Chapter 61: Christmas in Another World (5) (61/225)
Jinseo walked to the backyard on the north side of the cathedral. He found a tree stump among the trees and sat down on it. Tree lights wrapped around the surrounding trees glittered beautifully beneath the quiet night sky.
"Hoo."
The sigh Jinseo let out became white breath, scattering in all directions before disappearing.
"It's Christmas… No. It was always like this."
Christmas didn't leave him only happy memories.
When he was a thoughtless kid, he'd eaten delivery food like pizza or chicken instead of the tteokbokki snacks he'd gotten sick of, and he'd been happy to receive the presents his parents gave him. But once Jinseo started helping with the snack business, he couldn't feel that pure joy anymore.
Because Christmas was a special day, people tended to buy special food instead of common street snacks before going home. Naturally, sales dropped compared to other days, and Jinseo sighed as he looked around the empty shop. Even when he stayed open later than usual, hoping—just in case—Christmas Eves where he quietly pulled down the shutter repeated themselves.
"And it was the day I broke up with my ex-girlfriend, too."
That didn't mean every Christmas he'd lived through left only bad memories.
A precious memory of sharing a Christmas cake as a family, the one his mother brought home after mass. The memory of going wild after finding the toy he'd wanted inside a red sock. The joy he felt when the confession he made to the girlfriend he's now broken up with succeeded.
Christmas—where joy and sadness, happiness and frustration repeated in cycles.
After he ended up alone, Jinseo forgot about Christmas and let it pass. To him, December had been nothing more than the last month of the year.
"Come to think of it, it's been a really long time since I pulled out Christmas decorations."
Facing his first Christmas in this other world, Jinseo had thought happiness had returned to him again.
Far more customers came to taste his snacks than when he'd been in Korea. Many people approached him, and he lived within relationships far more than before. But when the reality hit him—that there was no family to share that happiness with—his head went cold.
Even though his heart still couldn't forget the happiness from back then.
"The Cardinal's hymn is over."
Hearing applause loud enough to reach the backyard, Jinseo looked toward the cathedral. He had watched Fedora practice from start to finish, so he knew exactly what kind of song it was.
He couldn't forget the sight of lyrics that felt comfortable and familiar—rather than solemn and grave—being carried on Fedora's beautiful voice. And he had wanted Fedora to sing in front of more people, and to see it with his own eyes.
But today was the last day of the Holy Festival, a special day for the Heirem Order. The people who had the right to hear hymns inside the cathedral were the believers, and since he wasn't one, the right thing for him was simply to hand out bowls of garrakguksu from the food truck.
Having decided that, Jinseo closed his eyes.
Remembering Fedora singing the newly composed hymn on the hill.
"Besides, the inside of the cathedral was so packed with believers there wasn't even room to step…"
—Meow.—
At the cry, Jinseo stood up when he saw the cat approaching him.
Following Nero as it walked while looking up at the tree lights hanging thickly from the branches, Fedora appeared, wearing a pure white robe.
"You were here."
"Did the mass end well?"
"You weren't in the cathedral. Not even after I finished singing the hymn."
"Huh? That's—"
"So as soon as mass ended, I asked the brothers where you went and came here."
Unlike Fedora, who normally didn't cut people off, her tone was stiffer than usual as she interrupted Jinseo mid-sentence.
Is she angry because I didn't come?
Jinseo scratched the back of his head and turned his gaze to Nero.
"Today is the last day of the Holy Festival period, so I should yield my place to the believers."
"..."
Maybe because Jinseo had visited the cathedral without hesitation throughout the Holy Festival period—and even before that—Fedora had forgotten.
Even if Jinseo was the owner of the sacred relic, he was not a believer of the Heirem Order.
"S-so that's why?"
"Yes. There were already so many people who went in first. I waited to see if space would open up, but it was impossible."
"Then I'll sing it for you again, right here."
"It's fine. Your throat still isn't fully better."
Jinseo took off the jacket he was wearing and draped it over Fedora's robe.
"It's cold, so go inside first."
"No. I'll stay a little longer. You even took off your coat for me…"
Fedora sat down on the stump Jinseo had been sitting on with a thunk and didn't leave.
With nothing left to say, the two of them simply watched Nero playing with the tree lights using its front paws.
I feel at ease now.
When he first came to the backyard, Jinseo's thoughts had been tangled with mixed emotions. But now, warmth rose from deep in his chest, and the stiffness in his face slowly eased.
It was thanks to Fedora coming to find him—even if it was because of a misunderstanding.
Even without talking, just being together was enough.
For Fedora's sake, Jinseo wanted to do something.
"Cardinal."
"Huh? Y-yes! Yes!"
Startled, Fedora whipped her head around toward Jinseo.
"I'm not good at singing, but there's one instrument I can play. Please wait a moment."
Jinseo returned to the food truck, found the instrument in Subspace Storage, and slipped it into his pocket. After taking out a scarf and fur gloves as well, he hurried back to the cathedral's backyard where Fedora would be waiting.
"Nero, is it comfortable here?"
—Meow.—
Nero sat on Fedora's lap, and Owl sat on Fedora's left shoulder. Strangely, the two spirits were leaning quietly against Fedora—unlike their usual selves.
