Chapter 2. Hide-And-Seek

“Morning, Appa!!!” Her voice echoed inside his room, he covered his face with the pillow and smiled when he heard her bubbly giggles, “Hey! You need to get up now or you’ll be late for work!!!”

“Aish!!! It’s still very early, umma…” Yonghwa whined as he watched her sit beside him, “Five minutes more please?”

“No way!” Euna crossed her arms on her chest then shook him when he closed his eyes, “Appppppaaaaa!!!!! I don’t want to be late for school! We are going to go to the art gallery today, I don’t want to be late again… come on please…”

“Arasso…arasso…” he smiled and got up, his little girl in turn threw herself on him, “Hmmmm….”

“Appa, we will start today, okay?” Euna nuzzled on the crook of his neck then shifted to look at him seriously.

He knew what she as talking about and it somehow worried him that she remembered their conversation last night, “Start what?”

“You forgot?” Euna scrunched her face when her appa chuckled. She clicked her tongue until he quieted, “We’re going to start looking for my mommy today!”

“We are?” Yonghwa scratched his head then she crossed her arms again. Faking a surprised look, he clasped his hands together, “Oh yes, we are! I almost forgot…” Once Euna flashed him a smile, he grabbed her by the waist and whisked her in his arms that she squealed in delight. His baby was getting heavier now or he was just getting older. Yonghwa chuckled as he rubbed his chin on her belly.

“Appa! Stop! Stop, please!” Euna laughed. She liked it when her daddy tickled her that way but her tummy hurt from too much laughing. When Appa finally put her down on the floor, she scampered out of the room just in time to see her grandmother entered the house. “Good morning, halmeoni!” Euna beamed and hugged her grandma, “Did you take a walk?”

“Yes, darling…” the older woman bended close to drop a kiss on her granddaughter’s head. Yonghwa padded in the room giving her a curt nod, “I think you two should join me, it’s also good for your health…”

Instead of answering, Euna climbed on her high chair and drank the glass of milk her grandma prepared for her. She put the glass down and wiped her lips with the sleeve of her sleeping dress then declared, “Halmeoni, we are going to the art gallery today!”

“Oh, it’s today? That’s good, you have been mentioning it every day this month… at least I’m going to hear the end of it,” she shoved some strands Euna’s hair and smiled when her son chuckled behind them, “So you should hurry up and get ready…”

“Tell that to your son, he’s driving…” Euna raised her thumb to gesture at her father but she rolled her eyes when he scowled at her. Fixing him a smile, she spoke sweetly, “Araseoyo, appa, I will prepare your suit now!”

Yonghwa held back his laughter as he watched her ran to his room. It was her morning ritual to prepare the things he would be needing everyday—from his tie to his lunch. He just hopes she will stay that way forever.

“Yonghwa-ya, you better take what she said seriously…” his mother distracted his thoughts.

He sighed watching her in the corner of his eyes as she arranged the clutter in the kitchen. “What?” Yonghwa asked pretending, once again, that he has no idea what she meant.

Mrs. Jung turned to him with lips pressed into a tight smile then retorted seriously, “She wants to have a mother—she needs to have a mother. It’s not that I’m complaining on taking care of both of you but all I can give to her is grandmotherly care… she needs to have a real mother especially now that I can see how intelligent she is. She needs someone to look up to while growing up…”

Yonghwa ran his fingers through his hair with a loud exhale. They had this kind of conversation before—so many times before. He didn’t want it to change his mind about the fact that he never wanted to replace his wife. A big lump in his throat appeared—he seemed to have forgotten how it felt to love someone the way he loved Ha In anyway.

“For Euna…”

He heard his mother’s fading voice.

For Euna.

He repeated to himself.

~~~

Most mornings, her appa talks to her a lot while driving— telling her to do this and to do that and not to do this and not to do that. But not today. Euna craned her neck to look at him again, she poked her tongue out but he didn’t even move. She sighed and settled back on her seat watching the other cars in front of theirs. Did he make appa sad? “Appa…”

“Hmmm?” Finally, he took notice of her but he answered in a very small voice without taking his eyes off the road.

“If you really don’t like to look for a new wife, I guess it would be fine with me…” she smiled sadly. She didn’t really like saying that. It was what she wanted since going to kindergarten last year but if it would make her appa sad then, “I’m sorry for pushing you… I won’t do it again…”

Yonghwa stopped at the red light and turned to his daughter. His heart melted with what she said and watching her side profile as she focused on something outside her window, Yonghwa couldn’t help but wonder if he was breaking his baby’s heart. Reaching out, he brushed his thumb on her cheek to make her look at him. He smiled maintaining an even tone so as to hide how he truly feels about the issue, “What are you talking about? I made a promise and I will keep it, okay?”

“Really, appa?” Euna’s eyes were glistening with the early morning rays. She didn’t really think her daddy would say that and she wished he was not lying at all.

“Of course!” he smiled, “So smile now… who knows, she’s just somewhere near us…”

“Oh daddy!” Euna bounced on her seat pushing the seatbelt off her and plunged herself on her appa, “I love you so much!”

“Whoa, baby! Appa’s driving!” Yonghwa laughed when his daughter showered him kisses as the traffic moved ahead of them.

