Episode 14. Still, I Love My Daughters (3)
CRASH!
The glass cup Kang Dae-oh dropped shattered into pieces on the floor.
A surprised Lee Seojun rushed over while serving.
“A-are you okay, boss?”
“Uh, I’m fine. Sorry. I made you worry for nothing.”
“That’s not the problem… Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No. I just dropped the cup.”
After telling Lee Seojun that he was fine, Kang Dae-oh briefly bowed his head and apologized for the temporary attention from the customers.
Meanwhile, Oh Myungwoon, who had come to Kang Dae-oh’s cafe for a visit, reacted to Kang Dae-oh’s mistake as if it were nothing unusual.
“Looks like you’re not feeling well today? Making mistakes you don’t usually make.”
“Tell me about it. It’s not like I’m feeling unwell.”
“Did something bad happen?”
“Is there anything that could be bad?”
Even if something like that were to genuinely happen, Kang Yera or Kang Yebin would have told him in advance.
Because they knew all about the unfortunate events that would befall Kang Dae-oh in the future.
However, today’s daughters were quiet.
There was nothing particularly problematic.
However, Kang Dae-oh was missing one fact.
The fact that accidents and incidents always happen suddenly, without warning.
VIBRATE!
Kang Dae-oh’s smartphone vibrated strongly.
It was a call from his wife.
“Hello. Uh, why are you calling at this hour…? What?”
Kang Dae-oh’s pupils trembled greatly.
“Ah, I understand. I’ll be right there too. Just wait a little!”
Kang Dae-oh, who hung up the call with a hurried tone, threw off his apron and shouted to Lee Seojun.
“Seojun-ah! Sorry, but I have an urgent matter for a moment! Please take care of the shop!”
“Huh? What happened?”
“A fire broke out at the kids’ cafe, and it seems the kids got caught in it!”
“……!!”
There was no time for a leisurely detailed explanation.
Kang Dae-oh dashed out of the shop like a sprinter.
Oh Myungwoon, who was watching the situation with a bewildered expression, pointed at himself and said.
“Perhaps… is it my fault?”
“T-that can’t be.”
Lee Seojun and Oh Myungwoon couldn’t speak for a while.
Arriving at the scene, Kang Dae-oh found Min Seung-yeon sitting despondently.
“Honey!”
As soon as she saw Kang Dae-oh, tears gushed from Min Seung-yeon’s eyes once again.
“O-our kids, what… what do we do…!”
“Calm down. Are the kids still in there?”
Min Seung-yeon nodded, trembling.
Firefighters tried to suppress the flames that had spread throughout the kids’ cafe, but the fire seemed fiercer than expected and wasn’t easily contained.
One of the firefighters approached Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon and shouted.
“It’s dangerous! Please stay back!”
Then Min Seung-yeon screamed like someone who had lost her mind.
“O-our kids are in there!”
“Huh? The kids… are in there?”
The firefighter urgently sent a radio message.
“Chief. There was a report that kids are still inside… Yes, understood.”
The firefighter, who ended the radio call, shook his head.
“I just asked the crew members who went in for the search, and they said there’s no one inside.”
“T-that can’t be! I clearly left the kids at the cafe…!”
On behalf of Min Seung-yeon, who was on the verge of losing her composure, Kang Dae-oh calmly requested the firefighter.
“The kids might be scared and huddled in a corner. There’s a possibility they weren’t found because of that.”
The firefighter reassured Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon, telling them not to worry too much.
“That’s just the opinion of the search team, but if there’s even a one-in-a-million chance, as you said, we’ll go back into the scene anytime. Earlier, the chief said he’d lead a search team back into the scene, so we’d appreciate it if you could trust us and wait a little longer.”
“Th-thank you. Please, I beg you.”
“Yes.”
From the firefighter’s perspective, they couldn’t let Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon get closer to the accident scene as they were.
So, they made every effort to reassure them as much as possible.
Kang Dae-oh also knew well what the firefighter’s intentions were in saying this.
If it were up to him, he’d put on an oxygen tank and rush inside.
‘I also need to think about my wife who would be left alone.’
Kang Dae-oh’s fists clenched.
Because he felt so helpless, unable to do anything right now.
‘No. Even if I don’t go inside, there’s definitely something I can do!’
Before moving, Kang Dae-oh said to Min Seung-yeon.
“I’ll go ask people who came out of the kids’ cafe if they’ve seen the kids!”
Gathering as many clues as possible about his daughters’ whereabouts was the top priority.
Because this might greatly help in searching for his daughters.
However, Kang Dae-oh’s effort ended before it even began.
“Daddy!”
“Here we are, here!”
The children, buried in the crowd of adults, shouted eagerly to let Kang Dae-oh know their location.
Kang Dae-oh, who momentarily stopped in his tracks, looked at the children with disbelief.
Unlike the survivors who had just come out, his daughters didn’t even have a speck of soot on them.
The three of them were waiting for their dad in a clean state.
“W-what in the world…”
Just as he was about to ask what had happened, Kang Yera opened her mouth first and explained the whole situation.
“What happened was…”
When the gas had just exploded.
People were so shocked that they scattered in a panic.
“F-fire!”
“Take the kids and get out quickly!”
“Jiwon-ah! Where are you, Jiwon-ah!”
“Hyemin-ah, let’s go out with Mommy quickly, okay?”
