Eighteen Years. Ten Years.
"You're here? Oh my..."
Arin made no effort to hide her shock at the sight of us.
Even I was stunned.
A dress of such a daring cut that it bared not only her shoulders but nearly the entirety of her chest. My daughter Min-ah was wearing it.
"Come on... sit down."
"Yes, unnie."
But Arin quickly recovered her composure and ushered Min-ah into her seat.
"That dress is pretty."
"It's a little hard to wear, though."
A rustle of fabric. Min-ah cupped the lower swell of her breasts through the dress with both hands. I snapped my gaze toward the scallops in an instant — those ample breasts had been pressed together, carving out a dizzying line of cleavage.
"They wouldn't stay in place... that's why it was so hard to put on."
"No wonder you were late."
Arin had already regained her composure. She'd looked genuinely shaken at first, but her recovery was fast.
"Want a drink?"
Min-ah looked at me. Her eyes were asking permission — was it all right to drink?
"My daughter's an adult now. Learning how to drink from the grown-ups isn't a bad thing."
"If Dad says so... I'll gladly drink."
Min-ah lifted her glass, and Arin held out the soju bottle.
"For my first glass... I wanted Dad to pour it."
But Min-ah pulled her empty glass back. Arin smiled and passed the soju bottle to me.
"That's right. Drinking etiquette really should be taught by a father."
A perfectly ordinary scene. But how should I put this? Why did it feel so uncomfortable?
I took the soju bottle. Min-ah held out her empty glass with both hands.
"Min-ah's first drink! Please grant me the honor of receiving it from Dad!"
Bright and bubbly — but there was a barb buried in it. Behavior that wasn't like her usual self... the kind of performance you put on for someone watching. Min-ah's sharp arrows were aimed squarely at Arin.
I poured soju into Min-ah's empty glass. Mine and Arin's were already full, so there was no need to fill those. Since Min-ah wanted it this way, I had to take the lead on drinking etiquette.
"Alright! Now that all the glasses are full, let's raise them."
"Yes, Dad!"
Min-ah thrust out her glass with the eager voice of a brand-new hire. Arin, by contrast, held hers out with a silent smile.
"First of all — Min-ah, congratulations on becoming an adult."
"Hehe... thanks, Dad."
Min-ah smiled shyly. She was wearing a sexy dress, but that expression was still every bit a child's.
"And Arin — thank you for introducing us to such a great place!"
"Good food is meant to be shared."
Arin gave a light nod.
"And thank you to myself for knowing these two and making this outing happen!"
"Oh, come on, Dad, that's so lame."
"Pfft...!"
A slightly disappointed daughter and a laughing Arin. It laid bare the difference between someone who'd been through the working world and someone who hadn't.
"Alright! When I say 'to our happiness,' you say 'to happiness' and we clink glasses."
"Okay!"
"Okay!"
"To our happiness!"
"To happiness!"
"To happiness!"
Clink! Three dull notes of liquid-filled glass rang out.
"The first glass has to go down in one shot."
"Yes, Dad!"
A long swallow. Min-ah knocked back the soju. Arin and I drained our glasses in one go as well.
The soju was sweet. Good-tasting alcohol is a blessing, but it's on nights like this that accidents always happen. A faint unease sat in my chest. But there was happiness enough to offset it.
A drinking table with Arin and Min-ah. Min-ah's daring outfit made me a little nervous, but so far there hadn't been any real problems.
"Unnie, let me pour for you."
"At times like this, you pour for the eldest first. Your father's glass is empty, isn't it?"
"Ah...! I-I'm sorry...!"
Min-ah's face went red in an instant. She seemed enormously flustered at having made a mistake — the kind of mortified look you get when you mess up in a situation where you absolutely cannot afford to.
Arin smiled and waved it off.
"Just relax. First times come with mistakes."
"She's right. You don't need to be so tense."
Min-ah's face was getting even redder. Was that the alcohol? Or... something else?
"Still... I just wanted to do as well as I could."
A pour. My daughter filled Arin's glass. To the brim. She poured until there wasn't a millimeter of space left. Then she started to fill her own empty glass.
"Ah, you can't do that."
Arin plucked the soju bottle from Min-ah's hand.
"Pouring your own glass is called jajak. It's one of the things you don't do when there are seniors present."
Arin had been drinking for less than a month. And yet she knew drinking etiquette inside and out. She'd come thoroughly prepared, as expected. She'd known Min-ah had just come of age... known there'd be a drinking table... and learned it all because she couldn't afford not to know.
"Why... can't you?"
"Because it means the senior didn't look after the junior... In this case, it would put your elder — sunbae... I mean, Min-ah's father — in an awkward position, wouldn't it?"
"Ah..."
The defiance on Min-ah's face flushed red again.
"And it's not good for you, either."
"What... is it?"
"They say people who pour their own drinks never find a lover for the rest of their lives."
"Wh...at?! Is that true??!"
Min-ah's face went from flustered to ashen.
"It's half urban legend... so don't take it too much to heart."
"But those stories exist because there are cases like that... don't they?"
Min-ah's voice was thick with worry. Arin smiled as if she found her adorable.
"As a graduate of medical school — the pinnacle of the sciences — I can tell you superstitions like that aren't worth believing."
Arin poured into Min-ah's glass.
"Just take what I said earlier as a joke. Don't take it seriously."
