Side Story: Valley Pension
Side Story: Valley Pension
The two guys showed up a whole ten minutes late.
They were dressed like they were heading off on a trip to Guam or Hawaii, going by the look of them.
Sunglasses over their eyes, and their clothes were covered in palm trees and pineapples, worn without a hint of shame.
They were the kind of quality clothes women often pick up in bulk at tourist spots.
"You two... don't tell me you were late because you were buying and putting on those clothes?"
"Ahem. As expected, you do know us well. My friend."
"I'd freeze to death before calling you a friend. I don't remember ever having a friend as embarrassing as you two."
As if the palm trees and pineapples weren't enough, they had sunglasses too.
It was definitely a look suited for a summer day, but even that only really works when a woman's wearing it.
"Minji. You say something to them too."
"Like they'd listen to anything I said.... sigh...."
"Don't tell someone else's girlfriend what to say."
"She's my little sister before she's your girlfriend, you know?"
It seemed Minji had given up on them a long time ago.
Well, it made sense. There was no way that fashion sense was Minji's doing.
"Oppa. Go back to the car and get changed, quickly."
"Huh?"
"Hurry."
"Ah... okay..."
Still, it seemed he at least listened to what Minji said.
At Minji's words, Lee Min-ho went into my car and got changed.
Jeong Hwan-yi gulped as he watched that.
Come to think of it, that guy Jeong Hwan-yi's shackles aren't here right now.
"Okay... I'll go get changed and come back..."
I thought he'd just bluff his way through it... but for once, he understood and went into the car to change his clothes.
Could it be that I'd somehow gained an air of authority?
"Seong-hwan. Is everyone here?"
"Yes, they're all here. They showed up in strange clothes, so I told them to go change in the car."
But then, curious about what she'd gone to buy, my eyes drifted to what A-ra was holding.
When A-ra said she was taking Arini to the mart for a bit, I'd thought maybe there was something we forgot...
"Meat?"
I'd thought she was holding a bunch of stuff, but when I looked inside, there was meat.
The meat we bought yesterday went in the fridge, and right now it should be sleeping soundly in the icebox in the trunk, shouldn't it?
"The meat we bought yesterday looked like too little. So since I was already buying some, I got a whole bunch."
"Ah-ha... then what's that in your right hand..."
This time, A-ra lifted the plastic bag in her right hand to show me.
Inside was a whole bunch of drinks like cola, cider, and Fanta.
"A ton of drinks! I know there's probably a mart around here, but it's gonna be hard to go by car, right?"
"It's fine for me, I won't be drinking alcohol anyway."
"Is it because of that incident?"
Once before, I'd been wandering around drunk in the middle of the night and almost got into serious trouble.
No, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say half of it was already a serious incident.
Anyway, since that day, I've been trying my best not to even touch alcohol.
Because if something like that happened again for no good reason, A-ra would be really sad.
Without letting it show on my face, I shook my head.
It was a terrible memory I didn't even want to remember.
"Daddy."
Maybe it was because my expression had clouded over a little, but my daughter came over asking to be held.
Of course, I had to be the one to hold our daughter.
I lifted her up with both hands and held her in my arms.
Now that I looked, Arini was holding a bunch of stuff in her hands too.
"Did our Arini buy a lot of snacks she wanted to eat?"
"Yeah. I bought a whole bunch of cookies and stuff."
A-ra doesn't buy snacks for Arini often because she says she'll get fat.
For drinks, it seemed she at least let her have zero-calorie stuff.
Maybe because of that, the snacks were mostly lighter ones rather than heavy ones, and the drinks were zero-calorie ionic drinks too.
"Arini wants to drink cola though."
"No way. You can drink stuff like cola once you're in elementary school."
Even while opening the trunk to stow the meat, A-ra caught every little thing Arini said.
She really seemed like a master of parenting.
Even Arini understood after being told once...
But those guys...
"Somehow, it doesn't feel like we're going on a trip at all."
"The sunglasses and Hawaiian shirts earlier were pretty decent though."
"Haah... Did you guys bring what you were told to bring?"
"Of course! We packed them well into the car."
Lee Min-ho thumped the trunk of his car.
Minji opened that trunk and started loading the luggage.
"Oppa, go stand over there for a minute."
"Why?"
"You might get hurt for no reason. The women will load the luggage."
"Okay."
Following Minji's orders, Lee Min-ho moved away from the car and walked over to where Arini and I were standing.
Naturally, Arini spoke to the dumb-faced uncles (Lee Min-ho, Jeong Hwan-yi) she saw almost every day.
"Hello! Oppa!"
