Chapter 38
by GideonEven when she hardly ate, nearly malnourished, and didn’t sleep, ‘that day’ still came every month. It was so diligent and punctual, arriving on the exact date each time.
Now, eating and sleeping well with no worries in the world, ‘that day’—which should have been even more punctual—had skipped last month.
It was just a hunch.
Yundo, who had been dragged out the moment he got off work, followed Hyewan wherever she went. My wife never does anything without a reason. He was so overwhelmed with love for her, knowing she had even sought him out in her dreams.
Hyewan walked into a convenience store. Yundo, who had been blinking in confusion as he followed her, froze in shock when she stopped in front of the pregnancy tests.
“Hyewan?”
“I can’t do surprises. I’m sorry if you were hoping for one. And it’s not confirmed yet. I’m only doing this because I can’t rest until I confirm my suspicions, so don’t get your hopes up.”
Hyewan’s words came out in a frantic torrent.
“Seriously…! Ko Hyewan, are you insane? What are you doing this late at night?”
He took her hand, which was shaking as she rambled incoherently, and tried to steady her.
“Just take a deep breath first.”
At his words, Hyewan looked at him, her eyes brimming with tears.
“This is really no big deal. If you’re pregnant, that’s great. If not, we can just make one tonight. So just breathe and calm down.”
“No, that’s so unromantic. I don’t want to make one tonight.”
“Alright, I get it. We’ll make one tomorrow.”
Finally, Hyewan smiled through her tears and picked up the pregnancy test.
“Think of it like a lottery ticket. If it’s positive, it’s a jackpot. If not, oh well. But if it is positive, you’d be happy too, right?”
“Yes. I’d be very happy.”
“Then that’s enough.”
Yundo took her hand with a solemn expression and headed toward the checkout counter.
Chaos. Absolute chaos.
Back at home, Hyewan retreated to the bathroom, Yundo’s cheers still echoing in her ears. She followed the instructions to the letter, then stared at the pregnancy test.
Please, please…
She’d told herself she only wanted to clear up the doubt, but now her heart was pounding with a desperate hope. The few seconds it took for the result to appear felt like an eternity.
Finally, a second line materialized—a faint, pale pink.
Seeing it, she felt the same sensation as in her dream: a sun crashing into her with blinding force.
When she opened the bathroom door, he was already there, waiting.
“Well?”
She threw her arms around him, hugging him tight.
“Why? What is it? Hyewan, my heart can’t take this. Just tell me!”
“We need to go to the hospital to be sure.”
“Huh? Does that mean… Oh! Hyewan!”
Yundo let out a shout of joy and pulled her into a fierce embrace.
“Hyewan, congratulations!”
“Are you sure? We still need to go to the hospital, don’t we?”
“The pregnancy test says it’s 99 percent accurate! Thank you for making me a dad, Ko Hyewan!”
“Are you really that happy?”
“Of course! Our baby is going to look just like you!”
Hyewan’s eyes welled with tears as she shook her head. “No, they say the first daughter always looks like her father.”
“A daughter? No way. I can’t handle it if she takes after me. Hyewan, let’s go to the hospital as soon as the sun comes up. We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet, right? I really hope it’s not a girl.”
Hearing Yundo’s dramatic fussing finally brought a smile to Hyewan’s face. She leaned her face completely against his chest. The news of the baby, which had struck them like a sudden burst of sunlight, brought her genuine joy.
Unable to wait until the hospital opened, the soon-to-be father, Yundo, paced the house restlessly. Thinking it might be better to be near the hospital, he arrived in the underground parking lot before it even opened.
“This is a total open run. You stay here. I’ll call you when it’s time to come up.”
After carefully adjusting the air conditioning for her, he stepped out alone and paced restlessly in front of the hospital’s locked doors. Thanks to Yundo’s fierce dedication, Hyewan secured the very first appointment of the morning.
The test was positive. She was already six weeks along.
“Some patients come in too early to hear the heartbeat, but you two are just in time. The father will be listening too, right?”
“Yes! Absolutely!”
The doctor stifled a laugh, overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of Yundo’s parental love, evident in his wide-eyed gaze, his open-mouthed expression, and his frantic gestures.
