The child cried all morning, so her eyes were all swollen.
And yet, she was still munching away at rice wrapped in seaweed.
They say daughters resemble their fathers, but he was not so sure about that.
What was certain was that she resembled her grandmother.
The greatness of genetics.
To put the earlier mess simply, it was like this:
“Ugly.”
“Hicc. Mom! The strange person said Iâm ugly!”
“It means the same blood flows through us.”
“Hicc. Waaah!”
For some reason, she started crying again.
When she cried, she looked even uglier.
Pretty people still look pretty even when they cry.
But in their family, the harsh truth was, crying made them uglier.
“Hey! Why are you making her cry again!”
Slap.
His sister smacked him on the back.
It didnât hurt, but a sound came out instinctively.
It was a sound his body remembered.
“Ouch.”
“Youâre just asking to get hit. My daughter is so pretty.”
“Of course your own kid looks pretty to you⊔
His sister shot him a sharp glare.
Sangwoo had no choice but to shut his mouth.
His niece, Yewon, pointed at him after seeing that.
“You even talk weird!”
‘This little brat got hit with facts and shot back with facts.’
His sister pulled down Yewonâs pointing finger.
“Yewon, you shouldnât point fingers at your uncle.”
“But he called me ugly.”
“Still, you shouldnât do that to an adult.”
“Yeah.”
Sang-woo looked at his sister gently giving a lesson.
But rather than scolding, he wanted to give the child praise.
“If you get hit, then you should at least hit back that much. Well done.”
If you just sit there and take it, youâre showing weakness.Â
Bite back once and they wonât mess with you again.
Even with a little chihuahua, if it’s bad-tempered, everyone agrees not to poke it.
Better than just getting hit for nothing.
Slap.
“Ouch.”
“Stop saying things that deserve a beating. How old are you now?”
He got hit again.
It didnât hurt, but the feeling of her hand made him laugh.
It was the kind of thing their mom should have done â he missed her.
He decided to secretly take on the role of teaching his new niece with a big heart.
But first, there were other things to handle.
“When can I see Mom?”
“You donât even know the way, so I’ll go with you. Iâll take a day off tomorrow.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. And we also need to check whether your resident registration number has been erased.”
“Ah, my ID card.”
That was something Sangwoo hadnât even thought about.
It reminded him again how Korea ran on systems like that.
Memory was a strange thing.
At first you donât recall, but as soon as someone mentions it, it comes back.
His sister scraped her rice bowl clean at the table and stood up.
“Donât go anywhere today, just spend time at home. Iâll put Yewon on the school bus.”
“Should I go see her off too?”
“You donât even know the apartment password, so what are you going to do? Just stay here.”
“You can just tell me the password. What is it?”
“6515. Same as before.”
“Youâve kept the same password for twenty years?”
“In case you came back.”
Hearing that, Sangwooâs chest honestly ached.
But his sister said it as if it were nothing.
“I kept wanting to change it, but Mom insisted I never change it. It was annoying, so I just left it. Guess I shouldâve changed it after all. Who wouldâve thought youâd actually ring the doorbell?”
“I thought someone else would be living here.”
“Ah, enough about that. Your pronunciation is so bad itâs hard to listen to you. Practice your pronunciation while watching TV.”
His sister said that while taking her daughterâs hand.
“Yewon, hurry and brush your teeth, letâs go.”
“Okay!”
After brushing their teeth, the three of them left the house.
All three got into the elevator, whose doors opened annoyingly slow.
Even the speed going down was sluggish.
Ding.
When it finally reached the first floor, the doors opened.
Yewon, carrying a backpack as big as her own body, hopped and jumped.
“Mom, letâs go quickly!”
“Alright.”
His niece tugging energetically on her motherâs hand looked rather cute.
Seeing a child full of freshness and energy made him feel energized without realizing it.
“I canât wait to see my friends!”
“Is it fun playing with your friends on the bus?”
“Yeah! The other day, Yeji saidâ!”
