54. Family

The revelation she gave to Aunt Hyeonji brought a very conflicting inside her— she was both relieved and bothered. The older woman assured her that she would stood by Seohyun whatever happens in the future and promised her that her feelings for her would never change. After a while, his mother joined them in the bedroom with a handful of old photo albums.

“Euna is asleep with her harabeoji,” Eunsuk responded when her sister-in-law asked. She noticed the somber atmosphere in the room and when she looked at Hyeonji, she gave her a knowing nod as if telling her they would talk later. With that, she handed one album to Seohyun, “Look what I found… they’re my sons’ old photo albums.”

Seohyun’s smile deepened the moment she caught sight of the cover of the album handed to her. It was Yonghwa’s third birthday where he was standing beside a small table with his birthday cake. His mouth was opened wide but his eyes were pinched tight obviously making his own version of a silly face. Seohyun laughed and his mother also chuckled when she noticed what she was laughing about.

“He had always been a prankster,” Hyeonji added with her own laughs, “All four boys are but Yonghwa is just the most unstoppable one…”

Eunsuk nodded, “That’s right. But he was very adorable, I could never get angry for long.”

It was touching hearing that because somehow she could still see that in him— no matter how much he would irritate her, she couldn’t seem to just get mad for long. She was already leafing through that album as if taking a train back in time to see this side of him. Seeing this so innocent side of him made her really wonder why he became distant from his parents— especially his father. But somehow, she was also like that. Her memory of her childhood consisted mainly of her small family during school vacations abroad. Those were the moments her parents spent so much time with her and her father. But everything changed somewhere around the time her oppa entered high school.

“Look at this…”

Her train of thought was hindered when his mother handed her another one before she could reach the end of his third birthday memories. But, she willingly took the bigger one handed to her. It looked older than the rest and it had to be since she could definitely tell it was his baby album. The moment she opened the first page, her heart almost dipped.

Two hours old, the caption read and the resemblance couldn’t be denied.

“Euna looks just like him…”

Someone said softly but the pictures already managed to muddle on her focus. The next set of pictures showed his monthly development. Her heart was already pounding so hard like the tugging in her every veins. When she got to his fifth month which would be the closest to Euna’s age, she could no longer deny the similarities. The hair, nose, lips and the shape of their faces were so similar she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She flipped the page and saw another. Baby Yonghwa was on crawling on the floor, grinning, and the expression was so familiar to Seohyun.

“See the similarities?”

Finally, she looked up and nodded at his umma with a smile. She sniffed and only then she noticed the gentle rub on her back. Looking over her shoulder, she smiled back at Aunt Hyeonji who was looking at her as if encouraging her of this truth in front of her.

Truth— she didn’t even know what the truth was.

“These are…” she her lips and took a deep breath before continuing but she decided to go the other way and spoke, “It’s incredible to see oppa this way… especially seeing how Euna is so like him at this age.”

“Yes,” Eunsuk laughed softly, “Your daughter is just a girl version of my son…”

“Is that a good thing?” Hyeonji asked and the two older women laughed as Seohyun only shook her head with a smile, “Either way, it would be exciting to find out.”

“Don’t scare Seohyun,” Eunsuk laughed again and waved her hand when the woman in question looked right through her, “Seriously speaking, Seohyun, I’m so proud of all my boys, but Yonghwa… it’s even more special with him. Everything that he went through, I’m so proud of all the things he achieved.”

She fell quiet for a moment then reached out to touch Seohyun’s hand, “And especially when he fought for you and Euna…”

Seohyun fought back the tears. Although she knew the truth but it hit right through her. She smiled and nodded— then sniffed. The older woman laughed and she laughed as well, “I’m sorry. I think I’m going to cry…”

“It’s alright,” Hyeonji patted her hand again then spoke seriously to her, “Thank you for making uri Yonghwa happy.”

She shook her head again with a soft laugh because she didn’t know what to say to that.

Seohyun only managed to leave Aunt Hyeonji’s room after she took her medicine and she fell asleep in between their conversation. Despite the discomfort she had, her heart was so full of emotions that she could only call bittersweet. She learned a whole lot about Yonghwa and his family and somehow, she felt a little jealous of his big family.

And now she realized that she was already part of that family.

When they went out of Aunt Hyeonji’s bedroom, they meet Yonghwa’s father carrying the very upset baby who was already having hiccups from crying obviously too much. Once Euna saw her umma, she started sobbing again.

“Aigoo, she thinks her mommy left her,” her harabeoji chuckled while handing the baby to Seohyun.

“I’m here now, Euna,” Seohyun cooed then turned apologetically to Yonghwa’s father, “I’m sorry…”

Sunggwang only laughed, “She was surprised to wake up in a strange place.”

Afterwards, she decided to take Euna to her appa’s bedroom which also became theirs every time they were in this house. Her baby was also hungry that explained her excessive anger but once Seohyun opened the door, she yelped in surprise.

Yonghwa laughed as he walked closer to them, “Yeah, I get that a lot…”

“Get what?” She scowled at him while watching him shower Euna with kisses.

“Ever heard of screaming fangirls?” He winked.

Seohyun clicked her tongue then her frown deepened once she saw the changes in the room. His bed was no longer in the middle of the room but was pushed back to the wall. Seohyun turned to him and caught him glancing sneakily at her, “What’s this?”

Yonghwa only laughed then shrugged, “Just remodeling an old room.”

“Right,” Seohyun muttered flatly.

After a short moment of playing with the baby, Yonghwa went to take his shower so she managed to feed Euna in peace. Minutes passed when the door burst open and Sooyoung’s five year old son, Jaewon     rushed inside.

“Hi, Jaewon,” Seohyun greeted as the little boy was already kissing Euna’s foot. His sudden arrival caused her little one to deliberately spit out her milk bottle and giggled at her favorite cousin. “Euna, you have to finish your milk.”

But of course, Euna was already playing peekaboo with Jaewon that she could only smile at the two. “Jaewon-ah, are you here with your umma?”

“Neh, with Jaewoong too,” he replied referring to his three year old youn