Episode 3. The Babies’ Star (3)
2:30 PM, with scorching sunlight.
Kang Dae-oh, who had ordered lunch near the market for a late meal, was just about to set the table when he heard the bell at the entrance ring.
For self-employed individuals, there’s a kind of rule.
When they’re about to eat, a customer who hasn’t been around suddenly appears.
This rule applied to Kang Dae-oh without fail.
Still, for his beloved wife and child, he had to sell at least one more drink.
Kang Dae-oh put down his spoon without hesitation and prepared to greet the customer with a wide smile.
“Welcome to our shop…”
However, the business smile that had settled on Kang Dae-oh’s face quickly vanished as he confirmed the customer’s identity.
At his expression, the customer who visited the shop looked dumbfounded.
“Hey. What kind of reaction is that to a customer, huh?”
Although he was a customer.
From Kang Dae-oh’s perspective, he wasn’t someone he could simply treat as just a customer.
Oh Myung-woon.
He was one of Kang Dae-oh’s high school friends with whom he’d shared drinks when Min Seung-yeon was in the postpartum care center.
“What brings you here?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? I came to boost your shop’s sales.”
“So you’re here to order coffee?”
“Yeah. All of it, even for the staff. How about that? Isn’t this enough to be a VIP customer?”
“Even so, it’s only two cups, including you.”
Oh Myung-woon ran a hair salon about 100 meters away from Kang Dae-oh’s cafe.
He only had one employee.
Seeing Oh Myung-woon showing off despite this, Kang Dae-oh couldn’t help but smile wryly.
“Hey, Kang Dae-oh. What do you mean ‘only 2 cups’, huh?”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Just a moment ago, Kang Dae-oh had resolved again and again that he had to sell at least one more drink for his family.
Considering this, it had doubled, so he had reason to be happy.
“Order?”
In response to Kang Dae-oh’s question, Oh Myung-woon sat on a chair, striking a pose, and lowered his voice.
“The usual.”
“Oh, really?” Kang Dae-oh let out a sound of surprise and started choosing the drinks himself.
“One Hazelnut Latte and one Vanilla Latte. Both iced, right?”
“Yeah.”
Since he ordered the same thing over 90% of the time, Kang Dae-oh had the menu memorized.
While he was busy preparing the ordered drinks, Oh Myung-woon approached Kang Dae-oh and asked.
“Is the baby growing well?”
“Yera? Oh, yeah. She really likes going out with her mom since she started attending the culture center. But the cost is a bit expensive, so her mom seems to be thinking about it.”
“Thinking about what?”
“She goes out once a week for a 20-30 minute class, and she’s thinking it might be better and save money if she just played with her more at home.”
Childcare expenses.
From a parent’s perspective, it’s naturally an unavoidable concern.
“I told her there’s no need to save even that kind of money. But she said that if we save even a penny more, we can keep it for later and support the baby as much as possible when she goes to kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, and college.”
“Well… your wife’s not wrong. Even if it’s just a penny or two, those pennies add up to a lot of money later. You and I, we’re business owners, so we know that even better, don’t we?”
“That’s right.”
Despite that, the father’s heart couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable.
He wondered if he wasn’t earning enough money, thus not being able to give his baby enough opportunities for learning and entertainment.
“……”
Oh Myung-woon, who had been silently watching Kang Dae-oh’s troubled face, suddenly spoke.
“Give me one Choco Latte and one Peach Tea too.”
“Suddenly?”
“I’ll put them in the fridge and share them with Semin. No ice, please.”
“……”
It was his friend’s consideration to help him increase his sales even a little.
Kang Dae-oh offered Oh Myung-woon a faint smile.
“Thanks, Myung-woon.”
“Don’t mention it. Considering how you helped when my father passed away, this is just a drop in the bucket.”
“I just helped because we’re friends, that’s all.”
“Me too.”
Kang Dae-oh hadn’t even properly eaten his lunch yet.
Yet, for some reason, he felt full.
On the way home after the culture center class.
This was precisely the moment when Min Seung-yeon’s situation became quite awkward.
Because.
“Looks like new arrivals today too.”
It was because baby clothes shops were located on the way out of the hypermarket entrance.
Every time they passed by, new baby clothes were displayed on mannequins.
From a mother’s perspective, she couldn’t help but look.
Especially for girls’ clothes, why were there so many pretty ones?
Min Seung-yeon simply couldn’t understand.
As much as her mother, no, even more than her mother, Kang Yera also showed deep interest in the new baby clothes.
She was so interested in the clothes that she even dropped the pacifier she was holding, plop.
At her daughter’s appearance, Min Seung-yeon smiled wryly.
“Yera. Shall we take a quick look?”
“Awoooh—!”
As if she had been waiting for her mother’s words, she quickly waved her short arms, swish swish, signaling to go.
From a blue floral print dress to hats, socks, gloves, pants, and so on.
Girls’ clothes were fully displayed.
Min Seung-yeon picked up the pink dress that Kang Yera liked the most and held it against her daughter’s body.
Then, a staff member’s voice was heard from behind.
