Brunch
"Ah..."
I caught Rahi's hand as she tried to slip it free, then stepped over to Hyunji and offered a greeting.
"Sorry. We're late. We came as fast as we could."
"It's all right. Good morning, both of you."
"R-right. Good morning."
"You look beautiful today. Who else are you planning to charm?"
"Hehe, you, obviously, oppa. Oh—come on, get in."
Hyunji smiled and waved us toward the black sedan she'd been leaning against. It was a full-size model from a domestic premium marque, nothing like the sort of car that suited her at all. She must have brought her mother's.
"Is it far?"
"A little. About thirty minutes. I don't think you'll be disappointed, though."
"Well, then..."
I opened the passenger door as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and only then saw that someone was already in the driver's seat. Sunglasses hid her eyes, but the sharp line of her jaw and the red of her lips made it plain she was a remarkable beauty. I dipped my head before I quite realized I was doing it, and the woman behind the wheel returned a quiet bow. The ends of her bob, cut on a diagonal from the chin, slipped softly forward.
"Ah, she'll be driving for us today."
"...Oh. She will?"
"Yes. I'll sit up front, so the two of you take the back."
At that I stepped away from the passenger door and settled into the rear seat Hyunji held open. Rahi climbed in after me, and Hyunji, buckling herself in up front, spoke to the woman at the wheel.
"Unnie. I'll leave it to you, then."
"Mm."
"Oh—oppa, unnie. This is Han Gyeo-wool unnie. She helps my mother with her work. We grew up almost like real sisters."
"Hello. I'm Han Gyeo-wool."
A slightly cool voice, with almost no rise or fall in it. Even so, it wasn't unpleasant. If anything, it had a way of settling a person.
"I'm Lee Shinwoo."
"I-I'm Oh Rahi."
"I've heard about you both. I'll see that you're well looked after today."
"Ah... yes."
The car pulled away in one smooth, unhurried motion, and I sank into my thoughts. I'd known Hyunji came from money, but a household that kept a driver was beyond anything I'd imagined. That was why, these days, you had to be more careful around anyone who rode in this particular sedan. Working at a company, I'd come to notice that the truly wealthy all chose this over some halfway foreign car. To think Hyunji's mother was one of them.
"Didn't you take the bus back when you were in school?"
"Ah, I don't really like driving, to be honest. And... the way people look."
"Ah. I can see that."
"Right. And I like the bus. It's how I got to meet you, oppa."
"Oh, Rahi. You know what? The first time I met Hyunji—"
"Ah! Oppa!"
The moment I started telling her that Hyunji had been the one to come on to me, Rahi's eyes went round, and she stared at Hyunji as if seeing her anew.
"Oh my god. Really? H-Hyunji, you're incredible..."
"N-no. Unnie, it wasn't like that... I just got a little drunk on the mood at the bus stop..."
"Ah. So it was impulse? You just tossed it out there?"
"You know that's not it... But I was scared too. That he'd turn me down..."
"But that's how we ended up meeting like this."
"...You're right. Good job, past me."
"That's right. That's right."
Rahi, stiff at first, began to smile and join in as she watched Hyunji and me tease each other. Now and then I felt Han Gyeo-wool's eyes on me in the rearview mirror, but I did my best to act as if I hadn't. If I tensed up, Rahi would only grow more uncomfortable.
"Oh, this is lovely."
"Isn't it?"
We'd been driving barely thirty minutes when we pulled up to a striking two-story building, its fine lawn and carefully tended garden the first things to catch the eye. The view of Seoul spilling away below the hill was perfect.
"Thank you."
"Not at all. Please enjoy your time."
I offered the greeting to Han Gyeo-wool as I stepped out, and Rahi hurried through a bow of her own before climbing out after me. I followed them toward the café. Hyunji came up on my left and closed her hand gently around mine. The softness of her dress against my forearm, and the warmth of her beyond it, was gentle.
"Oppa. I missed you."
"Me too. How was practice?"
"It's so hard... I seriously don't have a single minute, you know?"
"A little over a week left now?"
"Yes... We're into ensemble rehearsal, so there's really no time... The professor said this is my last day off..."
I listened to Hyunji chatter on, then reached back for Rahi, who was trailing us a little awkwardly. I took her hand without hesitation and drew her in. A small "Ah..." escaped her as she came up on my right. A handful, the two of them? That was precisely why I liked it.
"Welcome. Do you have a reservation?"
"Yes. It's under Lee Hyunji."
