Before Presenting the Gift
There was still one question that needed to be asked before giving out the presents.
“So, what does our little one want?”
It was a direct question about what she wanted.
In truth, he should have asked much earlier and prepared something in advance, but since he had only recently learned that today was her birthday, it simply wasn’t possible.
What could Seia possibly want?
Most children around her age had fairly predictable wishes.
Boys usually wanted transforming robots or game consoles.
Girls often asked for dolls they could play house with, and so on.
While the specific items might vary, the core desires were essentially set in stone.
So perhaps it was only natural.
Even though everyone had asked Seia the question, they had already settled on answers in their hearts.
But the reply that came from Seia was something no one could have predicted.
“I want to play hide-and-seek.”
“Hide… and seek?”
Aside from the game they had played just yesterday, it was a pastime that everyone except Jungwoo only knew by name.
Something no one played, yet everyone knew about.
A game that adults rarely engaged in once they left childhood behind.
Quite literally, just a game.
For adults, there weren’t many things that could truly be called play.
“Yes… hide-and-seek…”
Seia’s voice trailed off little by little.
She had only mentioned hide-and-seek, yet the entire room had fallen silent in an instant.
Had she said something she shouldn’t have?
Was hide-and-seek a game adults weren’t supposed to play?
Then why had Daddy played it with her?
She didn’t remember anyone telling her it was forbidden.
Normally, Jungwoo would have stepped forward to speak first, but unfortunately the current situation didn’t allow for that.
Besides, he had no idea what the others might think.
“What do you all say? Shall we play hide-and-seek?”
Park Geon-su was the first to speak.
He couldn’t even remember the last time he had played it as a child, but the rules remained crystal clear in his mind.
“Haha. I’m all for it.”
“Me too.”
“Hehe. Little one, you won’t find anyone better at it than us.”
The sudden suggestion of hide-and-seek had already brought an excited sparkle to Seia’s eyes.
“Then would you like to be the seeker, Seia?”
At Jungwoo’s words, Seia nodded vigorously, a bright smile spreading across her face.
She was confident.
After all, aside from Jungwoo, she knew the layout of the restaurant and their home better than anyone.
“Yes! Seia will be it. You all have to hide really, really well, okay?”
With that, Seia suddenly jumped up from her seat and dashed toward the slide.
“I’m going to count to ten three times!”
She scrambled up the stairs and disappeared from view.
The remaining adults could only exchange glances.
Seona’s Restaurant wasn’t exactly a spacious place.
And now they were supposed to play hide-and-seek here.
“How… exactly are we supposed to hide?”
“By the way, is it really all right for us to wander around the owner’s shop like this?”
At Park Geon-su’s question, Jungwoo nodded.
“Of course. You’ve all come to grant Seia’s wish. Feel free to go wherever you like.”
Though it was a small restaurant, there was still a storage room behind the kitchen.
There were spots where one could curl up and hide quite effectively.
However.
“Hehe. Why are you all looking at me like that?”
The building owner, whom they called Grandfather, seemed unlikely to be able to hide his large frame anywhere.
To exaggerate only slightly, he appeared roughly the same size as the new commercial refrigerator Jungwoo had purchased when opening the restaurant.
“Um… I still have the box the refrigerator came in. Would you like to use that?”
The owner burst into laughter for a long moment.
Wearing a refrigerator box over his head, indeed.
After his laughter finally subsided, the owner spoke.
“Ahem… I suppose that will have to do…”
“Haha. So you’ve made your decision.”
“It would seem so.”
“I’m sorry, but…”
Jungwoo’s solemn tone brought everyone’s laughter to an abrupt halt.
“Seia still can’t count to ten properly. She tends to skip numbers or go back and repeat them.”
The others grew equally serious.
“Which means…”
“You don’t mean…”
“We have no idea when she might come looking.”
“Oh dear. We’d better hide quickly.”
Jungwoo didn’t know it, but there were hunters among them.
They had already finished analyzing the building’s layout long ago.
Moreover, one of them was the owner of this very building.
There was no way he wouldn’t know its structure.
That left only the former building owners, an elderly couple. But experience and wisdom had a way of revealing themselves in the most unexpected places.
Even Jungwoo, the restaurant’s owner, hadn’t fully figured out where to hide, yet the others found suitable spots in the blink of an eye and vanished.
“Is… is this the box…?”
Everyone except Grandfather, that is.
“Seia is starting now~!”
Just then, Seia’s excited, flushed voice came floating down the slide.
She must have come down a bit too quickly; there was a brief clatter.
Instead of sitting as she usually did, Seia slid down on her stomach.
“Hehe…”
Fortunately, a soft cushion waited at the bottom of the slide. After landing safely, Seia looked around with a slightly embarrassed expression.
Relieved that no one had seen her less-than-graceful descent, she stood up.
“Hmm…”
Simply looking around wasn’t enough to spot anyone.
Where could they all have gone?
There wasn’t even a trace of them. Seia’s eyes burned with even greater determination.
“Under the table?!”
She bent down low and checked beneath every table, but of course no one was there.
