Levinas flew toward the park with the giant bubblegum balloon in her mouth, like a hot air balloon. Her flailing arms and legs started picking up speed.

“Wow!”

Fascinated by Levinas flying through the sky, Gaeul chased after her. She hopped along, waving her arms up and down just like Levinas.

“Gaeul, let’s go together.”

Worried about Levinas and Gaeul, I ran after them too. Though I was concerned the bubblegum balloon might pop, thankfully it showed no signs of bursting.

“Mm…! Mmmmm…!”

Levinas kept flailing her arms and legs until we reached the park. It seemed she was using her arms to control direction and legs for height and speed.

Following the airborne Levinas, we quickly arrived at the park. Saebyeok, standing by the container, called out to her.

“Levinas, can you come down?”

“…!”

At Saebyeok’s question, Levinas stopped flailing her limbs. As the bubblegum balloon began descending, Han Yeoreum nervously swallowed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just thinking what a disaster it would be if that thing pops.”

“Ah…”

If that massive bubblegum burst, it really would be catastrophic. Would sticky gum fragments explode everywhere? That would be terrible.

But how were we supposed to deal with such an enormous bubble?

Ugh.

As Han Yeoreum and I stood there seriously pondering this, suddenly –

Whoosh-

The giant gum balloon was sucked back into Levinas’s mouth as she landed. What had been larger than a car shrank to bite-size in an instant.

“Oh…”

“Wow…”

Right. Since she blew the bubble with her mouth, it made sense it could go back in. Still, watching something that huge disappear into her mouth was quite remarkable.

“Levinas!”

We all ran over to her with the children. Now back on the ground, Levinas was clearly excited.

“King! Levinas flew in the sky!”

“Yeah. Weren’t you scared?”

“Nope! Looking at the sky made it not scary!”

Ah. Though it seemed quite high, focusing on the sky must have helped. Saebyeok patted Levinas’s head, apparently proud of her courage.

“Gaeul too.”

“Gaeul too?”

“Yeah. Gaeul whoosh too~”

Gaeul flapped her arms up and down. She seemed to want to fly through the sky as well.

“Hehe, should big sister make you go whoosh?”

“Heuk…!”

Han Yeoreum lifted Gaeul up high, placing her belly on top of her head.

“Should we go home like this?”

“Huh? Already? Can’t we play more?”

“Want to play more? But Sophia said she’d make something tasty…”

“Oh! Then let’s hurry home?!”

Levinas made running motions in place. We decided to head home for now.

**

As soon as we arrived home, my tail perked up at the savory aroma wafting through the air. It seemed Sophia was cooking something with sesame oil.

“Sophia.”

When we entered the living room with the children, cooking ingredients were laid out on the table. Just looking at them, I could tell she was making gimbap.

“You’re back.”

“Yes. Sophia, are you making gimbap?”

“Yes, thought I’d practice a bit.”

“Practice?”

Had Sophia taken an interest in cooking? I quickly went to sit beside her.

“I thought I should at least be able to make simple lunches when you go on trips or to dungeons, Gyeoul.”

“Ah…”

So she was thinking of us. As my tail started wagging gently, Han Yeoreum sat down across from us.

“What about me, Sophia?”

“Hmm…?”

“I go to dungeons often too.”

Hehe.

Seeing Han Yeoreum’s playful smile, Sophia cracked a grin. It made me happy seeing their bond.

“Alright, once I practice enough I’ll make some for you too, Yeoreum.”

“Hehe, thanks.”

We all gathered around the table together. Gaeul tilted her head looking at the ingredients on the table.

“What dis?”

“These are gimbap ingredients.”

“Gimpap.”

“Yeah. Gimbap. You put rice and ingredients on this seaweed and roll it up.”

Hearing my explanation, Gaeul started putting ingredients on the seaweed. She grabbed a handful of rice and pressed the ingredients down firmly.

Instead of spreading them evenly in a line, she packed everything together like making a rice ball.

“Gimpap!”

Gaeul proudly held up her round, rice ball-like gimbap. Seeming proud of her first attempt, she lifted her chin high with closed eyes.

“Wow, Gaeul made gimbap.”

“Heuk…!”

She handed me the gimbap she made. I took a big bite and gave it back to her.

“Mm. Delicious.”

“…!”

