While personally feeding medicine to the child who was already sniffling, Seo-an felt sorry that he had to ask them to give her medicine when there would already be many children to take care of.
On top of that, no matter how minor a cold it was, if she said she was sick, wouldn’t it require extra attention? Since she wasn’t their own child, the burden the teachers would feel seemed considerable.
That’s why at first he tried not to send her, but Ji-yu was so looking forward to it, and the teacher sent a message saying it was fine, so he had no choice.
“Still, Ji-yu-ya, if you’re too sick, you have to call daddy. Got it? You can go to the sledding place with daddy later too.”
“Yeah, then will samchon come too?”
“Samchon?”
“Mm-hm, Hae-won samchon. No, daddy! Just figure it out already.”
“Figure what out?”
“Ji-yu only has one samchon.”
The child opened her eyes sharply as if Seo-an, who kept asking back, was frustrating.
“And, get along nicely. Aigoo, I’m really so frustrated.”
“What?”
An absurd laugh burst out.
With hands that looked smaller than an ordinary pebble, the child pounded her chest, narrowing her brows as if truly frustrated.
He didn’t know where she learned such things. It wasn’t like there were that many adults at the daycare, and it wasn’t like she was living with grandma and grandpa either. At Ji-yu’s occasional behavior of acting like a little adult, he couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.
Seo-an finally wrapped a fluffy scarf around the child’s neck and neatly arranged her bangs. He hadn’t particularly matched it, but somehow Ji-yu’s hairstyle ended up similar to his.
Suddenly, Hae-won’s voice saying she looked exactly like hyung came to mind. No, rather than saying it was fascinating, it was more of a sulky tone, but anyway.
I guess she does resemble me a bit.
Seo-an smiled a bit more deeply and gently pinched the child’s soft cheek with his index and middle fingers so it wouldn’t hurt.
“Won’t Ji-yu miss daddy?”
“Ai! Am I a baby?”
“Ji-yu is a baby, then who’s the baby?”
“No. …Daddy, um. While I’m gone, with Hae-won samchon, um?”
“With Hae-won samchon?”
“Ai, the two of you play.”
Ji-yu seemed to be generously stepping aside. Could it be that she was conscious of them being particularly awkward lately and was stepping aside, going to the sledding place even though she wasn’t feeling well? He worried again, but.
“So, daddy. When exactly is Ji-yu going? I want to go quickly!”
Only after seeing Ji-yu getting irritated at his dawdling behavior did Seo-an say he understood and held her small hand.
Well, no matter how deep her heart is, how could she think that far? She’s only four years old.
As soon as they opened the door and went out, they ran right into Hae-won returning from exercising. Hae-won, whose eyes widened once as if wondering about the bag that was bigger than usual, waved his hand from about a step away.
“Where’s Ji-yu going?”
“Ji-yu going sledding today.”
“Really? Hyung too?”
“No, she’s going from daycare.”
“Ah, ah. So that’s today.”
As if he already knew from hearing it through the child, Hae-won nodded casually. Just as Hae-won, who patted the child’s head saying have a good time, was about to go straight home.
“Hm?”
Ji-yu firmly grabbed Hae-won’s hand.
Hae-won paused, and Seo-an was flustered. What absurd thing is she going to say now? As he looked down with surprised eyes, the child made the two people’s hands, which she was holding separately with each hand, overlap and clasp together in one place.
“Daddy is hyung, so samchon hold hands tight like this. Samchon too, you have to listen well to daddy.”
The child opened her eyes fiercely in her own way and looked at the two people alternately. Like before, as if her insides were bursting, she pounded her chest with her small fist again, which was absurd.
“See? Even the kid is watching, so let’s get along.”
And Hae-won didn’t miss that opportunity. Not content with just holding the hand tightly, he shook their hands up and down as if making peace, making Seo-an feel like he was raising two kids.
“Okay, I got it. Ji-yu-ya, say goodbye to samchon. We have to go now.”
