“…Ri, …Siyeon.”
My eyes slowly opened to a familiar voice, barely audible in my drowsiness.
I wasn’t lying on a bed but rather on a car seat.
“We’re home.”
That familiar voice belonged to none other than Ji-eun.
When did I fall asleep? I rubbed my eyes and let out a silent yawn before unbuckling my seatbelt.
“Haah, yeah…”
After finishing my yawn, I answered with half-closed eyes, blinking sleepily.
With a click, the seatbelt detached, sticking to the wall in an instant.
Siyeon, still groggy, rubbed her eyes and stretching one arm toward the sky.
“Uuuuuh!”
With a mix of refreshment and drowsiness, Siyeon’s body trembled.
Despite her efforts, she couldn’t reach the car ceiling while still seated.
We all wriggled about in the back seat, each stretching in our own way.
Immediately, I grabbed a plastic container of holiday food from the trunk, holding the handle with both hands.
At that moment, a hand came down from above and snatched the container away from me.
“Give it here, it must be hard to lift, right?”
‘You already took it, though.’
I handed over the container to Ji-eun, who acted first before speaking, and trailed behind as we arrived at home.
Naturally, I pulled Gomteng out of my pocket and tossed him onto the cushion before quickly shedding my outer clothing, tossing them straight into the laundry basket.
Ji-eun had already gone inside, taking out japchae and jeon from the bag and putting them in the fridge, while moving the galbijjim into a pot.
The first thing to do upon coming home is to wash up.
“Waaah.”
As I tried to head into the room for a quick nap, I found my way blocked by Siyeon, who looked back with a pout before heading to the bathroom.
The sound of the shower echoed, contrasting the unfamiliar noises from earlier with the comforting sounds of home.
I may not have had a hard time outside, but home is the best place to be.
Even if it has its share of awkwardness, it’s still the one refuge where you can finally feel at rest.
Once the shower turned off, I prepared to enter the bathroom myself.
I took clothes out of the wardrobe and wandered around in my underwear.
The house felt a bit chilly since the heater hadn’t fully kicked in yet, but Siyeon would be out soon.
“Hey, are you going to wash up? Want to wash together?”
Ji-eun was moving the food into the pot and fridge when she turned to me, suddenly brightening with the suggestion to wash together.
She treated the place as if it were her own home, so without needing my permission, I responded casually.
“Go ahead.”
“Okay, just wait a moment?”
Since there were three women in the house, it felt natural without any sense of hesitation as Ji-eun shrugged off her clothes with abandon.
Watching her, it felt like I’d become an unseen character straight from a thin comic book.
The peculiar feeling arose from the gap between the man lingering in my heart and the woman already present in this body.
Perhaps it’s just the age of my body, or maybe something’s wrong in my head.
At this point, seeing an adult woman taking off her clothes didn’t elicit anything more than ‘Oh, she’s just changing.’
One thing was clear: she had definitely lost quite a bit of weight.
“Let’s go!”
As Siyeon emerged from the bathroom, we hurriedly entered together.
Thanks to the person who had showered before us, the mirror was fogged, and the bathroom felt like a sauna with rising heat.
“You’ve lost a lot of weight.”
“Of course! I worked hard for this, so it had to come off.”
Ji-eun stood tall in confidence at the compliment on her apparent weight loss.
“Ah, that’s cold!”
There were two faucets in the bathroom: one connected to the bathtub, and the other on the floor, which Siyeon had used earlier.
Unlike the one that had just been in use and was spewing hot water, the shower connected to the tub unexpectedly sprayed cold water, catching Ji-eun off guard.
After that little mishap, it was time for a bath.
She let her long hair flow down and adjusted the water temperature just right before letting it cascade over her head.
With my eyes tightly shut, I felt the warmth trickling down my back and over my behind—a soothing sensation that chased away my drowsiness.
“Mari, come here.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll wash your hair, come here.”
“Oh, okay.”
I gently squeezed the dripping water from my hair and slid into the bathtub, leaning my back against the surface.
Getting someone to wash your hair is a rare experience outside of a salon.
I kept my eyes squeezed shut so shampoo wouldn’t get in them, heightening my sensitivity to Ji-eun’s careful touch.
The suds formed from the shampoo traveled from my scalp and through my hair, feeling like they were truly soaking in.
The space was small, so her hands didn’t have far to go.
After a few swipes of the towel over my body, the suds covered me entirely.
“Once you’re out, dry your hair well.”
“Yeah-”
Ji-eun seemed intent on soaking a bit longer in the bath.
She squeezed out water from her hair with a towel, then stepped out into the bathroom only wearing her underwear to find a hairdryer.
The room felt tidier, with Siyeon bustling about busily.
Unlike earlier when I had been rubbing my eyes, my vision felt much clearer now.
A bath really wakes you up.
“What are you doing?”
I asked Siyeon about the suddenly clean room, to which she smiled widely as if pleased with herself.
“Doing laundry!”
‘Laundry?’
Why would someone who had never touched a laundry basket in her life be doing laundry?
With that thought, I looked around the room.
Indeed, the laundry basket was empty, and quite a few clothes that had been lying around were missing.
“Good job, good job, Siyeon is so good.”
I patted her head, and she giggled.
Just then, the bathroom door burst open, and Ji-eun rushed in.
“Hey? Where did my clothes go?”
In an instant, a panicked voice echoed in the room.
In the silence that followed, I realized—over the sound of the washing machine,
that among the clothes that had been lying about, Ji-eun’s had been included.
As my gaze shifted to the washing machine beneath the induction cooktop, Ji-eun dashed over in shock.
“Oh no, no!”
“Uh-oh, that’s trouble.”
Ji-eun’s scream echoed, followed by my brief sigh.
And so, during the Lunar New Year,
one suit met its demise.
“Attendance will be taken, 1st period-”
“Yee-”
It was a Friday, just after the holidays.
Truly, a day when both teachers and students alike didn’t want to come to school.
As a result, there were those who genuinely didn’t show up.
What kind of nonsense is this?
A field trip application form.
To put it simply, it’s a family vacation application—
Believe it or not, schools now recognize family trips as attendance; how absurd is that?
On this single weekday between the holidays and the weekend,
keen parents applied for this in advance, allowing their kids to skip school entirely during the holiday period.
‘We didn’t have this back in my day.’
Skipping school for a trip? Is that even allowed?
My knowledge of schools remains stuck in the past, and I argue that it’s odd, yet this is the reality.
Perhaps that’s why there were several empty seats scattered about.
With no noisy classmates around and no one fidgeting beside me, I could recline with my legs stretched out against the wall behind the window.
After the morning roll call, we had a brief recess before the first period started.
Kids started rising from their seats on their own without being told.
The topic of conversation among the clustered groups was…
“How much New Year’s money did you get?”
It was, of course, the New Year’s money talk.
70,000 won, 80,000 won, even 500,000 won for some—
how is that even possible? This subtle discrepancy reveals family unit differences and positions in society.
Kids started comparing their amounts amongst themselves without their parents prompting them.
While listening in on the conversation, I couldn’t help but remember my own situation during the last PE class when I had received unwanted attention.
Once it started, everyone began sharing their New Year’s money stories.
“How much did you get, Mari?”
“50,000 won.”
Naturally, the conversation flowed to me, and without thinking much, I stated that amount.
The other kids, sharp-eared as ever, seized the opportunity to poke at me, antagonizing me for stating my 50,000 won.
“Hey! You only got 50,000 won? I got 110,000 won!”
“So what, do you have that in your pocket right now?”
I pulled out my 50,000 won bill from my wallet and waved it right before him.
This 50,000 won was enough to buy several meals with friends at the snack bar; how gluttonous it felt.
His eyes wavered slightly as if he sensed a gap somewhere, and then he brought his mom over to defend himself desperately.
“Oh, my mom said she’s keeping it safe!”
“Tsk tsk, go ahead and ask for it? She’ll never give it to you.”
I shook my head and tossed in a few words to shatter his innocent trust before putting the 50,000 won back into my wallet.
I wonder how many kids fall for that, thinking they added their New Year’s money into their living expenses?
It’s probably already ended up in their parents’ accounts.
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