Extra. Mr. Kang Joo-hyuk’s Family Affairs (8)

While rubbing my aching back and shoulders, when I returned downstairs, Haeun, with a languid expression, was breastfeeding.

The one eating was… Ye-eun’s daughter, Jiwoo.

Seeing my wife lift up her boxy t-shirt to breastfeed my niece gave me very complicated feelings.

…Honestly feeling a bit guilty, I quickly turned my head away, but Haeun, noticing I had returned, looked at me with a sullen expression and beckoned me over.

“Come here quickly. Why were you so late? …Did you cheat on me?”

“…It wasn’t cheating.”

“…It was noisy upstairs?”

“……She seemed upset yesterday, so I went to cheer her up a bit.”

Haeun scoffed with a look of disdain and gently carried the baby, who had fallen asleep while nursing, back to the room.

As I scratched my head, pondering an excuse, Haeun came out after putting the baby down, walked lightly towards me, and firmly grabbed my chin with her hand.

“…I’m exhausted from breastfeeding the baby, and you two had fun?”

“……Sorry.”

“Don’t just say sorry, tell her too. …Tell her to come down and help with the baby.”

“I was planning to do that anyway. …I’ll get the family registry sorted out again.”

“…Deal with that yourself.”

Seeing the seriousness of Haeun’s complaint in her eyes, any thought of making excuses vanished instantly.

…I do feel bad.

Raising her own son is a mother’s duty, but now she’s raising someone else’s daughter too.

At least Hinami’s daughter is being well taken care of by Hinami, so there isn’t much for Haeun to do for her.

“Sigh. …Anyway, are you okay? You were complaining about aches this morning.”

“I’m fine. This much is nothing.”

“…You’re not going to pass out tonight, are you?”

“It would be nice to sleep soundly.”

“Hmm.”

In an awkward state of neither anger nor forgiveness, Haeun changed the subject and worried about my body.

…To be honest, I didn’t have major problems physically, but my body wasn’t exactly fine either.

After all, I’m someone who retired due to injury.

Like my back giving out, or my shoulder, which I worked so hard to rehab, breaking again.

I’m being careful to avoid that if possible, but unlike muscles, bones and cartilage are consumables, you know.

If I injured my shoulder during, say, piggyback rides, it would be a huge disaster. There’s no greater catastrophe.

“Okay. …You said you could handle it, right?”

“……After putting Hinami to sleep, for now.”

“She had her turn last night, so she should sit this one out out of fairness.”

Haeun smirked with a brazen expression and quickly sealed the deal, spontaneously linking pinkies and pressing her thumb down like a seal.

“Ah, since the kids and Hinami are all asleep, you should rest too. …You’ll have to play with them again when they wake up later.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Thanks for working so hard even though it’s tough. …I’m going to take a short nap too.”

“Sleep well.”

“Yeah. …I need to sleep soundly now so I won’t be awake later.”

…She means ‘fill it up 10 times today before sleeping’.

This is driving me crazy.

If I had rested well yesterday, maybe, but two days in a row feels a bit much even for me.

Wiping away the slight sweat trickling down, I gave a hollow laugh, and Haeun, as if finally forgiving me, stood on tiptoe, kissed my cheek, then skipped back to her room.

Sigh.

…I’m happy to the point my bones feel chilled, but I worry my bones might decay from it all.

It’s a bit concerning.

I should take some supplements.

…And maybe take one of these too.

Even for me… starting from the third round, things start to loosen up.

**

Brainlessly playing peek-a-boo with the kids, it was already 9 PM.

Seeing all three rubbing their eyes, I put them to bed in the bedroom, and as soon as Hinami went into her room too, Haeun set out two wine glasses on the dining table.

…I wonder if it’s the mystery of male libido, or if I’m just a mutant.

Not like Pavlov’s dogs, but seeing Haeun smirk as she took out the wine bottle made my dick stand up instantly.

I thought I should bring out some cheese and jerky, just then.

“What is this? …Why are you drinking alcohol behind my back? You two.”

“Sigh….”

Hinami, who had definitely gone into her room, suddenly popped out, puffing out her cheeks.

…Luckily, today she wasn’t in her usual negligee, but pajamas.

Seeing her like this, she looked like an adorable kid, but unfortunately, my Korean wife let out a deep sigh the moment she saw the Japanese wife, and plopped down onto a dining chair.

Then she slumped onto the table, poking her head out slightly, looked up at Hinami, and said in an annoyed voice.

“…Hey, Hinami. Can’t you just move out? You have plenty of money. Buy a house and leave, please.”

“Huh? Suddenly? I’ve been so good to you, unnie….”

“Forget it. …Whenever you’re around, Joo-hyuk always gets hard for you. So just leave.”

“Ah…. Ahaha….”

Hit out of the blue by annoyance, whether jealousy or exasperation, Hinami awkwardly scratched her cheek and twitched the corner of her mouth.

Seeing Hinami trying to hold back a laugh, Haeun got visibly annoyed and frowned deeply, but luckily, she didn’t grab Hinami by the hair or anything.

Instead, she ran her finger along the rim of the wine glass, then downed the wine in one gulp.

“…Sigh. What are you doing? Drink too.”

“What? Me?”

“Pour yourself some. …You, Kang Joo-hyuk- Oh. What, you’re already drinking.”

