NOVEL NEXT Side Story 8
Side Story 8
Side Story 3. Preparation (1)
“Your belly has grown a lot now. Really… it’ll be soon.”
As the heat became intense, Seung-hyun’s body began to feel sluggish, and his belly started to swell rapidly. With the quickly growing belly, they spent a busy summer buying new clothes, stretch mark protection creams, and dealing with many other things.
And around the time the heat began to subside, they finally received an estimated due date. It wasn’t a specific day, but a rough timeframe, but even that was good enough.
“They said the baby would be born around the time autumn begins. Come to think of it… that’s also when we first met.”
That wasn’t the only change that came to the two of them. Over the past few months, they had become familiar with Jae-young’s family.
With the siblings, they had become comfortable enough to be in the same space without awkwardness, but with Jae-yun, who often kept in touch even after returning to the overseas branch, they had become close enough to be called friends.
The relationship that changed the most was with Jae-young’s parents. They used to fumble with how to address Seung-hyun, avoiding calling him directly, but now they comfortably called him “Seung-hyun-ah” and took care of him like they did with Jae-young.
When his parents first called Seung-hyun comfortably, Jae-young, feeling a bit sulky that Seung-hyun seemed more awkward with his parents than himself, suggested they drop formalities and decide on how to address each other.
Traditional pet names like “honey” and “darling” were suggested, but when Seung-hyun said he’d rather not be called anything at all, they compromised on using first names. But even this was a big change for Seung-hyun.
‘Seung-hyun-ah.’
It was the name he had been called all his life, but why did it sound so ticklish when Jae-young said it? It took a few days to get used to it.
‘Won’t you call me hyung?’
‘You should be like a hyung for me to call you that….’
Hearing it was one thing, but saying it was naturally even harder. The term “hyung,” which he used casually with others, was so difficult to say that he kept his mouth shut, and Jae-young raised the white flag first.
‘Just call me whatever you want. It’s not that important. At this rate, I’ll never hear your voice.’
When he said that, Seung-hyun thought he seemed a bit like a hyung, but he didn’t show it. And so, they entered the 9th month.
“I wonder who Mallang will resemble more. I hope it looks like Seung-hyun.”
“I hope it looks like you. If it looks like me… it’ll have a fierce expression.”
Seung-hyun said, imagining the child’s face. No matter who it resembled, it would surely be a lovable child, but if it had to resemble one of them, he hoped it would look like Jae-young.
Objectively, Seung-hyun’s face was also handsome, but with his upturned eyes and overall slightly strong features, he had a somewhat intense look.
‘It’s a face that’s easy to misunderstand even when I’m just standing still. So, a softer impression like Ju Jae-young would be better…’
“Do you like my face that much?”
Seung-hyun, who had unknowingly placed his hand on Jae-young’s face, startled and withdrew his hand. But still, he hoped the child would resemble Jae-young.
“If it looks like me, it might also look like… other people. That family is already obsessed with dominant traits, so I hope it won’t get tangled up in that.”
“I don’t know who you think it might resemble. There’s only one person in the world who looks like Han Seung-hyun.”
“……”
“You won’t have to see those people’s faces. They should have some conscience. They won’t contact us again after disowning you for being pregnant, right?”
Jae-young frowned, thinking about Seung-hyun’s family. If they had any conscience, they wouldn’t do such things, but those people were without conscience.
“And I, and my family, will make sure nothing like that happens. The baby should only see beautiful things growing up, right?”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
“Don’t think about such things. There’s so much to think about, why think about that? Mallang is listening to everything.”
Mallang, for some reason, that was the image that came to mind when thinking about the baby. When he first heard it, Jae-young said it was too much, but when Seung-hyun said he wanted to call the baby that, he willingly started calling the baby Mallang.
At first, it was a bit embarrassing to say out loud, but now it had become completely familiar and they could say it naturally. But there weren’t many days left to call the baby that.
“We need to decide on Mallang’s name, finish decorating the room, and set the hospital admission schedule. There’s so much to do, why think about those useless people?”
They couldn’t keep calling the baby by its prenatal name forever, so it needed a name, but the two had been unable to decide on the baby’s name for two weeks now.
