Seol Hee shook her head while preparing holiday food with her mother. There were only four people to eat the holiday food. Excluding Tae Oh, who would come briefly to have a meal and disappear, there were only three people, so she didn’t know why they were making so much food.

“Mom, I should have checked when I went grocery shopping. Who’s going to eat all this? Why are you making so much food?”

“What do you mean too much? There’s food for the ancestral rites, and you, Tae Oh, and your uncle will eat it throughout the holiday. I can make enough on my own, so Seol Hee, if you’re tired, go to your room and rest a bit. Okay?”

“Am I saying this because I’m tired? I’m saying it because I’m worried you’ll get tired. Let’s really make just a little next time. I hate seeing you struggle.”

Seol Hee wondered who would appreciate the food they made with such devotion, and the thought of the food she and her mother painstakingly made going into Tae Oh’s mouth made her stomach churn.

Pouting her lips sulkily, Seol Hee soon calmed her heart and put on nitrile sanitary gloves tightly, then sat cross-legged in front of a stainless steel basin that was easily at least 60 centimeters in diameter.

Then she glared at the japchae with beef, enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, chives, onions, carrots, and bell peppers that she had prepared herself.

She didn’t want to ask why her mother was making so much japchae. It was because she already knew that japchae was the food that picky Tae Oh particularly liked.

Seol Hee mixed the cooled toppings with her hands, evenly blending them with the glass noodles underneath. Glancing at her mother, who was busy frying yellow and white egg garnish, she vigorously mixed the japchae with her hands as if it were Tae Oh.

You shouldn’t take out your anger on food, but a small sense of satisfaction bloomed and she smiled. She didn’t realize that someone who liked japchae had just approached right in front of her.

Tae Oh, who had come to his family home for the first time in a long time, was surprised by the bustling scene of the dining room where they were busy preparing food, and missed the timing to greet them.

It seemed foolish for the mother and daughter to struggle to make holiday food when they had someone working for them, but on the other hand, it didn’t seem so bad to see the cozy atmosphere they created.

Tae Oh had never spent a holiday with such a scene in his life, so his heart strangely tickled, and at the same time, old memories he didn’t want to recall came to mind.

It must have been the holiday when Tae Oh was only ten years old.

‘Mom, aren’t we making any food? My friends say they make a lot of food at home for the holidays. They make fried food, jeon, and japchae. I like japchae too, I want to eat it.’

‘Fried food? Jeon! And what, japchae? Do you even know how many calories are in the foods you mentioned? This is unbelievable. If you eat all that, you’ll get fat. You’ll become a pig.’

‘I don’t mind getting fat.’

‘What do you mean you don’t mind! It’s so ugly to be fat. If you don’t manage your diet from a young age, you’ll become obese as a child, and if you’re obese as a child, you can’t escape being a pig as an adult. Okay? Stop talking nonsense and go study hard. Mom has to exercise.’

When she gave a long speech about becoming a pig, instant ramen seemed to be okay to eat. Tae Oh knew the contradiction in his mother’s words, but he didn’t particularly talk back. It was a familiar resignation. To his utterly selfish mother, Tae Oh must have been just an annoying existence.

Tae Oh, who realized this fact early on, hated the holidays. When the holidays came, the lady who worked at home also went to spend the holidays, and his always busy father only rested for a day on the holiday, so Tae Oh had to stay alone with his mother during that time.

No, he had to spend time that was no different from being alone, even though he was with his mother.

His mother, who didn’t even like the smell of food at home because of her diet, couldn’t make holiday food, so there was nothing but diet foods like salads and chicken breast in the refrigerator, and such foods couldn’t possibly suit young Tae Oh’s taste.

‘If the lady was here, I would have asked her to make japchae…’

Since his complaints of being hungry were always followed by reproach, Tae Oh chose to starve instead. He knew he could eat the food he wanted to his heart’s content the next day when he went to his grandmother’s house, so he wasn’t particularly disappointed.

Perhaps because he was used to such indifference and neglect from his mother, Tae Oh didn’t particularly object to his father’s intention to separate from his mother the following year, even at that young age.

He even thought it was fortunate.

He couldn’t understand his mother, who insisted that she couldn’t divorce for his sake, even if she tried.

When they divorced, the mother, who had never said a kind word, let alone cooked a meal herself, and who regarded him as a thorn in her side without any trace of motherly love, treated him as if he were a child she couldn’t bear to part with.

Her hypocritical gaze and the disgusting voice were still vividly etched in his mind and couldn’t be erased.

‘I can’t live without Tae Oh. I’ll take my son with me. I can never give up Tae Oh.’

Her desperate cry was nothing but a sandcastle in front of the waves of money. She voluntarily gave up custody and parental rights and left Tae Oh without looking back or any lingering attachment.

Tae Oh hurriedly shook off the nasty memories and absentmindedly watched Seol Hee put japchae in her mother’s mouth and Sun Joo, her mother and his stepmother, tilt her head back to eat it.

Even though they must be tired from preparing a lot of food, there was no sign of fatigue on their faces.

“Mom, how is it? It’s delicious, right?”

“Of course, whose daughter made it, it’s definitely delicious. The seasoning is just perfect. It’s honey-sweet, honey-sweet.”

Seol Hee smiled brightly at Sun Joo’s words. It was a sight she rarely showed in front of him, so Tae Oh couldn’t take his eyes off Seol Hee’s face.

“That’s right, your daughter’s cooking skills are no joke. I could even run a restaurant.”

“Yes, you could do it right away without any problems. But I’d rather our daughter not run a restaurant. It’s such a difficult and hard job.”

“That’s true. Jung Yeo-sa has been doing that hard job for how many years?”

Sun Joo made a face dripping with honey and affectionately stroked Seol Hee’s back. As if that wasn’t enough, she patted her grown daughter’s bottom, as if to say she was proud.

“It was possible because our daughter helped a lot. It must have been hard to study, but you helped your mom whenever you had time. I wouldn’t have dared without you.”

“How much did I even help, you did everything. I’m just glad you quit now. You’re still as generous as ever. Let’s reduce the portions next time. I really hate seeing you struggle.”

“I told you it’s not a struggle. It’s all food that will go into my pretty baby’s mouth, so how is this a struggle?”

When Sun Joo patted Seol Hee’s bottom again, a cute complaint escaped from Seol Hee.

“Goodness, does mom still see me as a baby? You keep patting the bottom of a grown woman.”

“Even if you’re all grown up, you’re still a baby in mom’s eyes. Understand me. Even though you’re my baby, I’m amazed, amazed. I don’t know how such a pretty thing came out of my belly. Right?”

“Mom, really. What are you doing, stopping in the middle of eating japchae, it’s embarrassing.”

“There’s a lot to be embarrassed about. You eat the japchae quickly too. Hurry.”

At Sun Joo’s urging, Seol Hee nodded and picked up a suitable amount of japchae. The moment she tilted her head back and put the japchae in her mouth, her eyes met Tae Oh’s, who was standing across from her. Seol Hee quickly closed her mouth and mumbled, her lips glistening as if she had applied lip gloss.

Tae Oh’s gaze naturally went to Seol Hee’s lips, then he turned his eyes to hers. In contrast to her still mumbling lips like a chubby-cheeked squirrel, a sharp gaze was glaring at him.

Usually, when she saw him, she would be in a hurry to hide her anger or hurt feelings, as if she were raising sharp thorns, but today, even that look seemed cute to him, and he couldn’t help but smile.

Sun Joo, who had just noticed Tae Oh, jumped up from her seat and greeted him happily.

“Tae Oh, you’re here? You came at the perfect time. The japchae is just about done. Why don’t you come over here and have a taste? Our Seol Hee made it, and it turned out so deliciously.”

Any other time, he would have said he’d eat it later when they had a meal, but seeing Seol Hee rolling her eyes while gulping down the japchae she had been mumbling, a playfulness he didn’t even know he had suddenly popped out.

Tae Oh looked at Seol Hee, who was glaring at him, and smiled leisurely as if provoking her, and headed gracefully towards the dining room table.

“Yes. Please give me some.”

“Oh my, really? Okay, okay. You made a good decision. Food is most delicious when it’s freshly made. Sit down quickly, I’ll serve you a plate.”

Seol Hee swallowed a sigh inwardly at the sight of her mother going to get a plate with a flush. Will she be that happy? Half of her felt lonely at the way she attentively cared for Tae Oh, and the other half felt relieved that Tae Oh didn’t treat her mother that badly, contrary to her thoughts.

Her mother, who had found a plate, came back smiling and held out the plate to Seol Hee.

“Daughter, serve your brother nicely.”

Seol Hee knew that if she and Tae Oh were at odds, the person who would be most tired and distressed would be her mother, so she quietly hid the thorns that suddenly protruded from her heart.