The bewildered voices of mothers and fathers, combined with the crying of children, exacerbated the chaos.
The entrance of the kids’ cafe was filled with people struggling to get out first.
Kang Yera hurriedly held her youngest sister and looked for Kang Yebin.
“Shouldn’t we go out too?”
“You want to go out that way? What if you get hurt?”
“……”
Accidents beget accidents.
If they could exit orderly, one by one, it would be much easier to escape.
Among those gripped by crisis, only a very few could make such a calm judgment.
Fortunately, Kang Yebin was one of those very few.
“You know, one of the roles I played during a film shoot before was a female firefighter character? I received firefighter training for 6 months back then…”
Kang Yera cut Kang Yebin off in the middle of her sentence.
“Do you think this is the time to brag about your filmography? Start thinking about getting out quickly!”
It’s impossible for children’s bodies to squeeze through adults.
If they overdid it, Kang Yeyoung might get hurt.
Kang Yebin began to look around for another way out besides the entrance.
“In large marts like this, they would have made separate evacuation routes for when a fire breaks out, like now.”
Finding that was what they had to do.
However, if they had adult bodies, they would have quickly moved around and done as Kang Yebin said.
Since they were in children’s bodies, there were quite a lot of limitations.
The fortunate thing, at least, was that they didn’t have to constantly bend down to avoid the smoke.
It was then.
“Mya!”
Kang Yeyoung, held in Kang Yera’s arms, suddenly pointed in one direction.
Kang Yera turned her head in the direction her youngest sister pointed, and her eyes caught sight of a sign indicating an emergency exit.
“Good job, maknae!”
Kang Yera briefly praised Kang Yeyoung.
If she had her way, she would have showered her chubby cheeks with kisses, but the situation was too urgent for that right now.
“Unnie, hurry!”
“Got it!”
Just as Kang Yera was about to quickly exit towards the emergency exit with Kang Yebin.
WAAAH—!
Kang Yera’s footsteps stopped.
The cry of a young child coming from somewhere stopped her in her tracks.
Now that she thought about it, she seemed to have heard a mother desperately calling for her child earlier.
Kang Yera looked around.
Just now, in the corner of the ball pit where she and her sister had been playing, a child was crying bitterly, looking for their mom.
“Yebin-ah! Please take care of Yeyoung for a moment!”
“What are you going to do, unnie!”
“A child is crying, we can’t just leave!”
“You’re a child yourself!”
But Kang Yera’s actions were too fast for her to say that.
Kang Yera, who instantly arrived where the child was, extended her hand.
“Come on, let’s go. Quickly take my hand.”
“Oh, Mom…!”
“I’ll take you to your mom.”
“R-really?”
“Really. I promise.”
Kang Yera reached out and grabbed the child’s hesitant arm.
She moved forward at an incredibly fast speed, unbelievable for a 4-year-old.
Although Kang Yera wasn’t good at academics, she was confident in using her body.
This child’s body was also the same as Kang Yera’s previous body.
Therefore, Kang Yera, boasting quick reflexes, cleared and stepped over obstacles scattered in front of her, moving back towards the entrance.
“Jiwon’s mother! Jiwon is here—!”
“Oh my goodness, Jiwon…!!!”
The mother, who had been desperately searching for her child, approached with tears in her eyes.
The child, finally in her mother’s arms, began to cry loudly as if shedding all the sorrow she had endured.
“Thank you for finding my child, dear. But where is your mom…?”
“Please ask that later. More importantly…”
Kang Yera deliberately made a loud noise towards the people who were only gathered at the entrance.
CRACK! BANG! BANG!
As she deliberately threw the toys that were placed for kids to play with onto the floor, making noise, people finally turned to look in Kang Yera’s direction.
Kang Yera pointed to another emergency exit that Kang Yebin had devised and Kang Yeyoung had found, and shouted.
“There’s an exit over there too, so please exit that way!”
Only then did a cafe staff member belatedly remember the existence of the emergency exit and began to guide customers that way.
As people began to disperse, the chaos finally subsided.
Kang Yebin, who had been quietly watching Kang Yera, let out a long sigh and said.
“Honestly, unnie is too kind for her own good. Don’t you think so too, maknae?”
Kang Yeyoung briefly spit out the pacifier she was holding and replied “Mya!” once again.
Kang Dae-oh, who now finally understood the full story of what had happened inside, hugged Kang Yera, Kang Yebin, and Kang Yeyoung and said.
“Well done, my daughters. And thank you for being safe.”
“Hehe.”
Kang Yera smiled faintly.
Kang Dae-oh, having confirmed his daughters were safe, decided to take the children to their mother, who must have been distraught.
“Let’s go. Your mom is on the verge of collapsing right now.”
In fact, he was more worried about Min Seung-yeon than his daughters.
The daughters quickly followed Kang Dae-oh towards Min Seung-yeon.
“Honey!”
Kang Dae-oh called out to Min Seung-yeon.
Only then did Min Seung-yeon see her daughters with Kang Dae-oh.
Large teardrops fell from her eyes once again.
“My girls…!”
Min Seung-yeon tightly hugged Kang Yera, Kang Yebin, and Kang Yeyoung, the three sisters.
“Mommy’s sorry, Mommy’s… sorry…!”
As if vowing never to let go of her daughters for the rest of her life.
Min Seung-yeon wailed, holding her daughters for a long time.
