Chapter 1: Unexpected Company

It had been a year, and everyone had worked hard. It was the start of winter break, and we were told not to play around too much and to study diligently.
I wasn’t particularly happy, though.
I put my bag on my shoulder and left school, just walking home in silence.
In August of this year, during summer break, my mom passed away, and now, I was alone when I got home.
The mom who would greet me with a bright smile was gone.
The mom who would cook stew to match my time of arrival from school was gone.
The mom who would cautiously enter the house late at night after work, worried about waking me up, was gone.
And yet, as I opened the front door, I had been repeating the same phrase for months.

“I’m home.”
I knew.
I knew that there was no one in this house to welcome me anymore.
I was seventeen.
At a young age, I was left alone in this world.
I put my bag down in the corner of the single room and turned on the electric blanket first.
I was only using the electric blanket for heating to save on gas, and I would drink a cup of warm corn tea.
After drinking the tea, I lay down on the electric blanket and closed my eyes.
Even though four months had passed since Mom passed away, I still missed her.
Every time I closed my eyes, I hoped that when I opened them, Mom would have set the table and be waiting for me.
Mom was definitely dead…
I had definitely confirmed Mom, who had become cold.
Yet I still couldn’t let go of Mom.
“It’s cold…”
The coldest winter of my life had arrived.

