My Girlfriend Is Very Good To Me [EN]: Chapter 175

Ep. 174

A Pleasant Spring Day.

How many springs have we welcomed since I first met Hee-na, and since Sa-rang was born? Whenever I think about it, I can’t help but smile.

Ten years.

I can’t believe it. So much time has already passed. Maybe it’s because every day has been so enjoyable. It feels like it’s all gone by in an instant.

Saying it like this makes me sound middle-aged, but surprisingly, Hee-na and I are still only twenty-eight.

Well, we did have Sa-rang early.

Anyway, our family is still the same, but our surroundings have changed little by little.

My older brother and his wife had a cute son, Hee-sung got married and moved out, and now Sa-rang uses Hee-sung’s old room.

Among these, the biggest event was definitely Hee-sung’s wedding. Since we were so close, I thought I would feel a mix of relief and sadness when he got married and moved out.

Hee-na and I ended up crying on Hee-sung’s wedding day. He often teased us and got scolded by Hee-na, but he was always a great help and support to us.

I’m used to it now, but when he first moved out, it felt very empty. Sa-rang was quite lonely too.

Of course, that was quite a while ago now.

“Dad! Stop using items!”

“Nope~ Not gonna~ I’m gonna use them~”

“Mo-om!!”

Now eight years old, Sa-rang has grown up a lot and is sitting on my lap, diligently working the game controller. The game we’re playing is a racing game we used to play with the family sometimes, where you can use items to mess with each other.

-Bang! Bang!

Sa-rang’s character gets hit by my item and falls behind, and she expresses her dissatisfaction by lifting and dropping her butt. Sa-rang hardly ever gets mad at me, so it’s probably just light teasing.

“Looks like Dad’s going to win this time?”

“Ahhh! Dad! Wait for me!”

“Should I wait here then?”

“Don’t you dare go!”

I check the mini-map to see Sa-rang’s position as she diligently follows behind, and I stop my character about three meters from the finish line.

Of course, even if it’s my cute daughter’s request, I have no intention of giving up the victory. I was going to tease her as she arrived and then cross the finish line.

Just before the final straight, Sa-rang suddenly gets up, turns around, and hugs my face.

Naturally, my vision is completely blocked.

“That’s cheating…!”

“Sa-rang won! Dad! I won three times, right?!”

By the time Sa-rang let go of my face, she had already overtaken me and finished first. Actually, I could have moved my hands and crossed the finish line first, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it when my daughter was trying so hard to win with such cute cheating.

Sa-rang jumps up and down in front of me, celebrating her victory.

“Grandma! I beat Dad!”

“Sa-rang is good at the game~”

“Dad kept throwing turtles at me! But Sa-rang won!”

“Did he, now?”

She runs to my mother-in-law, who is sitting behind us, and brags to her. My mother-in-law strokes Sa-rang as if she’s cute. Looking at that scene, I think it was a good decision to give up moving out and live together.

Originally, we were thinking of moving out around this year. Sa-rang has grown up a lot, and Hee-na and I have both settled down at work to some extent.

Thanks to living with our families, we’ve been able to save quite a bit of money, and if we took out a lot of loans, we could afford to find a place to live.

However, *cheongyak* [housing subscription lottery] wasn’t an option. There were so many conditions to apply as a newlywed couple, like being married for less than 7 years, income limits, and so on.

Anyway, we could afford to find a place, but the problem was that my mother-in-law and father-in-law asked us to reconsider. They said that if Hee-sung moved out and we moved out too, it would be too lonely.

Besides, their joy was taking care of Sa-rang. Sa-rang listens so well, is so kind, and is so cute, so they didn’t want to be apart from her.

So, in the end, our moving out plan was canceled. We were also relieved to have someone to take care of Sa-rang when we got home late from work.

Actually, we didn’t necessarily have to move out. We just watched a variety show around that time and made a plan because we were burning with *romang* [romantic ideals/aspirations].

“Dad! You know you have to go play with me tomorrow, right? You promised to go if I won!”

“Okay, okay. Where should we go?”

Sa-rang, who had stirred up the house, sat back on my lap and shouted. Before we started the game, we promised that if Sa-rang won 3 out of 5 games, we would go play together on the weekend.

I was going to go play with her if she wanted to, even without that condition, but it’s more fun with a condition like this.

“Tomorrow, I want to eat ice cream with you, go to the playground~ and you have to stay with me all the time!”

Looking at Sa-rang, who is kicking her legs and unable to contain her excitement, I can only feel happy.

It’s common for daughters to like their fathers when they’re young, but as they get older, they gradually distance themselves, but Sa-rang hasn’t shown even a hint of that yet.

Of course, I wonder if she likes me a little too much, but maybe that’s just because she’s Hee-na’s daughter?

I looked at Sa-rang with a satisfied smile for a moment, then checked the message from Hee-na and got up from my seat. I was going to wait until Hee-na came home, but it seemed like she would be late, so she asked me to put Sa-rang to bed first.

“Sa-rang. Mom’s going to be late, so should we go to bed?”

“Yeah! Can I sleep with Dad?”

