Chapter 31

31. Snowflakes fall, sha-la-la-la-la~

Jiyeon, feeling sad and angry, was walking quickly with her head down when she approached a safety fence that required her attention.

A tube coming down the deceleration zone slid frighteningly towards Jiyeon.

The man on the tube and Jiyeon screamed simultaneously.

“Ugh!”

“Eek!”

Right at that moment.

Siwoo's hand moved.

‘No matter how bad you feel, you should always look where you’re going-!’

Muttering this safety rule that everyone should heed, Siwoo summoned mana.

‘Slow-!’

Instantly, the speed of the tube heading towards Jiyeon noticeably decreased.

Siwoo moved his other free hand once more.

‘Haste-!’

Jiyeon, noticing the tube's speed had slowed, regained her composure and quickly dodged to the side.

With the Haste spell on her, Jiyeon's body reacted much more nimbly than usual.

Thud-!

As Jiyeon dodged, the tube safely entered the deceleration zone and lightly collided with the safety fence.

The man on the tube quickly got off and ran to Jiyeon.

“Are you okay?!”

“Yes, yes.”

“No, how can you just walk around here! I thought something was going to happen...”

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry.”

Jiyeon bowed 90 degrees and apologized to the man.

It was 100% her fault.

“Anyway, it's a relief that you're not hurt. Be careful. Wow, I really got a scare.”

Jiyeon apologized to the safety officers one after another and pressed her hand to her chest to calm her shocked heart.

Then she turned to look at her family.

But-

Her father was lying face down in the snow, his face buried in it, a short distance away from her.

Jiyeon, feeling very puzzled, took a few steps closer and spoke.

“...Dad?”

After lying still for a moment, her father got up.

His face and legs were completely covered in snow.

“Phew- Phew-.”

Her father spat out the snow in his mouth and brushed the snow off his face.

The revealed face looked somewhat red.

“No... I... It looked dangerous...”

He lunged.

From a distance.

“...”

“...”

Ignoring the distance from his daughter, her father lunged forward without thinking.

Turning to face her father, Jiyeon then walked, this time paying attention to her surroundings.

Her father called out to her from behind.

“Jiyeon! Where are you going! Walking around so carelessly... Do you think you're grown up? You're still...”

“I'm going to the bathroom.”

“...Oh, okay? Then come back. You should tell your parents where you're going so they don't worry.”

Jiyeon, who was about to say it was fine not to worry, held back her words, thinking it would be too disrespectful.

Instead, there was something she really wanted to say.

“I... I'm not just being delusional and saying I want to be a celebrity. I just really love music, and I don't want to regret it, so I want to give it a try...”

“Ah, forget it. Let's talk about this when we get home. Now my head hurts.”

“...Then why didn't you just talk about it at home from the beginning?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you talk about me so casually in front of people we just met?”

“Why not? We won't see them again anyway, and I couldn't help but say something because I was so upset.”

Jiyeon felt as stifled as if she had eaten a hundred sweet potatoes.

Just... if he had just said sorry, it would have been enough.

Jiyeon, standing silently, started walking again.

Her father, speaking as if he was about to die from frustration, said to her back.

“Hey, Jiyeon. You're good at studying, right? I didn't get much education, but you're willing to teach me, so why... why a singer...”

Jiyeon ran away without looking back, as if fleeing.

Watching her daughter run away, her father sighed deeply.

* * *

“Wow~ I thought my husband was Superman. He suddenly dove alone.”

“No, I did it because Jiyeon was in danger...”

“Would you reach your child by running from that far away? You need to get closer to reach them. This is exactly like your relationship with Jiyeon. Even if you want to help your child, you need to be close to them in everyday life.”

“...”

“...Oh, before you throw yourself to save your child, don't say things that hurt them. I'm getting so old dealing with the two of you.”

After scolding her husband, Jiho's mother came to apologize to Dojin and Hyunju.

“I'm sorry. We came to have fun, but...”

Dojin, feeling embarrassed, politely replied to Jiho's mother.

“No, it's fine. Don't worry about it.”

“Ha... I have three children...”

Jiho's mother, even amidst the chaos, gently stroked the heads of Siwoo and Jiho, who were still clinging together.

Siwoo, who had used magic hastily on a distant target and was slightly disheveled, adjusted his mana through light breathing and glanced at Jiho's father, who was standing with a dark expression.

‘A dad who speaks without thinking and a sensitive teenage daughter, this is a tough combination. I want to hear the girl sing once.’

Putting aside the complicated family issues for now, Siwoo was curious about Jiyeon's singing ability.

She might be surprisingly good, as she claimed, or she might be really bad, as her father said.

‘If I listen, I can immediately tell if she has talent or not.’

Siwoo lightly touched his ear with his gloved hand.

‘Here, if you can just guess the pitch, it's absolute pitch, right? Then my ears are... super absolute pitch? Transcendent absolute pitch? Is there a cooler name? Ultra-insider absolute pitch... No, that's too much.’

A little later-

Siwoo was happily sledding again.

Siwoo, sitting in a round tube with his father, waited for the sled to start.

An employee pushed the tube strongly from behind.

“Siwoo! Let's go!”

Dojin, who was exhausted from carrying the heavy tube up and down, had the same joyful expression as Siwoo at this moment.

As Siwoo descended, cutting through the wind, he suddenly had an idea and put his hand on the tube.

Why did he only think of this now?

