Finally, the semester was over and vacation had begun.
On the first day of vacation, I was lying in bed hugging Doa, lazing around.
Being free from school made my body feel at ease.
To commemorate the vacation, I ought to take some pictures of Doa.
I turned on the camera app on my newly bought phone, switched to selfie mode, then raised my hand to get Doa in the frame.
"Doa, look at unni's phone screen~"
"Ungh."
I put Doa's face and mine side by side on the screen.
-Click-
"Doa, this time look cute."
"Ungh."
-Click-
"Cool."
-Click-
"Aloof."
-Click-
Looking at the photos, I couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
"Doa, what should we do?"
"Why?"
"Our Doa is so pretty that you're shining in these photos."
"Ungh."
Whenever I complimented her, Doa always reacted chicly, as if it were only natural.
"But do you know what?"
"Ungh?"
I put my hand to Doa's ear and whispered.
"Unni shines more than you, doesn't she?"
"Nooo!"
You acted all chic, but in the end, you showed your true feelings, you little rascal.
"Haah, what am I going to do with you~? Does that make Doa the second prettiest?"
"No! Doa is prettier!"
"Hmm~ I don't know about that?"
Maybe I teased her too much; Doa finally started crying.
"Pwaaaaah..."
Doa's crying sounded exactly like mine from back then; it was cute.
"Doa, stop. They say you get uglier when you cry."
Hearing my words, Doa seemed to feel more wronged, and her crying grew louder.
Mom, who had been outside, heard the crying, opened the door, and came in.
"I Do-hui, why are you making Doa cry again?"
"She's crying because I teased her saying I was prettier. Hee."
Mom spread her arms toward Doa and said.
"Aigoo, was our Doa upset? Come here, Mom will scold unni for you."
Doa, who had been in my embrace, squirmed free and ran to Mom, burying herself in her.
At that, I stretched my arm toward Doa like the tragic heroine of a melodrama and intoned in a low voice.
"No, Princess Doa! Please don't leave me!"
"I hate unni."
Kihkih.
Doa's reaction was so cute that laughter burst out of me.
Now I know why people tease those they like.
With every reaction being this cute, how could I not tease her?
"Do-hui, did you hear? Doa says she hates unni~ Let's have our Doa stay with pretty Mom instead of the ugly unni inside and out, shall we?"
"What are you talking about? Objectively, I'm prettier than Mom."
Hearing my words, Mom struck a seductive pose and said.
"Oho~ You're still too young to catch up to Mom's mature beauty."
"Ugh. Even in five years, I think I'll be the sexier one. Flat-chested."
...
I guess I attacked Mom's sore spot too blatantly.
"Sorry, Mom. But Dad likes you anyway."
"You'll end up like me regardless."
"I'll trust in Dad's genes."
While Mom and I traded banter, Doa was still crying over something.
Now I had to comfort Doa.
I put on a deliberately sad expression and spoke to Doa in a tearful voice.
"Doa, unni is sorry... Do you hate unni now...? Unni likes Doa so much..."
Then Doa hesitated before eventually coming to me and hugging me while crying.
"No, unni, I wuv you. Not hate."
"Haha, I wuv our Doa so much too~"
"Ungh."
"And actually, Doa is prettier than unni, so let's stop crying now?"
"Ungh. Otay."
I wish Doa would act this cute forever.
But what if Doa hits puberty later and hates me...?
What if she pretends not to know me when we meet on the street and tells me not to act like I know her when we get home...
*Sob sob* Doa, is unni embarrassing?
Unni only has you.
"Doa, how could you do that to unni?"
"...?"
Anyway, after healing the fatigue accumulated over a semester by playing with Doa, I now had nothing to do.
At this time in my usual schedule, I would be suffering at school, but just rolling around in bed made me feel lazy.
I needed to make some kind of schedule and turn it into a routine.
After thinking about what to do with my free time, I decided to study a foreign language.
The reason? Because it's cool.
Me, fluently speaking a foreign language in front of others?
I would fall for myself too.
Being cool is the best. What more could you need?
While thinking about which foreign language to study.
First, I had been steadily studying English, so daily conversation was no problem.
Natural native speech would have to wait until I attended an academy or studied abroad later; doing it alone at home was too much.
Then it had to be a second foreign language.
The languages I was drawn to right now were French or Japanese.
First, the reason I wanted to study French.
The pronunciation is sexy.
It looks impressive.
Just imagine.
Going to a Michelin-star restaurant in Paris, France with a group.
Then ordering the main dish with fluent French pronunciation and asking for a recommended wine to go with it.
The admiration of the people around you.
Hearing the wine's name and saying one line.
"I'll have that."
Kuh...
What if they want to exhibit me at the Louvre Museum?
Anyway.
The reason I wanted to study Japanese.
Japanese has the same grammar structure as Korean.
