At the end of the month, a holiday that drastically changed the atmosphere for Lee Hyun-woo had arrived.
In fact, when Kim Ah-young visited during the last Chuseok, she had to rush back to Kim Sung-moo’s house, which made her feel quite pressured.
However, this time, since Lee Hyun-woo had already visited on January 1st, Kim Ah-young didn’t need to hurry.
But worried that this might burden her, Lee Hyun-woo’s parents said several times,
“You can go home now, it’s okay.”
“Yes, Ah-young, we’ve had breakfast and even bowed for the New Year. You should go and rest.”
“No, it’s fine.”
Kim Ah-young even started doing the dishes.
At some point, her dishwashing at Lee Hyun-woo’s house was no longer clumsy.
Rather, it was Lee Hyun-woo, helping beside her, who seemed clumsy.
Seeing this, the faces of Lee Hyun-woo’s parents, Lee Jung-yong and Jo Young-sook, were filled with satisfaction.
“I thought she was a delicate flower in a greenhouse, but she seems good at housekeeping too.”
“Hey, do kids these days only do housework? I heard she’s also very competent at work.”
“Well, considering whose daughter she is, how could she not be good at business? Honestly, I’m not too concerned about housekeeping skills.”
Although she said this, Jo Young-sook felt relieved inside.
No matter how fast the world changes, she was from the older generation.
She couldn’t help but think that having someone good at housekeeping in charge of the home would make things run smoothly.
After finishing the dishes, Jo Young-sook urged Kim Ah-young again,
“You can really go home now.”
“No, I should greet the relatives first.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t greet them properly last Chuseok because I was in a hurry, but today I want to greet them.”
Jo Young-sook widened her eyes and looked at her husband, Lee Jung-yong.
His expression was no different from hers.
Originally, every holiday, Lee Jung-yong would visit his eldest brother’s house.
However, starting last year, they decided to have a simpler holiday by having breakfast together and then visiting the ancestral tomb before parting ways.
Since many of the younger generation had married, it became burdensome to celebrate holidays at one house.
This is a natural phenomenon in modern society.
When a family gains a daughter-in-law or a son-in-law and grandchildren, gathering everyone can be complicated and cumbersome.
However, introducing new family members, such as a daughter-in-law or son-in-law, during holidays was still customary.
Kim Ah-young’s intention to do this naturally surprised the two of them.
‘Does this mean they are planning to get married soon?’
There was a clear difference between being a simple girlfriend and a prospective daughter-in-law.
The two couples, not realizing how long they had been dating, predicted that it would take another year or two, so before heading out, they discreetly called Lee Jung-woo and asked,
“Hey, does your brother have any plans to marry Ah-young?”
“I’m not sure about that, but it feels different when I see her. And where would you find a simple girlfriend who visits every holiday? If that were the case, there would have been many girls I brought home.”
“You cheeky fellow. You should also find a good woman like your brother did and bring her home, shouldn’t you?”
“Why am I getting dragged into this? Do I have to be compared to my brother even for this?”
“Okay, okay. I got it. Go ahead.”
Jo Young-sook felt a pang of guilt when her second son mentioned ‘comparison.’
In reality, Lee Jung-woo had always been compared to Lee Hyun-woo.
She vowed to be more careful in the future.
In her eyes, Kim Ah-young was the perfect daughter-in-law.
Later, when they met the relatives, it was the same.
Her face, which clearly exuded elegance and wealth, approached with a gentle smile.
At least it was apparent that she was making an effort.
Later, the relatives said about her,
“I thought it would be difficult, and the niece-in-law would be haughty, but she turned out to be just an ordinary person.”
“Hey, she’s not just an ordinary person, brother-in-law. Our Hyun-woo is not ordinary, you know?”
“Why are you all like this? We all saw Hyun-woo growing up. Haha.”
“That’s right. Just see them as ordinary kids.”
Not only the elders but also Lee Hyun-woo’s cousins had something to say.
“She gave me a gift certificate for Seorabeol Hotel.”
“Oh, she said she’d give me one too. Long live our sister-in-law!”
For married couples with children, she handed out gift certificates for local hotels, and for singles, she gave out overseas travel vouchers.
For minors, she distributed annual passes to Foreverland, winning people’s hearts with her generosity befitting a conglomerate.
The reason Kim Ah-young treated Lee Hyun-woo’s relatives so well was simple.
It was because Lee Hyun-woo had always been good to her.
In fact, Lee Hyun-woo made sure to attend gatherings with his peers, even if they were uncomfortable, and behaved impeccably, scoring 100 points, while showing respect and confidence to the elders.
This moved Kim Ah-young’s heart, and she couldn’t help but make an effort.
Eventually, at Lee Jung-woo’s next request,
“Sister-in-law, can you introduce me to a woman like you? Mom was nagging me so much to bring home a good woman like you that I got really upset.”
She nodded readily.
“Really? Jung-woo, you’re a 100-point groom! I’ll look into it.”
“Hey, why are you taking it seriously? I was joking.”
“I’ll use your joke as an excuse to start my radar. If my network can connect with you, you’ll be on my side later, won’t you?”
