Chapter 14: The Meaning of the Name (1)
Rustle.
Huh?
The late autumn sunlight tickled my face, so I woke up before the alarm even went off, but my whole body felt an unfamiliar sensation.
The blanket was much heavier than usual, and although the stove had gone out and the air was slightly chilly, it still felt cozy.
And then.
“What is all this?”
Leaves.
Dry fallen leaves filled the entire place. The café furniture was buried beneath them, making it feel as if we were in the mountains.
It wasn’t hard to guess who caused this mess(?). After all, only two people were in the café.
I waded through the leaves as if cutting through water and went up to the second floor, finally arriving in front of the main bedroom where the culprit was sleeping.
Knock knock.
“If you’re awake, come out.”
(Hmmmnya.)
Since she currently took the form of a young girl, I didn’t feel right about just barging in, so I politely knocked like a gentleman, but there was no sign of her waking up.
Guess I had no choice.
Worried that the second floor might be as leaf-covered as the first, I carefully opened the door.
Thankfully, the bedroom was untouched.
I had definitely laid her down neatly on the bed and even covered her with a winter blanket, but there she was, sleeping in a strange position on the floor.
“Wake up. It’s morning.”
“Mmm, morning?”
“Yeah, time to eat.”
“Breakfast! It’s my first time having it!”
The child, who rubbed her eyes and asked again, immediately sat up straight at the mention of breakfast.
She had just gotten arms and legs yesterday, so eating would likely be a first for her too.
Honestly, since she had gone through that ordeal(?) in the early morning, I didn’t plan to feed her if she refused.
But seeing her so excited changed things.
I followed behind the girl as she hopped down the stairs ahead of me.
Ah, right.
“By the way, were you the one who did all this with the leaves?”
“Yes! Because it was too cold! I did good, right?”
“Yeah, thanks. But don’t do it again. It’s hard for the people who have to clean it up.”
“Okay! Hehe.”
She meant well.
She came all the way down to the first floor in the middle of the night to scatter leaves, probably worried that I might be cold.
Cleaning up would be a hassle, but thanks to the leaves, I managed to sleep soundly in what would have been an uncomfortable bed.
Rather than scolding her for being reckless, I decided to just give her a vague warning.
“But who are the people cleaning it up? It’s just the two of us here…”
“They’ll be here soon.”
“What the hell is this mess? Is anyone inside?”
They arrived. The cleaners—no, Elder Gumiho and Director Baek Mahyeon.
Guess yokai can't become proper gentlemen.
“Elder, over here.”
I raised my hand and called the elder to the spot I had at least somewhat cleared.
The leaves were piled so high we couldn’t even see each other’s faces, so our voices boomed unnaturally loud, shattering the quiet morning.
“This is madness, madness. I swear, did that raccoon dog bring you something again?”
“No. Actually…”
“I did it!”
“Huh?”
The child jumped up and waved her hand, afraid the leaves might hide her.
“You had a daughter?”
“Of course not.”
“Then who is it? Wait a minute! What is this aura!”
“I was just about to ask that myself.”
Originally, I had planned to ask her slowly over breakfast, but since things had already escalated, there was no point in delaying it.
“Are you that tree?”
“Yes! That’s right!”
A blunt answer, fitting for such a simplified question.
The logic was simple. She said she got a body just last night, which meant there was a time she had none.
If she had been a child born of the Divine Tree or some kind of spirit, she wouldn’t have answered like that.
“Well, so she says, ha ha.”
“What do you mean ‘so she says’! Where are you going! Sit down and explain everything!”
“You heard it too, Elder. I need to prepare breakfast. If you have more questions, ask the child directly. Oh, and please help clean up the leaves over at that table.”
With that, I quickly moved to the kitchen.
Since I’d woken her up with the promise of breakfast, I had to keep my word. Plus, I legally offloaded the leaf cleanup onto someone else.
But what to make?
There was some leftover spicy pork stir-fry, but I couldn’t risk repeating that morning chaos.
After aimlessly opening and closing the fridge and cupboards a few times,
In the end, the only ingredients I managed to gather were the sweet potatoes roasted on the stove yesterday and the Spam I got as a holiday gift.
Even trying to roughly pan-fry the Spam wasn’t enough, since we had four mouths to feed.
As expected, the only menu I could make was “that one.”
I took out a large mixing bowl, threw in the sweet potatoes, finely chopped Spam, and a generous amount of mayonnaise, and mixed them together.
The breakfast menu created that way was sarada.
Not salad—sarada.
A familiar dish whose name alone reflects its essence: mixing random ingredients with mayo.
There were no fancy ingredients like oriental sauce or dressing—just a hearty, rustic sarada quickly made.
And alongside it were four glasses of café milk, prepped in practice the day before.
Rustle. Rustle.
While Jinseong was preparing breakfast, the café was filled with flying leaves, radiating an intense autumn mood.
“What kind of nonsense is this in the early morning? Why isn’t that raccoon dog showing up at times like these?”
“You two agreed to take turns standing watch, didn’t you?”
“Oh, right. Hmph, just like they say—when you need dog poop for medicine, you can’t find it.”
