Perfect Possession - Episode 45

“Huh?”

Jaehoon turned around and smiled brightly. Back at the center where Mi-ryung and Jia had returned, all hell had broken loose. Jae-moon was crying, and Doctor Yang was dancing for joy.

In turn, Tae-yul had shouted “Mommy, Daddy-daddy” about a hundred times, to the point where his voice was hoarse.

Eventually, looking tired and blinking his eyes, the two hurriedly put Tae-yul in the car and were on their way home. But as soon as the car started, Tae-yul’s eyes sparkled, and he began to babble and chatter.

It was more like making sounds than speaking, but Seo-yeon and Jaehoon were amazed by the occasional word they could make out.

Even now, Tae-yul pointed at himself and tilted his head. When he did that, he always raised the end of his sentence, asking, “Huh?” It probably meant, “What?”

“Han, Tae-yul.”

Seo-yeon pronounced each syllable slowly. But it seemed difficult for him to pronounce, as he only moved his lips without easily following the words.

“It’s okay, Tae-yul. You can say it later when you’re a little bigger. Besides that, who am I?”

Jaehoon asked, pointing to himself. He had asked this question countless times in the car.

“Daddy-daddy.”

“Yes. Daddy-daddy. But why do you say ‘daddy’ twice?”

Jaehoon asked Seo-yeon with a smiling face, his smile never fading.

“Maybe he can’t quite stop at ‘dad.’ But it’s better than just ‘dad,’ right? Tae-yul, water, want some water?”

“Yeah, wa-ter.”

Tae-yul rounded his lips and spoke. Seo-yeon, never tiring of his cute voice, teared up as she took out a water cup and put it to his lips.

The sound of him firmly sucking the water while holding the cup handles with both hands was as refreshing as the sound of clear stream water flowing.

“It feels like a dream.”

Seo-yeon whispered in a small voice.

“It’s not a dream. I was rushing up the stairs when I heard a baby crying somewhere. I thought my heart was going to explode at that moment. I was so nervous.”

“My heart felt like it was going to burst too.”

Seo-yeon turned around and held Jaehoon’s hand tightly as he watched Tae-yul drink water. He shifted his gaze to Seo-yeon, who still had tears in her eyes, and wiped away the wetness around her eyes.

“Let’s go on a trip.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s the day our son started talking, so let’s make it a family anniversary. We can’t go far all of a sudden, but I have a villa in Jeju Island that I inherited from my grandfather. Let’s go there. Tomorrow, right away.”

“Tomorrow? What about your company?”

“I’ll finish up the urgent matters in the morning and apply for vacation. We can stay there for about a week. Tae-yul, airplane… what should we call it?”

Jaehoon asked Seo-yeon for a word to represent an airplane.

“Whoosh-whoosh?”

“Isn’t that a swing?”

“Then, Vroom-vroom.”

“Isn’t that a car?”

“Um… how about Swoosh? My sister used to say it like that.”

Unable to watch any longer, Hyun-shik carefully interjected in their conversation.

“Ah, that’s right. Thank you, Chief Jung. You don’t even know that?”

“It’s not like those things are in the dictionary. Hyun-shik, you should have texted me something like that.”

“I’m driving.”

Seo-yeon burst out laughing at Hyun-shik’s short excuse. Tae-yul, who had taken the straw out of his mouth at the sound of her laughter, giggled along.

“Wow, our son laughed.”

“He laughs well, our Tae-yul. Tae-yul, Daddy says let’s go play on a Swoosh.”

Seo-yeon said, imitating an airplane with her hands. At first, Tae-yul didn’t understand what she meant, but then he pointed to Seo-yeon’s bag and put his hand to his ear.

“What is it?”

Jaehoon asked, puzzled.

“A cell phone. He asks me to show him anything he’s curious about on the internet.”

“What, I’m right here?”

“You don’t have any images.”

Seo-yeon laughed at Jaehoon, who looked dumbfounded, then took out her cell phone and showed him a picture of an airplane.

“This is a Swoosh. An airplane.”

“Um… Swoo?”

Tae-yul pressed his finger firmly on the airplane picture and said briefly.

“Swoosh. Let’s go play on an airplane.”

“Swoo, plane.”

Seo-yeon and Jaehoon were excited and praised him for shortening the word airplane, even though it was short.

“Isn’t our son’s voice announcer-level? Right, Hyun-shik?”

“Yes, Vice President.”

It was the first time Seo-yeon had seen Jaehoon so excited and happy. She clapped her hands along with him and gently stroked Tae-yul’s head, who was also happy. He had been petted and stroked so much that his hair was stuck to his forehead.

“Thank you, our son.”

She said to Tae-yul with all her heart.

When the three of them returned home, all the staff, led by Butler Park and Mrs. Kim, were outside. They all rejoiced and congratulated Tae-yul on opening his mouth to speak.

Jaehoon, in a good mood, told Butler Park to give them a special bonus.