“Haha…”
Lee Jung-woo couldn’t help but laugh at how she took his parting words seriously.
But what Kim Ah-young said was 100% true.
Lee Jung-woo, who was about to graduate from university this year, was often compared to Oh Min-woo and Jang Yoo-chul, but in the public’s eyes, being Lee Hyun-woo’s brother made him the second-in-command at Jungle.
His abilities were outstanding.
The game released at the end of the year was entirely planned and developed by Lee Jung-woo.
While Lee Hyun-woo’s music club drew attention as a pastime for talented people, Lee Jung-woo’s development skills garnered immense attention.
One newspaper even ran an article titled ‘The True Talent Overshadowed by His Brother,’ making the royal families of the business, political, and legal sectors drool.
However, he was even more workaholic than Lee Hyun-woo in his past life, leaving no room for romantic relationships.
Before his military service, he had dated quite a bit, but after changing 180 degrees, his peers like Jang Yoo-chul and Oh Min-woo were astonished.
Most of all, Lee Hyun-woo couldn’t help but feel half-satisfied looking at his brother.
‘This kid’s changed life is the third reward I’ve reaped since coming back to the past.’
The first harvest was his parents’ happiness.
The second was his relationship with Kim Ah-young.
These two could always swap places in ranking.
But the third reward seemed unlikely to challenge the above rankings.
Ironically, it was because Lee Jung-woo was as workaholic as Lee Hyun-woo was in his past life, making it seem like he had no life of his own.
So Lee Hyun-woo was cheering from the side when Kim Ah-young said she would find someone for Lee Jung-woo.
‘Please, find someone good so that kid can find joy in something other than work.’
After the Lunar New Year holiday ended, Lee Jung-woo’s phone rang.
(Hello?)
“Oh? Sister-in-law?”
At that moment, Jang Yoo-chul and Oh Min-woo were in Lee Jung-woo’s studio.
(How about a blind date?)
“A blind date?”
The word from Lee Jung-woo’s mouth made the two men’s eyes widen.
What a wonderful word, blind date.
(I said I’d find someone good, remember? I thought of someone, and they said it’s okay.)
“Sister-in-law… I was really just… joking then.”
(Really? Oh no, I’ve already told them. Should I cancel it? They’d be really disappointed.)
Disappointment aside, it would look like Kim Ah-young hadn’t properly vetted the introduction.
Naturally, Lee Jung-woo didn’t want that, so he said reluctantly,
“Well, since it’s come to this, what can I do? I’ll meet them.”
(Really? Okay, then when are you available?)
“Um, I think any time would be fine.”
After saying that, he realized it was a rather insincere answer.
Even though his initial words weren’t genuine, he was the one who asked for the introduction.
“This week is a bit tight due to the backlog from the Lunar New Year holiday, but next week, any evening on a weekday would be fine. Weekends are okay anytime.”
(Oh, then I’ll try to set a time.)
“Yes, sister-in-law.”
After hanging up the phone, Lee Jung-woo heard the voices of his two friends.
“Is the Casanova finally making a comeback?”
“A player never changes, huh?”
A player, short for ‘playboy,’ was Oh Min-woo’s term, but Lee Jung-woo had heard it enough to frown.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“You made a lot of girls cry back in the day.”
“Yeah, the school was buzzing about it, and I witnessed more than a few. Things only quieted down after you came back from the army.”
“That’s ridiculous. If someone heard you, they’d get the wrong idea. I’m just the average. You guys just weren’t good at dating.”
In reality, both Jang Yoo-chul and Oh Min-woo were almost lifelong bachelors.
In other words, their calling Lee Jung-woo a Casanova or a player was from the perspective of lifelong bachelors.
But even they had been receiving a lot of calls from matchmakers recently.
That’s how much the young directors of Jungle were blue chips in the matchmaking market.
However,
“If I set my mind to it, I think I could meet someone now.”
“Yeah, but I’m not into arranged meetings or people approaching based on conditions. I want to meet someone really great.”
Both lifelong bachelors desired an ideal and serendipitous encounter.
Lee Jung-woo understood that sentiment well.
He had also been hearing from his mother, Jo Young-sook, about the many matchmaker calls, and he had always turned them down, saying he was too young for an arranged match.
‘Avoiding it led me to get an introduction from my sister-in-law.’
He didn’t have high expectations.
These days, his interests were mainly in strategy simulation games and, in a more modest sense, the follow-up to the Go and Othello game, ‘Egg Cracking.’
Meanwhile, that evening, Kim Ah-young had to address Lee Hyun-woo’s curiosity.
“Min-woo and Yoo-chul said earlier that Jung-woo is going on a blind date?”
“Yeah, I’m setting it up.”
“I’m curious, what kind of person is it?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, it’s hard to imagine that guy agreeing to one. He’s completely addicted to work these days. He’s a workaholic.”
“Oh, so I thought about it for a long time, and I think ‘birds of a feather flock together’ is the perfect saying… I’m setting him up with a bookworm.”
Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes widened at her fresh idea.
