Episode 6. A second child is born (1)
After going to work in the morning, Kang Dae-oh, who had spent hectic days, wiped the sweat beads on his forehead with the back of his hand and checked the current temperature.
‘29 degrees… My goodness. When did it get this high?’
He had decided to go home early today, so he had to close the store quickly and had turned off the air conditioner in advance.
Even though it would have been fine to turn it off after work, Kang Dae-oh couldn’t do that.
It was because of a ridiculous incident that happened recently.
‘I left work without turning off the air conditioner and got hit with a huge electricity bill bomb.’
This time, to avoid repeating the same mistake, he stopped the air conditioner in advance and began tidying up the store.
However, Kang Dae-oh regretted it belatedly.
He realized that working with the air conditioner off in this sweltering weather was almost equivalent to suicide.
“I’m dying, I’m dying.”
Fanning himself with his hand, he turned the air conditioner back on.
At that moment, the store door opened.
Min Seung-yeon, who visited the store holding Kang Yera’s hand, glared at her husband.
“Honey. You forgot to turn off the air conditioner last time. Are you going to do that again?”
“I had it off until just now. Don’t worry. I won’t forget this time.”
In the middle of his speech, the sound of ‘Ppock, ppock!’ kept echoing in Kang Dae-oh’s ears.
It was the sound coming from the children’s shoes Kang Yera was wearing.
Approaching two years since her birth, Kang Yera showed that she had perfectly mastered walking.
Her vocabulary had also greatly increased.
“Appa. You worked hard.”
Min Seung-yeon let out a laugh.
“Yera. Where on earth did you learn the expression ‘You worked hard’?”
It wasn’t an expression a child would normally use.
Nevertheless, Kang Dae-oh didn’t seem to mind much, as he lifted Kang Yera up with both hands and made eye contact with his daughter.
“Our Yera, you walk so well now, don’t you?”
“Yes!”
It felt like just yesterday he saw her born.
Kang Dae-oh realized anew that children grow up so quickly.
‘No, that’s not right. Strictly speaking, her mind is already fully grown.’
She’s only a young child on the outside, but inside, she’s an adult who knows everything about the world.
Even so, in Kang Dae-oh’s eyes, she was still his child whom he had to protect and cherish for life.
Min Seung-yeon, who sat down briefly on a chair, began fanning herself, just like Kang Dae-oh had done right before turning on the air conditioner.
“It’s incredibly hot outside.”
“It seems so.”
“It would be great to go on a summer vacation right now.”
Kang Dae-oh knew.
Min Seung-yeon’s words actually weren’t ‘It would be good to go on vacation,’ but rather…
‘Let’s go on vacation.’
In fact, Min Seung-yeon had been bringing up the topic of vacation continuously since before summer.
And for good reason, as she hadn’t had a proper vacation since giving birth to their child.
Having had to focus on pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare at home for several years, she was naturally thirsty for travel.
Kang Dae-oh knew this too.
Perhaps because of this, he decided to accept his wife’s suggestion unconditionally this time.
“I was actually thinking we should go on a summer vacation before Yera starts daycare. Where should we go?”
“Shall we go to Yeongjongdo? By car.”
Kang Dae-oh tilted his head at his wife’s answer.
“Isn’t Yeongjongdo too close for a vacation spot? Overseas is fine too. At least Jeju Island or something.”
“I thought it might be a bit much to put Yera on a plane yet. That’s why I deliberately considered a nearby place.”
When you have a child, the center of your world shifts from yourself to the child.
That is what it means to be a parent.
Kang Yera shook her head and clung tightly to her mother’s leg.
“I can ride an airplane.”
“No. When Yera gets a little bigger, then mom and dad and Yera. The three of us can travel together. Okay?”
In the face of Min Seung-yeon’s assertion, Kang Yera had no choice but to nod her head up and down.
Nevertheless, as if her disappointment hadn’t disappeared, Kang Yera repeatedly licked her lips secretly from her mother.
Kang Dae-oh suppressed a laugh internally at his daughter’s cute reaction.
‘If my wife knew Yera’s true identity, she would have thought it was fine to take her on a plane.’
Perhaps it was because she was a mother. Min Seung-yeon seemed full of worry, thinking what if Kang Yera, being a young child, got startled on the plane and cried profusely.
But this was merely the appearance of a normal 2-year-old baby.
Kang Yera was an exception.
‘Still, it’s probably best to hide Yera’s true identity from my wife for now.’
Kang Dae-oh was relatively rational, so even when he learned that Kang Yera was a regressor, he wasn’t overly flustered.
But Min Seung-yeon was different.
If she were to learn her daughter’s true identity, she would fall into a state of panic.
Because her mental state was quite fragile.
Even just for his wife’s mental health, Kang Dae-oh decided to keep this fact a secret from Min Seung-yeon for the time being.
‘Anyway, it’s enough if only I know.’
Kang Yera also agreed on this point, so she was quietly following her dad’s words.
Of course, there were times when she felt somewhat stifled when she was alone with her mom.
This was a problem that would naturally resolve itself as time passed and Kang Yera grew older, so she could bear it for now.
Meanwhile. Min Seung-yeon, whose mood had brightened due to the summer vacation, began humming a tune and fiddling with her smartphone.
“I’ll look for the hotel.”
“Alright. It’s fine to book an expensive place, so if there’s a place you want, you can choose that one.”
