Episode 40
“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!”
When I looked back, all the staff members were doubled over, holding their stomachs and laughing. I frowned.
“Our poor darling!”
So don’t laugh at him. The kid’s having a hard time.
If he was concentrating on acting, that could happen!
But when I said that, the staff who had been laughing all went rolling on the floor.
“Eek! Did you hear that?”
“Gongja is comforting Woo-jin.”
“Kkheuk! Kheuk! A nearly forty-year-old Woo-jin being comforted by a baby.”
Three or four staff members were rolling around on the floor.
Well, at least the floor gets cleaned.
Han Woo-jin sniffled and bit his lip.
No, the kid can be a little emotional too!
I patted Han Woo-jin.
“Get well soon. You can cry, too.”
“Kk.”
“Khk!”
The staff weren’t even able to breathe properly anymore. Han Woo-jin covered his face with one hand.
“Gongja.”
“Yesh!”
“You know. Since I turned thirty, I haven’t been embarrassed very often.”
So that was how it was.
He wasn’t embarrassed at all when he made a baby call him ‘older brother.’
I nodded.
“But I’m embarrassed now. If there were a mouse hole, I’d hide in it.”
Oh dear. How unfortunate.
I patted Han Woo-jin’s shoulder and said, “Being sad isn’t something to be embarrassed about!”
“Kheup!”
Han Woo-jin let out a strange groan and hugged me tightly.
“That makes it even more embarrassing, but you’re cute!”
Huh. What kind of reaction was that?
Fine, fine, I get it. Let go. You’re squishing me.
I wriggled and let out a small sigh.
Come to think of it, it was terrible.
What sin did I commit in my previous life that I’m being held in a man’s arms again?
And on top of that, I had to comfort him.
Han Woo-jin muttered, “Gongja, come home with me! I’ll treat you well.”
What nonsense.
I kicked my little legs and waited for Han Woo-jin to calm down. Fortunately, there was another scene after this, so it wasn’t for very long.
* * *
The shoot went well.
Judging by the atmosphere, that must be right.
When Lee Je-min PD said goodbye, he looked me over from head to toe with eyes like he was sizing up a treasure he wanted for himself.
Well, I’d like it if he introduced me around a lot.
Or he could cast me in the next project, too.
Haah.
I rubbed my eyes and clenched my fist.
I’m sleepy.
Probably because I’d been fighting sleep, my head felt foggy.
Come to think of it, sleeping is basically a baby’s job.
I twisted around and struggled to stay awake. I couldn’t fall asleep here.
Ansan-daek, who was sitting with me on the sofa, said, “Gongja, if you’re sleepy, sleep.”
I shook my head and stretched my arms and legs. Maybe because I was in a baby body, stretching just made me look like I was rolling around. I couldn’t tell whether I was stretching or just flopping about.
“Aigoo. It’s time to sleep, and the kid just won’t go down.”
“I want to see Mom!”
“The young lady will be here today, but aren’t you tired? You already did a shoot.”
“I’m fine!”
After that, I didn’t remember how I got home. I vaguely recalled falling asleep in the stroller, and then suddenly I was home.
I thought I’d be okay because I took a nap!
I fought my instincts and moved my body. That was when the person I’d been waiting for finally arrived.
“Mama!”
“Gongja!”
The moment she rubbed hand sanitizer into her hands, Mom pulled me into a tight hug.
“I heard you did great at the shoot?”
“Yesh!”
Of course. I did great.
“CEO Seo said our Gongja was a genius. And then...”
Patting me, Mom suddenly ground her teeth.
“That Han Woo-jin brat!”
Huh.
“How dare he ask for our Gongja? I should just break his legs!”
“Ma’am! Gongja’s right here!”
“Ah, right. I mean I should just lightly touch his legs and smash them to pieces.”
Hey, Mom.
That’s even crueler.
Mom kept muttering.
“No matter how cute our Gongja is, how could he talk such nonsense right in front of me?”
So Han Woo-jin had really been acting out.
“Did Han Woo-jin really say that?”
“Yep. What exactly did our Gongja do on set to make him act like that? CEO Seo just kept saying weird things about how our Gongja became the star of the set and acted well.”
“I’ll explain. Well, Gongja here, when all those strangers came up to him, he didn’t even cry...”
The two of them went on talking for a long time. I yawned and wiped away my tears.
Ah, I feel like I’m going to fall asleep.
I shook my head and clenched my fist again. The only reason I was still awake at this hour was this.
I’m at my limit. If one more minute passes, I’m going to fall asleep.
I didn’t want to interrupt their conversation, but I had no choice. I called out to Mom right away.
“Mama!”
“Hm? Gongja. What is it?”
I forced my sleepy eyes open and said, “Auntie’s sick!”
“Hm?”
“She’s really sick! She went ‘ouch’ like this before!”
I clutched my chest and pretended I couldn’t straighten my back. With my very convincing performance, Mom asked at once, “Ansan-daek, were you in pain?”
“W-well, my stomach was a little upset.”
“Nooo! Really, really sick!”
Mom stared at me. For a moment, she and I held eye contact.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
It wasn’t long at all. Mom immediately turned to Ansan-daek.
“That doesn’t sound right, Ansan-daek.”
“Miss, I...”
“Tell me the truth. What kind of illness is it? Is it serious?”
Good.
Thank you for believing me, Mom.
Now Ansan-daek would go to the hospital.
She’ll get help from modern medicine, and...
I’d have to help with my coins, too.
Another yawn slipped out. It was noisy because Mom was shouting, but my eyes kept shutting anyway.
That’s it. I’m done.
