Stranger Who Found Spring

Time passed very quickly and it had already been over a month since Ha-hyun and Cho-seung reunited.

Ha-hyun, who was watching the drama in Cho-seung’s arms, raised his head and looked at Cho-seung as his (Cho-seung’s) body, which had been comfortably leaning on him, moved.

“Why? Bathroom?”

“No. Now I have to prepare kimbap. You said you wanted to eat kimbap.”

Ha-hyun grabbed Cho-seung, who was about to stand up, saying that he would prepare dinner.

“Are you not buying it?”

“If we can make it, it’s better to make it. It won’t be long.”

Dongchimi, which came as a courier, sniped Ha-hyun’s appetite. Thanks to this, there was never a day when dongchimi ran out on the table and only foods that went well with it began to appear.

Ha-hyun, who had been thinking about what to serve with dongchimi as the main food, thought about it for a long time before he said he wanted to eat kimbap.

“I’m afraid you’ll ask for a little more dongchimi.”

A third of the dongchimi in the kimchi refrigerator was gone. Ha-hyun, who had been chasing after Cho-seung as he prepared dinner while the movie paused, flinched his shoulders as he heard his murmur.

Come to think of it, he had never even met the prospective mother-in-law who sent this dongchimi, let alone talk. He never sent a greeting saying that he was eating them well.

He guessed there was a problem with this. While Ha-hyun was seriously thinking about it, Cho-seung, unaware of his thoughts, took out ingredients for kimbap from the refrigerator one by one. Cut the carrots with a chopping knife and leave the boiled burdock at room temperature. (우엉, called ueong, here)

Ha-hyun hesitated for a moment while watching Cho-seung, who was busy blanching spinach and frying jidan (지단, meant egg garnish or stuffed egg(?), here). Should I bring it up? Or is it better to wait until he speaks first? Even if I say it, he looks busy right now, should I do it later?

Cho-seung, who was about to ask whether he liked meatballs or ham as he took out meatballs and hams from the refrigerator, tilted his head when he saw Ha-hyun’s expression.

“Do you have something to say?”

“Ung, I do, but… how did you know?”

“It was an expression that seemed to have something to say to anyone.”

Did I (make that expression)?

He had to look at it in a mirror to know. Ha-hyun, who had been groping his face, tilted his head to follow his opponent and then coughed.

“You know. Shouldn’t I say hello to your mother?”

It was rather late because it had been a while since he already registered as his partner and started living together.

If what he knew was correct, they usually started talking about living together after greeting each other. So, to be honest, the order was a little different from the others. Ha-hyun wasn’t the kind of person who cared about such things, but he still thought there was something wrong with not greeting her.

“Are you okay though?”

“What else won’t be okay?”

“I knew you would feel pressured.”

It would be a lie if he said it wasn’t burdensome. He couldn’t help but feel pressured. However, it wasn’t a problem that could be avoided forever, so Ha-hyun thought it would be better to solve it quickly.

“Then I will ask Mother to come up to Seoul—”

“Aren’t we going instead?”

“It’s dangerous to move for a long time with a pregnant body. Besides, it would be better to meet in a familiar place than in an unfamiliar place. Mother even said she would come.”

Ha-hyun’s expression didn’t improve even when he joked that he would get scolded if he took him to his parent’s house.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have a car and it (bulging stomach) hadn’t even been seen, but asking an older person to come was something Ha-hyun’s conscience mind would strongly oppose.

“But we should go…”

“Mother is correct. She drives well.”

He knew what he was worried about, but it took time to get to his parent’s house. Travelling for a long time for a trip and travelling for a long time for a meeting were completely different things, and of course, the latter was mentally more difficult.

And moving didn’t mean the work was over. Rather, from the moment the moving ended, it was no different from the main story. It wasn’t long after he heard from the doctor that he should be careful of stress, but he couldn’t take Ha-hyun to his parent’s house.

He knew very well why Ha-hyun wanted to go. It was because he felt more comfortable visiting his mother rather than asking her to come.

However, he couldn’t help but consider Ha-hyun’s physical condition, so he decided to slightly put aside his usual idea.

When Cho-seung came out resolutely, Ha-hyun’s momentum slowed down. Cho-seung with such an attitude, which was often seen, never backed down. It seemed that he couldn’t beat him again, so Ha-hyun naturally looked sullen and Cho-seung flinched his shoulders this time.

“Ha-hyun-ah, Honey. Don’t worry too much. Ung?”

“Ung.”

Cho-seung quickly approached Ha-hyun, hugged him, and released his favorite pheromone while patting him on the back.

Ha-hyun, who wrapped his arms around his waist and placed his cheek on his chest, slowly blinked his eyes. It wasn’t that he wasn’t worried because he told him not to worry, but he couldn’t help but feel relieved.

“Do you want to go to bed and rest? Shall I make a nest for you?”

He didn’t like going to bed, but the nest seemed like a good idea. It had been quite a while since he didn’t need to build a nest because he (Cho-seung) had been around all day.

