A Trip to Goldeworld
“Sorry, Eunju. That’s just how it turned out.”
The amusement-park visit had come about from Harin’s sudden suggestion. I was happy enough about it, but it meant canceling one prior engagement, so I had called Eunju first thing that morning.
“Well, it can’t be helped. Your niece really wanted to go there with you, right?”
Kind-hearted Eunju seemed to understand my position completely and accepted the change of plans without a single complaint. Of course, an adult’s conscience wouldn’t let me leave it at that.
“I’ll treat you to a meal later to make up for it, Eunju.”
“This is the first time you’ve ever been the one to suggest making plans, Oppa. Does it have to be a meal? Can it be something else?”
“It can, but what did you have in mind?”
“I’ll tell you when the time comes. Anyway, go have fun today.”
Eunju had her own schedule, so we couldn’t talk long. She clearly wanted something other than a meal, but I had no idea what.
Creak…
In any case, we needed to get moving, so I stepped out into the living room. Someone was already there.
“Harin… is that you?”
I knew perfectly well that only the two of us lived in this house, yet I still had to ask. Because the Harin standing there was not the Harin I knew.
A white crop top that left every curve of her body and her navel fully exposed. A glossy satin mini-skirt. Are you dressed right now, or undressed?
“Does it look… weird?”
“It’s not that it looks weird—you’re not seriously planning to go out like that, are you? Even if it is April, dressing like this and going outside…”
…would turn you into eye candy for every greedy man on the planet. The words wouldn’t come out. Please just take the hint and assume I’m talking about the weather.
“I’m putting a jacket on.”
Harin held up the outer shirt she had been carrying. At least my daughter wasn’t an exhibitionist—that was a relief—but the skirt was still far too short.
“Th-those are new clothes, aren’t they? I’ve never seen you wear anything like that.”
Maybe the lessons from Eunju had stuck. The moment I thought about bringing up the skirt length, I worried I would hurt her feelings and changed the subject. Harin tilted her head and answered.
“You bought them for me back then.”
“…?”
I had thought they looked familiar—they were the clothes we had bought after the grave visit that day. Come to think of it, those were the only new clothes Harin had bought recently. What had she been thinking?
“Shall we head out, then? I made you some iced tea.”
“…”
The moment I handed her the tumbler of iced tea, Harin’s expression hardened. She took it awkwardly, and together we moved into the entryway.
Rustle…
Harin pulled a pair of sandals from the shoe cabinet and began putting them on. Wait—those were Hermes.
“You’re wearing those today?”
“Isn’t that why you bought them for me?”
Harin shot the question right back, as if she truly couldn’t grasp my intent. Of course, even if they were Hermes, they weren’t family heirlooms—I had bought them for her to wear.
But. The. Timing. Was. A. Little. Off. Don’t you think? I had invested that small fortune so she would look her absolute best when she went with the boy she liked.
And she was burning them on a mere “Dad chance”? Naturally I was happy, but I couldn’t help worrying about Harin’s mental state—having to wear them today when I was only a substitute chicken for the pheasant.
Vroom—
Anyway, we climbed into the car and set off for Goldeworld. The whole ride in the passenger seat, Harin kept fussing with her knees, clearly self-conscious about the skirt that was far shorter than anything she usually wore.
“Uncomfortable? Want to turn around and change?”
“It’s just that I’ve never worn anything like this before. Do you not like it?”
“Not at all. You can wear whatever you want.”
Truthfully, I didn’t like it one bit. The top was more or less covered by the jacket, but the skirt was still way too short.
Still, she was making an effort to match her dad’s mood for once—I couldn’t say that. Just a few days ago I had nearly gotten into a fight with Eunju the moment we met, all over skirt length. Remember that?
Rustle…
Meanwhile Harin pulled something from the bag she had prepared ahead of time. Carefully wrapped in paper towels were slices of toast.
“When did you even make these?”
“Early this morning…”
“If you thought you’d be hungry, you should’ve said so last night. I figured you just didn’t eat breakfast, so—”
“I’m not eating.”