“Samchon, bye-bye.”
“Yeah, have fun and come back. Leave daddy to samchon.”
“Yeah! Solid!”
She probably wanted to say reliable.
Seo-an let go of Hae-won’s hand while patting the child’s back saying let’s go now. He pretended not to notice him raising his eyebrows as if saying see you later. For now, getting the child to daycare was urgent, and his own going to work was pressing.
***
He didn’t know how the day passed.
Why was the company so busy today of all days? Seo-an sighed deeply while belatedly checking the message the daycare teacher sent. He had worried that maybe she wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t play properly, but seeing the child with a more cheerful expression than anyone else, always at the center, naturally made him smile.
“I don’t know who she takes after to have such a bold personality.”
Seo-an, who had been talking to himself for no reason, sent another message to the teacher.
“Thank you for the photos”
“If she’s sick and can’t play, please call me”
“I’ll come pick her up”
He didn’t want to burden the teacher who had to take care of other children too. He also worried that if he bothered them, he might fall out of the teacher’s favor and even daycare life would become difficult.
“Teacher”
“Ah, don’t worry haha”
“Ji-yu gets along well with friends too”
“I’ll watch her more closely”
At the reply that came back, Seo-an finally let out a sigh of relief and slowly got up to wash up.
Even though he hadn’t slept poorly, his whole body felt stiff. It was probably an office worker’s chronic illness.
Seo-an, who entered the bathroom while kneading his shoulders tightly, caught his breath while receiving the refreshingly pouring water stream.
It was time alone after a long while. Should he stay up a bit late and then sleep?
When putting the child to sleep, he would get sleepy too and end up sleeping next to her. Because of that, he had been unintentionally living a very proper life, but today he thought about being a little rebellious for once.
Tomorrow happened to be a holiday for the company’s founding anniversary. How is the timing like this again? Was that why there was so much work? Thinking such thoughts, Seo-an finished showering and came out, opening the refrigerator door saying let’s have a beer.
Yeon Hae-won is quiet for once too, the moment he muttered to himself and cracked open the beer can.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep—.
He heard the sound of someone casually entering the front door passcode. Even without looking, he knew it was Hae-won, but Seo-an only stuck his head out and looked toward the entrance with surprised eyes.
“Oof, heavy.”
In Hae-won’s hands, who was making a show of his efforts from the moment he entered, was a truly heavy bag. Seo-an put down the beer he was holding and approached him, asking.
“What is it? Why did you come?”
“What do you mean why? I came to rescue hyung who’s alone.”
“What rescue?”
I really was trying to be alone.
Seo-an looked at Hae-won flustered, but as always, he didn’t care.
“Hyung, you’re off tomorrow, right?”
“…How did you know that?”
Seo-an looked at him flustered once again. Just Hae-won’s actions of lining up food and various alcoholic beverages on the living room table, not even the dining table, were flustering enough, but to even know his own news that he hadn’t told him – how surprising was that?
It wasn’t particularly something to hide, but he hadn’t planned to tell him either, so Seo-an just kept staring at him blinking.
“Do you think only hyung works at hyung’s company? You’re a funny person.”
“No…”
“Sit down, hyung, you like this, right?”
Without giving him a chance to refute, Hae-won cut off the conversation as if he’d been waiting for just today, and took out one pack each of kimchi jeon and chive jeon that he used to eat well during college days and showed them to Seo-an.
“…I do like it.”
Seeing the familiar store name written on it, as if he personally went to the jeon place that was in front of the school to buy it, Seo-an thought I lost and sat down in front of it.
It was jeon he had eaten particularly deliciously. It wasn’t something he couldn’t make at home, and jeon wasn’t that expensive either, so he occasionally bought it to eat, but strangely, he sometimes thought of eating it at the jeon place in front of school.
“And this too.”
As if it were a trump card, what came up next was fish cake soup. There, Seo-an let out a helpless laugh.
“How can I really compete with you?”
“Right? This is the taste of a younger man.”
