A manga café.
Was that even a word, combining manga and café?
Was it related to the reason rental shops disappeared?
Or did manga cafés take their place instead of rental shops?
He was flustered by the concept, which he was hearing for the first time in his life.
On top of that, he could tell his niece was looking at him with a rather pitiful expression.
“Ahem. A manga café. Yeah. I know it. You read there.”
“You didn’t know. Why are you lying?”
“They existed back in my day too. Manga cafés!”
“Liar.”
Yewon already had a face that clearly didn’t believe him.
“It’s true.”
Even as he said that, Sangwoo thought it was a waste that he had bought the manga for 5,000 won.
‘No. This is something you have to own.’
Reading something you own is different from reading something that’s passed through other people’s hands.
He had once had the horrible experience of renting a manga from a rental shop only to find it torn or with boogers stuck on it.
Who was to say a manga café would be any different.
There might be tons of manga like that.
Still, it wasn’t like he wasn’t interested.
“But where is this manga café, anyway?”
“See? You didn’t know!”
Yewon pointed at him with her finger as if she had found the culprit.
“To an adult, that what’s-it-called thing. That. I can’t remember the word. Anyway, pointing your finger and all.”
“What’s that?”
“Hmm. Anyway, you shouldn’t do that. Got it?”
“I don’t know!”
Sangwoo looked at Yewon.
What was he supposed to do with this little kid, really?
“Forget that. Niece. Do you know where the manga café is?”
“I do!”
“Oh. You do?”
“Yeah. I saw it while passing by.”
He didn’t know whether she had seen it while riding the bus or at some other time, but since she said she knew, he wanted to go.
He put his hand into his pocket and took out the money.
18,000 won.
The money left after buying the first volume of One Piece.
‘Will this be enough?’
Not knowing what prices would be like twenty years later made things a bit troublesome.
That said, it wasn’t something he could ask his niece about.
Just look at those pitiful eyes she was giving him.
‘An adult doesn’t even know that?’
She was definitely thinking something like that.
“Niece. Then should we go to the manga café together?”
“Are you paying, Uncle?”
Sangwoo hesitated.
He wondered what he would do if he didn’t have enough money.
If Yewon went with him, he couldn’t guarantee how much it would cost.
So he pulled out the magic words.
“I will think about it depending on how you behave.”
“I don’t have to go, though?”
Ghk.
Who would have thought she would say she didn’t have to go.
She was more cunning than he had expected.
“If you tell me where it is, I will buy you a snack.”
“Just one?”
“Just one for now.”
Yewon thought about it, then nodded.
“Okay.”
The deal was made.
Yewon hummed as she put on her shoes.
Watching that, Sang-woo felt like he had been tricked pretty badly.
Still, he could at least buy his niece a snack.
‘A snack should cost about 500 won, right?’
No. Prices had gone up, so he could probably buy one for about 1,000 won.
“Uncle. Hurry.”
“Got it. Niece.”
“And I am not ‘niece’, I am Yewon.”
“Sure. Niece.”
“Argh!”
At this point, he realized something.
Calling her by her name instead of ‘niece’ could be used later as a bargaining chip.
Of course, Yewon’s reaction was funny, so he couldn’t stop calling her ‘niece’.
‘I just haven’t adapted to modern times yet, but once I do, I will show her how scary adults can be.’
Because of the information gap, his niece currently had the upper hand, but that wouldn’t last forever.
A child’s tricks were always visible to an adult’s eyes.
But adult tricks were something a child had no choice but to fall for.
“I said hurry up!”
“Yeah. I am coming. Coming.”
As Sangwoo put on his shoes, a strange feeling surfaced.
Talking like this made it feel like they really were an uncle and niece.
Even though they truly were in that kind of relationship, it hadn’t felt real until now, but in these small, unexpected moments, that fact gently sank in.
And so they headed to the manga café.
***
Impressions from walking side by side with Yewon.
Her stride was short.
So he had to match his steps to hers.
She was so slow that he felt an urge to tuck her under his arm and run.