"Ah, it's been a while. Right this way."
"The weather's nice, so the garden, please."
"Of course."
The server looked at the three of us with open curiosity, but her manner stayed perfectly polite. She led us around behind the building, into a garden full of sun, and brought us to the white table at its center. Hyunji took a seat beneath the broad parasol.
"Unnie, is there anything you can't eat?"
"Ah, no. I'll eat pretty much anything."
"No carrots for me."
"Right. I already asked them to leave them out. Then just as we reserved, please."
"...Ah. Yes."
I watched her take the menu and retreat looking faintly dazed, and scratched at my cheek. I'd grown used to it lately, but it still nagged at me that I'd put Rahi and Hyunji in the way of looks like that. Watching me, Hyunji smiled softly.
"You'd better brace yourself. You're going to get a lot of looks like that from here on."
"I'm used to it, more or less. Are you two all right?"
Rahi smiled gently and nodded, and Hyunji gave a small nod of her own as she answered.
"Of course. You have no idea how proud I am of you, oppa."
"...That so."
"Th-that's right. You don't need to worry, Shinwoo. It's just that I'm not used to it yet."
"Well. All right."
"So there's something I wanted to say, oppa."
In the meantime a server set our drinks down. Two of them were iced Americanos in tall glasses. The mug placed in front of Rahi sent up a warm curl of steam, and the scent of coffee spread. Hyunji must have remembered what she liked. The server's eyes still seemed to be puzzling out exactly what we were to one another, but we simply picked up our cups and paid her no mind.
"What is it?"
"...Since unnie is here today, too."
"Ah. That..."
Rahi let out a small breath, as if she'd understood at once. Hyunji looked at her and nodded.
"What?"
"...If you're going to see both me and Rahi unnie, you have to register it. If you don't, and the two of us end up... h-having your baby around the same time, it causes a bit of a problem..."
"There's a rule like that?"
"Yes. Not so much these days, but there was a time the Gene Management Bureau even pressed charges..."
"...Really?"
I couldn't say I fully understood it, but there was sense in the thing. Safer to manage it that way than to let something dangerous come of inbreeding. What fault would the child have? It wasn't a rule I couldn't accept. Rahi nodded, the straw of her coffee between her lips.
"I-if you... held me, or unnie, while being careful about the timing... it would be all right."
"You'd have to leave a few months between us, though... I don't want that. And I'd feel awful toward Hyunji..."
I nodded at what Rahi added. In the end, Hyunji's point amounted to this: that I wouldn't be meeting the two of them openly, with my head up. I'd already resolved to see it through and take the responsibility, and so long as it wasn't some great loss, I meant to do whatever it took. I didn't want to feel ashamed in front of these two.
The server's steps faltered for an instant as she left the table. But the two in front of me mattered more. Their faces had already gone red with embarrassment, and I quietly lifted my coffee and said nothing.
"...Thank you, oppa."
"M-me too..."
"So. What is this registration, exactly?"
"It was started on a proposal from the Gene Management Bureau, under the Ministry of Maternity and Childcare..."
Hyunji hesitated, stirring the ice in her coffee with the straw, then went on.
"Most men don't want anything to do with women, but there are some—like you, oppa—who see several at the same time."
"I'd imagine. Not everyone could be the same."
"They started it to offer men like that a kind of benefit. To encourage them."
"A benefit?"
"Yes."
A server came over with plates and set them down in front of us. Even then I could feel eyes on me, and by now the looks were starting to cling.
"...Please enjoy."
"Thank you."
I gave her a quiet nod, then looked back at Hyunji. She took up her fork and continued.
"I don't know all the details either... Mm. Oppa, just a second."
She dug through her handbag for her phone and started searching. Rahi took hers out and did the same. Convenient. And nice.
"There's a stipend of roughly fifteen hundred dollars every month, and you can take a mortgage of up to about four hundred thousand with no interest at all... There are a few other things too. Tax breaks, that kind of benefit. The support increases every time a partner is registered, or a child is born. There's help for businesses as well. But honestly, perks aside, what mattered to me and to unnie was what you thought."
For a moment I had no words. She was laying out benefits that enormous as if they were nothing at all. Far from a loss, it was nothing but gain. The interest-free loan alone was staggering. I glanced at Rahi, and she was nodding along.
"We'd already talked it over. Whatever you decided, Shinwoo, we agreed we'd go along with it."
I couldn't see the slightest reason to refuse. Still, from the careful way they were bringing it up, it seemed there was a catch in it somewhere.