“Wow! Mom’s making tteok-mandu-guk! Yay!”
The truth was, I didn’t really like tteok-mandu-guk.
There was the fact that the broth turned cloudy whenever the dumpling wrappers burst, and since bone broth had to be eaten endlessly once you made a pot of it, I suppose I’d grown tired of Mom’s gom-tang before I knew it.
So I preferred tteok-guk with a clear broth.
Especially when it was loaded with beef.
“Our princess~ You missed home cooking, didn’t you?”
But if it was the tteok-mandu-guk Mom made for Lunar New Year—
I could happily eat it while putting on an exaggerated show of how terribly I’d missed it, like the truly filial daughter of this era that I was…
“What’s this? You made the dumplings yourself, Mom?”
“Yeah. What do you think? Aren’t they pretty? They say if you make pretty dumplings, you’ll give birth to a pretty daughter. I made all the dumplings for our Dohee and Doa nice and pre—”
“Ah, just use Bibigo.”
The store-bought ones burst less and tasted better.
Ah, this is going to turn cloudy again when the dumpling wrappers burst.
Agh!
“Dear, it’s a good day. Put down the ladle.”
“Mom’s trying to be patient…”
I took the dumplings out into a separate bowl ahead of time and separated the wrappers from the filling.
These dumpling wrappers were the kind they sold at the supermarket.
The flour taste was way too strong.
Ugh, I’m not eating this!
“Phew… That daughter of mine doesn’t change one bit, even when she comes home for the first time in ages.”
“It hasn’t even been that long. I came for New Year’s, remember? A month ago?”
“Watch your tone.”
“Mother, they say a person changing is a sign they’re about to die. I want to spend the rest of my life with my mother and father. I’m a filial daughter, after all… Farewell.”
“Filial my foot, you little delinquent.”
She hadn’t seen me in so long, and yet she was being so mean.
“Mother, you only call me ‘princess,’ but your words toward me are terribly harsh… My heart is breaking…”
“You. Say one more word.”
“Now I have to talk to Dad. Dad.”
“Mom, please be patient…”
While Doa tugged on Mom’s sleeve, I looked at Dad.
“Oh, but Dad. You look like you’ve lost some weight?”
It really was only a little, but it seemed like he’d lost more since New Year’s.
I’d thought that even Dad couldn’t hide his drinking belly and middle-aged spread forever, but his cheeks had become a little slimmer.
Since I checked my weight every day, I had a sharp enough eye to notice.
“Oh, really? How could you tell? Dad’s been trying to take care of himself so our Dohee won’t be embarrassed by me. I quit drinking, started watching my diet, and I even go to the apartment gym with your mother every evening. I go hiking on the weekends, too.”
I knew it.
“You’re right. Mom, you too.”
I gave Mom a thumbs-up.
Of course, she didn’t look like she’d lost anything.
Then again, Mom had always been consistently thin in the first place.
It was a little sad.
I wanted to donate some of my chest to her.
My breasts were sad…
“But I think it’s a good idea. Not just because you’re my dad, but because Dad was handsome to begin with. You look great as long as you take a little care of yourself. Look at celebrities these days. Age really means nothing, does it? With a little maintenance, Dad could pass for someone in his thirties.”
“Really?”
“Tell him, Mom.”
“I did marry your father because of his face.”
Dad gave a coy, almost cute smile that didn’t seem quite befitting a middle-aged man.
I suppose he’d already become very conscious of his age and weight, with fifty just around the corner.
“I’ll recommend a dermatology clinic for both of you, so go together once every weekend. I’ll pay.”
“Oh, no, that’s enough. What a waste of money. Does our daughter really have that much money?”
“Not that much, but I can earn more from now on.”
Actually, I had plenty.
I’d even talked about buying Mom a house.
If a singer who’d won a major award didn’t have money, then who would even go into this profession?
On top of that, I was number one among active idols in the number of advertisements I had.
Of course, my rates were a little… a little lower than Coral Blue Lira’s, who was in second place.
Mom probably had no idea how much I’d earned.
After dropping out of high school last year and effectively becoming a member of society, I’d even taken over my bank account from her.
My Seven contract, which had been getting double-deducted by Shock Entertainment, had ended, and my new settlements were now much larger than before.
