The Playful Forehead Kiss
It was a moment that happened in an instant. Jeong Dayeon, backed into a corner, stiffened her body like ice the moment Siheon drew so close their breaths mingled.
I still couldn’t believe what was happening to me right now.
The teacher’s face, so near it felt as if it could touch at any second, was stern.
The trembling breath and those intense eyes that pierced straight through me were far too unfamiliar. I couldn’t convince myself that this was the teacher I had known.
“You… do you even understand what you just said?”
“Teacher…?”
“We’re going to be a couple, Dayeon-ah.”
Siheon’s hand gently cupped Dayeon’s cheek as he warned her in a low voice.
“Any time, something like this could happen.”
My mind spun in dizzy circles. The hand that kept sliding up my side, the teacher’s face growing steadily closer—everything felt strange and confusing.
‘Could it be… a kiss…?’
Before I could think of anything else, a scene from a movie I had once seen flashed through my mind like a gust of wind.
Back then, the male lead had definitely held the female lead’s cheek just like this. And with sweet words, he had kissed her lips…
What should I do…? What should I do…!
Jeong Dayeon, screaming inside her heart, trembled helplessly and squeezed her eyes shut.
She tried to calm her racing heart and waited for the teacher’s lips that were about to meet hers. Yet, after a long time, the lips that should have touched never came.
Only then did she notice that Siheon’s breath clinging to her face and the hand climbing up her waist had already withdrawn.
“……?”
Jeong Dayeon opened her eyes a fraction, and Siheon’s face appeared with one eyebrow raised.
“…Teacher…?”
“What? Did you really think I’d kiss you?”
Then it wasn’t…?
Seeing Dayeon unable to speak from disappointment, Siheon lifted one eyebrow.
“Sharing the same bed for ten years. It’s only natural.”
“……”
“So just act cute.”
He smiled with a soft pik and lightly tapped Dayeon’s forehead with his knuckles before turning away.
With a dull thud, Dayeon rubbed her aching forehead while staring at the closed door and muttered in a daze.
“We’re going to be a couple…?”
Siheon had spoken with a terrifying expression as a warning, but to her those words sounded completely different.
“Does that mean… I’m your wife to the teacher?”
She had always been treated like a child, like a little peanut. Maybe there was hope for her too.
A smile slowly spread across Dayeon’s dazed face.
***
Morning sunlight faintly settled on her eyelids.
“Haa…”
Siheon slowly opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a long moment before letting out a deep sigh.
“What on earth did I do…”
The memories from last night came back vividly—the moment he had grabbed Dayeon’s wrist, pinned her to the wall so she couldn’t move.
It had been meant to scare her. To stop her from being so reckless again. To make her stop being shaken by the boldness of her young age.
Yet when he recalled the way Dayeon’s eyes had grown wide like a frightened rabbit the moment their lips were about to touch, regret crashed over him like a tidal wave.
“Was it too much?”
It seemed I had gone too far. The other person was still just a child who had only just become an adult.
He rested his forehead against the back of his hand and sat up from the bed after a long while.
The place he had gone because he couldn’t stay with Dayeon was a guest room tucked away in a remote corner of Seoyeongheon.
His stiff shoulders ached from using a bed that didn’t suit him, so he moved them left and right and descended to the first floor. At that moment, a sweet laugh drifted from somewhere.
What was going on? Siheon’s footsteps, which had been descending the stairs unconsciously, stopped halfway.
“……What?”
Following the sound, his gaze revealed an absurd scene.
In the middle of the kitchen, at the dining table, Shim Jeonghee and Dayeon sat side by side making dumplings.
The sight of them shaping dumplings in front of a large silver basin they might have brought from somewhere was strange, but what truly caught Siheon’s attention was Dayeon’s attire.
Dayeon wore a hanbok, her hair neatly combed into a bun.
A cream-colored jeogori and light pink skirt. She looked like a newlywed bride.
“What is this?”
Siheon stared at them with a dumbfounded expression, but Dayeon and Jeonghee chatted as if they had been waiting for him.
“Mother, is this really the food the teacher likes best—dumplings?”
“Yes. From childhood, whenever I see dumplings I jump up even in my sleep.”
How close they had become. Dayeon and Jeonghee looked quite intimate.
Dayeon pressed the dumpling skin tightly, then made a gloomy face when something went wrong.
“Mother, why does this keep bursting?”
“Because you put too much filling in.”
“Hing. I wanted to make it pretty.”
