Be My Baby - Vol.3 Chapter 7 Part 3
“What is this guy doing now?”
When the call didn’t connect even on the twenty-fourth attempt today, Eungyo unconsciously let out an irritated voice.
Just in case, he checked the security cameras in the house and saw that he was wandering around the house with his eyes wide open, but still refusing to answer the phone no matter what.
He could clearly see the phone flashing under the pillow, but when it rang, he just paced around anxiously in front of it, enduring.
“Are you trying to test me to the end…?”
After hanging up the phone that went to voicemail, he tried for the twenty-fifth time, but as the call still didn’t connect, he became anxious and started tapping on the desk, and once again, the woman’s voice asking to leave a voice message rang out.
At that moment, his fist clenched involuntarily.
Are you trying to do this again…
He had just wanted to hear his voice, say hello, and have a very small conversation like asking if he ate well, but as it was clearly intentional that he wasn’t answering, he spoke into the voicemail with a semi-threatening tone.
“Call me back as soon as you hear this message. If there’s no response within 30 minutes, you know what happens after that.”
As he was about to hang up the phone, suppressing the rising anger, suddenly the door burst open with a bang and the sound of loud high heels was heard.
At that ominous sound, he looked up and saw the expected figure standing there.
“…Have you come to collect a debt?”
As Eungyo stood up from his seat and asked that to his mother, who was wearing a black dress that clung tightly to her body despite her age, with a red leather jacket, long hair flowing down, and even sunglasses, looking like a mafia boss, she quickly moved towards the sofa.
“What on earth is going on? What did you do to make the youngest come home at dawn crying and making a fuss?”
Ah, so it’s that guy again, Eungyo thought and let out a long sigh.
“I scolded him because he deserved it.”
As he sat down on the sofa opposite his mother, criticizing her for coming all the way to the company when she usually doesn’t even come near the company because of the youngest’s whining about smelling like their father, his mother showed a strange smile.
“What exactly happened for you to scold the child? According to the youngest, you’re trying to abandon your family for the sake of one person in your house right now?”
“…That’s quite a novel idea I’m hearing.”
Thinking that he had already abandoned his family long ago except for his eldest brother, and wondering what he was supposedly abandoning now, Eungyo praised the youngest’s cute delusion, to which his mother smiled as if amused.
“He’s always been overly reactive when it comes to your issues. But what exactly happened for you to scold him like that?”
“I just scolded him a bit because that guy was trying to interfere too much in my private life.”
“…You mean your private life with the person living in your house right now?”
At his mother’s question, which showed her incredibly sharp intuition as always, Eungyo smiled ambiguously instead of answering, and his mother’s eyes flashed behind her sunglasses.
“What is it? What’s going on? Can’t you tell me?”
“It’s not the right time yet. I’ll tell you when things are settled for sure.”
“What do you need to settle? Just tell me. Do you want to see me unable to sleep because I’m so curious?”
“…I told you before, didn’t I? That it’s nothing bad for you, so you should wait happily. Just wait, why can’t you sleep because of that?”
“How can I sleep when I’m dying of curiosity? So why…”
She was about to ask why he couldn’t sleep, but Eungyo suddenly stopped speaking.
In the past, he thought it was a mystery that his mother couldn’t sleep because she was upset when his father did something to her, couldn’t sleep because she was happy after tormenting his father, and couldn’t sleep because she was curious when his father’s reaction was strange, but now he was in no position to call his mother strange.
He couldn’t sleep because he wanted to touch that guy, couldn’t sleep because he was curious about where he was, couldn’t sleep because he was angry that he couldn’t see him, and last night he couldn’t sleep because he was too happy, so it’s not that different.
Certainly, I’m too much like my mother, Eungyo thought, and after letting out a long breath, he changed the subject.
“I understand you’re curious, but right now it’s complicated in many ways. I’ll tell you once things are settled.”
Actually, he had thought about talking about it today, but the guy who was already in an abnormal pregnancy had just barely started communicating properly in the early hours of this morning, and he couldn’t let this honeymoon period be disturbed because of his mother and father.
He planned to report with the actual child after the baby was born, so he let his words trail off, to which she stared at him strangely and asked.
“When will that be?”
“In terms of timing, it would be about two months, no, three months from now.”
Thinking that after the baby is born, there would be no way out, Eungyo nodded, and his mother’s reaction became fierce.
“You want me to wait three months?”
“Yes.”
“Why on earth? Why can’t you tell me now?”
Eungyo was about to say, “Because I don’t want to be disturbed by you and father,” but wisely changed his words.
“Because it’s an issue that concerns my entire life, so I need to make a careful decision.”
“Your entire life? What are you doing that involves your entire life?”
“Because it’s equivalent to a matter of human ethics.”
“What’s so grand about human ethics?”
“It’s a very important issue for me. It’s not a bad thing for you, so just pretend you don’t know.”
“What if your father finds out first?”