Seia headed straight for the kitchen.
During business hours, she rarely entered the kitchen.
Jungwoo had always warned her that the floor was slippery and told her not to come in.
Today they had fried chicken, so the floor was especially slick. But in the meantime, Jungwoo had laid down some boxes so Seia could walk safely if she came looking.
“In here?”
Seia tried to open the giant refrigerator in the kitchen.
Or rather, she attempted to.
“Ugh…”
The door wouldn’t open easily.
She had no choice but to change targets.
Right beside the refrigerator stood a massive box.
It was exactly the same size as the fridge. Seia knocked on it with her little hand.
“Is anybody there~?”
Naturally, there was no answer.
It was the same size as the refrigerator, but unlike the fridge, it had no door she could open. There was nothing more Seia could do.
Still, she knew for certain that this box hadn’t been there earlier.
Something that large would have been impossible to miss.
Leaving behind a look that seemed to say Just you wait, Seia ventured deeper into the kitchen.
This was uncharted territory she had never visited before.
Various items were stacked on shelves far taller than Seia herself. The rather dim lighting gave the space the feel of a dark back alley with only a single streetlamp glowing.
It could have been a little scary, but right now the only thing on Seia’s mind was finding the people who were hiding.
“Is it here?”
She searched meticulously between the shelves, but even she could tell the gaps were far too narrow for anyone to squeeze into.
Especially not Grandfather.
Seia continued combing through every corner of the storage room.
Her eyes, far too serious for a simple game of hide-and-seek, resembled those of a detective arriving at a crime scene.
Grandfather is really big.
Having realized a very important fact, Seia looked around the storage room with a satisfied expression. Just as she was about to leave, she heard something rustling in a corner.
Seia didn’t miss the tiny sound.
She approached the stack of boxes and the cleverly hidden gap between two shelves. With a triumphant look, she lifted the topmost box.
There sat Seong Ye-eun, crouched inside.
“Unni!”
“Haha… you found me so quickly?”
“Hehe. I heard a sound. Clatter clatter.”
“Did you? Then we should go find the others.”
“Okay!”
After speaking gently to her, Seong Ye-eun left the storage room together with Seia.
Thud.
It was a sound like something being pierced.
It was so faint that Seia couldn’t hear it, but it had definitely come from nearby.
“Since Unni has been found, I’ll sit over here now.”
“Yes. Seia will find everyone…”
That was when Seia noticed something she hadn’t seen before.
A giant box.
A hole had appeared in its side, just big enough for a hand to slip through!
“Ah!”
With an extremely important discovery made, Seia reached into the hole with shining eyes and an eager expression.
“Uhehehe.”
“…?”
A strange noise came from inside.
For a moment Seia pulled her hand back out. Rather than fear at the unfamiliar sound, curiosity won out first.
This time she carefully slipped her hand back in.
Once again the same sound echoed, and something grabbed her fingers.
“Wh-what is it!”
“I-it’s Grandfather.”
“Grandfather?”
The owner of the voice realized that Seia’s tone held more wariness than curiosity. He lifted the box, revealing his identity.
“It’s Great-Grandfather!”
“Hehe, little one. You’re incredibly good at finding people.”
As he spoke, Grandfather’s gaze wasn’t on Seia, but on Seong Ye-eun.
The hole that had suddenly appeared in the side of the box.
When he had looked at that newly formed opening, his eyes had met Seong Ye-eun’s through the gap.
“Little one, how did you know?”
“There was a hole here!”
“Aha! So that’s how you knew!”
Watching Seia giggle brightly, he decided this was actually better.
How could a children’s game be this much fun?
Thinking back to his own childhood, he supposed it had been rather enjoyable.
“Now there’s one… two…”
Seia counted on her fingers and realized four people were still left to find.
But behind her outstretched fingers, she caught sight of someone.
“Grandfather! Grandmother!”
It was the couple who used to own the building.
They had cleverly tucked themselves into the empty space beneath the kitchen counter, hiding their bodies perfectly.
“Oh my! We’ve been caught.”
“Our little puppy is so good at hide-and-seek, isn’t she?”
She had needed to find four people, but she had already discovered two.
Out of six total, she had found four.
With victory so close, Seia fell into deep thought as she searched for the remaining two.
Where could the last two be hiding?
After pondering for a long time, Seia finally noticed the strange atmosphere around her.
The people she had already found were all staring intently at one particular spot.
Following their gazes, Seia’s eyes moved upward.
Her destination was the upper part of the kitchen shelves.
Jungwoo and the elderly chef were sitting cozily up there, looking down at them.
“Found you!”
Since Seia was so short, the two had cleverly used her low line of sight against her.
Having finally found everyone, Seia looked as though she might fly away with joy at any moment.
As expected, games like this were much more fun with lots of people.
It had been a game everyone joined as Seia’s birthday present, but Seia wasn’t the only one feeling happy.
They hadn’t done anything particularly special.
They had simply gathered together.
That fact alone was enough to bring happiness.
And there was one more thing.
Because she knew exactly who the central figure was that had brought them all together, the moment felt even more precious.