It was thanks to saving Jiyeon.

‘Haste-!’

Whoosh-!

Thanks to Siwoo's acceleration spell, the sled's speed started to increase rapidly.

“Woo-ah-ah-ah-ah-!”

Dojin screamed at the sudden increase in speed, and-

“Eee-ah-ah-ah-ah-!”

Siwoo also screamed, with the rabbit ears on his beanie flapping in the wind.

Siwoo was coming down with a big smile on his beautiful face.

“What, what! Why is that tube so fast!?”

The voices of elementary school boys, who were trying to increase the sled's speed by shifting their weight forward or putting their feet on the sled, were filled with shock.

“Wow-! That tube-! It's amazing-!”

Siwoo adjusted the sled's speed with a Slow spell at the right time.

Thud-! Thud-!

The sled passed the deceleration zone and collided with the safety fence.

Dojin, dazed, couldn't get up from the tube.

The elementary school boys who rushed over clapped wildly.

Clap-clap-clap-clap-!

Responding to the boys' applause, Siwoo also clapped his gloved hands.

Siwoo's cheeks were rosy from the wind.

“Uncle! How did you come down so fast?!”

“Let me ride that tube!”

“Hey! Me too! Let's ride together!”

Dojin, who had been holding Siwoo and was dazed, gave the tube to the boys.

The boys pounced on it like a pack of wild animals.

‘Heh, go ahead, kids. It's just an ordinary tube.’

Siwoo, a 20-month-old baby, smiled as he watched the boys' fierce battle for the tube over his father's shoulder.

After showing the true world of speed and thrill to his mother, Hyunju, Siwoo rode the sled a few more times before shaking his head to tell his parents he was done.

Most of all, his father, who had to carry the tube up the hill repeatedly, looked very tired.

Of course, his mother, who had carried him up the hill several times, was the same.

“Are you done riding?”

Jiho's father, who had been carrying the tube up and down just like Dojin to give Jiho a ride, asked.

“Ah, yes. Siwoo said he's done.”

Jiho's father, as if he had been waiting for this, said to Jiho.

“Jiho, your friend is done. Let's take a break, Jiho.”

Jiho's father, much older than Dojin, was almost exhausted.

Despite the parents' desperate joint persuasion, Jiho didn't budge until his mother suggested going to the pink pool.

People know the pink pool as the president of the children, but in fact, it is the savior of the parents.

Siwoo's family and Jiho's family headed to the rest area in front of the food court.

Jiyeon, who had been separated from her family, was sitting alone, listening to music with her headphones.

Seeing her family returning, Jiyeon stood up with her phone and moved to a different spot.

“Ji, Jiyeon!”

Even when her father called her, Jiyeon quickly walked to the snowfield where she had played with her siblings earlier.

Her mother stopped her father from chasing after her.

“Let her be. The more you chase, the more she runs away. I told you, you need to close the distance before you can help.”

“Huh... I don't know... Huh?”

Step by step.

Someone was chasing after Jiyeon.

The rabbit ears on his beanie swayed with each step.

It was Siwoo.

“Siwoo, where are you going? Do you want to play with your sister? Your sister is...”

Just as Dojin was about to stop Siwoo, Siwoo turned to his parents with his snow-white face.

And in a cute voice, he said,

“Sis, cry~ cry~”

Leaving those words, Siwoo started walking again.

Dojin, a bit hesitant, retracted the hand he had extended to grab Siwoo.

Hyunju also nodded slightly when she saw this.

At that moment, Jiho's mother said to Hyunju,

“...Siwoo, have you considered a gifted child test?”

Jiyeon was digging her eyes with her fingers, just like before.

She had nowhere to feel at ease.

Being lonely alone was less painful than being lonely together.

Sitting in the snowfield, listening to music from her headphones, she saw a small shadow fall on the white snow in front of her.

Lifting her face, she saw the baby she had met today standing there, looking as lovely as an angel.

Jiyeon, looking down, took out her headphones and looked at Siwoo again.

Jiyeon asked,

“Why. Do you want to play again? Did you have fun playing with me earlier?”

Jiyeon smiled, but her eyes looked sad.

Siwoo, watching silently, lifted his arms and gave Jiyeon a tight hug.

To the adults watching from a distance, it might look like Siwoo was hugging Jiyeon, but Jiyeon could clearly feel that this baby was trying to comfort her.

Holding Siwoo, Jiyeon gently rested her face on the small shoulders of the 3-year-old.

Does her father love her?

Is he now disappointed and no longer loves her?

She doesn't know.

Her father's words fell coldly deep into her heart.

Siwoo used magic to create warmth in the small space where they were.

The cold air of the sledding field disappeared in an instant.

It felt as if the season had changed to a warm spring, and warmth enveloped Jiyeon from all sides.

As her body warmed up, Jiyeon's heart gradually calmed down.

Without letting go of Siwoo, she spoke in a slightly trembling voice.

“Sis will definitely become a singer... become a singer and...”

Jiyeon paused to compose herself and continued,

“I want to be recognized by my father... I want him to say... our daughter did well...”

Siwoo, hoping that this kind and gentle girl would connect with her father in the future, regardless of whether she achieves her dream or not, hugged Jiyeon even more tenderly, as if representing her future father.

White snowflakes started to fall from the sky.

The warm spring breeze created by Siwoo's magic caressed Jiyeon's face, continuously blowing.