"Call them Uncle. Those two."
"Uncle!"
"Aren't we a bit too young to be called uncles?"
"Right, right. We're still only 28 years old."
By any measure, the two of them only looked like they were in their early twenties, so the title "uncle" was definitely a stretch.
Well, what could I do about it?
My friends should just blame themselves for having kids early.
"Arin. You can just keep calling them Uncle."
"Okay! Uncle!"
The two of them pouted, clearly displeased by the word "uncle," but they set about very diligently patting Arini's head.
Whatever anyone said, the fact remained that Arini was cute.
***
The people gathered here were our family, plus Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho.
The others were busy and couldn't make it, so that was our final group.
It was a surprisingly large number of people—a whole seven including Arini—so we couldn't all fit in my car.
Still, Jeong Hwan-yi had brought his car.
A-ra, Arini, Hojuni, and I all got into our car.
Jeong Hwan-yi, Lee Min-ho, and Minji all rode together in the other car.
And so, about an hour and thirty minutes by car.
We arrived at the pension we'd reserved for today.
This pension was built after the revision of the River Act allowed private individuals to own sections of certain rivers.
The price was an outrageous 2.2 million won for a two-night stay, but it was so popular it was hard to even get a reservation.
"Woof!"
"Mung."
"Our Wriggler, Pipsqueak. You had a hard time in that cramped space."
As soon as we got out of the car, I freed our dogs first.
I gently stroked the heads of our dogs, who always stayed quiet inside the car.
They were getting older now, but they were still so lively we had to go for walks every single day, and they never failed to make us laugh.
Someday, they'd leave our embrace and cross over to the sky...
Just thinking about it already made my heart ache.
"Hehe. Lil' One, Pipsqueak~"
Arini cherished the dogs like they were her own younger siblings.
But wait, weren't Lil' One and Pipsqueak her older sister and brother?
"Arin. You bring Lil' One and Pipsqueak."
"Okay!"
Our dogs were so smart—beyond just smart, they'd even been on an animal TV channel—so we could entrust their leashes even to a little kid.
When Arini held the leash, they never once yanked forward, and instead walked slowly in front to keep Arini from falling over.
Well, Arini could take care of the dogs, and I'd park the car once the women had moved all the luggage.
*
I finished parking and opened the door to come inside the pension.
The interior was roughly a duplex layout with about five beds and three bathrooms—it was an incredibly large-scale pension.
But that's not what we came here to see.
Didn't we come here for the private valley, after all?
The moment we stepped inside, I could tell where to go to reach the valley.
It was the veranda attached to the living room.
When I opened the veranda door, there was a small set of about five steps, and if you went down those steps, there was a shallow valley right there.
I'd heard that further up, there was a deep valley around three meters deep, and further down, there was an even shallower valley about 50cm deep.
And on top of that, there was a raised wooden platform with walls around it.
When I saw that even a portable air conditioner was installed inside, I almost shed tears and applauded.
It was a shame that individuals still couldn't own rivers, but someday, if the law changed, it would become possible to own them.
When that day comes, I was definitely going to buy a river and make it exclusively for our family...
"Woof!"
While I was thinking that, Lil' One, whose leash I'd let go, dashed out of the veranda and splashed right into the water.
The way he panted and drank the water, as if it was cold and refreshing, was just unbearably cute.
"Ooh... Lil' One went in before me."
Arini was showing jealousy toward Lil' One for going in before her.
Showing jealousy toward a dog—it seemed our daughter was still quite young after all.
"Wriggler~ Is it nice and cool?"
"Woof!"
He started swimming as if it really was refreshing.
It felt like it had been a long time since I'd last seen Lil' One swimming like that.
First, I spoke to Minji and asked her to close all the doors of the pension and turn on the air conditioner.
In this deadly hot weather, even after playing in the valley, it would get hot again in no time.
"But Pipsqueak isn't going in, just sitting next to me."
Pipsqueak was sitting on the veranda, yawning.
I thought she would go in together with Lil' One, following her unnie.
"Mung."
"Our Ttomoli, you don't like water?"
"Mung."
"Hmm..."
With Lil' One, I could tell right away what kind of reaction he was having, but strangely, I couldn't tell with Pipsqueak.
Though, that was only natural since all she ever answered was "Mung."
"Eutcha..."
Even when I lifted her up, she didn't particularly struggle or anything.
It was hot, but she seemed to have no desire to go in the water.
"Arin. Don't go into the water, just watch Lil' One swim."
"Yes~"
They were both so smart that an accident was unlikely.
Just in case, I locked the door on the stairs leading down to the valley.