War of Flowers
Star quality, huh… So it wasn't just my eyes that found my kid adorable.
"Even from Mello's perspective, my kid's pretty cute, right?"
Mello looked a little flustered as he answered my question.
"Yeah, kids are cute. Though when I said star quality, I didn't mean just that…"
Greg cut in with a snort.
"Don't mind him, Mello. Jun turns into a total softie the second his kids come up."
"Ah, so that's what it was?"
"It's not entirely like that."
Supporting my children so they could do what they wanted was only natural, but as a father of two, my thoughts on the matter remained unchanged.
"I'll give what you said some real thought. But the kids are still way too young."
I stroked Reni's hair as he clung tightly to my leg, looking up at me with those big eyes.
He was a four-year-old who still wore diapers at night.
If it were a sport that needed training from a young age, maybe. But stepping into the entertainment industry was something we could think about once the kids were a little older.
Mello nodded in understanding, then added,
"It's a shame, though. Having professionals capture your kids' most lovable moments in photos is a pretty great experience. Look at this. These are some kids my team styled not long ago."
On the smartphone screen Mello held out were adorable children's clothing models.
"Aren't they precious?"
"Yes, they're really beautiful kids."
Kids with bright, sunny expressions posed cutely and confidently in pretty clothes.
"You're not thinking their parents are just terrible people selling their kids, are you?"
"No, of course not, but…"
Still, that kind of darkness existed too, didn't it?
Mello was going out of his way to tell me this even though there wasn't much in it for him, so I decided not to push and drew a reasonable line.
"Once the kids are a little older, we can talk about it together."
"Alright. If you ever change your mind, I can at least pass a portfolio along to an editor at this brand. It's a great place for kids' clothing models to get their start."
Just as we were about to wrap up the conversation on a warm note, Reni, who had been quietly listening, said something unexpected.
"Daaad, I'm all grown up."
The adults around us burst out laughing at how adorable he was.
But Reni didn't look at anyone else. He simply waited calmly for my answer.
This wasn't a moment to brush past with a half-hearted reply. I chose my words carefully, then answered honestly.
"Of course Reni has grown a lot, but Dad still thinks you're too little to start working."
I hoped the kid would just let it go, but Reni, as always, wasn't that easy.
"But Daaad, those kids just now were little too?"
"Hmm, they must be doing it because they want to."
Reni hung onto my leg and swayed side to side for a moment, seeming to think it over, then muttered almost to himself.
"Mm, do I want to do it tooo?"
Who are you asking? The way he stretched his words made me uneasy.
Sure enough, Reni looked straight up at me again and asked,
"Should I do it tooo?"
"Reni, do you really want to be a model?"
"Mm…"
Reni furrowed his brows as if thinking hard, then pointed at a frame hanging in the living room.
"It was fun! I wore a pretty hat, and with Dad and Luca, Action!"
Mello clapped his hands in delight.
"That's right, that's right! I knew it that day. The kid just sparkled on set."
"Yeahh! The air was all sparkly!"
Reni grabbed my hand and shook it, getting excited.
"…Yeah, our Reni said so."
Still, Mello thoughtfully steered the topic so I wouldn't feel too put on the spot.
"Some kids are just born to be stars. That kind of baby star quality only gets clearer as they grow, so give it some serious thought down the road."
I nodded reluctantly, and Vanessa neatly wrapped up the conversation.
"But the food smells absolutely divine. Can we eat now?"
Instead of me, Luca answered Vanessa's question.
"Mama."
It was the first word the kid had said since the guests arrived.
"Wow, you talk so well!"
I watched Vanessa reach for her phone again because he was too cute, then stop herself.
So our Luca had star quality in spades too, huh…
"Alright, let's eat mama."
I sat Luca in his high chair and scooped up Reni, who had followed right after, setting him in his seat too.
"Dad, I'm hungry!"
"Okay, Dad'll get food ready quick."
With that, I gently bumped my forehead against his.
Still sitting in a toddler high chair and acting all grown up!
We gathered around the square island table.
The kids sat with their backs to the camera, and Vanessa found the most camera-friendly seat without anyone having to tell her.
That right there showed she was a true professional influencer. Though the person who'd end up on camera the most today was still me, constantly getting up and sitting back down to serve.
Maybe because everyone but me was an extrovert, the party flowed without any awkwardness.
And with an influencer and a makeup artist at the table, a lot of industry talk went around.
"I've been thinking about starting a makeup channel myself."
"I told you to just start it last time, Mello."
Mello and Vanessa already seemed comfortable enough with each other to banter freely.
