The Fox's Tease
I got a call saying Mom was coming over. I was already on edge, and the last thing I needed was her nagging on top of everything else. I was about to tell her to come another time when Yerin chimed in, “Why? Just tell her to come. Grandma’s probably curious about how we’re living anyway.” For some reason my niece was perfectly fine with it this time. She buzzed around the house, chattering about cleaning and preparing snacks, making a big production out of getting ready for Mom’s visit.
“Actually, I felt really bad about last time. We basically chased her out. When she comes today, samchon should buy her something delicious.”
“...Yeah. I’ll handle the housework, so you stop fussing and go study. How many days do you even have left before the suneung?”
I kept a slight distance while we talked. Lately I couldn’t seem to say no to her. The moment I let my guard down she’d climb right up on her uncle’s head and start pulling his strings however she pleased. Sometimes I even hallucinated nine fox tails swishing behind her.
“Well, if I’m going to make a wish to samchon, I have to study hard, don’t I?”
After hearing me, Yerin took off her apron and draped it over me. Maybe it was my imagination, but her fingers seemed to wriggle deliberately. Using the excuse of tying the strings, she wrapped her arms around my waist and refused to let go.
“What kind of wish are you even planning to make? Are you going to ask me to change the house deed over to you?”
“Is money the only thing samchon thinks about? It’s not that. Don’t worry.”
I almost wished it was something like that. Something that could be solved with money. Buying her clothes, getting her a new bag—anything within the range of what I could imagine. But because my niece was so unpredictable, I had no idea what she might say.
“Hoo… Anyway, when your grandmother gets here she’s going to start lecturing again. I feel like I’ve heard the marriage talk so many times the words have calluses on them.”
“That’s just how adults are. They repeat the same stories over and over.”
The niece who claimed she was going to study still trailed after me like a little shadow. Even when I told her to go to her room and open her books, she ignored me. She insisted that if someone else told her to study she’d rebel, that she really had been planning to study until I ruined it by ordering her to.
“I don’t do that, do I?”
“Samchon is fine, so don’t worry. You’re gloomy, but you don’t nag.”
Yerin was acting cheeky again. After the disaster last time I’d tried to thump her on the head, I decided to go easy. I gave her cheek a light pinch and left it at that.
“If Mom says anything, just let it go in one ear and out the other. Don’t take it to heart.”
“Okay.”
“If you really don’t have anything to say, just go to your room. If you tell her you’re studying, she probably won’t bother you much.”
“Aww, but I should at least show my face… Still… um… you know…”
Suddenly Yerin trailed off. I stopped wiping the dust and had no choice but to meet her eyes.
“We probably shouldn’t tell Grandma that samchon kissed me, right? She might get the wrong idea.”
For a second I was so shocked my hand went limp.
“Or should I explain it properly so there’s no misunderstanding? That samchon kissed my cheek and forehead. That you sat your niece on your lap, held her so tightly she couldn’t move, and wrapped your arms around her back—”
The rag slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor. While I stood there dumbstruck, the little fox in front of me beamed and said, “Aww, samchon. I was just joking. Why is your heart so small? As if samchon would ever… do something like that to your niece. Right? It’s fine if samchon likes your niece. It’s fine if you’re close. Besides, you and I are especially close, aren’t we?”
“Hahaha…”
Only then did she release her poor uncle. My heart plummeted. I tried to laugh along with her, but my face wouldn’t cooperate. I could feel cold sweat running down the back of my neck.
I thought we could just brush off what happened between us as a simple, innocent incident…
The niece I’d only ever seen as a child already knew. She knew my heart hadn’t been pure that day. She knew the skinship between uncle and niece had clearly crossed a line. She might have even realized how hard I’d struggled not to press my lips to hers. My niece was that smart, that quick to notice everything. She had probably seen straight through her stupid uncle long ago.
“But if samchon keeps acting this awkward, people really might get the wrong idea. You look like a criminal terrified of getting caught. So let’s relax that face, okay? Stop sulking. My samchon is a good boy, right?”
Pat, pat. When her hand thumped my back I flinched. She really was a fox. A fox who played with her uncle. Who toyed with him however she liked. Who treated him like a toy she owned. Because of her I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t say anything, couldn’t take any action—I just nodded obediently at whatever my niece said and prepared to welcome Mom. Exactly as she ordered. Exactly as she told me to. I forced my expression to soften, forced a smile onto my face.
