SMW 36

Standing there alone in a daze, watching the remaining packages, a question occurred to me. Were they light? The delivery man looked like he was struggling with something heavy when he got out. I tried to lift another box as a test, but put it back down immediately.

Was my stamina just that pathetic, or was Choi Seol’s strength ridiculously immense? What on earth had my uncle sent? It wasn’t as if he’d gathered a bunch of rocks and sent them just to screw over his nephew. For now, getting a cart was the top priority.

Just then, Choi Seol returned. However, the slippers were not in his hand.

“My slippers?”

“Sorry, I forgot them.”

“It’s okay. It’ll only take a second, and the floor is clean, so I’ll just run and—”

“Then you should move the ones in the kitchen first.”

“…I’ll just wait patiently.”

“Suit yourself.”

What a jerk. He was definitely doing this on purpose, knowing I’d be troubled. I glared fiercely at Choi Seol as he carried a new ice box toward the kitchen. It wasn’t the first or second time I’d walked around barefoot because I was too lazy to find slippers, so I considered just following him, but I stopped, feeling that some greater ordeal would follow if I did. He’d bring them back this time.

However, by the time I finally put on my slippers and regained my freedom, only one ice box remained in the yard.

“Aren’t you going to open them?”

Choi Seol asked as I stood there blankly staring at the packages, even after he’d moved them all to the kitchen. Since protesting over the slipper incident didn’t seem like it would work anyway, I relaxed my expression and answered.

“I will. But I was thinking I should call my uncle first.”

“You didn’t get a separate message?”

“No, which is why I’m being cautious. My uncle isn’t the type to send things like this without any notice. Moreover, food… could it be for the ancestral rites?”

With a sudden realization, I quickly opened one of the ice boxes. As expected, it was filled with various types of frozen jeon, all individually packaged.

“He must have sent them in advance since Chuseok is the day after tomorrow.”

“This is the food for the rites?”

“Yeah. My maternal side usually outsources the ritual food to a catering company. But I feel like the amount is more than before. Did he send more because you’re here?”

Even though it was the house I lived in, there was a separate owner, so I needed permission to increase the number of residents. That was why I had already informed my mother and my eldest uncle, the legal owner of the house, about Choi Seol’s presence.

“Anyway, you have to hand it to the Choi family for being generous. Huh? Come to think of it, you’re a Choi too, right?”

Perhaps because his name was only one syllable, I had never thought of his surname separately.

“You said you took your mother’s surname, right? So we’re both from the maternal side.”

“To me, my mother’s side is my paternal side. In the first place, only one side ever recognized me as their blood.”

A clear boundary was felt in his firm voice. Then again, if I were him, I wouldn’t want to look at the other side either. Even my own mother, when she was angry at my father, would try to erase every trace of the Choi bloodline from me and treat me as a Han, claiming she couldn’t stand the sight of us.

“Which Choi are you? If we’re lucky, we might be distant relatives.”

“Who knows.”

“Didn’t your grandmother tell you?”

“I don’t remember.”

Whether he meant he’d lost [unauthorized copy]stolen contenthis memory or simply didn’t unauthorized copyknow. Faced with his ambiguous attitude, I muttered primly.

“Then you’ll have to ask when your memory comes back.”

“I doubt it. I don’t think she’d tell me even then.”

Is he just picking a fight?

“Why wouldn’t she want to tell you?”

“It’s not that I hate it, but what if we actually are relatives?”

“What do you mean ‘what if’? We’d just feel a deeper, family-like kinship.”

“Then I definitely shouldn’t be told.”

Is this guy just being sarcastic because he doesn’t want to tell me? It’s not like [stolen content]visit our siteI can sell that information for anything; if he doesn’t want to tell me, he could just say so.

Just as I was starting to feel unnecessarily hurt.

“Because I don’t want to start with you as family.”

“….”

Things I had momentarily forgotten—or rather, ignored—surfaced in my mind one after another. Not knowing how to react to the lingering gaze and voice following me, I stood still, and Choi Seol was the first to break the silence and move.

“Let’s check the rest of the packages. I’ll open this one.”

That was the limit. He would approach aggressively, but the moment I looked like I was about to step back, he would withdraw first. Paradoxically, that made me more troubled. The fact that the boundary was being respected meant I had no reason to run away.

“This one doesn’t seem to be pre-made. There are bags of vegetables and fruit.”

I snapped back to reality stolen contentat Choi stolen contentSeol’s words after he’d already checked the inside of another ice box.

“Bags of vegetables? Let me see.”

Fortunately, my reaction came off as nonchalant. I checked the contents of the ice box Choi Seol had opened. The vegetables in the bags were spinach, bellflower root, and bean sprouts. Other than those, there were dried bracken, tofu, and other cooking ingredients rather than finished dishes, just as Choi Seol had said.

Surely the company wouldn’t have sent a ritual food meal kit. The jeon were definitely finished products. Just in case, I checked the address on the ice box lid. Come to think of it, the sender’s address wasn’t a company, but my uncle’s home. A sudden ominous feeling began to creep up.

Just then, a ringtone sounded from somewhere. Choi Seol must have heard it too, as he poked his head out the kitchen door and looked at me.

“I think that’s your phone.”

I had to answer this. My intuition was telling me so. I quickly crossed the yard and picked up the phone I had tossed onto the wooden veranda. As expected, it was my uncle.

