Spring

Spring

[The New Spring Memorial Hall is packed with visitors from all over the world celebrating the 9th Hanamjin Day!]

[Today, we have Seo Gaeul, director of the New Spring Memorial Hall and CEO of the Namjin Group, a legendary businesswoman, as our guest! Hello!]

[Yes, hello. This is Seo Gaeul – the epitome of a perfect wife and caring mother─.]

“Heh… calling herself a perfect wife and caring mother. Seo Gaeul’s getting more interesting by the day. Don’t you think?”

A bright spring day.

Yoo Yeoreum couldn’t hide her laughter watching Seo Gaeul on TV.

It’s kinda funny seeing someone you see all the time on TV like that.

“Mommy! Mommy! Mommy’s on TV! Look!”

The little girl, whose hair was being tied up by Yoo Yeoreum, couldn’t hide her joy either and started running around the house, *thump thump thump-*

What was amazing was the fluffy, wheat-sheaf-like tail wagging *thump thump-* on the little one’s butt, along with fox-like ears on her head.

“Bori. Finish tying your hair. And put your ears and tail away. Shedding fur.”

“Ughhh…”

At Yoo Yeoreum’s gentle coaxing, the fox-like girl, Bori, stroked her head repeatedly. Then, *poof-* ears and tail disappeared.

It’s still a strange sight, even after seeing it so many times.

“Daddy! Mommy’s on! Mommy! Mommy put on so much makeup I almost didn’t recognize her! Not as much as she wore for the anniversary last time, though!”

Bori was now tugging at my arm, *yank yank-* pointing at the TV.

She seemed amazed that her mom was on TV.

*Click-*

Pressing the remote, another woman, with pink-dyed hair, appeared on another channel, being interviewed.

[Uh! I forgot my line! Anyway, Habaek Foods, please give us lots of love! Now, I’ll show you how to make our new ketchup ramen!]

“Yeoul gets good screen time.”

Yoo Yeoreum was impressed.

I was amazed that Yeoul, who seemed like an icon of bad luck, was now appearing on TV as the president of a respectable food company.

Seo Gaeul and Baek Yeoul have both become busy working adults.

It’s surprising, and yet, it feels natural.

“Honestly, the most surprising thing is that you’re a housewife, Yeoreum.”

Yoo Yeoreum was the most energetic and outgoing of our group.

Now she’s a housewife taking care of the kids and focusing on the peace of the family.

Of course, Yoo Yeoreum always answered like this.

“Raising three weirdos takes a lot of energy, you know. Who else can do this but me? Look over there. The kid walking upside down on the ceiling.”

Yoo Yeoreum grabbed the girl hanging upside down like a bat on the ceiling and pulled her down to the floor.

She looked exactly like Baek Yeoreum with the pink hair from TV.

“I’m Raccoon Ol. I am a raccoon. A ceiling-walking raccoon.”

“Why are you Raccoon Ol? Your name is Songi. Songi from snowflake. Baek Yeoreum’s daughter.”

“I don’t know what’s what! I am Raccoon Ol! The greatest raccoon!”

Raccoon Ol.

That was the nickname the Nymphs had given her.

For reference, Bori’s nickname was Fox Noi.

Because he had fox ears and a tail.

The Nymphs, Bao Noi and Ino Noi, played so well with the kids that they even gave them nicknames.

The problem was that the kids always tried to talk and act like the Nymphs.

“Mheuheu, I think it would be good to bestow the title of Honorary Nymph on these little Core…!”

“This Ino Noi thinks so too…!”

It’s a real mess!

Then someone knocked-knock-knock on the door.

When I opened it, there were a bunch of little kids staring up at me with wide eyes.

“Hello. My name is Nam Soon. Are Bori and Songi there? And Gureum too. We were going to play at the playground together today.”

Such a polite girl.

Soon, her eyes lit up with interest.

“Mister, you’re Ha Namjin, right? I saw you on TV! It’s the first time I’ve seen you in real life! Is it true you cultivated the Earth all by yourself? And that you fought against really scary monsters!”

“It’s Ha Namjin!”

“Wow! It really is Ha Namjin!”

I was the idol of the children living through this new era.

They even designated a Ha Namjin Day, which says it all.

“Want an autograph?”

Scribble-scribble-scribble.

When I signed the paper I had prepared beforehand, the kids giggled-happily.

Soon Bori and Songi came running out and disappeared with the kids into the distance.

“Let’s play!”

“I’ll show you raccoon magic. Shapeshifting! Turning into an adult!”

The room was finally quiet.

Yoo Yeoreum, who’d been looking after the kids until just now, finally seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

“Finally, it’s a little quiet.”

“Then Yeoreum-ah, we’re bored, wanna make out?”

