Chapter 125
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 125
The very first thing I did after sitting Eun-chae down at the dining table was give her a hangover remedy.
Ever since I’d seen Eun-seol completely wasted during the holidays, I’d bought some just in case something like this happened again. It was finally proving its worth.
I had her drink it and watched her for a moment, but seeing that she was still in bad shape, I felt a sense of helplessness wash over me.
Perhaps the power of a single hangover cure wasn't enough to overcome eight bottles of whiskey. Eun-chae’s groans showed no signs of stopping.
It was a truly difficult, yet ridiculously funny, moment.
I gently rubbed Eun-chae’s back, then remembered the hangover soup I used to make for myself whenever I was drunk and started preparing it.
Scallions and bean sprouts, an egg, some chili peppers and garlic…
It was a soup made for one purpose and one purpose only: that clean, refreshing feeling as it went down your throat.
It was the dish I had cooked more than any other back when I lived alone.
I chopped the ingredients, threw them into a pot, and brought it to a rolling boil. Then, I served it with a bowl of rice.
“Here, you’ll feel a little better if you eat this.”
“Okay…”
I watched as Eun-chae picked up her spoon, only to see her poke at the soup and tilt her head in confusion.
“What’s wrong?”
Was there a problem?
When I asked, Eun-chae muttered her reply, her face somewhat sullen.
“Meat…”
It seemed she was looking for meat.
Ah, so that was the problem.
It was true. The soup didn’t have a single drop of oil in it, let alone any meat. The recipe itself was from my days of living alone, so expensive ingredients like meat were never included.
As I recalled this, a small laugh escaped me at Eun-chae’s unwavering love for meat, even in her current state. Seeing her pout, I continued in a playful tone.
“You know, if you’re such a picky eater, the witch will come back to torment you.”
“Eek…!”
Eun-chae’s body trembled at my words.
She shivered for a moment, then stopped stirring the soup. Squeezing her eyes shut, she scooped up a spoonful and ate it.
She looked like a condemned general forced to drink poison.
I let out another chuckle and watched her. As soon as she swallowed, I reached out and stroked her head.
“Good girl. You’re not being picky.”
“Yeah… I was very good.”
Eun-chae nodded at the praise.
She grimaced slightly as she replied, then scooped up a spoonful of rice and pushed it into her mouth.
I watched her eat for a long while before finally picking up my own spoon and starting my meal.
It’s delicious, though.
As I ate the soup I’d made, a question bloomed in my mind.
What exactly was meat to Eun-chae?
As long as a dish had meat, she would eat anything. If it didn’t, she was lukewarm about everything she ate.
Was meat some kind of magic powder to her? A seasoning, like MSG or ramen soup base?
As I pondered this, spooning soup into my mouth, Eun-chae finished her meal, set down her spoon, and slumped bonelessly in her chair.
Watching her, I realized just how much grim determination Eun-seol must have had to drink all that liquor.
Looks like even the hangover soup isn’t working.
I could make a rough estimate.
She’s not going to sober up before this afternoon.
It was a prediction born from experience.
*
My prediction was astonishingly accurate.
After we finished the meal and cleaned up, I helped Eun-chae wash up and brought her to the living room. The entire time, she leaned against me, letting out a steady stream of groans that sounded like they belonged to a corpse.
She was in such bad shape that she didn’t even go to see her beloved koi, nor did she bother to look at the aquarium right in front of her.
I let out a weary laugh as I looked at Eun-chae, who reeked of alcohol with every breath. I patted her back gently.
“You feeling really bad?”
“It hurts…” she answered, curling into a tight ball.
Really, I shouldn’t have been laughing, but I couldn’t help it. With a face full of exasperation, I patted her back again.
This continued for a while. After groaning for a long time, Eun-chae finally muttered in a deeply resentful tone.
“The witch is mean.”
“Hm?”
“The witch is really mean, so she needs to be punished.”
Eun-chae had started bad-mouthing Eun-seol.
A snort of laughter escaped my lips. Encouraged by my reaction, Eun-chae opened her mouth again to curse Eun-seol.
“People who cause pain are bad people. The witch made me hurt. So she’s a bad person.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. A bad person.”
Suddenly, I remembered Eun-seol’s talk of ‘revenge’ from the day before and thought that she had indeed achieved a truly satisfying vengeance.
My next thought was that Eun-chae’s perception of pain was now clearly changing for the better.
“You’re right. People who cause pain are bad people.”
I continued my thoughts as I patted Eun-chae’s back.
Eun-chae no longer thought of pain as something good.
She no longer saw it as a necessary step toward happiness.
Just like anyone else, Eun-chae had come to hate pain.
She now knew of so many things that were more wonderful than pain. She had learned that holding a knife could lead to making delicious food, that she could find peace watching fish, and that she could ask questions full of curiosity while watching fairy tales.
It was so much progress.
I realized then that Eun-chae’s separation was truly not far off.
The day Eun-ah’s delusion would end was right around the corner.
I shifted my gaze back to Eun-chae.
She was still whimpering, the smell of alcohol wafting from her with every breath.
Looking at her, I figured that from now on, Eun-chae would probably recoil in horror every time she smelled alcohol, reminded of today.
Suddenly, the thought struck me as a little funny, and I let out a few small laughs.
Come to think of it, none of Eun-ah’s personalities disliked alcohol.
Eun-ji was an exception since she was so young, but all the other alters enjoyed a drink.
