Episode 58. Nightmare (2)
Kang Dae-oh, who usually went to work at the company on weekdays unless there was something special.
However, today, unlike usual, he was having a relatively leisurely morning schedule.
Without rushing out of the house, he slowly woke up as if greeting the morning and leisurely prepared his morning coffee.
Unlike the relaxed Kang Dae-oh, Min Seung-yeon was frantically standing in front of the full-length mirror, busy getting dressed in her blouse.
She should have left earlier.
“I must be crazy. I set three alarms, but I couldn’t wake up.”
In the end, Min Seung-yeon was only able to get up after Kang Dae-oh shook her awake.
Kang Dae-oh looked at his wife with a worried expression and asked,
“You barely used to sleep in, honey.”
“Perhaps it’s because I’m getting older, but it seems hard to wake up in the morning these days.”
Because it’s not the stamina she had in her 20s.
Moreover, back then, she wasn’t working a fixed job like now. Furthermore, the company she works for now is where Min Seung-yeon herself is the CEO.
Min Seung-yeon’s mistakes directly lead to the company’s overall sales, so she inevitably has to pay more attention.
Even for the sake of her employees’ livelihoods.
That’s not to say that MSH, which Min Seung-yeon operates with Yeonseonghwa, is struggling with financial difficulties, not at all.
On the contrary, it’s doing extremely well, ranking among the top five in the South Korean apparel industry.
Among these, Min Seung-yeon’s popularity, in particular, was growing day by day.
When she was young, it was natural for her to be pretty, so people just took it for granted.
However, even though she’s in her 50s, she’s not a celebrity, yet she still maintains the beauty and figure of someone in her 20s. People couldn’t help but pay attention.
Especially from women in their 20s to 40s, she was receiving overwhelming support.
Because of this, there was one company that expressed interest in collaborating with her.
It was Oh Myung-woon.
“Myung-woon said he’s starting a new cosmetics business this time. He said he wants to hire you as a model.”
“Myung-woon ssi? Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Why suddenly?”
“It’s not sudden. Honey, you’re popular with female consumers.”
Everyone else already knew, but she herself wasn’t aware of it.
“He said he’d adjust the conditions to be as good as possible. He really wants you to be the model. What do you think? Do you want to talk to him?”
“Well······ okay. I can at least talk to him.”
Besides, the employer is her husband’s friend.
It felt like it would be somewhat heartless to flat-out refuse.
“Then I’ll contact Myung-woon. He’ll have your phone number, so I won’t pass it on separately.”
“Okay, I understand.”
Kang Dae-oh handed his wife a cup of morning coffee as a token of his gratitude.
“Even if you’re busy, a cup of coffee is okay, right?”
“Isn’t this what you were going to drink?”
“Mine is here.”
Kang Dae-oh said, holding up another cup.
He had intended to prepare one for his wife from the beginning.
Min Seung-yeon chuckled and picked up the coffee cup Kang Dae-oh handed her.
Slurp.
She quite liked drinking the brewed coffee her husband made for her in the morning like this.
Recently, as both of them had been so busy, these small moments of happiness were gradually disappearing.
Since Kang Dae-oh offered her coffee first after a long time, Min Seung-yeon couldn’t help but feel good from the morning.
As the amount of coffee decreased, Min Seung-yeon’s regret, conversely, filled the cup instead.
Kang Dae-oh spoke to Min Seung-yeon first,
“When you come back from work, I’ll roast it one more time and give it to you in the evening.”
Even without his wife having to express it in words, he had now reached a stage where he could tell what she was thinking just by her facial expressions.
Because they were a couple who had lived together for a long time.
Min Seung-yeon smiled.
“Thank you, honey.”
Perhaps the word ‘match made in heaven’ was a phrase meant for them.
After seeing his wife off.
Kang Dae-oh still showed no intention of going to work and sat in the living room, starting to watch the morning news.
At that moment, he heard the sound of the front door lock opening.
Kang Dae-oh turned down the TV volume and greeted his second daughter, who had just returned home.
“Welcome, Yebin. You worked hard.”
“Dad. You didn’t go to work today?”
Even though it was past the time to go to work, Kang Dae-oh was enjoying his leisure in the living room in comfortable home clothes.
Kang Yebin found this side of her Dad very unfamiliar.
Kang Dae-oh gave a faint smile and explained why he was being so unusually relaxed today.
“Today is the company’s founding anniversary.”
“Ah······!”
The day Kang Dae-oh first opened the cafe called Amare. He designated this day as the founding anniversary.
Only then did Kang Yebin understand why Kang Dae-oh was so relaxed, as if time was flowing slowly only for him.
“Other companies hold things like team-building events for their founding anniversary. Does Dad’s company not have anything like that?”
“Even if we had a team-building event, it would just be another annoying task for the employees and executives. Why bother?”
“Indeed. That’s true.”
Not all employees and executives like team-building events.
But.
A day off, however, would be liked by everyone with almost no dissent.
So Kang Dae-oh decided to just give everyone a full day off instead of a team-building event.
As Kang Dae-oh expected, all the headquarters staff praised Kang Dae-oh’s decision.
Moreover, this year’s founding anniversary fell on a Friday.
If they rested today, they would effectively get three consecutive days off, including the weekend.
