It's Who You Share the Day With
Seia's birthday came to an end like this.
Today was the anniversary of his wife's passing as well as her birthday.
The photograph Jungwoo had brought must have watched over everything that happened today. He believed it without a shadow of a doubt.
It had witnessed the feast of special moments that had unfolded inside this ordinary little restaurant.
Usually, after a truly special day, the next one felt relatively ordinary by comparison. Like slipping back into the familiar routine after a brief escape.
Even though it was the same stretch of time you lived every day, it somehow felt tedious.
But for father and daughter, the day after Seia's birthday felt neither tedious nor ordinary.
In fact, though neither of them said it aloud, they both understood it perfectly.
A day didn't become special because something extraordinary happened.
What mattered most was who you spent it with.
Now it was time to return to their everyday lives.
Yet even ordinary days held their own quiet wonder, so Jungwoo found himself gazing at Seia—the one who made every hour and every version of himself feel special.
Maybe it was because she'd played so hard the day before.
Seia was sleeping more deeply than usual.
Even in that profound slumber, the sight of her clutching the rabbit doll tightly remained irresistibly cute.
The doll's cheek and Seia's own met in the middle and squished together, which only made her plump cheeks look even more like perfect rice cakes.
When he poked one gently with a finger, it sank in with a soft poof and then bounced back the moment he let go.
Perhaps feeling something against her face, Seia rubbed her cheek harder against the doll and hugged it even more tightly.
"Sleep well, sweetheart."
Every single moment filled him with gratitude.
That Seia could sleep so peacefully. That he got to begin each day beside her.
In truth, at some point his entire way of facing the world had changed completely.
Looking back now, it felt almost miraculous. Not that much had actually changed from before, yet simply adjusting the way he looked at things had transformed the man who received them.
"Speaking of which… tteokbokki."
It was a dish Jungwoo himself enjoyed, and above all it had been one of his wife's favorites, so the recipe remained vivid in his mind.
Making it for Seia was one thing, but after hearing what the last customer said yesterday, creating a snack aimed at students seemed like a good idea.
A high school stood nearby, and more importantly, there was one thing he valued above all.
He wanted Seia to meet more people.
From the very beginning, Jungwoo had never seen the restaurant as merely a place that took money in exchange for food.
Though father and daughter considered each other their whole world, they couldn't live only inside these walls. So he thought of it as a window connecting them to the wider world.
The size of that window depended entirely on what Jungwoo chose to do with it.
They were already meeting plenty of good people, but he wanted even more.
Taking Seia into the city hadn't been only for fun and novelty.
"I should try making it."
And so a new menu item was added to Seona's Restaurant.
Tteokbokki—the dish so many people loved.
His thoughts lingered only a moment.
It was time to get ready to go out.
In that short interval, Seia's soft, even breathing reached him; she had completely buried her face in the doll.
When he carefully lifted the rabbit a little, Seia's cheeks—squished like glutinous rice cakes—greeted him.
"Hehe…"
He couldn't resist.
For a moment he gently kneaded the plump cheek with one hand.
"Mmm…"
Unable to endure the sensation any longer, Seia slowly opened her eyes.
"Are you awake?"
"Daddy… what are you doing?"
"Seia's cheeks are so chewy, that's all."
"Chew…y?"
"It's a good thing. Like saying they're like rice cake?"
"Rice cake? Tteokbokki?"
Seia truly loved food.
You could tell by the way her sleepy eyes sparkled at the mere mention of tteokbokki.
"As it happens, Daddy was thinking of making tteokbokki today."
"Wow! Tteokbokki!"
"We'll have something else for breakfast and eat it for dinner. How does that sound?"
"Seia likes everything! Everything Daddy makes is delish!"
"All right, then shall we get ready to go out?"
Normally Seia would still be half-drowsy, but the promise of a new dish seemed to fill her with energy. She sprang up from bed with surprising vigor.
For some reason, today Seia brimmed with strength from the moment she washed up. Jungwoo finished his own preparations and left the house with her.
"Wait!"
Seia hurried to grab something from the table as if she'd forgotten it.
What she picked up was the hand mirror.
The hand mirror wrapped in soft thread.
She had also neatly pinned the brooch from little grandpa onto her clothes, tucked the lucky pouch from Seong Ye-eun securely into her pocket, and today she was leaving the rabbit doll at home.
"Today you stay home. Okay?"
Seia stroked the rabbit's head with a touch of regret.
It was practically the first time.
She had left the rabbit doll behind many times before when going out.
But this was the first time she had specifically told it to stay.
Whether this good-bye would be the last one she gave the rabbit doll today.
Seia hugged the pretty doll she had received from big grandpa.
"Let's go together!"
Seia wanted to carry every single birthday gift she'd received.
