Episode 5. I Found Out My Daughter’s Secret (1)
Another year passed.
During that time, Kang Yera was growing at a frighteningly fast pace.
Oh Myung-woon, who had stopped by Kang Dae-oh’s cafe and was looking through photos of Kang Yera, said with a fatherly smile.
“She’s pretty. It’s a million-dollar relief that Yera doesn’t resemble you, man.”
At his words, Kang Dae-oh let out a small laugh.
“I know, so don’t say it out loud.”
“They say daughters usually resemble their fathers and sons resemble their mothers. But Yera seems to be the opposite? She inherited your wife’s beauty completely.”
Min Seung-yeon was widely known as a beauty even among Kang Dae-oh’s school friends.
So when they first heard the news that she was marrying Kang Dae-oh, envy, jealousy, and admiration exploded all at once.
“Didn’t your wife used to work as a fitting model?”
“Yeah. She was even street-casted by an entertainment agency.”
“Then why didn’t she debut?”
“She said she was scared it might be a scam, so she didn’t.”
“Right. In times like these, if someone around you brings up something tempting without reason, you have to be careful. Isn’t Korea a country full of scammers? Damn it, I also got scammed by a bad interior company when I opened my hair salon back then.”
“Oh, right. What happened with that?”
“Oh. The civil lawsuit? It’s still ongoing. It’s already been two years. It feels like it’s going to go all the way to the Supreme Court.”
The biggest problem with trials, apart from anything else, was that once they started, it took too long for a result to come out.
Oh Myung-woon, who had delayed opening his shop due to the lawsuit, eventually decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He took out an additional loan, roughly finished the interior, and opened his current hair salon.
“I have to work diligently again to pay off all my debts. Come visit later with your wife and Yera. I’ll cut your hair… No. I’m not confident I can cut Yera’s hair well.”
Because she’s still a baby.
Young children are very afraid of getting their hair cut.
So, most of the time, parents have to hold them while cutting, or put on a whole show to distract them with toys.
Just thinking about it, Oh Myung-woon already felt dizzy.
However, Kang Dae-oh told Oh Myung-woon in a tone that there was no need to worry.
“It’s okay. Yera won’t make a fuss. She was quiet and didn’t cry even when she got her first haircut last year.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah. Want to see the video?”
Kang Dae-oh personally showed Oh Myung-woon the video of Kang Yera getting her hair cut.
Oh Myung-woon had initially reacted with disbelief when he heard this.
But with undeniable evidence appearing before his eyes, he couldn’t help but believe it now.
“That’s amazing, Yera. Anyone would think she’s an adult in a baby’s body.”
“You saw it accurately.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“……No, nothing.”
Kang Dae-oh shook his head and pushed Oh Myung-woon’s back towards the exit.
“Didn’t you say you had to go to the hair salon? Hurry up and go.”
“Well… Alright, I get it. See you later then.”
“Yeah. Take care.”
After sending his friend off.
Kang Dae-oh sat down in a corner of the empty shop and began to recall the past.
The time goes back to the very day Kang Dae-oh first learned of Kang Yera’s true identity.
When asked if she knew about reincarnation or regression, Kang Yera showed him an English word card that read ‘YES’.
Along with an expression completely different from usual.
When he first saw Kang Yera’s completely different face, Kang Dae-oh thought he had become a character in a horror movie.
It was because he felt like he was seeing a baby possessed by a ghost-like unknown entity.
However, Kang Yera was neither a ghost nor anything else.
She was Kang Dae-oh’s daughter. Herself.
Instead, there was a peculiar point.
‘She said she was a regressor, right?’
Additionally, Kang Yera showed Kang Dae-oh a few more English word cards.
Life.
And Return.
As soon as he saw them, Kang Dae-oh knew that Kang Yera was his daughter from the future.
Just in case, he asked Kang Yera several times if it was true.
But the only answer he got back was ‘YES’.
Nevertheless, Kang Dae-oh couldn’t easily believe this situation.
So, just as he was about to ask his daughter if she could show him reliable proof…
Min Seung-yeon, who had said she would go out with a friend, returned home sooner than expected.
Since then, he hadn’t had a moment alone with Kang Yera, and it had been like that until today.
‘Could what Yera said be true?’
Kang Dae-oh was still dumbfounded.
To call it mere coincidence, Kang Yera had shown him too many English word cards that fit the situation perfectly.
When coincidences overlap many times, it can only be seen as destiny.
Kang Dae-oh had always thought that way.
“Haa… I don’t know how I should accept this.”
His daughter from the future.
Kang Dae-oh felt his head aching again at this unscientific reality.
It was then.
He heard someone open the shop door and come inside.
“Welcome… Huh? Honey?”
Min Seung-yeon arrived at the shop, holding Kang Yera in a baby carrier.
“Just watch Yera for a moment! I’m in a hurry!”
“In a hurry? For what?”
“The restroom!”
She had been taking a walk nearby with Kang Yera when she suddenly felt the call of nature.
There were no restrooms nearby.
