“Thanks, Hyeondo-ya.”
It’s because this kid smiles so radiantly like a pretty flower that just bloomed that I keep becoming strange. I feel dizzy from the fluffy energy, and something hardened seems to melt softly—a nineteen-year-old male bastard feeling such cushiony sentiments he shouldn’t feel.
“Tomorrow’s Friday, so start from tomorrow.”
“Yeah. I’ll tell Dad I can’t help at the flower shop on Wednesdays and Fridays because I have to study.”
There was no need to report even things like this to me like a little kid.
“Jaea will whine a bit, but if I explain, he’ll understand well. Even though he’s five years old, the kid has a lot of understanding. You’d be shocked if you saw how understanding and considerate our Jaea is. You’d wonder if he’s really five years old.”
Anyone would think it was his own son. Kkotmoa bragging about Jaea looked happier than ever. How much he thought about his family—it was different from my house or Kang Junwoo’s house, making me feel cringey and awkward. If it had been me or Kang Junwoo doing this, it would have been disgusting, but I don’t know why it suits Kkotmoa so well.
A more honest impression was that it was lovely.
Yeah, I know. I’m crazy. How can I think of the adjective “lovely” while looking at a nineteen-year-old male bastard of the same age with the same equipment? I really felt like I was going insane. I felt like I’d go crazy not knowing why I was being like this. Adjectives and impressions you’d feel toward a girlfriend came to mind first unconsciously even before going through my brain, making me feel frustrated and flustered. I don’t know how many times I’ve felt this bewilderment because of this kid.
I had to rationalize that this impression was directed at five-year-old Shin Jaea. Five-year-old young kids are sufficiently lovely. Even when I looked at the children at the orphanage where I sometimes went for volunteer activities with my parents, all the five-year-olds were lovely. Was Kkotmoa’s younger brother lov… ely? He was definitely cute because he was a kid. He was cute enough to make my limbs curl up. But I don’t think I thought he was lovely. Especially when meeting those clear and transparent big eyes. No. Kkotmoa’s younger brother, five-year-old Shin Jaea, was lovely. He absolutely had to be lovely. No matter what, he had to be lovely. Otherwise, I felt like I couldn’t endure it.
“Here.”
“What’s this?”
Kkotmoa stared at the torn notebook page I held out and then his eyes sparkled. It was the solution to the problem Kkotmoa had struggled with throughout lunch.
“I’ll give you a problem with the numbers changed tomorrow, so master it today.”
“You’re really sweet.”
“…Not really.”
“No, you’re sweet. Please take care of me, Teacher Do.”
The pretty flower that had just bloomed showed off its beauty to the fullest, revealing its vivid color. It was just so fresh, as if holding plenty of moisture. I might have decided to make time on Wednesdays and Fridays because I wanted to greedily gaze at this flower.
* * *
The intersection cafe had a system where you could charge money on a cafe card to use it or give it as a gift to someone. Kkotmoa said he had to stop by the flower shop, so I’d come first. I don’t know why he had to stop by the flower shop when he said he’d told his dad yesterday. I asked but Kkotmoa just kept giggling without answering. Anyway, the flower shop and intersection cafe were less than a 10-minute walk away, so it didn’t matter.
I’d charged a hundred thousand won for now, but I wondered how I should give this to Kkotmoa without it being strange. It was overflowing money to me, but I hated Kkotmoa worrying. Since I was the one who suggested studying at the cafe, I could naturally buy drinks. The problem was how Kkotmoa would take it when I bought them every time, not just once or twice. I was concerned it might look like pity when it wasn’t.
The best method would be to have someone gift it to him, but my only friend was Kang Junwoo. That bastard with a mouth so light his lips would float even if he fell in water would definitely confess the truth to Kkotmoa. I could entrust a cat with fish, but I couldn’t entrust Kang Junwoo with a cafe card charged with a hundred thousand won.
How could I be most natural?
Honestly, I wondered why I had to worry about such pointless things. But I couldn’t stop worrying. If only this cafe card got into Kkotmoa’s hands, he’d shrug his shoulders and say radiantly that he’d buy the drinks. Then his heart wouldn’t be uncomfortable either. Whether Kkotmoa was uncomfortable or not, from my position of teaching him studying, it wasn’t a part to consider that important. Yet I endlessly sought a solution, and a few minutes before Kkotmoa arrived, I could barely find that solution and finish all preparations.