The brooch from little grandpa matched perfectly with the outfit from the previous building owners. In one hand she held the hand mirror, in the other the lucky pouch.
"Our Seia, are you really taking all of those?"
"Yes! Seia's presents are super precious."
"Then since you can't carry them all, let's bring a bag."
"Ah! The bag!"
Seia headed for the bag in the corner of the room as though the idea had never occurred to her.
She seemed to ponder for a moment what to put inside.
In truth the answer had already been decided.
It was the rabbit doll sitting in the corner of the bed.
Perhaps feeling sorry about having to leave it, Seia let out a small sigh of relief as she approached.
"Rabbit! You can come with us!"
With an excited voice she grabbed both of the rabbit's arms and shook them up and down. Then, realizing her dad was waiting, she carefully lifted the doll.
Even after she zipped the bag shut, the rabbit's ears still poked out.
It was a familiar sight from the day they first moved in. Now that he thought about it, Seia had probably done it on purpose even though she knew the ears would stick out.
Rather, it looked as if she'd intentionally arranged for the ears to poke outside so the rabbit could stay connected to the world.
"Seia."
"Yes?"
"But why did you make the rabbit's ears stick out like that?"
Seia answered with confidence and pride.
"The rabbit can't have its breathing blocked."
The rabbit mustn't have its breath blocked.
It was probably the most Seia-like answer possible—an answer that perfectly suited her age and revealed her personality.
"Hehe. Is that so?"
Did Seia believe rabbits breathed through their ears?
Well, that part didn't really matter.
What mattered was that she had worried about the rabbit's breath being blocked.
But how should he explain it to her?
Should he tell her that rabbits breathed through their noses, not their ears?
Or that a stuffed rabbit didn't breathe at all?
If he chose the first option, Seia would probably insist on letting the rabbit's head poke out the top of the bag.
If he chose the second…
Wouldn't she be quite shocked?
Anyway, they left home together—cute Seia and the rabbit ears that had become her wings.
He didn't know exactly what kind of person the market grandmother was, but even though she had assured him it was safe, Jungwoo couldn't fully believe it.
It wasn't that he distrusted her.
It was simply his personality, and anything involving Seia only made him more thorough.
They arrived at the market.
By now the people there knew both Seia and Jungwoo's names and what kind of people they were.
If at first it had been simple goodwill toward the new faces, now it was the warmth of colleagues in the same line of work and fellow parents.
As expected, the first place father and daughter headed was the grandmother's vegetable stall.
Today, as always, the owner was doing business from the same spot.
Her appearance was the same as ever, yet today they caught a slightly different side of her.
Upon seeing Jungwoo and Seia enter, she deliberately turned her gaze away.
Normally neither of them would have behaved any differently, but today Seia showed a slightly—no, very different side.
"Owner!"
Though she still used the same title, Seia—who had stepped much closer than before—clutched the hand mirror Seong Ye-eun had delivered and gave a polite bow.
"Thank you."
"……"
There was no need to wonder how Seia knew the mirror's origin.
The answer was already obvious.
I told her not to say anything.
"Grandma."
"…What."
"It's really soft. Bodu? Budeul?"
Seia tilted her head, unsure whether it was budeulbudeul or bodeulbodeul.
"It's budeulbudeul. That's how you say it."
"It's budeulbudeul!"
It seemed Seia liked the soft threads wrapping the mirror even more than the mirror itself.
After all, she held it upside down more often than right side up.
Hmm. Maybe it was all right for Seia to be a little enchanted with her own appearance.
"Did Grandma make this?"
"Yes."
"Wow… Grandma is the best!"
Seia beamed a bright smile at the grandmother.
She was a difficult woman, but no matter how difficult, even she couldn't refuse that smile.
"All right. I understand, so hurry up and choose what you need and go."
Perhaps she sensed danger in lingering any longer.
The grandmother waved her hand through the air, urging them to pick their items and leave, but that was her biggest mistake.
The waving hand unconsciously drew Seia's gaze, and the band-aid on it captured that innocent attention completely.
"G-Grandma, are you hurt?"
"What? What?"
Wondering what the child meant, the grandmother looked at her own hand, then quickly hid it with a flustered expression.
"When… when I was making Seia's present…"
Seia's eyes refused to leave the grandmother's hand. Sparkling tears had already begun to pool in them.
"Ah, no, it's nothing, kid."
The startled grandmother hurriedly insisted she was fine, but the tears that had begun to gather soon formed perfect drops and fell with soft plops.
"Huk…"
The grandmother's gaze sought help from Jungwoo, but he didn't step forward.
Crying itself was not wrong, and the reason for those sparkling tears wasn't sadness.
Then what meaning did they hold?
Was it guilt because Grandma had gotten hurt while making her present? Or was it being moved?
No.
It was both.