Chapter 4
“Mom, can I have a little more chocolate?”
“Hm? I already gave you plenty.”
“It's not enough.”
An ordinary evening, as always.
Seeing Han Seojin bring it up as if it had just occurred to him while they ate, his mother, Lee Haeun, tilted her head.
The amount of chocolate she gave him to share with his friends was more than enough, even by the most generous standards, so she couldn't understand why her son was asking for more.
“…You aren't asking because you want to eat more by yourself, are you?”
“That's not it! There's a friend who really loves chocolate!”
“Is that so?”
The fact that he'd said “a friend,” not “friends,” made Lee Haeun worry that perhaps her son was being taken advantage of.
Of course, she wanted to believe her son would never let that happen, but just in case.
“What kind of friend is this?”
Having decided that, Lee Haeun brought it up and immediately waited for Han Seojin's answer.
“She's really pretty!”
“…Huh?”
Han Seojin's completely unexpected answer left her momentarily dazed.
“Really, really, really pretty! As pretty as you, Mom!”
“R-really…?”
Hearing that she was as pretty as his mom made her lips curl up slightly, but she still struggled to process an answer she never expected to hear from her five-year-old son.
Whether he knew how his mom felt or not, Han Seojin excitedly launched into more.
“And she's, like, really good at building stuff with LEGO, and then she gets mad at me and gives it to me, and she really likes chocolate too, so when I give her chocolate, she says she doesn't want it but keeps staring at it….”
“…W-wait a second, Seojin.”
“And she calls me an idiot all the time, and last time, when I called her an idiot, she suddenly asked in this teeny-tiny voice if I didn't like it!”
Lee Haeun struggled to collect herself in the face of a flood of information delivered in her child's manner of speaking.
Some time later, after she'd also heard Han Seojin say, “She can't eat things like eggplant or carrots very well, so I eat them for her!”—
Lee Haeun was able to reach one conclusion.
‘…It seems like that girl likes our son more than he likes her.’
If Kim Siyeon had heard that, she would have panicked and loudly protested that it wasn't true.
But Kim Siyeon wasn't there, and in the end, the misunderstanding took root in Lee Haeun's mind without ever being corrected.
‘She got a piece of chocolate and made him a LEGO building in return? That's so cute.’
Kim Siyeon, was it?
At the mention of LEGO, she thought of the girl beside her son in the photos the daycare sent.
A girl with blonde hair and strikingly pretty features, who glared at her son but didn't seem hostile toward him.
When she'd first seen Han Seojin grinning as he held the LEGO building, she'd thought her son had made it. But after hearing him talk today, that girl had definitely made it.
‘She's pretty….’
Such a pretty girl liked her son.
Of course, Lee Haeun was confident her handsome son and this girl would make a perfect couple if they started dating. But surely she couldn't just leave things as they were, could she?
“All right. I'll give you more chocolate.”
“…!! Mom, you're the best!”
Having decided right away to give Han Seojin the extra chocolate he wanted, Lee Haeun immediately looked at the calendar.
The calendar, which had [The day our son goes on his field trip☆] written on it.
‘It's been a while since I showed off my skills.’
To make the girl who already seemed to have fallen for him fall for him even more.
After resolving to do that, Lee Haeun headed straight for the kitchen.
The girl herself had no idea any of this was happening, busy getting mentally ready for a bath…!
==========
“I-I really can wash myself….”
“Hey! There you go again!”
I really, really didn't want to bathe together.
I'd tentatively asked if I could wash up alone, even now, but when I saw Mom looking at me with a completely stern expression, I could only squeeze my eyes shut again.
‘…I guess I'm not going to heaven, huh?’
If I didn't close my eyes right now, my already sky-high guilt would only get worse.
I mean, even if you call it a placebo effect or whatever, knowing the truth about a five-year-old while I'm actually a grown man, I feel incredibly guilty doing this.
But if I said, “I'm actually a twenty-year-old man, so I don't think I can bathe with you!” right now, she'd definitely send me straight to a psychiatric hospital.
And it's not like I have the guts to say that in the first place.
‘W-well, we've done this before, haven't we? If I just remember what happened then and somehow….’
The truth was, reacting like this wouldn't change that I'd already experienced it a few times, and when I thought about it that way, it did seem manageable.
…But even then, once I got into the bathroom, I lost my mind and couldn't think about anything at all…?
“All right, let's raise those hands up high. Hooray~”
“…H-hooray.”
“Good girl, our Siyeon listens so well~”
Here we go.
Watching Mom tell me to raise my arms so she could take my clothes off, I trembled a little as I lifted them, and she smiled brightly before undressing me.