"But..."
"Could someone as beautiful as Min-ah possibly not have a lover?"
"...!"
Min-ah's startled face. She looked like she'd just heard something she never expected.
"Even as a woman, I can see how perfect you are..."
Arin's gaze went blatantly to Min-ah's cleavage.
"Here."
Arin passed the soju bottle back to Min-ah.
"So don't worry, and just learn drinking etiquette from the adults tonight."
Glug, glug, glug. Soju filled Min-ah's empty glass to the brim.
"This is another thing you do at times like this."
Arin held out her glass to Min-ah. Min-ah clinked it in a daze.
Arin, sitting beside me, touched my thigh in a signal. It was as if she were saying:
And so the drinking match between Min-ah and Arin began.
Had an hour passed?
I'd stopped drinking altogether and quietly set about grilling the scallops. Arin had begun drinking in earnest with Min-ah.
What Arin meant, in the end, was that she'd get Min-ah to drink a lot and find out what was really going on inside her. There was no way Arin would know something even I, her father, didn't. We had to figure out what Min-ah's psychological line of resistance toward Arin actually was before we could resolve it.
A drinking contest would leave both of them wasted. Someone needed to look after them. That someone was me.
"Ajummaaa... you drink so gooood..."
Min-ah's voice was thoroughly slurred. The "unnie" she'd been using for Arin had become "ajumma." Her face was pale, but her behavior was that of someone completely drunk.
"I guess it's 'cause you haven't been drinking until now, so your liver's still brand new."
Arin, by comparison, was perfectly fine.
Right. Back then, she'd gotten drunk from downing an entire bottle of soju in one shot. Drinking it split like this, Min-ah actually had a pretty decent tolerance. They'd already each gone through two bottles. The one with the weaker constitution would lose her mind any minute now. That was Min-ah, right now.
"Ajummaaa... why haven't you gotten maaarrried yet?"
An extremely sensitive topic tumbled out of Min-ah's mouth.
"You're such an amazing personnn... a doctor... and so prettyyy... guys must've been lining up... so whyyy...?"
Min-ah was openly sniping at Arin. But Arin didn't take the bait. Her face remained calm.
"There was someone I liked."
"How many years?"
"Eighteen years."
Min-ah hesitated at Arin's answer.
"I also... I alsooo... have someone I likeee... I've liked him for a long timeee... but ten years... sooo... you win, ajummaaa... congrats..."
Min-ah clapped with her chopsticks still in her hand. The wooden chopsticks clattered to the floor the moment she applauded.
"That's why I can't give up."
"Heehh... whooo is it...? I could help... you, you knowww..."
"Really?"
"Yeah... yeahhh..."
Min-ah's eyes were completely unfocused.
"Well then... there's a fireworks show tonight. I'll tell you there. Just you, Min-ah. A little secret."
"Reaaally? That's a promise, riiight?"
"In exchange. Make me one promise."
"Wh... what is ittt?"
"Promise you'll definitely help me."
"Hnn... uhhh..."
Min-ah seemed to think it over, then...
"Fiiine~~ I promise! Promise!"
"Sunbae. Film this for me."
"Huh?? Oh!"
I hurriedly switched my phone to video recording.
"So then... Min-ah... promises to help Ajumma Arin's long-held love... is that right?"
"Of course...! Of couuurse! Leave it allll to meee! I'm... good... at that... kinda thing, you knowww?"
"Pinky swear."
Arin held out her pinky.
"I sweeear!"
Min-ah hooked her finger without a second thought.
"Thank you."
"Don't... mention it... aju...mma."
Thud. Min-ah planted her face straight into the table.
KO.
Arin's crushing victory.
"It seems Min-ah isn't something you need to worry about as much as you thought, sunbae."
"I-is that so?"
"It's just love for her dad, that's all... She doesn't seem to have as much hostility toward me as I expected."
Watching from the side, I thought the same. Everything about Min-ah spoke of love for me, and nothing else. She didn't seem particularly opposed to Arin becoming my wife. The proof had just happened.
Arin had all but told Min-ah that the person she loved was me. And Min-ah seemed to know it, too. The fact that she'd still promised to help that love come true was clearly a green light.
Of course, it was hard to trust something said while drunk — but I tend to think that what people say at the drinking table is actually their true feelings. Arin's case had been like that, after all.
"Up we go!"
Before I knew it, Arin had Min-ah on her back. Min-ah was taller, but Arin lifted her without difficulty.
"I've already paid the bill."
"Already?"
"I did it when I went to the restroom earlier."
Arin was a perfect woman.
"You going to be okay? You drank a lot."
"I'm fine. She's going to be my daughter soon... I want to get closer to her, even if it's through contact like this."
"Mmm... Dad... Daaad..."
Min-ah clung to Arin's neck and started searching for me.
"I'll have to keep at it until that sleep-talk comes out as 'Mom.'"
"...Arin..."
"Yes...?"
"Thank you. For going this far for our family."
"I'm the one who should thank you, sunbae."
"...Huh? Why?"
"For accepting me as a member of such a happy family."
Arin smiled. A happy smile. I'd been given a gift far too generous.
"...Still... thank you. I won't forget this debt."
"Then I have one request."
"What is it?"
She brought her lips to my ear and began to whisper, as if making sure Min-ah couldn't hear. It wasn't anything major.
That's what she said.