“Then, you can enjoy that in its own way. Anyway, it’s a happy thing for you as a mother.”
“If you keep doing this, I might start investigating you.”
“Go ahead and investigate. If you can.”
Confident that no matter how much she investigated, it was impossible to comprehend or imagine that a man could get pregnant from a common sense perspective, Eungyo smiled as if to say ‘go ahead and try,’ to which his mother looked at him intently.
Although he couldn’t see her eyes because of the sunglasses, it felt like she was very suspicious.
“Hmm? You seem confident… Just give me a hint about what it is.”
“I can’t tell you yet. If I tell you, you’ll get excited and tell father.”
“I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“When it comes to matters related to father, I can’t trust you either, mother.”
In his innocent childhood days, he used to confide in his mother about things that would make his father angry if he knew, trusting her, but every time, his excited mother would tell his father everything, causing him trouble more than once.
Even an amoeba wouldn’t make the same mistake after experiencing such things a few times, so naturally, when it came to things that his father shouldn’t know about, or when he was preparing to blindside his father, he made sure that even his mother couldn’t detect anything.
Even with the broken engagement, he didn’t give even a hint to his mother until the moment he made the final announcement to his father after creating a situation where there was no way out.
Rather, he showed ambiguous gestures as if he might or might not get married, just to confuse her.
“You cheeky child. Eunhyeok isn’t like that, but you’re especially cheeky.”
“That’s because hyung is easy-going about everything. Hyung is the type of person who’s fine if things work out and fine if they don’t, but I’m the type who must achieve what I need to achieve.”
Although he was good at everything and had ambitions, those ambitions weren’t necessarily life goals that had to be achieved, but rather ‘if achieved, great, if not, take another path’ – that was his brother’s motto.
That’s why, despite being the eldest son, he wasn’t particularly greedy for wealth or the company, and while he worked hard to maintain his current position, he never did more than that.
In fact, he was the same in that regard, which is why he and his brother had a particularly close relationship.
It’s just that he was closer to being a perfectionist.
Not ‘it’s fine either way’, but rather, what can be done must be done, and what can’t be done, he doesn’t even touch.
From the start, having overwhelmingly inherited his mother’s genes, his appearance, personality, and values were quite similar, but in this aspect, they were clearly different.
“Well, if you’re determined not to say anything even if you die, there’s nothing I can do. But be aware that I don’t know what I might do if I keep getting impatient.”
“Can’t you wait for that? It’s not even long, just three months.”
“I can’t wait. I want to see your father’s reaction quickly!”
“…Why do you live together when you’re so desperate to get at each other?”
“Because we love each other.”
“…If you loved each other any more than that, the family would be in ruins.”
“You probably say that because you haven’t experienced true love yet, but couples who live quietly and elegantly respecting each other as you want are already out of love. When people who love each other live together, it can never be quiet.”
“Then how about living together just passionately in love?”
Eungyo sincerely appealed to his mother, saying that rather than receiving the cell regeneration treatment every year, which is said to be only slightly less painful than dying, and trying to blindside his father with behind-the-scenes maneuvers from all directions, wouldn’t it be easier to just give up, but her answer was firm.
“Your father won’t let that happen.”
“Of course, there are issues with father’s personality, but what if you accommodate him, mother?”
“Am I crazy? Why should I accommodate?”
“Don’t you have any thoughts of embracing him with love?”
“You’re talking about love? Did your father say that? To embrace with love? Then go and tell him exactly that. You try doing it yourself.”
Looking at his mother, who still didn’t hesitate to use words like ‘you’, ‘hey’, ‘that bastard’ even though they had been in a relationship sharing more time than family since she was 5 years old, Eungyo decided to just give up at this point.
Mother and father are both formidable opponents.
The saying “There are no parents who can defeat their children” is a story from other families.
In this family, children can never defeat their parents.
Because rational people can never defeat passionate people.
“Mother, do as you please. I don’t know anymore.”
“Since you’re out, let’s have dinner.”
Just as Eungyo was about to refuse his mother’s invitation saying he needed to go home early, his phone rang.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Asking his mother for understanding, thinking it might be Seonwoo, he quickly went to his desk and looked at his phone, and indeed it was Seonwoo.
At that name, which made him grit his teeth with joy, he quickly pressed the call button.
“Lee Seonwoo! What have you been doing all day not answering your phone?”
As Eungyo scolded him a bit harshly out of irritation, Seonwoo hesitantly answered.
“I’m sorry… I was taking a bath.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“…It’s true. The bathtub was so nice that I soaked for a long time.”
“How nice was the bathtub?”
Even as he said it, Eungyo thought he sounded incredibly petty and small-minded, but it couldn’t be helped.
It was a question that was absolutely necessary to determine whether it was a lie or not.
