Chapter 124
That’s not it.
She almost said that, then stopped. Because if it wasn’t that, she didn’t know what it was.
“He seemed like a decent man. When I went out earlier to go to the convenience store, the first thing he asked was whether you were okay.”
“……”
“And what I said about him being handsome was true.”
Knock, knock.
When a knocking sound came a moment later, Grandma, assuming it was Kanghyeon, urged Hyeji.
“Just tell him to come in.”
“No. How can I let him see me like this.”
She hadn’t even washed up, and her chest was loose and exposed from doing kangaroo care.
Perhaps it looked bad even to Grandma, because she didn’t say anything more and went out into the hallway on her own. In the meantime, a nurse came and took the baby to the neonatal room.
He’s going to see the baby.
Watching the nurse push the rolling bassinet out, Hyeji felt resigned. At the same time, she was a little curious about Kanghyeon’s reaction. But she couldn’t move, so she sat leaning against the bed and strained her ears toward the sounds beyond the door. Unexpectedly, it was quiet outside.
After a while, Grandma returned alone, carrying a large bag. She took out a banana milk, stuck a straw in it, and watched her granddaughter suck it down in one go with pitiful eyes, then let out a deep sigh.
“Why?”
“When the baby came out, he looked at her with eyes that were drawn to blood.”
“Oh come on, there’s no such thing.”
That phrase, being drawn to blood, she wouldn’t believe it even if everyone else did. Just like she didn’t believe in paternal instinct.
“So, did the Director see the baby’s face?”
“No, the nurse took her, so he didn’t really get to see her. But he just stood there watching her go all the way, he didn’t chase after them. Oh dear… I should’ve stopped them for a second and shown him. I was so flustered. I’m sorry…”
The level of the milk in Hyeji’s mouth dropped steadily, then stopped.
“Hyeji-ya, you’re really something else.”
It was the first time in her life Princess Hyeji had been told she was something else by Grandma. It was shocking, but she understood. To someone who didn’t know the complicated relationship between Esper and Guide, and the contract between them, Hyeji’s attitude could seem cruel.
But why did it look that way even to her own eyes, when she knew all those complicated circumstances.
I really am a bad person.
Hyeji stared blankly at the bag Grandma had set on the table. There were ten banana milk bottles. She could also see bread and triangle kimbap and the like. Without even touching them, she could tell the triangle kimbap had all been heated at the convenience store.
Han Kanghyeon is a decent man, and.
“Isn’t visiting the neonatal room allowed right now?”
“He left. Said he’d come back later.”
That was true. When she was moved from the delivery room to the ward, Kanghyeon hadn’t been there.
Should I call him.
She didn’t put it into action right away. After being up all night, the moment she lay down on the new bed, she fell asleep like she’d fainted.
* * *
As soon as she woke up, she checked her phone, but there was no contact from Kanghyeon.
Is he mad because I chased him off so harshly earlier….
He wasn’t the type not to reach out.
“Support the baby’s head like this.”
The nurse moved Hyeji’s hands this way and that as she taught her the proper breastfeeding posture, but although the words entered her ears, they didn’t stick in her head.
I’ll call him after feeding time.
“You have to latch the baby’s mouth deeply, all the way to the areola, deeply…”
But when feeding time ended, it would be the company’s lunch break.
The popular Director had lunch appointments more often than not.
Then it would be polite to at least send a message first.
Only now worrying about politeness. No, wait. Wasn’t it polite to lie to that man that the baby wasn’t his? The man who had first been impolite was the one who arbitrarily changed the definition of politeness. Politeness. Politeness. Politeness. A politeness tangle was coming on. Once the word politeness lost its meaning, Hyeji moved on to the next worry.
But what should I say?
Whether it was a message or a call, she had no idea what she was supposed to say. She needed to know why Han Kanghyeon was doing this, and what he wanted, to prepare the right words.
Her head throbbed, her chest pricked. While she was in chaos, busy both mentally and physically, the clock hands crept toward twelve.
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door outside. Grandma, who had been chiming in about breastfeeding posture and sharing old stories, got up and opened the door.
“Oh my, come in.”
Thinking it was a nurse or doctor, Hyeji froze when Kanghyeon walked in. The man who was seeing Hyeji’s chest for the first time also flinched.
“Ah, sorry.”
He immediately turned his head and went back out. The back of his neck had turned red in an instant.
When the door closed, Grandma burst into laughter as if she couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“Why are you so startled when you’re a pair who’s seen everything already.”
Well, he hadn’t seen her chest.
“He doesn’t look it, but he’s shy. He’s got a cute side.”
She’d said he was handsome earlier, and now she was saying he was cute. Grandma, have you already fallen for him that much.
“And it’s cute how he brought so much food in both hands.”
Ah, is that it.
Maybe Hyeji’s weakness for edible bribes was something she inherited from her grandma.