~~~

It was her first to be inside an art gallery and she marveled at all the beautiful paintings that she sees. Their art teacher said that after the tour they will be doing their own paintings and it made her feel really excited. But she doesn’t like how strict the place was—they have to line up in twos and walk straight and should not touch anything and worst of all: NO TALKING!

She smiled looking at the weird-looking adults around her—they were so over dressed like they’re going to attend an evening party like those on TV. She laughed at the thought that rich people are weird. Her teacher was talking about the colors in one painting in front of them, Euna thought it was pretty but her surroundings was more interesting than what her teacher was saying so she kept on looking around. The exhibit, her teacher said, was of a new young painter. Nobody knew of her before but the owners of the gallery saw her works and thought they were pretty nice so they gave her the chance to show the rich people her paintings. They were there because that painter was one of her teacher’s first pupil before. Euna thought it was nice. Maybe if she grew up she will be famous like that and her teacher would tell her students about her too. She couldn’t help but giggle.

Her eyes wandered around until she stopped to feel her heart beating too loud. She never thought it was today. “My umma…” she whispered to herself as the image in front of her got closer. The woman just entered the gallery. The rest of the world got blurry and all Euna could see was her. She was beautiful! Her umma was wearing a baby pink dress— her favorite color, by the way— a white flowery headband on her long brown half-curled hair— just like hers. She looks just right compared to the other women she has seen since the first time she started thinking of wanting to have a new mommy. Her umma smiled and Euna’s heart almost jumped out of her body. Looking at her made her smile too— her heart continued to make little flips, “She is the one!”

“What?” Choi Sarang, her bestfriend looked at her.

Euna clasped her hand on when she realized she said it out loud and Sarang looked at her weirdly. She giggled then stealthily pointed at the woman walking slowly and looking like she was checking on something at that mini-garden in the middle of the gallery, “That woman over there…”

“Yeah… I see her, she’s beautiful…” her friend whispered back.

“Yes she is, but it’s not what I meant…”

“Then what?”

“Sarang-ah, she’s going to be my mommy…” Euna winked.

“Are you crazy?” Sarang spun around to face her with a curious frown, “How can she be your new mommy?” Euna just shrugged so she probed some more, “How did you even know that?!”

“I don’t know… I just feel it,” she grinned and looked back at her future mommy again. Right then, the woman tilted her head and their eyes met, “OMO!”

Euna couldn’t stop herself from smiling so wide when her mommy looked at her and smiled. She is really pretty and Euna just wanted to run and ask her if she could be her mommy.

“Ya, Jung Euna…”

She heard Sarang whine so she grinned at her friend, “See?! She felt it too!”

“You’re crazy…” she rolled her eyes, “Look at that man beside her… he could be her boyfriend.”

“Could be…” Euna shrugged, “Could be her brother too.”

“Then what if he’s her husband?” Sarang fought back never wanting to lose an argument with her bestfriend.

Euna glared, “Aish! Haven’t you heard of the word divorce yet?”

“Girls… girls…” their teacher shushed them with a pointed look.

“See? Stop dreaming, Jung Euna…” Sarang retorted focusing her attention to what their teacher was now saying.

But Euna continued looking at her mommy now that the latter was talking to the man beside her. Who could he be? She could only wish Sarang was wrong because it would make her really sad to know that the woman cannot be her mommy because she belonged to someone else. Her heart ached with the thought. She wished for her for her birthday just yesterday and she was thrilled to realize her wish was coming true to soon! It was actually very awesome! She is exactly the princess she was thinking about. She can’t wait to tell her dad that she already found her new mommy!

Their teacher ushered them forward to another display of paintings but Euna could not take her eyes off her mommy. Even when Sarang dragged her with her, she would still steal glances of her mommy hoping she would look at her again and feel how Euna was feeling. Suddenly, the woman looked at her again and waved. Euna’s heart jumped again as she raised her hand and waved back. She must be feeling it really, like really!

~~~

Changmin watched her happy face while she was absorbed at the sight of the group of children at the distance. Just then, Joohyun waved to a little girl in pigtails, “Do you know her?”

“She looks familiar…” she smiled without taking her eyes