Gaeul’s ears perked up. Wagging her tail, she shared her gimbap with the family, giving everyone one bite.

“Thanks, it’s really tasty.”

“This is Gaeul puppy gimbap!”

“Gimpap! Gimpap!”

Perhaps because everyone enjoyed her gimbap, Gaeul grinned and swayed back and forth.

Soon after, Sophia’s gimbap was ready too. They were quite well made.

“Wow Sophia, you made them really well.”

“H-hmph… thank you.”

We each took one of Sophia’s perfectly rolled gimbap. They were even more delicious with Sophia’s care put into them.

“Hmm…”

Saebyeok and Levinas, Gaeul and Han Yeoreum – everyone was happily eating the gimbap, but Sophia just sat with her arms crossed.

“Sophia, what’s wrong?”

“I’m wondering if I should add ingredients that you all like.”

Did she want to move beyond traditional gimbap? I decided to encourage Sophia’s experimentation here.

“Give it a try. I heard you can put pretty much any ingredients you like in gimbap.”

“Hmm… is that so.”

Tap tap-

As Sophia pondered while tapping the table, I felt someone staring. Looking around, I saw Gaeul watching me with blank eyes.

“But I can’t go in. Only edible things can go in gimbap.”

“…!”

Boing.

Gaeul’s eyes went wide before she ran to the kitchen. I heard the refrigerator door open, followed by the sound of something being poured.

What was Gaeul doing? As I listened carefully, soon I heard the microwave running.

“Gaeul, what are you doing?”

Unable to contain my curiosity, I went to the kitchen. There I found Gaeul spinning in circles in front of the rotating microwave.

She was spinning even faster than the microwave. It seemed she intended to keep spinning until it finished.

“Milky milk.”

“Milk? Are you heating up milk?”

“Nyeng.”

I see.

Having nothing better to do, I joined Gaeul spinning in circles beside her.

When the microwave’s end signal sounded, we stopped spinning too.

“Shwik!”

After stopping, Gaeul stumbled over and bumped into me. She seemed unable to keep her balance after spinning so fast.

“Shwik! Gaelik!”

Not understanding why her head was spinning, Gaeul waved her hands around. Her palms pressed against my face too.

“Gaeul, this is from spinning around.”

“Spin?”

“Yeah. You’ll feel better after resting a bit.”

After taking a short break in my arms, Gaeul seemed to recover and pulled away. She tapped her head a couple times, then, apparently feeling better, took the heated milk from the microwave.

“Milk!”

Gaeul showed me the steaming milk. Then she walked toward the others making gimbap in the living room.

She walked carefully, swaying back and forth to avoid spilling the milk.

Thankfully, Gaeul didn’t spill a single drop.

“Gaeul, what did you bring?”

At Saebyeok’s question, Gaeul held out the milk. Saebyeok, who liked milk, wagged her tail.

“Want to drink milk?”

“No!”

Shaking her head, Gaeul started making another gimbap. Like before, she clumped together rice and ingredients, then lifted up the cup of milk.

“Oh.”

“…!”

Was Gaeul planning to put milk in the gimbap? Well, I did say you could add ingredients you like.

My tail shot up as the world seemed to move in slow motion.

Saebyeok’s eyes widening in surprise. Han Yeoreum’s hand quickly reaching for the milk cup.

In this slowed world, I grabbed Gaeul’s cup faster than anyone. As milk overflowed from the cup, I held out another cup to catch it.

That’s when the world returned to normal speed.

“W-wow, Gyeoul’s so fast…? Even faster than big sister.”

“Hehe…”

Well, Han Yeoreum wasn’t going at full speed after all.

Laughing awkwardly, I set Gaeul’s milk cup on the table.

“Gaeul, we can’t put milk in.”

“Why?”

Gaeul tilted her head but nodded in understanding. Though she didn’t seem to grasp why, she appeared to accept it just because I said so.

“Some dishes use liquids and some don’t. Gimbap is one that doesn’t. It probably wouldn’t taste good with milk.”

“Milk yucky?!”

“Not yucky exactly. Milk is delicious. But drinking milk after eating gimbap would probably be really tasty?”

“Huh?”

Gaeul looked back and forth between the milk and gimbap. She seemed confused about why mixing them would taste bad but eating them together would taste good.

“Oh.”

Right.

Isn’t it the same either way?

I could only tilt my head in confusion.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep