Episode 1. The Eldest Daughter is Suspicious (1)
If you ask what the biggest problem in South Korea is, nine out of ten people would probably answer this way.
The exponential decline in birth rate.
Kang Dae-oh had always thought it was amazing to have a child at a time when even getting married was difficult.
But surely not.
Kang Dae-oh himself never expected that he would be the protagonist who did both of those things.
“Is Min Seung-yeon’s guardian here?”
“Yes, yes!”
It seemed like less than 20 minutes had passed since his heavily pregnant wife went into the operating room.
His name was already being called.
The nurse waiting at the entrance of the nursery smiled brightly and said to Kang Dae-oh.
“Congratulations. It’s a beautiful princess, isn’t it?”
“Already…? Is the surgery over?”
“Yes.”
“It finished incredibly quickly. In dramas, it seems to take a long time.”
“Induced labor can take 10, 12 hours. But C-sections finish quickly. It only takes about 10 minutes.”
“Ah… I see.”
The nurse opened the nursery entrance door and gestured for Kang Dae-oh to come inside.
“Come and see the baby.”
“Ah, I understand.”
Late, a wave of tension washed over him.
There would be no parent who wouldn’t tremble at the moment of meeting their child for the first time.
With a tense face, slowly, slowly. He barely took his first step, filled with nervousness.
The moment he stepped inside.
Kang Dae-oh felt an emotion difficult to express in words.
His first impression was roughly this:
“She’s very… small. Oh my goodness.”
He couldn’t help but wonder, ‘How can a person be this small?’
Kkomjirak, Kkomjirak. (Wriggle, Wriggle)
A small baby girl with skin that hadn’t completely lost its reddish tint was actively moving.
In the middle of that, the baby made eye contact with Kang Dae-oh.
At that sight, the nurse exclaimed ‘Omo’ and said.
“How amazing. It seems like the baby recognizes her dad.”
“As far as I know, I remember that newborn babies can’t see yet…”
“Perhaps she instinctively recognized that her dad was here? When I saw her in the operating room earlier, her crying was also very short. She was incredibly mature for a newborn.”
“Really?”
“Yes. She even smiled brightly at the doctor. They said it was amazing because she was already making ‘baenaetjit’ (newborn facial expressions).”
Kang Dae-oh recalled the times he went in and out of the obstetrics and gynecology clinic with his wife.
Every time they had a regular check-up, the doctor said something in common.
That she was a somehow mysterious baby.
Every time they tried to see her face through an ultrasound, she would deliberately turn her body to an angle where her face was clearly visible, as if she knew she was being photographed.
And sometimes, she would move her hands and feet from side to side, appearing to greet her parents and the doctor outside.
How should I put it.
It was as if she was already conscious of being a newborn.
“I’ve worked at an obstetrics and gynecology hospital for nearly 15 years. This is the first time I’ve seen such a quiet and mature baby. I think she’ll become a great person later?”
“I hope so.”
The nurse extended her hand towards the baby.
She confirmed that all fingers and toes were present, five each, and meticulously showed whether there were any special problems.
In response to the nurse’s touch, the baby also made movements as if cooperating.
“Omo-omo! Look at this. Have you ever seen a baby this cooperative?”
“Of course not. This is my first time even seeing a newborn baby.”
“Right, you would be. I’m sorry. Hoho!”
The nurse pointed to Kang Dae-oh’s pants pocket and said.
“Sir. If you want to take pictures and videos, you can.”
“Ah, I understand.”
Pictures and videos. Kang Dae-oh, who belatedly realized he had forgotten something very important, hastily pulled out his smartphone.
So that the baby’s face would be clearly visible. He raised the smartphone sideways to adjust the angle.
At that moment.
“Aeaeng!”
The baby suddenly made a very short, cry-like sound.
Rather than crying, it felt more like she was telling her dad, ‘Not that!’
The baby shook her head and then turned her head to the left.
‘Does she want me to take it from that side?’
As Kang Dae-oh tilted his head, the nurse observed the baby’s actions and shared her own thoughts.
“It seems like a signal asking you to take the picture so her right side of the face is front and center. It definitely looks prettier that way.”
The more he observed the baby’s actions, the more amazing it was.
Just in case, Kang Dae-oh deliberately tried to take a picture of the baby’s left side of the face.
However.
“Eung-ae!”
The baby cried out once more.
The nurse smiled and said to Kang Dae-oh.
“If you tease her too much, the baby might get angry.”
Nodding, Kang Dae-oh eventually took the picture at the angle his young daughter wanted.
Chalkak, Chalkak. (Click, Click)
Watching his daughter pose for the photo shoot, maintaining a relaxed expression as if she were a child model, Kang Dae-oh had countless thoughts.
‘Should I make her an entertainer?’
He already felt like she had potential.
Kang Dae-oh, who had moved from the hospital room to the post-natal care center, unpacked his bags as soon as he arrived at the assigned room with his wife, Min Seung-yeon.
“Are you feeling okay?”
Min Seung-yeon nodded heavily and replied that she could manage.
