novelEpilogue - 2
| ← Ch.299 | Ch.301 (e) → |
- 1
"Well, is there happen to be... Martial Arts House... no, I mean... a man named Jaehwang..."
"Dad, guest!"
As soon as Dong-cheol mentioned Jaehwang's name, the girl shouted out loud inside the gate and disappeared. He felt like there was something wrong with that she said.
"Dad?"
"Dad!?"
Everyone was dumbfounded when a girl who looked over 15 called Jaehwang as her father. Dong-cheol was the most surprised among them. He tried to ask something more, but the girl disappeared and when he saw Jaehwang, who showed up, opening the gate a few minutes later, he opened his eyes wide at the changed look of Jaehwang.
"So Dong-cheol is here?"
"You... What happened?"
He recognized that it was Jaehwang who appeared because it was in his memory. The problem was that Jaehwang, who was now in front of his eyes, was too young. He was not just young, but he was also short, and he had a babyface. It's like seeing Jaehwang from the past.
"What?"
"Why are you... You've become so... young. Um..."
Looking at Dong-cheol's expression that explained his speechlessness, Jaehwang briefly touched his face and answered him with a kick.
"My wife has changed her taste these days..."
"What? What's that..."
"It's a bit complicated, come on in anyway. Is your grandfather here? It's been a while since we last met... You must be Jaewoo and you're... Well... who is this?"
"It's Soo-Ah. She wasn't born when you entered the mountain."
"Oh, I see, come on in for now."
He saw a spacious yard that seemed more of a playground when he opened the gate. As he crossed a yard with broad granite, the plaque was revealed in the fog. Jaehwang led the party to the largest of them after Jaehwang gave Kwon Je a nod.
"I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit you in the meantime."
"No, it's fine. By the way, where is she?"
She was the wife of Jaehwang so she would be thought of as a daughter-in-law, Kwon Je spoke up to Goongi because she had lived for thousands of years.
"She took the kids out for a while. I've called her, so she'll be back soon."
"Kids?" It was Dong-cheol who tried to ask something about Jaehwang's answer, but his mouth was blocked by a girl who came in with the door open. It is the girl who greeted them at the entrance.
"Dad, here are some refreshments for your guests." The girl stepped inside with a table of fruits and tea.
When she put down the table, Jaehwang said to the girl, "Na-yeon, come here. These guys..."
Jaehwang introduced her one by one to those who sat and stared blankly at her. It's a natural conversation between a daughter and a father, but it's a bit strange that there seems to be not much of an age difference between Jaehwang and the girl.
"Hello. My first name is Chun Na-yeon."
As she bowed politely, Dong-cheol, who had been holding back his curiosity for a while, asked Jaehwang, "Jaehwang, what happened?"
"What?"
"Well, I mean..." Dong-cheol, who had looked at Jaehwang and then Nayeon, soon cleared up the questions that soared in his head and asked in a slightly lower voice."No, I thought you said your wife was giving birth last year... and this lady calls you Dad..."
"That's right, she's my daughter."
"What, how old is she?"
"One-year-old."
"Huh?"
"She's one year old... something wrong?"
"No... but..."
Jaehwang answered like nothing was. Knowing who Jaehwang's wife was and that Jaehwang was beyond human limitations, they couldn't say much even if this situation was as bizarre as this young lady calling him "dad."
There was a moment of silence between the party, they took their time to understand what was happening.
Then, the door rumbled.
WHACK!
Na-yeon, the first one, opened the door with caution, and...
Rumbling...
"Dad!"
"Dad!"
The five girls who rushed in were hugged by Jaehwang.
"Dad, mom hit Da-eun today! Da-eun was hurt!"
"Dad! Dad! I caught this today! Look! It looks delicious, doesn't it?
"Dad! I learned this from mom!"
"Dad! I don't want to go out with my mom anymore! I want to play with my dad! Play, play!"
The party was silenced by the noisy girls surrounding Jaehwang. Dong-cheol's sons and daughters, Jae-woo and Soo-Ah, with their eyes wide open in their mother's arms, stared at the pitiful rabbit that one of the girls believed to have caught.
"Doo-ri, Seri, Da-eun, Joo-hong, and Nam-mi! First, you girls say hello to dad's guests." While Jaehwang spoke to them with a heavy face, the girls didn't take notice of what he said. Jaehwang's charisma, which used to make the earth vibrate in the past, was useless here.
"Everybody out!"
