Gary reached home around 5 in the evening. Jihyo was preparing dinner and the kids were playing in the living room, instead of their playroom, so Jihyo could keep an eye on them.

At Daeyang’s bark, they knew Gary returned.

“Appa!” Ji-ohn squealed, staggering to the front door. She was familiar enough with her house to walk around without falling. Plus, there were bumps on the floor to guide her.

“Aigoo, uri ttal,” Gary cooed, carrying her up and kissed her cheeks. Daeyang his legs happily and wagged his tail from side to side.

“Appa,” Jiyoung followed behind her, greeting him too. He carried him up with the other arm.

He put down the two kids in the living room before going into the kitchen to greet Jihyo.

“Yeobo,” he said, reaching out to pick a piece of egg she fried.

“Watseo? How’s your day?” she asked, turning around to kiss him.

“Pleasant,” he smiled. “Have the children been good?” he asked, loud enough for the kids to hear him.

She smiled and let the children answer for her.

“Ne,” they chorused.

He went out of the kitchen, making sure their baby gate was closed, before joining the kids in the living room.

“How was your day?” he asked them, sitting down on the sofa.

“We drew this for halmoni,” Jiyoung said, giving him a paper. It was strewn messily with all kinds of colours, and in the middle it wrote, “Halmoni, saeng-il chukka habnida”

“Whoa, jalhasseo,” he said, patting his cheeks. He asked Jihyo, “Mongji, it’s your mother’s birthday tomorrow?”

“Eo, I thought I told you?” she replied while cooking.

Ji-ohn climbed up the sofa, and sat beside her father. “We learnt to sing a song for her, too!”

“Whoa, you did a lot of things,” he said. In reply to Jihyo, he asked, “You only told me to keep tomorrow evening free. Have you gotten her a present?”

“Ani, I don’t know what to get her; she says she doesn’t need anything.”

“Hmm…” he mused, as if pondering about something.

Turning to Jiyoung, he asked, “Do you know the names of this colours?”

He nodded, but turned away before his father made him name the colours. Gary gave a small chuckle and let him be. He watched the two kids play together as he lazed on the sofa, using his phone. Daeyang went up the sofa and laid down beside him, wanting to be patted. Gary rubbed his hands behind Daeyang’s ears and scratched his back, causing him to wag his tail in delight.

“Dinner is ready soon,” Jihyo announced.

“Ne,” the children chorused as they started to keep they toys. Gary smiled and went over to help them.

When they were done, Gary brought them to the toilet to wash their hands.

“Go and take your utensils,” Gary told them, opening up the kitchen gates for them. Jihyo passed them their plate, fork and spoon, and gave Gary his and hers. Gary then carried them up their high chairs, while Jihyo brought out the dishes. It was just a simple meal, egg, fish and rice.

“Jal meogget seubnida,” Gary and Jihyo said, and the children repeated after them.

“What time do we have to be at your mum’s tomorrow?” Gary asked, in between spoonfuls.

“7. Why? Do you have something on?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I kept my entire day free,” he winked. “Don’t you need to help her with the cooking?”

“She says I don’t have to,” she shrugged.

He nodded. “Hmm… then shall we go to the strawberry farm?”

“Eung?”

“HaHa went to this organic strawberry farm recently, he said Dream liked it there and Jiyoung and Ji-ohn would too.”

“Ah…” Jihyo sounded quite reluctant. She still needed to think about what present to give her mother.

Gary smiled, knowing what she’s thinking about. “Then we can make a cake there for your mom. What could be better than a birthday cake made by her own grand-children? Plus, she has a sweet tooth, like you,” he said, pinching her nose affectionately

She turned away shyly. She didn’t know why she felt so touched by his action; perhaps because he cares for her mom as much as she does, or perhaps because he tries his best to help her out.

“Anyway, he says he’ll text me the address later,” he continued, like it was nothing much. Turning to the kids, he said, “Jiyoung-ah, Ji-ohn ah, we’ll go to the strawberry farm to get some strawberry for halmoni’s birthday cake, ok?”

“Ne!” they said.

The next day, Jihyo woke up early to prepare for their outing. There was always a lot of things to bring whenever they went out together with the kids, since they’re bound to get dirty. And hungry easily. But she didn’t mind, as long as they enjoyed themselves. The rustling of bags woke Gary up. He rubbed his eyes drowsily as he squinted in the dark, only to find his wife already wide awake and packing up.

“Yeobo?” he said as he slowly sat up.

“Oh, did I wake you? Mianhae,” she said, walking over to their bed and bending down to kiss him.

“Why are you up so early?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist, and resting his head on her stomach.

“Getting ready,” she said, rubbing his cheeks like she was playing with the children. “Go back to sleep, I’ll wake you again when it’s time to get up.”

He sighed apologetically. He can’t remember a day when she woke up late. To think she was once the sleepy-head Jihyo, who wakes up only at noon.

Reading his thoughts, she smiled. “Dangshin kwenchana, it’s my job to look after you.”

“I married you so I could love you every day,” he said simply, pulling her down. “Not for you to tire yourself out.”

“I’m not tired,” she said, getting up again. “I like doing this.”

He got up too. “I’ll help you.”

She smiled again, shaking her head. She could never argue with him.

He washed up and helped her pack the children’s belongings, while she went to prepare breakfast and snacks. After he was done, he woke the kids up and helped them wash up.

Soon, the family of four were seated together, having their breakfast. This time, they fed their kids because they wanted to leave as soon as possible. The kids didn’t mind of course, it was easier for them that way, too.

“Appa, is Yangyang coming with us?”Ji-ohn asked.

