Date? (3)
As soon as I stepped out of the fitting room with the staff member, Mr. Ha-jun seemed to have finally come back to his senses. Our eyes met, but the atmosphere still felt painfully awkward.
“Um… so… did it fit okay?”
Once the staff member left, Mr. Ha-jun spoke up, his words sounding more clumsy than usual. Ji-an, who had been standing beside him, suddenly rushed toward me and threw herself into my arms.
“I took good care of Daddy while you were gone!”
“You worked hard, Ji-an…”
She shrugged her shoulders with a proud little expression, so I stroked her hair and smiled. Just picking out one set of underwear had completely drained me.
“Shall we… finish choosing and then head out?”
“Yes… that sounds good.”
Mr. Ha-jun answered weakly and gave a small nod. I noticed he was still clutching the underwear set in his hand and spoke carefully.
“Um… you should probably put that back or exchange it for the right size…”
“Huh? Oh! Ah!”
Only then did Mr. Ha-jun seem to realize what he was holding. He panicked and quickly handed it over to me. I took the package and checked the size.
MEN: L (95~100)
WOMEN: L (75D)
What the…? How did the staff member who brought this know? Still, buying something like this felt too embarrassing, so I had been planning to put it back.
“Unnie… aren’t you going to buy that?”
Ji-an was staring up at me with big, pitiful puppy-dog eyes.
“Ji-Ji-an, even so, this is a little…”
“Panties don’t show anyway… and you didn’t wear the skirt I picked earlier… Hng…”
I waved my hand, but Ji-an lowered her head and mumbled. Then she suddenly looked up at me again. Her eyes looked like they might fill with tears any second.
“Really…?”
Ugh. Like she said, they wouldn’t be visible anyway, so maybe it didn’t matter? If she wanted it this badly and I was just buying it for her, wouldn’t that be okay? In the end, I surrendered to Ji-an. I seemed to be losing to her a lot lately, but… anyone would cave if they saw a child this adorable.
“O-okay…”
I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded. Right. I was buying other things anyway, so as long as I didn’t wear this one… I tried hard to convince myself of that as I randomly grabbed some plain white underwear from a nearby rack.
“Mr. Ha-jun… let’s go downstairs.”
“…Yes.”
Mr. Ha-jun still sounded completely out of it. Seeing him like that made me think we needed to leave the store as quickly as possible—for his sake too.
When we reached the first floor and approached the register, the staff member smiled at us. I placed the hangers I’d brought on the counter and avoided eye contact.
“Did you find everything you needed?”
“Y-yes.”
I answered shortly and distractedly stroked Ji-an’s hair. Thankfully, the staff member didn’t say anything else and began scanning the items with practiced ease.
> [BEEP—]
> Basic Round Short-Sleeve T-shirt
> White Blouse
> ...
> Black Signature
The scanner beeped as the total climbed higher. The names of the clothes we’d picked—‘Basic Round Short-Sleeve T-shirt,’ ‘White Blouse,’ and so on—scrolled across the screen. The moment the words ‘Black Signature’ appeared in small letters, my face burned with embarrassment.
“Your total comes to 367,000 won.”
It was a bit more expensive than I’d expected, but the staff member smiled brightly as she announced it. While Mr. Ha-jun remained in his dazed state, I quickly pulled out my phone and paid.
“Thank you. You can pick up your bags on the side.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I answered quietly and moved aside. There, another staff member was neatly folding our purchases and placing them into shopping bags. Before long, she handed me two bags.
“One contains the underwear and the other has the clothing. For returns or exchanges—”
As I listened to her explanation and prepared to leave with the bags, Mr. Ha-jun finally seemed to snap out of his trance. He turned his head and looked at me.
“I… I’ll carry those.”
“Oh… it’s fine, really…”
Before I could even finish saying it was okay, he snatched the shopping bags from my hands. Since I no longer had a free hand to hold Ji-an—between the doll and the bags—I slipped the doll into one of the bags and took her hand instead. Ji-an held out her other hand as if it felt empty. I smiled softly, took it, and we walked out of the store together.
“Thank you for your hard work today.”
“You too, Seoyeon…”
As we left the store, we shared a strange sense of solidarity. When I checked the time, I realized we had only been inside for an hour. It had felt like two or three.
“Where are we going now?”
At Ji-an’s question, I thought for a moment. I wanted to go straight back to Mr. Ha-jun’s house, but it was only three o’clock, and I didn’t have any daily necessities for the time I’d be staying.