I hugged a cushion and closed my eyes. The sleep I’d been holding back with all my strength rushed in as if it had been waiting for the signal.
When I wake up, Ansan-daek will have gone to the hospital, right?
I grinned and rubbed my cheek against the cushion. From the shoot to the tip-off, it had been a very nutritious set of days.
* * *
“Gongja, you eat so well~!”
I beamed and swallowed the baby food. Honestly, it was edible.
Still, it’s not the same.
Ah, Ansan-daek.
I opened and closed my hand.
If this had been a picky kid, he wouldn’t have eaten it.
I swallowed another spoonful of baby food and let out a small breath. I already missed Ansan-daek’s cooking.
It’s already been a month since the shoot.
The next day when I opened my eyes, Ansan-daek was already gone. When I asked the person taking care of me, I heard she had been rushed to the emergency room in the middle of the night.
I worried she’d suddenly gotten seriously ill.
Later, Mom explained.
She said they got tired of her refusing to go to the hospital, so they sent her straight to the emergency room and admitted her.
As expected, my mom was forceful.
But what kind of illness did Ansan-daek have?
Even Mom wouldn’t say that much.
Well, if I didn’t know, I’d ask.
“Auntie!”
“Oh, right. Gongja. One more bite?”
“Where did you go?”
“The young lady? She went to a shoot, didn’t she?”
I shook my head.
“No, Auntie. Where did you go?”
“I’m right here.”
Wow, this was hard to explain.
I feel the limits of language.
I’d thought about it for a while before, but the development of my body was strangely ambiguous.
I do seem a little ahead, but I don’t even know my exact age, so what can I say?
I felt different from an ordinary child, but I couldn’t tell how.
Well, in the end, everyone grows up the same.
What mattered was the explanation.
“No! Auntie is, um, young!”
“Oh?”
There’s no one on earth who doesn’t like being told they look young.
The lady smiled brightly.
“Not that young, though?”
“Not auntie! Sister!”
“Oh my, oh my, oh my!”
The lady looked delighted beyond words.
“Well, even if it’s just being polite, that’s nice.”
She really was happy.
I tilted my head and said, “Really!”
A baby can’t lie.
The lady grinned and wiped my chin.
“Aigoo. I’m not a sister.”
It was about time to ask. I smiled sweetly and said, “Where is Auntie sick?”
Maybe because she was in a good mood, the lady answered readily.
“Ah, her heart isn’t doing well, they say.”
I see.
So she’s going to have surgery?
And on top of that, it had cost 100,000 coins.
Seriously, what kind of illness needs surgery that costs one hundred thousand coins?
So this is the Love & Peace Coin, and it’s stingy as hell.
I let out a long sigh.
Still, this is the kind of thing you have to spend money on.
There was no one like Ansan-daek. Honestly, she was practically family.
Well, it’s about time for the final episode of the drama Emergency Room to air.
I hoped that meant I’d get a lot of coins.
As I was swallowing more baby food and turning over all sorts of thoughts in my head, the lady’s expression suddenly stiffened.
What’s this?
I turned slightly to look. There was someone familiar.
Ah.
I lowered my head a little, then raised it again and said, “Hellohh! Sister!”
“Hic?”
The lady startled in shock. Then she looked back and forth between the grandmother and me.
Oh, maybe calling her sister is a little odd.
But if you call the grandmother “grandmother,” she gets angry.
The grandmother walked up to me and said, “Go away.”
“Huh? But Gongja has to eat.”
“He won’t die from skipping one meal.”
“Oh, yes.”
The lady shuffled back and fled as though she’d committed a crime.
She’s putting on a temper after not coming out for a while.
She really was a difficult person.
The grandmother came closer and sniffed the top of my head.
Snnff—
Even while she was smelling me, her eyes were sharp. I smiled brightly as if I knew nothing.
“You...”
Yes, Grandmother.
“You’re becoming more and more famous.”
Well, a lot had happened. I’d worked hard.
“They were talking about you at the breakfast meeting today.”
So I really had become a bit famous.
But it doesn’t sound like they were saying anything nice.
Maybe that was why her expression looked so fierce.
“They said, when are you going to stop keeping him around?”
I wasn’t sure, but was that one of those upper-class gatherings?
They’d probably treat people like insects.
I stared at the grandmother. To her, was I going to remain that kind of thing forever?
At this point, most people would just give up.
But I wasn’t most people.
I smiled brightly.
“At any rate, that Su-jeong girl is always doing useless things. Spending money on servants and all that.”
Ah, was she talking about Ansan-daek?
“She should just pay a decent amount and hire someone new, instead of fixing up someone broken and keeping them on.”
Wow.
I feel this every time.
This was why my mom had not lived a long life.
There must be a deep rift between these two.
Still, Grandmother.
I’m on Mom’s side.
Once you have money and status, do you all end up like that?
Come on, let’s not live life so miserably when we only get one shot at it.
You already have so much, and Ansan-daek isn’t just some servant.
The grandmother kept sniffing the top of my head.
“Useless, that’s what it is. Why on earth is that child like that?”
“Mom is cool!”
“What?”
I smiled sweetly like a child who knew nothing.
“It’s pitiful not to know how cool Mom is!”
Babies were wonderful. We could say whatever we wanted.
The grandmother’s face twisted like she’d bitten into something sour, but I didn’t care.
“My mom is great at using a bat, too!”
Just how good was she to be so famous for it?
“She protects Gongja, too!”
Only protects me? I was a truly blessed man.
“What are you talking about now?”
“Don’t bad-mouth my mom!”
It was time for a quarrel with a two-year-old, Grandmother.