Episode 18. First Vlog (3)
By the time Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon belatedly realized they were separated from their eldest and youngest daughters.
Kang Yera held the small body cam she received from her dad and pointed it this way and that.
“I thought the quality would be really bad since it’s a 20-year-old product. But it’s not bad, is it?”
Watching her unnie, who was completely engrossed in the body cam, Kang Yeyoung puffed out her small chest.
“Who picked it, though?”
It meant that since she chose the product herself, it was bound to be good.
Even before her regression, Kang Yeyoung had a considerable interest in filming equipment.
In her early days of Nutube activities, she handled everything herself, from filming and editing to appearing in videos.
A significant amount of knowledge related to it had also accumulated.
Later, she formed a professional filming team and paid less attention to that side, but she continued to maintain her interest.
Kang Yera turned the camera angle towards her youngest dongsaeng.
“She’s a really cute dongsaeng if she just stays quiet. What a waste.”
“Unnie is also a very pretty unnie if she stays still.”
She got back more than she gave.
While the eldest and third children were bickering over the camera.
Kang Yera belatedly felt a strange sense of discomfort.
By now, it should be time for Kang Dae-oh to intervene and mediate.
It was too quiet.
“……Huh?”
Kang Yera belatedly realized she had been separated from Kang Dae-oh’s group.
However, Kang Yeyoung had not yet noticed what Kang Yera had realized.
“Why, unnie?”
“I think we’ve become ‘that’.”
“What’s that, again?”
Kang Yeyoung squinted her eyes, giving a look that told her to speak clearly.
As her dongsaeng wished, Kang Yera expressed her own, no, their situation in one word.
“I mean, lost children.”
At the word ‘lost children’, Kang Yeyoung smiled in disbelief.
“We’re big adults, what lost children?”
“Is that so…?”
But to passersby, they looked nothing but lost children.
If two young children were standing blankly in the middle of the market, it would naturally look strange.
A middle-aged man who ran a tteok shop across the street briefly took off his gloves and approached the children.
“Kids. Where are your mom and dad? Are you two alone?”
It was a question asked out of concern that they might be lost.
Kang Yera and Kang Yeyoung exchanged glances.
They had two options.
Yes or No.
If they chose the former, they would quietly go to the police station holding the man’s hand.
If, on the other hand, they chose the latter.
Freedom(?) would be guaranteed.
Kang Yeyoung lightly tapped Kang Yera’s back.
Kang Yera, who nodded briefly, took Kang Yeyoung’s hand with a look that told her to trust only her.
“Mom and Dad are over there.”
“There?”
“Yes.”
Kang Yera pointed to a suitable spot.
There were so many people gathered in the market that the tteok shop owner couldn’t tell exactly who Kang Yera was pointing to.
“This ajusshi doesn’t know who you’re talking about…”
“Over there, over there. Mom!”
Kang Yera pretended to look for Min Seung-yeon, who couldn’t possibly be there, and quickly disappeared into the crowd with Kang Yeyoung.
The tteok shop owner tilted his head and scratched his head.
Just then, the owner’s wife approached him with an annoyed expression and nagged him.
“You troublemaker! What are you doing standing there when we’re so busy! Aren’t you coming in quickly?”
“No. Just now…”
He wanted to say, “There were some kids who looked like lost children…”, but.
Because they had already disappeared, he wasn’t sure if his wife would believe him if he told her the truth.
He only had one answer he could give.
“Ah, alright. I’ll go in right away. Anyway, that woman. Such a temper.”
It was good that they escaped before being mistaken for lost children, but.
Even afterward, the adults’ gazes continued to be drawn to Kang Yera and Kang Yeyoung.
Indeed. If children walked around by themselves, they couldn’t help but attract the worried attention of adults.
Although it was evidence that society was still warm.
This warmth, for now, was acting as an obstacle to Kang Yera and Kang Yeyoung’s freedom.
Anyway, they would eventually meet Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon if they wandered around the market a bit.
Until then, Kang Yera was wondering what to do to pass the time.
“If only we had smartphones, we could contact Dad or Mom.”
Then they could easily rejoin them.
