Ep. 172
The next day.
Even right before sleeping, I was clung to by both my wife and daughter, and waking up was much the same.
Heena on my right, Sarang on my left.
They were each holding one of my arms as they slept. Of course, it was only natural that things were the same now as they were when we were sleeping.
Still, it was quite rare for Heena to still be asleep. I couldn’t check the time because I couldn’t move my arm, but usually, she wakes up before me ninety-nine times out of a hundred, not just nine times out of ten.
Usually, Heena would wake me up with a kiss, but today, maybe because we were on vacation, or maybe because Heena herself was very excited, she showed no sign of opening her eyes.
I didn’t want to wake her up if possible because she seemed to be in a deep sleep, but if it got too late, we wouldn’t be able to eat the hotel breakfast, so I slowly tried to move the arm that Heena was holding.
She immediately started to react.
“Ugh… what time is it…?”
“I don’t know. Can you let go of my arm for a second? I’ll check.”
“I’ll check…”
“You can do that too.”
She didn’t seem to want to let go of my arm. You could tell by the fact that she insisted on checking herself. When I tried to free my hand on Sarang’s side, Sarang was pressing down on my arm with her body.
The bed was so big that I didn’t have to put Sarang in the middle, but fortunately, she didn’t roll to the other side. She didn’t have much of a sleeping habit anyway.
“8 o’clock… we slept a lot…”
“It’s already 8 o’clock? Didn’t we go to bed before 12?”
“Yeah… we should get up and wash up… we have to eat.”
“Then we have to wake Sarang up too.”
Heena must not have wanted to miss breakfast either, because she finally got up and stretched. And while Heena went into the bathroom to wash up first, I gently nudged my daughter, who was drooling and sleeping soundly.
“Our daughter, it’s time to wake up, okay?”
—
Although we woke up a little later than expected, we moved quickly and were able to make it to breakfast around 9 o’clock. Breakfast was also in the form of a buffet, just like yesterday, and there were many easy-to-eat foods since it was morning.
Even though it was breakfast, there were quite a few choices. Thanks to that, I was able to have a hearty meal from the morning. I took plenty of croissants, eggs, and bacon, which I don’t usually eat often, and ate them with soup.
Of course, then again.
“Salad.”
“Yes…”
“Yees…”
I was scolded by Heena from the morning.
After finishing the meal, we headed straight to the hotel sauna. It was early to use the sauna, but I thought now was the best time because it would be too crowded in the evening.
As expected, the bath and sauna were quite deserted, and the three of us were able to relax comfortably.
“It’s too hot for Sarang here!”
“Is it too hot? Shall we go somewhere else?”
“Yes… Sarang keeps saying it’s hot…”
“If the floor is hot, do you want to sit on Daddy’s lap?”
“Then it’s okay!”
As soon as I finished speaking, Sarang jumped onto my lap as if throwing herself.
Just because we came to the sauna didn’t mean the pattern changed from when we were in the hotel room. Yesterday, Sarang was clinging to me in the room, and now she was just clinging to me in the sauna.
Next to me, Heena was holding my hand with a look of resignation on her face.
“It’s warm~”,
“Do you like it?”
“Yeah~ It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a sauna~”,
“That’s true. Is it the first time since I went with my brothers a long time ago?”
“Maybe?”
It was quite a while ago because it was before Sarang was born. It was fun because we all gathered together and went. After that, I couldn’t even think about going because of studying, Heena’s pregnancy, and other things.
Thanks to Heena, who was sitting right next to me, and Sarang, who was on my lap, I was able to feel twice the effect of the sauna.
It was so incredibly hot that sweat started to flow down my head, and suddenly I remembered something I wanted to do when I came to the sauna.
I immediately searched on my phone and started folding the towels that I had prepared in advance.
It wasn’t difficult, so I quickly finished it and put it on Sarang’s head.
“What is it?”
The sauna staple, a towel sheep’s head, was completed on Sarang’s head as she tilted her head.
