Chapter 2: I Can’t Roll My Tongue

“That’s right, Minhee. A good girl listens to her mother.”

“Okay, Daddy. I love you so much. You know what? I like Daddy more.”

Her unexpected confession warmed my heart.

“Are you upset with Mommy, Minhee? Fine, I’m always the bad mother, aren’t I…”

“Huh? I’m not upset. It’s not because Mommy scolded me. I just like Daddy more.”

I suppose blood really is thicker than water. The two women in my life couldn’t let a single remark go unanswered, and they bickered back and forth.

“Honey, you shouldn’t indulge her every single time. You need to scold her when she’s doing something wrong. Don’t you understand how important table manners are? Stop being so overprotective.”

“Alright, I’m sorry, Na-young. Minhee, let’s behave ourselves from now on, okay?”

They say men remain children no matter how old they get, but from my perspective, women were no different. My daughter and her mother were exactly the same.

Still, watching them like this gave me a sense of satisfaction.

As familiar as ever.

“Thank you for the meal.”

I hurriedly finished eating, got up, and headed to the master bedroom. It was about time to change clothes and get ready for work.

I was reluctant to leave behind such a happy morning, with the two of them bickering affectionately.

“Honey, are you getting up already?”

“I have a meeting today. I need to go over the materials one more time.”

I entered the dressing room with my wife following close behind.

After making sure our daughter wasn’t following us, Na-young closed the door.

She reached around the back of my neck and interlocked her fingers.

Even now, she kissed me with the same passion as a woman in the prime of her youth.

“Mmm… You’re still so wonderful… You’re a perfect ten, honey…”

After our brief kiss, she began taking out the clothes I would wear today, her cheeks flushed.

Beautiful.

At this moment, the most beautiful woman in the world was my wife.

“Honey, I think Armani would be good today. The Black Label.”

To the average person, all suits probably looked the same.

But once you actually wore one, you could clearly feel the difference in quality.

I put on the black suit my wife had taken out for me. It had a subtle sheen to it.

Calling it a mere gloss wouldn’t do it justice. It had an exceptionally luxurious feel.

If anything, it was more appropriate to describe it as having the lustrous shine of freshly cooked white rice.

“Thanks.”

“Okay. Do well today.”

I might be getting promoted soon.

A man who was endlessly close to success.

That was me.

“You might get promoted this time, right?”

“Yeah. If I can just get ahead of Choi Moon-young, the director position is mine. It’s practically certain.”

Becoming a partner at the accounting firm.

That was what my father-in-law had wanted so desperately.

Once I became a partner, I would be able to establish close relationships with some of the biggest names in major corporations.

And the director position was the stepping stone toward that glory.

“See? I knew my judgment was right!”

Park Na-young gazed into my eyes as though admiring a beautiful trophy.

Her expression was utterly enchanted.

Meanwhile, I brushed off the shoulders of the suit she had handed me.

“You always brush off your collars, don’t you? Once on the left, once on the right. So carefully, too.”

“Do I?”

“Yeah. It’s charming. It’s your own little habit.”

Perhaps because of my personality, or perhaps because of the environment in which I had grown up, I had become the kind of person who pursued perfection in almost everything.

I had developed the habit of brushing off my clothes in case even the slightest bit of dirt had gotten on them.

By now, it seemed to have become something of a ritual.

“And, honey, you’re always so proper when it comes to women, too.”

It wasn’t just women.

I might have been equally awkward when it came to other human relationships.

From my childhood until today, I had never had the time to look sideways at anything that didn’t serve my purpose.

I was the son of a pitiful nobody.

No, I had grown up in an environment far beneath even the average person’s circumstances, deep underground, so to speak.

The best I could do was be meticulous.

I hadn’t received the kind of quality education that children from wealthy families enjoyed, nor was I some brilliant prodigy.

If I wanted to get ahead of others, I had to be more thorough than they were.

Perhaps that was why I had developed a lean, slender body without an ounce of excess fat.

My dry manner of speaking, which sometimes made me sound a little rude.

And the small amount of kindness I had finally learned to show in order to cherish the happiness I had managed to obtain.

These qualities were attractive to her, and thanks to them, we were now here together.

It wasn’t a lightning-strike kind of love, but sometimes I thought that perhaps we were destined for each other precisely because all these conditions aligned so perfectly.

“Oh, Na-young. Make sure you hide that cigarette pack properly. Minhee might see it.”