However, because they were still young, they didn’t have their own smartphones yet.
At that moment, Kang Yeyoung tugged on Kang Yera’s sleeve.
“Unnie. Do you have money?”
“Money? Uh. I have some just in case.”
Just in case, she usually carried a certain amount of cash in her children’s wallet.
As for how to spend money, she already knew everything since she was an adult anyway.
And since it was a bit much to have children carry debit or credit cards, Min Seung-yeon filled Kang Yera’s wallet with a certain amount of cash on a weekly basis.
Since she hadn’t spent a single penny this week.
There would be plenty of pocket money left.
“That’s good. Then, let’s go over there.”
“Where is ‘over there’?”
As Kang Yera turned her head in the direction Kang Yeyoung pointed, three characters clearly came into her sight.
Bunsikjip.
“We should have snacks when Mom and Dad aren’t around.”
At her dongsaeng’s words, Kang Yera grinned.
“She’s my dongsaeng, alright.”
They oddly get along well in these situations.
If they went into a crowded bunsikjip, it was obvious they would be treated like lost children again, just like before.
So Kang Yera and Kang Yeyoung decided to look for a less crowded bunsikjip.
“Unnie. Look, there’s nobody there?”
Kang Yera’s steps faltered.
“But, should we go in?”
“Why? You were the one who said to go to a place with no people, unnie.”
“But if there’s no one there, doesn’t that mean it’s not tasty?”
It was a deviation they had gained with difficulty.
If they were going to do it, wouldn’t it be better if it was a deviation that made their mouths happy?
Kang Yeyoung shook her head, dispelling her unnie’s worries.
“It’s okay. That place, it might be a hidden gem surprisingly.”
“How do you know that without even tasting it?”
“I, in the past, used to find good restaurants with no information for content, you know. Because of that, I can roughly tell.”
It was just a long explanation.
To put it simply, it boiled down to this.
“It’s just a hunch, then.”
Since there were no other alternatives anyway.
With the intention of trusting her dongsaeng’s words for now, Kang Yera moved her steps towards the restaurant Kang Yeyoung suggested they enter.
Since it was a bunsikjip inside the market, she thought the owner operating the store would be somewhat old, but.
“Welcome!”
A surprisingly young woman, wearing an apron, greeted the two children.
At most, early 30s?
She didn’t look older than that age.
The female owner looked at Kang Yera and Kang Yeyoung, and dozens of question marks floated in her mind.
“Did you two come alone?”
The two sisters nodded simultaneously.
A look of bewilderment spread across the female owner’s face.
Perhaps thinking, ‘Are they lost children?’, she matched their eye level and asked.
“Should ajumma contact the police for you? I’ll also tell them to find your mom and dad.”
“No, it’s okay. We’ll eat by ourselves, wander around a bit, and then go meet them.”
“Huh? How?”
“We have our ways.”
At the words “we have our ways,” Kang Yeyoung also tilted her head.
This was because she hadn’t heard any specific methods from her unnie.
Towards the confused female owner, who was wondering what to do, Kang Yera pointed at the menu and said.
“Tteokbokki Set A, please.”
“Uh… so… hmm…”
The female owner quickly cleared her complicated thoughts.
Her calculation was complete: ‘First, give the children the food they want and let them eat, then reassure them, and then report them as lost children to the police station, wouldn’t that work?’
“Alright. Just a moment. But, even if we consider the older child, can the younger child eat tteokbokki? It’s going to be very spicy.”
Kang Yera pointed at her dongsaeng.
“It’s okay. She won’t eat it anyway. She’s a ‘maepjjili’, so she can’t eat spicy food.”
“Maepjjili… “
How did a child know such a term?
The female owner was simply amazed by Kang Yera’s way of speaking, which was unlike a child.
Not long after.
A tteokbokki set suitable for children was quickly prepared.
Not only tteokbokki, but also Gimmari, fried vegetables, flat mandu, Gimbap, and Eomuk.
It was full of snacks that children liked.
Since it was for children, the spiciness was made as mild as possible.
“Go ahead and eat.”
“Thank you for the meal!”
The female owner focused on Kang Yera’s eating habits.
