New Year's Day 217 (1)
Sophia emerged from the kitchen carrying a large pressure cooker and poured the steamed rice that had rested for twenty minutes onto the wide, spacious tray set before Suhan.
Suhan, wearing plastic gloves, spread palm oil across her hands, kneaded the rice with force, and pounded it vigorously. As she continued applying the oil and working the rice, the moment it developed a glossy sheen, she began rolling it into long, perfect cylinders. In the blink of an eye, a one-meter-long rice cake was finished.
“Whoa~! It came out when I was making it!”
“Hoohoo! Hoohoo!”
Following the choreography of a girl group on the television, Miho and Darky dashed over the moment Suhan started making rice cakes and sat side by side in front of the tray.
As the long, steaming rice cakes piled up, Miho and Darky stared at them with hungry eyes, gulping down saliva. Sophia hurriedly stood up and said, “I’ll cut them nicely for you to eat, so don’t reach out with your hands!”
Just as she was about to grab the rice cakes, Sophia entered the kitchen, brought out a bowl filled with plenty of sugar and honey, and placed it on the table. She quickly sliced the rice cakes and transferred them to pretty plates.
Steam rising from the plates, Miho and Darky pounced on the rice cakes like lightning.
With their gluttony switches flipped, the two boys speared the rice cakes with forks, dipped them into the honey bowl, and stuffed them into their mouths, chewing happily.
“Master~! It’s sweet~!”
“Chewy! Crispy!”
“Crispy?” Darky, who had eaten the rice cake dipped in sugar, seemed to feel the texture of the sugar as crispy.
“What a pitiful creature. I’ll have to show you what true crispiness really is.”
After rolling up his sleeves, Suhan asked for rice cakes as thick as a thumb, brought the portable stove, and started a fire on the balcony. Miho, holding the rice cake tray, ate vigorously while looking at it with curious eyes.
“Foolish Darky. The true chewy-crispy will be taught by Master himself.”
“Ooh, Master! Ooh!”
Darky exaggerated his admiration, causing a fuss, and Miho rolled her feet while sparkling with excitement. The two who had especially young spirits in the house were causing a ruckus, so the lovers sent curious glances toward Seoha.
“Master. Here is the rice cake as instructed.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Receiving the rice cake from Suhan, Seoha cut it to a length of thirty centimeters, inserted a wooden skewer through the center, and lifted it from the portable stove. Miho’s eyes widened.
“You’re grilling the rice cake?”
“Yes. Wait and see. Master will feed you something delicious.”
After roasting it to a perfect golden brown and handing it to Darky’s small hands, he snatched a bite in a flash, let out a “Hah!” and trembled with excitement.
“The inside is chewy! The outside is crispy! This… this is the perfect balance of chewy and crispy!”
“Have you gained enlightenment?”
“I have, Master!”
Darky, kneeling like a devoted disciple before the teacher, twisted his body in happiness while devouring the grilled rice cake. The lovers who had been making the rice cakes giggled and laughed.
Miho, watching Darky with wide eyes from the side, rolled her feet and begged.
“Me too! Master, me too!”
“Miho likes sweet things, right?”
“I like sweet!”
This time, Sophia began grilling the rice cake by spreading the sticky sweet sauce she had made, and the sweet aroma wafting from the portable stove made Miho’s drool flow like a waterfall from her mouth.
Her eyes sparkling, drool dripping from her lips, fox ears standing straight, and seven fluffy tails perked up—it was too amusing to watch.
After spreading sugar and honey and grilling it to a delicious dark brown color, she handed it over. Miho let out a “Kyaa~!” cheer and, like a hero wielding the legendary sword, held up the grilled rice cake and sparkled with excitement.
And then one bite.
“Hah, hot!”
Without hesitation, Miho bit down hard, furrowed her brows as if it were hot, giggled, and ran around the room. Even while running, she kept her face scrunched up as if she couldn’t get enough of the taste.
Sophia sliced the newly made rice cakes at regular intervals, carried them to the kitchen, and started making tteokbokki. Seoha, producing roasted rice cakes and grilling them with the thick tteokbokki sauce, served one rice cake each to the lovers’ hands.
“Oh my, it really is sweet and sour.”
“This skewered rice cake is so delicious…”
“Seoha. It’s really delicious!”
“I’ll do one more grilling.”
