chapter 28
28 – 028 – When your hometown has changed a lot # 2
028 – When your hometown has changed a lot # 2
I was the pride of our house.
That’s because my mom used to hang placards in her neighborhood.
But that time has passed.
I crawled to the floor when the buildings in Macheon continued to rise.
It was also the reason why he did not return to his hometown for several years.
Since I had no contact, my parents cut off contact with me and often confirmed that each other was alive.
Like that, I was going back to my hometown.
My hometown was in a run-down urban area where the buildings of Macheon were visible. A city with a lot of construction sites nearby and spray-painted graffiti on the walls.
“Did you avoid redevelopment only near my house?”
As I walked with that thought in mind, I saw a rather familiar street. It was the street where I used to run around when I was in elementary school.
At that time, the playground was full of children.
Maybe because of the low birthrate, these days, children in the playground….
“Hey! Arwen! Catch Minsu!”
“Kim Elfrad is the tagger!”
Do you have many children?
It was very unexpected.
And it was also strange that there were many friends with long ears among the children.
Is it half elf blood?
There was a story that the ratio of native Koreans and mixed elves reached 1:9 in an elementary school, as there were a lot of mixed-race elves in every rural area or old town.
I thought about how to solve Korea’s low birth rate, which had once been stuck below zero, but the cracks that suddenly appeared and the elves who appeared there solved it.
Was the birth rate now 1.7?
As I was trying to remember that the most popular name for newly born children was ‘Arwen,’ Ohinoi said, “hehehe… !” He groaned.
“Oinoi, why?”
“The number of long-eared fairies is rapidly increasing… ! If it goes like this… Being a native Korean like the owner of the house is sure to disappear… ! That’s dangerous… !”
Oinoi has always hated elves.
What is the reason… It must have been something like a quarrel between a nymph and an elf.
Anyway.
As I was thinking about that, I arrived in front of the house before I knew it.
An old iron gate.
Even if the 21st century changes like cyberpunk, there seems to be some things that don’t change.
“Mom, Dad, I’m here.”
I unlocked the front door with the key in the milk delivery bag and knocked on the door. I forgot the password for the door lock.
Then, a sign was heard from inside, and a fairly old woman opened the door.
“Who is this? What’s going on, what’s going on with no contact!”
“Mom. You look healthy. I heard you broke your leg.”
“He is talking about 3 years ago! Come in quickly! Next to it….”
“Oinoi is an oinoi… ! Oinoi is a nymph of a ditch born in summer… ! The honey-colored hair as bright as this summer sun is proof of that… !”
Oi Noi saw my mother and greeted her by raising her warak-hand high. Of course, my mother seemed a little nervous about this strange guest.
“Come in first. Your father is also at home.”
# # #
It’s been a while since I came to the house, and things have changed.
There was a massage chair I hadn’t seen before in the living room, and the TV was bigger and hung on the wall.
The refrigerator in the kitchen was also changed, and everything else was changed.
The only thing that hasn’t changed is the sofa.
It was quite nice to know that the hole in the leather that I pierced while playing with a cleaver was still there.
Home.
I was worried after coming here for a long time, but the house was home and I felt comfortable.
“Have you not come home yet? Did you go to college this year? What university did you say you went to?”
I sneaked open her sister’s room.
It was empty because it was time.
“Haildo, so what happened? How are you? Who is Oinoi? Are you eating and living?”
My mother, who has been cutting fruit on a plate, asked me a lot of questions.
Dad, who was sitting on the sofa, didn’t say anything, but he straightened up and sat down as if he was very curious.
I answered calmly.
“I am doing well. Oinoi here is a nymph and I’m entrusting her for a while. You know elves I am a fairy just like the elves.”
“This oi noi, I want to do something called a computer… ! Because this oi noi these days…. Because I was interested in playing a mysterious game called Minesweeper… !”
Like a nephew or cousin visiting for a holiday, Oinoi runs towards the computer room. When Oinoi disappeared, Dad cleared his throat and said, “hehehehe.”
“Keuheum-. Great.”
When Dad cleared his throat, it was a sign that he was about to talk about something serious.
“Ildo, are you still working as an awakened person these days? It’s dangerous and worthless. Shouldn’t we stop doing that and change to something safer and more money-making?”
I also knew this story would come out.
Since before, when my dad saw me, he asked if he had any plans to do something else.
My dad thought Awoken work was dangerous.
Actually, there was a time like that.
Among the 1st generation students who started working with me, there are probably half of them who have been active on active duty.
Soon Dad added something.
“Why don’t you just come home and get a job? My dad talked to the boss over there, and he said that if you’re a D-level Awakener or something, he’ll write you right away as the team leader. It’s hard work, but it pays quite a bit and your life isn’t in danger.”
“Huh….”
“Ildo, you are now twenty-seven. I was already 2 years old since you were born at your age. Shouldn’t you be married too? You know your friend Seongshik, right?”
Seongsik.
Seongsik Park?
He was a man famous for being ugly in the neighborhood. It was common for the girls to fight each other every time the ceremony passed, saying “Hey, there goes your husband.”