He pondered for a while, but it wasn’t convenient to bring Daeyang into the farm, nor the bakery. “Ani, he’s not.”

“So the strange samchons are coming again?” she asked.

At first, they didn’t get what she was trying to say. But after a while, Jihyo seemed to understand. “No, we aren’t filming today. But it’s just not easy (convenient) to bring Daeyang with us,” she explained.

Gary looked at her, still puzzled.

“I think she associates filming with the ‘Daeyang-is-not-coming-with-us scenarios,” Jihyo laughed. “Every time when we film, he can’t come with us, so…”

“Ahh…” Gary nodded.

They left house at 8.30am and reached the strawberry farm slightly over 9. They were greeted by the morning breeze and the light scent of strawberry.

Recognising the smell immediately, Ji-ohn exclaimed, “Ttalgi!”

“Eung, there’s a lot a lot of ttalgi!” Jihyo said, amazed at the sight herself. Gary carried Jiyoung up for a better view. In the vast land in front of them, there were ripe, red strawberries, and tiny white flowers that decorated the otherwise plain looking bushes.

“Whoa, yeppeo da,” Jiyoung said, gesturing at the farm ahead.

They made their way to the farm and collected their baskets.

Jihyo explained to the children, “Bwabwa, the green ones are the unripe strawberries, so they don’t taste as good.”

She plucked one off and gave it to Ji-ohn first, who made a funny face when she tasted it. Seeing his sister’s reaction to it, Jiyoung refused to try it, turning his head away.

“Green is the colour of the trees, right?” Ji-ohn asked.

“Keulae,” Jihyo smiled, patting her head, glad that she still remembered. Even though Ji-ohn couldn’t see colours, Gary and Jihyo would still teach her colours by associating them with the items she was familiar with.

For example, if something they would associate red with things like apples, strawberries and even emotions like anger and courage, so she could still learn what colours were about. It was hard and required many repetitions, but at least she was learning.

Gary added, “The unripe ones are also harder (firmer).”

As if on cue, Jihyo passed the half eaten strawberry to Jiyoung, and Gary gave him a ripe one, so that he could compare. They did the same with Ji-ohn. They liked to teach their children from real-life experience, rather than from books, because they would remember it better.

They walked around the rows of plants collecting and eating strawberries along the way. Despite eating half their harvest, it didn’t take long for them to fill up their baskets with big, red, strawberries. By the time they finished, they had four huge baskets of strawberries, and two messy children, with strawberry juice all over their faces and clothes.

Jihyo laughed at them because despite looking messy, they still looked cute. She cleaned them up with wet wipes while Gary paid for their harvests.

After paying, they went to make strawberry jam with a basket of their harvest. They had a special room for that.

First, they had to squash the strawberries.

“Ah, ah, apeo,” Jiyoung cried, holding up the strawberry and pretending that it’s speaking.

“Hajima, keu-man keu-man,” Ji-ohn played along, picking up another strawberry.

“Appa, eomma, dowa ju,” Jiyoung continued with the act.

“Geok jeongma, I’ll save you!” Ji-ohn said, then imitating the theme song from robocar poli.

Gary laughed at them. “Aedeul ah, is this what you have been doing at home?”

“They’re super into that car show recently,” Jihyo explained.

“Robocar poli!” Jiyoung corrected her immediately.

“Ah… Keulae,” she laughed.

They finally got the kids to settle down and help out, but they lost interest quickly. In the end, only Jihyo and Gary did the work, while the children ate the strawberries.

“Hajima,” Jihyo tried to stop them. “You’ll get sick of the strawberries.”

“Ani, I love them a lot a lot,” Ji-ohn replied confidently.

“Jjinja? How much?” Gary asked.

Ji-ohn thought for a while. “Like how you love eomma,” she said.

Gary burst out laughing but Jihyo blushed, and pretended to busy herself with the strawberries.

Soon, they were done mashing and they poured the mash into the pan. The helper added some black sugar for them and instructed them to stir.

Gary held onto Jiyoung’s waist as his son stirred, careful not to let him touch the rim of the pan. Ji-ohn was not interested so Jihyo kept her occupied.

“It’s hard,” Jiyoung said, struggling to turn the ladle in the thick mixture.

“Do you want to stop?”

He shook his head and continued for a while more. But soon, he got tired too and he passed the ladle to Gary.

“Whoa, it’s almost done, jalhada,” he encouraged him. The boy smiled shyly as he sat beside him.

He watched quietly as Gary stirred. Noticing that he seems quite bored, Gary asked, “Do you want to find eomma?”

He stayed silent for a while, before answering, “I’ll accompany you.”

Gary felt a warm feeling enveloping his heart. His son became much closer to him this few months, because of the filming and his freer schedule. It was just slightly more than a month ago when he refused to be separated from Jihyo, but now he was more comfortable with him already. It suddenly struck him how quickly kids grew close to or apart from a person, making him silently promise to spend more time with his children.

When the jam was completed, they had a quick lunch, before continuing with the baking session. They only helped to beat the batter and roll out the dough, and mix the strawberries. The other parts of the baking was left to the professional baker. While waiting for the cake, they cleaned up the kids, who fell asleep soon after.

Gary and Jihyo talked for a little while in hushed tones, before sleeping themselves as well. When the cake was ready, it was close to 5 already. They rushed home to take a quick bathe, before heading for the birthday celebration.

Next up: Granny's!!! Don't know if i can finish it by tonight. If it's not today, then it'll probably be next weekend alr):

(I always think that guys who make it a point to free up their day bc their wifes/ gf asked them too is so sweet just because)