My Japanese Childhood Friend Is Too Flirty - Chapter 154



153. A Family Trip to the Sea! (4)

“Wooow~! It’s the seaaa~!”

From noble mtl dot com

Yura, seeing the sea up close, widened her eyes and cried out.

A rare, excited expression, a voice that couldn’t hide her thrill. Feet drumming restlessly. Looking at her from any angle, you could tell she was desperate to get into the water.

Watching Yura flap like a fish that had found its water, Akihiko and I chuckled. If it were up to us, we’d let her splash around right away, but we still had to spread out the mat.

I laid the mat down at a good spot, not too far from the sea, not too close either. Then, I spoke to Yura, who was looking up at me with shining eyes.

“Yura. When you play, stick close to Mom, and don’t go too far away. Alright?”

“Yes. Daddy!”

“Akihiko, keep a good eye on Yura too. If anything happens, call me right away.”

“Okay. Got it. But aren’t you coming with us, honey?”

“Something came up. I need to finish this, then I will join you.”

I said, while setting up the beach umbrella I rented from nearby.

Akihiko nodded as if he understood.

“Hurry up and finish. Yura might get sad if she doesn’t get to play with Daddy.”

“Papa, you need to hurry!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll be there soon, you two play together for now.”

“Yura, shall we go play in the water with Mama?”

“Ah, water play! I want to, I want to!”

“Okay, let’s go!”

“Yay! Water play!”

Aki gripped Yura’s hand tight. And just like that, she walked forward, slowly dipping Yura’s toes into the sea first.

“Ugh, so cold…!”

“Heung…. Yura, look over there. See that thing, how it undulates over there?”

“I see it!”

“That’s called a wave. You can only see them in the ocean, or wide lakes and rivers. They wiggle like that, coming closer and closer, see? And when they get close….”

A small wave lapped onto the shore, wetting Yura’s lower legs, and Aki’s ankles.

Yura, surprised by the wave, a first for her, gripped Aki’s leg with a stunned expression.

“Uh, Mama! My, my body just wiggled!”

“…That’s how it is. How is it, fun?”

“Aki, Yura! Don’t go too deep. Understand?”

“Yeees!”

Yura answered with gusto. Aki turned to me, waving her hand as if to say not to worry.

Well, Aki’s a sensible girl, and the beach itself is one where the waves are calmest, so I’m not too worried. Even if you know that, your heart can’t fully relax. Accidents happen in the moment of letting your guard down.

“Hmm….”

So, I should just finish this business quickly and stick close to them. I pulled out my phone and opened the messaging app. At the top of the app were a familiar name, [Jaemin], and a red number 11, indicating unread messages.

Almost six months since my discharge, the reason Jaemin, still serving as a full-time soldier, was contacting me was simple.

While I was serving, I was solely responsible for all the miscellaneous work like sorting documents and creating Excel files, and I had saved all the files I had worked on so far on one computer. And Jaemin had accidentally deleted some of the files. Some of which were even somewhat important documents.

[Hyung, I’m really sorry]

[I’m really, really sorry ㅠㅠㅠ I have no excuse]

[I’m sorry for contacting you on the weekend, and I’m sorry for contacting you after your discharge ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

“…….”

Opening the chat window, I lost my words. A message came every five minutes, and they were all Jaemin’s apologies.

Well…. He probably realizes he’s acting in a really absurd way. It’s one thing to do this to a senior soldier you’re serving with, but to ask someone who’s been discharged for help with military affairs…

[Do you even *know* how sorry you should be? kk]

[N-no… I’m so, so sorry. Truly, I’m so sorry. I have no words even if you want to curse at me, I truly don’t ㅠㅠㅠ]

[Hahaha, no, it’s a joke. It’s not that difficult anyway, so you don’t have to apologize.]

[So, you’re saying you only need the files from ’26 to ’27? The other files are still there?]

[Yes. That’s all I need!!!]

[If it’s files from ’26 to ’27, I probably have a separate backup.]

[You have a backup??? Really????]

[Yeah. Your *hyung* secretly saved them on a USB.]

[Woah;; Really? You’re not supposed to use those. You didn’t get caught using a USB?]

USB use is prohibited in military computers for security reasons.

If you ignore the rules and insert a USB… the Defense Security Command will call at that very moment. Claiming a military security problem has occurred in that unit.

After that, well, you know. Identifying the violator of security regulations starts with at least confinement. Or even worse.

[There’s a way to not get caught, hahaha]

But, as with everything in this world, there’s a way to circumvent it. I won’t specifically say how, though. It’ll only stir up trouble for no reason if I do.

I tapped out a message to Jaemin on my phone. That there’s something taped with transparent tape on the upper part of the wall in our shared locker. That that’s the USB where the files were backed up.

And after sending that, I even kindly explained how to bypass the security program to use the USB.

Jaemin was silent for a moment, perhaps trying out the method I told him.

[Hyung!!!!! It worked. I restored everything with the backed up files!!!!]

[Did it work out well?]

[Yes!! It worked. Thank you so, so much, hyung ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

[I’ll definitely buy you a meal later. Thank you so, so much. You’re truly my benefactor.]

[A benefactor for something like this… Stop it, you ㅋㅋㅋ]

[No. Hyung, please contact me later, for real. No, I’ll contact you. I’m just so thankful ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

[Hahaha, okay. I’ll definitely contact you later. But today’s the weekend. Why did you come to work?]

[The company commander said he needed me to do something urgently. I came out to work on paperwork and accidentally deleted it, so I contacted you.]

“Ah.”

So that’s what happened. No wonder he contacted me on a weekend afternoon instead of a weekday. The ever-harassing commander of the company caused this incident.

[Is that guy still the same?]

