Family Photo
I woke to the birdsong that always seemed to belong to morning alone.
I started to stretch, only to realize there was a warmth nestled against me.
"Right… we fell asleep together."
If I'd remembered even a second later, I might have made a sound without meaning to. I let out a quiet breath of relief. I couldn't wake her when she was sleeping this soundly.
"Come to think of it, this happened once before."
The morning after I'd told Seolhwa about middle school. It had felt like this then, too. The memory drew a small smile from me.
Seolhwa almost always woke up before I did. She'd said it was habit. But right now she was breathing soft and even, her face completely unguarded, looking for all the world as if she were happy simply to be asleep.
Maybe the tension had finally left her. Or maybe she just felt safe.
Either way, I guess it doesn't matter.
If she was settling into something good, I could be glad of it no matter the reason. Careful not to wake her, I stroked her hair. It really did feel nice—silky, almost liquid under my fingers. Somewhere along the way, even this had become familiar, and that small fact made me quietly happy.
As I kept gently running my hand through her hair, her body seemed to answer even in sleep. She made a soft, contented little sound, and I caught my breath—
"You two, it's about time you got—"
The door opened. My eyes locked with my father's. We both froze in silence.
We'd made peace, but awkwardness was another matter entirely. And in a situation like this…
I scrambled desperately for something to say. Father let out a short huff of a laugh and waved a hand.
"Take your time coming out."
He closed the door quietly behind him. I waited until his footsteps faded down the hall, then tried to sigh in relief—and couldn't quite manage it.
Is he going to… misunderstand?
He probably knew Mother had shoved us into the room together. Still, we'd slept side by side, and now he'd walked in on us like this. I just hoped he wouldn't jump to anything ridiculous.
It wasn't that I had no interest in that sort of thing. I was a guy, after all. But more than that, I wanted to treat Seolhwa carefully. Better to take things slow—to go further first—than get swept up in a moment and do something we'd regret.
Besides, unlike a certain someone, Father was a perfectly reasonable person. And he wasn't the type to go gossiping to that certain someone either. On that front, at least, I could relax.
I was patting Seolhwa's back when she stirred and cracked her eyes open. Those clear, lake-like red irises were still a little hazy with sleep.
A spark of mischief got the better of me. I leaned in and brushed a light kiss against her cheek. About three seconds passed before her reaction went from a dazed "Huh…?" straight into a startled "Kyaa?!"
"W-wha…?"
She looked so thoroughly flustered I wondered if I'd overdone it. I set a hand on her head and stroked her hair, trying to settle her.
"We slept together, remember?"
"R-right… we did…"
"You always sleep in when you're with me, Seolhwa."
"That's… I guess I feel safe. Before I know it…"
Exactly the answer I'd expected. I felt myself relax.
"That's all that matters," I said, and poked her forehead with a finger. Seolhwa smiled and murmured, "I'm glad."
"If it's that comfortable, want to keep sleeping together from now on?"
"Okay."
"…Huh?"
I'd braced for flustered panic. Instead she just nodded, plain and simple, and I was the one who went stiff.
"Y-you're the one who asked!"
"You agreed way too easily…"
I'd meant it, but I'd also been teasing. Seolhwa puffed out her cheeks, catching on.
"W-we're dating, so… it's fine, right?"
"If you're okay with it, then…"
So much for taking things slow. But Seolhwa didn't seem to be thinking along those lines at all—she was just smiling, pure and happy. I let out a long sigh at my own rotten mind and told her, "Do whatever you want."
"We should head out. Father said to come down a little while ago."
Seolhwa got up to answer—and something about her looked off. Restless, almost. Before I could ask what was wrong, she closed the distance in a rush, and something soft pressed against my lips.
The touch was gone almost as soon as it landed. Seolhwa's face was so red it looked ready to burst. "Th-that was revenge!" she blurted, and fled the room like she was escaping.
I sat there blankly until my brain caught up, then exhaled hard.
"I got got…"
She had more guts than she let on. I stared at the ceiling, waiting for whatever composure I'd walked out of the house with to come wandering back.
"You're up."
When I reached the living room, Father set down a book thick enough to kill a man with one swing and offered a morning greeting.
"Good morning… You didn't say anything, did you?"
"I didn't. I'd rather not deal with the noise."
Fair enough. If that story reached Mother's ears, she'd be impossible for a while.
"Where's Seolhwa?"
I asked as I sat down, scanning the room for her. Father went back to his book and jerked his chin toward the kitchen.
"They're cooking together. I snuck a look—the girl's got skill."