“Sheep’s head complete.”
“Cute! Honey, do it for me too!”
“This is very easy.”
I immediately folded two more and put one on Heena’s and my head. Then, when I checked my appearance in selfie mode, I didn’t really want to see myself wearing it.
It was only fortunate that Heena and Sarang were cute enough to die for.
“What is this?! Daddy made a hat!”
“You’re so cute too~ Let’s take a picture, let’s take a picture!”
I took several more pictures with Heena, who was making a fuss and turning on the camera. I think we’ve already taken hundreds of pictures since yesterday.
Anyway, we enjoyed a short time in the sauna and came out. Sarang was still too young to stay there for a long time.
After that, we washed up one more time, came out of the hotel, and walked around a bit. I came for a staycation, but it felt stifling to stay in the hotel all day, and I wanted to get some snacks for lunch since we ate breakfast late.
So the three of us walked around looking at the winter sea, went into a cafe with a good atmosphere, ate croffles [a croissant-waffle hybrid], and had a good time.
But in the end, we couldn’t last more than two hours and returned to the hotel. I couldn’t stand the chilly sea breeze. It was so cold that I missed the hotel very much.
“Sarang wants to play in the water again!”
As soon as we came back, I splashed around in the pool with Sarang, who wanted to go to the swimming pool.
“Today, we really only have to look at each other. Got it?”
“We did that yesterday too… I got it.”
While listening to Heena’s threat that she wouldn’t allow yesterday’s mistake to continue today.
The second day of the staycation passed in an instant.
—
After playing in the pool, I let Sarang take a nap and rested a bit, then ate an early dinner and returned to the room.
I felt strangely tired even though I didn’t do much, so I was sprawled out on the sofa like yesterday.
Suddenly, it occurred to me.
“Come to think of it, we haven’t used the bathtub yet?”
“Huh? We didn’t use it yesterday…”
Using the edge of the bathtub as a handle was using it, but what I was talking about was obviously not that kind of use.
I was a little reluctant because my body was tired, but we had to use it now because we had to go back home tomorrow.
“Shall we do it now? We don’t really have anything else to do anyway. It’s not good to walk around more because Sarang is tired. We brought our bath bombs too.”
“Then I’ll fill the water. Would lukewarm be better than warm?”
“If it’s too warm, Sarang will fall asleep in there, right?”
“Where are we going?”
“Daddy, Mommy, and Sarang are going to take a bath together. Sarang likes it, right?”
“Yes. I want to take a bath with Mommy and Daddy.”
Sarang’s voice became quite soft. She must have been tired because she had a lot of activities today, going to the sauna, taking a walk, and swimming, even though she took a nap.
I followed Heena, who had headed to the bathroom first, left Sarang in front of the door, and prepared for a bath together.
The water temperature didn’t matter as long as it wasn’t too hot, so I just had to fill the water. Then, I made a lot of bubbles inside with the bath bomb we had prepared in advance.
“Many bubbles! Daddy! Sarang wants bubbles too!”
“Wait a little bit~ Daddy and Mommy will finish preparing.”
“Yes!”
Sarang’s voice started to get louder again, as if she had gained energy from seeing the bubbles piled up in the bathtub.
In fact, there was nothing more to prepare. It wasn’t anything special, just the three of us taking a bubble bath in a big bathtub.
We checked that the bathtub was about 2/3 full and took off our clothes outside the bathroom. Heena had already tied up her hair.
And immediately, naked, we took Sarang, who was jumping around, and went into the bathtub. I had already taken a shower after swimming, so I didn’t bother washing my body again.
-Splash!
I was the first to sit in the bathtub, Heena was hugging me from behind, and Sarang was in front of Heena. It was the same position as in the swimming pool yesterday.
The bathtub was big enough to sit further apart, but there was no way to stop Heena from sitting with her butt against me as if it was natural.
Lukewarm water, and bubbles piled up so much that you couldn’t see the inside at all. Sarang was excited just by the bubbles and was touching them here and there with both hands.
