IBMBKC Ch 10

#010

Watching the PoXX Jeonghye had put on with a reluctant air, it was not long before Jeonghye finished cleaning and spoke to Yua. 

“Yua-ah! Shall we go to the playground now? Mommy is all done cleaning.”

Yua nodded. As he slowly climbed down from the sofa, Jeonghye picked up the shopping bag and her wallet. It looked like she planned to stop by the store on the way back after dinner.

Just as Yua tried to put on the sneakers Jeonghye handed him, she stopped him.

“I told you not to bend the back and wear them, didn’t I?”

“…Yeees.”

For some reason, this felt similar to earlier at kindergarten when he had been putting on his slippers. Everyone seemed to notice everything. Well, that was probably why they were teachers. Yua, who by nature, including how he was born and raised, was far from being meticulous, always found moments like this fascinating.

“Do you want me to tie the laces for you?”

“Um… No. I’ll do it myself.”

In the end, he sat down with his bottom planted on the entryway floor and put them on again. Sneakers with laces really were too much trouble.

He should have just stayed quiet when they told him to buy Velcro ones. He regretted stubbornly insisting on getting lace-up sneakers just to protect his pride.

He tried tying them as best as he could, but no matter how many times he did it, the shoelaces kept turning vertically, as if someone kept grabbing them and forcibly twisting them sideways. Was this the horizontal instinct or vertical instinct thing?

Having such a pointless thought, Yua dusted off his bottom and stood up. He would just wear them the way they were. The vertically tied laces tickled his ankles, but they were wearable enough.

Holding Jeonghye’s hand, Yua stepped out into the apartment complex.

Since it’s not even fun anymore, should I just say we shouldn’t go to the playground?

They were on their way to eat, so why was stopping by the playground first such a given? There was a reason behind it.

“Yua-ah, Mommy’s arm hurts now….”

“I don’t want to! I’m not going!”

“Let’s come again tomorrow, okay? Tomorrow’s the weekend, so Daddy will be home too. Wouldn’t it be more fun for Daddy to push Yua on the swing than Mommy?”

“…I don’t want to! I’m going to play more! I’ll play more and then come again tomorrow!”

“But it’s already 7:30, you know? Mommy has to go make dinner for Yua and Daddy now. Look, look. Yua’s tummy is growling too.”

Wasn’t a soul that clung stubbornly to one place called an earthbound spirit? Yua’s presence at the playground was exactly like that.

So it was no wonder Jeonghye, after pushing Yua on the swing for an hour every evening after work, was exhausted. Once they went out, they played for two hours, and one full hour of that was spent pushing the swing.

Even though she and Juhyeok took turns coming out, it couldn’t have been easy to come home after working all day at the company and then play with their young son.

“…Then how about this? If you promise Mommy that from now on, on weekdays, we’ll only play at the playground for 30 minutes, I’ll let you skip kindergarten next week and take you to the amusement park.”

“Amusement park?”

“Yeah. You like the merry-go-round, right? Mommy and Daddy usually go to work and come home late, so Yua feels a bit lonely, right?” 

Jeonghye, the first to raise the white flag, gently coaxed Yua using the amusement park as bait. Yua, a kindergarten kid who wasn’t that easy to sway, fell into thought.

“Umm….”

“…We can go early in the morning and see the tiger you like, and watch the dolphin show too. Mommy will even reserve the experience where you feed the tiger.”

“Feed the tiger?! I want to go!”

Even if he tried not to be an easy mark, he was still just a child, and at the words ‘feed the tiger,’ he was completely won over.

After coming back from the amusement park, he tried to pretend as if no promise had ever been made, but it did not work at all. Whether it was Jeonghye or Juhyeok, they were both unyielding when it came to things like this.

It was not exactly unfair, but even if it felt unfair, what could he do?

The promise had already been made. They had already gone to the amusement park. He had even fed the tiger. On top of that, while riding the roller coaster, they had watched an amazing fireworks display.

That was, in the end, the level of intelligence of an ordinary seven-year-old.

Still, feeding the tiger was… fun.

It had cost a whopping 200,000 won for a 25-minute tour, so if it had not been fun, that would have been a bigger problem. Yua shook his head. He had vowed not to become a fire-attribute child, but now that he thought about it, it seemed it was already too late.

Hmm…

The more he dwelled on the memory, the more it felt like he was digging his own grave with his own hands and carefully piling the dirt back on top.

Feeling inexplicably guilty, Yua tugged on Jeonghye’s hand that he had been holding.

“Huh? What is it?”

“I do not want to go to the playground.”

“…?”

Jeonghye, who had been staring quietly at Yua, bent her knees. She placed the wallet and shopping bag she was holding on the ground.

“…? Mom, what are you doing?”

“Mm, I was wondering if you might be sick and hiding it. You really are okay, right?”

“…I am not sick. I am hungry!”

Yua shouted sharply. Jeonghye, who had been checking Yua over from head to toe, paused as if thinking, then nodded.

“It is a little early, but… you said you did not eat lunch properly, right? Then, should we eat dinner early today?”

