Finding You

CHAPTER 8

Tae Pyung woke up early on a Sunday with the foot of Ji Won poking his jaw. He gently tapped his son's thigh and the boy stirred, eventually moving his leg away from his Dad's face. However, after only a few seconds, Ji Won's foot was back to rubbing Tae Pyung's stubbled jaw. Instead of trying to rouse the kid to remove it, he decided to just go back to sleep because that foot had always found its way back to his cheeks anyway.

Thirty minutes later, Tae Pyung's alarm went off and his hand almost automatically groped for his phone on the bedside table to cancel it without opening his eyes. Then, he sluggishly sat up and stretched his arms.

In reality, it took him another thirty minutes before he was able to push himself to get out of bed, as it was a tight competition between sleeping in and getting some breakfast. But the smell of brewed coffee and freshly baked bread easily won him over in the end.

"Can I have some of that please?" he asked in a middle of a big yawn as he perched himself on the counter stool in the kitchen.

Before he even finished stretching, a mug of steaming coffee was placed in front of him.

"Thank you, Auntie," Tae Pyung said through half-shut eyes.

"Good heavens, Tae Pyung. You look like you're having a terrible hangover," said the middle-aged woman standing in front of him across the counter. "Would you like me to make you some soup?"

Tae Pyung shook his head to politely refuse, then mindlessly took a sip of his coffee. In no time, he blurted "Hot! Hot!" with his burnt tongue sticking out like a puppy's.

"You careless brat," his Auntie scolded. "Why do you still drink when you know for sure that you'd be wasted the next day doing all kinds of stupid things?"

"It's not a hangover, Auntie," he told her. "It's just that I've been losing so much sleep these past weeks because of a case we're working on. Then, I stayed up so late last night too after working on Ji Won's practice sheets."

He then blew on the coffee thrice before carefully taking a sip for the second time.

"Practice sheets?" his aunt asked. "You mean, for his Math class?"

He bashfully nodded while hiding his smile behind the mug in his hands, thereby making Auntie shake her head with deep regret.

"Poor Ji Won," she lamented. "Does he know that you flunked Algebra when you were in grade school?"

"Of course not, Auntie," Tae Pyung admitted. "Don't tell him, though. He said I looked so cool when I was bent on solving the last problem. Let's leave it at that."

"Alright, alright," his aunt promised with a smile as she reached out to gently pat Tae Pyung's head, like how she did when he was still a young boy.

"By the way, when did you get back home?" he asked her. "You could have called me to pick you up at the bus station."

The woman waved off his suggestion and said, "It's not a big deal. I had to buy some breakfast for us anyway."

Tae Pyung continued to ask about his aunt's recent trip to the city where her son was studying. They talked about how his cousin, a guy named Su Bin, was doing as he was still in the process of adapting to his new life at the dorm. Tae Pyung also offered his apologies for unintentionally delaying her planned visit, as he was not able to come home in the last couple of weeks due to work.

A few moments later, Tae Pyung turned when he heard footsteps of someone descending the stairs. It was Ji Won, who looked still half-asleep with his hair sticking out in different directions. He dragged himself towards the kitchen to join his dad on the counter, only to rest his arms on the table and bury his head between them.