Chapter 3 – Prologue – Stepdaughter in the Morning, Shallow Wife at Night
I heard that each country has a house with a unique bell sound, but I never thought I would experience something like this.
Write, I think my head will break from that loud bell.
What the hell was that sweet bastard thinking while wearing that?
Oh, did I give a thumbs up saying my sense is really good?
I sincerely hope that you will vouch for your friend with that thumb.
Really, sincerely.
Fortunately, the long bell that seemed like 30 minutes stopped ringing after about 15 seconds, and I looked at the wall clock. These days, there are even people who can’t see analog watches, and it’s true that digital is easy to see, so I’ve been looking for a digital watch with Arabic numerals in red light. Just like my daughter said, there are still more than two hours before the bitch shows up, so I can afford it, but mentally it is an uncomfortable time.
‘I don’t know who it is, but I’ll just say hello and send it back quickly.’
As I moved forward, stroking my ringing ear, Hong-Mae rushed in front of me.
This year is crazy
“I’m leaving~!”
“What? Can’t you just stay quiet?!”
“Why are you screaming all of a sudden! My ears are ringing!”
“Now look at your squirrels and tell me!”
“I’m not even wearing underwear, so what?”
Her lips are pouting and pouting, but her daughter is doing something like that, but there is no father who makes her leave the front door. After hurriedly putting on the shirt she had taken off, she ran ahead of her daughter without even buttoning her button, worried that the bell might ring again. Someone rang the bell at this timing, so he knew we had moved and someone came to say hello, so I relieved my worries and went out to the front yard, but I felt an unfamiliar air there.
It took me about 15 seconds to put on my slippers and make my way to the front door.
… It’s an unfamiliar environment for city dwellers.
Originally, it was a pension that was used to invite outsiders and catch travelers, so the yard was wide, so the main gate made thick with iron grates in the center of the fence along the path made with beautifully laid stones was old-fashioned (button lock), and I pressed it with my thumb to open the entrance. At first, I saw something like red bean paste. Sirutteok as a housewarming gift, I wondered if I had seen this for the first time in years, so I was drenched in nostalgia for a moment, but I inadvertently checked the other person’s face at the sound of a small cough.
“Hello~! I heard that I’m moving in today, so I got some rice cakes from the grandmothers! Are you the owner of the house… Yo…?!”
The other person’s voice was lively at first, but it shrank as it went further. Because I didn’t fasten my shirt properly, something like a tattoo was blatantly sticking out, and my expression wasn’t good either.
Should I have come out dressed straight, given that I heard the bell ring twice?
… Asshole.
I’m not in a position to blame anyone either.
“Yes.”
“…Lol.”
The short answer here wasn’t very good either. To say it wasn’t very good was also not very good. The atmosphere had subsided so much that I had to express it twice, so I ignored the fact that the other person was offering rice cakes in front of me and hurriedly tidied up the front of my shirt before accepting it with both hands.
“Big, oh my gosh! It looks delicious! It’s been a while since I received a present like this… Haha!”
“Ah… Yes.”
As he showed his unique awkward smile and shrugged his shoulders humorously, the tension on his face melted away like snow. Everyone, including my daughter, knew that I had a bad impression, so it was good for each other to deliberately shrink in front of strangers. Fortunately, the person in front of me seems to be quite strong for being a woman, and seems like a nice person to the point of coming to share rice cake with someone I’m seeing for the first time.
‘Even considering that she’s in the countryside, she’s an unusual woman.’
Round glasses reminiscent of Harry Potter’s wide open. Although her figure is normal and beautiful, she is wearing a short-cut jumpsuit in this weather and also wears a bungee hat. It wasn’t to the point where she’d say she was hot, but the weather wasn’t good enough for her to wear that. She cut it short to expose her limbs and loosened her front island, so she’s acting like she’s cool, but in the eyes of others, it’s still a hot outfit.
‘There was a bitch like this around me too.’
Could she be the kind of person who sticks to her favorite clothes no matter the weather?
If she dares to wear a short jumpsuit, I’m sure this person is that type too.
“Thank you for the rice cake. I’m Hong Sang-moon, who just moved in. Are you someone who lives around here?”
“Yes, yes! My name is Ham Hye-young! I live in a pension over there! I saw a young woman who went in and came out wondering if it was the same woman.
Cholae cholae, you talk lightly.
Early to mid 20’s?
Young.
She wears a bungee hat, so her appearance is hard to see, but she is beautiful nonetheless, and her hair is done like a flight attendant, so at first glance she looks like a man. Her clothes are like that, and she seems to be an active person, so she didn’t seem like someone who would live around here. As far as I know, it is the end of the semester, and if you are a resident of the pension, you might have come to play for a while.
‘But if you think about it that way, it’s strange to bother giving them rice cakes.’
She prefers not to think too deeply.