Her mouth never stopped chattering, talking nonstop the whole way.
After walking for about five minutes, they arrived at the school bus stop .
Yewon climbed onto the bus.
“Mom! Iâm going!”
“Okay, have a good day!”
“Uncle! Iâll be back.”
Sangwoo raised his hand to wave back, but Yewon quickly added,
“Donât talk! Uncleâs pronunciation is weird, so itâs a secret.”
‘This bratâŠ?’
Not cute at all.
Wasnât she basically telling him not to talk because sheâd be embarrassed?
But he was not the kind of uncle who would let such words slide.
‘If you hit, you should expect to be hit back â thatâs how affection works, isnât it?’
With an evil grin, he opened his mouth.
“Niece, take care.”
“Iâm not ‘niece’, Iâm Yewon!”
“Yeah, niece.”
“Aak!”
Yewon, looking upset, spun around and stomped into the school bus.
Sangwoo clenched his fist in a victory pose, as if he had won.
With the sharp senses of a Sword Master, he could feel his sisterâs exasperated gaze beside him.
He made an effort to ignore it.
Vroom.
The school bus drove away.
“Iâm going straight to work, so you go back inside and rest, okay?”
“Got it.”
“Turn on the TV and practice your pronunciation. You do know how to turn on the TV, right?”
“I know. Even after 20 years, how different could turning on a TV be?”
“Alright then. Ah, Iâll be late. Iâm off~”
“Yeah.”
Sangwoo watched his sister get into her car and drive away, then returned to the apartment.
He flopped down onto a sofa that hadnât been there before.
“That must be the TV?”
The black rectangular box in the living room looked like a television.
After twenty years, TVs had become much thinner and larger.
Peeking curiously, he looked behind the TV.
“Whereâs the cathode-ray tube gone?”
The only kind he knew was the fat, bulky kind.
This one looked like it would snap in half if you tapped it.
He felt that pronunciation wasnât the only thing he needed to relearn.
“First, letâs watch TV.”
It was once called the idiot box, but he never thought of it that way.
Didnât the news or programs like Seo-O-raise end up being surprisingly useful?
(*likely “Sunrise” â a morning show reference)
He fished the remote control out from between the sofa cushions.
“What are these YouTube and Netflix buttons?”
The remote had a lot more buttons than he remembered.
But the power button was still the same, so he pressed it.
Beep.
A new world opened before his eyes.
“This picture quality is insane.”
The OLED screen blasted into Sangwooâs eyes.
                                           ***
He watched TV all day long.
It really felt like he had become an idiot, just staring at the TV.
What he really wanted was to lie on the sofa and flip through comic books.
But for now, the only thing he could do was watch TV.
Still, TV wasnât without interest.
The drama he was watching after such a long time was pretty exciting.
It had this “binge-watch from episode 1 to 10” thing, so he started without thinking much, and before he knew it, he was already on episode 4.
He cooked some kimchi stew that was in the house, scooped a spoonful of rice, and went back to focusing on the dramaâŠ
Before he knew it, the time had passed three oâclock.
“Wow, what a plot twist⊔
The new daughter-in-law turned out to actually be the in-lawsâ lost daughter.
The son had been switched at the hospital, so he wasnât their real son.
“Do modern dramas have to go this far?”
Sangwoo just blankly watched the soap opera that had reached a singularity.
At that moment, he heard the sound of a password being entered.
Beep beep beep beep.Â
Click.
The door opened.
The niece heâd seen that morning, Yewon, came in with a backpack as big as her own body.
Their eyes met, and an awkward silence filled the air.
“⊔
“⊔
Still, since she was his niece, he raised his hand.
“Hey, youâre back?”
“Iâm home.”
Bow.
Yewon lowered her head politely, then went straight into her room.
Sangwoo found himself at a loss for what on earth to talk about with his grade-school niece.
Even if he hadnât spent 20 years living in another world, it would still have been a difficult thing.
So he decided to just ask what he was curious about.
“Hey, niece. Do you usually come home alone?”
“I donât understand what youâre saying.”
“No, uh⊠hasnât my pronunciation gotten a little better? I practiced a lot while watching dramas.”
“Proution? Whatâs that?”
“Does ‘pronunciation’ sound like ‘proution’ to you?”
“Yeah, it sounds like ‘proution’.”
“⊔
“⊔
It seemed he needed to fix his pronunciation properly before having any conversation with his niece.
This was something only time could solve.
Still, he couldnât help but wonder if it was really okay for such a little kid to come home alone.
Then again, when he thought about it, he himself had wandered back and forth alone from an elementary school close to home.
But somehow, he felt girls and boys were a bit different.
And since this was his sisterâs daughter, he couldnât help but be concerned.
“What do you do after school?”
“I go to taekwondo.”
“Ah, taekwondo.”
It had been ages since Sangwoo had heard the word taekwondo.
Memories of going to a taekwondo gym as a child bubbled up.
Even in the other world, he sometimes used his legs.
Of course, since he mainly used a sword, he wasnât very good with them.
“Then after you get back from taekwondo⊔
“Shh! I have to do my homework now.”
Yewon pulled a notebook out of her schoolbag and opened it.
On the lined page was written: “Class 1-1, Lee Yewon.”
The notebook opened fully.
There were lots of red stars drawn in it.
She must have been doing dictation, because there were plenty of spelling mistakes.
‘She made fun of my pronunciation, but she doesnât even know Hangul that well herself.’
That thought made him chuckle.
“Pffft.”
Glare.
Yewon shot him a look.
She covered her notebook with both hands.
“Why are you laughing?!”
“No reason. You say my pronunciation is weird, but my niece doesnât even know Hangul properly either.”
“Thatâs not true! If I practice, I do well!”
“Oh wow, I had no idea.”
“Uncle, youâre an adult, so itâs not okay for you to have bad pronunciation. Iâm a kid, so itâs fine.”
Puuuuh.Â
Faster than any sword, a dagger stabbed him in the chest.
‘This brat. Bringing up age is against the rules.’
“You try living twenty years in another world. Letâs see if you donât forget Korean.”
“See? Youâre already talking weird.”
“I donât want to hear that from a kid who canât even do dictation.”
Yewon glared at him again.
Sangwoo glared back, refusing to lose.
Sparks flew between their eyes.
The first to open her mouth was Yewon.
“Then Uncle, do a dictation test! Iâll read for you.”
“Alright. Go ahead.”
Yewon snapped open to the back pages of the notebook and pushed it toward Sangwoo.
With full confidence, Sangwoo twirled the pencil in his hand.
Even if he had spent twenty years in another world and forgotten Korean, a first graderâs dictation would be a piece of cake.
‘Come on, bring it. Iâll show you I’m in a different class altogether.’
“Alright. Letâs see.”
After a few words Sangwoo suddenly got stuck while writing.
Was it correct?
No! At times like this, what mattered was confidence.
If you insist, then itâs right.
Even if itâs wrong, if you insist, itâs right.
It had just been so long since heâd written Hangul that his memory was a bit fuzzy.
If only he had become a Sword Master faster, he wouldnât have lost his memory.
There was no way he could be worse than a first grader.
Impossible.
Though it might not look like it, he was already forty years old.
Of course, since heâd gone to another world, he hadnât even graduated university, but still â he considered himself highly educated.
‘Didnât I remember something about how youâre not supposed to write exactly as it sounds?’
He made a few small corrections.
‘Is this right?’
He glanced at Yewonâs face.
A mocking smirk hung at the corner of her lips.
‘Damn it. Is this wrong?’
It was the biggest crisis of his forty years of life.
At this rate, he was about to be looked down on by his grade-school niece.
Yewon opened her mouth.
“Is that really it?”
‘No, I donât think soâŠ.’
Cold sweat ran down Sangwooâs back.
‘What do I do?’
His mind spun quickly.
