Chapter 122 – Chapter 122
It was a few more days.
After going out, Eunchae has one more routine, and that is looking into the fish tank she bought from the aquarium.
Even though it clings to me all day, it suddenly gets up and goes to the fish tank.
She sat with her buttocks on the floor and started looking into the fish tank, but once Eun-chae started looking into the fish tank like this, she hardly thought about getting up from her seat.
Do-kyun laughed at Eun-chae, who blankly stared at the water tank.
It looked a little funny, and it looked happy somewhere, so when I looked at it, laughter came out naturally.
“Is it that good?”
“Yes, I like it.”
The answer she gave by nodding her head.
Do-gyun, who smiled again at him, sat next to Eun-chae and looked into the fish tank as Eun-chae did.
Inside the fish tank, small ornamental tropical fish were swimming vigorously.
Only six.
As the staff recommended, I put only as many fish as the size of the fish tank.
Do-gyun looked at the fish tank, then shifted his gaze a little and looked at Eun-chae with his mouth wide open and thought.
It has improved a lot.
She no longer flinched at the knife, and she did not call herself ‘Eunah’.
He is now able to walk around the house or yard alone without having to be picked up by him, and above all, the way he expresses his emotions has become really diverse.
Eunchae is now able to say ‘pretty’ while looking at the flowers that are starting to bloom in the yard, and can now express ‘sweet’, ‘salty’, ‘spicy’, etc. While eating food, and more than anything else, she is able to understand the concept of ‘good’. I came to understand.
It was not the meaning of love, but the meaning of likes and dislikes.
Eunchae is now able to express meat as ‘good’ and vegetables as ‘dislike’.
She came to be able to express ‘I like it’ by looking at wild flowers, and to express ‘I hate it’ by seeing insects crawling among them.
She says ‘I like it’ when you stroke her hair or give her a hug, and she says ‘No’ when she hums a song or tickles her.
Soon enough, I learned so much.
When I think of him, I feel deeply moved again, and I feel a sense of emotion without even realizing it.
Do-gyun smiled lightly on his face as the emotions began to fill his stomach, then stood up and spoke to Eun-chae.
“I have to eat now.”
“Wait a little while.”
Do-gyun felt a surge of difficulty at the answer he heard.
It’s already been an hour, and it’s time to eat.
“Have you said that before?”
“… A little bit.”
Another thing that has changed as Eun-chae starts asserting herself little by little. Eun-chae began to complain little by little.
It was a really happy thing for Do-gyun, but he couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable when he saw him skipping meals like this.
How do I get this kid to wake up? Do-gyun, who had been thinking about that, soon came up with an appropriate method and opened his mouth as if spilling a little.
“Yes? Then I will eat alone. It’s meat today…”
After a while, Eunchae, who reacted like a ghost to the word ‘meat’, jumped up and was embraced by Do-gyun.
“Rice.”
“Shall we go?”
“Yeah.”
Do-kyun changed his complexion and smiled again at the sight of Eun-chae leading me to the kitchen and moved on.
*
There are some things I learned while living my life.
It is said that there is a place where Eunchae, who is full of curiosity and wanders around the house all day long, does not go through.
‘I don’t want to cover the study at all.’
I didn’t know why.
However, it was only vaguely known that she dismissed the space where her study was located as non-existent due to her benevolent behavior.
Isn’t it? Wherever he goes, he finds a space where he wonders, “Has there ever been a place like this in this house?” And puts his body into it.
Right next to the dressing room. It was the same even though it was a place where you could go anywhere you wanted.
Through him, I was able to infer that the study was a space related to Eunchae’s trauma, but I couldn’t find any more inspiration.
I wanted to find out somehow.
If it is the trauma that is the foundation of Eunchae, in other words, there is also a clue to heal Eunchae’s wounds.
A few days she wondered what to do.
Do-gyun was able to come up with a way to get around a bit.
‘It fosters interest in books.’
If it is due to the rejection of the space itself, it makes it possible to erase the rejection of the space itself. It seemed like it would be fine that way.
The next thing that came to mind was what kind of books Eun-chae would like.
As long as she is Eun-ah, she did not worry about her reading comprehension skills.
Above all, isn’t it enough to prove her ability to learn?
The only thing to consider was taste, that’s all.
Do-gyun recalled one by one the things Eun-chae had shown her interest in so far.
‘… Mostly natural.’
I am more interested in natural objects than artificial ones.
Grass or fish rather than tools. And I’m interested in people.
Then.
‘Fairytale?’
A fairy tale seemed appropriate. Above all, isn’t there a moral in the story?
In terms of giving a point to think about after reading, there was nothing good enough to restore awareness of the book itself.
In his heart, he wanted to read the web novel he was reading, but Do-kyun knew it too.
His own preferences were not something to show anyone.
Suddenly, Do-gyun recalled the last time he and Eun-ah were together.
-Kku, Bee Nihiik… ! Seo, my favorite work…
Do-gyun shook his head excitedly on the day he remembered.
‘… This isn’t it.’
It is good for the world that my favorite works are sealed forever.
‘Let’s make it a fairy tale.’
After making his decision, Do-gyun raised his head and looked at Eun-chae, who was staring blankly at the fish tank.
What book would you like to see?
‘First of all, it’s not that the princess appears.’
They would say they would be happy if only Princess Eun-ji appeared, but Eun-chae seemed to like a more fairy-tale story.
Do-gyun, who had been thinking about it for a long time, selected books that Eun-chae would like in his head, then got up and headed to the study.
