Chapter 122. Tell Her You Love Her

Their interaction was a good indication that they’re really on their way to how they were before— how they should be. Yonghwa knows she wants more and he could give that to her but it was upsetting for him that she didn’t seem to recognize his feelings. The smile he wore was carried back to the living room as he sat beside Euna and tried to nudge her. She only looked at her for a second before placing her attention back on the TV screen. Getting ignored, Yonghwa laid on the floor beside her to which his baby looked at him again but gave him the same treatment.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

Seohyun called out from the kitchen when he was about to poke the baby’s arm. “Are you shooing me away?” He replied instead with a chuckle.

“No?!” She grumbled but grinned, “It’s, like, the middle of the day.”

“I’ll probably go after lunch,” Yonghwa replied dismissively, “Besides I already went to a construction site for an inspection before coming here.”

“Ah, so you’re inviting yourself for lunch,” she laughed.

“Euna invited me,” he shrugged then grinned looking over at her.

Talking about their baby, she looked calm and content compared to those days he came by and Seohyun would be at work. She would be moody and panicky so it was hard for him to leave sometimes. And as if she sensed his thoughts, Euna started crying out of the blue so he sat up and tried to take her worrying she was in pain but she just pushed him away, “What’s wrong?”

“Euna, I’m here. Umma is right here, puppy.”

Her umma called out from the kitchen and, to his surprise, she giggled through her tears and just crawled to where she was. “What was that?” Yonghwa chuckled watching her almost leaped on the floor towards her mother in a rather clumsy crawl.

“Can you get her walker, Oppa?” Seohyun spoke calmly, “When she’s in there she just looks around for me without crying. She panics when she doesn’t see me if she’s on the floor.”

Yonghwa got the baby from the floor instead and she grinned at him before pointing towards the hallway. Chuckling, he cooed, “No sweetheart, we’re not going out.” He placed her in the walker and spun it around for a while that she yelped before gently pushing it forward, “Go to Umma.”

He laughed when Euna started walking her arms raised on her sides as if that stance could make her walk faster. But Seohyun was no longer in the kitchen and he smiled watching the baby turned towards the hallway leading to the bedrooms. It seemed that this was already a routine for the two of them that she didn’t cry like what her mother just told him.

Instead of following, he moved to the kitchen feeling the need for his next caffeine fix. A moment later, Seohyun walked in followed by that sound of wheels being dragged on the floor that made him chuckle. But Seohyun quietly handed him a modest looking invitation card that hinted him of its importance. “What’s this?” He asked walking back to the living room.

“It’s the party for the firm—Saturday night. If you want to go with me,” Seohyun finally replied as he sat on the sofa but she opted to sit on the floor beside the baby.

“And Euna?” He asked considering the time of the party that would most probably be in the evening.

“I will take her with me. So, do you want to come?”

He took out the card from the envelop mumbling a soft agreement but was instantly directed towards that small photo at the bottom of the page.

“Then you will be meeting my parents…” Seohyun spoke softly across him.

“Oh,” Yonghwa mumbled in a small voice as he studied the picture. Looking closely, the family was photographed with the parents seated in the middle with Yuri and Joowon standing on the right side and Seohyun to the left. Euna, who was wearing a colorful kimono, was cradled in the lap of her halmeoni and she was beaming with her fishy smile and probably the only one smiling so wide from the group. When he realized that the silence dragged on, he asked almost curiously, “When was this taken?”

 “A few days ago since Appa wanted a family photo included in the invites,” she supplied.

That hit him somehow— the ‘family’ part, considering that Yuri was there and all he knew was that she wasn’t really accepted by his parents for Joowon. He wondered if Seohyun thought of including him, it would have made a lot of difference for him.

“It’s important for Appa to put that since he is more known than my brother.”

Seohyun spoke almost hastily in an afterthought as if extinguishing a flame but he only nodded and remarked, “It would help him transition in the market.”

“Yes.”

He couldn’t stop looking at the picture, tortured somehow that he wasn’t there and he didn’t even know that they would have anything like it. Was it a reflection of how she really feels? It scared him that this simple photo told him that he was probably not welcome in her family just yet. What was more disturbing was the fact that this somehow reveals the future that he was not included.

“Actually, I asked Appa if you could join but my brother said it’s not a good idea.”

There was some relief hearing that but when Yonghwa met her gaze, he realized that she knew about the new ordeal brewing in their horizon. “He told you, didn’t he?” He asked deciding that it was better so that they could deal with this together. His thoughts drifted to the possibility that his father would think that her parents are trying to antagonize him considering that they had something like this on Euna’s 100th birthday that was posted to the official site of the firm.

“So if Abeoji finds out, he would—”

“He can’t do anything,” he answered in an instant looking straight at her, “I’ll make sure of that.”

“He loves Euna…” Seohyun said with a sigh, “It would change.”

“I hope it doesn’t…” he repl