A British-made cigarette pack was peeking out slightly from the bag beside the vanity.

“Oh my, I forgot to throw it away before coming home. I’ve been a little stressed lately… I’m sorry, honey.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for. I told you, I really don’t mind you smoking. There are all sorts of ways to relieve stress. Besides, smoking occasionally can be rather alluring.”

It seemed that my wife sometimes smoked when returning from business trips.

It wasn’t something I usually saw, but I didn’t think badly of it.

Now, it was time to head for the front door.

I didn’t have much time to spare.

“Daddy~ Have a good day!”

My daughter beamed, showing her tiny teeth.

The little rascal had followed me all the way to the entrance, so I knelt down and hugged her.

Feeling the warmth of her little body filled me with happiness once again.

She was my happiness and my love, something I could never give up, even if I had to abandon everything else.

“Okay, my little Princess Minhee. You have a good day at school, too.”

Leaving behind my wife and daughter’s warm farewell, I stepped out and closed the front door.

Then I adjusted my tie one more time.

“Hmm…”

All meetings were important, of course.

But now that I was on the verge of being promoted to director, even the slightest hint of unreliability would be fatal.

And for my rival, Choi Moon-young, it would be a cause for celebration.

“There’s no way I’m letting that happen.”

I headed down to the parking garage, my fighting spirit burning coldly.

Then I got into the luxurious sedan my wealthy father-in-law had given me.

Call me a materialist or whatever, but my choice had certainly been the right one.

“Ahh… I’m sinking right in…”

I sank into the comfortable seat, enjoying the sensation of my backside disappearing into the plush cushion.

Then, for some reason, I suddenly thought of my daughter sticking out her tongue adorably.

I unconsciously tried to imitate her, playfully curling my tongue into a little circle.

“Huh?”

But even though my face was practically cramping from the effort, I couldn’t curl my tongue.

“Was I unable to roll my tongue?”

That’s right.

I couldn’t roll my tongue.

A flash of realization struck the back of my head.

“Rolling your tongue, huh…”

Lee Jin-ho muttered as he mechanically turned the steering wheel.

An uncomfortable sense of incongruity settled in his mind, like a tiny fishbone lodged in his mouth.

Perhaps because of it, even the parking garage’s barrier seemed unusually slow to respond today.

“Can’t you do something about this? Hurry up. You’re moving slower than a measuring worm.”

Regardless of my complaints, several seconds passed before the barrier finally lifted.

“I was faster off when I lived alone in my old studio apartment, you idiot.”

I snapped at the unresponsive barrier.

Even the soft leather seats enveloping my entire body couldn’t put my mind at ease.

The tiny thorn in my heart only made me more uncomfortable, as though someone had scattered gravel across the seat.

“Wasn’t that Mendel’s law of inheritance? Dominant genes?”

Once I reached the road, I repeatedly accelerated and braked harshly.

If only there hadn’t been so many cars, I could have stepped on the gas and driven freely.

But with traffic moving like a procession of ants, there was nothing I could do.

“Genetics…? Who was it again…? Mendel? Damn it!!”

Screeeech!

I almost ended up wasting a considerable amount of money on a traffic violation.

My car stopped well past the crosswalk, and the pedestrians crossing there each shot me a disapproving glance.

I had never been so grateful for heavily tinted windows.

“Damn it!”

At last, a definite memory surfaced.

And yet, even though I knew what it meant, I desperately wanted to deny it like a coward.

The inheritance of tongue-rolling ability.

The law of dominance.

Children born to parents who couldn’t roll their tongues couldn’t be born with the ability to roll theirs.

If my memory was correct, this was an established fact.

Then, another memory related to tongue-rolling came to mind.

Actually, there was one more reason I had liked my wife.

It was the fact that neither of us could roll our tongues.

When we discovered that during one of our dates, we had looked at each other and laughed so hard.

And that day, we had decided to love each other.

“Was it spicy chicken feet?”

I remembered her sticking out her tongue and laughing because the chicken feet were so spicy.

Her expression had been exactly like my daughter Minhee’s.

Then, when she suddenly asked whether I could roll my tongue, I told her that I couldn’t.

I wonder how we must have looked to the people at the next table: two fully grown adults sitting across from each other, sticking out their tongues and straining with all their might.

Whatever they thought of us, that moment still shone brightly in my memories.

