Busan Fishing
Busan Fishing
- Next up in the news. Executives at a major corporation manipulated the accounting books to.....
I had been watching a drama that was getting really interesting, but suddenly the news came on, so I changed the channel.
While it might have been amusing to watch those people plunge into the abyss, I didn't want to waste any more time getting distracted by it.
"Tsk..."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. You don't need to worry about it, noona."
"Hehe, what kind of secret is our Seong-hwan hiding~"
A-ra, who had been lying next to me looking at her phone, smiled and slowly scooted closer.
She stuck to me, determined to sniff out my secret somehow, and started sniffing me all over, which really made her feel like a puppy.
What does the way I smell have to do with any secrets?
See? As if copying their mom, Lil' One and Pipsqueak had latched onto me and started sniffing too.
"Noona, it tickles."
"Seong-hwan smells soft again today."
"A soft smell?"
"Yeah. Like a sweet milk scent mixed with a faint citrus, I guess?"
Well, that's probably because I was wearing that kind of natural perfume.
My wife could be surprisingly airheaded.
Since she had come this close to me anyway, I pulled her into a tight hug, intending to hold her for a bit.
I buried my face in her soft chest and wrapped my hands around her waist.
"You want to be babied?"
"Yeah... can we just stay like this for a while?"
My mood had soured, maybe because I'd inadvertently recalled that case.
If I had my way, I'd land a solid uppercut right on them.
"You can do it as much as you want, if it's you, Seong-hwan."
"Thanks, noona."
"Hehe, what's there to thank."
Unlike me, A-ra seemed to be in a good mood, so she sat down on the sofa and swung her legs freely.
Her movements were so carefree, it was like she was splashing her feet in the water at Soo-young Field.
"Seong-hwan. It's winter now, right?"
"It's been winter for a while, hasn't it?"
It was already January, so snow was falling, the weather was freezing, and it was a whole mess.
Our house was running the heater 24 hours a day because we were worried the babies would be cold.
"And I think noona will get a long vacation soon too... want to go somewhere?"
"I'd like that. But is there a suitable place, though?"
"Hmm... It'd be nice to go just us, but I think it would be fun to bring Minji and Hojun along too."
They'd gotten incredibly close...
I thought she'd suggest we spend some cozy time alone together, but I never expected Minji and Hojun to be brought up.
"From what I've heard, Minji likes fishing too, you know? And Hojun seemed interested in it as well..."
"When did you even..."
I remembered Minji often going out to the river to catch things like crucian carp and bass.
And Hojun used to grab Minji's sleeve, asking her to take him along too...
That brought back memories...
"So! How about we go somewhere! Something fishing-oriented!?"
"I'm fine with that..."
I didn't dislike fishing, and since I was fine with whatever A-ra wanted to center the trip around, it was probably fine.
In that case, wouldn't it be okay to bring some other people along?
"Noona, how about we bring Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho too?"
"Don't tell me those two like fishing as well?"
"They liked it enough to drag me to a fishing cafe before."
"Then we have to bring them! And tell them to bring Ji-ye too!"
She was even trying to lure a kid who was only five years old!
And since it was her favorite idol unnie calling her, there was no way Ji-ye would refuse to go.
But even if a trustworthy group of people went along together, would Lee Min-ho's mother even let Ji-ye go?
She was still just a little five-year-old kid.
"It's fine, it's fine. People from chaebol families always have a bodyguard attached to them."
"I've never seen Lee Min-ho or the Director with someone like that attached."
"The CEO unnie is stronger than a bodyguard with a gun, so she wouldn't need one, and Mr. Lee Min-ho is fairly fit himself, you know?"
So basically, she was saying that if you're fit and a woman, you don't need a bodyguard or anything?
Then wasn't she basically saying something similar, like that a guy like me definitely needed a bodyguard around to feel safe?
"Alright.. First, get the fishing rods and everything ready."
"Okay! I'll load them into your car, Seong-hwan!"
Now, A-ra was no longer saying we'd take the Bugatti Chiron, but that she'd load things into the trunk of my car first.
Seeing her gradually mature made tears well up in my eyes.
"But we haven't thought about the most important thing yet: where to go."
"Hmm... wouldn't the seaside be best, after all?"
"But isn't a foreign sea better for fishing? Like the Mediterranean."
Speaking of the Mediterranean, it was a place overflowing with fine cuisine.
Great for playing, great for eating... And since it's winter, at least it wouldn't be hot, so it'd be perfect.
"But if we do that, Ji-ye can't follow us."
"Ah... I wonder if it'd be the same for Hojun..."