“This is pretty! So pretty!”
“The bubbles are pretty~ Sarang, do you like it?”
“Yes! I wish I could do it every day!”
“With Daddy and Mommy?”
“With Daddy and Mommy!”
Well, I can give her a bubble bath anytime, but it was hard for the three of us to fit at home. It was an awkward size even for the two of us to get in.
“I wish the bathtub at home was a little bigger.”
“Let’s get a place with a big bathroom when we move out later.”
“We should. Sarang likes it… and you like it too, right?”
“Of course~”,
I hugged Heena’s waist with both arms. I was getting aroused, pressed against Heena’s rear. It was unavoidable.
Fortunately, the bubbles were overflowing, so you couldn’t see anything. It was still too early to expose Sarang to that, educationally speaking.
I often put a towel on when things get a little dangerous even at home.
“I’m sad to go back tomorrow…”
“Shall we stay one more day?”
“Hehe, then all the family members might come. They’re already making a fuss about what time we’ll arrive tomorrow.”
“It hasn’t been a few days since they’ve seen Sarang…”
I was a little excited, but I didn’t want to do that because this was a bath with my family. Heena must have felt that I was getting bigger, but she didn’t move.
She was just hugging Sarang, who was playing with bubbles.
“Our Sarang, you’ve already grown up this much… time seems to be passing really fast…”
“I know.”
“You’ll be entering elementary school soon, right?”
“It’ll be soon because there are only 3 years left.”
Once she becomes an elementary school student, she’ll be a middle school student soon. I impulsively planned this trip because I regretted how quickly time was passing.
In fact, I didn’t think that our angelic daughter would turn a cold shoulder to me when she had puberty, but it would still be less than now. That was so sad.
I never found it annoying that Sarang was looking for me every day. Even if I thought it was a little frequent, I was always happy when our daughter smiled brightly and called me.
I wish she would call me Daddy forever.
I stretched my arm forward and touched Sarang’s cheek. The soft, chewy rice cake-like feeling was really like Heena.
“Mommy~ Daddy is stroking Sarang’s cheek~”,
“That’s good~ I wish Daddy would touch me too.”
At that, I stroked Heena’s cheek with my other hand. Heena turned her head slightly as she received my touch.
-Kiss!
I immediately kissed Heena. That’s why she turned her head.
And Heena, who received my kiss, leaned her head on my chest and opened her mouth.
“Thank you, honey.”
“For what?”
“For thinking about this trip.”
“What. You planned everything.”
“Still. I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t even thought about traveling.”
“It was a bit busy because the end of the year was near.”
I was able to use my annual leave because they were encouraging me to use it all, but if that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t have been able to dream of traveling until around February next year. Heena is so busy.
“Next time… where shall we go next time?”
“How about a sledding hill? Sarang has never been there. Isn’t 4 years old about the right age to ride a sled?”
“That’s good~ It’ll be okay if we ride together!”
I couldn’t see Heena’s face, but I could feel her smiling brightly.
I don’t know exactly what Heena’s work or company situation will be like in the future, but if it’s really hard to use her annual leave, we can go on the weekend, even if it’s a little crowded.
“We talked about it before. Let’s go to all the places we want to go. Sledding hill, amusement park. Well, overseas travel too.”
“Yeah…”
“We have plenty of time.”
“That’s right… that’s right.”
Yes. I was strangely impatient this time, so I came on a sudden staycation, but we had a lot of time.
We have plenty of time to make memories with our family like this.
And well, coming impulsively wasn’t bad as a result. I was very satisfied with the staycation, and I’m happy now.
-Splash! Splash!
“Daddy… no bubbles…”
“Oh, they disappeared already. Shall I make more?”
“Yes! Make a lot of bubbles!”
“Mommy will make a lot of bubbles~”,
The end of this 2-night 3-day family trip was already in sight.
Because we can go again next time.
Anywhere.
Anytime.