Chapter 175: Gift of the Gods
"Because my wife has a huge appetite. Haha..."
"But isn't ice cream affordable? What if you want to eat tangerines or fish-shaped buns this summer? Can you imagine that? It's quite perplexing, isn't it?"
"Hmm... Listening to students talking, that's also true, right? It somehow empowers me."
"A man who buys ice cream for his wife every three days. He's been really popular lately at our convenience store. It's too romantic."
After finishing the ice cream payment, I chuckled in response to the cashier's joke.
"Hmm... It's said that if you treat your wife well now, you'll be treated well as a husband later."
"Wow, who said that? I should jot it down and tell my boyfriend later."
"...?"
Well, before coming back to 1983, I heard it from a subordinate at the company I used to work for?
Hmm... I unintentionally burdened the cashier's boyfriend with a lot. I hope they don't hold too much resentment.
Maintaining family peace is just like maintaining peace on Earth.
A while later, coming out of the convenience store, I placed the box of 30 cans prepared by the cashier on the passenger seat and grasped the steering wheel again.
"To finish all of this in three days. In a way, that's quite impressive. Green tea-flavored ice cream... Surely, it won't result in a green goblin with green skin when the baby is born later, right?"
Releasing the handbrake and tilting my head lightly, I gradually pressed the accelerator towards home.
Laughter echoed.
"Hahaha~!! To me, it seems like a son, a smart lad resembling Ganggun."
Huh? Has the master come?
Ding-dong~
After pressing the doorbell and waiting for a moment, Yuki, wearing an apron, opened the front door with brisk footsteps.
"You've worked hard today. Oh~ ice cream. It was just out of stock. Thank you."
"By any chance, did the master come?"
"Huh? How did you know?"
"I could hear voices from outside the door?"
"Oh, goodness... really?"
At that moment, behind Yuki, the master and even Yuki's sister greeted me.
"Ganggun, it's been a while~!!"
The master's cheerful greeting upon seeing me remained ever familiar.
At 46 years old this year, he got married at a staggering 18 (20 in Korean age), had his first daughter Yoko at 19, and had Yuki at 20. Just how fast-paced has his life been...
Moreover, even though he's 46 now, he had spent nearly 11 years since returning to 1983, so the age difference didn't feel that significant. (Actually, considering my age before the regression, I'm also around 45 mentally...)
"Hello, Master. Oh, Yoko is here too?"
"My parents asked for a favor in driving..."
Ah... Was I dragged here against their will?
Wait, if they are my parents, did my mother-in-law also come along?
"Oh, our son-in-law is here."
My mother-in-law welcomed me with a gentle voice, wearing an apron like Yuki, seemingly in the middle of cooking.
"We said we wanted to have dinner together after a long time, but well, my husband insisted on going in right away... Sorry for not informing you. You must be tired after work."
"No, it's okay. It was a bit dull just with Yuki in the big house, so this feels warm."
Then, the cat named 'Haru' under my feet meowed loudly.
Was it a reminder not to forget oneself? Yuki embraced Haru and gently scratched its neck.
"Oh~ Our Haru. You missed Junhyuk for leaving him alone~"
Anyway, after exchanging greetings with Yuki's family, I placed the ice cream box on the living room table and started unpacking the ice cream to transfer it to the freezer.
My mother-in-law looked at me with widened eyes.
"Wait, did you buy thirty of the same ice creams?"
"It's Yuki's stock these days. Because of her huge appetite..."
Sitting at the table after setting up the meal in the lively atmosphere after a long time felt somewhat strange.
Yuki seemed to be enjoying the meal with her family she hadn't seen in a while, smiling brightly since earlier.
"If I had known it would be like this, I should have done this sooner, huh?"
Today's menu is skewered and grilled food.
The traditional Japanese family dish, Sukiyaki, was one of the representative hotpot dishes where each person put their favorite vegetables and meat in a large pot and cooked them together.