Sensing the mood, I also downed my wine.

…It was a bit of a waste, since this wasn’t the wine I bought for this purpose, but it was sweet and tasted good.

Sigh, I have my own struggles, but Haeun must have it harder.

Still, I try my best to take care of her. I do pay the most attention to her.

…Age is just unavoidable.

Me turning 30 soon means Haeun, who’s the same age, is turning 30 soon too.

Yet, in my own home, women five or six years younger openly flirt with me, so it’s understandable she’d be stressed.

Besides, she’s already suffering from the stress of raising kids.

“Ah…, um….”

Hinami, who had initially looked pleased and observant, quietly poured herself a glass of wine and took small sips.

…If all three of us get drunk and can’t get up tomorrow, what about the kids?

Maybe I should call Ye-eun and ask her to watch them for a day.

No, fundamentally, in one house, three kids with different mothers being raised together is the problem, isn’t it?

Many questions arose in various ways, but suddenly the strong smell of alcohol hit me, and my head grew fuzzy.

“…This is really strong. What is this?”

“Port wine. …Joo-hyuk said it looked delicious and bought it from somewhere.”

“Ah….”

Feeling tipsy already from just one glass of wine, I quietly sat next to Haeun.

Then Haeun refilled my empty glass, I wiped away the alcohol with cheese taken from the fridge, then chased the rich creamy flavor with more alcohol.

Hinami, watching me, her pupils darting around, seemed to give up, sat next to me and quickly drank the rest of the wine in her glass.

“…Hinami, are you really going to live here permanently?”

“Ah, that…. I’ve actually been looking at real estate. If someone sells a place in this building, I plan to buy it….”

“You could just move upstairs. There are empty rooms up there.”

“I was planning to do that, but Jia didn’t like it….”

Whether she was already drunk, or using drunkenness as an excuse to talk.

Haeun directly interrogated Hinami, and I, listening quietly beside them, remembered something.

…Huh?

Did Ye-eun say something like that?

“…Ask again.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll persuade her, so ask Jia again. …if it’s okay to live upstairs together.”

“Ah….”

…Just a little while ago, she was talking about living together with Hinami and filming couple YouTube videos, or something like that. Not that she actually likes Hinami, but she was talking normally.

Since Haeun seemed really pissed off, I decided to take her side, Hinami looked incredibly flustered and darted her eyes around.

“…Hey. Hinami.”

“Ah, yes. Unnie.”

“…You just wanted to sleep with Joo-hyuk, so you lied, right?”

“What…?”

Haeun stared intently at the troubled Hinami, suddenly stood up, and walked behind Hinami.

“Without even asking Seo Ye-eun, you just planned to live with Joo-hyuk and that’s why you’re here. …I can tell.”

“No, no, no, it’s not like that….”

“It’s true, you perverted bitch.”

“Kyaaak…!”

Then, like putting her in a headlock, she grabbed Hinami’s head from behind, pinning Hinami down and threatening her in a chilling voice.

…Ah.

So that’s what it was.

It felt strange.

We go upstairs and hang out together whenever we’re bored, so why living together is a problem felt weird.

…Even with the kids around.

“Cough, cough, Unnie…! I can’t breathe….”

“You like being choked, don’t you? You like it when Joo-hyuk chokes you.”

“Gasp…, that’s because… it’s when you’re fucking me….”

“Who told you to lie?”

“I’m not….”

Watching the wives genuinely bicker, I downed the remaining alcohol in gulps.

…My head is starting to feel warm.

They’re so friendly with each other.

Just watching them fight like that.

I can handle this much.

…It’ll be tough when I’m about 10 years older, though.

“Stop it. …Ye-eun probably didn’t want another child in her house.”

“…Are you taking Hinami’s side right now?”

“No. I’m not taking anyone’s side. Let’s just not fight.”

“Who are we fighting because of- Kyaaak…!”

I apprehended the perpetrator trying to strangle Hinami from behind, and with a swift motion, lifted her up like a princess.

Hinami, having barely escaped the headlock, clutched her chest, turned her head to look at us, wearing a subtle expression.

…I saved her, and she’s still jealous?

That’s too much.

From last night until morning, how much love I’ve given her.

“…I might die in my thirties, but I’ll love you until then, so don’t be too angry.”

“……You playboy bastard.”

“You married me knowing this. …My first marriage was to Hinami?”

“Go die. …You even changed your surname, you traitor.”

“Well, I didn’t report it to the embassy?”

As I tried to appease the sulking Haeun, Nakazawa Hinami, who had been watching us, ran up behind me and started choking me, the one who just saved her.

…If I had known this would happen, I should have just let her choke me until I passed out.

“…Oppa. After you’re done comforting unnie, you have to do it for me too, right?”

“……I seriously feel like I’m going to die, can you spare me for just one day?”

“Then… I’ll spare you until midnight.”

“Sigh….”

Being worn out by the woman clinging to me and the one I held, I prayed inwardly, hoping the children would wake up.

But my good and clever children were sleeping so soundly that they didn’t hear any of the noise in the living room.

…Sigh.

Fine,

Fuck it.

Life when you’re young is more fun than life when you’re old anyway.

Let’s just do it.

I’ve already done it in Japan.

Surprisingly, people don’t die easily.

…Even if they pass out.