"She's worked hard for it."
Maybe the pride showed on my face when Seolhwa got praised. Father glanced at me and spoke.
"You two get along well."
"Well… we're a couple. I figure this is normal."
No answer came back. A brief silence settled. Father took a sip of coffee, then opened his mouth again.
"…About what happened before. You're all right?"
He meant her, probably. I'd brought Saebom home often enough that my parents knew at least that much.
"…I'm fine," I said. Father looked at me quietly, then answered, "Good."
"You've grown a lot while I wasn't looking."
"I still don't really know about that."
"I can tell at a glance who made which one."
It felt a little mean to say out loud, but when it came to cooking, Seolhwa had Mother beat. I wasn't trying to compare them—but one omelet was neat and golden-brown, and the other was a little scorched and clumsy around the edges. The words slipped out before I could stop them.
"Heehee, Seolhwa helped me!"
"Isn't it usually the other way around?"
"Oh, don't be like that. She worked hard. You too, Seolhwa—thank you. I'll enjoy it."
"Ah… y-yes!"
And Seolhwa's omelet was, as expected—no, better than usual. Even if Mother's technique left something to be desired, she used good ingredients, and good skill meeting good ingredients made for an absurd synergy. Maybe Seolhwa had pushed herself knowing my parents would be eating it. She'd been studying cookbooks and cooking shows in every spare moment, trying to get even better.
"Mmm~ delicious! Our daughter-in-law is the best!"
"D-daughter-in-law…?!"
"But you're dating, aren't you? You'll get there soon enough anyway—what's the harm?"
"Dear, keep that up and there's no telling what Yuseong might do."
I had to be grateful Father knew exactly when to hit the brakes.
"Still," Father said, setting down his empty bowl and thanking us for the meal. "Spending time together in the same space like this… wouldn't it be all right to call yourselves family?"
"I… suppose so?"
Even as she answered, Seolhwa kept stealing glances at me, gauging my reaction. I sighed, thinking I finally understood why my parents suited each other so well, and added, "Took you long enough."
"That's right. You can think of us as family. No one's going to give you a hard time about it."
"See? See?! So then, daugh—"
"Not yet. Don't."
I drew the line with a little resolve tucked into the words—later would be fine. Mother grinned and nodded. "Well, if you insist~"
"Yuseong, you're lucky such a lovely girl came into your life. When I went over to your place before, Seolhwa did most of the cleaning, didn't she?"
"Well, I won't deny it," I said—and an answer came from a direction I hadn't expected.
"Th-that's not true. He was going to clean alone, and I just helped… I'm the lucky one. Because Yuseong was there, I get to be who I am now."
She just said things like that without hesitation. I couldn't find a reply. Seolhwa's cheeks were burning. Mother looked between us, thoroughly pleased, and smiled. "Well then, that's wonderful."
"Anyway, don't lean on Seolhwa too much either."
"I know."
I had no intention of doing that. Seolhwa said I'd helped her enough, and the reverse was just as true. I'd only made it this far—only managed to reconcile with Father—because she'd been there.
"Relying on each other is normal. If I hadn't wanted that, I never would have asked her out."
Until now, you could say we'd been pulling each other along. But going forward, I didn't want to stop there. I wanted a relationship where we moved ahead together. That was what I hoped for. And when it came to being grateful that I had someone like that—honestly, I had no argument.
"Ooh, listen to you, all grown up! Mom is so moved!"
I sighed at Mother's theatrics and glanced at Seolhwa. She seemed to have hit her limit on several fronts—head bowed, trembling faintly. It was so endearing I almost reached for her without thinking, then remembered we had an audience and flinched.
"My, Yuseong's gotten bold~"
"That's enough. Just go already."
"Oh my, planning to dote on her all you want once no one's watching?"
"…Yeah. Got a problem with that?"
Denying it was pointless, and it wasn't like the thought hadn't crossed my mind. I answered like I was throwing caution to the wind—and sure enough, Mother let out a "Kyaa~," which earned her a light thump on the head from Father and a dry "That's enough."
"Well, we'd only be in the way if we stuck around. We'll step out for a bit."
In moments like these, no one outclassed Father.
After seeing them off, Seolhwa and I sat side by side on the sofa.
"Um…"
We spoke at the same time, tried to yield the floor to each other, and ended up laughing without meaning to.
"…So. We're dating, right?"
"R-right…"
Maybe we were overthinking it. The awkwardness had sunk roots deep.
"You can sit a little closer, you know."
