The Senior Wants to Nurse
At Eunbyul’s reaction, Jinwoo turned his head toward the door as well. One, two, three. Three heads were huddled together, peeking out and staring straight at them. How could they be so perfectly in sync? Anyone would have thought they were a picture-perfect family that had spent over twenty years together. He was genuinely relieved he wasn’t part of that portrait.
Why is the embarrassment always my share? The thought made him cover his face with both hands. More than the fact they had caught him alone with Eunbyul, more than the way he had acted spoiled in front of her, what shamed him most was showing her his family. Couldn’t they have shown up like normal people? No, he wasn’t even asking for that much. He just wished they would either pretend they hadn’t seen anything or walk in naturally. Anything but blatantly spying like this.
“......If you’re here, come in.”
Only then did the family shuffle inside with sheepish expressions. ......Not toward Jinwoo, but toward Eunbyul.
“Sigh, we saw you last time, didn’t we? Nice to see you again.”
“Ah, yes, yes. Please speak comfortably. You’re practically the same age as my parents.”
“Shall we? Then I’ll talk freely.”
Suddenly surrounded by the three of them, Eunbyul wore a slightly awkward expression. Her ears had turned bright red, probably because they had witnessed her embarrassing moment earlier. But the trio paid no attention and kept speaking to her.
“Unnie, you’re so pretty. What cosmetics do you use?”
“Uh, um? I just use whatever an older friend recommends, so I’m not really sure.”
“You visited our store before, right? Nice to see you again.”
“Yes, yess! Ah! Father, please speak comfortably too.”
“What? You’ve all met her except for me? You traitors!”
Jinwoo, who had been reduced to an abandoned sack of barley in the corner, made a strange face. Hey, doesn’t the bandage wrapped around your son’s ankle look like it’s just for decoration?
“Excuse me, your injured son is right here?”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“Why do you always go out and get hurt like an idiot?”
“You idiot. Oops, I really shouldn’t call an actual idiot an idiot.”
.........These people? He had thought they came for a hospital visit because they were family. Were they actually here to pile on more damage now that he was debuffed? And Kim Jina, just wait until later.
Of all times, right in front of Eunbyul.
Still, he couldn’t exactly kick everyone out of the hospital room while injured. Jinwoo clicked his tongue lightly.
“U-um!”
Eunbyul, who had been relentlessly bombarded, suddenly spoke in a serious voice. Then she bowed deeply before the family.
“I’m truly sorry! Jinwoo got hurt because of me. I’m so sorry for causing your precious son to end up hospitalized!”
The three blinked at the same time. His mother recovered first, letting out a small laugh and shaking her head.
“You don’t have to feel that sorry.”
“B-but……”
“It’s obvious this boy got hurt because he recklessly stepped forward without thinking.” His mother gestured at her son with her chin. It was true, but he still felt the way they treated their own son was a little too harsh.
“She’s right. Don’t worry about it, unnie. Our brother’s body is ridiculously sturdy. In the old days, something like this would’ve healed if you just spat on it.”
“I don’t think that’s quite accurate……”
“Our brother has to go through at least that much to date someone as pretty as you, unnie.” Jina said, thumping her brother’s shoulder.
Jinwoo did somewhat agree with the statement. But why did hearing it from his little sister’s mouth make him feel so dirty?
For now, he had a rough idea of exactly how his family saw him.
“If you’re all just here to insult me, why don’t you leave?”
“Oh dear, sorry. Did we interrupt you two when things were going so well?”
Both Jinwoo’s and Eunbyul’s faces flushed at the same time. Seeing that, his father’s eyes widened.
“Huh? Huh? No way, is it true?”
“What, Dad, you still didn’t know? It’s obvious if you just look.”
Kim Jina spoke as if she had known everything all along. It was annoying, but he had probably expected it to some degree. He had suddenly started caring about his clothes and even asked what would make a good gift for a girl. After showing so many signs, only an idiot would miss them. He just wished they wouldn’t talk about it so openly in front of the person herself.
“But unnie, why are you dating someone like my brother? Even if you’re okay with it, I’m against it.”
“Stop it, Kim Jina.”
“See? He was already ugly, but now that he’s angry he looks even worse.”
“Hajimarg……”
At Jinwoo’s reaction, Jina burst out laughing instead. She knew perfectly well that with his injured foot and Eunbyul right there, he couldn’t get properly angry. Jinwoo’s family chattered away without pause for a long while. He couldn’t shake the feeling that their attention was focused far more on Eunbyul than on the injured son.
“Then could we ask you for a favor?”
“Yes! Please leave Jinwoo to me!”
Having grown more comfortable through the conversation, Eunbyul answered with a much lighter expression. With her declaration that she would take care of him, the family gave their farewells and left.
Once the typhoon-like visit ended and the room grew quiet again, Jinwoo let out a deep sigh of relief.
“They’re such lively people.”
“Aren’t you overestimating them because I’m here? It’s fine to just openly insult them.”
“No, I really mean it.” Eunbyul shook her head. “The moment they heard you were hurt, they dropped everything and came running. They must have been incredibly worried inside. Just seeing that tells me what a wonderful family they are.”
“They didn’t seem interested in the fact that I was hurt at all.”
“Haha… That’s probably because they could tell you were fine just by looking at your face.”
At the very least, Jinwoo knew his family was harmonious. They didn’t interfere too much in each other’s business, yet they all put family first. Of course, sometimes that harmony caused problems, like today.
“To be honest, I get envious when I see your family.”
“I don’t think it’s to the point of envy.”
“I grew up in an orphanage without parents.”
Jinwoo paused. He had guessed as much. Whenever they talked, Eunbyul would subtly steer away from the topic of family. There had been a similar moment before that she had simply glossed over. Jinwoo wasn’t the type to press someone about it insensitively, so hearing the words from her own mouth still surprised him.
“Ah, it’s not that I had a particularly hard time or anything. The older kids at the orphanage were good to me. Later I made plenty of other connections too. It wasn’t the kind of suffering you see in movies.”
Eunbyul waved her hands, offering excuses that weren’t really excuses.
“Still, it must have been difficult at first, right? I’ve never been good at anything, so I often relied on the older kids. I realized that wouldn’t do, so I became independent and started working part-time immediately. But even there people cursed me for being a girl without parents.”
“That was harsh.”
“Yeah, so I slapped them across the face and quit on the spot.”
......That was impressive in its own way. He had imagined her quitting in tears with a gloomy face, but she had boldly walked out. He should live life that actively too.
“Haha… I did do that, but I couldn’t help feeling depressed afterward. If I hadn’t succeeded as a novelist, I’d still be struggling a lot right now.”
“Now that you’ve become a star writer, you’re more than pulling your own weight.”
“Hehe! That’s true. Thanks to that, I got to meet you too, Jinwoo.”
A faint shadow crossed Eunbyul’s gently smiling face.
“Still, sometimes I envy normal families. You know those vague daydreams. Like wondering what celebrities’ lives must be like. I think about whether I would have made more memories if I had a family. I seem to think about it more when I’m alone.”
This was the first time Eunbyul had opened up about her circumstances and inner feelings like this. It must mean she had grown that comfortable with him. While her attitude made him happy, it also made his heart ache. The loneliness on her face as she spoke was painfully obvious.
“......Then let’s keep making memories together.”
“Huh?”
“Until those lonely thoughts stop coming to you. We can just keep making memories until others would be envious of us. We already made one new memory today.”
“Hehe! Shall we do that, then?”
At Jinwoo’s words, Eunbyul broke into a bright smile. Her face was so beautiful that his heart began to pound before he could stop it. The hospital room was so quiet he worried she might actually hear it.
“Ahem! Ahem! Anyway, shouldn’t you be heading back soon, senior? You must have work to do.”
“Huh?”
Even though she had finished her previous project, Eunbyul was still a writer. On top of that, wasn’t she busy researching material for her next work? He couldn’t keep a busy person tied down. But Eunbyul spoke as if she had no idea what he meant.
“I’m staying here.”
“What?”
“It’s not somewhere else, and since you hurt your leg, you need someone to take care of you, right? Besides, your family asked me to look after you.”
Well, those words had come up, but weren’t they just the usual polite remarks people made in passing? He had taken it as something like ‘Let’s have a meal together next time~’
“No, but if you stay here the whole time, won’t it be inconvenient for you, senior?”
“I’m fine! When a writer isn’t writing, they’re basically unemployed!”
Eunbyul declared it as if being unemployed was something to be proud of. Seeing that satisfied expression, he couldn’t bring himself to tell her to leave.
Being nursed by Eunbyul senior……
Of course the idea itself made him happy. But thinking about spending all that time together made his heart flutter all over again. This was completely different from meeting briefly for a date.
“Then how long will you be staying?”
“Until you’re fully recovered?”
“……”