“Sorry. Did you wait long?”
Kkotmoa was exactly as he’d been when leaving school. His uniform was the same and his bag was the same. I had no idea why he’d gone to the flower shop.
“What do you want to drink?”
“You’re gonna buy it?”
“Don’t you even get allowance?”
I hadn’t intended to say this, but my mouth moved on its own. My needless worry about what if he got hurt or intimidated was just my concern. Kkotmoa chattered without any sign of being hurt.
“I get allowance. But I have to pay transportation and phone bills, and I spend it all buying Jaea snacks, toys, and clothes. Kids’ toys and clothes these days are super expensive. So for Jaea’s birthday last year, I spent a whole month’s allowance to buy them.”
Even accepting transportation and phone bills, I couldn’t understand what their parents were doing that he was buying the kid’s snacks, toys, and clothes. I wondered if his brother who didn’t resemble him at all followed him more than their dad because of the gift offensive. Of course, since their dad was working, it might be natural, but to my eyes, the image of the young child going to Kkotmoa and hugging him was still vivid. The child running to Kkotmoa never once looked at his own dad. From the start, he only looked at Kkotmoa and ran to hug him.
“So what are you gonna drink?”
“Um… But actually this is my first time at a cafe, so I don’t really know what they have.”
He lowers his body and his voice, giggling, worried someone might hear. I didn’t find it funny at all. Rather, I was curious how he’d never been to a cafe until becoming nineteen. I took out a credit card from my wallet and handed it to Kkotmoa. I’d worried about how to order it, but it was resolved more easily than I thought. Even if it was his first time at a cafe, if he looked at the menu directly, he could choose what he wanted to drink, couldn’t he?
“I’ll pay, so you do the delivery. You can look at the menu on the way.”
“Yeah. I’m good at delivery. What would you like, customer?”
Kkotmoa, who took the card, stood up and spoke playfully like a waiter. Over Kkotmoa’s shoulder, my eyes met with a cafe employee. She nodded once in a gesture confirming.
“Affogato.”
“…Huh? What’s that?”
At a name he’d never heard in his life, Kkotmoa tilted his head and blinked. I wanted to snap ‘Where are you trying to act cute,’ but he was really cute, so I just lowered my head. Even though I wanted to keep watching, I didn’t have the courage to meet his eyes, so I took out a Post-it and wrote down the menu. Rationalizing that if it was an unfamiliar name anyway, he might forget it on the way to order. Because Kkotmoa was bad at studying.
[Affogato.]
The stiff letters completely different from his handwriting disappeared before my eyes. Only then could I raise my head. I stared blankly at the back of Kkotmoa going to the counter holding the Post-it. I thought it was fortunate that Kkotmoa was bad at studying.
This cafe, which had no particular impression when I occasionally stopped by with Kang Junwoo on the way home from school, looked uniquely new. The small head worrying while looking at the menu posted large behind the employee, wondering what to eat, was cute. Meanwhile, two customers passed Kkotmoa and ordered.
Soon deciding, Kkotmoa also ordered from the employee. Then he looked at me once and said something to the employee, looked at me once more, and talked with the employee again. Had it possibly failed? Anxiety bloomed. The guy who finished ordering and came running quickly had the cafe card I’d bought earlier and a vibrating pager clutched in his white hands.
“This is amazing.”
“…Why.”
“I totally hit the jackpot. They’re doing some anniversary event here, and I was the hundredth customer today so I won. Look at this, it’s charged with a hundred thousand won, so I can buy and eat everything I want here. Isn’t that insane?”
I gazed in a daze at his face chattering excitedly like a child. He seemed to be happy. The guy who always spoke gently and softly spat out words at a fast speed, more excited than usual. The solution I’d devised was a success. No, I thought it was a success. If only Kkotmoa hadn’t given me both the credit card and cafe card together.
“Why… are you giving this to me?”
“Huh? It’s obviously yours.”
“So why.”
“What do you mean why? You suggested coming here, and you paid. You’re the one who won this.”
I boiled inside at how the logic unfolded like this. While I stupidly stared at the card in my hand, Kkotmoa was taking out a workbook from his bag. The way he took out the workbook with something hidden in his bag placed behind his back so I couldn’t see looked suspicious, but I had no time to care because of the cafe card in my hand.
