Chapter 34. Surprise

Euna rubbed her half-aching calf as she waited outside the academy for her daddy after his call telling her that they will be going to Everland. Maybe it was time for her to meet his girlfriend. Tsk! Somehow she felt relieved that her mommy is very optimistic, at least they can work together in the future to get her daddy. Then Euna realized how smart she is!

She hurriedly dialed her number.

Finally, she saw her appa pulled up on the side of the road and she raced to the backseat for the woman might be there. She didn’t care if her appa scolds her for what she just did. If he was going to enjoy Everland with that woman, she would enjoy it with her mommy.

“Hey sport, why not sit here?” Her appa pointed out as he started the car.

“Oh! I thought we will pick up your GIRLFRIEND, and, of course, I will end up in the backseat like in the movies!” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms on her chest. She was really angry especially when he just laughed at her comment. Euna decided not to talk to her father all throughout the ride and made sure he understood why she was acting like that. But then they pulled up in front of the gallery minutes later that caused this weird feeling in her tummy. She stood and steadied her body at the back of her appa’s seat then asked, “Why are we here?”

“We will pick up Joohyun Unnie because she called me and told me that you invited her to go with us,” he said as he looked at her on the mirror.

“Oh that…” she smiled meekly not expecting that her mommy would do that. She was about to explain to him the situation but she saw her by the corner of her eye walking towards their car so she exclaimed instead, “She’s here!”

“Hi!” Joohyun beamed when she took the passenger seat and buckled herself up, “Thanks for inviting me, I haven’t been there for a long time!”

“You’re welcome, Unnie!” Euna jumped up and down unable to believe that the three of them were inside her appa’s car but she pouted when she remembered something. So she has to sit beside that woman or her mommy would transfer beside her later? But then again it was good that her mommy took the passenger seat since it will show that woman that she belonged to her appa. The engine started and she could not explain the excitement she was feeling imagining how her appa’s girlfriend would react when she sees her beautiful umma, “Appa, are we gonna pick up someone else?”

“Oh, we still got company?” Joohyun looked from Euna to Yonghwa.

“No,” Yonghwa just replied without giving anything away.

It only made things more confusing for Euna. Long time ago, appa said that they should only go to Everland if there is a special occasion because it was far and it was expensive but she could not think of any special occasion right now since she celebrated her birthday like so long time ago and Christmas is still so far away although Children’s Day is almost close but it was not that close.

It was really confusing so she finally asked, “Appa, why are we gonna go to Everland?”

“Why? You don’t want to?” He took another quick look at his daughter from the rear-view mirror then turned to Joohyun where they started talking about work.

“Eunayah, why didn’t you invite your Daehan Oppa?” Joohyun asked the little girl who was strangely quiet only to receive a groan from the father so she chuckled, “Why? What’s wrong, Director Jung?”

“You’re adding fuel to the fire, Joohyun-ssi,” he rolled his eyes when she only gave them another hearty laugh.

“It’s nice, you know? I had my first boyfriend when I was around Euna’s age too…”

“Really Unnie?!”

“Yeah, ‘really Unnie?’” Yonghwa grumbled much to the amusement of the older woman, “And Euna, please sit down…”

“Tell me about your first boyfriend!” Euna bounced on her seat again and again.

“Well…” she crooned while looking straight into the man who was wearing an adorable frown, “I could not really remember his name but he was really nice to me and looked after me a lot…”

“Just like Daehan Oppa!” She tittered excitedly.

“Yup, just like Daehan Oppa,” Joohyun wanted so much to touch his hair and give him, at least, a small gesture of comfort but they had to keep the surprise until later. “And that oppa did so many things to make me happy too.”

“I bet he did,” Yonghwa scoffed, “You can’t even remember his name.”

Her umma laughed out loud. Euna was very very confused why her daddy was acting like that but she likes the jealous look he was giving umma. She laughed and shared stories with her mommy. Euna felt so happy that she imagined them to be a real family.

When they reached Everland, Euna’s mood intensified that Joohyun playfully tugged Yonghwa, “Ya, stop feeding her sugar!”

“Who said I’m feeding her sugar?” Yonghwa laughed, “You’re just afraid of your own shadow.”

“So, it’s my fault now?”

Euna was really happy with the kind of bantering they were having, she could swear that anybody who’d hear them would think that they are her parents. She happily swayed her hands that were linked to theirs and laughed but she thought it would be better if they would be holding hands instead.

They continued walking around the park first before taking the rides they agreed to do, “Appa, I wanna ride that okay?”

“Sure, sport…”

“Unnie, let’s ride that over there, okay?”

“Okay, Euna…”

The weird feeling didn’t go away especially since her appa and umma just kept talking by themselves and didn’t seem to mind her. She liked it a lot that they were talking but it was all about work and the people at work and they wer