A Good Wife
"That gets Ji-ah too. Caught everyone, huh?"
"Yeah! The tagger wins! And noona's super fast!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! Just now she shot off like a cheetah. Hyung couldn't even move."
Well, of course.
It was the first time I'd ever witnessed a track-and-field athlete running at full power.
At first I'd thought about trying to escape, but it was so clearly hopeless that I just gave up and let myself get caught.
"Is that so."
"Noona's amazing. She's so cool!"
"Thanks for the compliment, Min-hyun."
At Min-hyun's praise, Seo Da-eun gently stroked his head again with a tender look in her eyes.
His eyes were already sparkling.
He was completely smitten with the athletic noona who ran like the wind.
Even I thought she looked cool right now.
To a boy that age, it must have felt like magic.
And that noona was that pretty, and treated him so kindly?
No boy could possibly dislike her.
Kids were a lot more honest about looks, too.
You see it in videos—babies who can't even talk yet smile at pretty women and handsome men.
Watching them quietly, Ji-ah seemed jealous that her sister was being stolen, and she declared proudly,
"Hey. Seon Min-hyun. That's my unnie."
"Yeah. Ji-ah's unnie~ Right?"
"Yeah. She's my unnie. My unnie runs super well."
Then she simply nestled into Seo Da-eun's arms, murmuring.
The sight was so cute I couldn't help smiling.
And from how skillfully Seo Da-eun handled it, I could tell how much time she must have spent playing with kids.
Unlike the cool looks and indifferent attitude she projected on the outside,
the way she treated children was as careful and attentive as a kindergarten teacher.
…I should probably learn a thing or two from that.
In my previous life I hadn't had any younger siblings.
Becoming Seon Woo-hyun was the first time I'd ever looked after little brothers and sisters.
Of course I was an adult,
so taking care of kids wasn't terribly hard, but I still couldn't handle them as smoothly as Seo Da-eun did.
Watching her soothe both kids' moods and win their affection, I couldn't help thinking she was pretty impressive.
"Okay, tag's over. What should we play next?"
"Hmm… Min-hyun got to pick last time, so now it's my turn."
"Alright. This time we do what Ji-ah wants. What do you want to play, Ji-ah?"
"House?"
"I like house. I wanna play too."
Min-hyun agreed with Ji-ah and Seo Da-eun's conversation.
That left me with no choice, so I just nodded.
"Then what setting should we do? A store? Kindergarten? Or home?"
"Home's good. Home."
"Home?"
"Yeah. Ji-ah wants to be the mom."
"Then I'll be the dad~"
"Then what about unnie and oppa?"
"Unnie can be the baby."
"The baby?"
"Yeah. The baby."
That face and that looks… as a baby?
I snorted a laugh at Ji-ah's role assignment, and Seo Da-eun's gaze snapped to me, sharp as a blade.
Oof. Scary as hell.
Afraid I might actually get hit if I kept it up, I pretended not to notice and looked away.
Then I went over to Ji-ah and asked about my own role.
"Then what about oppa?"
Please give me something decent at least.
I had no idea what scenario she was painting in her head,
but I was hoping for something normal—like Seo Da-eun's older brother,
or an uncle,
some respectable part.
"Oppa is…"
She stared hard at my face for a moment.
"Uuum."
"Yeah."
"The doggy! Hehe."
She beamed and handed down my death sentence.
The doggy…?
I must have misheard that, right?
"Pfft. Khuh—"
The moment Seo Da-eun, standing behind Ji-ah, heard my role, she couldn't hold back her laughter.
My earlier mockery coming back as karma left me speechless.
"Ji-ah. That doggy? You mean a puppy?"
I asked, wanting to deny reality,
but Ji-ah simply nodded again with pure innocence.
"Yeah! That doggy. Oppa looks like a retriever."
"Ah… I see. A retriever. Haha."
Hahaha.
At my hollow laugh, Seo Da-eun snickered, trying to stifle it.
No—she wasn't stifling it so much as choking on it.
Just hold it in a little. Is it really that funny?
Fine. At least it's a dog face. And a retriever isn't bad.
My only real strength was a positive mindset,
so I eventually accepted the role I'd been given and gaslit myself into treating it as a compliment.
"Shall we start?"
"Yeah. Let's start."
Ji-ah plopped down onto the playground sandbox.
Then Min-hyun trudged over from behind the slide and mimed opening the front door.
"I'm home."
"Welcome home, honey."
And so the two kids' practiced game of house continued.
Seo Da-eun followed right behind and greeted Min-hyun as well.
"Welcome home, Dad."
She looked relieved, thinking she'd handled it well,
but Ji-ah was not that easy a child.
She turned around with a dissatisfied face and told Seo Da-eun,
"Unnie. That's not it."
"Huh? Then how am I supposed to do it?"
"Unnie can't talk. Babies can't talk."
"…Ah. That much of a baby?"
At Ji-ah's precise age specification, Seo Da-eun's expression froze.
Thinking about it, it was simple enough.
To us, Ji-ah and Min-hyun were still little enough to call "babies,"
but to these two, a baby meant a real newborn or someone who couldn't even speak properly yet.
"Unnie, do it again."
"Again?"
"Yeah. Again."
Like a drama director who refused to ever call "cut,"
Ji-ah fixed Seo Da-eun with a strict gaze and demanded a re-take.
At first she glanced at me, fretting over how to handle this,
but under the urging stares of Ji-ah and Min-hyun she realized she couldn't hold out. She abandoned her shame, plopped down on the ground, and
"Waaaaah. Waaah. Eung-ae!"
acted out a crying baby in a voice trembling with embarrassment.
It was closer to reading a Korean textbook aloud than actual acting, but Ji-ah seemed satisfied with Seo Da-eun's performance and nodded.
I snickered, trying desperately to hold back my laughter.
In the end I couldn't, and a laugh slipped out. Seo Da-eun must have heard it, because
Don't. You. Dare.
she mouthed a death threat at me.
Under that icy glare I flinched and forced a poker face, pretending I hadn't laughed at all.
…But wait, more importantly, what am I supposed to do?
While I was reading the room, the two kids' gazes poured onto me as well.
"When the door opens, the doggy usually runs out, hyung."
"Yeah. That's right, oppa."
Right.
That was correct.
Normally a dog would dash out to greet whoever came home.
Under their stares I regretted having laughed at Seo Da-eun just moments ago.
…Being the baby is way better, no matter how you look at it.
At least that was still a human role.
I was a dog. A dog.
"Hyung?"
"Oppa?"
Two pairs of eyes full of expectation fixed on me.
The pressure to deliver a proper performance and the sheer shame of having to act like a dog in front of the kids and Seo Da-eun hit me at the same time.
…But you know this, Seon Woo-hyun. Shame is temporary. Endure it. Endure.
I'd even done mascot costume part-time work before, after all.
In high school there hadn't been a job I hadn't tried, so maybe this was lucky.
I'm a dog. I'm just a dog. Just a dog.
I hypnotized myself, pretending no one was around,
dropped into a four-legged crawl right there,
crawled over to where Ji-ah and Min-hyun were, and
"Woof woof! Grrrr!"
barked with complete sincerity.
Apparently that earned a passing grade, because Min-hyun patted my head and laughed.
"Yeah. Our Baduk-i. Good boy. Such a good boy."
The sensation of having my head stroked by a five-year-old.
Crawling on all fours in a playground, feeling like I'd lost every last shred of human dignity, I lifted my head—
"Pffft. Heheheh. Hahaha—hah!"
Seo Da-eun, still in her baby role, finally couldn't hold it and burst into full laughter.
Watching her laugh so hard her face turned bright red and she could barely breathe,
I felt my own face heat up at that genuine laugh, and the two kids started giggling along with her.
Then, mercilessly, Ji-ah snickered and told me,
"Oppa. Your doggy acting is really good."
She praised me with zero malice, as if she simply liked it.
"…Thanks, Ji-ah."
Looking at her, I thought to myself,
…Be honest. You two. This is bullying, right?
The hellish game of house finally ended.
After running around with the kids a while longer, our energy completely drained, we headed back to the bench.
Watching the two kids still playing on the playground, I said with genuine admiration,
"Kids that age really don't get tired, do they. Amazing."
"…Tell me about it. Sometimes I want to tell the track team to take notes."
Mentally and physically.
The drained adults looked at each other's wrecked states and laughed.
Seo Da-eun still couldn't forget the earlier scene; she grinned and said to me,
"Seon Woo-hyun. You're really good at playing with kids."
"Huh?"
"The dog acting. Not just anyone can do it that realistically."
"Stop teasing. My life force is at its limit now…"
"I'm not teasing. Do you know how much Ji-ah liked it? Most adults can't go along with stuff like that."
Was that so.
Well, once you hit middle school, shame kicks in.
It wasn't easy to play along with kids' childish games.
That was why kids liked adults who would play with them properly.
"If the little princess is happy, then it was worth abandoning my dignity."
"…Still, I never expected you'd put that much heart into the acting."
She snickered again right away.
What do you mean you're not teasing. You totally are.
She smiled for a moment, then her expression turned a little more serious.
"Thanks. For playing along with Ji-ah so well."
"…"
"It feels like it's been a long time. Since Ji-ah had that much fun."
"We're even. You helped Min-hyun out when he was it, before he got all gloomy."
At my words she raised her eyebrows, looking surprised.
"You saw that?"
"Letting yourself get caught on purpose, and also—since when does getting tagged in hide-and-seek make you join the taggers?"
There were regional differences, of course,
but that rule was pretty rare.
Usually you either followed the tagger around or waited where you were caught.
"Min-hyun just looked like he was having zero fun. So I helped out a little. That's all."
She turned her head slightly, looking embarrassed by the praise.
I looked back at the two kids still running around and said to her,
"You're really good with kids, though."
"Me?"
"Yeah. Honestly I was impressed watching you. Not just playing with them—the way you handle them, the way you read the room. That wasn't first-timer skill."
"…I've basically raised Ji-ah myself, so of course. It's been like that since we were little."
As if recalling the years that had passed,
Seo Da-eun gazed blankly at Ji-ah and smiled softly.
Seeing things like this really drove home how different knowing something from a novel was from feeling it in reality.
I'd known she was family-oriented, but the writing had never let me feel this warmth of hers.
So, caught up in the mood, I ended up saying it without thinking.
"When you get married someday, you'll make a great wife. I'm jealous of whoever ends up as your husband."
"…W-what?"
At those words, Seo Da-eun's ears turned bright red in an instant.