Childhood Friend Who Sees the Future Utters Nonsense

171 – Side Story – Preparing to Become a Parent

After spending the night intoxicated with each other, we woke up in the same bed.

“Ugh… .”

He left Yuna, who was still too tired to get out of her daze, and got up from her seat and stretched.

“Honey… .”

Then, as if she had realized in her sleep that I had left her arms, Yuna started tossing and turning, hugging her pillow with a whining sound. She looked so adorable.

I covered myself with a blanket in case I was cold, put on a yukata that wasn’t even neatly tidied up, and headed toward the large window I had seen yesterday.

“oh.”

There was a bamboo forest there that had turned into a white world thanks to the snow that had piled up again during the night. This was quite charming.

Slurp… .

I’m not really a tea fan, but seeing this sight made me want a cup of green tea, so I boiled some water and started steeping the tea.

It’s a scene I saw in a Japanese cartoon when I was young, but I never thought I’d end up imitating it.

“Hurp.”

I don’t know much about tea, but since it’s a high-class ryokan, the tea they have was very good. Today was the first time I learned that green tea can be sweet.

While warming myself up with such a warm cup of tea, I took a moment to think about today’s schedule.

Thud, thud.

“Honey… Are you awake already?”

Suddenly, the sound of slippers being pulled off was heard, and Yuna came over from the bedroom, rubbing her eyes in a half-asleep state. The skin that was glimpsed through the gap in her disheveled yukata was incredibly alluring.

“Are you awake? I guess I made a lot of noise while making tea, sorry.”

“Yeah, it’s okay… I have to eat anyway.”

A little surprised by Yuna’s words, I turned on my phone screen and checked the time.

Well, there’s not much time left for breakfast. I asked you to tell me by 10:30 at the latest.

Ssuk.

“What should I do? Should I ask them to bring it to my room?”

I asked Yuna, who was lying half-slimed and leaning her head on my shoulder, with concern.

Fortunately, as expected from a high-class ryokan, you can choose from a variety of options, from heyashoku (部屋食), where you can eat breakfast in your room, to koshitsu (個室), where you can eat in a separate, private space, to shokujidokoro (食事処), where everyone eats together.

Yesterday, Yuna suggested that we at least have koshitsuna shokujidokoro for breakfast today while looking around the inside of the ryokan, but in this state, it seems burdensome to even take a single step outside.

“Yeah, I guess I should. Sorry, I brought it up…”

“I’m sorry. After you eat and feel better, you can go out and look around.”

When I pinched Yuna’s nose and stroked her head, saying that she had nothing to be sorry about, she grumbled and asked if I was giving her a bottle and medicine, but soon she hugged me and started acting cute. Anyway, she really is a cute wife.

“babe.”

“huh?”

“Should we go for a walk after breakfast?”

“I’m fine, is that okay?”

I asked her because I was still unsteady and walking around because I had been so violent yesterday. Yuna responded as if it was natural, burying her face in my hair like cheese.

“If it’s really hard, he’ll carry you. Right?”

“Oh my, I’m already thinking about using you.”

“It’s your fault, take responsibility.”

When I was about to quit yesterday and give up, the person who tempted me like that said something like this. It was a moment when I felt that all conscience in the world was dead.

But how can I win over this cute wife? When I see her squirming in my arms, it all feels like my fault, and I just have to bow my head.

From noble mtl dot com

“Okay, I’ll take responsibility.”

After I said those words, I thought that they somehow overlapped with yesterday’s situation, and that the lines sounded strange. Of course, I intend to take responsibility for that, but I didn’t say them with that specific meaning in mind.

“… … .”

Yuna must have felt it too, because she looked up at me, let out a low sigh, opened her eyes wide, and then quickly turned red and looked away.

It’s really funny that a married couple is surprised and embarrassed by every line like this, but so what?

This is us.

***

As Yuna said, after finishing the meal, I washed up, got dressed, and went out.

I almost did it again in the shower room, but I realized that Yuna wasn’t feeling well today, so I quickly stopped and avoided crossing the line. Suddenly, all of today’s travel plans almost went down the drain.

Crisp. Crisp.

“Wow, it really snowed a lot. My feet are almost submerged.”

“Just in case, walk carefully. If you keep doing that, you’ll fall down again like when you went skiing last time.”

“Heh, I told you not to mention my embarrassing past!”

No, I finally gave you a warning and you’re getting angry. Then why don’t you just not fall over?

Anyway, my wife, who pretends to be a slacker but listens very well, quickly came over to me and grabbed my arm. But I wonder if she knows that if I keep doing this, we’ll both fall.

“Honey, I think we can go over there. Should we go?”

“Okay, why don’t you go and see for yourself?”

As I followed Yuna’s hand pointing somewhere while making a fuss, I saw a neatly arranged walking path inside the ryokan stretching out far beyond.

How big is this place? I saw a pond earlier. It must be hard to maintain.