“Of course. Let’s go brush our teeth. Mother-in-law, I’m going in with Sa-rang first.”

“Sleep well~ I’ll wait for Hee-na and your father-in-law before going to bed.”

“Okay.”

“Good night, Grandma!”

“Good night, Sa-rang~”

We brushed our teeth after dinner, but we had been snacking on *gwaja* [Korean snacks] while playing the game, so I made her brush her teeth again. Of course, I did too.

“How many minutes for brushing?”

“*Syam ppun!* [Three minutes!]”

“That’s right. Our daughter is so smart.”

“Hehehe!”

Even if I didn’t say it, Sa-rang would probably have come in to brush her teeth on her own because she follows what Hee-na and I say well.

Listening to the stories of Joo-eun, who lives nearby, and other parents, there are many cases where the child is cute but also causes trouble, but our Sa-rang has never done that.

Our daughter, who always smiles brightly and listens well, requires less and less attention as she grows up.

No, wait. Thinking about it, she does require a lot of attention, in the sense that she likes to play with me so much, I have to play with her.

The two of us brushed our teeth nicely, changed into our pajamas, and lay down on the bed. Since Sa-rang is using Hee-sung’s old room, this place has become our room again.

But 4 or 5 days a week, she comes in to sleep with us as soon as it’s time to sleep. We’re still using the big bed that my brothers and sister-in-law bought us a long time ago, so even though Sa-rang has grown up so much, the bed isn’t too small when the three of us sleep together.

Hee-na sometimes grumbles that Sa-rang is being too spoiled, though.

“Dad, Dad.”

“Yeah?”

Lying side by side in bed with the blanket covering us, Sa-rang called me in a whisper.

“I’m cold~”

“Should I turn on the electric blanket?”

“No~ Hug me.”

“Do you think that will make you not cold?”

“Yeah. Because Dad is warm.”

“Come here.”

“Hehe…”

When I turned to the side and raised my arm, she slipped into my arms with a strange laugh. I hugged Sa-rang and gently stroked her hair with one hand.

Sa-rang doing this is nothing new. She says she’s cold, but she asks me to hug her whether she’s cold or hot. Not only her appearance but also her actions are just like Hee-na.

“Aren’t you cold now?”

“Yeah… warm. Good night, Dad…”

“Good night, sweetie. Sweet dreams.”

“Okay…”

With that answer, Sa-rang became silent.

Sa-rang’s lifestyle is very regular, so she must have been very tired since it was quite late. Thanks to that, she soon fell asleep, breathing evenly.

I moved the hand that had been stroking her hair to her back and gently patted her, then closed my eyes.

And how much time had passed? I think I fell asleep for a while.

I heard a rustling sound from behind. So I opened my eyes and turned my head, and I saw Hee-na in her pajamas, tying her hair up.

I opened my mouth, keeping my voice down so Sa-rang wouldn’t wake up.

“You’re here?”

“Ah, sorry. Did I wake you up?”

“No. You’ve worked hard.”

“Yeah~ It was a really tough day today~ So give me a kiss.”

“That’s fine, but I can’t move.”

“Seriously, Han Sa-rang. Leaving her room and every day…”

-Chu!

Hee-na, who had been pouting for a moment, came to me and gently pressed her lips to mine. Then she climbed onto the bed and lay down, facing each other with Sa-rang in the middle.

Lying like that, looking into my eyes, Hee-na whispered.

“Did anything happen to you today?”

“Well…”

“Why? Did something happen at work?”

“Nothing happened…”

“Then? If nothing happened, isn’t that a good thing?”

“It was a problem that nothing happened.”

Hee-na tilted her head at my words. You might be wondering what I’m talking about, but what should I say about this?

“When you’re coding, bugs naturally occur.”

“And?”

“But it was working too well.”

“…Huh? Isn’t that a good thing then?”

“No… it’s strange. There’s no way there wouldn’t be a problem…”

“What is it~”

Even after several years, I can’t trust myself, and even current developers can’t let go of studying. That’s programming.

Well, if a problem arises soon, I can fix it then.

I stopped thinking about work and reached out to stroke Hee-na’s cheek. Still pretty even though she’s getting older… well, she’s still 28 though. Anyway, Hee-na seems to be getting prettier as the days go by.

It might be a case of seeing through rose-colored glasses, but she still attracts attention when we go outside. Our Sa-rang was the same.

“I’m taking Sa-rang out tomorrow, where should we go?”

“Wherever you want to go~ Sa-rang will like that more too?”

“I like wherever you or Sa-rang want to go…”

“We like being with you wherever we are.”

Hee-na smiled as she said that. I gave a bitter smile at that. I feel the same way, so there’s no point in saying more, we’ll just be running parallel [unable to truly connect despite being close].

We stopped the conversation there and closed our eyes. Hee-na must be tired from getting off work late, and if we talked for too long, Sa-rang might wake up.

And tomorrow… hmm. I’ll just have to hold Sa-rang’s hand and follow her around.

The next day. Well, sure enough, a problem arose, so I had to go to work for a while in the morning though.