PDGR 85

A little while later, after completely tidying up the kitchen, Dojin sat Jiho down at the table and laid out the meal.

Warm rice and radish soup full of beef. Alongside that, a ten-dish spread that included soy-braised beef.

There was a specific reason why there were far too many side dishes.

‘Wait a minute. Why is the rice still untouched in the cooker…? Don’t tell me…’

‘I-I… slept all day. So, I didn’t eat…’

‘Then you’ve gone two full days without a meal?’

‘Hic!’

It was because he found out Jiho hadn’t eaten for two days.

Dojin had hurriedly prepared a feast and, upon finishing, began a whole round of scolding and fretting, even suggesting they might need to visit the hospital.

“There’s too much food…”

“Eat it all. No wonder you felt so light when I hugged you yesterday—I thought something was off.”

Dojin was about to start scolding again. Meanwhile, various side dishes were stacked high over Jiho’s bowl.

As he did that, Dojin was carefully working his way through the fried eggs Jiho had messed up.

The edges were burnt black, and the salt wasn’t evenly sprinkled. It was the kind of dish anyone would find unappetizing.

The first few pieces even seemed like he had used sugar instead of salt.

Jiho himself knew he’d made a mistake, so he didn’t believe Dojin when he said it tasted good.

“Hyung, don’t eat that. Just throw it out.”

“Why? It tastes fine.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“I said it’s good.”

“Then give me some too.”

“Nope. You’ve already got a mountain of side dishes.”

Dojin jokingly narrowed his eyes and gestured at the table full of food in front of Jiho.

Jiho pouted and then placed his favorite pan-fried sausage on top of Dojin’s rice bowl.

“You can eat this with yours too, Hyung.”

“Ha.”

Dojin burst out laughing at the sight of the sausage on his rice. But in the end, he didn’t share the failed egg Jiho had made.

As the meal slowly neared its end amid this back-and-forth—

Bzzzt—

Dojin’s phone, left on the table, gave a short vibration. A preview of a message popped up on the screen.

Only then did he remember the call he had abruptly ended earlier in the bedroom. He let out a soft groan without realizing, and Jiho responded right away.

“Hyung? What’s wrong?”

“Ah, it’s just…”

“Hm?”

“…Actually, I have to go see my mother and father for a bit tomorrow.”

Dojin didn’t say that his parents wanted to meet Jiho. He only planned to go alone, greet them, and come back.

But the thought of leaving Jiho home alone made him hesitate.

Even today, during the short time he stepped away for a call, hadn’t Jiho caused trouble?

It didn’t matter if he wrecked or burned down the house—but if Jiho got hurt in the process, that was a problem.

Still, even with that, he didn’t want Jiho, who was so shy around strangers, to meet his parents.

Especially his mother, who would definitely cling to Jiho and make him uncomfortable.

“When tomorrow?”

“Uh, in the afternoon, probably?”

“Okay.”

Jiho nodded while chewing a piece of sausage. Dojin blinked, momentarily not understanding what that meant, and asked,

“Sorry?”

“I said okay.”

“Okay… to what?”

“Huh? I’m going too, right?”

Those clear caramel-colored eyes looked up at him. There was a trace of confusion in them.

Dojin, flustered, quickly responded.

“You’d be okay with coming along?”

“…?”

“I mean, I thought you didn’t like meeting strangers.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

Jiho nodded.

“But they’re your parents, aren’t they?”

“Well… yes, they are.”

“And I don’t want to be alone.”

Jiho’s shoulders instantly dropped. So did the corners of his eyes and lips.

Dojin recalled what Jiho had said before.

‘He said he had a nightmare.’

That might’ve been why he’d suddenly begged for sex too—because of that nightmare.

Dojin was worried. What kind of nightmare could cause such a reaction?

“Then… would you meet them with me?”

“Yes, I’d like that.”

And so, it was settled. He would be meeting his parents—with the shy Jiho at his side.

***

The next day, guests arrived at Dojin’s home. His mother and father, his older sister, and her daughter.

“Uncle!”

“Hyun, long time no see. Have you been well?”

“Yeah! I missed you so much, Uncle!”

“Ha ha!”

Dojin lifted the child—probably four or five years old—into his arms and welcomed the rest of his family as they entered.

“Welcome. Was the traffic okay?”

“It wasn’t too bad—it’s a weekday afternoon.”

“Did you drive yourself, Dad?”

“Yes. Ahem. Anyway, who’s that…?”

Even before the greetings were fully exchanged—

The middle-aged man who looked exactly like Dojin laid eyes on Jiho, who was standing behind him.

So did Dojin’s mother and his sister.

“Oh. This is my Guide.”

“Seo-Seo Jiho… I-I mean, hello…”

Jiho stepped forward hesitantly to greet them.

His already pale face had gone even whiter from nerves.

Dojin immediately regretted having him do the introduction. To him, Jiho’s well-being mattered more than satisfying his parents’ curiosity.

‘He probably didn’t even sleep well last night…’

There were faint signs of fatigue around Jiho’s eyes—something only Dojin, who knew him well, would notice.

He thought back to the early morning.

The soft moaning, the sweat-soaked, pale face, the tears that had soaked the corners of his eyes.