Dayeon pouted and held out her palm. On her small palm was something that looked more like a pouch than a dumpling. When Jeonghee saw it, she burst into laughter.
“It’s fine. It looks fluffy and delicious.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It’s said that if you make dumplings well, you’ll have a pretty daughter. You’ll have a very pretty daughter later.”
Dayeon wiped her nose with her hand and smiled.
“Hehe. Will that be so? I hope it’s like the teacher.”
Siheon, seeing Dayeon with white flour on her cheeks and nose, let out a breath.
Daughter? What daughter.
It was an absurd sight. Dumplings and hanbok from the morning.
For the first time in the always quiet Seoyeongheon, such lively noise filled the air, and Siheon found the entire scene unfamiliar.
Dayeon, who had been smiling and picking up a new dumpling skin, noticed Siheon standing on the stairs and widened her eyes.
“Teacher…?”
With a bright face she called out to him, but then, as if remembering something, she hurriedly closed her mouth. And she shouted the unexpected title loudly.
“Husband!”
The unexpected word that flew from Dayeon’s mouth made Siheon, Jeonghee, and the servants working in the kitchen open their eyes wide and stare at them.
“…Husband?”
Siheon looked at her with a dumbfounded expression, but Dayeon only beamed.
She raised her hand and waved it again.
“Did you sleep well, husband?”
Feeling embarrassed even after saying it, Dayeon bit her lower lip and made a shy face. Seeing that fresh, shy expression, Jeonghee couldn’t hold back and laughed softly.
“Right. Since we’ve gotten married, I can’t call you teacher forever.”
The ladies in the kitchen nodded with faces that seemed to agree.
Only Siheon stood frozen, unable to accept the situation as absurd.
***
The dumplings Dayeon and Jeonghee had made turned into delicious manduguk and were served on the breakfast table.
Chairman Cha, who had received a table he hadn’t expected from the morning, smiled with his mouth hanging open.
“Did our new daughter-in-law really make this?”
The unfamiliar title that came from his mouth made Siheon’s eyebrows rise sharply.
“Everyone made it up? Why are all the titles suddenly so awkward?”
“Then why not call her new daughter-in-law as new daughter-in-law.”
Chairman Cha, who had been scolding Siheon, looked at Dayeon again and smiled gently.
“Eat well, new daughter-in-law.”
“Yes. Eat deliciously, Grandfather.”
Amid everyone’s laughter, Siheon alone kept a sullen expression.
Jeong Dayeon, Chairman Cha, everyone seemed to have no intention of stopping this childish play.
Chairman Cha picked up his spoon and continued.
“Manduguk. It’s been a long time. When Siheon was at home, I ate it often.”
“Yes. I heard. The food that teacher, no, husband likes best is dumplings.”
“Right. Siheon has always liked dumplings so much that he would wake up even in his sleep.”
Chairman Cha laughed heartily and broke a large dumpling, putting a big bite in his mouth. The dumplings made by his grandson were perfect for his taste, so he emptied the bowl after a long time.
After Dayeon and Siheon returned home, Chairman Cha sat on the sofa and stared at the scenery beyond the living room as if appreciating a peaceful moment. It was a peaceful time. His illness was forgotten.
It had been an unexpected thing to have Dayeon as his granddaughter-in-law, but the more he saw, the more he liked her actions.
“I have a cute daughter-in-law.”
“Yes, that’s right, Chairman.”
Butler Song nodded and affirmed Chairman Cha’s words.
Dayeon had made dumplings generously, saying to eat together.
Thanks to that, not only the servants but also she herself received a bowl, and the manduguk she ate was truly delicious.
“I hope we can live like this every day.”
Chairman Cha’s smiling face slowly sank. A strange melancholy settled on the spot where the smile remained.
Today’s morning had been more lively than usual, but throughout that time Jeonghee didn’t exchange even a single word with Siheon. The conversation was only occasionally through Dayeon and me.
An old memory that had been covered up came to Chairman Cha’s consciousness.
“Why, now that life is hard, do you want to pick up the discarded child?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“There is nothing to give to a woman who ate her husband and threw away her children too.”
“Father… Father!”
“Now that I want to erase my mistakes, isn’t it too late?”
“……”
“I should have been able to correct that deep misunderstanding sooner.”
Butler Song, who was hesitating, lowered his head.
“It’s okay, Chairman.”
“Yes, yes. That’s right.”
Chairman Cha muttered like a soliloquy and looked into the distance. Instead of joy, a heavy bitterness lingered in his eyes.