Episode 9. Temporary Alliance (1)
Finally, the second child revealed her true colors (?) in front of Kang Dae-oh.
Kang Yebin, who had revealed her identity to her dad, now asked him back.
[Dad, how did you know about me?]
Perhaps because she still couldn’t control her hands freely.
Just like Kang Yera, Kang Yebin’s hand holding the ballpoint pen was very unstable.
Perhaps that’s why her handwriting was quite shaky.
Nevertheless, there was no significant difficulty in reading the letters.
It just took a long time.
“I found out thanks to Yera. You already know that your unnie also came from the future, just like you, don’t you?”
“……”
Kang Yebin replaced her answer with a nod.
Even before Kang Dae-oh told Kang Yebin about his eldest daughter’s regression, all these facts had already been revealed.
This was because Kang Yera herself had approached Kang Yebin directly and revealed her own secret first.
In truth, unlike how I appear on the outside, I’m your 29-year-old unnie from the future.
There was only one reason why Kang Yera revealed her identity to Kang Yebin first.
It was to confirm whether Kang Yebin’s regression, which Kang Dae-oh had consistently suspected, was true or not.
So, Kang Yera had even taken a drastic step of revealing that she was a regressor.
However, this trump card she played unfortunately didn’t work on Kang Yebin.
This was because Kang Yebin only blinked several times, and with an innocent expression that said, ‘Unnie, I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she successfully fooled Kang Yera.
In the end, Kang Yera’s speculation remained unresolved, still just a suspicion.
Seeing this, Kang Dae-oh thought.
That Kang Yebin wanted to hide her identity in front of her unnie.
Because of this, she set a condition: ‘I will keep it a secret from unnie.’
Fortunately, Kang Dae-oh’s suggestion easily moved Kang Yebin’s heart.
“How did even the second child end up…?”
Kang Dae-oh gently pressed his temples.
It wasn’t that he disliked it completely.
No, it was rather good.
Because regressing from the future to the past meant knowing everything that would happen from now on.
In fact, thanks to Kang Yera, Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon had overcome several major crises.
But no matter how good a person’s memory is, it’s impossible to remember all the worldly events that occurred over 29 years, the same age as Kang Yera.
But what if the second child joined?
She would be able to more firmly supplement Kang Yera’s incomplete future knowledge.
In that sense, the second child’s regression was undoubtedly a very good opportunity for Kang Dae-oh.
Only.
He was just curious why such things only happened to his children.
“Why are you trying to keep it a secret from your unnie that you’re a regressor?”
Kang Dae-oh was curious about this point.
Kang Yebin appeared to be lost in deep thought.
Although an infant who hadn’t even had her first birthday yet contemplating with a serious expression was a very unfitting behavior for that age group.
Still, her cuteness remained unchanged.
After much deliberation, Kang Yebin began to scribble about the fact that she had tried to hide her identity as a regressor from her unnie.
[Unnie and I fought terribly before I regressed, so I didn’t want that to happen in this life.]
This was because she wanted to reset her relationship with her unnie by pretending not to be a regressor.
However, Kang Dae-oh had a different thought from Kang Yebin.
“To build trust, it’s better to erase doubts first and then start. Why, when you build a building, you stabilize the ground and do the foundation work first, don’t you?”
“……”
“If there’s resentment built up in your heart, it’s better to resolve it properly once rather than pretending not to know about it. If you go your way, Yera might be comfortable, but you won’t be. That resentment will remain as it is.”
Kang Dae-oh wished that not only Kang Yera but also Kang Yebin would live a happy life.
Because both Kang Yera and Kang Yebin were Kang Dae-oh’s precious daughters.
Ultimately, what Kang Dae-oh wanted to tell his second daughter was this:
“Be honest with your unnie and show her your sincerity. The process of improving your relationship can come after that.”
Kang Yebin took a moment to think again.
A moment later.
Her small hand moved.
[Dad, you haven’t changed, whether in the past or now.]
[You’re just like the dad I knew in the future.]
Was it a compliment or an insult?
Kang Dae-oh didn’t know how his future self was portrayed, so he couldn’t properly judge.
Still, one thing was certain.
His love for his daughters and wife would remain unchanged, no matter the world line.
[Okay. I’ll do as Dad says.]
[Though I’m worried about how unnie will take it.]
“It’s okay. Yera will definitely try to accept it well. She’s your unnie, isn’t she?”
Kang Dae-oh tried to envision a positive future, but…
Kang Yebin’s sharp words left a big scratch on Kang Dae-oh’s picture.
[That’s because Dad hasn’t seen unnie’s personality.]
What kind of lives had his eldest and second daughters lived, he wondered?
Kang Dae-oh was curious, and at the same time, afraid.
As per Kang Dae-oh’s suggestion, a three-way confrontation eventually took place.
Kang Yebin, with her diapered bottom on the mattress floor, directly showed Kang Yera a paper containing words she had written herself.
The paper had this message written on it:
[Actually, I regressed too, unnie.]
“……”
Kang Yera, looking at the paper Kang Yebin was holding with an incredulous expression, protested to her younger sister as if questioning her.
“Then why did you pretend not to know? You did it on purpose to tease me, didn’t you? Huh? This unnie knows everything!”
Kang Yebin stared at Kang Dae-oh without a word.
You said she’d take it well.
It was a questioning gaze like this.
Kang Dae-oh let out an awkward laugh.
Reluctantly, Kang Yebin began to write again.
[Because I was curious about what kind of foolish things unnie would do again.]