“…?”
Slide…
While we were stopped at a light, Harin carefully held the toast out toward me. Huh? So this wasn’t her breakfast—it was mine?
“Th-thanks, Harin.”
I took the toast at once and shoved it into my mouth, chewing away. Was this a dream or reality?
Just going on a weekend outing with my daughter was already a lethal dose of happiness. But for her to pack breakfast for the dad who would be stuck driving from early morning—that was something I had never even dared to hope for.
Click!
Harin unscrewed the tumbler lid and held it out. Gulp, gulp! The sweet peach iced tea cooled my throat refreshingly.
“Ah… sorry. This was yours and I just put my mouth on it…”
“It’s fine. I’m not drinking any.”
“…”
What was this? Anyone watching would think she wasn’t offering me her iced tea so much as disposing of something she didn’t want.
“It feels a bit like back then. You know how I said the last time I went to an amusement park was with your mom’s family? Everyone was so busy covering the ticket prices that we snuck snacks in and ate them on the sly.”
“Did Mom… pack a lunch?”
“No. Your mom probably doesn’t even know how to cook. It was Minjeong—your mom’s little sister, so your aunt—who packed everything, and the rest of us just freeloaded.”
Come to think of it, Minjeong had been the one who suggested going in the first place. Both families were far from well-off; a trip all the way to Seoul had been nothing but a dream. If that kid hadn’t grabbed us by the scruff and carried us there, we still wouldn’t have gone.
“It was fun back then. I kept deliberately joining the long lines so I could ditch your aunt and uncle and walk around with just your mom. Your mom said she wanted cotton candy, but it was ridiculously expensive. I literally shook every last speck of dust out of my pockets to buy one, and then we shared it while we waited.”
Lost in old memories, I found myself rambling on and on. Looking back, hadn’t I been kind of a jerk?
Minjeong had probably wanted to hang out with me. And my brother and Yu Jiyeon had surely wanted to be with each other.
But even though I understood Minjeong’s feelings, I had never understood Yu Jiyeon’s—so I had used every sneaky trick I could think of to ditch the two of them.
“…”
Harin was silent. When I turned to look, she had her head down, lips pressed tightly together.
“Harin? Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You look pretty uncomfortable for someone who’s fine…”
“The light.”
“…?”
What was with this kid now? I had only opened the story bag a little because I figured a daughter would be curious about her mom and dad’s past.
Yet she had gone all prickly, as if the whole thing grated on her nerves. Honestly, a high-school girl’s heart was something you could never fully understand.
We arrived at Goldeworld. After parking and heading inside, we found massive crowds already forming little clusters of lines toward the entrance.
“Why are there so many people in school uniforms? Isn’t today Sunday?”
A strangely dissonant scene kept playing out around us. Even though it was a holiday, students in uniforms were scattered everywhere.
“They’re not students. They just rented them.”
“R-rented? Why would anyone do that?”
“Just… because they wanted to wear a school uniform?”
Harin blinked at me as if she couldn’t understand why I didn’t get it. Ah—was this that thing Uncle had talked about?
People deliberately renting school uniforms and coming to an amusement park to make up for the parts of life they had missed as kids?
But when I thought about it, I was the same. In the end I had never managed to come to an amusement park alone with Yu Jiyeon. We didn’t even live in Seoul, so wearing uniforms here had been completely out of the question.
“Do you… want to wear a school uniform?”
Just then Harin made a startling suggestion, as if she had peeked straight into my head. The mere word “uniform” stabbed my conscience and I immediately had a fit.
“A school uniform? Why the hell would I wear something like that?! I’ve never worn one and I’ve never once wanted to!”
Had I raised my voice too much in a crowded place? People around us were staring with “What’s wrong with that guy?” looks.
Harin, suddenly embarrassed, glanced around and lowered her voice.
“Why are you getting mad…?”
“S-sorry. I just meant… that right now is way more fun.”
“More fun than when you came with Mom?”