[It’s not even just still the same. It’s gotten even worse since hyung discharged and my junior came. Asking to do personal work during lunch is a real exception.]

[Wow, hang in there….]

[Hahaha ㅠㅠ]

[Ah, but, perhaps I’m disturbing your family time…?]

“……Ah.”

Right. This is the beach, that’s right.

I was so caught up in texting Jaemin that I momentarily forgot. I quickly looked up.

“Gasp, Mom. The seawater is so salty!”

“Hehehe. It’s saltwater, so of course it’s salty!”

“Aha. I see…!”

I can see Aki and Yura holding hands and playing near the water. Just as I told them, they’re not wandering too far and are playing very well together.

[Not disturbing, but I’m at the beach. With my daughter and wife]

[Oh gosh;;; I’m so sorry;;; I really had no idea;;;]

[Although it’s late, have a great weekend with your family!! I’ll definitely contact you again later!!]

[ㅋㅋㅋ Okay. You have a good weekend too~]

[Yes!!!!! Have a good one, Hyung!!!]

“Daddy, come play with us~!”

Perfect timing, Yura waved her hand in this direction.

I slowly rose from the parasol. The urgent work is done, so now I really should play with them.

“Okay, Daddy’s coming!”

I brushed the sand off my b*tt and walked towards Aki and Yura. The look-alike mother and daughter must have been playing hard in that short time, their hair and clothes were wet.

But…. Even when I saw Aki from afar, she was pretty, but up close, she’s even more beautiful. Now, slightly wet, I’m not exaggerating when I say she’s like a goddess of the sea. I scanned Aki up and down, who seems to become more and more beautiful as time goes on, and genuinely admired her.

“Wow…. Aki, why are you so pretty?”

“Hehe. Suddenly?”

“I suddenly feel like praising you. You’re so pretty.”

I feel like giving her a quick k*ss, but I shouldn’t with people watching. Actually, people are glancing over at our family of three. Aki is beautiful enough to warrant it, though.

“Well, you are very cool 서방님? Especially this muscle…?”

Aki sidled closer and gently stroked my biceps. The subtle touch tickled me, and I smiled faintly and put my arm around Aki’s waist.

“Ah. Daddy’s touching Mommy’s waist!”

“Uh-oh. Yura, touching? Daddy just put his arm around her….”

“Hehe…. Later. Later. Yura is watching now…”

“……Ahem.”

Now that we have a child, we can’t even be affectionate with each other freely. I swallowed my disappointment and lowered my arm.

“So, what were you two getting up to?”

“Swimming! Daddy, let’s swim together!”

“Oh, swimming sounds good. Yura-yah, should Daddy swim with you?”

*Splash-*!

The moment I bent my knees to meet Yura’s eye level, as if she’d been waiting for it, she launched a surprise water attack. Caught off guard, I quickly shut my eyes.

“Daddy zero, Yura one!”

Yura puffed out her chest, beaming with pride.

Her face was lit up with a smile, seemingly so pleased she’d managed to attack her own Daddy.

Hmm, quite a strong splash for such tiny hands. Seems Yura takes after me, with a surprisingly forceful touch.

“Yura-yah, you did start this, you know…?”

Anyway, I can’t just stand here and take it. For the sake of domestic tranquility, I need to assert my fatherly authority.

I dipped my hand into the water and, very gently, flicked some water back at Yura. The water touched her little swimsuit-clad body and she giggled, clearly enjoying it.

“Ah, Daddyyy…!”

“It’s not over yet, Yura-yah…!”

“……Eee-yah!”

“Hehe, take that…!”

“Take that-!”

“……Hey, how can you gang up on me like that?”

“It’s okay. You’re a man, 서방님 (seobangnim, a term of endearment for husband)!”

“That’s right. Daddy’s a man!”

The one-on-one battle instantly turned into a two-on-one with Aki’s intervention. I weathered the two of them as their attack came in full force, realized I couldn’t win, and turned my upper body to splash the water in reverse.

I heard Yura and Aki laughing gleefully at the splashing water, as well as a small voice saying, “Oh, you wanna play it like that…?!”

Starting with that voice, the amount of splashed water gradually intensified.

“Ah, wait a minute! Okay, I surrender!”

“Hehe, we won!”

“Daddy zero, Yura two!”

Aki and Yura grinned triumphantly. Without being told, both of them put their hands on their hips.

I raised both my hands in surrender, and as I watched them, I thought to myself. Forget everything else, Aki and Yura are one hundred percent, undoubtedly, a mother and daughter. Otherwise, there’s no way their behavior could be so similar. Really.

“Ugh, salty….”

“서방님 (seobangnim), do you want to take a picture with us?”

“Commemorative photo of the Korean-Japanese War victory, or something?”

“Hmph… Eh, no way it’s something like that, right? Just that we came to the beach, so let’s take a photo together.”

“Ah, a commemorative photo? Let’s take one. Yura, want to take a picture?”

“Yes, I want to!”

“Alright. Both of you, come here.”

He brought Aki and Yura over to where the parasol was set up. Then, he took out his phone and opened the camera app.

“Hand over the phone. *Atashi* will take it.”

“You will? Yura, come into Daddy’s arms. Aki, come next to me… Yeah, that’s it.”

He held Yura with his left hand, and with his right hand, he wrapped it around Aki’s waist. The faces of our family of three fit perfectly inside the small screen.

“What should be our photo motto?”

“Chee~se!”

Yura said energetically. I glanced at Aki. Aki smiled prettily, as if she liked the motto too.

“Cheese is good. Let’s do cheese.”

“Okay, got it. Alright, one, two, three. Cheese~!”

“Cheese!”

“Cheeeese~!”

–Click!