***

Seo-yeon said to Mrs. Kim, watching Jaehoon bring the undershirt and diapers.

“Thank you for preparing our surprise party today. We’ll take care of the rest, so please rest.”

Mrs. Kim, noticing that they wanted to be alone, got up with a satisfied face.

“Tae-yul, you have to say, ‘See you tomorrow, Mrs. Kim.'”

Seo-yeon waved her hand at Mrs. Kim, looking at Tae-yul.

“Young Master, you did so well today. Then, sleep well.”

As Mrs. Kim waved her hand along, Tae-yul, wearing only his gown, approached Mrs. Kim. Tae-yul tapped her leg and said in a short but clear voice.

“Kiim.”

“Oh my.”

Following Mrs. Kim’s surprised voice, Jaehoon’s voice was heard.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think he just called me.”

“Really?”

Jaehoon looked at Seo-yeon.

“Seeing him say ‘Kiim,’ I think he did. Wow, Tae-yul really speaks well.”

Feeling good about being praised, Tae-yul waved his hand at Mrs. Kim and said “Kiim” once more. After she left, Jaehoon opened his mouth in amazement.

“I think he remembered all the sounds we usually call out. That’s why he’s following along so quickly, don’t you think?”

“I think so. Do you want to try?”

Seo-yeon put the diaper that Jaehoon handed her back in his hand.

“Me?”

He raised his eyebrows, said simply, “Well, I’ll try,” and rolled up his sleeves. As Dad shook the diaper, Tae-yul lay down in front of him.

“This kid, he can’t just lie down anywhere, can he?”

“Watch your mouth. You just said he seems to be listening to everything. That’s the butt part. Look, it’s a little wider.”

Seo-yeon explained firmly as Jaehoon tried to put the diaper on Tae-yul upside down.

“It’s a little scary, Seo-yeon.”

Jaehoon said carefully as he put the pull-up diaper on Tae-yul.

“Seeing you today, I think I need to pull myself together. Just now, when you were bathing him and Tae-yul said he wanted to go out, you said, ‘Should we not wash his hair?'”

“He said he wanted to go out and play.”

“Exactly. That’s what I mean by me needing to pull myself together. If we leave everything to you, Tae-yul’s habits will get bad. All done. Tae-yul, do you like Daddy putting on your diaper today?”

Seo-yeon smiled brightly as she stood Tae-yul up. Tae-yul, staring intently at Seo-yeon, tilted his head to the side and asked along.

“Like?”

“Hahaha, isn’t this kid too cute?”

As Seo-yeon even burst out laughing at Jaehoon’s laughter, Tae-yul jumped up and down and laughed out loud, saying he liked it.

“Like, like. Mommy? Daddy-daddy?”

Seemingly happy that he was speaking, Tae-yul babbled all the words he knew and hugged the two of them.

“I can’t leave him alone to sleep like this.”

Jaehoon’s voice lowered. Seo-yeon looked at him and smiled, tearing up. Tears that came when she was happy were harder to hold back than when she was sad.

“Shall we bring him to sleep with us? We have to sleep together when we go on vacation anyway.”

“That’s also difficult.”

“Why? Huh?”

Seo-yeon asked Jaehoon playfully.

“Well, it’s because it’s hard to do ‘this’ as we please.”

Jaehoon kissed Tae-yul, then quickly grabbed Seo-yeon’s face and sucked her lips deeply.

“You’ve worked hard, Seo-yeon.”

Seo-yeon hugged Jaehoon and said sincerely.

“I’m so glad it’s you. I’m happy.”

Jaehoon hugged Seo-yeon tightly, not caring that Tae-yul was stuck in the middle. But Tae-yul, feeling stuffy, stretched out his arms and pushed the two of them away. Then he smiled brightly and said.

“Like? Hap-py?”

Only a few short, lisped words, and even then, he only said the first word if it was hard to follow along, but Seo-yeon and Jaehoon couldn’t come to their senses at their son’s voice.

“What’s ‘Hap-py’?”

“Happy, maybe?”

“We should make a Tae-yul language log.”

“What is that?”

As Seo-yeon smiled with her eyes, Tae-yul also smiled, half-closing his eyes, following her. Seeing Tae-yul, who was good at laughing and soon good at talking, reminded her of the pain she felt when she first met her son.

Doctor Yang told her to forget, but Seo-yeon didn’t want to forget that memory. She wanted to keep that memory in her heart throughout her life and give love to Tae-yul.

“Are we really going on a trip tomorrow?”

Seo-yeon asked Jaehoon, taking a happy breath.

“Have I ever gone back on my word? Hyun-shik must have already prepared the private jet. Son, let’s go to Jeju Island tomorrow!”

“Go-go.”

As Jaehoon raised his arm high, Tae-yul also raised his arm and shouted loudly.

“Go-go! Go-o?”

Then, shining his black eyes, he asked, “Go-o?” and the two hugged each other and burst into laughter.

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