A Smile That Never Fades
Seoa’s smile never left her face at the amusement park.
Everywhere they turned, there were things she had never seen before, experiences she had never tried.
Moreover, whenever they headed toward a ride, the staff member in charge would greet them first.
“Savior!”
Jungwoo had wondered how they knew to call her that.
“Ahh, how did you know?!”
Seoa, startled, asked right back.
The way to tell was simple: the painting of a wound drawn on her face.
That was why, no matter where they went, the title of Savior followed Seoa everywhere.
On the carousel, on the bumper cars.
Everyone called her the Savior.
There were plenty of other children with different drawings on their faces, but the one Seoa had drawn was a picture only someone who had received the Dino Ranger could have.
Whatever else might be true, Seoa’s expression was quite something to behold.
How should he put it? She didn’t want to say it herself, but she secretly hoped others would notice?
So every time a staff member called her “Savior,” the corners of her mouth twitched upward in a way that was impossible to miss.
It was adorable.
Still, whether it was the carousel or the bumper cars,
Seoa didn’t seem satisfied with that level of speed.
Since her first taste of a roller coaster had been through VR, that was perfectly understandable.
She took after her mother in enjoying high-speed rides.
I wish she’d taken after me a little more in that regard.
Once she grew a bit taller, there probably wouldn’t be many rides they could enjoy together.
After riding a few attractions, it was soon time for lunch.
Now it was time to eat the lunchbox they had prepared.
In the dining area, there were plenty of seats set aside so people could eat food they had brought with them.
Even so, they couldn’t just use the space for free, so Jungwoo planned to order a drink that Seoa would like.
“Seoa, what would you like to drink?”
“Umm…”
The letters visible to Seoa were all completely new to her.
Chocolate Frappuccino, Pistachio Latte, and the like.
“Ah! That one…!”
Something had caught her eye.
Had she found something familiar?
The staff member waiting to take their order watched Seoa’s reaction with clear interest.
“It tashted…!”
Whether she meant it tasted good or it tasted bitter was hard to tell from the words alone.
But figuring out the meaning wasn’t difficult.
What Seoa was pointing at was an Americano.
The staff member didn’t understand at first either, but once they realized she was pointing at the Americano, they burst into quiet laughter.
“Haha. Our Seoa wants to try that again?”
“Ugh… nooo…”
That was what coffee tasted like, after all.
It seemed it was still too difficult a flavor for Seoa.
“Haha. Got it. Today we’re going to have something delicious.”
“……”
She pursed her lips and looked up at him in silence. It seemed the memory of that taste had come rushing back.
“I’m serious. You’ll be surprised when you try it later.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
For some reason, Seoa’s trust level seemed to have dropped slightly.
It looked like he shouldn’t joke around today.
“I’ll have one iced Americano, and…”
What would be good?
He thought for a moment, but the flavors that left the strongest impression on the brain weren’t just sweet ones.
It was when sourness and sweetness coexisted that they truly stuck in the mind.
Since an amusement park like this wasn’t a place they could visit often, he wanted to leave Seoa with a powerful memory.
So that even after time passed, she could smile when she remembered today.
“One blue lemonade, please.”
Jungwoo’s choice was blue lemonade.
It had a touch more sweetness than regular lemonade.
“We can make it with zero sugar soda. Would you like that?”
“Oh, really?”
They did things like that these days.
Well, whenever Jungwoo gave Seoa carbonated drinks, he always chose the zero-sugar versions anyway.
“Yes. A lot more people have been asking for it lately.”
“Then please do. Do you have a similar option for the syrup as well?”
“Yes. We can change that too.”
Syrup without sugar and zero-sugar soda. At that point, wasn’t it practically the same as water?
“B-Blue lemo…”
Seoa seemed to have trouble pronouncing it. She stared at the words “blue lemonade” and repeated what she had just heard.
While he helped correct her pronunciation, their ordered drinks arrived.
Jungwoo’s Americano was the same no matter where you went.
To put it bluntly, it was just water somewhere between black and brown.
But what was given to Seoa was different.
The vivid blue color sparkled even more under the light, with ice visible inside and bubbles rising around it.
“Whoa…”
“How about it? It already looks different from the one you had last time, right?”
“This… is yummy!”
She hadn’t even tasted it yet, but she already declared it delicious.
Well, if something that looked this pretty didn’t taste good, that would be a problem in its own way.
Before Seoa drank, Jungwoo took a deep sip first.
The caffeine spread through his whole body.
That distinctive bitter taste somehow felt rich and savory.
Delicious.
There was a reason people said they’d drink Americano even if they froze to death.
It felt like the taste of water after sprinting with all your might.
Just then, from beside him—no, more precisely from below—came the sound of a loud slurp.
Seoa, gripping the cup tightly with both hands so it wouldn’t tip over, had taken a sip as well.
The sour flavor that spread the moment it entered her mouth transformed into sweetness just before it could feel too tart, sliding smoothly down her throat.
“Huh…?”
The sharp, tingling sensation of the carbonation made the sourness and sweetness feel even more intense.
This blue lemonade, which had looked pretty from the outside, had perfectly hit Seoa’s taste buds.