Everything, from her chopstick skills to the way she ate, was so incredibly mature.
Kang Yeyoung also had an aura of an adult, unbefitting her age.
“Looking at you two reminds me of my daughter.”
“Madam owner, you have a daughter?”
And why was her reaction so mature?
The female owner couldn’t help but chuckle at Kang Yera’s reaction.
“Yes. She’s 5 years old. She’s a bit sick. So she’s always in the hospital. Actually, I haven’t been able to open the restaurant often because I’m nursing my child. Did I open today after… about a week?”
Kang Yeyoung poked a mandu with her fork and said.
“So that’s why there were no customers.”
After tasting the food, it was surprisingly quite good.
It was definitely not a bunsikjip that should have no customers.
At first, she even thought, ‘Is it because of the store’s location?’ but.
It was simply because she couldn’t open the store often.
“I need to work hard from now on to earn money for my child’s treatment. But there are no customers… Honestly, I don’t know what to do.”
The female owner confided her true feelings to the children, feelings she hadn’t even shared with her close acquaintances until now.
Perhaps it was a confession only possible because they were ‘children who knew nothing’.
Kang Yera put her hand into her small bag and said.
“We should at least buy a little today… Huh?”
Kang Yeyoung tilted her head and looked at her unnie.
“Why, unnie?”
“……It’s gone.”
Kang Yeyoung looked at her unnie with a ‘no way’ look.
“You mean the wallet is gone?”
Kang Yera nodded.
“That’s strange? I definitely put it here.”
“Did you get it mixed up with second unnie’s bag and put it in Yebin unnie’s bag?”
Their bags were similar in design and even color.
So sometimes Kang Yeyoung found it ambiguous whether it was her eldest unnie’s bag or her second unnie’s bag.
The female owner stroked the children’s heads and said.
“It’s okay. Ajumma will treat you.”
“We’re sorry. We’ll definitely pay later by telling Dad.”
“I was going to talk about that. To find your mom and dad, wouldn’t it be better to go to the police station and wait? Because it’s dangerous.”
The female owner tried to persuade the two children well.
However, Kang Yera shook her head and said this.
“It’s okay. We know where we’ll meet them.”
Kang Yera was confident.
That if they went to ‘that place’, they would definitely meet Dad, Mom, and Kang Yebin again.
Min Seung-yeon, who belatedly realized the children were gone, busily wandered around the market with Kang Dae-oh for a while.
Nevertheless, the children were still nowhere to be seen.
“Oh, what should we do, honey? Sh-shouldn’t we report it to the police? What if our children live their whole lives lost like this…!”
“Calm down. Our children aren’t ordinary kids, you know? You know that too, right?”
“B-but…”
A mother’s heart couldn’t possibly calm down that easily.
Kang Dae-oh was honestly just as flustered, but he didn’t show it.
Because if he did, Min Seung-yeon would clearly worry even more.
On the other hand, Kang Yebin sighed deeply and said.
“That silly unnie, really. If she was going to get lost, she should’ve gotten lost alone, but even the maknae… Ugh.”
“That can happen.”
Kang Dae-oh stroked Kang Yebin’s head and fell into thought.
As he said, Kang Yera and Kang Yeyoung are not ordinary children.
Even if they appear to be young children on the outside, they are adults on the inside.
If so.
‘They might have already gone to the place where they’d meet me.’
Police station?
No, let’s think more intuitively.
Kang Dae-oh and Kang Yera, Kang Yeyoung. And even Min Seung-yeon and Kang Yebin.
There must be a place nearby that the whole family knows.
“……The parking lot!”
Kang Dae-oh told Min Seung-yeon to wait there with Kang Yebin for a moment.
This was because he didn’t know if the children might come this way.
Kang Dae-oh, who hurriedly headed to the parking lot, not long after.
Found two children sitting near his car.
“Oh? Unnie, just like you said, Dad really came.”
“See? What did I tell you?”
Kang Yera chuckled and naturally waved her hand towards Kang Dae-oh.
“Dad! Over here!”
“Haha……”
At the sight of the children waving so nonchalantly, Kang Dae-oh couldn’t help but let out a hearty laugh.
