Episode 5. I Found Out My Daughter’s Secret (2)
With his young daughter from the future right before his eyes, countless thoughts crossed Kang Dae-oh’s mind.
If only he could get advice from Kang Yera, who knows what will happen in the future, like the Touset case.
Kang Dae-oh would be able to make more solid plans for the future.
Before that.
Kang Dae-oh had something he wanted to ask Kang Yera.
“What will happen to our family in the future?”
There was an answer Kang Dae-oh hoped for.
“Maybe this cafe will hit it big and become a franchise, earning a lot of money. Our family will eat well and live well. Will such a future be waiting for us…?”
He asked his daughter, subtly probing her.
Meanwhile, Kang Yera, who had been listening to her dad’s story with an indifferent expression, once again gripped the ballpoint pen with her small hand and began to scribble down words.
[Dad. Your dream is too ambitious.]
“……It was a futile dream.”
Then what about reality?
The future events Kang Yera told him about were roughly as follows.
[Cafe, failed.]
[Also defrauded, like with Touset.]
[Mom and Dad are divorced.]
[I’ll live with Dad.]
[My younger siblings live separately with Mom.]
“Whoa, hold on. Stop!”
Kang Dae-oh urgently stopped Kang Yera from writing something more.
Too much, and even shocking, information poured out all at once.
Kang Dae-oh couldn’t accept this bleak reality right away.
He was literally in a state of panic.
“So…… I was defrauded during the Touset incident, the cafe failed, and financial problems kept getting tangled up, leading to Seung-yeon and I getting divorced?”
Kang Yera nodded her head.
“And in the midst of that, we had more children……”
Although he had been strongly considering a second child recently.
The word ‘siblings’ (plural) also came as a fresh shock to Kang Dae-oh.
“Yera, how many younger siblings will you have?”
Kang Yera simultaneously spread her index and middle fingers to form a V shape.
“Two, then.”
However, there was no guarantee that two more children would necessarily be born.
Just like with the Touset incident, the future could change depending on how Kang Dae-oh acts after hearing Kang Yera’s advice about the future.
In other words, there was no need to despair already over the bleak future Kang Yera had revealed.
If Kang Dae-oh had the will.
And if he had the ability.
He would be able to turn this bleakness into hope.
‘I must do that!’
Divorce, of all things.
That his family would have to live separately.
Kang Dae-oh could never tolerate such a thing.
Ever since he was young, his dream had been to create a harmonious family.
This dream had just barely come true.
The thought that his dream would be mercilessly shattered in the near future brought on anxiety and unease.
On the other hand, he felt fortunate that Kang Yera had gone through the process of regression and was now sitting before Kang Dae-oh like this.
“Since the Touset franchise contract issue was safely averted thanks to our daughter. Then there won’t be any financial problems, right?”
Kang Dae-oh asked Kang Yera for confirmation.
However, Kang Yera’s head shake took a completely different form than what Kang Dae-oh had expected.
[No!]
At the sight of his daughter, who had even added a large exclamation mark after the negative word, Kang Dae-oh swallowed dryly.
Well, life is said to be a series of trials. There’s no guarantee that just because one crisis has passed, the rest of one’s life will automatically become happy and peaceful.
“Then can you tell me what things Dad needs to be careful about?”
[I can’t remember everything.]
[Please keep that in mind.]
Since she was recalling and relaying things she had heard from her dad after growing up, Kang Yera couldn’t know everything either.
Because they weren’t things she had experienced directly.
In the end, Kang Dae-oh had to engrave the advice his future self conveyed through his daughter into his mind and deal with future crises.
Nevertheless, Kang Dae-oh had no complaints.
Even just a hint would be good, as Kang Yera’s advice on what would happen in the future would be a huge help.
It was truly a heaven-sent revelation.
It was the moment Kang Yera was about to write down the first crisis that would soon approach Kang Dae-oh.
Ding-dong, ding-dong!
With the sound of the bell, Min Seung-yeon, who had rushed to the restroom, returned belatedly.
“I’m sorry, honey. You’re already busy with work, and now you have to look after Yera because of me.”
“No. It was actually good.”
“Huh? Good? What was good?”
“Well……”
At that moment, various thoughts crossed Kang Dae-oh’s mind.
The main concern was whether or not to tell Min Seung-yeon about Kang Yera’s regression.
After much thought, Kang Dae-oh replied.
“I only get to see Yera asleep after I get off work, right? Because I go home so late. So I meant it was good to see my daughter awake like this because of that.”
“Indeed. You might think that way, honey.”
Kang Yera glared at Kang Dae-oh.
Then Kang Dae-oh shook his head slightly.
It was a head shake that meant, ‘Let’s keep it a secret from Mom for now.’
Kang Yera blinked her eyes widely twice, signifying that she would follow Kang Dae-oh’s decision.
The dad and daughter exchanged intentions using gestures in a short amount of time, so Min Seung-yeon wouldn’t notice.
Meanwhile, Min Seung-yeon saw the father and daughter exchanging some kind of gestures and had this misconception.
“It seems Yera likes seeing her dad during the day.”
“Ye-eah……”
Kang Dae-oh awkwardly laughed and agreed with his wife.
The days Kang Dae-oh closed the cafe were fixed as the second and fourth Sundays of every month.
Originally, he used to designate all Sundays as holidays, regardless of the sequence.
As the cost of childcare significantly increased with Kang Yera’s birth, Kang Dae-oh decided to cut his holidays in half.
