The Taster?
‘Ah…….’
In an instant, Yoon-gi’s mind began to race, deducing the implications of the yakbap (sweet rice with nuts and jujubes) his grandfather was eating. ‘It would be dangerous to stop him now, wouldn’t it?’
The yakbap was already in Choi Ki-hyun’s mouth. If Yoon-gi were to act flustered at this timing, it would almost certainly lead to an undesirable outcome. A moment later, a low gulping sound echoed, and Yoon-gi carefully offered his grandfather some water.
“Please, have some water, too.”
“Yes, the yakbap is delicious, but I certainly do need some water.”
After downing half a cup of water, Choi Ki-hyun seemed satisfied and reached for the yakbap again.
“Grandfather, wait a moment.”
“Hm?”
Choi Ki-hyun stopped, his hand still hovering over the yakbap.
“Do you eat yakbap often these days?”
“Not often, but occasionally? Perhaps it’s because I’m getting older, but I find myself craving old-fashioned food.”
“Hmm, yakbap is essentially rice cake, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be a bit heavy on your stomach?”
“Oh, come now. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Still, just in case, why don’t you ask a doctor?”
“No, well, there’s no need to call a doctor for something like this……”
Choi Ki-hyun tried to shake his head, implying it wasn’t necessary, but Yoon-gi pushed his point firmly.
“No, Grandfather. You need to live a long life, so let’s take this opportunity to hear what a doctor has to say. I heard Aunt-in-law is off today, so it’s perfect.”
Yoon-gi called Lee In-hae to ask if she could come over, and she readily agreed, arriving at Choi Ki-hyun’s house shortly after.
“Father, have you been well? Yoon-gi, you’ve been doing well too, right?”
Arriving about 40 minutes later, Lee In-hae appeared in the living room with an intelligent smile.
“Oh, you’re here?”
“You’ve arrived?”
Lee In-hae was the wife of Choi Cheol-jae and a practicing obstetrician. People often said that if a daughter became a doctor, she could marry into a chaebol family, but in reality, Lee In-hae’s own father was a hospital director. While dramas depicted commoners succeeding easily, in reality, it was incredibly difficult for a commoner’s child to become a doctor. As such, the look Choi Ki-hyun gave Lee In-hae was exceptionally soft. A doctor daughter-in-law! Naturally, he couldn’t help but look upon her with favor.
“I was planning to visit anyway, but Yoon-gi called me just in time. I thought this was the perfect moment, so I came right away.”
At the sight of his beaming daughter-in-law, Choi Ki-hyun also smiled and pointed to the sofa opposite Yoon-gi.
“Yes, yes. Sit down first.”
“Yes, Father.”
Once Lee In-hae was seated, Choi Ki-hyun carefully asked something he had been curious about.
“Come to think of it, I heard that Yu-jeong has been getting help from you lately?”
“Ah, you heard about that?”
Choi Ki-hyun gave a slightly bitter smile and nodded.
“I heard it through the grapevine, but I couldn’t very well ask Yu-jeong directly. And it’s a bit awkward to ask my son-in-law, too. Since you’re here, couldn’t you tell me a little bit about it?”
At Choi Ki-hyun’s subtle, almost childlike request, Lee In-hae couldn’t help but chuckle. However, she quickly continued, preventing any unnecessary misunderstandings.
“Of course I should tell you, Father. But promise me this is a secret, okay?”
“Of course! Only me… no, only Yoon-gi and I will know!”
As Choi Ki-hyun thumped his chest, Lee In-hae smiled once more and nodded.
“I’ll trust you, Father. First, to give you the conclusion……”
“The conclusion?”
“My brother-in-law does not have complete azoospermia.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Choi Ki-hyun looked as if he were about to jump out of his seat with joy.
“Yes. Actually, it’s quite rare for there to be absolutely no sperm at all in cases of azoospermia.”
“Wait, so azoospermia doesn’t mean there’s no sperm?”
Lee In-hae nodded again.
“Yes. It’s just a term used when the sperm count is low or insufficient, making pregnancy difficult.”
“Ho-ho……”
“Medical terminology is just like that sometimes.”
At Lee In-hae’s bashful smile, Choi Ki-hyun gave a wry smile and scratched the back of his head.
“Anyway, after a detailed examination, it turns out that pregnancy is narrowly possible.”
“Then why couldn’t they conceive before?”
“Ah, that might be because the woman was also in a situation where pregnancy was difficult.”
“Hm?”
“There are cases where it’s not easy for the woman to conceive either. In short, since both my brother-in-law and his ex-wife had difficulties, it just so happened that they didn’t have children. That’s just my speculation, though.”
“Hoo… the ways of the world are truly mysterious.”
Choi Ki-hyun let out a hollow laugh, as if amazed, and looked at his daughter-in-law again.
“Then, can I understand this to mean that Yu-jeong can have a child?”
Choi Ki-hyun already had many children and grandchildren. But even if all his other children had brought new life into the world, a parent’s heart is always anxious if even one child cannot. That was why Choi Ki-hyun had felt so sorry for his daughter, Choi Yu-jeong, for not being able to have children.
“Yes, of course!”
“Phew…!”
At his daughter-in-law’s confident answer, Choi Ki-hyun let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Then, what is it? In vitro? I saw it on TV, do you make babies that way?”
In vitro fertilization (IVF) had been introduced to the general public around 1978, so in 1987, it was not at all strange for Choi Yu-jeong and Jung Woo-ho to try to have a child through IVF. However, Lee In-hae shook her head.
“No.”
“Hm? Then is there another way?”
At Choi Ki-hyun’s curious question, Lee In-hae blushed slightly and opened her mouth.