Thus, the phrase ‘Our CEO is the best!’ couldn’t help but come out.
Kang Dae-oh succeeded in winning public favor instantly with just one day of rest.
Kang Yebin gave a weak smile and looked around.
“Where are unnie and Yeyoung?”
“They’re sleeping in their respective rooms. The kids also don’t have schedules today. I intentionally didn’t wake them up so they could get plenty of sleep.”
“That’s good.”
While they were talking, Kang Yebin’s gaze turned upstairs.
Specifically, it was directed towards Kang Yera’s room, where she was sleeping.
Kang Dae-oh noticed the direction of Kang Yebin’s gaze and asked her,
“Do you have something to say to Yera?”
“······No.”
For some reason, her answer felt heavy today.
Or.
‘Did I misunderstand?’
Since she had returned after an all-night shoot, it might have been difficult for her to speak every word.
Kang Dae-oh personally massaged Kang Yebin’s slender shoulders and said,
“Go wash up quickly and get some sleep. If you get hungry in between, tell Dad anytime. I’ll make you food.”
“Yes, Dad. Thank you.”
“Thanks for what? Taking care of my daughter is a given as a Dad.”
Kang Dae-oh patted Kang Yebin’s back and urged her upstairs, telling her to sleep quickly.
Kang Dae-oh, who had gone up the stairs with her, followed her directly to the front of Kang Yebin’s door.
However, before entering the room, Kang Yebin’s steps hesitated slightly.
“Dad.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Unnie, nothing unusual happened today, right?”
“Are you talking about Yera?”
“Yes.”
“Nothing unusual happened. Last night, like usual, she was watching TV late and not sleeping, so she got nagged by Mom. Then she went into her room and seemed to have fallen asleep after playing with her smartphone for a long time.”
Even though she had become an adult, whenever Kang Dae-oh saw her like this, Kang Yera still felt like a young child to him.
Kang Yeyoung also spent her time similarly to Kang Yera before falling asleep.
“Suddenly, like······ being depressed. Did you see any signs of that?”
“Not at all.”
“Really? Okay. I’m sorry for asking strange questions, Dad.”
Kang Dae-oh replied in a way that told her not to worry about it.
After seeing his second daughter off to her room, Kang Dae-oh slowly replayed Kang Yebin’s words in his mind as he descended the stairs.
‘Could Yera have a problem she can’t tell me about?’
She might have told her younger sisters, but not Kang Dae-oh or Min Seung-yeon, and perhaps she was curious if Dad knew? Out of curiosity, she might have asked a question whose purpose was unclear, just like a moment ago.
‘Suspicious.’
Although it was suspicious, he couldn’t detain Kang Yebin, who was in a state of maximum exhaustion, and interrogate her.
‘It might be better to sound out Yera instead.’
He decided that once Kang Yera woke up later, he would observe her behavior.
As soon as Kang Yera woke up, Kang Dae-oh carefully observed not only her tone of voice but also every single subtle gesture.
However, no unusual points were found at all.
He also couldn’t feel any signs of the depression that Kang Yebin had been concerned about.
Just in case, on the next day, and the day after that too, Kang Dae-oh secretly observed Kang Yera, but…
“I don’t know.”
Kang Dae-oh leaned deeply back into his office chair and let out a long sigh.
At that, Vice President Yoo In-seok tilted his head.
“Which part do you not understand well? If you tell me, I will explain it in detail once again.”
“No. It’s not because of the report.”
Kang Dae-oh had muttered it to himself. Vice President Yoo In-seok, who happened to be nearby, misunderstood, thinking that Kang Dae-oh might have said such a thing because of the thick report he had brought.
Kang Dae-oh thought that Vice President Yoo In-seok might continue to misunderstand, so he decided to honestly explain why he had just muttered to himself.
His second daughter’s meaningful words and his eldest daughter’s behavior.
Vice President Yoo In-seok, having heard the full story of the incident, nodded several times and said,
“It certainly is a bit strange.”
“Right?”
“Or, could it be that your eldest daughter is going through something difficult, but she’s intentionally acting as if nothing is wrong in front of you, the CEO? Is there no such possibility?”
“Yera isn’t as good at acting as Yebin is. Even if she could deceive us for a short while, it’s impossible for her to deceive my wife and me for 2-3 days. That’s because Yera is a child whose emotions are very honest. What she thinks inside almost always shows on her face.”
“Indeed. That’s true.”
Vice President Yoo In-seok had also met Kang Yera several times, so he seemed to understand what Kang Dae-oh was saying.
“Does your wife happen to know?”
“I secretly asked her, but she didn’t know anything at all. She seems to think that Yebin was just overreacting because she came home after an all-night shoot and was in a sensitive state.”
“That’s also a possibility. In fact, if you think about it, I’m closer to your wife’s side of thinking.”
“I see.”
But if the children are regressors who returned from the future to the past.
Vice President Yoo In-seok wouldn’t be able to assert that.
Perhaps.
‘Could what Yebin said be connected to the children’s past?’
Because he had never properly heard the story of before their regression from the children until now.
Even when he wanted to ask, he hesitated every time, feeling as if he was touching Pandora’s Box, which shouldn’t be opened.
Is it truly right to open this?
Might it contain deeper despair, sadness, and pain?
Even at this very moment, Kang Dae-oh continued to ponder deeply.