Nevertheless, he had no regrets.
The baby angel who came to Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon’s couple was worth that much trouble…… no, she was a being of even greater value.
Moreover, Kang Yera’s importance grew even more after he just learned that she was a regressor who had come back to the past with memories of the future.
‘This week is…… the second week?’
Kang Dae-oh checked the calendar and smiled as if things had turned out well.
Taking two days off a month didn’t mean he just played at home.
On his days off, Kang Dae-oh typically took full charge of childcare.
Normally, he would have sighed, thinking he had to do childcare even on his days off.
Now, circumstances had changed 180 degrees.
‘I should use the weekend to ask Yera this and that.’
He decided to pretend to be considerate and let his wife rest, either by telling her to go meet friends like last time, or to visit her parents’ house.
From Min Seung-yeon’s perspective, it would naturally be a thank you.
Because she probably hadn’t been able to go out and have fun much due to childcare.
‘Should I organize the things I want to ask Yera?’
Kang Dae-oh’s hand, holding the ballpoint pen, was busy.
But this busyness was only for a moment.
The bell rang once more, signaling that a familiar face had visited the store.
“Dae-oh.”
Oh Myung-woon greeted Kang Dae-oh briefly.
Kang Dae-oh, who had momentarily put down his pen, stood up and asked.
“Are you here to order a drink?”
“No. Eun-seo contacted me earlier. I came to tell you.”
“Eun-seo, you mean…… Jung Eun-seo?”
“That’s right, I knew you’d remember.”
Kang Dae-oh and Oh Myung-woon, the two of them, were once assigned to the same class with Jung Eun-seo in their second year of high school.
Before the name of a classmate he hadn’t heard in a long time, Kang Dae-oh showed a surprised expression.
“Why did Eun-seo contact you? No, more importantly, how did she get your contact information?”
“I once handed out business cards at a reunion, telling people to come if they needed a haircut, remember? It seems one of the kids who got my card gave my number to Eun-seo.”
“Oh, really? I guess so. Then it would be easy to get the number.”
Kang Dae-oh briefly recalled old memories.
Jung Eun-seo was a friend who liked leading others and stepping forward, to the extent that she volunteered to be class president.
She was also very sociable, friendly with all her classmates at the time. And she was vividly remembered in Kang Dae-oh’s mind as a bright friend, both in personality and impression.
However, after they became adults, their contact became sparse, and after he returned from the military, even the sporadic greetings they had exchanged were cut off.
That’s why when Oh Myung-woon brought up Jung Eun-seo, feelings of surprise and welcome emerged first.
“Eun-seo and I decided to meet tomorrow evening at a pub nearby for a drink. I told her you were running a cafe near our hair salon, and she was really happy. So, how about the three of us meet up?”
Was there a need to hesitate?
Kang Dae-oh readily accepted Oh Myung-woon’s suggestion.
“I’ll go too. I can just close the store a bit early anyway.”
“Okay, got it.”
“By the way, what does Eun-seo do for a living these days?”
“I heard she’s running a small business. But it seems her sales are quite good. When I checked her SNS earlier, it was no joke. Want to see?”
Oh Myung-woon took out his smartphone and showed Jung Eun-seo’s SNS directly.
The moment he saw the screen, a short exclamation of ‘Oh’ escaped Kang Dae-oh’s lips.
“Isn’t this car really expensive?”
“I looked it up online, and the car alone costs 200 million won with full options. Look at her house too. You see it’s a Han River view, right?”
“Her business must have hit it big.”
Seeing a classmate living the life Kang Dae-oh desired, he felt a sense of inferiority.
However.
‘No, there’s absolutely no need to be envious.’
Kang Dae-oh could succeed even greater than this.
Together with his family.
Because.
Kang Dae-oh had an even greater treasure, one that wouldn’t hurt even if he put it in his eye.
Returning home, Kang Dae-oh looked at the baby’s room, with the door slightly ajar and the lights off, and tried to suppress his disappointment.
At his expression, Min Seung-yeon tilted her head.
“Honey, why do you seem more disappointed than usual that Yera is asleep?”
“Because I’m her dad. Isn’t it natural to be disappointed?”
“Indeed…… You’re going to have a late-night snack, right? I bought dumplings, so I’ll fry them for you.”
“Thanks. Oh, you don’t need to prepare a late-night snack tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“I have a classmate who runs a business, and I’ve arranged a drinking appointment with her.”
It was about the appointment with Jung Eun-seo.
Min Seung-yeon nodded briefly and replied that she understood.
She allowed him to go to the drinking appointment.
But she attached a condition.
“Don’t come home too late. And drink in moderation.”
“Don’t worry.”
Around the time the couple was finishing their conversation.
A change occurred in the baby’s room.
Kang Yera, who had been on the verge of falling asleep with her eyes closed, suddenly opened her eyes.
Kang Dae-oh’s words completely chased away her sleep.
There was a keyword she focused on.
“Business…… claassmate…… friend……?”
Unease seeped into the young baby’s expression.
She had to tell Dad quickly.
Not to meet that friend.
However, in her overwhelming sleepiness, all Kang Yera could do was whimper slightly.
Hearing this sound from outside, Min Seung-yeon gave a wry smile.
“Yera seems to be fussy before sleep.”
“Really?”
In the end, Kang Yera’s voice did not reach them.
She was forced to fall asleep.