But the character was quite nice.
He didn’t speak well, but he was sincere, so adults liked him more than his peers.
When I was thinking of Sung-shik, who said he was working at a construction site after graduating from high school, my dad said something surprising.
“I married that elf woman named Ailena this time and already have two kids. The wife was very nice. You know that Seongsik is a little uncomfortable for your parents, right? The daughter-in-law is very filial to her parents-in-law.”
Is this true?
That Seongsik married an elf?
As you can see, it wasn’t just the ceremony.
My dad kept emphasizing that my friends Yongmin and Hyunjun also married elves and had children and lived well. I felt like I was going to panic in many ways.
“No, what are the elves that have married so many of my friends?”
There was a time when a Korean man who married an elf woman appeared on YouTube as an algorithm.
The males had no change in appearance and her job was not stable, but she was a video of her living happily with a beautiful elf woman and salting.
I thought it was someone else’s business.
Actually, elves and Koreans were marrying a lot—it was new.
“So Ildo, have you met anyone?”
No.
And I wanted to focus more on what I wanted to do rather than dating.
However, it was not easy to say such a thing.
I am an unfilial person who worried my parents in many ways.
When I couldn’t bear to talk about it because I hadn’t stopped by for years, my father said.
“Dad has someone in mind. She is the daughter of the moving center owner I mentioned earlier. Her vitality is also very strong, and she is kind and kind. We’ve been talking about marrying each other’s sons and daughters. He said he would like it if he was my son too.”
Oh, write-.
I can’t believe this kind of story is going around without me knowing.
However, among parents, things like “Let’s marry your son and my daughter later” Were just common stories.
In other words, it was a pretentious story like “Let’s have a meal sometime” To someone I haven’t seen in a while, but Dad’s expression was very serious.
“Honey, do you have any pictures of the president’s daughter?”
“Huh? There has to be.”
Shut-.
My mom held out her phone to me.
To be honest, it wasn’t that I wasn’t very interested, so the moment I saw the picture, I froze in many ways like a meerkat meeting an eagle.
“Bing… !”
The woman frowning on the phone was none other than the woman who stole my cultural gift certificate when I was in middle school!
Her hair color was black, and she was dressed neatly like a true person, but the grudge of my cultural gift certificate of 10,000 won was large and I could see it at a glance!
In many ways, the feeling of being dizzy before your eyes.
Then Dad said.
“Honey, this is the eldest daughter. It wasn’t the eldest daughter who promised to marry Ildo, it was the younger daughter. Show me a picture of my little daughter. I really liked her personality. Although the appearance is a little gaudy.”
Shut-.
Mom touched her cell phone screen.
Soon, the face of the owner of the moving center’s little daughter appeared on her mother’s cell phone. And the moment I saw that face, I couldn’t help but be greatly surprised in many ways.
Because it was a familiar face.
Blond hair dyed yellow right down to the roots.
A sullen expression.
“Lee Jin-ah?”
The daughter of the president that my father is talking about was Lee Jin-ah, a C-class hunter who subdued C-class cracks a few times with me! How in the world can this be
Come to think of it, she seemed to know that Lee Jin-ah knew about her mother and father, but she did.
In fact, the reason I came to her hometown was because the old lady pricked my conscience saying, “It’s been a while since I went to her house, haven’t I?”
“Do you two know?”
Dad’s face brightened.
It seemed like it went well.
“Good job! I’ll be back soon to deliver the rice I ordered, so let’s meet and talk!”
Bread-.
Soon, a car horn was heard outside.
Dad said, “Looks like the one you delivered! Go get some stuff and move it!” He patted me on the back.
When I went outside, a woman wearing a leather jacket was getting out of the driver’s seat of a one-ton truck.
A woman with a can of coffee in her hand looked at me and she frowned slightly.
“You—. Well, that’s it There’s a washing machine and plenty of rice, so take it.”
Jina Lee unloaded the washing machine and rice from her truck with her skillful skill.
I used my mana to the fullest and sent a new washing machine into the house.
Lee Jin-ah skillfully finished the washing machine parallelism and installation.
It didn’t seem like something I’d done once or twice.
Is she really the daughter of a moving house?
“Part-time job? Isn’t it enough money just to work as a C-class Awakener?”
“You, come here for a second.”
Shut-.
Lee Jin-ah grabbed my arm.
My dad said when I was dragged helplessly by a stronger force than I thought.
“Yes! Let’s have a good talk together!”
I don’t think it’s that kind of story.
Jina Lee stopped in an alley a little far from her house.
I saw walls that someone painted like a mural with sloppy skills, but I don’t remember.
Who tried to imitate something like Mural Village?
It’s a common occurrence in a deserted neighborhood.
Shut-.
Soon Jin-ah Lee, who put her hand in her pocket like an ill-tempered Iljin, frowned and looked around.
In her form, I felt like the nightmare of the time when the culture gift certificate I bought by saving money to buy a game item was taken away was reviving.
Fortunately, there were no cultural gift certificates in my wallet, so I was able to muster up the courage to ask.
“What do you mean?”