Thump-!
A vibration ran through the floor and into my body.
I had covered myself with a blanket and was trying to sleep a bit more, but the floor shook again with a thump!
I planned to sleep until I had to go to my part-time job, but it seemed impossible.
“Haa…”
As I got up my heavy body, the house next door was bustling.
It seemed like someone was moving into this slum.
Well, the house next door had been empty for months.
“What time is it?”
I checked the time, and there were two hours left until my part-time job.
I plan to ask them if I can work all day, from morning to night, since the break starts tomorrow.
It’s just empty staying at home, so it’s better to work outside all the time.
I was planning to look for another job after graduating high school.
“Let’s eat.”
I got up and took out a pot from the kitchen outside my single room.
My house didn’t even have a gas range, so I took out a burner and started to boil a single ramen.
Steam escaped from the aluminum pot, and the smell of ramen spread subtly throughout the house.
As I was about to take the finished ramen into the house, a shadow fell on the aluminum front door.
A very small child was lingering outside my house.
Was it a kid from the house next door that had just moved in?
Since the kid had nothing to do with me, I tried to ignore it and go into the house.
But it seemed like the kid kept lingering in front of my house, so I turned off the light and opened the front door.
“Who is it?”
“Oh… hello!”
I made eye contact with a very small child.
Judging by their age, maybe a first-grader?
No? Should I say they’re a kindergartener?
“Yeah. Hello.”
“I… I moved in next door!”
“Oh really? It’s cold out here, go inside.”
I said, but the kid didn’t want to go home.
I glanced at the house next door and saw that they seemed busy with the move, and they didn’t seem to have time to care for the child.
No matter how busy they were.
What are they doing, not taking care of a kid like this?
Well, I understand, but what did they have to bring into this narrow single room?
-Grumble Grumble…
The source of the sudden sound wasn’t me.
It was the kid in front of me, who was holding their stomach.
The kid, whose face was flushed red, was clutching their stomach.
“Are you hungry?”
The kid shook their head vigorously at my words.
It seems that the reason they were lingering in front of my house was because of the smell of ramen.
The kid might get in trouble if they were given food without their parents’ permission.
I was going to ignore it and go inside, as I could be in trouble if I helped them.
“Go to your mom.”
As I was about to close the door, the sound of the child’s stomach growling came again.
“Haa… wait.”
I opened the door wide and headed next door.
I looked inside the front door of the house next door and saw an old man carrying a large piece of luggage with difficulty.
“Excuse me…”
“Hmm?”
“Are you this kid’s grandfather?”
I showed the kid, who had come up next to me, to the old man.
“Oh, you must have been impatient and went out even though I told you to stay inside. Come on in, it’s cold outside.”
“Grandpa. I’m hungry…!”
“Okay. I’ll make you food as soon as I finish.”
“I’m hungry now…”
It seemed that I was involved in a troublesome situation.
Judging by what I saw, there were several large pieces of luggage left, but it looked difficult for the old man to carry them.
But the kid next to me still looked hungry, so I ended up rolling up my sleeves.
“I’ll help you.”
“What? Just leave it…! Why would you help someone you’ve never met?”
“It’s okay. There doesn’t seem to be much luggage, and the kid’s hungry, so let’s feed the kid first. I’ll move the luggage, so please make the kid food.”
“No, but I can’t impose on someone I’ve never met before-”
I didn’t have time to waste on this, so I immediately picked up the luggage that was outside the house and carried it inside.
Despite the old man’s attempts to stop me, I just carried the luggage and put it inside the house.
After stacking all the luggage, I was going to say goodbye to the old man and head home.
“Then I’ll get going.”
“I don’t know how to thank you…”
“It’s okay. It wasn’t that much luggage. I’ll go.”
“If you haven’t eaten, eat here.”
“It’s okay. I have ramen at home…”
Come to think of it, the ramen must have been soggy.
Well, since I helped them move, I could eat a meal.
“Then… I’ll be rude.”
“Ji-eun, come on in.”
“Yes.”
I took off my shoes and went inside, but it was also a small, single room.
It was very awkward being alone in the room with an unknown child.
I was also bad at talking, so I was just looking at my phone when the kid asked my name.
“Oppa. What’s your name?”
“Lee Jihoon. What about you?”
“I’m Lee Ji-eun!”
That’s a common name.
There were three Lee Ji-euns in our high school too.
“Oppa and I have similar names! It’s amazing!”
Anything is amazing.
“How old are you, Oppa?”
“Seventeen.”
“Wow- Then you’re a high school student?!”
“Yeah. How old are you?”
“I’m seven! I’m going to school next year! Yunil Elementary!”
So she was a kindergartener right now.
“Oh- Yunil Elementary?”
The kid nodded at my words.
“I go to Yunil High next to it.”
“Can I say hi if I see you on the street?”
“Huh?”
Why would you say hi?
“Can I say hi?”
“Oh- yeah. You can say hi.”
“Thank you~”
The kid smiled brightly and expressed her gratitude.
Now I was wondering what to talk about when the door opened.
“Let’s eat.”
It was the old man who came in with an old-fashioned dining table.
But this smell is…
“I’m sorry, it’s moving day, so all I can make is ramen.”
“No. It’s okay. I like ramen.”
There was no egg, as expected…
I should have eaten the ramen from home.
“I made a lot, so eat a lot. Ji-eun, eat a lot too.”
“Yes~”
The old man scooped a ladle of ramen and put it in my bowl.
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you. Thanks to you, the work was done really quickly. You worked hard because of us.”
“It wasn’t that much luggage.”
“Yeah. Eat a lot.”
The old man put ramen in the bowl of his granddaughter.
Lastly, he put ramen in his bowl and took a bite.
After eating ramen together, the old man was going to clear the table.
“Stay seated. I’ll clear it.”
“It’s okay. Leave it. I’ll do it.”
“I’m sorry to have to get something from you. I’ll clean up.”
“…I don’t know how to thank you for making me work so hard.”
“It’s okay.”
As I lifted the table, the kid who was sitting next to me opened the door.
“Thank you.”
“Yes.”
I put the dishes in the sink and was about to wash them immediately.
It was a kitchen where a cold wind was blowing, and hot water didn’t come out well.
But the kid was standing by me instead of going inside the room.
“It’s cold. Go inside.”
“Oppa isn’t going in either. I want to do the dishes too.”
What is the kid, who is barely tall enough to reach the sink, talking about?
“Go help your grandpa.”
“I can do the dishes now too?!”
“Why do you want to wash the dishes?”
“Because…”
“Because it looks like playing with bubbles!”
Wow.
Does washing the dishes look like that to a kid?
The innocence is really amazing.
“Do you really want to do it?”
“Yes! I’m going to elementary school, so I can do the dishes now.”
“Ugh…”
Kids are really difficult.
“Okay.”
I looked around and brought a bath chair that was stuck in the corner.
“Step on this.”
“Yes.”
The little elementary school student was still tiny even after stepping on the bath chair.
I rinsed the dishes and pot once with water, then put detergent on a sponge and handed it to the kid.
“Put the bubbles on. I’ll rinse the dishes.”
“Yes.”
The kid was carefully scrubbing the dishes with a sponge with her small hands.
Oh, I really don’t know what I’m doing here. I have to go to work soon.
“Give me the done ones.”
“Here.”
It’s a situation where I’m washing dishes with a ten-year-old girl.
It was something I couldn’t have imagined a few hours ago.
I was so dumbfounded that I burst out laughing.
“Have you washed the dishes a lot, Oppa?”
“I do it every day without fail.”
“Wow, then it must be fun every day.”
“Are you sure this is really fun for you?”
“Yes! Look.”
The kid stopped scrubbing and rubbed her hands.
And she carefully blew air into her hands and created small bubbles.
“Bubbles!”
“Yeah. That’s amazing.”
After my answer, there was a moment of silence.
Did I answer too coldly to the young sprout growing?
“You have no soul…”
“It’s, it’s amazing!”
“Hehe..! Look closely.”
In the end, I had to wash the dishes for 15 minutes when it would have taken 5 minutes.