MDMG 16

Chapter 16

Chapter 6. Living in the Same House (2)

The day before I moved to Seoul.

Looking at the house, completely cleared out, I had one thought.

“Was the house I lived in really this big?”

The refrigerator, washing machine, TV, sofa, and everything else.

Once all the large appliances were gone, the house looked incredibly spacious and quiet.

Seeing it like this made me feel strange.

‘I’ve hardly ever left Cheongju since I was born.’

Thinking about leaving this familiar place and going up to Seoul made me feel a little sad, but at the same time, I was also excited.

Well. The place where you were born and raised isn’t the only place that can be called home.

A place where your family is.

That place can also become a home in your heart.

Right now, I was preparing to move to a new home in my heart.

Thinking of it that way made my sadness about leaving this place a little smaller.

“I should probably go to bed soon.”

It was only 10 p.m., but if I wanted to get up early tomorrow and hurry with the moving preparations, it would be better to sleep early.

“I need to check everything one last time before the movers arrive.”

My last day in Cheongju.

For some reason, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to sleep well tonight.

At 9 a.m.

A large moving truck stopped briefly in front of my house.

While the movers were loading my personal belongings onto the truck, the landlady quietly called me.

“Gichan.”

The landlady put something into my hand.

A white envelope.

I knew what was inside as soon as I received it.

“Go buy something delicious for your daughters.”

“Oh, no. You really don’t have to give me this.”

“Of course I do. Thanks to you, Gichan, I and my family were able to live downstairs without worrying. This is my way of thanking you.”

The landlady also had a painful family story.

She had lost her husband at a young age and raised two daughters all by herself.

Since it was a house with only women, having a man like me around must have made her feel safer.

In fact, when her eldest daughter was once stalked by an ex-boyfriend, I had stepped in and given him a serious warning.

It had been a dangerous situation that could have turned into a serious crime, but fortunately, everything ended well.

After that day, the landlady kept thanking me and would sometimes give me side dishes and other things.

“If you ever come down to Cheongju, come visit often. We can at least have a meal together.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you so much for everything.”

“Me too. Live happily with your daughters from now on. And if you meet a nice woman, get married too. Okay?”

“I’ll try.”

Once again, the subject of marriage couldn’t be left out.

Just as the packing was almost finished and the moving truck was about to leave, a car hurried toward us.

It was a familiar car.

As soon as the car door opened, my eldest daughter, Jinhye, appeared.

“I’m glad. I thought I would be late, but I made it.”

“What are you doing here?”

I was surprised to suddenly see Jinhye here when I thought she would be in Seoul.

“It’s your moving day, Dad. At least one daughter should be with you. Seonhye is in Incheon for a drama shoot, and the youngest said that one of the stocks she had been watching is being listed today, so I came alone.”

I wasn’t particularly disappointed that the others couldn’t come.

After all, I would see all of them once I got to Seoul.

If anything, I felt bad that Jinhye had come all the way down to Cheongju.

“You didn’t have to come all the way here.”

“It’s okay. I had some business to take care of in Daejeon and Sejong this morning, so I’m on my way back from there anyway. Get in, Dad. Let’s go to Seoul together in this car.”

“Should I?”

She had come all the way here for her father.

I couldn’t refuse her offer.

And honestly, I preferred traveling with my daughter rather than riding with the moving company workers.

When I got into the car, the familiar driver who had come down to Cheongju with Jinhye last time greeted me.

“Hello, sir. Congratulations on your move.”

“Thank you. By the way, you must be tired from driving.”

“I’m fine. It’s my job. Representative, shall I take you directly home?”

At the driver’s question, Jinhye nodded firmly.

“Yes. I’m going straight home after this, so please take us home. Driver Kang, you can go home right after dropping us off today.”

“Understood, Representative.”

At the words ‘early departure,’ a tiny smile appeared on Driver Kang’s face.

Jinhye and I arrived at the house where my daughters lived before the moving truck.

After entering the door password, Jinhye stepped aside for me.

“Dad, you go in first.”

From Jinhye’s behavior, I immediately realized something.

‘Looks like the girls prepared another surprise.’

Ever since they were young, my daughters had liked doing things like this.

Even Jinhye, who didn’t seem like the type to enjoy surprise events, usually went along with it whenever her younger sisters wanted to do something.

Perhaps this was another one of those occasions.

With that thought, I grabbed the doorknob and opened the front door.

And then—

“Pop—!”

“Bang—!”

My second daughter and youngest daughter burst party poppers and welcomed me with a cake.

“Congratulations on our beloved Dad moving in!”

“And welcome!”

I knew it.

A warm smile naturally spread across my face at my daughters’ cute little event.

“Seonhye, didn’t you say you had a drama shoot?”

“Of course that was a lie. Jinhye unni lied on purpose so we could surprise Dad.”

“Then what about the youngest saying she had a stock being listed today?”

Mihye quietly nodded.

Seeing this, I sometimes wondered if the eldest was actually more mischievous than her younger sisters.

The party wasn’t starting right away, though.