“I like that!”

“Okay.”

“Okay…”

“Alright. …If we go around six, everyone will be heading out to eat, so there will not be many people at the mart. While Mommy shops later, you have to stay well-behaved, okay?”

Yua nodded. Looking pleased, Jeonghye lightly patted the top of Yua’s head and said, “Instead, when we shop later, I will buy you a soft-serve ice cream. You like the soft-serve cone they sell at the mart, right?”

Was it on the third floor? Yua thought of the soft-serve ice cream sold in front of the escalator. Every time he saw it, he begged her to buy one.

The vanilla-chocolate mix is the best.

He had already been disappointed because the snacks he ate at kindergarten had not been enough. When Yua’s expression visibly brightened, the corners of Jeonghye’s lips twitched.

Seeing that, Yua’s cheeks twitched as well.

Honestly. He wondered what to do about liking sweets this much. It was fine while he was young, but would it not be dangerous as he got older? There were even children with diabetes, so maybe Yua was already at risk.

From now on, I should hold back on excessive snacking.

Of course, if it seemed excessive, Jeonghye would cut it off before it ever happened. Yua, unaware of that fact, made his resolution in all seriousness.

“Mom. Food!”

“You like ice cream that much? Then you have to brush your teeth well afterward. Mommy will check before you go to sleep.”

I will just eat it today.

Something that had already been promised should be received, should it not? Refusing something that was being given was impolite.

Jeonghye took Yua’s hand again and led him along. If she let go, he would run off in every direction, so this was her way of keeping him under control.

In the past, she would have made him wear those squeaky shoes that made noise when he walked. Jeonghye let out a sigh. After turning six, he had thrown a tantrum, shouting that big brothers did not wear shoes like that, and ran away, so there was nothing she could do. When he said he would rather go out barefoot than wear them, what could Jeonghye possibly do about it?

When she forced him to wear them, he kicked them off and ran outside barefoot. Then, a little while later, he came back with a small stone embedded in the sole of his foot.

“Waaah…! Mommy, it hurts…!”

“That is why you should not go out barefoot! Look. Does it hurt a lot?”

“Mommy forced me… Waaah…! I said I did not want to!! Hng… I hate that! It hurts!”

“…Yua. Could you please include the subject when you talk? It makes it sound like Mommy did something bad…”

“Mommy is bad! Waaah….”

“Mommy said no, but Yua took his shoes off on his own, right? If you keep doing this, Santa Grandpa will not bring you any presents. Should I tell him not to come this year?”

“Waaahh!”

Recalling that bleak time, Jeonghye let out a sigh.

The back of her head throbbed terribly. To be honest, she wanted to smack her forehead, but with both hands tied up, she could only sigh.

After getting sick, he had become noticeably more well-behaved, so it probably would not happen again… but thinking that things were better now than back then, Jeonghye immediately reproached herself.

What kind of mother thinks it was fortunate that her child had become calmer because he was sick? Jeonghye was disappointed in herself just now.  

If the price of Yua’s pain was a lower difficulty level in parenting, it was utterly meaningless. In that case, it would have been better for him to get into trouble like before, no, even more than before. What was the point of physical comfort if her heart felt uncomfortable? Jeonghye did not want to become that kind of person.

Wasn’t he a child so precious that even putting him in her eye would not hurt^[1]? As long as he did not get sick, nothing else was needed. If he could just grow up healthy, that would be enough.

There was a time when Jeonghye worried that Yua seemed unusually restless compared to other kids his age and wondered if she should enroll him in something, but after Yua got sick, she completely abandoned those thoughts. Starting to study from middle school would not be too late, so while he was young, he would just play.

“Yua’s mom, they say things like ballet, baduk^[2], or calligraphy are good for making kids calmer. What do you think?”

“Pardon?”

“Or the abacus is fine too. Taekwondo, piano and violin would be good as well. Kids these days all learn at least one thing, even at this age. Shouldn’t Yua be doing something too?”

“Ah…”

“I heard your family is dual-income, too. If you are worried about sending him to an academy, how about after-school programs at the kindergarten? I looked into it, and I think they have piano and violin. We are both working parents, too, so we signed up for piano last week.”

If other moms had something to say, so what? Since they did not contribute anything to her household, should they not keep their mouths shut? Advice and meddling were separated by a hair’s breadth. In the end, it seemed best to raise a child without being swayed by others, doing things the way Jeonghye and Juhyeok thought was right.

“That family is that family, and we are us.”

“Hm?”

“It is nothing. We are already here, huh? Yua, let’s go eat now!”

Putting on a deliberately bright voice, Jeonghye led Yua into the restaurant.

She had given birth to him herself, but really, he was pretty no matter when she looked at him. Even when he got into trouble, her heart might ache, but there was never a time he was not cute. They say even a hedgehog finds its baby pretty, but objectively, it was like that^[3].  

Thinking something quite like a foolishly doting parent, Jeonghye seated Yua in the chair across from her.

And Yua thought, …Why is she acting like that all of a sudden?