It’s a time when my head hurts, so I don’t have the slightest amount of time to delve into other people’s affairs.
“Are you my wife?”
“Wife? She said no. She’s a young woman, so she’s probably my daughter.”
“-Daughter?”
“Yes. Why are you so surprised?”
“Oh, ah, that’s true. Hong Chang-mae… The woman in the front… I didn’t look at the front and only saw the name, so I didn’t know.”
She saw the hanging doorplate.
I should have put it back when I came in, but did Hongmae fix it again?
“You’ll see him often, so he’ll be happy if you talk to him then. There’s an circumstance, so he came here all of a sudden, so I don’t have any kids or friends my age.”
“Ah, is that so? Then I’m good! This is a secluded place away from the village, so I was glad inside. I shouldn’t have said this, but when I just came out, I was surprised to think I had come to the wrong house. You know the old popular movie? What are those thugs doing at the company?
“I hear this often, but can I say that right in front of people?”
“I’m sorry if I offended you. I tend to be like that… Hehe…”
… Amazing year.
The worst quality of the kind of people who spit out what they think is that they are aware of it and do it, and it is especially bad that they use it as a shield. I’m grateful for the rice cake, but I’m convinced now that it’s better not to talk about secrets in front of this woman.
“It’s a story I hear often, so it’s okay, but since we just moved in, it’s okay to treat you to anything.”
“No, it’s okay~! I didn’t come here for that, what~!”
She laughed in her high tone, and when she stopped talking, she noticed that she was about to go back. What would a young woman have to say if she was in front of such a large tattooed man? She would have given me rice cakes. She wouldn’t say anything more than this. Maybe she wanted to. She tried to move slowly back.
“Are you Hongmae?”
“Hello~!”
As expected, the daughter came out.
When I asked her to change her outfit, she still had her dress’ chest straps tightened tight and her underwear showing through.
“…Daughter?”
‘Fuck.’
You can clearly see what kind of questions are hiding under the questionable words.
Naked is the daughter, so why should I be stabbed?
“Isn’t it a bit hot today? I thought the wind would be cool since it’s right in front of the sea and also a mountain, but I thought it wouldn’t work without air conditioning!”
“Aha~.”
At Hongmae’s plausible excuse, a curious look at me fell like chewing gum. Perhaps she came out with the intention of taking rice cake instead of me, she naturally caught it, and her eyes are swimming like waves, as if she wants to point out her daughter’s outfit, but unfortunately, she has no intention of letting her ask such a question.
“How’s the atmosphere here? I just came here so I don’t know.”
She deliberately raised her head and made a movement to look around her, then lowered her head and brought it to Ham Hye-young. He put aside his doubts for a moment as if he was talking about a secret story, and Hongmae also intervened in our conversation as he listened to my question.
“I looked around for a while before I moved here, but I didn’t know anything. At most, I only know that there is some kind of religious facility over there, but is there anything wrong with it?”
“Here? Hey, that can’t be~! Maybe it’s in the countryside, so people are very different, but I think that’s a good thing. There’s no one to notice, and you’re talking about your daughter’s age, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem either.”
“Very clearly? Are there any dangerous people?”
“No, that’s not it, because there are quite a few young women like us? But I haven’t seen a single young man. All of them are women, and the men are only old or middle-aged. Uh, but can I put it like this? Isn’t it unpleasant?”
“I already told you~! I’m fine!”
“Then good luck!”
Just like I did, I analyzed the words of Ham Hye-young in the gap between the two names. Like the way I explored alone before coming here, I wonder if there are no young men after all. In particular, I liked the fact that only the elderly remained and were barely visible, but now hearing the story from the mouth of another person like this can’t help but be strange.
… Could it be that you have stepped into a dangerous place?
It’s not a movie or a drama, and such things don’t happen often, but there is a prejudice that dangerous things such as insufficient crime prevention facilities often happen in the countryside, so it was judged that it is better to be careful even if you know that it is a prejudice.
“That thing you just said, the name of the religious facility over there is called Reformation Center.
“Isn’t it dangerous if it’s a pseudo-religion? I’m fine, but I want to know a little bit because I’m afraid of getting entangled with my daughter.”
“Tangled up… I don’t think it’s necessarily like that just because it’s a pseudo-secret. There are documentaries filmed and broadcast there, so I guess it’s not a facility that’s a problem. I’ve tried it. Uh… Um… Somehow, the tone sounds like a religious spokesman over there, but it’s not like that, so don’t misunderstand. It’s not really. It’s just, I was curious, so a few times…
“Sister, if you make excuses like that, you’re like a real pseudo-religionist, right?”
“It might be something similar, but it’s not!”
The already suspicious year has become more suspicious.
It seems like there’s something wrong with the tone, so don’t dig into it any further.
“I’m thinking of meeting the chief tomorrow, but do you know where he is? I should have visited him today, but I couldn’t.”
“The location is a little vague to say, but can I give you a number?”
“Then thank you.”
She transferred the name and number of the woman who introduced herself as Ham Hye-young to her phone and saved it neatly. In the meantime, I exchanged numbers with her daughter, and now the atmosphere was created to say goodbye to each other, but this light-mouthed woman pursed her lips as she looked away again before leaving.
“I mean, maybe…”
Sure enough, like the type who says whatever comes to mind, he couldn’t hide his gaze. She seemed to have noticed something, but her look at the nameplate made a bad impression, and she even spat it out.
“Is there a typo in Chinese characters here?”
“…What kanji?”
“The uncle’s side was printed neatly, but the Hongmae’s side had a bit of Chinese characters… I wondered if the nameplate was printed incorrectly.”
“These days, there are a lot of people who don’t even know Chinese characters, let alone watch a watch. How did a young person know that?”
“It’s because my major is related to that one. That’s the reason I’m here, but wasn’t it a very problematic remark? I’m light-mouthed, so I wonder if I made another mistake… I got scolded a lot because of that…”
Since it’s in the countryside, it’s an older person, of course, and I thought it would be pointed out someday, but I never thought that she would immediately notice a young woman like this. She is a daughter, she doesn’t have anything to say.
“Isn’t it sometimes? Relatives who force a strange name when a child is born or ask them to use a surname. Especially among the elders, there are many such people, so there are many people who fight with each other, don’t you have that kind of experience?”
“Yes, there are people who let them inherit. We also cursed at each other during Chuseok because of that. We changed our names later because we didn’t like it… Ugh, it’s really nonsense. He said he was made fun of at school for being given a strange name, and he cried because of it…”
“It’s happened to us as well. Everyone goes through extraordinary things as they go through life, right? My daughter also uses that name for various circumstances, so I call her Hongmae, not Changmae.”
“Yes, yes. So you’re going to change your name later? No matter how much, that name is a bit… Well, I’m sorry for Hongmae, who is using that name right now, but if someone you know sees it, it’s a little… Especially here, there are a lot of elderly people, so I’m going to tell you in advance…”
“We know it, so you don’t have to pay attention.”
She quietly reached out her hand and turned and hung the nameplate that her red-mae had returned.
She was swept away by the feeling of moving and placed an order, but the nameplate is still a problem…
If you’ve already been pointed out, it’s sure to become a bigger problem when you interact with others later.
“…Have I crossed the line?”
“It’s okay. It’s okay, isn’t it?”
“Like my dad said, things like this often happen. I don’t like names like these, so don’t mind my sister either.”
“If you say that, I’ll put my mind at ease…”
She is a light-mouthed woman, but that’s why she realized her mistake and behaved awkwardly. Conversely, her blush seemed to be really good, so after finishing the story with Ham Hye-young and seeing her back, he closed the door. Perhaps because it is a door made of iron bars, even though it is lightly closed, the pom pom bird closes with a clunk, as if seeing a sense of distance between others and my family, and even the best feeling is blown away.
‘Why do you have to be offended? There’s not a single word wrong.’
The other person noticed until the end, but there was nothing wrong.
Changmae is a combination of 娼 (prostitute window) and 賣 (sell, sell), which is used when calling a prostitute.
That’s not a name you’d give her daughter, dog mad bitch.
“Negu mother, fuck her even if she dies, right? How do you name a child like that?”
“It sucks, but I don’t want to change my name. I’m going to carry it with you until the end because my mom left it for me, so don’t fry it.”
“Even though I know why he named it that way? My dad always said he didn’t like it. Now, let’s change your name like the other kids.”
“I hate it?! I hate it even more because I know why it was built that way!”
“…Stubbornness.”
Her daughter shook herself off and clung to her side laughing strangely. And as her hands wandered blatantly around her thighs and crotch, it was clear that what she was doing was permeating something more than desired and worthy of her name.
“She hated her own daughter so much even after giving birth to her, so you didn’t want her to grow up this way, did you? Then let’s do that.”
“Because of him, you don’t have to do that either. I always say, but you can live a little better and meet someone better.”
“This isn’t being manipulated by mom, it’s because I want to do it?”
“Hongmae.”
“Okay. She’s likely to come sooner than that, so should she get inside soon?”
Hongmae led me inside and I didn’t resist.
The glowing sunset, like a haze as if leaving heat, has disappeared beyond the boundary line and darkness approaches.
As her daughter said, it was a sign of commotion soon to come.
──An hour and a half from now.
The reason Hongmae and I moved to the countryside of Mijin after this, and the homework that her family must solve…
An occult that only takes place on certain days and times…
A supernatural phenomenon that people in modern society will not believe even if they die…
“My dead wife will take my daughter’s body and appear here.”
【Morning is stepdaughter, night is shallow wife】