A New Life Together : BinJin

Quarantine

Loud cries echoed in the Kim household at 3am on a very harsh winter day in Seoul.

Doing everything we could to make Ji eun feel better but nothing was working. It was truly one of those moments where you feel helpless as a parent.

Ji eun recently caught the flu and has been feeling terrible since. She was running a fever, had a congested nose and her voice was hoarse.

The ever so bubbly and happy baby was nowhere to be seen this past week.

"Ji eun, i'm so sorry you feel so sick baby." Yejin said as she carried Ji eun in her arms, soothing her back and kissing her chubby hands to make her feel better.

Yejin stayed at home with Ji eun while Bin sped through the streets of Gangnam to a 24/7 children's clinic to get stronger medication to treat Ji eun's flu.

We sat in the living room, I turned on the TV to play her favourite cartoon as we waited for Bin to come back home.

Just about 30 minutes later, Bin came back home, hands filled with different plastic bags.

"You're home, what did you buy?" Yejin asked

"Nothing much, just her medicine, some soups and your favourite tteokbokki ." Bin replied as he looked through the multiple plastic bags.

Ji eun was still sniffling, with snot and phlegm leaving her nose and mouth. It was one of the most heartbreaking images.

"Come here baby, let's feed you your medicine and you'll be all better tomorrow morning okay?" Bin said tenderly as he looked through the instructions from the Doctor once more before feeding her the medicines.

Just like her appa, she hates medicine and the taste of bitterness. It took a lot of coaxing and swaying to get her to down all of them.

Before we laid her down back in bed, we fed her some chicken soup from a local restaurant that is known to be good for colds.

Thank god she enjoyed the soup, it was heartening to see her finally enjoy some food and not refuse to eat anything due to the loss of her appetite.

As Bin fed her the soup, I began digging into the tteokbokki. Tteokbokki is definitely my favourite food, especially the ones sold in a food cart.

"Thank you, I really needed this." I said with my mouth full of tteokbokki.

Taking care of a sick baby is nothing to joke about, it's not only exhausting but it's also very heartbreaking to see your baby being sick.

"Eat slowly, I'll put her down to bed." Bin chuckled as he looked at me shoving tteokbokkis down my throat.

After our impromptu supper, we retreated back to bed. Fortunately, the medicines seem to be kicking in hence making Ji eun feel better and sleepy.

We settled her down in the middle of our bed and watched her slowly drift to sleep.

Without even realising, tears started to stream uncontrollably down my face as I looked at my baby, her mouth in an adorable 'o' shape.

Bin heard my sniffles and immediately went over to my side of the bed. I didn't say anything, neither did he but we both knew in that moment that this was what we needed.

Just a hug and some reassurance that everything will be okay.

"She just caught the flu. Her fever broke and she's already getting better after we fed her the medicine."