"Did you two already know each other? How?"
Cassandra asked them both with easy familiarity, and Vanessa waved a hand as she answered.
"Oh, we didn't know each other before. We just recognized each other from work, then sat next to each other at a fashion show recently and hit it off."
…How does that even work? For someone like me who barely looks at the face of whoever sits next to me, it was unimaginable.
But apparently I was the only one thinking that, because they moved right on to the next topic.
"So for now you just post the models you did makeup for on social media, Mello?"
"Yeah. And I upload sped-up edits of the makeup process. I want to launch my own brand someday, so I have to prepare ahead."
We'd ended up sharing a meal through a chance connection, but talking with them made it clear Mello and Vanessa were genuine public figures actively working in their fields.
Still, both of them were nice enough to shatter whatever quiet prejudices I'd held about celebrities, and the meal stayed warm and cheerful the whole time.
The food was delicious, Greg's playlist playing softly in the background was great, and everyone seemed to click as they kept the conversation going.
Vanessa and Mello, true to their professions, took photos every time I brought out a new dish. They even photographed each other while eating.
One silver lining was that I had to keep looking after the kids, so I could join the conversation just enough and quietly slip into the background.
When I finally brought out the pretty dessert that would finish the dinner, everyone took another round of photos, then polished off everything I'd prepared.
I'd made not five but eight servings of both the meal and dessert, and every last bit was gone.
After the meal, Vanessa's eyes sparkled as she said, looking truly happy,
"Ah, that was so delicious. Best thing I've eaten in a while, Jun."
"Good. Makes all the prep worth it."
Cassandra smiled warmly, watching us now speaking casually as peers.
"Alright then, what should we do next? We're not just eating and calling it a night, right?"
And Mello, who at some point had become everyone's friend and confidant, tilted what must have been his who-knows-how-many glass of sherry and asked,
"Right, shall we move somewhere else?"
It was time for the party game I'd prepared.
We moved out to the terrace.
It was a slightly cool October night, but after a full meal everyone found it refreshing instead.
The kids played with toys in the living room where we could see them, and the adults sat around the round table I'd newly set up.
I lit the small fire pit beside the table, and the air turned pleasantly warm. The outdoor lighting I'd prepared for tonight made the atmosphere perfect.
The "things you can do at a party" Greg and Cassandra had suggested were things I simply couldn't accept, so I'd racked my brain for something five adults could actually do.
And purely by chance, I remembered a card game the grown-ups used to sit around for hours without getting up when I was little.
The card game relatives played every holiday. The one they seemed to play straight through the night.
Even after all these years, it had lingered in a corner of my memory—the colorful pictures of the War of Flowers.
Digging deeper, I even remembered sneaking games of Hwatu with cousins whose faces I could no longer recall, away from the adults' eyes.
The rules were fuzzy, so I ordered a set of Hwatu and learned by watching YouTube tutorials.
As a game lots of people played, the rules weren't hard. I tried teaching Greg and Cassandra as a test, and both of them seemed reasonably interested.
That was good enough. Get them intrigued by something new, and if needed we could always fall back on familiar poker.
It was perfect—most fun with three or four players. After a few demo rounds, I could quietly step aside.
"Oh, these are gorgeous."
"Beautiful. So this is an Oriental card game?"
I started explaining the rules to people who couldn't take their eyes off the small, pretty pictures on the cards.
"Alright, if you look here, you match sets of four cards with similar pictures. Getting this kind of card is five points, this kind is three points… The basic win condition is being the first to three points or more…"
Once the explanation was roughly done, I shuffled and dealt. With any game, the fastest way to learn was just playing.
"Okay, I'll go first. See this blue flower? There's a matching flower here, right? So I match them like this…"
Slap!
Playing Hwatu made a sound just like Luca smacking my cheek.
Vanessa's eyes went round.
"What was that wild move? Is this a card game for showing off your masculinity?"
"What kind of weird thing is that to say…"
But thinking about it, it was weird. Why slam the card down with a sharp crack when you could just set it down gently?
My expression must have said I had no idea how to explain it, because Mello laughed as he figured out the situation.
"So that's just how it is?"
"Uh, yeah. I don't really know the exact reason either."
Mello and Vanessa picked up Hwatu quickly.
Greg and Cassandra seemed to find playing with the two of them more fun than with me; they approached the game with a completely different energy than a few days ago.
"I'm shaking! Going in with a shake!"
"Ah, bbeok!"
"Watch your pronunciation!"
"Ohhh, I've got five birds!"