Housework, Hunger, and the Gallery
After leaving a few sharp words with Siyeon's mascot in that fashion, I let out a short sigh, came down from the rooftop, opened the front door, and stepped inside.
The lights were off throughout the interior. The bear mascot drifted softly over to the entrance and reported on Siyeon's condition.
"Siyeon-nim cried herself to sleep."
"Yeah. Good job."
"She has thoroughly accepted that Sun-nim is strange."
The rare praise I offered only encouraged him to tack on something he really shouldn't have. That insolent way of talking was practically begging for a fist.
"Don't people around you say you bring beatings on yourself?"
"Often…."
To my offhand question the bear read my mood, hung his head, and nodded in affirmation.
"If you know that already, you little shit."
Finding it too absurd for words, I swatted his head the way one swats a fly and dropped him to the floor. His body was so fluffy that even bouncing off the ground produced barely a sound.
"By the way, what did the two of you talk about?"
Getting hit had already become routine for him; he simply fluttered back up as if nothing had happened and tossed out the question—what a spectacle.
I flicked a glance at the sea snake, who was thoroughly cowed and keeping a careful distance from me. Just a few squeezes of my hand and he was already reacting like that. It wasn't anything worth hiding, so I summarized the rooftop conversation in brief.
"I just told him not to go charging off alone with only Siyeon whenever a monster shows up, pretending he's going to handle the extermination by himself. Why?"
"Ah—no. I thought maybe you'd beaten him black and blue the way you do me."
The bear, eyeing his thoroughly intimidated fellow mascot, scratched the back of his own head with a fluffy paw that looked like it couldn't scratch anything at all. To the guy spouting needless worry I lifted one corner of my mouth, snorted a laugh, and answered with a smile meant to put him at ease.
"Don't worry. That treatment is a special exclusive reserved for you and the monsters."
"There's nothing but worrying stories in that, though."
I left the bear slumped in dejection behind me. The contents of the bag I had carelessly dumped on the floor after returning from the mart caught my eye. The canned ham went straight into the kitchen. The eggs listed on the cardboard carton I took out one by one and slotted into the egg tray waiting in the fridge.
The quail-egg jangjorim, still in its packaging, went into the roomy fridge space alongside the sausage packs. The rice flakes for sprinkling over cooked rice I left right on top of the canned ham so I wouldn't forget them. The cherry tomatoes and shine muscat went into the bottom drawer, which I opened separately for the purpose.
I'm getting more used to housework.
We barely used the fridge, yet by now I knew exactly where everything belonged without even looking at the packaging. After that, with nothing particular to do in the darkened room, I gathered Siyeon's bag and mine and began emptying them out.
Pencil case, a home notice of unknown vintage, notebooks, clear files. Things that would only go right back in after the field trip, so I collected them and stuffed them into empty drawers. The clothes hanging on the drying rack I took down and folded neatly.
Our clothes were still so small that a single compartment held a surprising amount. The four-compartment dresser ran spring, summer, autumn, winter from the top down. The thriftily allocated space was oddly satisfying.
Was this… the joy of a housewife?
Hm?
A rustling sound of a box being set down came from outside the door. Moments later a delivery-complete text announced that some of the items ordered only yesterday had arrived. Just when I thought there was nothing left to do, something new had appeared in the blink of an eye.
The delivered goods were shampoo, body wash, lunch containers, and fabric softener. Only after I had taken everything out of the box and put it in its proper place did I achieve true freedom and climb the stairs of the bed.
I checked the time on my smartphone: four twenty-three in the afternoon. An ambiguous hour, neither lunch nor dinner. I even belatedly realized I hadn't eaten lunch because of the monster incident. The moment the realization hit, the hollow emptiness of hunger crashed over me in full force.
"Umm…."
Sitting cross-legged in front of the low table, I bounced my right leg up and down and groaned.
Siyeon didn't eat anything either.
With that thought I looked toward the bed. Siyeon lay motionless under the bulging blanket. Thinking of her falling asleep mid-sniffle, I wanted to order something she liked. But even favorite foods got boring if you had them every time, so I couldn't bring myself to just order something casually. I had no choice but to endure the hunger a little longer.
Still, she should wake up around dinner.
Every time a rustling came from the bed I turned my eyes that way, only to realize it was mere tossing and turning, then went back to staring at my phone. The evening wore on. Time approached six. A low growl rose from my small stomach.
Hoping to forget the hunger even a little, I lay down in the living room and looked at my smartphone. Battery at forty-three percent. I plugged in the charger, gripped the phone with both hands, and visited the Magical Girl Gallery. Leaving the full posts that could damage the mind behind, I tapped the recommended tab.
I opened the posts that caught my eye one by one, checking what useless nonsense was circulating. First up was the sudden claim that magical girls had it good. The moment I tapped it, certification marks stuck on various products filled the screen.
I wrinkled my face slightly at the brainless take. I would rather pay the premium and buy it domestically than fly all the way over there myself. I scrolled down to the comments attached to the post.
Reactions are pretty heated.
The posts I had opened just to forget my hunger turned out to be surprisingly entertaining, so I headed straight for the next recommended post. It seemed to be a discussion that had heated up after foreign cases were cited, bringing up firearms as a means of opposing monsters. The post even had a link to an overseas article attached.
My eyes went straight to the comments. I was curious how people would react.
While I was still reading the gallery comments, the sound of fabric rustling reached my ears. It was Siyeon, running a hand through her sleep-mussed hair as she sat up. I closed the gallery I had been waiting for this moment to abandon, clutched my starving stomach, and walked over to the bed.
"You awake?"
"Mmngh…."
Listening to her whining answer, I glanced at the wall clock. Six-ten. Since she hadn't eaten lunch either, of course she would be hungry by now.
"Time for dinner. Anything you want?"
"…Jajangmyeon."
"Jajangmyeon? Sounds good."
My hunger was at its peak; honestly anything would have been fine. If she had answered "whatever," I might have actually lost it. I quickly woke my smartphone, pressed the home key, swiped up from the wallpaper, found the delivery app, and searched for Chinese restaurants.
Anywhere was fine as long as it came fast. I dumped one large jajangmyeon and one small sweet-and-sour pork into the cart. Even that came to a little over twenty thousand won; I grumbled about the cost of living while finishing the payment in a hurry.
I'm starving…
After two full hours of agonizing emptiness I flopped face-down onto the living-room floor with an internal groan. Delivery would take a while anyway, so I decided to finish the posts I had been reading.
One of the posts I had already seen; a page refresh had piled on more comments. The content was a link to one of the recent articles. I idly followed the link and found it was about our own region.
Then you lot go fight with guns yourselves.
I snorted at the usual nonsense and mashed the back button until I reached the comment reactions. As expected, they had exploded.
The atmosphere was so overheated that the commenters seemed angrier than the actual magical girl who had been in the article. On my end I just thought, oh, they're spouting the usual garbage again, and moved on.
Looks like it's on its way soon.
Imagining the jajangmyeon and sweet-and-sour pork that would arrive at the house any minute, I abruptly sat up from where I had been sprawled in the living room. People were strange that way. In the face of something delicious, all the piled-up hatred and resentment melted away like snow, if only for a moment.