Of course, I had no intention of living extravagantly.
I’d just keep building up my savings.
I was simply planning to make a large donation someday and leave it at that.
I was beginning to like myself all over again, with how prosperous my heart felt.
* * *
When I came out after washing my hair, my whole family was sitting together in the living room.
“Come here and sit down.”
Mom crooked her finger at me coldly.
“Why are you acting like that…?”
Uneasily.
On the TV screen, which Mom was pointing toward with her eyes, a YouTube video was playing.
[DEB: ON AIR | EP.2]
It was the second episode of our self-produced content, uploaded a day early because of the Lunar New Year holiday.
As far as I knew, today’s episode was probably about the behind-the-scenes work on the album as a whole.
In other words, it would cover everything from recording to filming the music video.
“Why is that…?”
Mom moved the playback bar to another part of the video.
[Dohee: (calmly) Today is the day we record.]
Before long, my room at the dorm appeared.
The self-cam showed only me sitting in front of the piano and the keys, but even in my oversized hoodie, the clear line of my profile was captured in perfect detail.
The backlighting from the window made me look incredibly elegant and beautiful.
“Wow, this is a legendary clip. People are going to make gifs of it again. And you even played for them.”
I hurriedly took out my phone and typed in the group chat.
- 5
[Me: I’m jealous of you girls…]
[Me: You get to look at my profile all you want…]
[Me: I can only see my face straight-on in the mirror…]
My phone soon began vibrating violently, but—
I ignored it and looked back at Mom.
Maybe Mom had been impressed by my profile all over again too?
“Tell me properly. How much did that piano cost?”
Or maybe not.
She’d probably looked it up online.
The piano’s brand was printed on the lid of the keyboard.
“Why? I told you I was buying a piano.”
I had definitely gotten permission.
─Mom, I’m thinking of buying a piano.
─All of a sudden? Why? There’s a piano at the company building.
─I want to practice at the dorm too. Sometimes I want to play right after I get up. I even had soundproofing installed in my room beforehand.
─Really? Then buy one. It’s your money, so what could I say?
─But it’ll probably be pretty expensive. I’m going to buy a good one.
─That’s fine. It’s something you really need, right? Just save money elsewhere, okay? Don’t splurge. Promise me.
─Okay~ Promise~
Mom must have remembered it clearly too.
“I knew it would be expensive…”
Mom showed me the price list for the brand she’d pulled up in the search window.
“But I thought it’d be a few tens of millions of won at most.”
The prices of the new models ranged from at least a hundred million won to as much as 350 million.
“Please tell me that one isn’t the most expensive of the bunch…”
“Hehe.”
A wail of despair burst from Mom.
“Well, look at our daughter! She’s got money, doesn’t she? In that case, should Dad really go to the dermatologist?”
Unlike Dad, who laughed heartily—
“Yes, I told you I’d pay. Go show off to your coworkers.”
“Oh, since we’re talking about it, I should buy Doa a whole bunch of clothes tomorrow, too. Doa’s grown taller, so her clothes don’t fit well anymore, right? It’s not fair that she has to keep wearing my hand-me-downs. Doa, want to go shopping tomorrow? Your sister will buy you lots of pretty clothes.”
Even then, Doa tried to act cool, but she couldn’t hide the twitching corners of her mouth and eyebrows.
‘She must be happy to go shopping with her sister, right?’
But Mom continued to glance back and forth between the price list and the piano in the video, sighing over and over again.
She looked like she needed some comfort.
“Mom, it’s not actually that expensive. I bought it used.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Do you think I’m crazy enough to pay over 300 million won for it? I don’t like wasting money on extravagance either. I even said I didn’t want to take that Cartier ad, honestly.”
“…Really?”
Even though it was used, my piano had been perfectly refurbished, inside and out, and its interior had been thoroughly tuned, so its sound was no different from that of a new piano.
If anything, the interior components and the touch of the keys had been broken in, making it easier to play. It still had eighty years of expected life left, too.
“Then how much was it?”
I proudly held up one finger.
Mom’s expression brightened a little.
“Oh, really? If it was that much, then… that’s okay.”
I timidly raised one more finger.
“Hehe. The tuning and installation were free, though.”