“But Minhee can roll her tongue?”

My heart grew restless.

Unable to believe what was happening, I repeatedly tapped the steering wheel with my index finger.

“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it…”

I couldn’t stop, almost as though I had developed an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The tips of my closely trimmed fingernails were beginning to ache with a dull pain, but I couldn’t have cared less.

I needed to pull over and search for the answer myself before I could feel at ease.

All I could do was hope that my memory was wrong.

By then, the traffic light had turned green, urging me to move forward.

“Calm down… I’m getting a little worked up…”

But my anxiety made me press down hard on the accelerator.

No, it wasn’t exactly anxiety.

I simply wanted to confirm as quickly as possible that the conclusion I was desperately refusing to believe couldn’t possibly be true.

I accelerated so suddenly that my body was pushed back against the seat.

At the same time, I looked around, searching for somewhere to pull over.

But during rush hour, it was hardly likely that I would find a convenient place to stop.

“Can’t be helped.”

I muttered to myself, contorting my face.

I knew it was dangerous, but while the car was momentarily stopped, I tried to search for the truth about tongue-rolling on my smartphone, sneaking glances at the screen.

“Let’s see… tongue-rolling… inheritance… dominant genes…”

I couldn’t even count how many typos I made with my trembling fingers.

If my school-day memories were correct, what was I supposed to do?

I had no idea.

Something that belonged in a ridiculous melodrama, the kind of scene where someone got slapped across the face with a kimchi-covered hand in a morning drama, was happening to me.

“Please…”

My cheeks felt hot, as though I had become the protagonist of one of those outrageous melodramas, with bright red seasoning smeared all over my face.

“Hurry…”

After several attempts with my trembling fingertips, I finally managed to enter the correct search terms.

Information flooded the screen.

I was struggling to keep my eyes on the road while simultaneously reading the search results.

I was completely overwhelmed.

“Damn it…”

With my lips slightly bitten, my brain began sorting through the text, separating the information that seemed trustworthy from the rest.

Then, in an instant, I pieced it all together.

A chill ran down my entire body.

[The previous research claiming that tongue-rolling is a dominant trait was based on incorrect information. The ability to roll one’s tongue can be acquired through practice, and… This misconception continued to appear in textbooks until recently…]

That’s right.

I had been worrying over nothing.

There’s no way my beloved wife would do something like that.

Of course not.

Something so unpleasant that it could turn my entire life upside down would never happen to me.

I had protected my familiar happiness.

Overjoyed, I clenched my fist tightly.

THUD!

The moment I felt liberated from my terrible suspicions, my head dropped forward like a bowling ball, and I felt an instantaneous stiffness in my neck.

My neck had suddenly been forced beyond its normal range of motion, and I heard a distinct cracking sound.

In exchange for preserving my familiar happiness, I had crashed into the car in front of me.

“Argh!”

Holding the back of my neck, I raised my head.

What I saw was the rear end of a blue New Beetle, a model that had been discontinued quite some time ago.

“Ha… Seriously… What’s wrong with me today?”

Having removed the thorn from my mind, I had regained enough composure to manage a faint smile.

I lightly brushed back my disheveled hair.

“Let’s see… My business card…”

I opened my cardholder, took out a business card, and got out of the car.

“Excuse me! Are you alright? I’m terribly sorry!”

I hurried over and knocked on the window of the car in front of me.

I wondered who would get out.

Judging by the fact that someone was still driving a model like this, they probably weren’t an ordinary person.

And they were undoubtedly someone with a strong personality.

Click.

After a brief silence, the car door opened, and a woman stepped out.

A mysterious young woman with long, straight hair swept it back as she emerged.

Her long, dark hair swayed like silk.

The pleasant scent of shampoo seemed to wash over me like an ocean breeze.

“Ah…! Do you not look where you’re going when you drive? Good grief, my neck…! What kind of driving is that…? Ow…”

As expected, my prediction that she wasn’t an ordinary person had been correct.

Her manner of speaking made it clear that she had quite a temper.

She looked to be in her late twenties, with striking, well-defined features.

Looking more closely, she even seemed to resemble a certain actress.

“I’m truly sorry. Does your neck hurt badly?”

“Hmph…”

She didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, she briefly looked over my car and then her own.

Considering the impact, her car seemed to be in remarkably good condition.

“Judging by the looks of things… you seem to have some money. How about we settle this for one million won? What do you say?”