“Honestly, Sangjun isn’t exactly a fun, cheerful, high-energy personality type.”
At the sight of Hyunsu delivering a blunt truth bomb to Sangjun in his gentle tone, Siwoo bit down hard on his lower lip, feeling like he was about to burst out laughing. The one who always delivered truth bombs to the members was now on the receiving end.
Feeling like he shouldn’t laugh here, Siwoo kept his head down as he pushed the kneaded flour dough in front of Hyunsu.
“Sangjun hyung, you mash the tofu. I’ll keep adding more ingredients for you. And Hyunsu hyung, make the dumpling wrappers while you talk. On cooking shows, your hands and mouth need to move together—if either one stops, it’s a broadcast accident.”
“I never dreamed in my wildest dreams that you thought of me that way. You could have at least given me a hint. That I’m no fun…”
Having spent so much time together, Siwoo could guess what expression Sangjun was making even without looking. He must have furrowed his brow and wiped under his nose with a swipe. If he saw that expression full of embarrassment, he’d really burst out laughing, so while trying his best not to look at Sangjun, he finely chopped chives between the two of them and put them in Sangjun’s bowl. It was good that he called these hyungs over. Even without him doing anything, the two of them were doing so well going back and forth.
“If I had said that, you wouldn’t have agreed to meet me.”
Perhaps having no comeback, when Sangjun complained that the dumpling wrapper Hyunsu had rolled out was thick and ugly, words immediately flowed from Hyunsu’s mouth asking what he had contributed to building up his forearm muscles.
“Ah, hyungs! Cook. Don’t do stand-up comedy.”
“Why would there be no contribution from me to those muscles? How much meat have I bought you all this time!”
“I think I’ve bought you more. Who bought you that shirt you’re wearing right now?”
“I’m trying to chop vegetables here. I can’t prep the vegetables because you hyungs are making me laugh!”
At the two’s continued comedy routine, Siwoo finally burst out laughing, his shoulders shaking, and shouted out loud.
“Chop them. Who said not to chop? I’ve already mixed all this tofu, chives, and meat, you know?”
After a preparation process filled with comedy and laughter, Hyunsu continued rolling out dumpling wrappers while Siwoo and Sangjun decided to make dumplings with the prepared filling.
“Ah, our Siwoo won’t do. Look at these dumplings he’s made. How can they work looking like this?”
“Yours and mine are pretty much the same thing, you know? No one can tell them apart.”
Siwoo leaned his body toward Sangjun and playfully pushed him once before placing filling on top of the dumpling wrapper in his hand.
“What do you mean no one can tell? Everyone, can’t you tell? Obviously mine are the reddish kimchi dumplings, and Siwoo’s are the meat dumplings.”
Perhaps thinking his own were better, Sangjun lifted the large plate with the dumplings they’d both made and brought it close to the camera. Siwoo had clearly been talking about shape, but Sangjun seemed to be deliberately talking about color.
Then the chat window surged once again, and inside it, chats saying Siwoo’s are better, Sangjun’s are better, they’re both the same, rapidly scrolled up.
“They say mine are prettier.”
“Where? Right now they’re saying pretty similar things.”
At his words as he set the plate down properly, Siwoo stared intently at the screen and tried to read the rising chats.
“The round ones that look all crumpled there are Sangjun’s. The flat ones with the filling bursting out are Siwoo’s. But it’s no secret that you can distinguish them faster if you refer to the color.”
Hyunsu, who simply summarized the two’s bickering, had to hear “That’s not true!” and “That’s not true!” simultaneously.
“Siwoo-ya, I’ll let mine slide, but you should try to make them prettier. There’s an old saying, you know. You have to make them pretty to have a pretty daughter.”
“…That’s songpyeon, not dumplings.”
“It’s okay. Our Jadu is a son anyway.”
After Hyunsu and Siwoo simultaneously answered Sangjun’s words, what followed was silence. Along with that, the chat window also paused briefly, but soon chats poured down at a speed on a different dimension from before.
“Right! Songpyeon. They say you have to make songpyeon pretty.”
Sangjun, who heard Siwoo’s words accurately from the closest seat, spoke deliberately loudly, and Hyunsu placed a rolled-out dumpling wrapper onto Siwoo’s palm with a smack.
“…You all heard that, right?”
When Siwoo muttered while blinking his big eyes, Hyunsu turned his gaze elsewhere, and Sangjun silently placed a finished dumpling on the plate.
“Ah, whatever. Rather than our Nimo-nims being confused and weird speculative articles coming out, I’ll just say it clearly. Our Jadu is a son, so whether it’s songpyeon or dumplings, it’s okay if they’re not that pretty. And if he resembles Evanie, he can’t be ugly even if he tries. It’s fine!”
It’s not like he made just one or two mistakes every time he went live.