I was in the middle of the sofa. Seolhwa was perched primly at the far end. When I couldn't take it anymore and beckoned her over, she scooted in until she was pressed right up against me. "L-like this…?"
Okay, that's too close.
I wanted to ask if she had any concept of a middle ground, but I couldn't pour cold water on her after she'd actually done it. All I managed was a bluff of "It's fine."
Come to think of it, we'd done worse just this morning. Sleep really was a terrifying thing.
"H-hey…"
"What?"
"What do couples… usually do?"
"…Beats me."
Asking out of nowhere like that—what was I supposed to say? Holding hands, hugging, kissing, living together… I ran through the options and arrived at exactly one conclusion.
…We've already done all of that.
We just hadn't been conscious of it. Hadn't we been doing plenty of "that sort of thing" all along?
I went rigid, at a loss for words. Seolhwa must have roughly guessed what I was thinking, because she ducked her head, face blazing red.
"Like we always…"
I started to say like we always have, then cut myself off. It didn't feel like enough.
"Don't overthink it. Let's just be us. The way we have been."
"Us…"
"Yeah. Us."
Seolhwa leaned into me like she was finally at ease.
"This is… okay too, right?"
The embarrassment felt ready to explode—but backing down here would be a failure as a man.
"You can do more than this," I said, and lightly stroked her hair. Seolhwa smiled. "I will."
I'd finished my vacation homework ages ago, and I was enjoying a rare stretch of free time when I noticed Seolhwa staring fixedly at something.
"What are you looking at?" I asked. She pointed at the bookshelf. "What's… that?"
That…
I went closer. Photo albums—old pictures of all kinds. And shelves of discs, labeled neatly with names and numbers, arranged in careful order.
How did I never notice these?
If I'd known, I would have put them away long ago. Had I really been walking around this oblivious to everything around me? Even I found it ridiculous.
I glanced at Seolhwa. Her eyes were sparkling like a kid who'd just found something perfect in a toy aisle. I sighed and opened my mouth with some reluctance.
"…Want to look?"
Honestly, looking at your own childhood is rough. Not just because of the bad parts—though those are there—but because it's simply embarrassing.
"You were so lively when you were little…"
But I couldn't say any of that to Seolhwa, who was flipping between the album and the videos on the TV with open wonder. So I played along.
"Well, I was a kid," I said, like it was nothing.
Looking back, I think I was shining then—for what that's worth, coming from me. A little kid stuffed full of dreams and innocence, charging straight ahead. But I didn't feel particularly nostalgic. That same brightness had gotten me hurt, badly.
And yet, after all that pain, here I was now—looking back on the past with someone precious beside me. That alone made everything else feel like it didn't matter much.
"There's so many when you look at them like this."
The shelves packed tight with photos and discs were more than the two of us could get through easily.
"Come to think of it, they did point a camera at me a lot. Not so much after I left home, though."
All that remains is the record—they'd said that, and snapped pictures at every chance. The photo from when I made my first successful shot and beamed about it. The slightly ridiculous one where I panicked at an earthworm and ran… Seolhwa looked happy no matter what she saw.
"You like them that much?" I asked with a heavy sigh. She nodded as if it were obvious.
"I get to learn so much about the Yuseong I never knew."
"You really are something…"
When she put it like that, I couldn't exactly stop her. That was the problem.
Then I caught Seolhwa murmuring, almost to herself, "…I'm jealous," as she looked at the photos. I bonked her lightly on the head.
"Want to take some? Just the two of us."
"Huh?"
She clearly hadn't even considered it—her eyes went round. Leaving her to that, I powered on the camcorder. It was old, but someone must have kept it charged; before long a blue light blinked on and it came to life.
"Families take pictures together all the time, right?"
If we hadn't had any until now, we'd just make them from here on. She'd lived with too little for too long. I intended to fill that in.
Before we were even a couple, we were already family. That was how I saw it, and Seolhwa probably felt the same… this much was only natural.
I said so and beckoned her over. The gloom vanished from her face in an instant, and she trotted over like a puppy who'd just been called.
"Next time, let's ask Mom and Dad too."
"…Okay!"
I'd never really practiced posing, so our first photo came out a little stiff. Seolhwa cradled the freshly printed Polaroid like it was something precious.
"I'll take good care of it."
"Yeah, yeah."
A smile like that—bright and glad—suited her so much better than any sad expression. I found myself smiling along with her.
Let's become the best family we can—so good the hard times until now won't even come to mind.
I made that quiet promise to myself and stroked Seolhwa's hair. She answered with her usual smile.