He doesn’t come often himself, but when Eun-seol was hospitalized, he delivered books and memorized the location of all the books.
The fairy tale is in the corner of the left bookshelf.
Do-gyun picked out roughly 10 books of fairy tales featuring animals as the main characters, took them with him, and went back to the living room.
On his way out of the hallway, Do-gyun saw Eun-chae approaching and pushed the book in his hand towards Eun-chae, opening his mouth.
“Shall I read you a fairy tale?”
“Yes?”
Eun-chae, who was approaching in full swing, looked back and forth between the books Do-gyun was holding in her hand and Do-gyun, then tilted her head and spit out a question.
“Can you read me?”
“Yes, it reads to you.”
Dokyun said that and let out a laugh.
For emotional connection, wouldn’t it be better to read it directly rather than just having them read it?
Eun-chae stood blankly and stared at the cover of the book, then nodded her head slightly to express her affirmation.
Do-gyun, whose expression brightened at him, sat down on the sofa and showed the book covers one by one and spat out words.
“Which one should I read?”
“Well…”
Eun-chae’s eyes scanned the cover of the book.
Do-gyun, who seemed to be trying to judge by the picture drawn on the cover, smiled at the figure, then nodded while looking at the book Eun-chae was pointing to.
“Tree frog?”
“Yeah.”
The story of the tree frog was also familiar to Do-gyun.
It was a book that I read several times to write a book report as a vacation homework when I was young.
‘I think I’ve been worrying about this for two years.’
Do-gyun picked up the book and opened it to Eun-chae, who climbed onto his thigh, clearing his throat.
For some reason, it was a moment that reminded me of reading [The Bug Catching Girl] When I first came here.
Do-gyun, who recalled a slightly different feeling at that thought, then brushed off his thoughts and began to recite the book.
“Once upon a time…”
It was not a bad time for Do-gyun either.
Even if you already know everything about the content, isn’t it usually a fairy tale with different illustrations for each publisher?
The illustrations in the fairy tales in the library were drawn in great detail, so it was fun to watch them while reading.
In other words, it is a book with a quick bite.
Do-gyun read the book and checked Eun-chae’s expression in his spare time.
Maybe you don’t like it It was an action that stemmed from such worries, but fortunately, Eun-chae seemed to be very interested in fairy tales.
Like when looking at a fish tank or a carp, he is concentrating with his mouth wide open.
His head nods in between, and then when the background changes, his face becomes blank again.
Do-gyun finds himself turning the pages, focusing on Eun-chae’s reaction rather than the book, and smiles. He realizes that he has read the last page and closes the book.
“Ah.”
When the book ended, Eun-chae, who came to her senses a little late, let out a short exclamation.
Do-gyun raised his head and asked a question while giggling at Eun-chae looking at him.
“It was fun?”
Eun-chae, who blankly opened her mouth at the question handed to her, nodded her head.
“Yeah.”
After Eunchae said that, she pursed her lips for a moment, looked at the covered book once, then at Dokyun again, and continued.
“Bee.”
“Yes?”
“Then does the tree frog end up sad all the time?”
Do-gyun was speechless at the question that was handed to him.
“Uh… ?”
“Frogs are always sad, but then it hurts so much.”
So, Eun-chae was asking for an interpretation of the ending.
Do-gyun felt embarrassment fill his stomach.
It was realized only belatedly.
This fairy tale had a gloomy bad ending if you put aside the lessons of ‘you have to listen to adults’ and ‘you have to be kind’.
What should I answer? Do-gyun, who continued his worries, licked his lips a few times and made a ‘grunt’ sound, but he was finally able to answer the question.
“Well, I won’t cry all the time, though.”
“Yes?”
“You only cry on rainy days, don’t you? Then you can be happy on days when it doesn’t rain.”
Seeing Eun-chae tilt her head at my words, Do-gyun added an explanation, feeling that trouble came to mind.
“Hmm, if you think about it differently, maybe it’s not a bad ending for both the son and the mother tree frog, right?”
“Why?”
“Because the son tree frog will always be able to remember the mother tree frog.”
Do-kyun, who had just spat out without knowing what I was saying, hurriedly continued with the thought of ‘This is it!’ The moment he said it.
“My son, Tree Frog, whenever it rains, he can always remember his mother, Tree Frog. Therefore…”
“Like a picture?”
“Yeah, just like the picture. To my son, the tree frog, the rain is the same as the picture.”
Do-gyun made his expression bright at Eun-chae’s words, who accepted his words.
“Surely, I will feel sad because of my fault, but the son tree frog will be able to recall the good things that happened with the mother tree frog even while crying like that. So it won’t be such a sad story.”
Do-gyun finished his words and looked at Eun-chae’s reaction.
Please understand, hoping that there will be no more embarrassing questions, and looking at Eun-chae for a while, Do-gyun nodded his head slightly and let out a sigh of relief at Eun-chae’s understanding.
‘Relief…’
By all means, bring this.
Do-gyun bitterly regretted his past choices and looked at the remaining books.
‘The bad ending is…’
There was no
Do-gyun let out a small breath at him and then, after showing a bright expression, spoke to Eun-chae.
“Would you like me to read something else?”
“Yeah.”
Eun-chae nodded her head and looked around her books again, then tore off the covers one by one and then pointed at the book in the middle with her index finger.
Seeing the book pointed at by Eun-chae’s index finger, Do-gyun felt a sense of relief filling his stomach.
“The ugly duckling?”
“Yeah.”
Fortunately, Eun-chae pointed to a fairy tale with the happiest ending among all the fairy tales she brought out.