“Ah… well, there were air bubbles that relaxed my back… Oh, I really didn’t ignore your calls on purpose. Just now, I really couldn’t answer. The water was so warm and my back felt so good that I didn’t want to get out…”
As Seonwoo rambled on with his excuses, Eungyo gritted his teeth, thinking, ‘See, I knew it.’
It was good that he diligently made excuses to avoid misunderstandings, but saying he really couldn’t answer just now was as good as confessing that he had purposely not answered the earlier calls.
He knew it already, but hearing it directly made him even more annoyed.
“So, you intentionally didn’t answer the phone before that?”
At that moment, a gasp of ‘Huk-‘ was heard from the receiver.
“You, stay put and wait quietly until I get off work today. Don’t run off somewhere again. And make sure to answer my calls.”
“…Yes.”
At that dying voice, Eungyo let out a sigh that could sink the ground, thinking how nothing had changed like this.
He thought everything would change from today and he would just be happy, but everything remains the same.
Nothing has changed.
“Did you eat lunch?”
“Yes.”
“No matter how sleepy you are, make sure to eat your meals on time. If there’s anything you want to eat, tell the housekeeper anything. Don’t eat things like ramen or bread just because you’re hungry.”
“Yes.”
“Alright, I’m hanging up.”
“Yes.”
Finally feeling relieved at that obedient answer, Eungyo was about to hang up when he suddenly realized something.
He had momentarily forgotten that his mother was behind him.
Feeling a sudden chill down his back, he slowly turned around and sure enough, his mother was standing there with her arms crossed, looking at him.
With a very strange smile on her lips.
“Hmm?”
“…If you have something to say, go ahead and say it.”
Thinking it would be more unsettling if his mother stayed quiet after hearing all of this conversation, he laid the groundwork first by telling her to say whatever she wanted to say, but she just kept smiling at those words.
That expression was very ominous.
Although he couldn’t see her eyes, the angle at which the corners of her lips were raised was subtle, and as he was trying to gauge her mood, she spoke up after a while with an unexpected comment.
“You know you’re really a lot like me, right?”
“I know.”
“Even your personality is exactly like mine.”
“That’s because you unilaterally placed your genes as dominant.”
“That’s the same for the other kids too, but you especially take after me a lot. Even down to the way you catch the person you like like catching a mouse.”
At those words, he suddenly felt irritated.
“When did I ever catch that guy like catching a mouse?”
At that, she grinned.
The moment he saw that smile, he realized he had fallen right into her trap.
This was as good as confessing outright.
Frowning at the fact that he had been entangled by his mother again, she slowly rose from the sofa.
“I can tell just by looking. Before I started dating, your father kept playing hard to get, so I tormented him a lot. I placed friends everywhere he went, and when he tried to go on blind dates, I caught the matchmakers and went in his place. Come to think of it, I went on about five blind dates like that. After a while, he gave up completely because I was everywhere he went. I knew he liked me, but for some reason, he kept rejecting me saying he didn’t like women taller and stronger than him, so I made sure no women shorter than your father could even get near him.”
As she said those were good times, Eungyo replied in a slightly annoyed tone.
“I don’t do things like that.”
“We’ll have to wait and see about that.”
Feeling as if he had heard the worst insult of his life, Eungyo looked at his mother with displeasure as she quickly moved towards the door after standing up.
“Well, I’m leaving.”
“What about dinner?”
“I need to go home before your lover runs off somewhere else. I’m going home before my lover runs off too.”
As she left the room, waving her hand without looking back, Eungyo frowned, watching her red leather jacket.
This situation was certainly a bit strange.
She wasn’t the type to just leave after figuring out this much, but today her retreat was too quick.
Feeling somewhat ominous, Eungyo was looking at the closed door with his arms crossed when his phone rang again.
This time it was Seyoon.
“Yes.”
“I’ve written the consent form as you said and sent it by email. Please check it and let me know if there’s anything more to add.”
“Okay.”
After the brief conversation, he hung up and opened his email to check the consent form.
Inside, the items he had mentioned were neatly organized and listed in order.
As he checked each sentence of the consent form, which was cleaner than he expected, he saw the phrase ‘Experimental Subject Dr. Lee Seonwoo’ written at the bottom.
Thinking that the title ‘Doctor’ didn’t suit him at all, he smiled, and at that moment, he remembered that he had called him ‘Lee Seonwoo’ during the phone call earlier.
Realizing this, his anxiety grew.
Surely, she wouldn’t have run to father after hearing that, would she? But then again, maybe not.
No, that’s not it.
Anyway, if Eunsoo wanted to, he could easily find out that it was Seonwoo living in his apartment now, but that wasn’t really important.
Even Eunsoo didn’t know yet that Seonwoo was pregnant.
And above all, thinking that his mother must have her own thoughts, she surely wouldn’t do such a thing, he shook his head and returned to his desk to print out the consent form.
And as the consent form came out of the printer, he checked it once again with his eyes.
At that moment, Eungyo momentarily forgot that his mother was one of the two people in this world he should never trust.
***
