Prologue
Chaewon has aged well.
She has definitely aged well: 75 years. When she was young, Mrs. Chaewon, at that time, Miss Chaewon, used to think that she would never grow old. Not like others, and in fact, she did not grow old like others.
She was not grumpy, she was not a complainer, she was not annoying, she had been all of these things when she was young and today, as an old woman, she was definitely her grandchildren's favorite grandmother.
Oh grandchildren, she didn't expect that either. Nor children, but that's another story... She was cheerful, willing and still did what she liked without much effort. And one of the things she liked most was telling stories, she loved it since she was a child and today being able to tell stories to her grandchildren was a comforting feeling, like visiting the past but with different eyes.
"We want another story!" One of the youngest granddaughters said, “I don’t want it like the ones in the books, like Louis, the cat.”
So they wanted a real story—although a cat that traveled all over the world wasn’t all that real… but they were kids… and well, Louis the cat had lived quite an adventure. Even if the world was just a small backyard. They would understand when they grew up.
Sometimes, the world for somebody is just a backyard.
“Grandma, grandma, grandma, tell us how you met our other grandmother and how you fell in love.” Oh, they were still too young. And as if reading her mind, the oldest granddaughter said it was time for bed and that they hadn’t behaved well enough for a new story. It was true, but Chaewon would still tell the story anyway.
But the other granddaughters wouldn’t allow it. Oh, positive parenting or whatever you call it these days. Chaewon spoiled her daughters a lot, she couldn’t deny it and she wouldn’t deny it. They were all spoiled and well, Chaewon said she hated spoiled children until she met her own daughters.
Today was one of the weekends that her granddaughters - all five of them - stayed with Chaewon. So she didn't really need to worry about putting the younger ones to bed, the older ones would do it - because it was something her daughter had told her not to interfere.
What a thing, huh? Chaewon didn't let her parents interfere in raising her children either... but that was still strange.
It took a total of 30 minutes until the younger ones went to sleep and the older ones went downstairs. Chaewon was waiting, she always expected something afterwards, a conversation about girls maybe, or boys - although Chaewon didn't really know about them to this day -, sometimes it was about questions about Chaewon's past.
"So, what's next?" Chaewon asks as she gets up from the armchair to go to the sofa. She wanted to read, but she knew that would be unlikely. It would be a night that she would sleep outside of her bedtime.
“We want to know how you met Grandma.” Oh. They really wanted that story.
“I already told you… I mean, your mother already told you.”
“She said you don’t like talking about the things you did wrong.” Oh, right, low blow. “And that we shouldn’t talk about the lives of older people because it can hurt them and that you like to lie about it.”
“I see only one lie in those three statements.”
“See? You’re doing it again!” The second oldest granddaughter says and Chaewon laughs, really laughs, showing the wrinkles and the small flaws in her skin.
“Doing what?” Chaewon jokes. It was true, she didn’t really like talking about the things she did wrong in the past, but she didn’t like lying about the past, it was just that sometimes it was painful. So yeah, just a lie.
“Trickling us!” “I never beat around the bush… I just like to tell things later…”
“Mommy says you do that because you have time to think about what to lie about.”
Oh, another low blow. Her daughter really had taken her sense of truth from her other mother, what could she do? Chaewon could have given birth, carried her for 9 months and still her daughter had taken after her mother entirely.