It looked somewhat similar to Shabu-Shabu, but was it a dish where you dipped the meat and vegetables, boiled thoroughly in individual plates with beaten eggs?
"Our son-in-law is so into it~"
Yuko expressed in an excited tone at her mother's exquisite care, filling a small bowl generously with meat and broth.
"Our mother really likes Junpei. We're totally in her good books with this rice dish."
"That's why you should hurry up and get married, too, and bring a great son-in-law."
"Oh, come on, not this again."
Quietly scooping meat onto his own plate, the master craftsman interjected his wife's words.
"Don't talk too much or too little, bring a son-in-law who earns as much as a strong army. Then, send them off to get married without any fuss."
"I'll just... live with Dad forever..."
"If things go like this, it'll be a total disaster..."
The conversation between the two, reminiscent of a scene from a movie, continued on afterward, and Yuki and I spent a delightful evening meal, laughing and enjoying ourselves throughout.
For me, Yuki's family was the most precious connection I had encountered in this world.
After dinner, I joined the craftsman on the veranda for a post-dinner smoke.
Unlike in Korea, in Japan, there wasn't much concern about smoking with elders.
"I don't think I'm old enough to see my grandchild, but already becoming a grandfather. It feels strange. Is this the reward for marrying early?"
"Think of it more as a gift."
"Indeed, they say having a child is a gift from God. When I first held Yuko, I wondered if I could raise such a small child well..."
He paused there, glancing at Yuko sitting in the living room.
"I worried a lot because she was our first child. Ironically, when she was young, I felt like Yuko was much more well-behaved."
"Still, Yuko has such a strong-willed personality. Sometimes I worry because Yuki is too gentle."
The craftsman chuckled deeply as he puffed on his cigarette.
"Yuko may seem gentle on the outside, but she's the most stubborn among our family members."
"Really?"
"Because of that, I went through a lot when Yuko was young. Now it's less, but back then, I felt like Yuki was much calmer compared to Yuko."
Hmm... Yuki had an introverted nature, yet there was something about her that occasionally pulled me in.
Thinking about it, my connection with Yuki started from the contact information she initially offered, and the proposal itself was a trap set up by Junpei, resulting in public embarrassment (?).
As an old memory suddenly surfaced, I chuckled, and the craftsman, clearing his tobacco pipe, brought up an old story I wasn't aware of.
"So, when was that? About 6 to 7 years ago? One day, Yuko came home late in the evening and told me she met a very nice man, who was also Korean. Maybe it's because of her mother, she always had a special liking for Koreans from a young age. When she was a little kid in kindergarten, she used to brag about how she would definitely marry a Korean man when she grew up..."
Imagining Yuko wearing a kindergarten hat brought a cute image to mind. And the more I thought about it, the stronger my desire for my second generation to be a daughter became.
"Anyway, from the day she met that Korean guy, she kept staring at the phone the whole time after work, hoping it would ring. Whenever the phone rang, she'd rush to answer it first. But when she didn't get a call from the person she wanted, she seemed very frustrated. One day she burst into tears for no reason, another day she was completely down. Then again, she'd act as if she had given up everything and then return to being down..."
"Haha... That must have been tough."
"Whoever made my daughter cry, I was ready to break their legs when I met them."
Without realizing it, I found myself shaking my right leg at the craftsman's threat.
"I heard Yuko is working on a new game scheduled for release at the end of the year?"
"Oh, yes. It's a project titled 'Gift from the Gods.'"
"That's quite an amazing coincidence."
"Oh?"
"Yuki's due date is around December as well, isn't your child also a gift from above?"
"Oh... now that you mention it."
"Congratulations again. Thank you for taking care of my daughter."
"Thank you, sir."
"By the way, there's something I'm personally curious about..."
"Yes. Please, go ahead."
"Uh... When is the release date for the second episode of Dragon Emblem?"
"Oh, that's... "
I had forgotten that part; Yuki loved games, and the craftsman was also one of the Pentagon Soft's avid fans...
>
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