Chapter 40 (2/2)

“Your age doesn’t matter!”

“But I came home safe and sound.”

Neither of them said a word for some time. She tried to calm down, breathing heavily, and then she let out a heavy sigh. She looked at Chookjae closely. She wanted to ask something, but she couldn’t. After a long time, she asked with a sigh.

“Nothing happened?”

“Of course nothing happened. We were just doing homework and it got late, so I slept there.”

Chookjae butted near her, now that she wasn’t so angry. She yelled at him not to come closer, but he didn’t care. He took her wrinkled hand and explained.

“Granny, you know I sleep wearing only my underwear.”

“I do, and that’s what this is about!”

Chookjae was quiet only at school. At home, he was quite talkative. He smiled.

“The other boys slept in the living room, and I slept in a different room. Then a friend came in and put a blanket over me while I was sleeping.”

“While you were sleeping?”

“Yes, I found it when I woke up.”

She shut her mouth again. She looked away, not knowing what to think. She sighed and held her grandson’s hand.

“Just buy that friend some snacks later.”

Chookjae nodded and smiled brightly. He knew she wasn’t going to be mad anymore.

“I won’t worry you anymore.”

“Oh, we both know you will.”

I should buy Myohan a bag of crisps or something. Chookjae thought so, but he didn’t know Myohan had already canceled his application for extra classes. He wasn’t going to see Myohan during the entire summer vacation, and when they met again after that, Myohan was no longer going to talk about the twelve zodiac animals to him.

Scorching sun, hot air, chirping cicadas, and trees full of green leaves. Summer had come. Now it was vacation time and Myohan had nothing to do, so he decided to take lots of naps, but…

“Achoo!”

Then he caught a cold.

“Dumb cat.”

O Shin scolded him after seeing him sniffle. He sneezed once more. With another achoo! his red eyes became teary. O Shin wiped those tears with a tender hand.

“You got cold because you slept without a blanket.”

“If you are so smart, you could have put a blanket on me.”

Myohan had a cold in the middle of summer. He had wrapped himself in clothes and blankets during winter, but he had forgotten to be careful because of the hot weather. O Shin was right. He shouldn’t have slept without a blanket while the air conditioner was on.

O Shin kept arguing that although he had put a blanket on Myohan, he kept kicking it away. As he had been sound asleep then, he couldn’t possibly know the truth. Of course, O Shin wasn’t the type of person who lied, so it had to be Myohan’s fault.

“Achoo!”

At any rate, he now had a cold. It was a simple kind of cold that came with a running nose and sneezing. He had no fever and his neck was fine. He didn’t know if he should be grateful or angry about it. He sighed as he covered his mouth with a mask.

“Mr. O Myohan? Please come in.”

When he found out his cold had gotten serious, he headed to the hospital right away. It was Sunday, so all of the local hospitals near his home were closed. Therefore, he had to go to a general hospital a little away from home.

It was a little funny that he had come to such a huge hospital with a number of patient rooms upstairs, but he had no choice. He feared a severe cold more than anything.

The young doctor who examined him told him some obvious things, like he shouldn’t use air conditioner too much. Myohan nodded and went out after saying thank you. He felt it every time he visited a hospital, but doctors only said the obvious. It was like asking for a way to get good grades and get ‘study hard every day’ as an answer.

“Sneezing cat.”

O Shin scolded him again. He seemed to be particularly sensitive today. Myohan stared at him, but he sneezed again. O Shin took care of his messy back hair by patting it down.