"Hand." A middle-aged man stretched out his hand to a little girl no less than five that stood by his side.
"Hand!" she echoed cheerfully as she placed her small hand in his open palm.
He grinned and held her hand tight.
"Let's go, Sunmi-ah." He ruffled her hair with his other hand that had managed to balance a bag of groceries which he also held before walking across the crosswalk onto the other side of the road. After some minutes of walking and Sunmi hopping from one feet to the other by his side, they finally reached their destination.
"We're back!" Sunmi yelled cheerfully as she ran into the little bungalow.
A warm chuckle from her mother welcomed her happy yelling.
"Sunmi-ah, come wash your hands quickly," her mum who stood at doorway to the adjoining kitchen, called.
"Yes!" Sunmi ran to meet her mum who smoothed her hair down and bent to her height to kiss her forehead before nudging her into the kitchen. The giggling Sunmi complied.
"Did you get everything?" Sunmi's mother rose to her feet as she addressed her husband.
He beamed a smile at her as he raised up the grocery list. "Yes ma'am."
They both laughed as she playfully hit his shoulder, just then the yelps of Sunmi's squealing echoed around the whole house. The curious parents pushed open the kitchen door to see what caused that noise from the little girl.
"Oppa, stop it!" Sunmi was shrieking in laughter as she ran around the kitchen trying to avoid being hit by the splashes of water being tossed about by her brother who gapped her in age with seven years.
"Would you stop it?! She can slip and fall!" their dad yelled in panic.
Their eldest child removed his hand from the tap in the sink and turned to their parents with a wide grin on his face.
"We were just playing dad," he laughed as his younger sister finally ran into the arms of their mother.
She soothed the little girl by petting her hair with a chuckle. Their two children were always so close it was hard to believe they were very wide apart in age, except of course the height and the fact he was a lot mature than Sunmi.
"Sunmi-ah, did oppa scare you?" their eldest son was already by her side, bent to Sunmi's height, talking in a soft tone.
"Oppa is bad! Ambushing me with water when I wanted to wash my hand! Bad oppa!" Sunmi ranted with a pout.
He stifled his chuckle and pretended to be very solemn. "That oppa needs to be scolded a lot!"
Sunmi gave a small nod.
"Oh no, what to do?" he sighed as he looked thoughtful. "Oppa is really sorry."
Sunmi turned to him, no longer burying her face in her mother's skirt. "I will forgive oppa for anything he does!"
She gave her elder brother a bright grin. He smiled as well and cradled her. "Is that so?" He played with the locks of her hair that dangled on her back as he patted her. "Thank you, Sunmi-ah!"
They disengaged the hug and grinned at each other.
"Gunwoo-ah, can you set the table now?" their mum requested as she fully entered the kitchen with their dad closely behind carrying the groceries.
"Yes." Gunwoo stood up straight.
"Oppa!" Sunmi stretched out her hands in demand and Gunwoo laughed as he carried her.
"Sunmi will help oppa, huh?" he was saying as he walked out of the kitchen.
Their parents who were watching all the exchange, turned and smiled at each other and their mother leaned her head on her husband's shoulder.
"It's pretty," she grinned.
"What is?" her husband asked, slightly confused.
His wife always uttered that word when she liked something. According to her; she always wanted everything around her to be pretty which was the reason he had worked with his blood, sweat and tears to build a dainty little house like the one they lived in before she gave her consent to marry him.
"The kids." She leaned over to land a peck on his cheek and he smiled, "You."
He hugged her from behind and she leaned more on him. "Us."
"This family."
"Yes," he agreed. "It's pretty."
He couldn't help the seed of doubt that gnawed at him. What will happen if she doesn't consider us pretty anymore?
"Mum!!! I'm hungry!!!"
Sunmi's cries for food cut them off personal thoughts and sent both of them hurrying to start preparing the food.
Later on, Gunwoo was well tucked in into his bed all set to sleep. He had just dimmed his room lights and turned over the other side to start snoring away when he heard a gentle rat-tat on his door.
Without waiting for an answer, his door was pushed open.
"Oppa?" Sunmi called in a quiet tone before tiptoeing into his room and closing the door.
Gunwoo sat up with a sleepy smile. "Do you need something?"
Sunmi snuck underneath his blanket and popped up right beside him, "Your bed is warm oppa." She snuggled closer to him.
"You're not sleepy?" Gunwoo asked as he watched the little one settle down comfortably in his single bed.
"Oppa lemme stay here tonight!" Sunmi pleaded with a small pout.
Gunwoo chuckled. Sunmi always snuck into his room every night.
"Okay, let's read a story first." Gunwoo leaned over and shuffled through the books that were in one of the drawers of his bedside table.
Sunmi chirped happily, "I want the girl and the black hole!"
"The girl and the vast black hole," Gunwoo read out the title of the book he then selected.
He closed the picture book just as suddenly as he had opened it and turned to Sunmi with a slight frown. "Hey, how many times would I read you this?"
"Oppa, you said you'll read me a story!" she whined.
"Okay, I understand, shush." Gunwoo gently placed his hand over her mouth so that she won't make noise and stir up their parents in the next room.
"So; the girl and the vast black hole," Gunwoo resumed the story.
"There once was a girl who had no shoes," Gunwoo started along the familiar lines. "She had lovely clothes on and a very nice bow on her hair, but no shoes to complete the set."
"Her toes felt cold underneath the soil so she decided to set out to find some shoes." Gunwoo briefly glanced at his sister. He saw she was listening quietly to him. He went on. "Night after night, day after day, the girl walked on and on. Searching high, searching low, asking along the way she goes."
Gunwoo turned yet another page. "Eventually she had walked so far away that she forgot what she set out for."
He was inwardly wondering why a story made for kids would have such a narrative.
"Now the girl wandered about without an aim, going about in all directions. With all the walking, her feet had turned numb she couldn't feel it anymore."
Gunwoo flipped open of the book.
"On and on she went forward until suddenly-" Gunwoo paused according to the punctuations in the book, "she slipped and fell down a swirly never ending black hole that was on the path."
"The girl went on falling and falling till everything around her was pitch black," Gunwoo read. "She had just one thought left in her mind."
"Finally. I don't have to drag on this aimless journey anymore."
Gunwoo looked over at the side his sister laid and saw she was already fast asleep. He smiled to himself and closed the book.
"We'll end here again Sunmi-ah," he whispered to his fast-asleep sister. She always fell asleep before the book ended. All through the years that Gunwoo read that book to her, they never completed it. Once she fell asleep, he closed the book and that was the last time he would pick it up except she demanded some other time that he read it to her again.
"Talk about a book without knowing the ending," Gunwoo chuckled to himself as he returned the book back to where he had picked it up from.
He could read it if he wanted to, but he wasn't curious to know what happened after that page.
Gunwoo gently carried Sunmi in his arms and trodded down the passage to her own room. "Sleep well princess," Gunwoo said in a soft tone as he placed her on her own bed and covered her small snoring figure with the blanket.
Gunwoo closed her door and returned to his room.
In fact, he was certain he could predict the ending of that silly book.
He turned in bed with a small smile on his face; tomorrow the whole family were going on their yearly trip to Jeju island and he looked forward to the vacation.
Gunwoo fell asleep thinking his life was perfect.