Ha-hyun nodded and left Cho-seung’s arms and headed for the couch where he was originally after going into the bedroom and bringing out the blanket.

Ha-hyun watched Cho-seung get used to putting pheromones on the blanket and as soon as he finished, he handed him a cushion this time. Ha-hyun gathered a long blanket and placed it on the couch, then sat down on it, receiving a cushion scented with pine trees and lying down.

Cho-seung, who left a short kiss on Ha-hyun’s forehead, who was settled in the nest with a sense of security, headed back to the kitchen to prepare the dinner that hadn’t yet been finished.

Wanting to fully enjoy the coziness of the nest he felt after a long time, Ha-hyun wrapped himself in a blanket.

He waited for the pine-scented pheromone to penetrate his body and when he was satisfied, he looked for a remote control somewhere. Ha-hyun stretched out his arm and grabbed a familiar object slowly, then turned on the drama again and continued the story he hadn’t seen yet.

While watching a drama full of screams, gunshots, and all sorts of sound effects like a thriller, a question arose as to whether it was okay to do this all of a sudden.

At the 15th week, most of the body organs were finished forming and the ears were probably in the process of being formed. It would be completed around the 16th week, that was, next week, but the problem was that the hearing organ was vaguely formed now.

Of course, even if they were born, they wouldn’t remember this moment, and there was no guarantee that they would be listening, but the possibility was open.

“Can I watch this?”

He thought the time had come to pay attention to prenatal education, was it okay to watch a thriller? He didn’t think he should watch horror movies anymore.

Then what were other people doing with prenatal education. Lifting up the remote control and turning off the TV, Ha-hyun held the cell phone in his hand and started searching on the internet.

“What are you doing?”

When the sound of the bloody echoing in the living room stopped and became quiet, Cho-seung finished wrapping kimbap and came out. Instead of answering, he showed the screen on his cellphone.

“Prenatal education? Come to think of it, the time has come to care about that.”

“Right? But I don’t know what to do with prenatal education.”

“Isn’t there something about music and fairy tales?”

Cho-seung, who was worried together, raised Ha-hyun, who was buried in the nest, to feed him first. Ha-hyun, who had been relying on Cho-seung’s power with all the strength drained from his body as if regretting it, gave strength to his legs and stood up properly.

Ha-hyun, who followed him to the table and sat down on the chair, decided to put off prenatal education for later when he saw the long-awaited kimbap.

“Let’s eat and find out later.”

“Ung.”

At Cho-seung’s words, he lifted a spoon and ate the dongchimi soup and nodded his head. It was after he was already distracted by food.

As Ha-hyun thought deeply about the lack of something as he ate each kimbap with a good mix of meatball and ham, he thought of tteokbokki.

It would be really delicious if he dipped kimbap in the spicy soup. However, he felt sorry for Cho-seung to ask him to come and eat tteokbokki.

“I think there’s something you want to eat again.”

Ha-hyun, who was being stabbed, looked up at him with chopsticks in his mouth. He turned on his cell phone next to him, entered the delivery app, and showed him what he wanted to eat.

“I understand why you want to eat it.”

It was no different from the truth that tteokbokki was delicious with kimbap. Normally, he just guessed and asked because the person who would eat hard, fixing his eyes on the food in front of him, was subtly mesmerized. Glad that his guess was right.

“Let’s order it. Shall we put kimbap in the meantime?”

“Ung. Wait a moment.”

“Don’t order anything spicy.”

Ha-hyun pouted his lips as he went to get a container to hold the gimbap. Of course, tteokbokki is spicy, but he shouldn’t order it. Still, he knew that stimulating food wasn’t very good, so he conscientiously ordered a medium taste.

Ha-hyun, who didn’t forget to add fish cake soup (어묵탕, called eomuktang, here) and some fried food (튀김, called twigim, here), checked the time it would take and stepped on small steps lightly. Soon after, Cho-seung helped him move kimbap neatly into the container he had brought.

“When did it arrive?”

“About an hour.”

Since there was nothing to do while sitting at the table, the two headed back to the sofa. In the end, they decided to look for prenatal education that they had been putting off, and each looked at their cell phones.

“As expected, prenatal education is trending.”

“Do we do it together? Do I just have to talk?”

“Uum. We’ll read children’s books, exercise together… They say there’s art prenatal education these days.”

Star. (I don’t know why there’s 별 (byeol) hangul here, it should be a separate line)

As time goes by, the number of types and depth of prenatal education increased, but for Ha-hyun, who has no agility with his hands, prenatal education related to him was unreasonable. On the contrary, he could get angry while doing it.

When he didn’t think to straighten his crumpled forehead, Cho-seung stretched out his arm and gently rubbed it with his thumb, comforting him with a soft voice.

“In conclusion, you don’t have to force yourself, just do what you want to do. Relax your face.”

Seeing the transparent expression on his face, Cho-seung hurriedly continued his conversation. Art prenatal education sounded like fun, but seeing Ha-hyun’s reaction wasn’t very good, he thought he should ask him tentatively.