jaehoon in the future.”

“Yeah. I’m sure your son-in-law and daughter will do well.”

My mother-in-law said she liked the way I taught her. She liked it quite a bit.

“Son-in-law! Is there anything you want to eat? You’re teaching Sae-ah how to study, so you should at least feed her well.”

“Because my older sister did the studying. Eat whatever you want, older sister. Mother-in-law.”

“The husband has to learn from his son-in-law. Oh my.”

If my father-in-law is becoming more and more like his father as time goes by, it will only get worse and not get better, right?

Moms who were constantly worrying about what to eat for lunch didn’t want to go out in the hot weather.

In the end, I ended up going around and around and eating pizza.

Since there were five of us, including Ye-eun, who was playing in the room, I ordered two games and sat on the sofa with my older sister to wait quietly.

“Son. Aren’t you bored if you stay still like that?”

“Yeah. I guess I’m fine with just being quiet?”

“Sae-ah. Aren’t you bored when you’re with your son like that?”

“Yes. I like staying still with Jaehoon, too.”

“Yeah. I’m glad we met each other.”

My sister and I were puzzled by our mother’s remarks that somehow felt like diss.

Neither of us talk much, so we’re always quiet, and I was quite happy just sitting quietly with my sister.

“Madam. My family doesn’t really like crowded places or noisy places.”

“That’s the same in my house. Jaehoon has been so quiet since he was little, so I was worried that Sae-ah might get bored.”

“You can tell at first glance that my son-in-law is seriously polite.”

“When this child was born, he didn’t cry at all so they even had him tested.”

Hearing that, I remember vividly. The filial piety project.

Unfortunately, the doctor was a quack, so I had to undergo all sorts of tests.

“Not to that extent, but Sae-ah was still more well-behaved than the other kids.”

“My son is so quiet while Minjun from next door keeps causing trouble, so I almost envied him?”

“Isn’t it better to be quiet?”

“That’s right. Jaehoon is so quiet that I think I went crazy for a moment.”

“Oh my. Mothers with sons from other families would be so jealous of their sons-in-law.”

While I was listening to the life story of my sister and I from the moms, the pizza arrived and Ye-eun came out to the living room and started eating the pizza.

The mother who saw Ye-eun like that.

“Daughter. Shouldn’t your daughter start studying soon too?”

“But oppa doesn’t do it either?”

“My son doesn’t have to do it to get 100 points. My daughter doesn’t?”

“…..”

Whenever pretty Ye-eun bows her head and eats something, why is it that her father’s image is reflected behind her?

“Mom. Let Ye-eun eat comfortably. I’ll teach her later.”

“So, son?”

“Ye-eun is smart too, so if you tell her, she’ll do well right away.”

“Yeah. I’m sure my daughter will do well if she does it too.”

“That’s right! If it’s not because I didn’t do it, then do well!”

I wanted to ask why it was really necessary to say things that kids who are bad at studying say, but I held back and ate the pizza.

They say that hard work never betrays you, so if you just work hard, you won’t have any problems studying.

“Oh my. If only we had a second child, we could have had a double in-law relationship. What a shame.”

“”…..””

My mother and I became quiet at my mother-in-law’s sudden remark, and as expected, Ye-eun, who takes after her father, is clueless.”

“Why didn’t you give birth?”

“That’s because Sae-ah’s father doesn’t have a girlfriend.”

“Your brother-in-law is very healthy, isn’t he?”

“Yeeun-ah. Eat the pizza. It’s getting cold. Eat it while it’s warm to make it taste better.”

“Okay, daughter. Eat pizza. Drink some cola and you’ll pass out.”

Fortunately, the conversation ended without any continuation as my mom and I quickly fed each other pizza.

After we finished eating the pizza and cleaning up, Ye-eun went into her room to play a game as if she had been waiting for us.

The rest of the people sat in the living room and started watching TV.

“Madam, did you know that house prices have been dropping a lot these days?”

“I know. I heard other regions went up.”

Listening to my mother-in-law, I felt like I was missing something important.