She was more curious about the baby than her own physical condition.
“Honey. You checked where the nursery is, right?”
“Yeah. If you go out and turn right, there’s a hallway. If you walk straight along it, you’ll find the central staircase of the post-natal care center. The nursery is there. They said they’ll tell us everything later with the feeding calls and stuff.”
Min Seung-yeon, who had settled on the bed, swept her disheveled hair back and said.
“I want to see our daughter soon.”
“You just saw her earlier.”
“Isn’t it a mother’s heart to want to keep seeing her?”
“Of course it is.”
Kang Dae-oh also frequently went in and out of the nursery while staying at the hospital, watching over his wife.
Every time visiting hours were allowed, he busily went back and forth to see his daughter.
Min Seung-yeon sometimes went with him, but perhaps due to the after-effects of the surgery, her movement was still difficult, so the reality was that she hadn’t seen much of the baby.
Perhaps that’s why. She wanted to see their child quickly.
Just then, the director of the post-natal care center came to the couple’s room.
She quickly began explaining to the two of them what they needed to know while staying there.
The main points were, of course, about the baby.
“A helper will come and teach you various things, from how to bathe the baby, change diapers, burp them, and so on. At that time, you can film it or take separate notes and follow them when you go home. Or, we have a separate post-natal care center channel, so you can subscribe there and watch the videos.”
“Um…”
Min Seung-yeon cautiously asked her.
“When can we see the baby?”
“You can see her anytime.”
“What? At the hospital, visiting hours were set separately.”
“There’s nothing like that at the post-natal care center. If you, mother, want to see her, you can come anytime. You can also bring the baby directly to this room.”
“R-really?”
Min Seung-yeon’s eyes began to sparkle.
As if she understood Min Seung-yeon’s true feelings, the director smiled gently and said.
“It’s nursery cleaning time right now. Would you like to come pick up the baby? From 10 AM to 11 AM, cleaning time is fixed, so during this time, babies are unconditionally taken to their respective rooms.”
“I-I’ll bring her! Honey, let’s go quickly!”
Since they had heard all the basic explanations.
They wanted to go see the baby quickly.
Following his wife’s wishes, Kang Dae-oh also moved his steps.
As they got closer to the nursery, the sound of babies crying also grew louder.
The fifteen babies in the nursery were loudly crying, crying, and crying again.
No, not all of them were crying.
Only one.
Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon’s baby was lying down, yawning lazily.
With an expression that seemed to say, ‘Ah, it’s noisy.’
Just then, the helpers were looking at the couple’s daughter with curiosity.
“This baby isn’t even crying, she’s so admirable.”
“I know, right. Usually, when a baby next to them cries, they tend to cry along.”
Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon’s daughter was receiving all the attention from adults not only in the hospital nursery but also at the post-natal care center.
At Min Seung-yeon’s words that she had come to pick up the baby, the helper moved.
A moment later.
Finally, the baby was held in Min Seung-yeon’s arms.
“Chukbok-ah. It’s mommy, mommy.”
The helper asked Min Seung-yeon and Kang Dae-oh.
“Is the baby’s name Chukbok?”
Kang Dae-oh shook his head.
“It’s not her name, it’s her taemyeong (prenatal nickname).”
“I see. So you haven’t decided on the baby’s name yet?”
“We have candidates, but nothing is definitively decided. We’re going to register her birth at the end of this month. We’ll have to name her before then.”
There wasn’t a name that truly resonated with them yet.
The couple returned to their room, holding Chukbok.
The moment they were about to lay their daughter down in the baby bed.
“Eung-ae-ae!!!”
As if a back sensor had suddenly activated, Chukbok’s cry echoed.
The couple was greatly flustered for a moment.
Because it was incomprehensible that the baby, who had been quiet in the nursery, suddenly burst into tears upon coming to their room.
“I-is it because of her diaper? Or is she hungry?”
First-time mother Min Seung-yeon was on the verge of a mental breakdown at her daughter’s unfamiliar crying.
At that moment.
Kang Dae-oh turned his head in the direction the baby was looking.
They had turned on the TV before bringing the baby in.
Just then, a music video from a famous idol group was playing.
If the baby was laid in the baby bed, the TV screen would be out of sight.
‘Surely not.’
Just in case, Kang Dae-oh took the baby from Min Seung-yeon and laid her down at an angle where the TV screen was clearly visible.
Then.
“……”
It became as quiet as a mouse.
Min Seung-yeon tilted her head with an expression of incomprehension.
“Can she see the TV already? She shouldn’t be able to yet.”
“Maybe she’s recognizing it by the direction of the sound.”
Watching Chukbok move her lips, wiggling them as if following the idol group’s song, Kang Dae-oh’s mind became complicated.
It looked as if she was singing along to a song she knew.
“Honey.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“It might just be my imagination, but…”
From the moment he first met the baby until now.
Kang Dae-oh felt a strange sense of incongruity.
“Don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say.”
“What is it?”
“Our baby…”
Kang Dae-oh carefully began to speak.
“Doesn’t she seem a little… suspicious?”