“Hehe…”
It was the same expression she had shown in the car earlier.
That melting, slightly languid gaze.
When interpreted in Seoa’s own language, it meant pure bliss.
The best flavor.
Heavenly taste.
Something like that.
“How is it? Tasty, right?”
“The besht…”
She was clearly eating it, yet she already wanted more.
It was contradictory, but that was how shockingly good it tasted to her.
Chicken or steak were delicious too, but this was a completely different kind of flavor.
If those felt heavy, this one felt much lighter.
Seoa, who had begun slurping the drink as if it had become a habit, suddenly flinched at her father’s next words.
“Alright, now it’s time to eat.”
That’s right!
The shocking taste of the blue lemonade had made Seoa momentarily forget about the food.
Thanks to the lunchbox that still held its warmth, the kimbap retained the exact same flavor it had when they first made it.
Eating at a restaurant was nice, but enjoying it in a place that looked like something out of a fairy tale was wonderful too.
“Mmm—!”
Seoa stuffed her mouth full of kimbap.
Her cheeks were so puffed out that it was questionable whether she could even chew properly, but Seoa had a plan.
Every time she moved her jaw, her cheeks wriggled in time with the rhythm.
Just when it seemed she was chewing a little, Seoa picked up the blue lemonade.
Even though her mouth was still full of kimbap, she poured another big gulp of the blue lemonade on top of it.
The cold, sweet-and-sour drink covered the warm, savory ingredients of the kimbap.
One might wonder if they would go together, but such combinations often harmonized surprisingly well.
Things that felt a bit dry and hard to swallow went down much easier when paired with a drink.
“Haha, is it good?”
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
He couldn’t understand what she was saying, but the way her eyes curved into gentle crescents made it clear it couldn’t possibly taste bad.
It wasn’t always the case, but looking at Seoa right now, it seemed she preferred stuffing her mouth full of food and enjoying a delicious drink alongside it.
Jungwoo had a few such combinations himself.
Cider with boiled eggs, sikhye with roasted eggs.
Chicken and cola, samgyeopsal and soju.
There were many others, but those were the ones he enjoyed most.
“Eat slowly. You’ll get indigestion.”
“Mmm…”
Seoa nodded and mumbled something in reply, then gulped down everything that had filled her mouth.
It didn’t go down smoothly; instead, with a heavy gulp, the delicious food slid past as if something had gotten stuck.
Then she drank the sweet-and-sour beverage again right after.
“Kyaah!”
“Haha, where did our Seoa learn to do that?”
Seoa’s exclamation, which let others feel the refreshing sensation through sound, burst out.
“Daddy taught me. Kyaht!”
The “Kyaht” was slightly different from the one just before.
It felt like watching a cat hiss.
Did I really do that?
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t recall.
After meeting Seoa, he hadn’t touched alcohol at all.
“How is it? Does it taste even better eating here?”
“Yes! This is super yummy!”
The expression on Seoa’s face, lost in the flavor, suddenly darkened.
She looked as if she had realized something, and the expression resembled that of someone who had committed a sin, startling even Jungwoo.
“S-Seoa? What’s wrong?”
“I should have given some to Daddy…”
“Huh?”
“Seoa just ate it all…”
She hadn’t even finished half of it yet.
Yet Seoa felt guilty for not offering the delicious drink to her father first.
“Hng… Seoa did something bad…”
“What? No, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But Daddy bought it for Seoa…”
When they ate together, this sort of thing rarely happened.
Because Jungwoo ate with her.
And because the menu was the same.
That was probably why Seoa had forgotten.
On top of that, the shocking taste of the blue lemonade must have momentarily frozen her thoughts.
“So what were you originally going to say to Daddy?”
“This, Daddy should eat too!”
“Haha. Then shall I have some?”
Since Seoa needed to drink more, he didn’t take much.
Just enough to taste.
It was a familiar flavor, but familiar flavors could be dangerous.
The refreshing carbonation that lingered in the mouth, along with the sweet-and-sour taste, was more than enough to captivate Seoa.
“It tastes even better because Seoa gave it to me.”
“Hehe. Really?”
“Of course.”
Seoa’s expression quickly brightened again.
“Then Seoa.”
“Yes!”
“Should Daddy share what he’s drinking with you too?”
“Eh…?”
In an instant, Seoa’s face looked broken again.
She seemed to think she should accept because it was from Daddy, but knowing what it tasted like, she couldn’t bring herself to say yes right away.
In truth, he hadn’t planned to give her any.
It contained caffeine, after all.
He had simply found her troubled expression so cute that a little mischief had slipped out.
The way she rolled her eyes every which way, not knowing what to do, looked exactly like a puppy trying to avoid eye contact after causing trouble.
“Hehe, I’m just kidding. Let’s finish eating quickly.”
“Phew…”
Seoa let out a sigh of relief.
Together with her, the lunchbox they had packed was almost empty.
They couldn’t finish all the kimbap they had made together.
It wasn’t that it lacked flavor—the portions were simply far too large.
It felt wasteful to take it back home…
“Ah, Seoa. How about we do this with what’s left?”
“How?”
After hearing her father’s clever idea, Seoa smiled and nodded.