“Waaah, huaaang, appa….”
“Oh my, Dokyung-ah. It’s okay. It’s okay, Dokyung-ah. There there….”
Soothing the baby gently, Yoonkyung came out from the room. Wookyung approached from the side and worriedly examined the child’s face. The baby’s cheeks were flushed red as he whined and cried without being able to open his eyes.
A rough hand carefully rested on the child’s forehead. Fortunately it wasn’t too hot, but snot was running from the baby’s nose. Without realizing it, Wookyung wiped under the child’s nose with his own hand.
“The baby can’t sleep because of the runny nose.”
“Right. Clear runny nose keeps coming out like water.”
Yoonkyung let out a deep sigh.
“What do we do… It seems like I’ll have to keep holding him.”
“Then I’ll hold him. You sleep.”
“…Really? Can you handle it alone, oppa? When babies are sick or their condition drops, they don’t go to others well….”
Yoonkyung with her exhausted look was clearly tempted but somehow looked completely unconvinced.
“Let’s try it. Just tell me what to do and sleep.”
“Just, hold him to sleep and when he seems deeply asleep, lay him down in the baby’s bed. Check the baby’s temperature frequently, if it goes over 38 degrees give him 5cc of fever reducer. If it goes over 39 degrees, wake me up. If it’s a little under 38 degrees but he has a fever, soak a handkerchief in lukewarm water and wipe his forehead. Got it?”
“Yeah. Under 38 degrees with fever use lukewarm water, over 38 degrees 5cc of fever reducer, over 39 degrees wake you up.”
“Good.”
Seeing Wookyung accurately point out and recite everything, Yoonkyung handed Dokyung over to Wookyung with a much more relaxed expression. Dokyung, who had been clinging to Yoonkyung like a cicada, made a ‘waaah’ sound in fright and clung to Yoonkyung, not wanting to leave.
“Be good, be good Dokyung-ah. Shall we try going to this uncle here?”
“Yeah yeah. Dokyung-ah, come here. Uncle will hold you.”
The child clung to Yoonkyung crying and throwing a fit. Watching Yoonkyung holding the child with an exhausted expression, Wookyung rolled up his sleeves. When he made a strange sound with his mouth, whoooosh, and made a comical expression, the baby briefly stopped crying even in his distressed state. Taking advantage of that moment, Wookyung received the child.
“Hiing, hiiing, huaaah….”
Then Dokyung started pouting again, curving his lips into an arch shape. Just before bursting into tears again, Yoonkyung quickly brought and handed over baby juice.
“Dokyung-ah, be good. Shall we drink this?”
Fortunately, whether the baby was thirsty, he obediently accepted the drink. He was still nestled in Wookyung’s arms. Watching the lips firmly holding the drink with both hands and gulping it down, Wookyung gestured to Yoonkyung to go in quickly. Yoonkyung let out a sigh of relief and opened the medicine box on the dining table. It was the cough cold medicine Wookyung had bought earlier.
“Didn’t you go to the hospital?”
“It happened somehow. I didn’t have time. I’m going to take a half-day off tomorrow and go.”
“Yeah, the baby is one thing but you take care of yourself too.”
“I know. Then I’m going to take this and sleep. If any other situation comes up, or if Dokyung keeps crying without stopping, just wake me up. Without borrowing someone’s name, the baby can’t go to the hospital. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Yoonkyung, who put the medicine in her mouth along with water, swallowed the medicine with a languid expression. She grimaced as if just swallowing the medicine was difficult. Mumbling that her throat was very swollen, Yoonkyung entered the bedroom.
“Then good luck, oppa. I’ll just sleep for a couple hours.”
“Just sleep soundly through the night. I’ll put the baby to sleep and sleep in the living room on my own.”
“Thanks to you I’m saved, oppa. Really, thank you.”
Yoonkyung laid out the baby’s blanket and Wookyung’s blanket outside the living room. At first, Yoonkyung said she would take the baby into the bedroom and sleep with him, but Wookyung asked her to prepare a bed outside, thinking it might wake Yoonkyung to bring the sleeping child into the bedroom.
“Huah, aah, waaah….”
When Yoonkyung went back into the bedroom, Dokyung threw away the drink he was having and started whimpering again. Already breaking out in a cold sweat, Wookyung held the child and soothed him gently.
“Baby, Dokyung-ah. Don’t cry. Ooh ooh ooh, ooh ooh ooh, don’t cry.”
“Aah, aaaah!”
“Shall we watch Pororo? Let’s watch Pororo. Playing is the best, Pororo.”
He remembered the baby liked it while watching that last time. Since it was already past nine o’clock, it wasn’t time to turn on the TV for the child, but first he needed to soothe the sick child. Wookyung fumbled with the remote control and turned on Pororo. It was extremely fortunate he’d learned how to turn on children’s programs over the weekend.