“Uncle. From here, we have to go this way. See that? There’s 119. The firefighter uncles here work hard to put out fires and rescue people when it’s dangerous. If you run into them, you should greet them nicely. And if you turn this way and keep going straight, there’s the police station. Police uncles catch bad people, so you should greet them too.”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
Every time she explained the way, she pointed at a specific building and added extra details.
Listening quietly, it sounded like she was repeating things she had heard somewhere else and passing them on to him.
The fire station, the police station, the bank, the kind bearded man at the old hardware store, the friendly lady at the tteokbokki shop.
It felt like someone had told her stories a child absolutely needed to know.
Meaning, he could feel his older sister, who had become a mother, in Yewon’s stories.
“Did you hear that from your mom?”
“Yeah! Mom told me to remember it for sure. Every weekend, we go on walks really far away and she tells me.”
“So you’ve been to all those places?”
“Yeah! I go a lot.”
Sangwoo nodded.
It was slow, but somehow she really seemed to know the way.
He didn’t know how far she had wandered around, but maybe they had deliberately walked around this area together.
Expanding the radius outward from the apartment.
Until Yewon remembered.
‘Mom always did that for us.’
It was easy to tell that his sister had done the same for Yewon.
Because it was something their mother had always done for them.
From when they were young, going on walks and teaching directions had been part of everyday life.
Even when they said their legs hurt and wanted to stop, their mother always went far.
They didn’t just go to the same places either.
Like drawing circles outward from the house, she had them wander in all directions so they would remember the roads.
‘Looks like she used that as-is.’
Only now did he realize it was his mother’s own way of educating them.
The woman who used to walk around so actively for their sake now struggled even to walk due to old age.
‘Should I save the carrying-and-running for later?’
Watching Yewon like this made the urge to pick her up and run disappear.
In a way, wasn’t this her first experience memorizing and finding the way on her own?
She always came with his sister before.
He didn’t want to ruin his sister’s intentions for no reason.
“How far do we have to go?”
“Um… I don’t know?”
“Is it far?”
“I don’t know? When I came with mom, it felt close?”
‘Well, she probably didn’t notice time passing because she was talking with her mom.’
“I’ll be counting on you for directions.”
“Okay!”
Since he didn’t know the way either, he thought he should just think of this as learning the route and walk.
It was a ridiculous experience. The lesson he received from his mother passed to his sister, from his sister to Yewon, and then from Yewon back to him.
It was truly fascinating how something like this could happen.
“Oh. We’re here.”
“Really?”
“Over there!”
When he looked at the place she pointed to, there was a manga café sign.
They went inside, and it was more pleasant than expected.
An interior that made use of a wooden feel.
It was decorated with various figures, and there were also places where one could lie down like rooms.
The first thing he saw was the café.
It seemed like customers had to pay there first.
“Nice.”
“Right?”
“Niece. Have you been here before too?”
“No. It’s my first time.”
‘So her mom never showed her, she only looked from afar.’
She had just kept it in her heart.
‘No wonder she seemed kind of excited from the moment we came.’
“Please pay for the drinks and usage time in advance before going in.”
“Oh. Yes.”
At the staff member’s words, Sangwoo looked at the prices.
One drink and one hour of use cost 5,500 won.
Two hours were 8,000 won, three hours were 10,000 won.
‘5,500 won for one hour… that’s the price of one comic book.’
He concluded that if he read just ten volumes, he would already get his money’s worth.
Drinks were included too, so it was more than enough.
Honestly, he wanted to go for the 12-hour option for 18,000 won, but he had to hold back today.
Yewon had to be home before his sister arrived.
In the end, they could only use it for one hour.
“One hour, and a cola for the drink, please.”
“Uncle. I want cola too.”
“Got it.”
“Two colas, please.”
“The usage fee for elementary, middle, and high school students is 500 won cheaper, so it is 5,000 won.”
There was an elementary school student discount.
It was nice to be able to save a bit more money.
After receiving the change and drinks, they went into an open room.
“Wow, this is nice. Right, Uncle?”
“It is.”
“Then should we pick some manga?”
“Let’s do that.”