There are many words with the same pronunciation and meaning.
So it must be easy to learn.
Ah, I should just study Japanese since I'd use it more often.
How often would I even go to France?
I made up my mind and went to Mom in the kitchen.
"Mom, I'm going to study Japanese."
"Suddenly?"
The time I'd usually spend at school is completely empty, so I have nothing to do. Having been busy with something, it feels uncomfortable to just stay still.
"Do-hui, if you study too much, it'll get hard and you won't be able to keep it up later. You know playing is important too, right?"
"That's why I'm getting everything done now so I can play with an adult body later."
"Then Mom doesn't mind, but don't force yourself to endure something hard for no reason."
"Yeah, don't worry. If it's not fun, I'm quitting right away."
"Tsk, I told you to stop using bad words. Doa learns by watching and listening."
"Whoops. Okay~"
"So are you going to a Japanese academy?"
"No, I'll just self-study. Going to an academy feels like I'd be forced to do it, which would be annoying."
"Then should Mom tell Dad to buy a Japanese textbook on his way home?"
"Yeah. For beginners."
After talking to Mom, I went to my room and lay on the bed.
Even without a textbook, I should at least listen to lectures on YouTube first.
I searched for beginner Japanese lectures in the search bar.
YouTube sure is convenient.
Lying in bed and being able to listen to high-quality lectures for free.
The world has really gotten better.
If I'd had this in my previous life when I was young, I would have gotten into Seoul National University.
Or not.
Anyway, I opened my notebook and was rolling around in bed, casually listening to the lecture, but the Japanese lecture was more fun than I thought.
I thought learning a foreign language would be as torturous as when I first learned English.
But learning a language of your own will feels not like studying but like learning about a culture.
It was fascinating that just by writing, pronouncing, and memorizing hiragana, the basic Japanese characters, you could immediately read Japanese.
Of course, being able to read characters means you can speak the language, but it was a feeling I couldn't experience when learning English because I was too busy memorizing vocabulary.
It might be fun just because I'm still a beginner.
They say you have to learn katakana too to read loanwords in Japanese, so it might get hard then.
If I don't want to do it then, I can just quit.
Rather than that, maybe I should try being an interpreter or diplomat later.
Next time, I should study French too.
.
.
.
One week into vacation.
Now I had no time to be bored.
Having a routine I absolutely had to do every day put my mind at ease.
Ah, come to think of it, there's vacation homework.
Do I have to do this?
"Mom~"
"What, I'm busy."
"What are you doing?"
"SNS."
These days, since I told her not to post my pictures, Mom has been posting Doa's pictures.
Completely addicted to SNS.
It felt strange, like my fandom was transferring over to Doa.
Am I an attention seeker?
"Stop posting Doa's pictures."
"No."
"Why."
"Because she's cute."
"That is true."
Should I make an SNS account and post Doa's pictures too?
"Anyway, I have vacation homework."
"What is it?"
"I have to write one book report and one picture diary each per week."
"Really? Work hard on it~"
Mom was absorbed in SNS and had no interest in me.
I shoved my face between Mom and her phone, looked at her, and said.
"No, can't I just not do the vacation homework? You know too, Mom, that I'm not a normal kid."
"Just do it. How hard can it be?"
"If you tell my teacher, I wouldn't have to do it, right?"
Mom pushed my head, which was blocking her phone screen, away with her hand and said.
"When else would you get to do something like this? Now is the time for it."
"Ugh..."
Fine, since I brought it up, I'll just finish it all today.
First, the picture diary.
Inspiration strikes.
I roughly draw a heart.
And write below it.
"Doa is lovely."
Huh? Is this modern art?
This time, the sun.
It's hot.
Mom won't turn on the AC.
Nice.
This time, an egg.
I ate an egg.
Is this too insincere?
I ate an egg deliciously. As a fried egg.
What else should I draw?
I should draw the YouTube logo.
I watched YouTube.
Kyaa, four pages done in a jiffy.
Am I a genius?
Now for the book report.
Classics are the best for book reports.
Snow White.
My skin is whiter.
Cinderella.
If you run in glass shoes, the glass would break and shards would get stuck in your feet.
Since they don't break, I guess they're tempered glass.
The Little Mermaid.
The Little Mermaid is half human, half fish.
The human upper body parts would be swollen and rotting if they stayed underwater all the time; did they waterproof them?
Rapunzel.
She'd use up an entire bottle of shampoo washing her hair once.
But wouldn't her hair be heavy? Her trapezius muscles would be insane.
I finished the summer vacation homework in less than ten minutes.
Is this
me?
Terrifying to the point of madness.
My talent.
I could spend the rest of the vacation leisurely without worrying about homework.
Great, good.
.
.
.
I was sure I spent it leisurely, so why is it already the last day of vacation?
What am I going to do?