“They are still newlyweds, after all. So I told them to do their best with natural methods for about a year. Honestly, if I wanted to make money, IVF would be better, but since they are newlyweds, it would be awkward if they succeeded with both natural pregnancy and IVF at the same time, wouldn’t it?”
“Ahhh…! Yes, yes. Come to think of it, they are very much in the honeymoon phase. Hehehe.”
Having often seen the affection Jung Woo-ho and Choi Yu-jeong showed when they visited, Choi Ki-hyun couldn’t help but feel high expectations for a new grandchild.
“I even gave my brother-in-law some nutritional supplements to help him keep his strength up, so there should be good news soon.”
“Yes, yes. Just hearing that makes me happy.”
Choi Ki-hyun, who had been nodding repeatedly, seemed to think he was being too sentimental and hurriedly cleared his throat, looking at Yoon-gi.
“That’s right, Yoon-gi. Didn’t you say you had something to ask?”
Yoon-gi nodded immediately.
“Yes, Aunt. Grandfather has been enjoying yakbap quite often lately. Is that okay?”
“Yakbap?”
Lee In-hae looked at the snacks on the table as if seeing them for the first time. Since there were other types of rice cakes besides yakbap, Choi Yu-jeong had been able to infer Choi Ki-hyun’s recent preferences to some extent.
“Father, do you eat rice cakes often these days?”
“Hm? Oh… uh, yes.”
Sensing a lecture coming, Choi Ki-hyun’s voice grew smaller.
“Hmm, actually, rice cakes themselves aren’t that great for the elderly.”
“I-is that so?”
“Yes. To explain it in a way that’s easy for a layperson to understand, rice cakes are absorbed into the human body much faster than regular rice.”
Choi Ki-hyun listened quietly to his daughter-in-law’s explanation.
“When you’re young, it doesn’t really matter if you eat a lot of rice cakes. Because even if your body absorbs nutrients quickly, your physical ability to process those nutrients is there to back it up.”
“Hmm…”
“However, as you get older, your body can’t keep up with the nutrients absorbed quickly through rice cakes. That’s why eating a lot of them can be bad. Because these three rice cakes have the same calories as a bowl of rice.”
“Hoo?”
Choi Ki-hyun’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Surprised, aren’t you? To make that one rice cake, you have to pack as much glutinous rice as possible. And there are quite a few elderly people who suffer from airway obstruction while swallowing rice cakes.”
“Airway obstruction?”
“It means your windpipe gets blocked.”
“Hoo…”
Choi Ki-hyun fidgeted, looking distressed.
“Then, does that mean I can’t eat rice cakes anymore?”
“Oh, that’s not it.”
Lee In-hae shook her head with a gentle smile.
“First of all, you need to reduce the amount. And when you eat them, don’t eat one in a single bite, but cut them into small pieces and chew them thoroughly. Most people who suffer from airway obstruction just put the whole rice cake in their mouth regardless of how big it is, and it ends up sliding down their throat before they know it.”
“Ahem! Ahem!”
In fact, Choi Ki-hyun often ate a whole glutinous rice cake in one bite, so he turned red.
“Father, you have to live a long time to see the grandchild my brother-in-law will have, right? To do that, you need to be careful from now on.”
“Y-yes, I suppose I must. Then, is it just the rice cakes I need to be careful about?”
“Well? I don’t know for sure how you eat, Father. Since I’m taking a break these days, I’ll stay for a few days and check your diet.”
Choi Ki-hyun looked at Yoon-gi as if he were in a difficult spot, but since Yoon-gi was on Lee In-hae’s side, Choi Ki-hyun had no choice but to nod.
“Hmm… well, I, I suppose I have no choice.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t plan a miserable diet for you. If you were a patient I met once every few months, I’d have to stick to the basics because of time, but why do you think I’m a doctor daughter-in-law? Don’t worry too much.”
“Phew, that’s a relief.”
As Choi Ki-hyun let out a sigh of relief, Lee In-hae handed him a shopping bag she had brought.
“I actually bought these as nutritional supplements for you, Father, so please take them from now on.”
“Nutritional supplements?”
Choi Ki-hyun took the shopping bag and pulled out what was inside.
“They are vitamins. Elderly people often have irregular meals or eat a biased diet, so these help. Actually, getting herbal medicine is one way, but since I’m a Western-trained doctor, it wouldn’t be right for me to bring you herbal medicine, would it?”
At Lee In-hae’s bashful smile, Choi Ki-hyun beamed, looking as if he thought she was just wonderful.
“Aren’t herbal medicine and these the same kind of gift? I like them very much.”
“Oh, and this is for you, Yoon-gi.”
Lee In-hae handed a gift to Yoon-gi as well.
“There’s one for me too?”
“Yes. They are vitamins, but Father’s is a multivitamin, and yours is a water-soluble vitamin.”
“Water-soluble vitamin?”
“Yes. Fat-soluble vitamins aren’t good if you take too much, so young people don’t really need them.”
“Ah, I understand. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, I should always be the one thanking you.”
For a moment, Yoon-gi thought about whether he should take the vitamins Choi Ki-hyun had received. Then, sure enough, the color of the vibrator turned red, and it shook its head at Yoon-gi.
‘I shouldn’t eat those.’
At the same time as this thought, the color of the vibrator turned white again.
‘Then, is it okay to eat this water-soluble vitamin?’
The vibrator stayed white and nodded with a bright smile.
‘I’m starting to get a feel for how I can utilize this now.’
The vibrator alerted him to substances that were bad for his body. Its strength was that it didn’t just annoy him by sounding an alarm for everything that was bad, but only made a fuss when it would cause actual harm. Furthermore, it was now clear that it didn’t just apply to Yoon-gi, but to others as well.
‘Wait…?’
Yoon-gi thought of the optimal way to utilize the vibrator.