Sangwoo had already grasped the entire interior.
The eyes of a Sword Master didn’t miss even the smallest details.
He had even finished figuring out where the books he wanted to read were.
He planned to quickly grab only the ones he wanted and go up.
‘We only have one hour, so I need to get my money’s worth.’
The version of himself who leisurely enjoyed manga was already gone.
He wanted to enjoy as much as possible within the limited time.
However, that plan was bound to be wrecked by an unexpected obstacle.
“Uncle. What’s fun?”
“What?!”
A request for a manga recommendation came in.
He had no idea what on earth to recommend to a first-grade elementary school girl.
He had never had an experience like this even twenty years ago.
Still, there was no doubt that a manga recommendation was an important matter.
“Is this your first time reading manga?”
“No. We have manga at home. Biographies of great people in comic form.”
“That’s not a manga.”
“Huh? It’s not?”
“Yeah.”
‘That is a heresy! Comics are not that kind of thing.’
That made the recommendation even more important.
Everyone had probably experienced having their first encounter with manga imprint itself on their memory.
If he recommended a boring one, she might come to avoid manga as a bad memory.
‘What should I recommend?’
He could just recommend something proven and generally fun.
But if the premise was a first-grade elementary school girl?
It was an extremely difficult problem for him.
What on earth should he recommend to his niece?
‘Should I recommend something like a magical girl?’
A few flashed through his mind, but they were so old that he hesitated.
‘No. Still, they’d be more fun than biographies.’
It wasn’t that he was looking down on biographies.
He just thought that, in terms of fun, manga were far more enjoyable.
Wasn’t the very purpose of what they try to give completely different?
“Alright. Uncle will recommend one for you.”
To do that, he had to grasp every corner of the comic shelves.
Figure out what manga were there.
There were some he could only remember after seeing the title, since his memory was hazy.
He moved his eyes quickly while taking Yewon along.
There were many ones he hadn’t seen in a long time.
After a long deliberation, he pulled out one book.
“It’s CardCaptor Sakura.”
Yewon stared at it intently, then asked,
“Does this have fighting?”
“What?”
“I like fighting.”
“!!!”
He had overlooked one important fact.
That people had preferences.
‘Come to think of it, she must have read a lot of comics already, right?’
Because of that, she clearly had her own tastes.
So she liked fighting.
Then there was no helping it.
“Do you want to read One Piece?”
“I already watch it as an anime, so I won’t!”
“Damn!”
Yewon was the type who wouldn’t go over something again once she had seen it once.
Picking something became even more difficult.
“Hoo. Is something even older than One Piece okay?”
“What is it?”
Sangwoo grinned.
A classic masterpiece.
He was certain she hadn’t seen this one.
And it always had fighting.
“Dragon Ball.”
“Dragon Ball? I’ve heard of it!”
“But you haven’t seen it, right?”
“Yeah.”
“If you read it, it’ll be fun.”
Sangwoo grinned.
Then he checked the time.
He felt sad when he saw that fifteen minutes had already passed.
There was no helping it.
He would have to read quickly using the abilities of a Sword Master.
***
They enjoyed the manga and returned home safely.
After some time passed, his sister also returned safely from work.
“I’m back.”
“Mom! You are back!”
“Welcome home.”
Yewon hugged her tightly.
Then she gave her a kiss on the lips.
Smack.
‘That’s the same as we used to do too.’
Sangwoo remembered his mother’s rule that they had to give a kiss every time their dad came home.
“Yewon. Did school and taekwondo class go well today too?”
“Yeah!”
“Why are you so excited today?”
“Uncle took me to a manga café today.”
“…Oh.”
His sister didn’t look very pleased.
“Uncle also recommended a manga. Dragon Ball.”
“…Did he?”
“Yeah! The main character even poked eyes and beat people up a lot.”
“…”
His sister stared straight at him, her gaze turning colder than any Sword Master’s.
He felt killing intent.
Feeling his life in danger, Sangwoo grabbed the recyclables and shouted,
“I’m going to take out the trash for a bit!”
And just like that, he bolted out of the apartment.