Hyewan’s stomach was still too flat to show any sign of pregnancy, and the baby on the ultrasound screen was nothing more than a tiny dot. Yet, the heartbeat was thunderous, announcing its existence in the most primal way possible.
As she listened to the steady thump-thump, tears streamed down her face.
How embarrassing.
As she hurriedly wiped away her tears, she heard a sniffle from Yundo. His gaze was fixed on the monitor, his hand gripping hers tightly.
“Yundo, are you crying?”
“Hyewan, how can our baby’s heart beat so beautifully?”
“It’s beating beautifully because it’s healthy.”
“It’s beautiful because it’s healthy.”
Yundo’s eyes were rimmed with red.
“Doctor, could you send the recording of our baby’s heartbeat to my phone as well?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
After receiving their prenatal handbook and scheduling their next appointment, the couple left the hospital. In the hour they had spent there, Hyewan and Yundo’s world had been completely transformed.
Down in the parking garage, he opened the passenger door for her. He placed his hand on the roof to prevent her head from hitting the car. It was a gesture he always did, but today it came with a gentle scolding.
“Hyewan, be careful. It would be terrible if you got hurt.”
One worry bred another. He climbed into the driver’s seat and leaned over to fasten Hyewan’s seatbelt.
“Is it too tight?” he asked.
“It’s fine.”
“Oh, right! That concussion you got from falling last time—is that still bothering you?”
“That happened before I was pregnant. It doesn’t matter.”
“Honey, nothing in this world is irrelevant—”
Hyewan clamped a hand over his mouth. “Watch it.”
He nodded obediently.
As soon as she let go, he pulled the car out of the underground parking lot. But he wasn’t heading toward her office.
“Yundo, just go to my company. I’m already late. I’ll take a taxi from there.”
But he wasn’t listening. He had so much he wanted to do that he didn’t know where to start.
The car pulled up in front of a department store. Only then did Hyewan realize what he was planning and tried to stop him.
“Are you buying baby clothes already? We don’t have to do this right now.”
“What do you mean ‘already’? Honey, we need to get ready.”
“But still…”
Hyewan was hesitant to share the news with anyone until she reached the second trimester.
“Imagine how happy the baby will be to know how much Grandma and Grandpa have been waiting for them!”
She couldn’t argue with that. Maybe buying baby clothes the day we confirmed the pregnancy would be meaningful, she thought.
The moment they stepped into the baby store, Yundo started grabbing everything in sight. Hyewan, already reeling from the eye-watering price tags, was too busy trying to restrain him to notice anything strange.
“Why is everything light green and blue?” she asked. “I like the bright red one. And that pink striped outfit is cute, too.”
“No way. How could we put a boy in pink?”
“Who says that these days? What if it’s a girl?”
“It’s not a girl.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I already told you, I can’t be a girl dad. The moment my daughter steps outside, I’ll be driven crazy with anxiety. I’ll end up becoming her stalker.”
“But what if it is a girl?”
“We’ll convince our daughter to join a convent.”
“Are you kidding me?”
Hyewan pinched his side. “You did all kinds of things to my mom’s daughter!”
“Not my daughter.”
He was firm.
“What should we call the baby for now?”
“I dreamed of a rising sun, so how about Taeyang?”
“That’s good, but since it’s a nickname, I want something cuter. Like Haetnim or Haetsal.”
“Haetnim sounds like a girl’s name… Let’s go with Haetsal. Our Haetsal. But it can’t be a girl, okay?”
“The baby’s going to be so stressed.”
Regardless of her words, Yundo leaned down, pressing his face against her belly.
“Our little Haetsal,” he murmured. “Don’t give your mom a hard time. We’ll meet soon.”
Hyewan glanced around and quickly pulled him to his feet.
“People are watching,” she scolded, though she couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across her face. “You’re impossible, really.”
“Pregnant?”
Chairwoman Kang Ok-seon repeated the word, her tone laced with a hint of joy that Hyewan didn’t miss.
“Yes, Grandmother,” Hyewan replied. “They said I’m six weeks along.”
“You… the medicine I gave you—!” The Chairwoman’s voice rose, only to cut off abruptly.
“Pregnant? What wonderful news!”
Her expression shifted instantly, a beaming smile spreading across her face as she seized Hyewan’s hand.
“You’ve done well.”
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