‘I can take off my clothes myself….’
Aren't most five-year-olds old enough to take their own clothes off and put them on?
Besides, I'm possessed, so even if other kids can't dress themselves, I can do it easily.
…I mean, I'm saying it's a little embarrassing to stand here with my arms up while someone else takes my clothes off.
How old am I, and Mom's still doing all this for me…?
Maybe she thought I looked funny, because Mom lightly put her hand on my head.
Then she patted my head.
…Hehe.
I hadn't realized getting my head patted felt this good. The moment I noticed the corners of my mouth rising on their own, I lowered them again, but Mom must've already seen it, because she was smiling even more.
“Ahh~ Who did our Siyeon take after to be so cute?”
“Uh, Mom…?”
“Our Siyeon even knows how to make Mommy feel good! Such a good daughter!”
…No matter how I looked at it, it was hard to keep up with Mom's energy.
She was always smiling, and sometimes she'd suddenly pick me up and spin me around a few times. I was so flustered every time that I could only get dragged around.
Even now, she was excitedly ruffling my hair all over, and it felt so good—
N-no. I was only flustered because her energy was so high.
“…!!”
After having my head patted for a few minutes,
I only felt a brief pang of disappointment when Mom's hand left my head, as if she'd decided she'd patted it enough.
The instant I saw her grab the hem of her top and start lifting it to take it off, I immediately turned around so she wouldn't be in my line of sight.
Swish—swish—
‘I-I can't take this…!’
“Hmm…?”
I struggled to calm my pounding heart at the sound of clothes rubbing against skin, but the moment I heard Mom hum by my ear, goosebumps ran over my body.
That hum meant she was about to tease me…!
“Why did our Siyeon suddenly turn around?”
“I-I learned at daycare that it's rude to watch someone else take their clothes off….”
“So Siyeon thinks of Mommy as just some stranger? Hmm~”
“N-no, that's not what I meant!”
After that, I had to listen to things that made me feel like I was losing my mind, like, ‘Mommy doesn't mind if Siyeon sees her body~’ and ‘So this is how distant you and Mommy are….’
“…Eek?!”
Just like that, Mom picked me up and carried me off to the bathroom as if she'd kidnapped me.
==========
‘That was exhausting….’
After finishing my bath, I was looking at ingredients at the supermarket with Mom, and I sighed internally as I thought about what had happened during the bath.
Because it really had been exhausting…!
Knowing I wasn't used to that sort of thing, Mom was so mischievous that she kept teasing me throughout the bath.
-Mommy, I hate you….
-…!
In the end, she only stopped after I said the forbidden words.
“…Siyeon, you said you wanted kimbap.”
“Yes….”
“Let's go over there first. We need to buy seaweed….”
Because of that, Mom was standing in front of me looking completely dejected, and the sight pricked at my conscience.
But if we'd gone any further, I really felt like I'd lose my mind, so yeah. It was an unavoidable choice.
‘For a lunchbox, I guess kimbap and inari sushi and stuff like that should be enough.’
When I thought of lunchboxes, I was more used to ones filled with easy-to-eat foods like kimbap and inari sushi than ones packed with rice and side dishes like the kind you see in Japanese anime, so I decided on those.
I couldn't eat inari sushi very well, so I could just pack kimbap.
…Of course, when I said that, she asked, “What about side dishes?” and I said we didn't need any, then got scolded, so I did have to pack side dishes.
‘…Uh, even so, her mood's been down for way too long.’
Seeing Mom look like that after I'd hurt her feelings made me sad, so I carefully brought it up.
“…Mom.”
“Mmm….”
“I actually love you a lot….”
“…That's right! I love Siyeon a lot too!”
…And just like that, I saw Mom bounce right back.
I wondered how she recovered so quickly, but I was satisfied as long as she was feeling better.
While we were buying kimbap ingredients and I was thinking about what side dishes to have,
‘…Come to think of it, Han Seojin liked mini meat patties and rolled omelet, didn't he?’
While I had absolutely no idea what side dishes to make, a bunch of the ones Han Seojin liked came to mind.
…Should I make mini meat patties and rolled omelet?
I couldn't think of anything else, and Han Seojin and I were rarely apart at daycare, so there was a good chance we'd stick together on the field trip too and share our food.
If he was going to eat it, it would be better if he enjoyed it.
‘…Th-this makes it seem like I really care about him.’
It's not that. I'm just grateful he eats the things I usually avoid.
Thinking that, I asked Mom to make mini meat patties and rolled omelet for the side dishes.