They would like the same name, then dislike it, over and over. Jae-young’s parents even went to a famous name-giving shop to get a name, but they still couldn’t decide.
“But now we just have to choose from these three names, right? Raon, Younghyun, and Yeham. These three.”
After going back and forth for two weeks, they finally narrowed it down to three candidates. Raon was chosen by Jae-young, Younghyun by Seung-hyun, and Yeham was the most appealing candidate among the names they received from the name-giving shop.
“But they went to the trouble of getting it for us, it feels wrong to completely ignore it.”
“We didn’t ask them to get it, they did it on their own. They both said it’s okay if we choose a different name.”
Of course, they would be happier if we used the name they brought. Jae-young said, pretending not to know.
“I think Raon is pretty. The meaning is good too. Joy. Don’t you think just calling it would make us happy?”
“It is pretty, but… I think it would be meaningful to take one character each from our names. Isn’t Younghyun good?”
“The name is pretty, but it sounds like a boy’s name, and having family names too similar can be confusing and not great.”
Jae-young shook his head, telling Seung-hyun to think about his siblings. His mother said it gives a sense of belonging and is good, but when he was young, he disliked how his brothers’ and sister’s names seemed carelessly derived from each other.
“Yeham… Yeham isn’t bad either, but still, I’d prefer a name we came up with ourselves rather than one someone else chose. I’m grateful they looked it up for us, but…”
They were back to square one again. They couldn’t use all three names. It wasn’t that they disliked any of them, but that made it even harder to decide.
“…Should we draw lots?”
“If we do that, all our deliberation would have been for nothing.”
“At this rate, we’ll still be having this conversation even after the baby is born. They say it might be confusing for the baby if the name changes after birth.”
Jae-young made a serious face, saying they really needed to settle this today. And so, the final debate to decide the baby’s name began.
“I think, anyway, it would be best to use a name we came up with. So… let’s decide between Younghyun and Raon.”
They couldn’t completely remove the candidate from Jae-young’s parents out of consideration for their effort, but whichever it was, they wanted to give a name the parents came up with themselves. Jae-young, having eliminated one candidate, said with a serious face.
“But I still like Raon. The meaning is good, and isn’t the pronunciation cute?”
“…Since we probably won’t have a second or third child anyway. Wouldn’t it be nice to include one character each from our names for this one-time name?”
It was a childish argument, but neither seemed willing to back down. They both wanted their opinion to prevail on this if nothing else. They didn’t want to ignore each other’s opinions or force their own, which is why they had dragged it out this long, but now it was really time to decide.
“…Why don’t you like it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I think the name Raon…”
“Don’t I know you? It’s all over your face.”
Seung-hyun said, tapping Jae-young’s face. Actually, he had noticed it from about halfway through. For someone who usually concedes before even showing disappointment, to insist on his own opinion while pretending not to, there must be another reason.
“…Even if you don’t hate it, you don’t really like it, right? Why is that?”
“I don’t… hate it. It’s just that I…”
As Seung-hyun said, the reason Jae-young, who usually goes along with Seung-hyun’s opinions for most things, was unusually insisting on his own opinion until the end was because he didn’t quite like the name Younghyun.
He thought he wasn’t showing it, but just as Jae-young had come to know a lot about Seung-hyun, it seemed Seung-hyun had also come to know Jae-young quite well. There was no point in pretending now that he had been caught. Jae-young hesitated a bit before speaking.
“…I just want Mallang to live its own life, completely separate from us. Even though a name is just a name…”
Watching Seung-hyun insist on a name that took one character each from their names, Jae-young thought it seemed like he was anxious, as if that was the only way to prove it was their child, even though that wasn’t necessary.
It might just be an unfounded worry, but he didn’t want to use that name, if only to prove that they could live happily without such things. Jae-young glanced at Seung-hyun. He had tried to say it as indirectly as possible, but given how perceptive Seung-hyun was, he probably understood what Jae-young was thinking.
“……”
Sure enough, Seung-hyun’s expression darkened slightly as he fell into thought. It’s just a name, I shouldn’t have said anything. Jae-young waved his hands and spoke.