Then, as the voice of a woman with dignity rang loudly outside the door, the girls clinging to Jaehwang rumbled out as if they had never done so. There came the silence, and it felt like a herd of cattle was suddenly driven out of the room.
Then, a moment later, a woman came in, dressed in a modest hanbok. The woman was, of course, Goongi, the one and only half of Jaehwang.
"It's been a long time."
Goongi, with her head, bowed modestly; she didn't change that much. When she came in and greeted them lightly, the party began to talk in earnest. The ones mainly speaking were Dong-cheol and Kwon Je, and the couple was almost ignorant of the outside news. Soon, however, everyone began to talk happily.
They were like the family of Jaehwang.
"You look tired."
"No, " said Jaehwang, shrugging at Kwon Je's words.
.
"He and I are very busy with kids these days."
"I can see that."
It's not yet clear in his head, but it's hard not to believe seeing the girls who are the size of horses cling to Jaehwang and call him as their father.
"But they're all... a year old?"
Jaehwang nodded at Dong-cheol's question."Well, I said I wanted to make the house crowded, my wife had a hard time with that too..."
"Really?" It was Dong-cheol who thought that God was obviously different.
"But they're one year old and they're all so..." Dong-cheol blurted out the latter words. It's hard to say to a group of one-year-olds that they looked precocious.
"Even though they look so big, they don't really know much yet."
"Well... yes. You must have had a hard time." Dong-cheol, looking at Goongi and Jaehwang's faces, shook his head. Seven one-year-old girls like that... the reason why Jaehwang had not been able to appear in the world, he could now understand what happened.
But that was Dong-cheol's misunderstanding. If it were only seven, Jaehwang or Goongi would not have suffered so much.
CRACK! Qua-bam!
They heard a crack outside the door. As everyone was silent and blinking at the sound, Jaehwang and Goongi looked at each other with a low sigh.
"Shall I?"
"No, I'll go. Let me take care of these guys. Excuse me for a while..."
When Goongi, who bowed her head in a calm manner, rose from her seat, closed the door softly, and disappeared, the curious guests all looked out of the door. And at the moment... with everyone's mouth wide open, they stared blankly at the great scuffle unfolding in the middle of the playground.
There were twelve boys who looked like Jaehwang and a dozen girls who look like Goongi in a tangled battle. Interestingly, no one said anything. It's literally a silent scuffle. Moreover, it wasn't an ordinary scuffle, they were exchanging blows quite extraordinarily.
One boy, in particular, was using Kwon Je's invincible skill, and when he saw it, Kwon Je's eyes expanded to such an extent that they couldn't get any bigger. That boy was so perfect and so natural. He showed a great sense of maturity that only the great masters who have learned from himself for decades could show.
"Everybody! Stop moving!"
When Goongi, who rolled up her arms and shouted with her voice that seemed it could shatter a mountain, everyone in the fight stopped as if time had been frozen.
A look of fear crept up in their faces.
"Uh... Mom..."
"Mommy..."
"Line up!"
STOMP STOMP!
Everyone who was fighting at her shout flew like lightning and gathered in two rows before her. The first seat was empty, and the first one, Na-yeon, popped up in the air and sat down lightly.
Goongi, whose eyes were burning with anger, looked at her. Although she pretended to behave well for being born a few seconds earlier than others, she's also a tough nut.
"Na-Yeon! Tell me what happened."
Goongi asked her first, but the answer came from somewhere else. A girl with tangled hair standing in the front row shouted while waving a bloody thing in her hands. Her face was red as if she couldn't contain her anger.
"The boys tried to take the rabbit!"
"Who!"
"Du-ri!"
At her snitch, the boy named Duri shouted, "It's because you're teasing me! You went on a picnic with mom without us!"
"That's because you guys fought amongst yourselves and you were grounded!"
"You! Damn it!"
"Huh! I'm going to tell mom what you guys were doing out of the house earlier, sneaking a peek at the guests!"
COMMENT
"Yay! Hit her!"
"Mom! Look at that! Argh!"
Everything turned into a mess.
With her hand on her forehead as if her head was tingling, Goongi shook her head and shouted, "Everybody, be quiet! You're not going to cry! And you, Duri!"
When Goongi was about to start a one-time speech, Dong-cheol asked Jaehwang who stood behind her, "They're also... all one-year-olds?"
"Yes."
"How many of them... ?"
"Twenty... Seven..."
| ← Ch. 299 | Ch. 301 (e) → |