The Taste of Being Alive
Bethel and Kabe tore around the playground. One minute they were flying down the slide; the next, Kabe was on the swing with Bethel pushing her. After a good long stretch of that, they switched places — Bethel on the swing, Kabe doing the pushing.
"Mom, look at this!"
Someone had left a sand-play set behind in the playground sandbox. Kabe came running over with a bowl-shaped toy — the kind that came with play kitchen sets — packed full of dirt, and thrust it at me.
"What's this?"
"It's rice!"
Rice.
Rice was important.
"Om nom nom, delicious~"
"Mom, you didn't even eat any side dishes. Is plain rice really that good?"
Oops.
"It's rice Kabe made for me. Of course it's delicious even on its own."
"Really?"
"Mm-hmm. Now go play with Bethel."
"Okay!"
Watching the kids play in the sand, I walked over to the vending machine and fed it a coin. What to drink...
While I was still deciding, a hand reached past me and pressed a button.
"This is the one, right?"
A girl pulled a canned coffee from the dispenser and held it out to me. The girl with the bright blonde hair was smiling just as brightly as her hair.
"Dusick."
"Yes, Unni."
"I was gonna get a cola."
"Ah—"
Coffee wasn't so bad, either. I bought another can for Dusick, and the two of us sat side by side on the bench, sipping.
"You worked hard."
"For what?"
"The last fight."
"Did I work hard... hmm."
Well. Yeah, I had. Honestly, I'd worked my ass off. I didn't know how the others had fared, but I'd gone through hell against Aquamarine.
"Yeah. I did work pretty hard."
"Ahaha. That's so like you, Unni."
What exactly was "like me"?
I let the eighth-grader-edgelord remark slide. Sitting here with Dusick after so long, I could feel the ease settling over me.
"Where are the others?"
"Sohee's sleeping, and Lord Keru went to the Underworld to file a report."
"A report?"
Come to think of it, Karin had mentioned going to file a report. When I'd asked Keru if he ever did that, he'd said he didn't bother because he only ever lost... I supposed he was doing it this time because they'd won.
"I got bored sitting around by myself, so I came out."
"That so."
The conversation died again. I needed to say something to break this awkwardness.
Dusick's notebook suddenly came to mind. How to put it... her affection for me had seemed a little over the top. Not that I could just come out and ask her about it. There had to be some other topic.
Ah.
"The Evil Territory. Did you know about it?"
"No, I didn't."
Thanks to our victory in that fight, the entire area around Pangyo Station — every zone that had been declared a battlefield — had become Evil Territory. Our territory.
It wasn't as though taxes started rolling in or anything. Once a region was declared Evil Territory, it simply became part of our sphere of influence, and our combat power — our stats in general — scaled in proportion to how wide that sphere grew. On top of that, fighting on our own turf granted an additional stat bonus. The wider the Evil Territory spread, the stronger we became.
In other words: if we kept winning against the magical girls and swallowed up a hundred percent of the territory, everywhere would become Evil Territory, our power would swell to match, and the magical girls would no longer stand a chance of beating us.
"That's how it works."
And then the game would be over.
But Dusick didn't need to hear all that.
"How did you know about it, Unni?"
The system told me everything... Yeah, that wasn't something Dusick would particularly want to hear.
"I just kind of figured it out."
"I see."
The conversation lapsed again. It was getting pretty chilly. Maybe I should gather up the kids and head back. If they caught a cold, we'd be in trouble.
"Um, Unni."
"Hm?"
I'd been about to check on the kids when Dusick's voice reached me.
"Unni, do you happen to have a signific—"
"WAAAAAAAH!"
That was Kabe crying!
"Dusick, hold on."
I'd turned around wondering why a kid who'd been playing just fine in the sandbox was suddenly wailing — and there was Kabe, sobbing her heart out beside the slide, with Bethel standing next to her looking completely lost.
What on earth had happened?
I ran over to them.
"Kabe, what's wrong? Bethel, what happened? Tell Mom."
"Mo— I mean, Mom. Um."
Kabe kept crying, and Bethel stood in front of her, at a total loss.
"Kabe said she wanted to go down the slide really fast, so she asked me to push her from behind..."
"Okay."
"So when she sat down I pushed her from behind, but I... I didn't control my strength right."
"And?"
"She fell off the slide..."
Hmm.
It wasn't really something to get angry about, if I was being honest. Kids horsing around and having accidents like this wasn't exactly rare. I checked Kabe's face, her forehead, the skin that was showing — nothing that looked like an actual injury.
"There, there, Kabe. Doesn't look like you're hurt."
"But still..."
Bethel still looked worried sick about her. Well, of course he would. The slide wasn't that tall, but to a kid it looked enormous. And if you fell the wrong way, you really could get badly hurt.
"Kabe, it's okay. Nothing happened. Come on, no more crying. There, there."
I crouched down and wiped the dried tear tracks from the corners of Kabe's eyes. As I brushed the sand from her hair, I glanced sideways — Bethel was fidgeting, unable to meet my gaze. He'd been trusted with Kabe, and this had happened. He probably couldn't bring himself to look me in the eye.
"Bethel."
"Yes... Mother."
"Ah-ah."
I reached out and took his hand in mine.
"...Mom."
"Come here."
I pulled Bethel in and wrapped my arms around him. He was almost the same size as Kabe — a little thing that fit right into my embrace. I patted the back of the boy standing still in my arms.