“If you leave it, I’ll take care of it.”
“You’re getting the hang of being a lord. But you’re getting old too—don’t make yourself look so ridiculous.”
Though he said that, it was mostly Baek Mahyeon’s hands that were diligently cleaning up the leaves.
The handful the child grasped with her tiny hands was literally just a handful, and the gumiho flapped her palm side to side like a fan to create a breeze.
“This should be enough. You stop too and sit. There’s much to discuss.”
Once the leaves that had filled the café had cleared to some degree, the gumiho slumped into a chair and called the two over.
“Now, let’s hear it. Are you really that Divine Tree?”
“Yes, I grew arms and legs like this!”
“Hmmm.”
“Elder, has a tree ever turned into a human before?”
“It happens sometimes. Trees have life, so over time they gather understanding. Since this is a Divine Tree, it likely didn’t even take thousands of years. Still, it’s strange. Not only did it grow in a single day, but it also looks exactly like a person.”
The child played, flapping her palms and making breezes, paying no mind to the gazes of the two adults. The gumiho observed her closely and repeatedly said, “How fascinating.”
“Have you asked everything you’re curious about? Please take this.”
“Even in the middle of this chaos, you just had to eat, didn’t you?”
“If I skipped meals every time there was a crisis, I’d never have eaten a single bite.”
“Boasting, are you!”
Jinseong ignored the gumiho’s jab with ease and instead signaled to her to pass the bowl to him across the table.
“I came here as a guest, and you treat me like a servant every time. Heaven will punish you.”
“If you say such things about moving a bowl, the child will hear and learn it.”
“Well said! What will you do now? It’s not something we can undo—the Divine Tree has turned into a child. Are you planning to raise her?”
This time, the gaze shifted to Jinseong sitting beside them.
Up until now, the Jinseong that Gumiho and Baek Mahyeon had known never worried too much when faced with issues like this. He always gave a bold answer—as he did now.
“There’s no other choice, is there?”
“You haven’t even had a wedding, and you’re already taking in a child?”
“I can’t just leave her at an orphanage.”
“Well, yes, but… hmph.”
Jinseong wiped the child’s mouth casually as she splattered food all over her face, clothes, and the table with clumsy spoon skills, clearly showing that he had already made up his mind even before they arrived.
“But you’ve only known her for a day. It doesn’t make sense to say you’ve become attached in that time.”
“If we’re counting short time spans, it hasn’t even been a month since we started sitting around and chatting like this.”
“Huh? Really? I thought at least three months…”
The gumiho, ticking her fingers with her thumb, trailed off.
‘Huh, how could this be? I met this guy at the café just two weeks ago. But he already feels like an old friend.’
She glanced at Director Baek Mahyeon with surprise, only to see the same expression mirrored on his face.
They’d gone through so many ordeals that they had momentarily forgotten the passage of time.
That’s why it hit them even harder.
It was a moment when both realized just how much space Jinseong had come to occupy in their hearts.
“Why are you staring like that? The milk’s getting cold.”
“It’s nothing. Right, let’s eat. We do all this to eat, after all.”
Slurp.
“So good.”
“Tastes great.”
Because the café was so full of fallen leaves, the stove couldn’t be turned on, and the chill that seeped into their bodies was now melting away like snow thanks to the warm milk.
After warmth returned to their bodies, everyone’s chopsticks naturally reached for the sarada.
Due to poor portion control, there was an excess of mayonnaise, which filled everyone’s mouths with savory flavor.
Calling it a healthy dish would be a stretch—aside from the sweet potato, the ingredients were far from nutritious.
“The sweet potato’s really good! So sweet and savory!”
“Ha! With skills like yours—just like with the pork stir-fry—you could run a restaurant.”
“Do you know how many people hear that and then go bankrupt? I can barely manage the café.”
“You haven’t even had any real rivals.”
“Still, I served every coffee on time as requested.”
“Oh, well, I paid good money for that. Of course you should serve it properly. That’s business.”
“Would you like some more?”
“I must’ve been preaching to a cow. I’m fine—just serve the child some more.”
And so, as they squabbled around the old table while eating breakfast, the scene wasn’t much different from that of an ordinary, happy family.
That is, until the gumiho broke the warm atmosphere with a question.
“But the child has no place to stay. Didn’t you sleep here last night too?”
“There’s one more room upstairs.”
“That’s not a real room. There’s no space between the wardrobe and the linen closet.”
“We’ll handle it on our end. We can extend the place or build another structure out front.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry for the trouble again.”
“Say that with a straight face. At least pretend to decline once. You’re like a shameless thief.”
“Ha ha, we’ve added a new family member, haven’t we? I should be grateful.”
“What’s a family member?”
“It means the people who eat together in the same house.”
“Then are we family?”
“Yes.”
A warm smile filled Jinseong’s eyes as he patted the child’s head.
And so, Dangsan-ri Café was getting ready to grow just a bit bigger to fit its growing family.
It was an ordinary morning where a certain raccoon dog, who not only missed out on the sweet milk and savory sarada but also didn’t become part of the family, was absent.