Could a minor not leave the country without a legal guardian accompanying them?
Then I guessed going abroad was automatically out of the question.
"I'll think about it a bit more."
"Okay, I'm counting on you, Seong-hwan."
Wherever it was, as long as it was pleasant and she could fish, A-ra looked happy with just about anything.
I also needed a place with the condition of being able to bring the dogs and cats along...
No, wait, going overseas was already impossible from that point on.
I'd have to search hard domestically.
***
"Hm...."
"Don't either of you know any good places?"
"How would we know..."
The very next day, I met up with the two of them at a cafe and we started deciding on a destination over coffee.
Ji-ye had insisted on coming to see me, so she had tagged along and was sitting next to me, drinking orange juice.
"Ji-ye, do you like fishing too?"
"It's fun. But if I catch the fish in the pond at home, I get in trouble."
"Pond?"
"Before, Ji-ye scooped out a super expensive koi with the leaf skimmer net and killed it. So her mom scolded her really bad."
Well, she'd caused a major incident there.
But still, seeing her try to lift a fish with a net at that age showed she was a girl through and through.
Proud of her, my hand automatically went to her head.
"Good job, good job."
"Hey, you shouldn't be praising her for that."
"It's stingy to make a fuss over one dead crucian carp."
"It wasn't a crucian carp, it was a koi... an ornamental species called a Sakura Koi... ugh... never mind..."
It seemed to be more expensive than what I was imagining.
Just how much did an ornamental koi cost for him to make a face like that?
"When oppa goes fishing, I'll let you scoop up fish with the net."
"Really!?"
"Yup, that's a promise from A-ra unnie."
A-ra had already made a promise to let Ji-ye do whatever she wanted, even before we had a single plan for where to go or how to spend the time.
That was just how cute she found Ji-ye.
"Hm... a river, huh..."
"Did something come to mind?"
Lee Min-ho started nodding, as if a thought had just occurred to him.
This guy, just like with the villa before, what didn't his family own?
"Wait, don't tell me, do you have a villa near a river too?"
"No, not that... I know someone who runs a hotel near the sea?"
"Oh....."
"It's in Busan."
I flinched for a second.
I'd already been thinking about visiting Busan too, and now this was happening at the same time?
Catching fish, eating fish, watching fish....
I felt like we could just do it all in one go this time.
"Do you know it? It's called Paradise Hotel."
"I know it."
"I know it too!"
"I'm not sure I do, though."
Since I didn't really have any interest in that kind of stuff.
Paradise Hotel, huh...
The name sounded kind of tacky for some reason.
"You can bring dogs and cats there too."
"Really? Then we should definitely go there."
"And right below it, there's something like a concrete pier where you can go down to fish."
Wasn't this the optimal location I'd been looking for?
It was near the hotel, the ground was level and clean.
On top of that, he said there were large streetlights, making it very bright.
"What do you think? Want to go to Paradise Hotel?"
"Well, doesn't look like we need to look any further."
At Jeong Hwan-yi's answer, I nodded too.
There probably wasn't any other place worth going to besides Paradise Hotel.
*
"But it's good that everything's settled..."
"What is it now."
"If we're going to Busan, the best way is to take the KTX, right?"
If we did that, the car would automatically become unnecessary.
And if that happened, we couldn't load anything into the trunk, and we'd have to lug all our luggage ourselves...
Wouldn't that mean an idol would have to board the KTX carrying a fishing bag?
Should we just go by car after all?
"Then let's just take a limousine or something."
"A limousine?"
"There's a huge bus that's been modified into an 8-seater, you know?"
A huge bus and an 8-seater.
It was a combination that didn't match at all, but being Lee Min-ho's family, I had a feeling they could somehow make it work.
From what I heard, it seemed they had modified a large bus so 8 people could ride in comfort.
Like a camping car but not a camping car, some kind of in-between thing...
He said the purpose wasn't to sleep inside but to travel comfortably.
What on earth do you do to be able to convert a bus for a use like that?
Ah, right.
They were a chaebol family...
"So we can ride that thing to go there?"
"I'll talk to my mom."
"Okay... transportation's solved too..."
After that, we just needed to make plans based on the day A-ra got her vacation.
Minji and Hojun were just lazing around at home anyway, so it was guaranteed they'd be free.
"Is there any day that doesn't work for you two?"
"None for me."
"For me, as long as you let me film it, there's no such thing as a day that doesn't work."
"Filming? Hmm..."
Anyway, we were going out to have fun, so filming it wouldn't be a bad thing.
I nodded vaguely.