“Hello.”

• It’s me. Did you get the packages?

“This is… Uncle [unauthorized copy]Choi Jeong-jin, using Read on Read BL Novelsthe characters ‘Jeong’ and ‘Jin’, right?”

• Why does my nephew’s voice sound so insolent?

“Not insolent, just suspicious. What is all that?”

• What do you mean? It’s food for the rites.

“I know that. But you usually order from a company and receive it the day before Chuseok.”

• The place I used every year had some issues and said they couldn’t do it this time, so I placed a special order for jeon at my regular makgeolli shop and sent them.

“Then what about the rest? Why are there ingredients that need to be cooked instead of prepared dishes?”

• Well, I bought those so they could be made and offered there.

No, this uncle! What era is this?

“Uncle, you’re not out of work lately and trying to handle your own legal defense, are you?”

For the record, my uncle’s profession was a lawyer.

• Huh? What are you talking about?

“What do you think? I’m talking about the divorce lawsuit.”

• Now look here, you brat. I’m going to grow old together with your aunt.

“If you’re going to grow old together, why are you being so clueless? Or are you trying to be filial [stolen content][Read on Read BL Novels]to Grandma and Grandpa yourself? I heard [visit our site]you’ve never even held a knife in your life.”

• I can cook too. I just hate looking at knives because of some thugs on the opposing counsel’s side who were waving them around.

“I know. I heard you even ended up in the emergency room because you cut your finger.”

The problem was that Grandma had raised my uncle too much like a greenhouse flower. She should have raised him for survival, like she did with my mom.

“Anyway, if you’re not going to do it yourself, I’m returning it. These days, you get cursed at if you bring someone else’s precious child over just to season vegetables. Of course, if you’re planning to be filial yourself, I won’t stop you.”

• Well, your aunt says she won’t do it.

“My mom is also a precious child. Don’t even dream about it.”

• Then I am! I’m a child of the same house as your mother.

“Uncle, you inherited the house, the mountains, and the fields. Then you should fulfill your duties.”

“What’s going on?”

When I looked up, Choi Seol had approached me before I knew it. Because I was excited, my voice had risen, and it must have sounded like I was fighting. As a sign that I was okay, I patted the spot next to me. Seeing him understand perfectly and sit down quietly beside me felt strangely endearing.

• Is someone there with you?

“Huh? Oh, a friend. The one I mentioned before… [unauthorized copy]What do you mean switch? No, it’s stolen contentfine. It’ll make him uncomfortable. He’s already gone. I already feel bad enough for making him suffer through the grave grooming.”

• I heard from Hae-sook. That your friend did far more work than you?

“…You heard? From Hae-sook-i Noona? No, why are you calling someone else’s house to spy instead of calling your own nephew?”

• I just gave Chuseok greetings to the village head’s family, who must have struggled while grooming graves with a frail nephew. How is it that your body is still crawling on the floor, just like when you were a kid?

“I wasn’t crawling. I really did a lot. My back feels like it’s going to break because of it… and that was originally your job, Uncle.”

As I spoke, my back actually started to ache. As I complained, pounding my back with my fists, I felt a hand begin to pat my back instead of me. The moment I realized it was Choi Seol, I tried to look back, but my uncle started another provocation before I could.

• That’s why I had you do it instead. As my proxy.

I let out a hollow laugh of disbelief.

“Why am I your proxy?”

• Since the owner of the house is absent, the person who decided to manage it must act as the proxy.

Why does that sound strange? The ominous feeling I had when I opened the boxes and saw the vegetables suddenly returned. Meanwhile, the way Choi Seol was patting my back felt refreshing. Just as I was about to retort, my uncle said something unexpected.

• So, about that, I’m thinking of going on a trip this time.

I should have realized it then. But first, I was startled as both my shoulders were grabbed. Once again, before I could look back, Choi Seol began to massage my shoulders. And that, too, was considerably refreshing.

My heart softened. Since I was on the phone, wouldn’t it be okay to pretend I didn’t notice? He wasn’t pressing his body against mine like before, and I could just excuse it later by saying I unauthorized copywas distracted and left it as it was. [Read on Read BL Novels]Above all, Choi Seol’s massage skills were definitely excellent. Perhaps that’s why I felt an impulsive urge to keep relying on his touch.

• Yeo-reum, are you listening to your uncle?

Ah, right, I was on the phone.

“Yes, I’m listening. A trip sounds great.”

I unconsciously leaned my upper body back, relying on Choi Seol’s hands, as I continued. Perhaps because my body was relaxing, the conversation with my uncle flowed quite smoothly.

“You can go on a cozy trip with my aunt right after the holidays to relieve the fatigue.”

A brief silence followed over the phone.

“Uncle?”

• Actually, after this time, I’ve decided not to perform the ancestral rites starting from next Lunar New Year. Instead, I plan to put both their names in the temple where your grandmother used to go to pray every year. Now, since the brothers don’t have many days left to live, I think we’ll just travel together every holiday.

And here I was getting tense. The tension I’d felt for a moment vanished. By the way, the pillar supporting my back was very desirable. It was hard, but wide, and strangely cozy. Even the scent was nice.

It was strange. Had the pillars of my maternal home’s veranda always been this cushioned?