FIFTY SEVEN

The next few months were a lot better. After that one incident, Yonghwa never gave any promises but just tried to ‘be there’ for his family and Seohyun never failed to let him know how much she appreciated his efforts and Euna was happier every time her Appa would stay with them a lot. He would only miss dinners twice or thrice a week and, whenever he was around, he would put Euna to bed then leave when they were sure that she was fast asleep.

It became easier for Seohyun as well but felt a little guilty whenever she needed to lie that Yonghwa came home late and had to leave early the next morning. Euna bought that and, in her heart, she believed that her Appa comes home every night. There were days too that she would be away for work and his mother would take Euna to Busan and have her stay there until Seohyun or Yonghwa could look after her.

Their relationship got even better sans the crazy romance they used to have in the middle of the day before having a baby. Lately, it was more of stolen moments except at night when their daughter was in a deep sleep that they were able to relieve those craziness and make new ones.

He came home one day before the crack of dawn after a long day of rehearsals, appointments and appearances but despite of his tiredness he still managed to shower Seohyun with kisses until she woke up and gave in to him. After that, he slept like a dead log but was just thankful that their appointment that day won’t start for at least late afternoon. A pleasant sound of soft giggles pulled him out of sleep though and he opened his eyes knowing it came from the second love of his life.

And he was right, Euna sat on the edge of the bed but with her back on him giggling at the cartoon she was watching despite the muted sound—he felt right at home. Yonghwa stretched and yawned loudly pulling her little body that she squealed landing on his chest.

 “Appa! Are you done sleeping?” Euna straddled his stomach, her pigtails bobbing on each side of her head. She really looked like a mini-Seohyun and it warmed his heart.

He chuckled and nodded, “Why are you watching without the sound?”

“Umma said I shouldn’t wake you up ‘cause you slept late last night.”

The shades were also pulled down that he could not really tell what time it was and the only glow in the bedroom he shared with Seohyun came from the television. “You can watch in the living room, you know,” Yonghwa playfully complained as he sat up and let her sit on his lap.

“Uh-huh” Euna shook her head briskly that the tip of her hair slapped his cheek, “But I want to be with you. You always go away.”

That did it for him and he could not help himself from squishing his sweet daughter in a tight hug, “I love you so much, do you know that?”

She nodded unaware of the gush of emotions she was causing her father then went on melting her father’s heart as she hugged the doll that she had been constantly carrying around, “I guess when you go away for like, long long time Tamama gets very sad so Euna gets very sad too.”

Yonghwa chuckled kissing her cheek, “Then play with Umma.”

“Umma doesn’t play with Euna a lot,” she grumbled, her lips pouting adorably, “She always makes me study.”

He couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “Arraso, I will tell her to play with Euna a lot.”

“Hmmm-hmmm,” she shook her head, “No, you play with me a lot and I study with Umma a lot, okay?”

And they sealed that with their pinkies just as Seohyun peeped in to get them for brunch.

~~~

Euna took her usual spot in front of the table enjoying her bowl of curry rice while her Appa made his coffee and her Umma prepared her Appa’s favorite bean paste soup with lots and lots of tofu. Euna loved it— having them both around doing the usual things they do in the house. She missed going to places with them like when they were in that far place where her sick halmeoni and Hyoyeon Imo live but she was happier now.

Her Umma always told her about Korea and how she and her Appa met here long long time ago even before Euna lived in her mommy’s tummy. Euna loved watching that video too where Appa sang this English song and it showed pictures and videos of her Umma and Appa wearing weird clothes but they were very beautiful. Euna wondered why she didn’t come that soon so she was with them already. In the videos and pictures, Appa would always look at her Umma weirdly and he had that silly smile, like, all the time!

It was funny because her Umma said the video was so long time ago but her Appa still looked at her Umma the same way. Sometimes she would even catch him smiling at Umma even though she wasn’t looking at him. Then they would kiss a lot especially when they were thinking she was not looking. Euna couldn’t understand too what they were doing in their bedroom when Appa would stay the whole day and he would look funny at Umma and tell her that it was Umma-and-Appa time and they would lock themselves in the bedroom.

She didn’t understand it but she didn’t ask because they would allow her to watch TV for a long long time and she loves watching Disney princess movies during those times and she imagined Umma was like a princess meeting a prince who was her Appa. Then Umma-and-Appa time would finish after one or two movies and they would come out freshly showered and they would look at each other with their goo-goo eyes.

Euna really wondered what Umma-and-Appa time really was. Maybe it was shower time? But looooong shower time!

She tried to ignore them as she ate especially when they started talking about work but her attention would catch on again whenever her Umma would use her weird aegyo voice at Appa.

“Appa… can you open this?”

Euna heard her mommy say and she turned for a moment and saw the jar with black thingie inside for bean soup she handed to her Appa. Then he chuckled and she glared at him but she wasn’t really mad. Her Umma does that a lot at her Appa.

“What?”

Euna looked at her food again when he spoke. Hyo Imo is a great cook and her Umma is an okay cook but her Appa told her not to tell her that. Euna guessed he just didn’t want her to feel sad or something.

“So we are in this phase where we call each other Umma and Appa.”

“Apparently.”

Euna could see them well ‘cause of that glass window in front of her. She put her hand on her eyes when her Umma leaned close to Appa and kissed him. She didn’t like watching kissing on TV and although she liked it that her Umma and Appa kissed, it was really weird and icky! They were quiet so she thought it was okay to stop covering her eyes but when she looked at the glass window again, Appa's hands were on Umma’s back and he was kissing her with their mouths open it was even more disgusting than with only their lips. It was yucky and she didn’t understand it so she decided to just ask, “Why do you kiss my mommy like that?”

Umma pushed her daddy away and her cheeks were pink and her lips were red and Appa’s eyes were silly like his smile. He walked behind her and ruffled Euna's hair— she hated that and one day she would really tell him.

“Because we’re married, so we kiss like that.”

She stabbed one stubborn carrot on her plate with her chopstick then put it in , “What’s ‘mawid’?”

Her Appa laughed but cleared his throat and talked with his big Appa voice as he sat across her, “It’s when two people love each other so much they don’t want to love other people, so they get married and have babies. Then we have you because we love each other.”

That sounded nice so she liked that, “I wanna be mawid too!”

Her Appa laughed and stood again smiling at her, “Someday, sweetheart, not too soon.” He kissed her head and continued, “And you’re not allowed to grow up too soon.”

Euna didn’t understand what he meant so she just put another spoonful of curry rice in . Her Umma replied for her from behind, “You have to start living with that fact. She is growing up too soon.”