“Uwaaah, waaah—”
However, Dokyung seemed very irritable. Just on Saturday, when he saw Pororo his eyes would widen and he’d clap and shake his body, but now he wasn’t even watching TV and was just clinging tightly to Wookyung, shedding chicken-poop-like tears. Wiping away cold sweat, Wookyung lifted the baby up in his arms.
“There there, there there. Don’t cry, baby….”
In the end, Pororo, which wasn’t helpful at all just for today, was turned off. It was just noisy and made his head ring. The penguin hero who had shone so brightly on Saturday vanished futilely beyond the screen. The baby had no energy and couldn’t even cry loudly now. He could only whine and cling tightly to Wookyung at best.
“Let me check your temperature….”
Muttering to himself, Wookyung placed the thermometer he’d received from Yoonkyung earlier on the baby’s head. Beep, when it measured the temperature, a red screen appeared and it made a sound like a warning alarm, beep beep beep. It was 38.2 degrees.
‘If it’s over 38 degrees… fever reducer… 5cc.’
Thinking he should give fever reducer as Yoonkyung taught him earlier, Wookyung first set the child down on the laid-out blanket. But as soon as the baby’s bottom touched the ground, he started crying as if he’d faint. Thinking Yoonkyung might rush out of the room at this rate, Wookyung quickly picked up the baby again.
“Huah, aah! Waaah—”
“I got it, I got it. It’s because I put you down, right? I won’t put you down. Stop, stop crying, man.”
Wookyung flustered and grabbed the fever reducer he’d taken out earlier on the dining table. It was extremely fortunate he’d poured out 5cc in advance. He placed the spout of the small plastic medicine bottle containing pink thick liquid to the baby’s mouth. Fortunately, the baby opened his mouth slackly.
“That’s right, good job. Dokyung-ah. Aah—”
Wookyung squeezed the medicine little by little into the baby’s mouth with an anxious heart. He worried what if he spits it out, but fortunately, whether the medicine was sweet, the baby made sucking sounds and sucked on the medicine bottle spout. Wookyung inwardly felt relieved and fed him the medicine to the end.
“Yes, good job. Dokyung-ah. Now, let’s sleep in uncle’s arms.”
He also gave him a little water. After rinsing his mouth with drinking water, Dokyung finally seemed to trust Wookyung a bit more and stopped crying while nestled deeply in his broad arms. Just the fact that the baby wasn’t whining was a relief. Wookyung held the baby in his firm arms and slightly bent and straightened his legs, gently swaying his body holding the baby.
“Yaaawn….”
Dokyung, nestled in Wookyung’s arms, yawned with sleepy eyes. Watching the tiny mouth open wide like a bird’s, Wookyung smiled without realizing it.
“That’s right. Sleep, sleep. You’ll feel much better after sleeping.”
“Appa.”
“I’m not your dad. Say uncle.”
“Appa…”
“Yeah… let’s just go with daddy. One-day daddy, why not.”
Wookyung smiled faintly in resignation and patted the baby’s back. His hand, large as a pot lid, was extremely careful not to hurt the baby. The baby yawned again with a wide-open mouth. He seemed sleepy and tired but couldn’t fall asleep easily.
After hesitating for a moment, Wookyung asked Dokyung.
“…Should I sing you a lullaby?”
“Ung.”
Seeing Dokyung answer clearly with an innocent expression, Wookyung laughed incredulously.
“What, you. Are you actually understanding what I’m saying and answering?”
“Ung.”
Wookyung chuckled and began humming softly. It was the first time singing a lullaby to someone, so he felt a bit embarrassed, but if it could put the baby to sleep, what couldn’t he do?
“Mom’s in the island’s shade…”
Wookyung’s rough voice settled low into the dark living room. Dokyung seemed quite satisfied with the lullaby sung in a heavy bass voice, stopping his whimpering and burying his head completely into Wookyung’s chest. Dokyung, with his head gently resting on Wookyung’s chest, blinked his eyelashes slowly. Thump. Thump. Thump. As if listening to the sound of his heart beating slowly.
“…The baby left alone… watching the house…”
This was the only lullaby that came to mind right away, but the lyrics were needlessly sorrowful. When that child had patted his chest and sung it before, it had been such a comforting song, but was it always this sad?
‘Team Leader! Where did you… get hurt again like this.’
On days he came back injured, he would needlessly go to that child’s room and sulk. Before that child was there, he had done just fine applying medicine and wrapping bandages by himself, but he would grumble that he couldn’t reach and borrow that child’s hands. However, after seeing Ido worry about his injuries and well up with tears once, he didn’t seek out Ido until the wounds had mostly healed.
But no matter how much he tried not to show it, Ido always noticed like a ghost where Wookyung was hurt.
