Episode 7. The Second Child is Even More Suspicious (1)
Kang Dae-oh, who returned to the obstetrics and gynecology clinic with Min Seung-yeon, took out all the necessary items for their stay in the hospital room and postpartum care center from the trunk.
Min Seung-yeon, who got out of the car, placed her hand on her chest.
At her appearance, Kang Dae-oh asked with a faint smile.
“Are you nervous?”
“Yes. It’s not my first time. I thought I’d be less nervous since it’s the second, but I think I’m even more nervous than when Yera was born. Touch it.”
Min Seung-yeon took Kang Dae-oh’s hand and placed it on her chest.
Then, the thumping (kung, kung, kung) of her heart was fully conveyed through Kang Dae-oh’s right hand, along with her nervousness.
“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I heard a heavenly secret.”
“A heavenly secret?”
“Someone from the future told me. That you’ll have a safe birth without any problems.”
“……?”
Min Seung-yeon couldn’t understand what her husband was talking about at all.
“Honey. You’re not perhaps involved in some cult or something, are you?”
“You know better than anyone that I’m irreligious.”
“Well, that’s true, but……”
He didn’t believe in God, but he believed in his eldest daughter who came from the future.
They took the elevator and headed to the operating room.
Perhaps because the surgery was scheduled for the first slot, there was no one in the operating room.
Kang Dae-oh approached the automatic door that read, ‘No Entry Except for Authorized Personnel’.
When he pressed the button next to it, the firmly closed automatic door finally opened.
Inside, a nurse wearing a mask greeted the two of them.
“Hello. Are you Ms. Min Seung-yeon, the expectant mother?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
After a quick identity check, they were able to enter further into the hospital.
After hearing all the brief instructions regarding the surgery and hospitalization.
The moment of parting arrived.
“Cheer up, honey.”
“You have to take good pictures of the baby. Okay?”
“I’ll take amazing pictures, just like with Yera.”
He said that, but in fact, Kang Dae-oh wasn’t very confident.
At the time, Kang Yera knew how to make herself look pretty and cute, so she naturally created the perfect angles for the photos.
But the second child would be different from Kang Yera.
What if she just cries because she’s unfamiliar with the strange outside world? This worry filled his mind, but despite that, Kang Dae-oh repeatedly told Min Seung-yeon not to worry.
This was to relieve as much burden as possible from Min Seung-yeon.
Her mind would already be troubled enough because of the childbirth.
As her husband, he couldn’t add even the slightest burden to her.
Kang Dae-oh moved to the cafe on the first floor of the obstetrics and gynecology clinic, opened his laptop, and began organizing the cafe’s sales records.
While he cared for his wife, he couldn’t open the cafe, so he planned to do as much work as possible whenever he had a spare moment, like this.
Not long after.
Ding! A text message arrived with a sound.
It was a message from the hospital stating that the second child had been safely delivered.
Kang Dae-oh packed his belongings and went back up to the operating room.
Just then, a nurse looked for Kang Dae-oh.
“Is there a guardian for Ms. Min Seung-yeon, the expectant mother?”
“Yes, I’m here!”
He instantly recalled when Kang Yera was born.
This was because the situation was almost identical to back then.
After sanitizing, he followed the nurse to the nursery.
Now, when this door opens.
‘I can see the baby!’
What would his second princess look like? Kang Dae-oh’s heart pounded as if it would burst.
Finally.
The door opened.
At the same time, Kang Dae-oh looked at the small newborn.
But something was strange.
“……”
The baby didn’t cry, but instead seemed to stare blankly at Kang Dae-oh in front of her.
Then.
A smile.
She smiled.
The nurse, who was watching from right beside them, was startled.
“Oh my. It seems she’s already making a ‘baenaetjit’ (newborn smile).”
Could this truly be called a ‘baenaetjit’?
Kang Dae-oh didn’t feel that way.
It felt more like a reaction that said, ‘Long time no see, appa!’ to Kang Dae-oh.
‘It must be my imagination…… right?’
While Kang Dae-oh was looking down at the baby with a bewildered expression, the nurse asked him.
“Father. Don’t you want to take a picture?”
“Huh? I. I should.”
It was the only moment to capture the appearance of the newborn baby.
Depending on how Kang Dae-oh took the picture, this moment of the child could become a more beautiful and lovely memory.
This thought suddenly surged like a wave, transforming into a feeling of pressure.
“Just a moment. Let me wipe my sweat.”
His palms were sweating.
The moment he started adjusting the angle, thinking, ‘I need to take a good shot.’
Suddenly, the baby stirred.
Even when he moved the camera to another side, the baby twisted her body so that her left side of her face would be mostly visible.
It was an action as if she knew how to make herself appear pretty and cute.
‘She’s almost identical to Yera?’
The second daughter was even more suspicious.
Kang Dae-oh, who had gone to the hospital room first, showed Min Seung-yeon the photos and videos he had taken.
Despite being in a daze, Min Seung-yeon struggled to lift her eyelids to capture her second daughter’s first moments in her eyes.
“I felt this when Yera was born too… you seem to have a talent for taking pictures.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. My friends said that. They asked how my husband could take such beautiful and good pictures of a newborn. One of them even asked if your profession was a photographer.”
“……”
A bitter smile naturally spread across Kang Dae-oh’s lips.
They would have no choice but to feel that way.
Because Kang Dae-oh himself hadn’t expected the results to turn out so well.
Despite not undergoing any editing, the photos turned out beautifully, as if they were taken in a studio.
“What’s your secret?”
To this, Kang Dae-oh replied:
“Perhaps…… it’s because the baby cooperated so well.”
“Cooperated? What nonsense are you talking about? What could a baby who hasn’t even been born for a day do?”
She wouldn’t even know that pictures were being taken of her.
No, she wouldn’t even know the word ‘picture’. How could such a thing be possible?
Kang Dae-oh’s face showed he had a lot to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak it aloud.
Because it was an absurd story.
‘If I say this, I’ll probably be treated like a crazy person.’
That’s why he still couldn’t tell her the secret about Kang Yera and was acting this way.
Perhaps.
The thought that his second daughter might also have some unique hidden circumstances, just like Kang Yera, kept creeping into his mind.
At this moment.
Ring!
The landline phone installed in the hospital room rang.
“Yes, hello.”
“―Are you Ms. Min Seung-yeon, the expectant mother’s guardian? Visiting hours for the baby start at 2 PM. Would you like to come see her?”
The current time was 1:55 PM. At the mention that he could see his second daughter again in 5 minutes, Kang Dae-oh replied as if it were obvious.
“Yes. Of course, I’ll go see her.”
“―When you come down, you must bring the certificate we gave you. You won’t be able to see the baby without it.”
“Understood.”
After hanging up, Kang Dae-oh stood up to head to the nursery.
Min Seung-yeon tilted her head at her husband’s actions.
“What was that call about?”
“They said we can see the baby from 2 PM. You can’t move yet, can you?”
“No. They said I can move starting tomorrow.”
She couldn’t even go to the bathroom and was wearing a catheter.
Going to see the baby in such a state would be very difficult.
“When you go, video call Mom and Dad and show them the baby. And Yera too.”
“Okay. I should show her to your father-in-law and mother-in-law too.”
“Please do.”
Kang Dae-oh, who left the hospital room alone, moved to the nursery located on the floor directly below.
Even the time spent waiting for the elevator felt too precious, so he just took the stairs.
When he went down to the nursery, it seemed no other families had arrived yet, as there was no one else besides Kang Dae-oh.
‘It’s good I came down early.’
Not long after.
The curtain that had been covering the inside of the nursery disappeared.
Kang Dae-oh showed the nurse the certificate she had asked him to bring through the glass wall.
The certificate contained simple information such as the mother’s name, the newborn’s gender, and time of birth.
After confirming this, the nurse returned to the glass wall with a baby a moment later.
The baby visible beyond the glass wall was sound asleep, lying down.
‘Well, she must have been very tired.’
Taking one’s first steps into the world is that difficult and hard.
Kang Dae-oh video called his father.
Not long after, the video call connected immediately.
“―They said the baby was born safely, right?”
“Yes. She’s right here in front of me, would you like to see her?”
“―Of course! Oh my goodness…! My word. Isn’t she so beautiful?”
Following his father, Kang Dae-oh’s mother also showered praise on the second child’s beauty.
“―Look at her sharp nose. And why are her lips like cherries? We should make her an entertainer later, just like Yera.”
At the mention of an entertainer, Kang Dae-oh merely smiled.
Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t heard anything from Kang Yera about what professions her younger siblings would have when they grew up.
He only knew superficial details about Kang Yera herself, so in a way, it was natural.
“Dad. Could you hand the phone to Yera for a moment? I want to show her her younger sister too.”
“―Shall I? Okay. Yera! Come here.”
At the mention of seeing her younger sister, Kang Yera rushed over in one go.
“―How is she? Your younger sister, isn’t she pretty?”
“―Yes, she’s super pretty!”
However, contrary to her words, her eyes weren’t smiling at all.
Kang Yera’s claim that she often fought with her younger sibling while growing up seemed to be true.
Still, she had said that in this life, she would definitely ‘train’ her younger sibling to become a cute being who listens well to her unnie, just as she wished.
Kang Yera seemed to have very high expectations for this.
However, Kang Dae-oh felt that he might have to deliver some unfortunate news to Kang Yera.
“Dad. Could you pass the smartphone to Yera for a moment? There’s something I want to talk about with just Yera.”
“―Alright, well… Okay. Yera. Dad says he has something to tell you.”
Thanks to his parents’ cooperation, Kang Dae-oh secured an opportunity to talk with Kang Yera alone.
Once they moved to a room where Grandpa and Grandma weren’t present.
Kang Yera’s expression and tone changed to an adult-like demeanor.
“―Yes, appa. What is it?”
“Yera. Do you remember what happened when you were just born?”
“―Of course I remember. I even remember being in the womb, you know?”
Was it because she was a regressor? She seemed to remember every single moment of her birth in detail.
“What about when I first came to take your picture? Did you get a strong feeling that ‘appa came to take my picture’?”
“―Yes. I intentionally changed my pose so the picture would turn out well, didn’t I? But why are you asking?”
The more he listened to Kang Yera’s experience, the more Kang Dae-oh felt his suspicions gradually turning into certainty.
“Yera. Don’t be surprised, and listen carefully.”
Soon, Kang Dae-oh decided to tell Kang Yera exactly what he felt after seeing his second child.
“Your ‘training operation’ for your younger sister, it seems it’s going to fail.”
