A Child Who Resembles Me [EN]: Chapter 118

118. Jiheon’s Wish

Feeling reluctant to go home, Dobin wore a sulky expression and asked Jiheon,

“Then, can I go today and come again tomorrow?”

“Sure. Come again tomorrow.”

“Can I bring my pajamas tomorrow and sleep over?”

Heh heh. Look at this kid?

Seeing this easygoing manner, he’s definitely Park Seung-gyu’s son, the one who used to whine to play with his son’s girlfriend to save his son’s face.

Jiheon stroked Dobin’s head, letting out a dry laugh. He somehow put strength into his fingertips.

“Haha. This little snot.”

“I’m 120cm tall, you know? Do you have a 120cm snot, mister?”

“Park Seung-gyu. You need to take your son.”

Jiheon turned his head and looked towards the entrance, saying that. Seung-gyu, who hadn’t heard Jiheon and Dobin’s conversation, shouted indifferently.

“Park Dobin, if you don’t come now, I’m leaving you behind.”

*Leaving me behind as you wish!* [Said in a sarcastic tone]

In the end, Jiheon, feeling a surge of affection, picked up Dobin.

“Whoa whoa! Yena, bye!”

Dobin waved his arms around as if he were on the Ojakgyo bridge in the tale of Gyeonu and Jiknyeo [a Korean folktale about two lovers separated by the Milky Way, who can only meet once a year on a bridge of magpies], greeting Yena.

“Yeah! Bye!”

Yena also chased after Dobin, waving goodbye.

*Whew. I feel a little relieved now.*

Only after sending Seung-gyu’s family away did Jiheon truly regain his peace. Yena, who had come to the entrance, fiddled with the yellow umbrella stuck in the umbrella stand and spoke.

“Oh? Dad has this umbrella too? Yena has this umbrella too.”

Yena brought an identical umbrella from her shoe rack and held it out. Two very similar umbrellas met.

It was an umbrella that Jeong-o had bought for him a long time ago on a rainy day when he was on his way to a dinner with an advertiser.

Even when she handed him that umbrella, Jiheon didn’t really know his own heart. He didn’t know why he was drawn to her, why he kept getting swayed, but his eyes were always on her. He seemed to have loved without knowing it was love.

“Mom bought it for Dad.”

“Ah, Mom bought it. That makes sense.”

Jiheon laughed at the child’s tone.

* * * * * *

Dark night. Eunyeop visited Eunbi’s house.

She didn’t go to the blind date, turned off her phone, and as the only sibling, she was of no help to the family and was so stupid that she couldn’t even do what she was told, which made him furious.

“Chae Eunbi.”

Eunyeop forced open the front door and called his sister irritably. She seemed to be home. The sound of retching was coming from the bathroom.

Wondering if she was sick, Eunyeop frowned and glanced around, his gaze stopping on the side table.

There was a used pregnancy test. Eunyeop was dumbfounded by the result of the pregnancy test, with two red lines running parallel.

After a while, the sound of the toilet flushing was heard, and Eunbi came out of the bathroom.

“What is it? Why did you come?”

Eunbi discovered Eunyeop and made a ferocious expression as if she was getting goosebumps. Eunyeop held out the pregnancy test to Eunbi, who looked like that.

Huh, Eunbi’s face quickly turned pale, and she rushed over and snatched what Eunyeop was holding.

“What is it! What are you doing, breaking into someone else’s house!”

“Who’s the baby’s father?”

Eunyeop asked in a chilling voice.

“What kind of bum is he?”

“…It’s not mine.”

“Tell me something that makes sense. In your house where you live alone, if it’s not yours, whose is it?”

Eunbi’s arms felt cold as if she had a chill. She shrank her body and carefully avoided Eunyeop.

“Who’s the baby’s father?”

“……”

“What kind of bum is he?”

Eunyeop continued to press.

“Don’t you know? You don’t even know that?”

“……”

“How long has it been?”

“……”

“How many weeks along are you!”

She didn’t particularly want to protect what was inside her belly, but somehow Eunbi closed her mouth and covered her belly.

Eunyeop, who frowned as if he was annoyed to continue the conversation, turned his head and said.

“Get an abortion, tomorrow. I’ll look into it.”

Eunyeop had a history of getting a few women he knew abortions, and there was a hospital he always went to.

However, his sister, who he thought would say she understood and thank him, looked at Eunyeop resentfully with tears in her eyes. Eunyeop was dumbfounded.

“The sooner you do this, the better.”

“I can’t.”

“Don’t talk nonsense and just do it. Everyone does it.”

“I can’t, I can’t.”

Eunbi sobbed and grabbed Eunyeop’s arm as if pleading.

“I… I can’t do it.”

“Are you crazy? Do you want to be a single mom?”

Eunbi shook her head violently and dropped tears.

“Do you want to ruin your life because of the baby? Or does the baby’s father want to live together? Is the baby’s father a billionaire? Is he even Jung Jiheon?”

Eunyeop, who awakened his immature sister to reality, picked up his phone.

“Don’t say anything and just do it. I’ll contact the hospital.”

“…I’ve had one before!”

Eunyeop lowered the phone he had raised at Eunbi’s scream-like confession. Eunyeop frowned at the unexpected story.

“S-surgery. I’ve had one before.”

“When.”

“…7 years ago.”

“In America?”

Inevitably, Eunbi revealed the truth.

7 years ago in America, Eunbi became pregnant with her boyfriend’s child. The man was embarrassed and took care of the abortion procedure.

Eunbi had the surgery done by a man who didn’t even have a medical license. She couldn’t choose a proper hospital because she was afraid it would reach her family in Korea.