“Of course. Back then I didn’t even really want to go—I got dragged along. But now…”
Oops… Had I revealed too much of my true feelings? I had pretended to be the big spender buying the tickets, but it was basically a confession that I had wanted to come with my daughter more than anyone.
“Then that’s enough.”
“…?”
Apparently that answer pleased Harin quite a bit. She curled the corners of her lips upward just a little and started walking toward the entrance again.
Do you like it when I talk about your mom, or do you hate it?
We bought tickets and stepped into the Adventure zone. The familiar scenery hadn’t changed a bit from nineteen years ago. It only looked a little more worn, a little smaller than last time.
“So what should we do now, Harin? Anything you want to ride?”
Judging by the crowds, spending the entire day standing in lines was a given. Yet Harin seemed completely unhurried.
“Can we just walk around for a bit first?”
“Uh… of course we can. You’re saying we shouldn’t get too hung up on the rides, right?”
“Just walking like this is nice enough.”
“…”
Harin claimed she had no particular craving for the attractions and simply wanted to walk. Well, for a kid who only ever went between home, school, and the library, she probably wanted to people-watch once in a while.
So I walked aimlessly with Harin. The way she kept turning her head this way and that, eyes sparkling like a baby kitten out to see the world for the first time, was almost painfully adorable…
Glance… glance…
But that was only from a father’s point of view. We had barely walked a few meters before I started feeling suspicious stares from every direction.
When I went on full alert, sure enough… men were pretending not to look while stealing peeks at Harin left and right.
Young punks, young guys, old guys—they didn’t discriminate. And the bastard right next to us holding his girlfriend’s hand while ogling? What the hell was that about?
Haa… So this was what it felt like to be the father of a daughter who was too pretty for her own good? She was already cute, and now she was wearing revealing clothes on top of it—the XY chromosomes simply couldn’t restrain their instincts.
After all, whose daughter was Harin? Yu Jiyeon’s real strength had always been that overwhelming physique you couldn’t take your eyes off once you saw it.
I had only ever thought of her as a little kid, but she had long since caught up to the age Yu Jiyeon had been the last time I saw her.
I hadn’t noticed because she only ever wore her school uniform, but this kid had some real volume going on. Of course she didn’t match Yu Jiyeon’s grand scale, but it wasn’t something you could ignore either.
And even though she didn’t particularly exercise, maybe it was from walking everywhere back home—the muscle balance in her firm thighs and calves was outstanding.
On top of that, the toes peeking out of her sandals were so pretty I wanted to tickle them all day long. Just like every other man around, I found myself completely absorbed in appreciating Harin’s figure…
Shake-shake!
What the hell was I thinking? She was a minor—no, even setting that aside, she was my daughter.
All I needed to think was “My daughter sure is pretty,” so what was all this about volume and thighs?
She was only Yu Jiyeon’s double, not Yu Jiyeon herself!
Whirr—
To make matters worse, an escalator appeared. Harin stepped on without a second thought, but I, who had been fretting over her ridiculously short skirt the whole time, simply could not stay silent.
So I stuck right up against her back, using my whole body to block the surrounding views. Harin turned around thoughtlessly—and smack!—our faces met head-on.
Flinch!
Harin’s eyes went wide at the distance that far exceeded her expectations. Of course she would be startled—some guy who was supposed to be her dad was glued to her like a boyfriend, standing guard on all sides.
“Th-there are just too many people…”
I offered a pathetic excuse to hide my real intention. Harin gave no reply and simply swallowed dryly.
“…”
The time it took for the escalator to reach the top was only a few seconds. Yet it felt like hours at the very least.
Fidget…
Harin’s pupils began darting in every direction. She would look at me, then immediately dodge that gaze into empty air.
Then look at me again, then back to empty air.
Even though I knew she was uncomfortable, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Because in that helpless, trapped expression, I caught the scent of the Yu Jiyeon I had longed for so desperately.
If the two of us had come here alone back then, this was exactly the atmosphere I would have wanted. If it had been the me who still didn’t know where her heart was headed, I would definitely have hoped for her to shyly avoid my gaze just like this.