Remember My Name

8 - Dominant Allele

When Yejin heard the familiar sound of the doorbell, she ran to the door.

She screamed in pain when she stepped on Ae-Rin's Pinypon doll, her generation's version of Polly Pocket. Still, she managed to get to the door, expecting him on the other side.

When she opened the door, her intense feelings faded.

Sigh. It was her father. It's not that Yejin is disappointed. It's just that she was expecting someone else.

"Abeoji." She smiled at his father and gave him a warm hug. When they entered her apartment, his father handed her a bag that contained Ae-Rin's clothes and basic essentials. Ae-Rin came running to her grandfather's arms.

"Hal-Abeoji!" Her father picked up Ae-Rin as she gave him a hug. For a minute there Yejin was worried about her father's brittle bones. "Are you okay, Ae-Rin? Where's Halmeoni?" her father asked worriedly.

He put down Ae-Rin and went to the extra room where Yejin's mother is still sleeping soundly.

"I'm so glad nothing serious happened to the both of them." He said to Yejin, "I told them to just wait. You will be visiting next week anyway. But Ae-Rin misses you so much she practically dragged your Eomma to the bus station."

"Appa, Ae-Rin will be staying here now," She replied as she glanced at her child happily playing in the living room.

"Your Eomma told me. Can you manage?"

"We'll be fine, Appa.. and I wanted her father to spend some time with her." She said, trailing off "..If he wants to, I mean."

"I already told you, Yejin, that he has the right—" Her father began lecturing her again.

"Appa.... I know." She didn't want to hear the lecture that she heard for three hundred times already. Instead of insisting his point, her father just gave her a warm hug. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

She hoped it would.

-

Yejin's father gave them a ride to the hospital. She and Ae-Rin bid their goodbye to her parents as they drive back to Daegu.

The mother and daughter graced the hospital hand in hand, with her Valentino bag hanging on her left shoulder and her daughter's Little Mermaid backpack hanging on her right.

They went to the hospital's day care and Ae-Rin was instructed to go inside. The child is used to this routine anyway. She spent her early years in hospital daycares while her mother worked, and Yejin would visit the child every free time she gets. But today, Ae-Rin is feeling a little cranky. She pouted her lips and refused to go inside the daycare.

"Ae-Rin, do you remember the little baby that we saw earlier when we passed by the nursery?" Ae-Rin nodded, "That baby needs Eomma, Ae-Rin. Eomma will do some magic to her tum-tum so she will be okay."

She explained everything sweetly to Ae-Rin, but her daughter's pout turned into a muffled cry. Ae-Rin's eyes were filled with tears as she looked at her mom.

"Omo...." Yejin wiped the tears from her daughter's precious eyes. "Don't cry, Love... After Eomma's surgery, we will eat your favorite food, okay?"

"I want to go now, Eomma..." Her child's tears were now falling uncontrollably, and she's starting to throw some light tantrums.

"Please, Love?" Yejin pleaded. "I prom—"

"I'll take her." Said a voice behind her that instantly made her soft. She immediately knew who it was, and she just felt her whole body tensed.