“Hmm… How about we stop by Daxso before heading home? Ji-an doesn’t seem ready to go back yet either.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
Mr. Ha-jun answered briefly, and Ji-an smiled brightly, clearly happy we weren’t going home yet. She seemed excited, swinging our joined hands back and forth as she began hopping along. I looked around and spotted the Daxso store nearby. As we walked, we continued swinging Ji-an between us.
“Kyaa!”
Ji-an squealed with delight. When I glanced around, people were watching us with warm, fond smiles. I had only swung her two or three times, but I was already starting to feel out of breath. It was a clear reminder of how much my stamina and strength had decreased, which left me feeling a little bitter.
Daxso was much larger than I had imagined. About five floors? The moment we stepped inside, Ji-an’s eyes sparkled as she looked around in every direction.
“Wow! They have toys here! And snacks over there!”
“Ji-an, let’s buy what we need first and look around afterward.”
“Hiiing…”
Mr. Ha-jun comforted her as he picked up a shopping basket.
“Um… what do you think we’ll need?”
He asked me, but I had no idea what a woman might need either.
“Toothbrush, slippers… things like that? I’m not really sure…”
“Then let’s head to the daily necessities section first.”
We checked the directory and went up to the second-floor household goods area. A pleasant, fragrant scent greeted us. Looking around, I saw things like scented candles on display. Mr. Ha-jun, who had spotted the toothbrushes right away, asked me,
“I use black and Ji-an uses pink. What color do you like?”
“I used to like gray, but wouldn’t that get mixed up with black?”
My original favorite color had been gray, but I worried it would be too similar and hesitated.
“Unnie should get yellow! Yellow is pretty!”
Yellow had never really suited me before, and I thought it would look better on someone bright and cheerful like Ji-an. After a brief pause, I placed a yellow toothbrush in the basket. Seeing Ji-an nod in satisfaction was so cute that I couldn’t help but smile.
“Hmm… then let’s get yellow slippers too?”
“Yes, that’s good.”
After quickly choosing the slippers, I fell into another dilemma. Was there anything else? If I assumed we had everything and left, I would definitely remember something I’d forgotten later.
“There’s… nothing else, right?”
“Nothing comes to mind.”
I thought hard and asked Mr. Ha-jun, but he said the same. We were about to head down to the first floor when one corner of the store caught my eye. Sanitary pads. Unfamiliar words like ‘Regular,’ ‘Super,’ and ‘Overnight’ were lined up in rows.
“Um… Mr. Ha-jun.”
“Yes?”
“…We should buy some, right?”
I hadn’t expected him to know, but my words made him freeze for a moment. What exactly were regular and super? Were they sizes? Mr. Ha-jun and I stood there pondering for a long time.
“Should we… buy one of each type?”
“…That might be best.”
I nodded at his suggestion. By now the basket contained a toothbrush, slippers, and one pack of each type of sanitary pad. The words alone didn’t tell me exactly what they were for, but I had a feeling I would need them someday.
“Unnie, what’s that?”
Ji-an asked, peering into the basket with eyes full of curiosity.
“Ah… it’s something adults need. Probably.”
Ji-an tilted her head, then nodded and took my hand again. Deciding we didn’t need anything else, we headed down to the first floor.
The regular checkout lanes had long lines, so we joined the much shorter self-checkout queue. The line moved quickly, and soon it was our turn. Feeling embarrassed, I scanned everything as fast as I could and put it all into a paper bag.
“That’s everything now.”
“It feels like we’ve been shopping all day.”
When I muttered tiredly, Mr. Ha-jun picked up the shopping bags and gave a weak laugh.
“Huk! I forgot my snacks!”
“Ji-an, let’s come again next time. Daddy’s really tired…”
“Hiiing… okay.”
Ji-an made a sad face, but she quickly cheered up and held my hand tightly. The shopping bags felt a little heavy, but my heart felt light.
“We’ll come out and play together again next time, right?”
“If it’s okay with you, Seoyeon, how about we go out like this once in a while?”
On weekends, I had never left the house. When I woke up, my family was usually gone, and there was no food, so I often ate alone.
But yesterday and today had been different. Yesterday I had eaten warm homemade food, and today I had come outside. Someone might call it pathetic, but at least right now, it felt wonderful.
“Seoyeon?”
“Ah… yes. What is it?”
“Nothing. You just… looked happy.”
At the sound of my name, I turned and met his eyes. Could other people really see how happy I was, just like Mr. Ha-jun said?
“It was so fun!”
At Ji-an’s words, I smiled, but a small fear brushed through my heart—how long could this situation possibly last?