Yeongeun liked the simply roasted tteokkochi without sauce, while Franc and Hwayeon preferred the grilled tteokkochi coated with sweet-sour sauce.
Watching the lovers eat silently and heartily, Seoha understood the mother’s feeling that one would be full even without eating.
“Hiarid, eat too.”
“=Thank you, Master.”
A special extra-large skewered rice cake was given to Hiarid.
“Seoha, eat some too.”
Except for Yeongeun, everyone preferred the grilled tteokkochi coated with sauce. Franc cut it nicely for eating and kept making more sauce-skewered rice cakes without rest.
After grilling a lot, they had to take some to Mom, Dad, and Noona.
“Tteokbokki~! Tteokkochi~!”
“Master’s skewer is the cutest!”
…Is that what you’re calling it?
While rolling her feet and holding tteokbokki and tteokkochi in both hands, unable to decide, Miho and Darky floated them in the air and ate them, sauce smeared on their lips, happily. Seoha couldn’t help but smile.
As their stomachs filled more, their eating speed slowed, and they grilled only ten more of each type before standing up.
While wiping her hands with a wet towel, Hwayeon approached Seoha and gently stroked his head.
“Are you thinking about that aberrant?”
“…Yeah?”
Seoha stared at Hwayeon, who was petting his head, wondering what she meant. Franc and Yeongeun beside him also looked at him with slightly worried expressions.
“Since that day, you’ve been looking darker. Talking less too… Those aberrants are the ones who would die or be exterminated anyway, even if you didn’t do anything. Don’t worry about it.”
“Ah…”
Um. If he said he wasn’t worried at all, it would be a lie.
While giggling and wiping the sauce off each other’s faces, Miho and Darky. Turning his gaze to Hiarid, who was sitting modestly eating tteokkochi, Seoha answered.
“It’s not like that. It’s just… I felt a little guilty about my conscience. It’s not that it was hard or anything, so don’t worry.”
“Feeling guilty even toward those aberrants, Seoha really has a tender heart.”
Seoha felt his heart was tender? He was startled, thinking that tender-hearted people had all died. Reading his inner thoughts, Franc stroked his cheek and said, “The wicked don’t know they are wicked. But those who know what they have done, reflect on their actions, and repent can never be truly wicked. Seoha is not a bad person.”
“Franc is right. Seoha is too human, right? More than anything, if you’re feeling down, we’ll be sad too. So cheer up?”
“Hmph.”
The appearance of the White Thorn Turtle at the end had bothered him a bit, so he had been feeling down for several days.
He had been so down that he didn’t even notice he was worrying the lovers. He needed to be more careful.
“Sorry. I’ve been too sentimental?”
Spreading his arms to pull the three lovers close at once, they squealed and grabbed his cheeks, covering his mouth while laughing.
The scent of apple, plum, and cherry mingled in his embrace, like holding a basket of fruits. By the way, all their waists were really slender. With arms spread wide, there was still room to hug them all.
Miho and Darky, who had been running around the living room wildly, discovered the clinging couple and squatted nearby, watching while biting into tteokkochi.
“What are those little things looking at? Don’t turn your heads?”
Yeongeun glared sharply, and Darky and Miho ran away to the kitchen with a “Kyaa~!”
When Suhan had finished turning all the prepared steamed rice into rice cakes, Sophia finally cut the rice cakes into finger length, made vertical cuts, and began spreading spicy sauce. Watching her roll the rice cakes in kim and make gimmae tteok, Seoha, who had been quietly in her arms, spoke to the lovers.
“From tomorrow, I’ll start it.”
It was an out-of-the-blue remark, but the three lovers sighed simultaneously without saying anything. From the way they had deliberately not thought about it, Seoha felt that they really didn’t want him to enter the Phase World alone.
“I was mentally prepared, but hearing it actually makes my heart sink.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”
Even if they had only been able to deal with high-tier aberrants one-on-one easily, Seoha would have changed his mind, but right now, even with Hwayeon’s Ispect and Darky’s help, he could barely handle it.
No matter how he thought about it, it was impossible to take them along.
When the cleanup of the tteok party was finished, it was already past ten at night.
Carrying the made rice cakes and the rice cakes for tteokguk, everyone went down together to the parents’ house on the lower floor. Mom and Dad were preparing to go out, and Noona was lying face down in the living room in a thin T-shirt and shorts, watching TV.