"It's okay. These things happen. That's how kids grow up. I didn't put you with Kabe so you'd protect her. I wanted you to play with her — to be her friend, her brother. When you play together, things don't always go the way you want. Sometimes you end up hurting each other. That's okay. This isn't your fault."
"..."
"You understand what Mom's saying?"
"...Yes. Mom."
"Good. It's okay. Kabe — you don't get to blame Bethel either. Asking him to push you down the slide like that was dangerous. That was your fault. Got it?"
"Okay, Mom. I'm sorry, Oppa."
"N-no, it's..."
After that clumsy apology and that clumsy understanding, the two little ones seemed to have sorted themselves out. Kabe was grinning now, so she couldn't have been hurting too badly. Bethel too. That was probably as resolved as it was going to get.
"All right, you two. Let's go home. We'll have a snack when we get there."
"Okay."
I took Kabe and Bethel by the hand, and Dusick fell in beside us as we started walking.
Eve would be coming over tonight. She'd said she was bringing gopchang, and pork belly for the kids...
"Dusick, my wallet's in my back pocket."
"Yes, Unni. I've got it."
"I'll take the kids ahead. Go grab some lettuce, perilla leaves, and garlic. Eve's bringing gopchang for dinner."
"Gopchang?"
Life sprang back into Dusick's voice instantly. She knew good food when she heard it.
"Yeah. Knowing her, she'll show up with nothing but the gopchang, so we'd better have the wrap stuff ready."
"Got it, Unni!"
"Oh, and earlier — you were saying something about a signific... what was it?"
I was pretty sure she had been. Dusick had been about to tell me something before we got interrupted. Something about a "signific—" whatever.
"Oh, that. I forgot too. I'll tell you if I remember."
Dusick smiled brightly, and I couldn't help but huff a little laugh myself.
"All right. Make sure you tell me when you remember."
"Yes, Unni. You go on ahead. I'll stop by the store."
"Okay. Oh, and grab some drinks too. Cola for the kids. You already know what I want, right?"
"Yes!"
That evening, Eve showed up with gopchang and pork belly.
And Dusick said to me:
"Unni, I honestly didn't think Eve-unni would actually show up with nothing but gopchang and pork belly."
What did I tell you?
I called it.
"See? Good thing I sent you to get the rest."
Gopchang was great and all, but eating it on its own was a bit much. It was rich and delicious, sure, but it had a greasiness to it that really needed to be wrapped in vegetables to hit its stride.
"Anyway. Congrats on your first win, Yeonwoo. First one in ten years, right?"
"Yeah. They said it was the first win in ten years."
The kids' teeth weren't ready for gopchang yet, so I grilled them pork belly separately. The adults clustered together on their own — and gopchang without a round of soju was simply not an option.
"Where's Keru?"
"He went to file a report."
"Ah..."
Eve hummed, thinking something over for a moment, then broke into a wide smile and held out her glass.
"Anyway, never mind that. Congrats. Yeonwoo, you get one drink and then you're done. And — Sohee, was it?"
"Yes."
Sohee, in her pitch-black hanbok, held out a glass of cola. She was from the Joseon era, so technically she might've been the oldest one here... but she insisted she'd stopped growing at eighteen, so eighteen it was. No arguing with that.
"I heard about it from Precure and Evangeline. They said you were incredible."
"They were simply weak, that is all."
"Ahaha... she's exactly like her boss..."
I was pretty sure I'd just been insulted.
"Anyway, they said you were amazing. They asked me to tell you they got completely wrecked. Also that they won't go down so easy next time."
"Pray tell them that a challenge is welcome at any time."
Clink — the kiss of glass on glass.
Gulp — soju sliding down the throat.
The bitter-fresh bite of vegetables spreading through my mouth, the garlic blooming underneath, and then — the main event, the gopchang! That rich, nutty, springy, glorious taste!
"Khhhhh...!"
This. This was the taste of being alive.
This was what you lived for.
"Anyway, Eve."
"Yeah?"
"That Aquamarine bitch. Tell her if she shows her face in front of me again, next time the hole goes in her gut, not her forehead."
"Right, yeah. I actually needed to talk to you about that. They said you overreacted after a fair fight. And look, a magic-gun headshot is kind of an overreaction, I'll give them that. What the hell did they even do? Did they try to tame Kabe or something? If that's the case, then a headshot would be totally justif—"
"They did."
"What?"
"They did."
"Did what?"
"They tried to tame her. Those cowardly bitches left that part out, huh?"
"For real?"
The color drained from Eve's face.
"You think they just tried to tame her? They dunked her in water and tortured her. What, they didn't mention any of that?"
"Th-that's— ah, fuck. That bitch, again..."
Eve set down her chopsticks, her whole face twisting like she had a splitting headache.
"'Again'? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Again" meant this wasn't the first time Aquamarine had pulled something like this. Judging by Eve's reaction, this had been an ongoing problem.
"No, no... that's not something I should tell you. Anyway. Do you have proof?"
"I do. I'll show you after we eat."
"Okay. Got it. For now..."
"Fill my glass first."
"This is your last one. You hear me?"
"Aigoo, yes yes. Of course, whatever you say~ Understood, dear husband~ This humble wife shall have her last drink~"
"Dear husband, my ass, you lunatic."
Kehek — a coughing fit erupted from somewhere nearby. I heard Sohee saying, "Dusick, water," but I decided to finish the soju in front of me first.