“You’re here.”
“Hello.”
Mom arrived loaded down with bags. Both her hands were weighed down with how much she’d brought. I’d offered to pick her up, but she said gas was expensive and told me to stay home.
Bus fare or gas money—it’s all the same in the end.
“Last time you chased me out, but today you’re actually letting me in.”
The moment I took her bags, Mom offered her usual greeting. Typical of her—never a kind word when she leaves.
“Maybe we should have gone out and left you behind. Then you could have just dropped the side dishes and left.”
Thanks to her, my reply wasn’t kind either. What a warm mother-son relationship.
“Look at that. I raised you to this age and this is what I get. Yerin, have you been well?”
“Yes, Grandma.”
Still, she was her granddaughter. Unlike with me, Mom smiled warmly at Yerin. While Mom and I growled at each other, we each did our tasks. The two of us unpacked the bundles, put the side dishes in the refrigerator, opened the sweet rice drink, and poured three glasses.
“Looks like your samchon doesn’t cook much. Both of you are nothing but skin and bones.”
“Aww, I’m not a child anymore. I can feed myself. Besides, samchon is busy with work.”
“It’s because he’s stubborn. From what I hear from your sungmo, he takes on every single task himself. No matter how much of a matrilocal son-in-law he is, once he sits in the president’s chair he can’t keep working like that. A person needs to have some flexibility.”
There it was again. That endless nagging. While I stood in the kitchen peeling the fruit I’d bought ahead of time, her voice carried all the way over.
“Samchon takes after Grandma, so of course he’s that diligent. If the president’s son-in-law doesn’t know how to be humble, it’s no good. There must be so many people who see him as an eyesore right now.”
“...That’s true. I just worry that your samchon is too rigid. If he had a little more give and take…”
“He’ll do well. Whose son is he, after all? Here, I picked this one. I chose the prettiest one for Grandma.”
Yerin smiled sweetly as she fed Mom the fruit she had peeled. It really was different with a granddaughter. Unlike me, who only ever fought with Mom, Yerin skillfully shifted the mood in the house.
“Still, having a girl around makes me talk more. When it’s just me and your samchon, I’m always in a rush to leave.”
Mom didn’t say it outright, but it was obvious she was happy Yerin was there. The woman who usually left the moment the bags were unpacked settled comfortably onto the sofa.
“Don’t you talk much with sungmo?”
The niece who used to casually call her “that woman” or “that lady” was now speaking politely.
“You know what your sungmo’s personality is like, Yerin.”
“Mm… I don’t like talking badly about someone who isn’t here, so… I’ll just stay quiet.”
Oh please.
I had no idea what happened to all the trash-talking she did so freely when it was just the two of us. I clicked my tongue inwardly at my niece’s shameless attitude and leaned back on the sofa.
“She’s not exactly quiet either. Mm… Yeah. Grandma will stop talking about people who aren’t here too.”
“But sungmo does have a way of making things difficult for people, doesn’t she? Samchon’s experienced it a lot, so he knows.”
Suddenly the spark flew in my direction.
“Well… she has her quirks, but she doesn’t exactly make things difficult.”
“Liar. You told me before that you were dying because of sungmo.”
“Min-a? Why would Min-a—”
“Samchon. Grandma’s curious too. Please tell us. Even when you say it’s hard, whenever I ask you just keep dodging the question. You always say ‘there are things like that.’”
Yerin’s eyes sparkled as she held out a piece of fruit to me. She clearly wanted to hear me badmouth her sungmo with my own mouth, right in front of her grandmother.
“She just… tends to try to control me more than necessary. She hates it when I go out for drinks with friends. At work, if I even talk on the phone with a female employee from a client company, she interrogates me about who it was.”
“Rather than calling her strange, that’s pretty normal. What wife in the world likes her husband drinking and talking with other women?”
“Still. Grandma watches dramas too, right? These days if you control someone that much, they can’t even work properly. When samchon gets stressed he’ll want to have a drink with his friends. And in office life you end up running into women all the time.”
Yerin took my side and offered me another piece of fruit. Even though I could eat it myself, she insisted on taking my fork, spearing the fruit, and feeding it to me. Maybe it was my imagination again, but the moment our fingers brushed, the faintest smile curved across Yerin’s lips.