“Oh my! It suits her so well! Don’t you think so too, ma’am?”
“Yes. The baby seems to really like it too.”
“How many months old is she? She’s not 6 months yet, right?”
“No.”
“Then you should buy this quickly and dress her in it! You know well, ma’am, don’t you? Babies grow up fast. If you don’t dress her in this now, at this exact period, you’ll never be able to.”
Min Seung-yeon deeply agreed with this statement.
In reality, she had many clothes gifted from friends and family.
But she had countless clothes that she had only dressed the baby in once or twice before the baby quickly grew out of them.
When she sold them all at once through a secondhand trading app, Min Seung-yeon felt more regret than relief about getting rid of the items.
She thought, ‘If only I had known, I would have changed her clothes more often.’
“Is this the only size available?”
“Yes. This is all we have.”
“Then, as you said, I should buy it right away and dress her in it. How much is the price, by any chance?”
Min Seung-yeon had a price in mind for baby clothes.
But the staff member’s answer exceeded Min Seung-yeon’s expectation by exactly double.
“It’s 55,000 won.”
“Oh, really?”
“This is already with the sale applied. The original price was in the mid-60,000 won range.”
“……”
She knew well that baby clothes were expensive.
But investing 55,000 won in clothes that would be worn for only a few months and then discarded felt somewhat wasteful.
However, Kang Yera’s expression of loving the clothes so much kept flashing before her eyes.
At this moment.
Kang Yera reached out and tugged, tug tug, repeatedly at Min Seung-yeon’s sleeve.
“Ummaaa—!”
“Huh? Yera. What is it?”
Kang Yera shook her head from side to side.
“You don’t want to buy it?”
This time, she nodded up and down.
The staff member was greatly flustered by Kang Yera’s actions.
“Surely the baby… Can she already understand what her mom is saying?”
“It seems so.”
“Goodness gracious… She hasn’t even had her first birthday yet.”
The staff member thought Kang Yera’s actions were just a coincidence.
Because, as she said, she had never seen a baby at this age who could already understand adult speech and react properly.
Meanwhile, even if Kang Yera was okay, Min Seung-yeon was not okay at all.
Although this month’s diaper costs, formula costs, hospital bills, culture center fees, baby toy costs, etc., were a mountain of childcare expenses.
The sight of her daughter happily looking at the clothes simply couldn’t be erased from her mind.
“As expected, I should save on culture center fees…”
She wanted to save on the tuition fees for the culture center and instead buy Kang Yera at least one more piece of clothing she liked.
Just as she told Kang Dae-oh, instead of going to the culture center, Min Seung-yeon could somehow make up for the rest with her own efforts.
But baby clothes weren’t something you could get by making up for it with your own efforts.
Not unless she went out and earned money herself.
Finally, after much deliberation.
“I’ll take one of these.”
Min Seung-yeon made up her mind.
A smile spread across the staff member’s lips.
“Understood! Oh, I’ll include a pair of socks as a service.”
“Thank you.”
Seeing Min Seung-yeon struggling to take out her card from her wallet, Kang Yera let out a small sigh.
After returning home, Kang Dae-oh heard from Min Seung-yeon the circumstances of buying Kang Yera new clothes.
Min Seung-yeon turned her head towards the room where the sleeping Kang Yera was and apologized to her husband.
“I’m sorry. I bought baby clothes without telling you.”
“It’s okay. Since Yera liked the clothes, of course, we should buy them.”
Kang Dae-oh decided not to feel any regret about the money spent on the baby.
The cost of the culture center was the same.
“Isn’t it better to just keep the culture center? How about applying for the next level class too? I heard that thanks to Yera, the number of teams who want to join the morning class has increased a lot?”
The morning class, which started with 3 teams, had somehow grown to nearly 10 teams.
As it became too popular, the culture center was seriously considering whether they should increase the capacity.
But if Kang Yera were to disappear.
Wouldn’t the popularity of the morning class also fade?
“I’ve roughly memorized the classes at the culture center, so I can do them at home.”
“That’s not the point. If she goes there, Yera can meet many friends. That kind of emotional development would be very helpful too.”
“I know, but…”
That darn money is always the problem.
Kang Dae-oh said to his troubled wife:
“I’ll earn more money somehow, even if I have to do late-night designated driving. So let’s just keep the culture center.”
“……Okay.”
After much deliberation, Min Seung-yeon closed her household ledger and put it aside.
It’s a natural desire for parents to want to give their baby as many experiences and opportunities as possible.
Min Seung-yeon knew this well, so she couldn’t easily refuse Kang Dae-oh’s suggestion.
Because if they couldn’t give Kang Yera various opportunities due to money.
This regret seemed like it would last a lifetime.
Rather than that, it was better to struggle and earn more money, even if it meant sacrificing sleep.
This was the shared thought of Kang Dae-oh and Min Seung-yeon.
Just as they were about to conclude the discussion about Kang Yera’s culture center fees.
There was something the two of them were missing.
The fact that Kang Yera, whom they thought was asleep, had her eyes open and was secretly listening to her mom and dad’s conversation filtering through the crack in the door.
