SIXTY ONE

The last picture was that of the little girl in her kindergarten uniform. The girl was biting on her thumb, her bright eyes focused ahead as she clung to that old woman he reckoned was her babysitter. She reminded him more of her mother with those beautiful eyes and that long hair that was tied in pigtails.

Kangin roughly slapped the photograph on the table and it landed between the separate pictures of the girl’s parents—Yonghwa and Seohyun. How many times does he need to castigate himself for playing a fool? He easily believed Yonghwa’s lies and he was stupid enough not to save any copies of the pictures he took of the two way back when they were dating more or less five years ago. And now he had nothing but all these separate pictures.

He had been religiously following these two for the past year that Seohyun and her daughter came back to Korea but all his efforts went in vain. Taking two last drags before stabbing the cigarette on the ashtray, he blew a thick smoke on the pictures on his table.

 Damn Yonghwa! He will get his revenge soon.

Soon.

Kangin could feel it.

He stared at the little girl smiling brightly at him. Kangin tapped her picture.

Very very soon.

~~~

Seohyun felt his arm pulling her closer and she snuggled on his chest. This was how she always wanted to wake up to—in his tight embrace with his warm breath on her forehead. She moaned a sigh remembering why he rushed to her side. Yonghwa was still probably having that fear he had in the past of her running away from him. She couldn’t blame him, after all, she didn’t only do it once. It made her feel good that he was here and almost every time this happens amidst all the roadblocks.

A soft kick landed on her back that she shifted to the left to see Euna tossing. Reaching out, she tapped her leg to make her go back to sleep but the little girl gradually sat up after doing some stretching. Seohyun smiled when Euna’s sleepy eyes blinked repeatedly as she tried to focus in the dim room. She yawned scratching her eyes until her head tilted to the side and her face crumpled to a frown suggesting that she had just spotted her father sleeping on the other end of the bed.

The way she looked was adorably amusing so Seohyun remained still waiting for what the girl would do next. After a few seconds of just staring blankly at her parents, Euna crawled over her mother’s body and squeezed herself in between them. Seohyun moved to give her space until Yonghwa stirred and opened his eyes.

“Appa?” Euna croaked sleepily as she looked at her daddy’s face, “You’re not a dweam?”

Yonghwa chuckled wrapping his arm around his daughter’s body and dropping a kiss on her disheveled hair, “’Fraid not, sweetheart…”

“Umaaaaa…”

Euna mumbled waving a hand behind her so her mommy moved closer sandwiching her between them. Seohyun met Yonghwa’s eyes while their baby seemed to have fallen back to sleep. He reached out to hold her hand embracing their daughter in the process. Giving it a gentle squeeze, Yonghwa smiled, “I guess she’s wondering why I’m suddenly here since I was just in Japan when we talked last night.”

“That makes the two of us,” Seohyun chuckled pulling her hand away despite his gesture of disapproval. Instead, she sat up but bended close pressing her lips on Euna’s cheek then gave him a quick kiss before standing, “I’ll prepare her breakfast.”

Ignoring Yonghwa’s murmurs of complaint, Seohyun decided that it should be the start of their day. She was just finishing Euna’s porridge almost an hour later when the two emerged in the kitchen. The way her baby chattered obviously showed how giddy she was for unexpectedly having her daddy home. Seohyun couldn’t help but laugh softly when Euna danced on her seat excitedly when she put the bowl in front of her. “Aren’t we happy today?” She commented watching Yonghwa scooped a spoonful of the porridge then blow on it before giving it to their daughter.

“Is Euna going to kinder today?” Euna asked after she swallowed the second spoon Appa fed her.

Seohyun snorted, “Of course, Euna is going to kindergarten since it’s just Wednesday today.”

“But Appa is hewe!” The little girl grumbled complete with her fist dropping on the table, although gently, “I want to play with him!”

Yonghwa laughed soothing Euna’s hair, “Sweetheart, I will be here on Saturday too like I promised so we can play then…”

“But…” she pouted then sighed in resignation before finally sounding unaffected, “Are you going to ‘cording?”

“Nope, no recording today,” Yonghwa threw an evil smirk at Seohyun’s direction when the little girl focused on feeding herself, “I will play with Umma though—”

“Oppa…” Seohyun swatted his hand that was starting to crawl on her leg but he didn’t waver instead gave her a knowing wink.

Euna shrugged unaware of the playful bantering of her parents, “’Kay, you can borrow my toys but put them back ‘cause cleaning is hard.”

Yonghwa laughed and Seohyun rolled her eyes.

Not long afterwards, Euna’s babysitter came to bring her to kindergarten. That left her parents alone in the house. Seohyun actually wanted to talk to him further about the L’Or contract because it was important to her personally especially now that they have taken interest in their daughter. The apprehensions she had of putting Euna out there seemed to have shifted into something close to excitement. She wanted how the public would react to her little girl and most especially how Euna would do in front of the camera working with professionals and experiencing her mother’s life—

“Taeyeon-ssi…”

Seohyun spun around to see Yonghwa leaning by the doorframe with that smoldering look as he spoke on the phone. She took a deep breath. The talk was not going to happen any time soon after all.

“Yonghwa… what’s up?”

Resting her back on the kitchen counter and throwing the hand towel on the table, she laughed silently when she heard her unnie’s voice when he put the phone on speaker.

“Seohyun can’t make it today,” Yonghwa declared as he eyed her funny.

She frowned crossing her arms on her chest especially when he ran his tongue on his lips.

“Did something happen?”

There was this sound of alarm on Taeyeon’s voice but he just chuckled without taking his eyes off the mother of his daughter, “No… but something will definitely happen after this call.”

Taeyeon laughed catching his drift, “Just don’t get her pregnant.”

“I heard that,” Seohyun scoffed and heard her unnie laughed louder.

Yonghwa gave her another wink as he started making his way towards her, “I’ll try but I can’t promise…”

“Just make sure my princess is not around to witness the filthy act.”

“I sent her away…” he said as he placed the phone on the counter by Seohyun’s side and positioned his hands on either side of her body.

“Ahhh, premeditated…”

Yonghwa smiled, his lips grazing a little over Seohyun’s who was still giving him a straight face, “Guilty as charged, Euna’s in kindergarten. If we’re not yet done by afternoon, I’ll have her sent to you.”

Seohyun groaned while Taeyeon laughed, “As long as you promise you won’t get my Seohyun pregnant.”

“Been there, done that…” Yonghwa laughed brushing his lips against hers briefly when she glared at him then muttered rolling his eyes, “Fine, I promise…”

“Good, send Euna to me anytime…”

“Yeah with her overnight backpack.”

“Ya, Oppa,” Seohyun laid her hands on his chest giving him a little push and went on pointedly, “How long are you planning to embarrass me here?”

“I heard that too, Hyunnie… go ahead and start whatever you need to do in there. I have job to do you know.”

“Thanks, Taeyeon-ssi!” Yonghwa grinned reaching out for a moment to end the call before wrapping his arms around her waist, “Shall we start?”

Seohyun put a toast on his mouth when he leaned in for a kiss, “Eat breakfast first.”

With that, she ducked away from him leaving him groaning, “Ya…”

She deliberately ignored him so he grabbed her by the waist after putting the toast back on the plate. “Not too fast, tiger.”

Seohyun stared at him deadpanned, “Do we really have to do this? Every time we have some issues we result to this? Can we, like, talk first?”

Yonghwa groaned. The way she breathed through her nose warned him how pissed she was; maybe the grand gesture he did of flying back home o