“…I’m going to lose my mind.”
* * *
Mom had watched over me my entire life, so she knew that I was rather attached to my piano.
“Take good care of it. Don’t break it.”
“Okay. I’m planning to call the piano technician every six months.”
Perhaps because of that, she didn’t consider it a meaningless extravagance and soon stopped nagging me.
But our family’s tradition of passing love down the line was sacred.
“Hey, Lee Doa. Come here.”
“Ah, whyyy?”
It was my turn.
“Hmm, aren’t you going shopping with your sister tomorrow?”
─Tap tap
“Sit here. Uh-uh, not there.”
─Tap tap
I pulled her onto my lap.
She was twelve years old, and she still only came up to about a head below me.
The top of Doa’s head smelled like fragrant shampoo…
“─You didn’t wash your hair?”
“No.”
Well, it was vacation.
Besides, when you had long hair, washing it was always a hassle.
Even I sometimes wanted to skip washing mine whenever I didn’t have a schedule.
“Sit here for now.”
Of course, I also liked the warm, homey smell of Doa.
I just wanted to look her in both eyes.
“Right, Lee Doa. Are there any kids at school who bully you?”
“No, there aren’t.”
Well, our Doa seemed to be quite the popular girl.
She had an air of refinement, she was pretty, she did well in school, and she even played her Nintendo diligently.
Wait. Popular? A popular kid at that age would be—
“Lee Doa, there aren’t any kids smoking at your school, are there?”
“Do elementary school kids smoke these days?”
Mom was saying something that showed how little she knew.
“Mom. Kids these days start even earlier.”
That was exactly the age when the stormy period of adolescence began.
It was also the age when puberty’s animal instincts ran especially strong, resulting in an abundance of childish behavior.
I remembered how annoyed I’d been by the elementary and middle school kids who picked fights after putting on pointless airs to look cool in front of me…
‘Just thinking about it makes me want to swear…’
High school had at least been better.
“Yeah, there is. A kid who smokes.”
“I knew it. Lee Doa, you mustn’t be influenced by them. Understand? Don’t hang around with kids like delinquents.”
Ah, never mind.
“Mom, Doa. How about homeschooling Doa…? What if our Doa gets influenced and turns into a delinquent? What if her head starts smelling like cigarettes instead of that warm, homey scent…”
“What do you mean, homeschooling? Doa will handle herself and stand her ground.”
“No, that’s every parent’s favorite line. ‘My child would never do that.’”
“Worry about yourself.”
“I’m doing fine. Why are you looking down on me? I’m doing incredibly well. There’s no daughter in the world like me.”
“True. Sorry.”
Mom apologized surprisingly obediently.
Right, Doa could handle that much on her own.
There was no need to worry about her yet.
“Anyway, Lee Doa. Which school are you going to?”
“Ye—”
“I know. Do you think I wouldn’t know what school my little sister is going to?”
Unlike me, our Doa didn’t play piano, but she was diligently learning the flute.
“But why are you going to an arts middle school thirty minutes away? You could easily go to a regular school…”
“Un—”
“Because you want to be like your sister? Don’t tell me you’re planning to become an idol…”
Doa suddenly leaped to her feet.
“Because of you! Because of you! Ever since some time ago, people have been whispering that I’m Lee Dohee’s little sister!”
…Really?
“You could’ve just denied it…”
“But the rumor’s already spread! What am I supposed to do?”
“Maybe it’s because you look like me… You know, like those celebrity look-alikes who become famous. That’s nice, isn’t it, Doa? You look like me?”
Dad added his two cents from beside us.
“Of course it’s good to look like your sister. Why wouldn’t it be? Not just because she’s our daughter, but Dohee is, you know, among idols in terms of looks—this.”
As if he weren’t a man in his forties, Dad kept raising his thumb with the unmistakable vibe of an old man.
Was I destined to turn out like that too?
“Oh no, what do I do? I’m suddenly more worried about Dad than Doa.”
“Hm?”
“What do I do? You suddenly look like such an old man.”
“…Really…?”
What was with that tone? He sounded like an old man too.
I was suddenly grateful to have been born a woman.
Tomorrow, I was going shopping with Doa, sure—but I absolutely had to go shopping with Dad, too.