The only place that came to mind was Kang Dae-oh’s cafe, so she rushed over here with Kang Yera.
Kang Dae-oh suddenly found himself holding Kang Yera and seeing off Min Seung-yeon, who ran out of the shop.
As soon as her mother left, Kang Yera let out a sigh from her small mouth.
Haa.
Seeing the baby’s mature reaction, a sudden thought came to Kang Dae-oh.
Coincidentally, Kang Dae-oh was now alone with Kang Yera.
It was a rare opportunity.
“Yera.”
“???”
Kang Yera turned her head towards her father.
“Shall we continue the conversation we had last time, Yera?”
“……”
He wanted to have a more in-depth conversation about Kang Yera’s claim that she came from the future.
If Kang Yera’s words were truly correct.
This would be a golden opportunity for Kang Dae-oh. No, for the entire family.
He pulled over a baby chair and placed it opposite him, then sat Kang Yera down in it.
Although she had grown enough to walk on her own, she was still at an age where she needed adult help, just like before.
“You’re not uncomfortable, are you?”
Kang Yera nodded her head up and down.
More than having an important conversation, he was most concerned about his daughter’s condition.
Because he’s a parent. He couldn’t help it.
“If we’re to continue the conversation we started last time…”
“Hoi-eugi.”
Although it was a slightly slurred pronunciation, what Kang Yera said clearly meant ‘regression’.
Before her first birthday, she only knew about four words: mom, dad, mama (food), and poop.
After her first birthday, her vocabulary was gradually increasing.
If Kang Yera was truly a regressor with an adult’s mindset, as she claimed, then her abnormally fast vocabulary development would actually be normal for her.
However, due to the discomfort of her undeveloped oral structure, her pronunciation still sounded leaky.
Kang Dae-oh suggested an alternative to this.
“Shall I give you a pen and paper? I think writing might be more comfortable than speaking.”
Kang Yera’s eyes sparkled.
“Naisu A-dieo!”
“You mean ‘Nice Idea’, right?”
“Yes―!”
Even if she had an adult’s mind, she was still Kang Dae-oh’s child and Kang Dae-oh’s daughter.
Because of this, in Kang Dae-oh’s eyes, Kang Yera still felt cute, regardless of whether she was a regressor or anything else.
As Kang Dae-oh brought the paper and pen as he said, Kang Yera gripped the pen with her fisted hand and began to write crooked letters.
The first thing she wrote was.
[Kang Yera]
Her own name.
Since it was her first time holding a pen since her regression, she wrote her name first to check and practice how much she could control her hand and if she could write properly.
Although the handwriting was inconsistent, there was no problem reading it with the naked eye.
Meanwhile, Kang Dae-oh only realized that his daughter’s claim was true once again after personally witnessing Kang Yera’s ability to write at such a young age.
“So you really did regress.”
“Yes―!”
“Then… my daughter, how old were you originally?”
He was curious at what point she regressed to now… no, to the past.
Kang Yera began to write down numbers without hesitation.
Seeing that, Kang Dae-oh gasped.
“Twenty-nine. That’s too young…”
Her life hadn’t even fully been lived yet. He wondered how she came to regress to the past.
However, Kang Yera didn’t write anything about this.
Seeing her hesitant expression, Kang Dae-oh roughly understood.
‘It seems she doesn’t want to talk about it.’
He had no intention of forcing his daughter to say what she didn’t want to.
Because she might have been forced to regress against her will.
“How do you feel about becoming a baby? Is it uncomfortable? If you returned to being a baby at twenty-nine, in your prime, it must be very uncomfortable.”
Like restrictions on actions.
Aside from physical limitations, at twenty-nine, it’s a time when one would have achieved something significant.
Since she had to give all of that up and return to a zero state.
He asked with the thought, ‘Wouldn’t there be a lot of regret about this?’
However, Kang Yera’s answer was completely different from Kang Dae-oh’s expectation.
[I’m glad I could return to the past.]
On the contrary, Kang Yera was very satisfied with the opportunity to live a second life due to her regression.
Through this, Kang Dae-oh was able to realize another fact about his daughter.
“It seems you went through a lot of hardship.”
“……”
This time too, Kang Yera was sparing with her words.
It must have been difficult.
That’s why she might have wanted to return to the past.
In front of her father’s lingering words, Kang Yera pondered for a long time, then began to scribble something.
[I’m okay.]
[This time, I won’t fail.]
[Never.]
The word ‘Never’ written at the end particularly resonated with Kang Dae-oh.
Kang Yera. What kind of difficult path had his eldest daughter walked?
Unless she told him herself, there was no way to know.
But Kang Dae-oh didn’t mind.
“This time, I, your dad, will make sure my daughter doesn’t suffer, and I’ll definitely make you happy. So don’t worry.”
In front of her father’s warm words of comfort, Kang Yera showed a gentle smile.
If only this one sentence…
…could heal even a little of his daughter’s wounded heart from the future, how wonderful would that be?
Kang Dae-oh wished and wished.