“Jin, you’re so old-fashioned.”

“Of course. Our appearances are the same, but we’ve all gotten older.”

“I’m eternally twenty years old, though.”

Yoo Yeoreum tossed her hair with the back of her hand—bouncy and full of life.

Indeed, Yoo Yeoreum was still as fresh-faced as she was at twenty.

You wouldn’t think she was a mother who’d given birth.

Maybe it’s because awakeners age slower, and because I’ve been holding her close for so long with my «Immortality» power, her aging has stopped.

So—

“So Yeoreum-ah, are we making out or not?”

“We are.”

I pulled Yoo Yeoreum into an embrace.

Then, from somewhere, a groan like “Eeeew—” could be heard.

I turned my head and saw the silver-haired girl sitting on the sofa, frowning.

“Mom, Dad. My eyes are burning. Do your lovey-dovey stuff where I’m not around.”

“Gureum-ah, how long have you been there?”

At my question, the girl, Ha Gureum, frowned even harder.

“I’ve been here the whole time! You’re an idiot, Dad!”

“Ha Gureum, who told you to talk to your dad like that? You’re gonna get it.”

Yoo Yeoreum grabbed Gureum’s scruff and lifted her up.

Then Gureum went limp, like a kitten whose neck had been bitten by its mother.

“……But……”

Gureum sniffled.

Yoo Yeoreum was quite strict with Gureum, her own daughter.

Poor Gureum.

So, I took Gooreum from Yoo Yeoreum’s hand and said,

“Gooreum, why don’t you go out and play with the other kids?”

“It’s childish and boring. I like studying better. Look at this, a test I got 97 on. If I just got one more question right, it would’ve been 100. I have to get 100 next time.”

Huff—Yoo Yeoreum sucked in a breath.

“I don’t think she’s my daughter.”

“She takes after me.”

I liked studying when I was little.

Because I liked it when Mom praised me for doing well.

So I raised my hand and ruffled Gooreum’s hair like crazy.

“97 is still great. Wow, you’re amazing.”

Rub rub rub rub—.

Then Gooreum would get mad,

“I woke up early and spent an hour on my hair!”

Even when she’s angry, she’s cute.

But eventually, Gooreum burst out laughing— *puha-hat*.

Because she can’t stand the tickling on her head, just like me.

“Gooreum, I don’t know where Eeng-eeng is, can you go get Eeng-eeng?”

“Hmph, I suppose I have to.”

Gooreum finally went outside to find Eeng-eeng.

For the record, Eeng-eeng was playing with the other kids outside, and eventually Gooreum, who was pretending to be mature, ended up running around with them too.

A languid spring day.

Hanamjin’s anniversary.

My days continued like this, full and joyful.

Whoosh—.

But when the wind blew like this, my heart would stir without me even knowing it.

# # #

“Namjin, it might be the last time, shouldn’t you go?”

That evening, I invited my friends over for dinner for the first time in a while.

Taeseong, who travels all over the country doing difficult and unpleasant work, told me a little news.

That my blood-related grandfather, former President Nam Taegeon, was on his deathbed.

The wives eating paused their spoons, and the kids, chattering away, stopped moving for a second.

I don’t know what kind of face I made at that moment, but it probably wasn’t a pretty one.

“Okay kids, if you’re done eating, go outside and catch some nymphs.”

“What? Why are we trying to catch those baonos? Nymph-catching should be banned by the constitution…!”

“This Inonoi ain’t getting caught…!”

Just then, Deok-soon, with the little kids and the nymphs, rushed out to the garden in a wave. The dining table felt empty in an instant.

“Um-“

“Humm-“

Wang Ja-hyun, doing well as a school principal, and Chang-shik, busy with presidential matters, crossed their arms and groaned deeply. They all seem to have a lot on their minds.

I could feel the worries of adults in the wrinkles on their foreheads.

Those b*stards are adults now too.

Of course, if you look closely at their faces, you can still see glimpses of the immature, clueless guys they were 10 years ago.

Interesting.

“I’m making you all lose your appetites. Alright, fine, I’ll just meet him. So, how about you guys? Are the kids growing up okay?”

“Ugh, don’t even get me started. Our princess is so disobedient…”

The daughter Wang Ja-hyun had is named Wang Gong-ju.

Her name’s literally Princess─.

Apparently she’s just as stubborn as Wang Ja-hyun was when he was young, so he’s worried.

“Chang-shik, what about your daughter?”

“Our Saet-byeol is…scary. She’s my daughter, but she’s got so much of her mom in her… It’s like having two wives.”

Chang-shik’s life isn’t so ordinary either.

And so, dinner with my friends ended.

Time to sleep.

Seo Ga-eul, in a thin nightgown, was sitting on the bed, intently looking at something, so I gave her a big hug from behind.

“Wah!”

“Mommy! Hey! You scared me.”

“What are you looking at?”

“Our wedding album. Three brides. It’s funny even when I look at it again. Mr. Kim Jang-dong from accounting is in here too. He looks younger back then. Look at the kids’ faces. They’re such babies. It was 10 years ago, so of course.”

“Seo Ga-eul, you look the same now as you did then.”

“Hey, you’re supposed to say I’ve gotten prettier. More importantly, why are you hugging me so tight? You’ve been subtly avoiding me lately. Trying to make a little brother or sister for Bori?”

“…No, it’s not that….”

Looking after kids is harder than I thought.

Just taking care of my three daughters is already my limit.

But if I have to take care of even more younger siblings on top of that, I’ll be utterly wrecked.

But Seo Gaeul grabbed my hand tight and wouldn’t let go.

“Hehehe, come here-!”

“Gwaaak!”

“Ah, Seo Gaeul’s making a preemptive strike! Hanamjjin! I’ll help you!”

“Jinah, hug me too.”

In the end, everyone overslept.

We canceled all the morning events, and then, lunch.

I seized the chance when everyone was catching their breath and headed to the hospital.

An old man was breathing heavily, relying on machines.

When he saw me, he took off the breathing apparatus attached to his mouth and struggled to sit up on the bed.

I was amazed that the man who had seemed so scary and powerful could become so fragile, like a dry leaf, about to crumble at any moment.

“Tell me if you want to live longer. For the past 200 years, I’ve thought a lot about you. The things you did can’t be forgiven. That’s why you have to atone while living a long life.”

How many people suffered because of what this man did?

Soon the old man said with difficulty.

“Don’t forgive me…. Live firmly, strongly, like that…. Forgiveness…. Reconciliation…. those are things for weaklings…. I’m going to die…. I’m tired of living now….”

“So I’ll forgive you. Because I don’t want to live the way you want me to. Also, because I don’t want my children to live clinging onto pain like I did. I want to be a role model for a new era.”

It wasn’t that resentment was holding me back, but that I was holding onto resentment.

I decided to let go of the pain and resentment, revenge, and hatred that I had been holding onto.

Hoping that someday, when these kinds of things happen in the world and children living in a new world suffer from sadness and resentment, they will remember my actions.

“Next time, I’ll show you my kids. They’re all adorable.”

“…….”

The old man looked at me as if he wanted to say something more, but he didn’t have the strength, so he lay back down on the bed.

He was very quiet now.

My heart also felt lighter.

Like finishing all the vacation diary entries I’d been putting off all at once.

I’m glad I came here today-.

Thinking that, I stepped outside and the sunlight felt warm.

Srrr-.

Then a breeze blew from above, tickling my hair.

Like a compliment for doing a good job.

So, what do I do now?

I’m free because I have no purpose, but I also feel a little bored.

Just then, I heard some news.

“Namjin, you know about all the new environments created on Earth over the past 200 years by tectonic shifts, right? The places called the Three Great Demonic Realms.”

At Geum Tae-sung’s words, I thought of the Amazon, Zhangjiajie, and the Olympus mountains that rose high in Greece, known as the Three Great Demonic Realms.

Places with bizarre terrain and lots of monsters.

“This time, explorers investigating the underground of Mount Olympus found a suspicious city. This is a video they took there. Look here. These people in the video─”

A strange ancient city located beneath the mountains.

The people captured there were─.

“These people are all supposed to be dead. There’s a city of the dead under the mountain. One of the explorers even said he met his brother who had died a long time ago.”

An ancient underground city where you can meet the dead.

If such a place really exists, I can’t *not* go.

“Namjin, it could be dangerous. There are guardians protecting the city too. It seems like they’re at least level 4 or 5 Awakened beings.”

Guardians, too?

Even more interesting.

Adventures are always more exciting when you don’t know what’s coming.

“Hanamjjin! Where do you think you’re sneaking off to!”

“Greek airline tickets? When did you book these?”

“Jina, are you planning on going somewhere without me?”

But I got caught by my family.

Since it’s come to this, there’s only one thing to do.

“Let’s all go together.”

And so, we embarked on a family trip to the mysterious city of the afterlife.

Who we met there, and what we experienced, I’d like to keep as minor secrets.

What’s important is that my adventure, which I thought was over, will continue indefinitely.

And that I have a family precious enough to follow me even to the city of the afterlife.

So, today too, I bid a small farewell to everyone for the new and boisterous encounters of tomorrow.

And I pray.

That the winds that brushed past me today become a warm spring breeze to those who have met and watched over me until now—.