Episode 46. Parents’ Day (2)
Kang Dae-oh and his group heading upstairs by elevator.
Even the information desk for check-in was located on a floor over 70 stories high, so they had to wait a considerable amount of time just to go up.
Ding! Along with the sound, the first thing that greeted them was the wind coming through the gaps in the building.
A staff member waiting at the elevator entrance greeted them with a short bow.
“It’s right to check in first, isn’t it?”
Kang Dae-oh asked Kang Yeyoung.
“Yes. I made the reservation under your name, so you can go ahead and do it, appa.”
“Alright. But is it okay to bring cameras?”
“I’ve already received all filming permits. You don’t have to worry.”
Kang Dae-oh, nodding his head, took his wife and headed straight to the information desk.
Even if he just walked around, people would recognize who Kang Dae-oh was. With cameras following him, people’s attention was naturally drawn even more.
The time it took to check in was quite short.
This was also thanks to Kang Yeyoung’s side having already handled most of the arrangements.
A male staff member pulled Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon’s luggage and guided the two to their room.
“Please follow me.”
They started moving again by elevator.
As soon as they arrived on the 100th floor, the elevator doors opened.
A different scene from what they had seen earlier greeted them.
Min Seung-yeon whispered softly to Kang Dae-oh.
“It seems like this area is only for hotel rooms.”
“It does.”
Kang Dae-oh had never been here before either.
Of course, if he had made up his mind, he could have come much earlier.
However, staying here by paying with his own money and having his daughters pool their money to create this opportunity for their appa and eomma would naturally feel different.
“This way.”
The staff member personally opened the suite room door.
The first sight that caught their eyes was the panoramic view of downtown Seoul visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Oh my, goodness gracious!”
Min Seung-yeon’s eyes widened.
She eagerly pressed the shutter button on her smartphone to record the scene she was currently seeing.
Meanwhile, Kang Dae-oh seemed to be bothered by the camera, gesturing for them to come in and take insert shots.
However, Kang Yeyoung shook her head, telling Kang Dae-oh that there was no need.
“You don’t have to worry about the cameras. We’ve already taken the insert shots in advance.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. Eomma and appa just need to relax and enjoy yourselves. The cameras are only following you now, and they won’t be visible at all from this afternoon, so you can erase the thought of ‘we’re being filmed’ from your minds. What’s important isn’t the filming, but for eomma and appa to get a good rest here.”
She wanted to minimize the burden of filming.
Kang Dae-oh and his wife quietly accepted their youngest daughter’s consideration.
Indeed, not even the common stationary cameras seen in observation reality shows were visible in the suite where the two were staying.
Min Seung-yeon asked Kang Dae-oh while changing her clothes.
“How is Yeyoung planning to film without stationary cameras?”
“I vaguely heard earlier. Yeyoung said she’d carry a personal cam and film us whenever we walk around together. And at meals or similar occasions, the staff would set everything up and then discreetly leave.”
He explained that they would leave only the equipment and arrange for the three of them to spend time together entirely on their own.
It was a filming strategy possible because Kang Yeyoung could handle a camera to some extent.
Thanks to this, as Kang Yeyoung said, it strongly felt like filming, yet not like filming.
“Honey. If you’ve finished changing, shall we head out soon?”
“Just a moment. Let me just do this.”
Women naturally take longer to get ready to go out compared to men.
Having been married to Min Seung-yeon for a long time, Kang Dae-oh had realized this fact many times.
Thanks to this, he was used to such waiting.
Not long after, Min Seung-yeon finished changing and left the hotel room with Kang Dae-oh.
Elleigna has many amenities.
Including a gym, restaurant, bar, cafe, lounge, and so on.
Kang Dae-oh, who had joined Kang Yeyoung, headed to the lounge with his family.
Thanks to the hotel’s consideration, Kang Dae-oh and his family were guided to the VIP room rather than the open hall.
Here, the vast blue sky and the city landscape purified their eyes.
“It’s a completely different sight from the scenery I saw when running the rural cafe in Uijeongbu.”
The thought that even urban scenery could sometimes appear so beautiful took root in Kang Dae-oh’s mind for the first time.
Kang Yeyoung raised her camera and filmed the panoramic view visible from the VIP room.
“If Yera unnie had come, she would have made a huge fuss.”
“Because she liked it?”
“No. Yera unnie is afraid of high places.”
“Oh, really?”
He had no idea.
Kang Dae-oh recalled a time when he took the children to an amusement park.
“Now that I think about it… every time I suggested riding a ride, Yera would claim a stomach ache and quietly back out. Could it be that she was…?”
“That’s right. She did that to avoid showing that she disliked high places.”
“No wonder.”
She rode merry-go-rounds and Disco Pang Pang well. But she absolutely refused to ride any rides that dropped from a high place.
He never imagined that it wasn’t due to poor condition, but because she disliked high places herself.
Knowing her unnie well. And having known her unnie for a long time, even before her regression until now, Kang Yeyoung actually knew Kang Yera better than Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon.
Kang Dae-oh, on the one hand, also felt sorry.
“I wish I had known earlier that Yera was afraid of high places.”
“It’s not appa’s fault. You don’t need to feel so guilty. It was unnie’s fault for trying to hide it in the first place.”
Still, Kang Dae-oh thought differently.
Children can certainly be like that, but parents shouldn’t.
They should roughly know the parts their children haven’t spoken about, or even the parts they don’t want to talk about.
Kang Dae-oh firmly believed that was a parent’s role.
Of course, excessive interference is absolutely not allowed.
Because his daughters also have their privacy.
It’s truly difficult to perfectly maintain this line.
That’s why parents also need to study.
To become good parents to their children.
Although it was Parents’ Day, today became an opportunity for Kang Dae-oh to realize something he had briefly forgotten.
After spending some simple time in the lounge with their youngest daughter, enjoying snacks and coffee, they stopped by the gym for some digestion and exercise, then immediately moved to have dinner.
The restaurant was not very unfamiliar to Kang Dae-oh, as he had been there a few times before.
Dinner expenses were not included in the hotel stay fee.
Despite the high cost of dinner, amounting to over 200,000 won per person, Kang Yeyoung insisted on paying for it.
The reason was simple.
“Because today is Parents’ Day.”
From Kang Yeyoung’s perspective, it was an unbeatable argument.
Since they were even filming a filial piety special today, Kang Dae-oh and his wife had no choice but to reluctantly accept Kang Yeyoung’s goodwill.
Delicious food, wonderful scenery, and atmosphere.
Everything was good, but there was just one regrettable point.
“I wish Yera and Yebin had come too.”
Kang Dae-oh fully agreed with Min Seung-yeon’s words.
The eldest and second daughters, who had to be absent due to their schedules.
Perhaps this was why Kang Yeyoung was trying so hard to make up for her unnies’ absence.
During the meal, Kang Dae-oh tilted his head, looking at a camera installed nearby.
“Is that our equipment too?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Kang Dae-oh didn’t quite understand Kang Yeyoung’s confirmation.
If it was installed for filming, the angle should have been adjusted to the table where Kang Dae-oh and his family were sitting.
However, the camera Kang Dae-oh pointed to had its angle fixed in a strange direction, not towards them.
Even though some production staff were waiting nearby, they showed no intention of adjusting the camera angle.
He even thought, ‘Perhaps they didn’t notice the camera angle was off?’
But seeing a staff member look at the camera and then turn their gaze elsewhere, he realized it was intentionally set up that way.
‘No way.’
A hypothesis formed in Kang Dae-oh’s mind.
Kang Dae-oh’s daughters tend to like surprise events.
Moreover, today is Parents’ Day.
It could be seen as the perfect time for a surprise.
“Yeyoung-ah. By any chance…”
The moment Kang Dae-oh opened his mouth to confirm his suspicion with Kang Yeyoung.
Suddenly, the restaurant lights went out.
At first, he thought it was due to a power outage.
But a short while later.
Several lights illuminated a specific spot.
There, a young woman elegantly dressed in a dress stood holding a microphone.
As soon as they saw her, exclamations mixed with surprise burst from people’s mouths.
“Isn’t that Kang Yera?”
“Why is a celebrity here…?”
“Oh my! It looks like a concert!”
People greatly rejoiced at Kang Yera’s surprise appearance.
On the other hand, Min Seung-yeon was so surprised that she covered her mouth with her hand and merely blinked her eyes several times, unable to show any reaction.
Kang Yera smiled sweetly, picked up the microphone, and began to sing.
People gradually leaned in to listen to her softly echoing song.
Some people even activated their smartphone flashlights and waved them left and right as if holding light sticks.
An atmosphere reminiscent of a concert hall continued.
Kang Dae-oh re-checked Kang Yera’s position and the cameras’ positions.
‘So that’s how it was.’
The production team knew from the beginning.
The fact that there would be such a surprise event.
And perhaps. No, Kang Yeyoung must have known 100 percent.
He could tell just by looking at her not being surprised by Kang Yera’s sudden appearance.
Kang Yera was not the only one who made a surprise appearance.
While she was setting the mood with her song, Kang Yebin appeared from another spot, holding a bouquet of flowers, and walked towards Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon.
Kang Yera, who finished her song at the perfect timing, raised her voice with full power, saying thank you for listening to her song.
“Eomma, appa! Thank you for being our eomma and appa! You know I love you very much, right?”
Kang Yeyoung bounced around, saying, “Me too, me too!” and also appealed with her love.
Kang Yebin, flustered by the sudden love confessions from her unnie and the youngest, sighed deeply, then shyly handed the pre-prepared bouquet to the two of them and said.
“……Me too.”
Min Seung-yeon, who received the bouquet, hugged Kang Yeyoung and Kang Yebin, who were nearby.
“Eomma and appa also love our daughters very much. Right, honey?”
Kang Dae-oh immediately answered Min Seung-yeon’s question.
“Of course.”
It was a question that didn’t even need confirmation.