Dojin had shaken Jiho awake in a panic, and when Jiho mumbled that he’d had a scary dream, he consoled him gently.

But Jiho had only tossed and turned after that, never falling back into proper sleep. In the end, he’d stayed up the whole night.

Dojin wondered if Jiho’s nightmare might have been caused by nerves about meeting his family.

If not that, maybe it was just the lingering effects of that damn nightmare he still didn’t know the contents of.

“Anyway, please have a seat on the sofa. You must be tired from the long trip.”

“Ah, yes, yes. Let’s go inside.”

“Hehe. Here, I brought some side dishes.”

“You shouldn’t have… You’re not feeling well yourself….”

“I didn’t make much. You’re going to Japan soon, right? And who knows how long you’ll be gone… I just made a few kinds of pickled stuff that’ll keep well. Put them in the kimchi fridge.”

While Dojin was taking the cloth-wrapped containers from his mother and putting them away, Jiho sat awkwardly on the sofa with his family, unsure of what to do.

Thankfully, the presence of a child among them helped dissolve the tension quickly.

“Oppa!”

“Huh? Uh…?”

“Heehee! Hello!”

Dojin’s niece, Ihyun, was a child who wasn’t shy for her age. On top of that, she was surprisingly outgoing for someone so young, and had clearly taken an interest in Jiho’s looks.

“Oppa, what’s your name?”

“Ihyun, sit still now.”

Ihyun’s mother, Dojin’s older sister Baek Dohee, tried to rein her in, but the little girl kept chattering away confidently.

“Oh come on! Hyunie is having a very important conversation right now!”

“She’s just copying you, Dohee.”

Dojin’s mother spoke with a laugh barely held back, and Dohee shook her head in disbelief.

“See? This is why you can’t even drink cold water in front of kids.”

Meanwhile, Ihyun was rattling off question after question to Jiho.

“I’m Hyunie. Song Ihyun. And I’m four years old. Oh, almost five and a half now. I’m in the light green class. But right now, I’m in the red class.”

“Uh… um….”

“How old are you, oppa? Are you a grown-up? What’s your name? Do you live here? Are you friends with Uncle? But you look younger than Uncle. So, are you his younger brother?”

Jiho’s eyes wavered in confusion. Thankfully, Dojin returned just in time after putting away the food and scooped Ihyun into his arms.

“Uncle!”

“Ihyun, you’re making this oppa uncomfortable.”

“What’s ‘uncomful’?”

“Not ‘uncomful’—uncomfortable. It means, uh… it’s a bit awkward.”

“Aha. ‘Awkard’ is uncomfortable!”

“You didn’t get it, did you?”

“But Uncle, who is this oppa?”

As is typical for kids around that age, Ihyun had an endless supply of curiosity.

Faced with this tiny, adorable question machine, Dojin held back a laugh and answered.

“He’s the oppa who lives with Uncle.”

“Hmm? Why do you live together?”

“Because he’s important to Uncle.”

“Is oppa Uncle’s wife?”

“Uh… hmm.”

“My daddy says Mommy is someone important too. Is it like that for you?”

Blushing faintly, Dojin hesitated, then nodded.

“Something like that.”

“But oppa is a boy. So how…?”

“Song Ihyun. That’s enough, come sit over here.”

“Hmph. Why are you scolding Hyunie? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No one’s scolding you. Just don’t bother your uncle anymore. Come sit here, Mommy will get your storybook.”

“Storybooks are boring. I wanna watch PingXpong. Show me YouTube.”

“Ha… fine. Come here.”

“Heehee.”

With a giggle, Ihyun climbed down from Dojin’s lap and scrambled onto Dohee’s.

At this point, it was hard not to suspect all those questions had just been a setup for this exact moment.

The adults all let out amused chuckles at her antics.

Everyone thought the same thing—what a clever, precocious little girl she was.

“So, your name is Jiho, right?”

Just as Ihyun became absorbed in watching PingXpong on YouTube, the atmosphere in the living room calmed, and Dohee gently opened a new conversation.

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

“Sorry if you felt uncomfortable earlier. Our kid… she gets extra friendly whenever she sees a good-looking man.”

“N-no, it’s f-fine!”

“No need to be so nervous. We must’ve surprised you by showing up so suddenly.”

“N-not at all….”

Jiho’s face flushed red. His wide eyes darted around, unable to settle on one place.

Dohee held back a smile at the sight. His fidgeting and anxious demeanor made him look rather endearing.

‘Big eyes and delicate features… like some fluffy animal.’

A rabbit, maybe a hamster—something along those lines came to mind.

There had been rumors on the internet that Dojin’s new guide, supposedly an S-class, had been going around picking fights with other unpaired guides.

But from what she was seeing now, those rumors seemed like baseless nonsense.

Dohee, along with her parents, had genuinely worried for Dojin.

What if the rumors were true? What if Dojin, who had finally found a guide, was being mistreated under the guise of guiding?

But Jiho, sitting right there, looked neither aggressive nor hostile.

On the contrary, he seemed gentler than most people his age, with a soft and timid nature.

He looked like someone who’d be the one getting hurt, not doing the hurting.

And with that thought, Dohee and her parents could finally smile with relief.