“Still, it was really convenient because it was easy to buy and sell a house in the US.”

“You said you don’t need money to buy a house there?”

“That’s right. They lend you your house as collateral without really looking into it.”

“Ah!”

I got up, headed to my room, and turned on my computer.

Are you out of your mind? There’s nothing else you can forget.

I forgot about the subprime mortgage crisis.

I knew it would drop significantly soon, but when it came up again, I had to sell it now.

I started selling all the stocks I had by turning on the HTS program.

Within a few minutes, they all managed to sell.

If I had been just a few days late, I would have suffered my first loss in my life as a regressor.

“What are you doing?”

Sister Sae-ah is silently looking at the computer from behind.

“I just had a thought, so I did some stock trading.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“No. I went in as if something big had happened.”

“It’s nothing.”

When I came back out into the living room, the mothers were looking at me.

“Son. Why? What’s wrong?”

“No. I was just on the computer for a bit.”

I naturally sat back down on the sofa and watched the news, and thankfully, my sister Sae-ah didn’t ask me about stocks.

You might ask why I suddenly sold my stocks.

This time too, Sae-ah didn’t ask for any more details, so I started to wonder even more what she was thinking.

After some time, my mother-in-law went home to prepare dinner.

Mom also headed to the kitchen and started preparing dinner.

I quietly entered the room with my older sister, and I was curious about what she was thinking, so I ended up asking her.

“Sister, aren’t you curious about how I taught you how to study positively?”

“Huh? Didn’t you tell me because it’s Jaehoon?”

“That’s right. Most kids don’t know how to study for the college entrance exam. Don’t you think that’s weird?”

“Um… I’m okay?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Jaehoon was weird from the first time I saw him.”

“Huh?”

“Even though he was hit at the age of five, he didn’t cry or act like a fool, he didn’t laugh much outside except when he was with his family, and he didn’t make any friends on purpose. Was Jaehoon always weird?”

What is it? It’s not a compliment. Is it an insult? Judging from the expression on his face, it doesn’t seem like an insult. Or is it? Is it an insult?

“That’s not a curse, is it?”

“Why is this an insult?”

“Right?”

“Yeah. I like Jaehoon being weird too.”

“…..”

Seeing as how she likes strange things, I guess Sae-ah must also have quite unique tastes.

But if the person involved is me and I like it, then it’s good.

I gave up thinking about it further.

After some time, my older sister returned home after receiving a call from her mother-in-law telling her to come in soon.

Now, as I’m about to lie down to take a nap, the image of my dad’s smiling face comes to mind.

I was convinced that if I continued to sleep like this, all I would do would be feed my father.

Now it was really time to come up with a solution.

I finished preparing dinner and approached my mom who was resting.

“Mom.”

“Huh?”

“You’re saying that when dad comes home, he’ll wake me up excitedly?”

“Right? Waking up your son is your husband’s pleasure?”

“Isn’t there a way to stop it?”

“Son. You shouldn’t get hurt, right? You understand?”

“I know. That’s why it’s difficult.”

After much thought and discussion with my mother, the answer we came up with was.

“Son. Stick it on paper at the entrance to the room.”

“What?”

“The moment I wake up, I break the fishing rod I bought this time.”

“Huh?”

“And if you sleep with your fishing rod next to you and wake up, it’s really broken!”

“Is that okay?”

“Yeah. I think my mom said she allowed it.”

Thinking that my mom was the best, I did as my mom said, stuck a piece of paper on the door, put the fishing rod inside the bed, and went to sleep.

***

Thanks to my mother’s idea, I was sleeping comfortably with peace of mind.

When my dad came home from work, he woke me up without even caring about the fishing rod.

The mindset that if the fishing rod breaks, you can just buy another one.

You can’t give up the joys of life.

My father was definitely a second-generation chaebol, and I, who had rather lived the life of a commoner in my previous life, ended up not being able to break the innocent fishing rod because I felt sorry for it.

Today was an undeniable, humiliating defeat for me.