I crossed the stone-paved path and passed the quiet, snowy garden that seemed like the backdrop to a movie.

At the end of it all, there appeared a square wooden chair that could seat two people, with a traditional Japanese umbrella spread out like a parasol over it.

Oh, I’ve seen that quite a bit in old Japanese comics and movies. For some reason, it’s nice to see it like this.

“Isn’t the atmosphere here nice? It looks like a place where the male and female leads meet while avoiding eye contact in a romantic movie.”

“Pfft, the delusion is concrete. But I think I know what it feels like.”

I wholeheartedly agreed with Yuna’s words, and without anyone saying anything, I quietly approached her and sat down. If there’s one thing that sets us apart from the main characters in the movie, it’s that we can face each other without feeling embarrassed even when our eyes meet.

“babe.”

“huh.”

After staring at each other for a while, Yuna quietly called out to me and grabbed my hand. When our cold hands touched each other, it felt like they were getting hotter.

“Can I be a good mother?”

There was a subtle sense of anxiety in Yuna’s sudden question.

Even when she became an idol, Han Yu-na was confident that she would be loved by everyone, and until the day before her wedding, she was a confident woman who beat her chest and said she would be the best wife.

I felt a mixture of emotions as I first expressed my anxiety towards the unknown being called my child.

Even the world’s Han Yu-na has these worries. Really, I wonder what a child is. Although I’ve had the same worries myself, I’m not in a position to say anything.

“Why? Are you anxious?”

“Yeah, honestly, I’m a little scared. I’m confident that I can be a good wife, but if you ask me if I can be a good mother, I’m not sure.”

Yuna had the same thoughts as me.

I too had some confidence before I married Yuna. I had a vague confidence that I might not be a great person, but I could be a good husband.

But that doesn’t answer the question of whether he’s confident he can be a good father. There’s a clear difference between a husband and a father.

But there was someone who quickly shook off that thought. That person was none other than Yuna.

“It’s okay, I’m here.”

Just as I have Yuna, Yuna has me.

We don’t have to be good fathers or mothers. We just have to come together and be good parents.

Even if it is burdensome to do it alone, you can do it if you share it. Sometimes, you just have to fill in each other’s shortcomings, complement each other’s shortcomings, and raise the child together.

As I said in the vows I made when I first became a married couple.

“Now it’s not you or me, it’s ‘we.’ If we work together, we can definitely do it. So don’t feel too burdened.”

Whether it was because of anxiety or the cold, he smiled while holding his wife’s slightly trembling hand. There was no real evidence to support it, but he wanted to give her some confidence with this smile.

“That’s a wonderful thing to say, in a way that’s not typical of you.”

“Isn’t it too much to say that it’s not like me? Of course, I’m not very good at speaking, but… .”

What I got back was an ambiguous answer that I couldn’t tell if it was a compliment or not.

I grumbled to him, but in fact, I was secretly satisfied. And that was because a smile returned to Yuna’s face.

“Haha, just kidding. Your words always give me strength, don’t they? This time too.”

side.

Yuna pressed her lips against his cold cheek and put strength into her clasped hands. Now, their hands were so warm that they were almost hot.

“Okay, then let’s just pick a name in advance and do as your husband said.”

“Should we decide on a name already? That’s fast.”

Even though it wasn’t even confirmed that she was having a baby, Yuna kept nagging them to decide on a name, as if there was no rush.

No, maybe it’s more about joy than urgency. Just imagining the child that will come from between us makes me so happy that I can’t just sit still and wait.

Yuna, who had gotten up from her seat in such a strange manner, looked around the snowy scenery around her in silence, and then opened her mouth with sparkling eyes.

“Honey! How is Seol-ah? Seol-ah Park.”

“Seol-ah, a child born in a place where it snows?”

“huh!”

Not bad. It has some meaning.

“And if it’s a boy, it’s a snow coat!”

“It’s a roundabout.”

“Yeah, if possible I want to have both!”

That’s something that Heaven will have to decide, but who knows. Maybe she’ll give birth to one child first and then the other, and Seol-ah and Seol-ha will be born.

By the way, if both of them were really born, it would be a bit confusing to call them. If you call them ‘Seol-ah,’ Seol-ha would pop out, or the opposite would happen. Of course, that would be fun in its own way.

“It would be better if they were twins! If they were stuck together since they were little, wouldn’t they not fight and be close?”

“Umm, I’m not sure about that.”

I don’t think they won’t fight just because they’re twins. Anyway, now the options have expanded to include twins, it’s amazing.

“Seol-ah, Seol-ha! Cheer up!”

“It hasn’t even happened yet.”

“You never know! They might already be inside the ship and listening!”

Yuna, who had been scolding me for ruining the mood, immediately rubbed her stomach and earnestly made a request to Seol-ah and Seol-ha. Please come out as twins.

Hey, if this keeps up and they really turn out to be twins, does that mean Seol-ah and Seol-ha were really listening to our story?

That would be fun in its own way.