If only they were always this quiet.
Watching the rare sight, Jinseo walked over slowly.
"Ah… you're back."
"First, wrap this around you. And put these on your hands, too."
Jinseo wrapped the scarf around Fedora's neck, then personally slipped thick fur gloves onto Fedora's cold hands.
"Ah… I…"
"You're less cold now, right?"
"I-it's fine."
Fedora lowered her head sharply, trying to hide her slightly flushed face.
Not noticing the change, Jinseo pulled the instrument from his pocket and held it in his hand.
A long, rectangular metal instrument glimmered faintly beneath the light of the tree lights.
"It's called a harmonica. I learned how to play it from my father."
A harmonica.
A wind instrument small enough to hold in one hand, easy to carry, and loved by many for its distinctive tone.
If the CD player he had shown Fedora was a gift he'd bought for his mother, the harmonica in Jinseo's hand now was a gift he'd bought for his father.
Whenever he had time, his father would sometimes play the harmonica inside the shop, and customers would enjoy their snacks while listening to him.
But after his father died, not once had the sound of a harmonica been heard inside Jinseo Snacks.
A harmonica that had sat unseen for a long time inside the drawer that held his father's belongings.
A few days ago, Jinseo had taken it out of the drawer and put it into Subspace Storage. Just in case he got the chance to perform during the Holy Festival—because he wanted to play for customers, like his father did.
"But listening to only harmonica without accompaniment feels a bit lacking, so please wait."
From the songs saved on his smartphone, Jinseo chose an instrumental carol with no lyrics and hit play.
A song well-known in Korea by the name "Noel."
"The First Noel."
It was a piece he had learned to perform at church on Christmas Eve—three years before his parents passed away.
Maybe because it had been so long since he'd played, his notes squeaked at first, but he soon regained his old touch and continued.
With his eyes closed as he immersed himself in the performance, the faces of his father and mother rose in his mind.
The expression that had become only a memory now—watching him from inside the cathedral with warm smiles—appeared more clearly than ever.
"Ah…"
Fedora lifted her head and looked up at Jinseo playing the harmonica.
It was a carol Fedora had already heard once on CD, but with Jinseo's harmonica performance blending in, it began turning into a different kind of song.
The melody, now softer and calmer, brought peace to Fedora's heart in a way it hadn't the first time.
"I made a lot of mistakes. I guess it's because it's been so long."
After finishing the performance meant only for Fedora, Jinseo slowly ran his thumb across the harmonica in his hand.
From the scratches left here and there, he could feel the trace of his father's hands.
"I pray that peace will settle on the path ahead for you, Jinseo."
Fedora made the sign of the cross and prayed with both hands clasped together.
"It was a wonderful performance—too good for me to be the only one to hear it."
"My skill is lacking, so I was very embarrassed. If I get the chance next time… ah…"
Feeling something cold on the back of his hand, Jinseo looked up.
Beneath the dark night sky, white snow began pouring down.
Fedora took off the gloves she was wearing and caught the falling snow in her palm.
"It's the pure white Holy Festival—the first in ten years."
Every time she said "ten years," Fedora would always recall the sorrowful past.
Watching the snow gradually cover the backyard trees in white, her eyes grew moist.
"Hm?"
Looking around, Jinseo noticed something strange.
In the plaza center where the food truck was, snow was not accumulating. Even when he looked into the distance, it was the same—only the backyard where Jinseo and Fedora stood was receiving snow.
—Meow.—
Nero jumped down from Fedora's lap and ran toward the cathedral's back door, leaving tiny footprints behind.
Jinseo followed, thinking maybe, but there was no one.
Instead, beside someone's footprints in the snow, a NuX Bar wrapper lay on the ground.
Ah… maybe…
Recalling a conversation from a few days ago—
White Christmas? You like it more when it snows? When it's already cold?
Jinseo realized who the owner of the footprints was.
So he came here.
Painfolt had once come to the food truck alone, and had talked with Jinseo about Christmas. Interested by the fact that places other than the Francia Continent also had events similar to the Holy Festival, he had asked a lot of questions.
Until Jason, who had cut in, suggested that he come to the cathedral during the Holy Festival.
Painfolt, who had left in silence after eating snacks, without saying a word—Jinseo hadn't expected him to come to the cathedral.
But proof that he had secretly visited, contrary to how he acted, was now left in the snow.
He had used magic to create snow for his granddaughter—yet disappeared without a word, so he surely didn't want anyone to know he had come and gone.
To cover his slip, Jinseo reached out to pick up the wrapper.
"This is—"
But before him, Fedora picked up the wrapper that had fallen on the ground.
After looking around, Fedora belatedly realized that snow was falling only in the backyard.
"The feeling of mana spread everywhere… I see."
Fedora turned her back to Jinseo and looked in the direction the footprints led.
Jinseo couldn't see what kind of expression Fedora was making.
But he could tell this much.
Even if it was still too soon for them to face each other, the invisible resentment between the two seemed to have melted somewhat.
"Grandfather…"
As white snow piled up, meant only for Jinseo and Fedora, the night of December 25 grew deeper.
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