Mommy and Baby

Four-1

On January 9, 2020, Choi Hun-ae watched a Chinese news: the panel from the National Health Commission of the PRC confirmed that causative agent of the mysterious pneumonia in Wuhan was a kind of newly discovered coronavirus.

Although Choi Hun-ae’s major in the university was irrelevant to medicine or biology, she had ever read some texts about viruses and therefore knew: so far human beings did not have any certain cure for viral diseases; accordingly, existing drugs were only able to lessen the symptoms. Similarly, although Choi So-dong, as she promised, often posted her own nude pictures to Choi Hun-ae, the latter was actually not satisfied, as she desired to personally touch Choi So-dong’s naked body, especially the latter’s private parts. Only in this way, her current “disease”, namely missing Choi So-dong everyday, would be genuinely treated.

Next afternoon, Choi Hyeon-hu, who was one year younger than Choi Hun-ae, chatted with her on Internet.

Choi Hyeon-hu’s father Choi Seong-hui was Choi Hun-ae’s second uncle. Dreaming to be another air force officer, Choi Hyeon-hu was admitted to the Air Force Academy of South Korea just now; after spending the last winter vocation during his high school period, he would accept many kinds of strict training as a student in this military school.

“Congratulations, Hyeon-hu,” after knowing this thing, Choi Hun-ae felicitated this cousin on his achievement.

“Thank you very much, elder sister,” Choi Hyeon-hu replied and then asked. “It’s said that a kind of disease has been discovered in China. Is it affecting you?”

“Not yet,” answered Choi Hun-ae. “Although I already bought some masks.” She did not tell her cousin: the reason why she bought the masks was to protect her mother, who had been pregnant again. Because this thing, after all, related to s*x; if she talked about it with this boy, Choi Hun-ae would feel shy.

“OK, being careful is beneficial,” replied Choi Hyeon-hu, who mentioned something else and finally told his cousin: “We’re all waiting for you to come back, elder sister, especially our grandparents.”

As soon as she heard this sentence, Choi Hun-ae thought of what happened when she was in hospital in Seoul, after the operation to solve her heart problem succeeded: Choi Jung-in and Song Su Sug-ja specially left Ulleung Island, on which they lived, to visit her. As the narcosis was already over, while the incision on her body was not healed yet, she felt so painful that her facial expression was heavy. Understanding her feeling, Choi Jung-in said:

“My poor granddaughter, you’re painful, aren’t you?”

Before Choi Hun-ae could answer, he wept. Greatly affected by Chinese people, Koreans believed that males must not weep too easily, otherwise they would be despised; let alone Choi Jung-in was a retired general. However, Choi Jung-in was too concerned with his granddaughter to hold back tears. Because of this detail, Choi Hun-ae also cried.

Concurrently, as her cousin mentioned Choi Jung-in and Song Su Sug-ja, Choi Hun-ae wanted to cry again. After managing to calm herself down, she replied:

“Exactly, Hyeon-hu, I miss all of you. Just wait for more than ten days, then my family will come back.”

The same day, Choi Hun-ae watched an unprecedented news: the pneumonia newly discovered in Wuhan caused one death. During following several days, while more news demonstrated that the cases in Wuhan were rapidly growing in number, she remained calm on the whole, although she started to feel something unusual.

In the evening of January 17, 2020, Choi Seong-hyang said to his eldest daughter when having supper: “Hun-ae, we should buy new year presents for our relatives. You know, we’ll go back to Korea only six days later.”

“Exactly, dad,” replied Choi Hun-ae. “Let’s go to a shopping mall tomorrow.”

“Let me go with you, dad and elder sister,” advised Choi Myeon-ae. “As my winter vocation has started today, I’m in leisure now.”

“So do I,” said Choi Hang-gyeong, the third child and eldest son of Choi Seong-hyang, who laughed and replied: “OK, let’s go together next morning. Four persons are enough.”

Twelve hours later, they carried out this plan. While Choi Seong-hyang was driving his own car towards the largest shopping mall in this Chinese city, Choi Hun-ae, who was sitting in the backseat with Choi Myeon-ae, thought of Choi So-dong again.

“Are you also buying presents to your near relatives, baby?” Choi Hun-ae wanted to ask her lover, although the latter was impossible to hear this question.

After arriving at the underground parking area of the shopping mall, Choi Seong-hyang parked his car there and then led these children of his towards the mall’s entrance. Before entering it, he saw some Chinese consumers were wearing masks; as a result, the group psychology caused him to be hesitant and tell his daughters and son: “Maybe we should also wear masks, in my opinion.”

“Are you carrying masks in the car, dad?” asked Choi Myeon-ae.

“No, I’m not,” Choi Seong-hyang answered and looked around. “Is there any pharmacy selling masks?”

Fortunately, there was such pharmacy to the northwest of them. After Choi Hang-gyeong bought a small bag of masks from it, while each of them was wearing a mask, they entered the shopping mall, where they started to choose the presents.

Despite this important task, Choi Hun-ae thought of another thing.

On a weekend in May 2019, on a South Korean news website, she saw an interview with a 24-year-old transgender who used to be a male but transferred himself to female after a transsexual operation. While South Korean netizens were famous for being tart and mean, having watched this interview, many of them did not taunt or abuse but praised this transgender:

“What a brave girl!”

“To be yourself: this is the most important.”

“Wish you bliss, miss.”

These words were so gentle, as if they were all old friend of this transgender. Reading them silently, Choi Hun-ae supposed what would happen if these compatriots became aware of the relationship between herself and Choi So-dong. Awfully, the result in her opinion would not be as moving as this one. Even if she was a diplomatist who managed to safeguard South Korea’s benefit, and Choi So-dong was a police that punished evil-doers and encouraged people to do good, these netizens would abuse them without any mercy:

“Sick!”

“Rubbish!”

“Go to hell, lesbians, as well as gays!”

Although more than half one year already passed by, this reliable supposition remained able to injure Choi Hun-ae. To forget it temporarily, she forced herself to pay attention to the various goods in this mall. There were numerous delicious foods in China; accordingly, many of these goods were Chinese foods. Regretfully, the customhouse of South Korea prohibited many foods; therefore, Choi Hun-ae and her family members who were beside her must do their best to ensure every chosen present was legal in the customhouse of their motherland.