“Mom. We’re home.”
“Oh my. Welcome. Welcome, ma’am too.”
“Mom and Dad, hello!”
“Hello!”
“Excuse me.”
Entering the living room with a rumble, Seoha greeted Mom and Dad, and the living room instantly became bustling. Suhan and Sophia arranged the food on the living room table and went into the kitchen with the rice cakes for tteokguk.
Looking at Mom, who was dressed beautifully, and Dad, who was dressed stylishly, Seoha asked with a puzzled face.
“Where are you going, Mom and Dad?”
“We’re going to see the New Year’s bell ringing.”
Mom, who had been helping Dad with his coat, turned around with a pleasant smile. For the past few months, they had been going on dates often, and today it seemed Mom and Dad were going out just the two of them to have fun.
“Hee~. Dad was the one who brought it up first?”
“Hmph.”
What was going on? Seoha looked at Dad while chuckling, and Dad subtly avoided his gaze. But there should be a lot of people gathered in front of the Bosingak bell pavilion at midnight?
“You won’t be able to see it properly because of the crowd, right? There will be tons of people.”
“There’s a five-star hotel opening right across from Bosingak, right? For this New Year, let’s meet there. We’re going to watch the bell-ringing ceremony and head to the East Sea to see the sunrise. Hoohoho.”
“Hmm. We’re leaving Mom and Dad alone to date while we stay home? We thought we’d welcome the New Year together.”
“You’re all grown up now, so play by yourselves.”
At Dad’s cold words, Noona’s face turned sour, and she picked up one of the grilled sauce rice cakes Seoha had brought and said, “Dad is such a scoundrel. If Mom makes a younger brother with a twenty-year age difference, I’ll go too.”
“What are you saying right now!”
Mom lit up with determination and hit Noona’s back, but it wasn’t a pat, it was a sharp smack!
“Huaaaa…”
“She can say anything in front of the kids! You too, don’t scratch your back at home and quickly get a boyfriend, you!”
“Hii, hee.”
Noona, unable to scream from the pain rising from her back, writhed on the living room carpet like a worm, then staggered to the sofa and stood up.
She reached her arms here and there, not reaching the seat Mom had set, and eventually opened her mouth with a pouty face.
“Really, getting older and becoming a scoundrel. Watching Mom and Dad’s chicken dance makes me want to go out and live too, right?”
“Go out? I thought there were no empty houses in the living area.”
Franc, who had grabbed Noona’s arm, stroked her back and asked. Noona glanced at Seoha, shrugged her shoulders as if it didn’t matter, but she seemed to be paying attention to his reaction.
“Next to the office apartment?”
“It’s dangerous for a pretty person like Seoha-ssi to live alone in such a place.”
“Franc, really~. I’m an ability user, what’s there to be dangerous about?”
“Oh? How pretty female ability users are. You don’t know that incidents of ability users getting drugged and attacked are increasing? Even ability users, women have to be careful in this era?”
“R-really?”
“You’re an ability user too, but your physical abilities are a bit better than normal humans. If you don’t have something like spatial perception like Seoha, it’s better not to be arrogant.”
“Eek? If there’s spatial perception, that’s cheating!”
After watching the lovers chatting, Seoha sat on the sofa and changed the TV channels.
Only common year-end programs were on, so after changing a few channels, he lay down on the living room carpet. Miho quickly approached and took one of his arms, and Darky also crawled up to his chest.
This guy has been acting like a person lately. Moreover, his spirit age is strangely getting younger too… Maybe because he’s been with Miho.
While stroking Darky’s head and sweeping the living room, Noona was chatting with the lovers, Sophia was turning on her certifier and giving instructions to someone while looking for something, and Suhan was making something with Hiarid in the kitchen, with a delicious smell wafting around.
It was a warm and cozy time that felt nostalgic, and a smile formed at the corner of his mouth for the first time in a while.
Should he go through the hardships of the Phase World leaving this place behind? Just give up revenge and live happily with the lovers…
…He couldn’t do that. Even now, he sometimes dreamed of the things his mother had gone through. Every time, he felt like he was being emphasized as what kind of being he was, and his mood sank to the worst.
If this life continued, it would definitely have a big negative impact on his personality. His already bad personality would become even dirtier, he couldn’t imagine.
So, he had to remove the cause before that. He had to take revenge on the Rogue Imugi too.