“What? Did you just call your unnie, who’s like the sky, a fool?”
[You are a fool.]
“No, I’m not! And don’t you know that the person who calls someone a fool is the bigger fool?”
[Reflect back!]
“Then I’m a rainbow reflect back!”
“……”
Kang Dae-oh, who was watching the sisters bickering live right before his eyes, thought to himself.
‘They really are kids when they fight.’
Unlike their appearance, they often showed such mature words and actions that it sometimes felt unnatural.
But seeing them bicker like this, he naturally thought, ‘They really are kids after all.’
“Alright, alright. Both of you calm down.”
In the end, Kang Dae-oh had to take on the role of mediator in the sisters’ fight.
“Well, since the three of us are here, let’s sort things out. Yera said she regressed when she was around twenty-nine, in the summer, right? So, when did Yebin regress?”
Kang Yebin requested more paper.
This was because she had used up all the paper she received from her dad during her argument with unnie just now.
On the refilled paper, Kang Yebin wrote something down.
There was surprising content written there.
“Thirty-one… so you regressed from a future point in time than Yera?”
Kang Yebin nodded repeatedly.
In fact, from the moment Kang Dae-oh learned that Kang Yebin had also regressed, a hypothesis came to his mind.
That Kang Yera and Kang Yebin had not both regressed from the same future point in time.
He had thought their regression points might be different.
Kang Dae-oh’s prediction was precisely correct.
“If Yebin regressed at thirty-one… that would be a two-year age difference with unnie… so Yera would have been thirty-three then, wouldn’t she?”
Instantly, Kang Yebin’s expression changed.
For the first time, emotions of sadness and regret filled her expression.
Just as Kang Yebin, who had hesitated for a long time, was about to write something.
“Don’t write it.”
“……”
“Please.”
When Kang Yera earnestly asked her younger sister, Kang Yebin nodded again as if to say she understood.
Kang Dae-oh immediately noticed that there was something they couldn’t possibly tell their dad.
And also what the eldest wanted to hide.
He felt like he roughly knew.
Kang Dae-oh sincerely hoped that the eldest’s ending he was anticipating was wrong, and he steered the conversation in a different direction.
“Do you have any memory at all of how you regressed?”
Kang Yebin moved her head up and down again.
She didn’t have an exact memory.
Even why she regressed was hazy.
This was the answer Kang Yebin gave.
Whatever the reason, Kang Dae-oh was deeply grateful just to be able to meet and talk with his daughters from the future like this.
Although he didn’t know exactly what kind of pain his daughters had carried to return to the past later on.
Because he now had the chance to embrace his children’s pain as their dad.
Kang Dae-oh was satisfied with just this.
“Let’s see. Then also…”
It was just as he was about to ask his daughters additional questions related to their regression.
Click!
With the sound of the front door lock opening, Min Seung-yeon, who had gone grocery shopping, returned home.
“I’m home, honey. Oh my? What were you doing with the kids?”
Perhaps sensing the unusually heavy atmosphere, Min Seung-yeon glared at her husband with a ‘no way’ expression and asked.
“Were you scolding the kids, honey?”
“Huh? No. We were just talking.”
“What kind of talk can you have with a 2-year-old and an infant who hasn’t even had her first birthday yet?”
“Well… exactly.”
Even Kang Dae-oh thought it was an absurd excuse.
Min Seung-yeon lightly smacked Kang Dae-oh’s back and said.
“Go and put away the groceries I bought. I’ll prepare the kids’ meal.”
“Alright. Yera and Yebin, you two should play nicely without fighting. Got it?”
Min Seung-yeon, hearing Kang Dae-oh’s instruction, tilted her head.
“Fighting? The kids?”
At that moment, Kang Dae-oh made an ‘oops!’ expression.
At this moment.
Kang Yera acted first.
“No! I really like my younger sister. Yebin, should unnie play with you?”
To Kang Yera’s acting, Kang Yebin went a step further, making giggling sounds like ‘kkyareuk kkyareuk!’ and acting delighted.
It was indeed a reaction befitting a former actress.
However, Min Seung-yeon didn’t know.
That even though Kang Yera and Kang Yebin’s mouths were curved in a smile.
Their eyes remained unchanged.
Kang Dae-oh, who had gone to work at the cafe, sat blankly in a chair.
Seeing him, Oh Myung-woon, who came to order coffee, spoke to him.
“You must be really tired, having two kids, huh?”
“Not exactly.”
“It wasn’t because of childcare?”
“There’s something to it.”
He had a private matter he couldn’t even tell his close friend.
The reality was that the relationship between Kang Yera and Kang Yebin was what plunged their dad into worry.
“When siblings don’t get along, what attitude should the dad and mom take?”
“Why? Did Yera and Yebin fight? They’re still babies. That’s impossible.”
Oh Myung-woon thought Kang Dae-oh was mistaken.
And he couldn’t tell him the truth.
From Kang Dae-oh’s perspective, it was just frustrating.
In the middle of this, a text message arrived that deepened Kang Dae-oh’s worries.
[Honey. I’m going to the pediatrician briefly with Yera and Yebin.]
[The waiting line is long, so I don’t know when it’ll end. If you think you’ll be leaving work early, please do the grocery shopping for dinner instead of me today. Got it?]
His wife’s notification that she would go out with Kang Yera and Kang Yebin without Kang Dae-oh made him worry.
‘Will the two of them get along well with each other?’
Haa.
A sigh, countless for the day, escaped Kang Dae-oh’s lips once again.