In the past, Siwoo would have been flustered and surprised and turned off the live, but the hormonal changes from pregnancy made him bold. If he glossed over it this time too and didn’t say anything, the media who loved to gossip would definitely talk nonsense on their own.
While working in the entertainment industry, he’d seen countless times smoke rising from chimneys where there was no fire. When it was about him, he could just ignore it, but he absolutely didn’t want to hear people who knew nothing talking about Jadu and babbling on their own.
He couldn’t stay locked up at home forever, and it was already February.
Having entered the stable period, Siwoo wanted to start going out gradually. He wanted to see things for Jadu in person and had to go to the hospital regularly.
“What I just heard… is something incredibly huge…”
“Oh, Evanie’s calling. Evanie was watching the broadcast. It’s okay. Rather than letting them speculate, I’ll tell them clearly.”
At the sound of a cell phone ringing in the distance, Siwoo continued speaking without even thinking to check the phone.
“I can ignore weird things people say about me or Evanie and let it go, but I don’t think I can stand it if they do that to our Jadu.”
Siwoo continued speaking calmly while placing filling on top of the dumpling wrapper Hyunsu had just placed in his hand. It was an extremely confusing situation only for the people on either side who had their mouths hanging open in shock and the Nimos who had been happily watching the live and were now flustered.
When announcing the marriage news, Siwoo had revealed that he was a hidden omega. After that, for a while, gossip programs were filled with content about alphas and omegas—omegas and alphas, manifestation, golden alphas, hidden omegas. But wait, how long has it been since they got married? How long. A baby?
“The nickname… Jadu?”
At Hyunsu’s bewildered words, Siwoo smiled and said the nickname was indeed Jadu, that the two of them had memories related to jadu, and added that Evan liked jadu more than he did.
“Ah! But are you okay?”
If up until just now Hyunsu and Sangjun’s comedy-like talk had continued, now all the conversation was focused on Siwoo. From the time they met until now, Siwoo had been continuously eating various things. Orange juice. Various desserts on the table, milk and melon too. Since there were various snacks around, including dumpling ingredients, Sangjun and Hyunsu had eaten too.
Snacks aside, the food they were making now was dumplings. Since they were making two kinds—meat dumplings and kimchi dumplings—there was also moderately fermented kimchi, but their eyes couldn’t help but go to Siwoo who was far too fine.
Even if they didn’t know anything about pregnancy and childbirth, they at least knew that morning sickness happens in early pregnancy.
“Mm, I’m fine. It’s Evanie who’s not fine. I’m hungry, so shall we steam the ones we made first?”
At Sangjun’s words, Siwoo grinned and picked up a macaron from the front of the table and popped it into his mouth as if to show them. Yeah, there was a time when he couldn’t eat these delicious macarons and spent his days having frequent meetings with the toilet.
“Why is Evanie not fine when you’re okay?”
Siwoo, who brought over the prepared steamer, was transferring the meat dumplings and kimchi dumplings when he saw Sangjun’s serious expression and burst out laughing. It was a situation where he shouldn’t laugh, but whenever he thought of Evan, he couldn’t help but laugh.
At Fayden’s words that it seemed like he was having sympathetic morning sickness, both Siwoo and Evan were at a loss for words. At his words asking how on earth they had lived in this state, Siwoo hugged Evan tightly. He said he wanted to suffer in his place, and he really took all of it away.
Unlike Siwoo who had suffered for about a month, Evan’s morning sickness didn’t easily subside. Evan explained that he felt like he was riding a one-person canoe in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a storm pouring down. Unlike Siwoo who had rested comfortably at home, Evan had a lot of ongoing work and couldn’t rest freely.
If it were up to him, Siwoo wanted to buy and bring all the food Evan said he wanted to eat, but Siwoo, who was under a not-quite-confinement confinement at home, couldn’t do that, and Evan’s secretary was breaking out in cold sweats.
“I also had a hard time in the early stages, so I lost about 3kg? But they say time is medicine, and I really got better. But right now Evanie can’t eat and has lost about 5kg. He has a lot of company work too so he can’t rest properly…”
Looking at Siwoo speaking calmly, Sangjun and Hyunsu couldn’t manage their expressions. First of all, they should say congratulations, but according to what Siwoo was saying now, it seemed like Evanie was having morning sickness. Since they enjoyed the single life and had no older siblings, they had no information related to pregnancy and had nothing appropriate to say.
“Our Coco causes trouble if we leave him alone even for a moment. Hyungs, have you been well?”
The chat window that had been turned upside down by Siwoo’s bombshell announcement went wild once again when they heard a voice that was all too familiar to them, though they couldn’t see him yet.
Our Siwoo, just keep doing lives.
We love your lives so much.
With Evan appearing in this situation, the Nimos’ senses became more sensitive than ever due to anxiety that the live might be turned off at any moment.