After the surgery, the man naturally left Eunbi. That became the reason for Eunbi to end her studies abroad and return to Korea.

A very terrible time. A time she would have suffered for a long time if she hadn’t met Jung Jiheon again.

She didn’t want to go back to that time.

“I strained myself back then, and they said my uterus was adhered. If I have surgery one more time, I can’t live. No, no.”

“Are you even human, or are you trash?”

However, she couldn’t receive comfort from her brother.

“Use your head a little and live. It’s been 7 years, so you must have recovered. That’s why you got pregnant so easily. What’s the problem?”

She couldn’t convince her brother with a past that was 7 years ago. Eunbi desperately stopped Eunyeop.

“I don’t want to. I still can’t have surgery. I’ll do it with medicine.”

She couldn’t go back on that operating table again, nor could she endure such pain again. It was so terrible.

* * * * * *

Before she knew it, it was time to go to bed.

Guksun, who was watching TV with Yena in the living room, nodded off in her seat.

“Mom, go in and sleep.”

“Oh dear. I fell asleep.”

Guksun, who opened her eyes at Jeong-o’s call, answered slowly and got up. She had woken up at dawn to supervise the moving of the moving truck, organized the new house, and greeted guests, so it was a very tiring day.

“Okay. I have to sleep now. You go to bed soon too.”

Jiheon, who ran into Guksun heading to her room, also greeted her.

“Good night, Mother. You worked so hard today.”

“Okay. Yena’s father, you go to bed soon too. Yena’s father, you worked hard too.”

“……”

“Thank you so much.”

After Guksun waved her hand and went into her room, Jiheon said to Yena.

“Yena, you need to wash up and go to bed soon too.”

“Dad, wash me.”

Jeong-o, who heard the two people’s conversation, nagged.

“Lee Yena, try to do it yourself now.”

But Yena, without paying any attention, stretched out her arms towards her dad. Jiheon, who chuckled, picked up Yena and headed to the bathroom.

Washing the child’s hands and feet, washing her face, and brushing her teeth cleanly. Now Jiheon was quite skilled at washing the child. He felt like he was slowly becoming a dad.

“Change your clothes and lie down on the bed. Dad will read you a book.”

“Okay!”

Yena, who came out of the bathroom, quickly went to her room according to her dad’s words, changed into her pajamas, and brought out her pillow and picture book.

The Yena princess headed to the master bedroom as if it was nothing.

“Dad. Come quickly!”

Jiheon was a little embarrassed because he didn’t expect this. But he couldn’t show all of that to the child.

“Are you going to sleep here?”

“Yeah!”

Well, it wouldn’t be easy for a child who had been sleeping with her mom to sleep alone. Raising a child was like that. He had to let go of his desire to monopolize his wife at any time. He felt like he had to adapt to these nights for the time being.

Jeong-o, who entered the master bedroom after seeing Yena take over the bed, said.

“Yena. But this bed doesn’t have a bed guard. You’re 100 percent going to fall off.”

“No. I sleep very prettily?”

“That’s because Mom puts you back in place very prettily every morning.”

In the end, the three people spread out a large blanket next to the bed in the master bedroom and lay down side by side. It was useless to buy an expensive bed. It was fortunate that Yena’s bed could at least be used as a trampoline?

Yena, who was sandwiched between her mom and dad, raised the blanket over her shoulders and kept giggling. Even when the main character of the fairy tale that Jiheon was reading was in trouble, Yena didn’t concentrate and just kept giggling.

Jiheon stopped reading the fairy tale and asked.

“Yena, aren’t you going to sleep?”

“Dad. Today, Yena is the happiest in the world.”

Yena answered with sparkling eyes.

Yena’s heart was already full of happiness. It was so full of happiness that there was no room for other feelings to enter.

“Today is the happiest day in the world for Yena. Because I’ve fulfilled all my wishes.”

He didn’t ask what kind of wish it was. He could guess the wish, and he felt like tears would burst out again if he asked. He wanted to protect the child’s clear smile right now.

Ahahaha euhehehe kikikikik. Following Yena’s funny laughter, Jiheon also burst into laughter. Jiheon was also happy because the child said she was happy.

Jeong-o had never seen Jiheon laugh so loudly.

Yena laughed for a long time and fell asleep after being nagged by Jeong-o a few times.

Looking at the sleeping child. Jiheon could now do what he had dreamed of every day.

Jeong-o recalled her daily life in the villa as she watched Jiheon staring at Yena. Her heart was heavy as she stared at Jiheon.

*Would my mom have looked at me with this feeling?*

Jeong-o, who had been watching silently for a while, asked.

“Do you have a wish?”

Jiheon answered very late.

“My wish will never come true.”

As he had done to Jeong-o, Jiheon continued, arranging Yena’s disheveled hair.

“I want to go back to when Yena was younger, even if it’s just for one day. I want to go back and hug the younger Yena.”

“……”

“If God appeared and did that for me, I would live ten or a hundred times harder than I do now.”

Jiheon, who answered up to that point, let out a deflated laugh. He felt childish and embarrassed to make a promise to God that he would live hard if he granted his wish with conditions.

Even though Jeong-o loved Jiheon like that.

Jiheon’s fingertips, which had been stroking the child, rose over the child’s shoulder and touched Jeong-o.

“But even regretting like this is a very precious time.”

“……”

“I love you.”

His hand, which had been stroking her hair, went past her earlobe and chin, and traced her neckline. His fingertips moved along the place where he could feel her pulse.

Jeong-o’s eyes sparkled as she looked at him.

“Oppa.”

“……”

“I wish Yena had a sibling.”

Instead of answering that she loved him too, Jeong-o offered a heartfelt alternative.

…She regretted saying this a few seconds later.