Eun-ah liked wine, and Eun-sam liked soju. Eun-byeol seemed to enjoy canned beer at the baseball stadium, and Eun-seol liked hard liquor that made you dizzy just from the smell.
Could it be that the first of Eun-ah’s personalities to shun alcohol had just been born?
As I thought about this, I began to wonder what the final product would be when all these personalities merged.
It was a natural train of thought.
The integration of personalities didn’t mean the complete annihilation of one in favor of another.
It was, quite literally, an integration.
The fragmented pieces would click back into place, melting into the original personality.
That meant that the things each personality enjoyed, Eun-ah would be able to enjoy as well.
A picture began to form in my head.
The setting was this very living room. A TV was mounted on the wall opposite the sofa.
A Latte game was being broadcast, and on the table was a boilermaker of mixed liquors and a cilantro-heavy malatang.
Eun-ah would be chugging the boilermaker, and upon seeing Latte lose to a walk-off home run, she would roar, her face flushed red.
—Those, those Latte bastards are fucking motherless!!!
Flinch!
I shuddered at the image that had flashed through my mind, my face thick with horror, before belatedly shaking my head.
N-No way…
It couldn’t be.
No matter what, there was no way such a monster could be born.
I tried to calm myself again.
I must have been overworking myself lately for such dark thoughts to be popping into my head.
But even as I tried to compose myself, the anxiety wouldn’t disappear.
Terrifying sentences kept surfacing in my mind.
A domestic-abuser Eun-ah whose violent tendencies were maximized by alcoholism.
A hazing Eun-ah who would force-feed me bizarre ingredients at every meal.
A pathetic Eun-ah who poured her entire life into online communities.
An Eun-ah with the anger issues of a die-hard fan of a losing team.
Terrifying, truly terrifying possibilities.
My whole body trembled. At my movement, Eun-chae lifted her head to look at me, and I forced an awkward smile as I pushed the thoughts away again.
Surely, a person like that can’t exist.
Of course, it didn’t really work.
*
Eun-chae finally recovered her condition around dinnertime.
Her complexion had gradually returned, and the smell of alcohol slowly faded until she had finally managed to shake off the last of her stupor.
The very first thing the now-energetic Eun-chae did was, of course, go to the pond.
As if she’d get anxious if she didn’t check on it for a single day, she sat by the pond and watched the koi for a long time, only coming back inside when the sun had completely set.
Next came observing the aquarium.
Fish, and more fish.
Eun-chae stared into the aquarium with her mouth hanging open in a daze until I had finished preparing dinner. She only snapped out of it when I practically forced her to the table.
The reason she snapped out of it was, of course, the meat.
I figured that since she’d suffered from a hangover all day, it would be fine to let her eat as much as she wanted. The moment I set the meat down, Eun-chae’s expression became the polar opposite of what it had been that morning as she eagerly speared the meat with her fork.
I chuckled at the sight of her radiating pure happiness, then finally asked her a question.
“Are you feeling all better now?”
“Yes.”
She answered with a slight nod.
Then, after taking another bite of meat, she squared her shoulders and continued.
“I defeated the witch.”
Her tone was somehow proud.
I felt a wave of emotion, seeing how far Eun-chae had come to be able to use such expressions. I belatedly nodded and played along.
“That’s amazing.”
“Yep.”
After dinner came reading time.
As if determined to complete all the daily routines she had missed, Eun-chae moved about busily, forgoing even sleep, which she usually loved.
As she pestered me to read her a fairy tale, I sensed that the time was approaching.
Until now, I had always been the one to go into the library alone and pick out a book.
But that couldn’t go on forever.
The whole point of reading fairy tales was to erase Eun-chae’s aversion to the library in the first place. I knew I had to start encouraging her to enter it herself.
My gaze fell on Eun-chae, who was sitting beside me and looking up at me.
Her face was somewhat blank, yet it now clearly showed hints of emotion.
I hesitated for a moment, my lips parting as I chose my words. Then, steeling myself, I spoke to Eun-chae.
“Would you like to pick one out yourself today?”
“Huh?”
“I’ve always been the one to choose. How about today, you pick the one you want to read?”
Eun-chae’s body flinched at my words.
Her head dropped, our gazes parting for a moment. Then, she lifted her head again and looked me in the eye.
I tried to read the emotion in her eyes, but unlike before, they were a swirl of so many different feelings that I felt a knot of tension form inside me.
I wasn't worried about her having a seizure.
She knew by now that it wasn't the right way to handle things.
But would she resent me for suggesting this? That was what I feared.
Our eyes met and held for a long time.
Silence filled the space.
I kept my mouth shut and waited for Eun-chae’s answer.
Giving her time to gather her thoughts, to steady her heart and make a decision.
That was how I waited.
A tremor traveled from her fingertips, which were lightly touching mine. The answer came a little while later.
“In there?”
As she spoke, her finger pointed toward the hallway.
My lips parted for a moment, but in the end, I couldn’t speak. I just nodded.
Eun-chae’s gaze shifted past me, toward the hallway.
She looked like she was deep in thought.
After another long moment of contemplation, her eyes darted between me and the hallway. Then, she threw herself into my arms and gave her answer.
“…Okay.”
A tiny, affirmative reply.
At that, my body, which had been tense until that very moment, shuddered. Then, I began to stroke Eun-chae’s back, a smile spreading across my face.
“Alright, let’s go pick one out together.”
“Okay.”
A feeling of gratitude washed over me.
It was gratitude for Eun-chae, who had finally found her courage.