“No, it’s fine. Where would we have the money?”
“We do. Thanks to Yera actively appealing to the baby mothers, we’ve had a constant stream of customers lately.”
Kang Dae-oh stroked the small head of the lucky charm that had come into their home several times.
At her dad’s touch, Kang Yera gave a ‘hehe’ smile.
Just looking at this smile, Kang Dae-oh felt like he had the whole world.
Especially since she was also a regressor from the future.
Kang Dae-oh vowed internally again today that he would absolutely trust his daughter’s words, if nothing else.
Kang Yera usually showed a cooperative attitude towards her dad in most matters, but…
There was one thing she absolutely wouldn’t compromise on.
That was…
“Honey. I need to prepare dinner, so could you give Yera a bath?”
“……”
Kang Yera’s expression instantly hardened.
Kang Dae-oh gave Min Seung-yeon a wry smile and said,
“I don’t think that’ll work.”
“Today too?”
“Yeah. Look at Yera’s expression.”
Min Seung-yeon stopped what she was doing in the kitchen and peeked her head towards her daughter.
Then Kang Yera stretched out her small hand towards her mother and loudly exclaimed,
“Bath, I want to do it with momma!”
“Oh my. That habit of only wanting to bathe with mom hasn’t changed since you were little. Alright, alright. Mom will go.”
The rubber gloves Min Seung-yeon took off were taken by Kang Dae-oh instead.
“Go give Yera a bath. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Alright. Wash the dishes next to you, and I’m boiling soup right now, okay? Honey, taste it once, and if it’s too salty, add a bit more water.”
“Understood, my lady.”
“I’ll leave it to you. Alright! Shall our little princess go bathe with mom?”
Kang Yera’s vigorous ‘Yes!’ was heard, her expression bright and completely different from before.
It wasn’t that Kang Yera disliked Kang Dae-oh and refused to bathe with him in this way.
It was because, although she was a child on the outside, she was a fully grown young lady on the inside, and thus disliked exposing her bare body in front of her dad.
Even if it was the body of a young child.
‘Thanks to this, Seung-yeon has to go through a lot.’
Kang Dae-oh shrugged once as if there was nothing he could do and began steadily carrying out the tasks his wife had given him.
While doing housework, Kang Dae-oh recalled the things Kang Yera had said before.
‘Now that I think about it, Yera said she would have a sibling around the time she turned 2.’
He had heard that Kang Yera and the second child were born less than 3 years apart.
Therefore, they would be 2 years apart in age.
If Kang Yera’s claim was correct…
‘Shouldn’t a second child be on the way soon?’
However, Kang Dae-oh hadn’t even been able to bring up the topic of having a second child with Min Seung-yeon yet.
It wasn’t because he was still hesitant about having a second child.
It was purely because they were each busy with work and childcare.
As Kang Yera transitioned from baby food to eating regular adult meals, cooking was added to childcare, making Min Seung-yeon even busier.
Given the situation, Kang Dae-oh felt it was awkward to bring up the topic of a second child first.
He also didn’t know how Min Seung-yeon felt about a second child yet.
‘The situation is ambiguous.’
Could they really have a second, and even a third child, one after another, just as their eldest daughter had said?
Even though Kang Dae-oh had decided just a few days ago to absolutely trust Kang Yera’s words…
‘I’m not so sure about the children to be born in the future.’
Their family planning remained a question.
The day before leaving for summer vacation.
Kang Dae-oh, having finished the day’s work at the store, had a chat with his friend Oh Myung-woon and the laundromat owner, who had visited the store earlier, while drinking beverages.
The laundromat owner looked at Kang Dae-oh with envy.
“You’re going on summer vacation? I’m so envious. I wish I could close the laundromat for a bit and rest too.”
Oh Myung-woon tilted his head and asked the laundromat owner,
“Sajang-nim. Can’t you talk to your Samonim and go on a trip? Your Samonim seems to really enjoy going out and having fun.”
“She likes going out with the kids or her friends, but she says it’s not very fun to go with me.”
“Hahaha……”
Oh Myung-woon had stepped on a landmine during the conversation.
The laundromat owner said it was fine and seemed not to mind much.
“Kang Sajang. Did you often travel with your wife before marriage?”
“Not often. But I traveled as much as others do.”
“Travel plans? Do you usually make them, Kang Sajang?”
“Sometimes I make them. Sometimes my wife makes them.”
“This time?”
“This time is……”
Kang Dae-oh, who had trailed off, opened his mouth with difficulty.
“Yera made them.”
“Huh?”
“Yera, you say?”
The laundromat owner and Oh Myung-woon were surprised simultaneously.
Kang Dae-oh nodded and explained what had happened.
“Yera said so. There’s a resort hotel that just opened recently. She said it just opened and isn’t well-known to people yet, and that there’s a 50% discount on accommodation as an opening event, so it would be good to go there, so I booked that place.”
The laundromat owner spoke in a disbelieving tone.
“No, how does a baby know all that?”
Oh Myung-woon also nodded his head vigorously in agreement, moving it up and down repeatedly.
“I know, right. Every time I see Yera, I feel like she’s so amazing and clever.”
Kang Dae-oh already knew the true nature of the ‘amazing and clever’ Oh Myung-woon was referring to, but he couldn’t easily say it out loud.
‘Who would believe that my daughter is a regressor?’
It’s a secret that’s awkward to talk about, so it’s really troublesome.