My welcome party would be held this evening.

Until then, I planned to finish organizing all my belongings.

That way, I could eat, drink, and enjoy myself as much as I wanted tonight.

As the sun began to set.

My welcome party was held along with dinner.

The table was filled with drinks and all kinds of food made by Jinhye to go with them.

“I could have cooked too.”

“It’s Dad’s welcome party. We can’t make the guest of honor cook.”

After taking off her apron, Jinhye asked me to taste the food.

Cream pasta, basil risotto, tenderloin steak, and more.

Everything strongly reflected Jinhye’s taste, since she liked Western-style food.

I decided to taste the pasta first.

Perhaps it was because she had often made it for me since she was in high school.

“It’s delicious.”

The taste hadn’t changed.

If anything, it felt even better than before.

“I’m glad it suits Dad’s taste.”

Jinhye looked greatly relieved.

My beloved daughter had made it for her father.

There was no way it could taste bad.

“Seonhye and Mihye, you still can’t cook, right?”

At those words, both daughters’ shoulders flinched slightly.

“I can. I’m just too busy.”

“M-Me too.”

It was a lie.

Neither of them had any intention of learning.

The reason was obvious.

They were too lazy.

Even when I had offered to teach them how to cook in the past, both of them had made all kinds of excuses and refused.

I could understand it with the youngest, since she had always been extremely lazy by nature.

But—

‘Seonhye is a little surprising.’

Unlike Jinhye, who tried hard at everything, Seonhye was the type who only worked hard in the areas she liked.

Which meant—

‘She probably doesn’t like cooking very much.’

Seonhye cut off a piece of the steak Jinhye had made and began defending herself.

“I’ll learn someday. Really.”

“Okay. When that time comes, tell Dad. I’ll teach you properly.”

I liked cooking a lot, after all.

It would be nice if the day came when I could cook together with my second daughter in the kitchen.

“Oh, right. I almost forgot.”

Jinhye took something out and handed it to me.

It was a card with blue and white colors arranged nicely together.

“This is your resident card. When you enter or leave, you don’t need to enter the password. Just tap this card, and the door will open automatically.”

“Really? That sounds convenient.”

“Besides the entrance, there are also facilities for residents that you can use whenever you want with this card.”

“What kind of facilities?”

“A gym, cafeteria, parking lot. Things like that.”

They even had things like that.

As expected, expensive homes really were different.

Among the other facilities, the gym especially caught my attention.

“Where is the gym?”

“It’s in the basement. A lot of people come in the evening, so it would be better to go before then.”

“That’s fine. I was planning to go in the morning anyway.”

Because of my shoulder, there were some limitations on strength training, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t exercise at all.

I would just do what I could.

That much would be enough.

‘I’ll do some running too. That should be fine.’

I decided to go check it out starting tomorrow.

The Lee family’s morning usually started at 7 a.m., unless the second daughter had an early-morning filming schedule.

I woke up before then.

6:30 in the morning.

After washing my face quickly in the bathroom, I headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for my daughters.

Just as I was almost finished preparing a Western-style breakfast that Jinhye liked, the eldest daughter appeared in the living room first.

“Good morning, Dad.”

“Good morning. You’re going to work today too, right?”

“Yes. Seonhye and Mihye will probably wake up late.”

“I know.”

Thanks to staying in Seoul for a few days last time, I had gotten a rough idea of what my daughters’ morning routines were like.

While Jinhye got ready for work, I packed some food separately for my second daughter and youngest daughter to eat when they woke up later.

I also remembered to put a Post-it note on each one.

“The one on the right is Seonhye’s, and the one on the left is the youngest’s… If I label them like this, they’ll know which one to eat.”

Now, all that was left was to see Jinhye off to work.

Before leaving through the front door, my eldest daughter gave me a bright smile.

“I’ll be back, Dad.”

“Be careful and have a good day.”

After safely seeing my eldest daughter off, I changed into training clothes and got into the elevator heading down to the basement.

‘I brought the card. I brought my running shoes.’

I checked one more time to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything.

Ding!

As soon as the elevator doors opened, a long hallway came into view.

There were separate signs showing the way to the parking lot and the way to the gym.

Thanks to that, I didn’t have to worry about getting lost.

When I arrived at the gym, there were hardly any people there, just as my eldest daughter had said.

No.

It wasn’t just that there were hardly any people.

‘I’m the only one here.’

Everyone must have already gone to work at this hour.

I tapped my card and entered the gym. After changing into my running shoes, I looked around.

It looked better than most gyms.

While I was warming up by stretching, someone else came into the gym.

A woman with long brown hair tied neatly behind her.

Both her beauty and figure were far beyond what could be considered ordinary.

The woman looked at me, who was alone in the gym, and greeted me with a smile in her eyes.

I also awkwardly nodded slightly and returned her greeting.

But then—

‘Where have I seen her before?’

It was definitely our first meeting.

Even so, her face looked incredibly familiar.

Déjà vu?

‘It doesn’t feel like that.’

This mysterious encounter kept bothering me.