Chapter 172 – Side Story (3)

The child spoke his first word before his first birthday. Every time he said ‘Mama, mama’, Yuri looked at her son Jihoo with a warmth that made him jealous.

“Tae-jun, don’t you think he’s a genius?”

Tae-jun suppressed the urge to tell her that he spoke his first word earlier than Jihoo and speaking at 10 months is only slightly earlier than the average.

He was sometimes a little annoyed with Yuri’s ‘little genius’. In the early pregnancy, he made the already skinny woman, lose even more weight with morning sickness making her look pale. As the estimated due date drew closer, her whole body swelled, and as a result, she was unable to sleep at night. The most difficult thing for him(TJ) was watching her go through labor pains that lasted over 10 hours. Just thinking about his woman, who was gasping in pain, broke his heart. If it was something he could have done instead of her, he would have done it a hundred or a thousand times.

The baby who gave Yuri a hard time before he was born caused so many troubles even after he was born. First of all, his day and night were reversed. He’s sensitive, shy, and didn’t easily fall asleep. Director Choi, as well as other babysitters with a lot of experience, visited in turn, but none of them got used to him.

“Who the hell does he take after?!”

Every night, Tae-jun sighed as he watched Yuri stay up all night soothing the crying child. It was his mother, Mrs. Soo-kyung Lee, who gave the answer to his question. As soon as Soo-kyung saw Jihoo, she told him straight off.

“Your son resembles you. He’s a little Tae-jun.”

That’s absolutely unacceptable!

“No way!”

“I’m the one who raised you. Compared to you, Jihoo is an undemanding baby. When you were a baby, I had to rock you for an hour or two to make you sleep. Once you started whining and kicking your legs, I couldn’t even hold you in my arms. You can’t imagine how much your father struggled every time that happened.”

In front of his mother, any further excuses were meaningless. Seeing how Jihoo only looked for his mother, it was clear that his son resembled him. Surprisingly, Yuri knew exactly what her son wanted. She could tell whether he was hungry, uncomfortable, sick, or asking for a diaper change. She had even moved her bed to Jihoo’s side, so Tae-jun had been sleeping alone since his son was born.

After the meeting, he saw a message from Yuri. He immediately called her.

“What happened? Aren’t you going to the hospital today?”

Today, Yuri was getting a health check-up that would take an entire day including the cerebral function test. Tae-jun couldn’t postpone the test date any longer because Yuri skipped the test the previous year due to pregnancy. Besides, she had a hard time after giving birth as she had to take care of Jihoo. He was very concerned about the result of the test.

“What about Director Choi?”

Director Choi was one of the few people that Jihoo was familiar with. When Yuri took a break, she and the babysitter would take care of him together. So her absence was an emergency.

“Okay, I’m coming.”

“What are you talking about? What’s more important to me than this? I’ll be there soon.”

Ending the call, Tae-jun immediately called the chief secretary. He asked with a puzzled face when he saw Tae-jun putting on his jacket.

“Where are you going? Legal department meeting will start soon.”

“Postpone all the schedule left for today. I need to babysit.”

“Pardon? Babysit?”

Leaving the chief secretary behind, Tae-jun hurriedly headed home. As he entered the front door, he heard Jihoo’s cry and Yuri and the babysitter’s voice soothing him in turn. Director Choi, who opened the door, talked to Tae-jun with a sad face.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve looked after myself….”

“How are you feeling?”

“I have a slight sore throat. I’ll be okay once I take medicine and sleep.”

“Go home early today. I will take care of Jihoo with the sitter.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s not my first time doing this.”

It was Tae-jun who washed, dressed, and fed Jihoo with Director Choi while Yuri was recovering. He’d been busy since around Jihoo’s first birthday, so he couldn’t take care of him as much as he did before.

‘But how can he still not say papa?’

When he went to the room, Jihoo was in Yuri’s arms. Even when the sitter tried to hold him, he cried and tried not to get off from his mother. Yuri’s clothes were messy with Jihoo’s tears and snot. Tae-jun clicked his tongue.