2. Honeymoon
“Kun, Kun! Let’s do dictation!”
The child ran up to Liu, who was getting a slice of cake and some milk from the kitchen. Clinging to Kun’s leg, the child held a thin notebook in one hand.
“Dictation? Alright. Go sit at the table.”
The child promptly scrambled onto the chair on his knees.
The child, named Leo, was Liu and Yeehyeon’s neighbor. Born to a Korean chef father and an Australian painter mother, Leo was born in Bali and had lived here his whole life. Thanks to this, he could speak Korean, English, and even Balinese.
Having recently started learning to write, the child was obsessed with dictation. In a way, it was easier than before, when they had to play more physically.
Liu placed the cake and milk next to the child’s notebook and sat down opposite him. The child held his pencil high and shouted.
“Number one!”
“Okay, number one. What should we do… Hmm, cake.”
The child, who had been staring at Liu’s lips with sparkling eyes, moved his pencil with a confident expression as soon as the word was out. Liu, resting his chin on his hands with his elbows on the table, smiled silently as he watched the top of the child’s small, shiny head.
After their wedding, Liu and Yeehyeon had moved here to Bali, specifically Ubud, just as they had planned. That was already five months ago. Leo, who had barely been able to say hello while hiding behind his parents’ legs when they first met, was now a close friend to Liu and Yeehyeon.
“Cake!”
The child showed Liu the crookedly written letters.
“Correct! Leo, you’re amazing. Cake was a hard one.”
“It’s not hard. Cake is easy.”
“Alright, since you got it right, have a bite of cake.”
Liu personally scooped up a piece of the cake he’d brought out as a snack with a fork and put it in the child’s mouth. Liu was a little surprised by the boy, who, despite having his favorite cake in front of him, was focused only on dictation.
“Okay, next is number two… What should I give you for number two?”
“Give me a hard word! A hard one!”
What word would satisfy the child’s desire to conquer a difficult problem, yet not be so hard that he couldn’t actually get it right… Liu looked around, lost in thought.
It was then that he heard a small, whimpering cry.
“Parang must be awake!”
Leo shouted it before Liu could. The two of them stood up from their seats at almost the same time.
A small baby was crying on its stomach, flailing its arms and legs on the mat and quilt that occupied the center of the living room.
“Parang, my dear Parang, did you sleep well?”
Hearing Liu’s voice, the baby’s cries quieted. Liu lowered himself to first show his face to the baby. Dark, wet eyes blinked, studying Liu’s face.
“You slept well and even flipped over all by yourself?”
“Does Parang want to go swimming?”
Leo, who had come up beside Liu, asked as he observed the baby with eyes full of interest.
The baby knew how to roll over but couldn’t crawl on its belly yet. The sight of it flailing its arms and legs on its stomach must have looked like it was trying to swim to Leo.
“That’s not it, he wants to crawl forward. He’ll be crawling all over the place soon. Right, Parang?”
As the baby’s cries grew louder again, Liu lifted the small body into his arms. This time, Leo spoke in a worried voice.
“Parang must have been scared because no one was here.”
“I know. He must have been startled.”
Liu soothed the baby quite skillfully. He would have normally stopped crying by now, but for some reason, the fussing didn’t subside even with the gentle rocking.
“Mr. Parang, you slept well, so why are you in such a bad mood? Hmm?”
Rocking the baby’s body and nuzzling his nose into its fragrant hair, Liu checked the diaper first. The yellow star on the outside of the diaper had turned blue. It was a sign that the baby had peed.
“So the diaper was the problem. I’ll change it for you right away.”
“A diaper? Should I get the diaper?”
Leo asked, his eyes shining as if he’d been waiting for this. The boy always wanted to do something for the baby. Leo, who was usually a little tyrant, was very careful when it came to the baby.
“Would you?”
Leo quickly retrieved a new diaper from the diaper bag not far away and brought it over.
“Thanks, Leo.”
Carefully laying the small body down again, Liu handed the baby a doll that was rolling around on the quilt. The sky-blue rabbit with long ears was the baby’s comfort toy. Ever since he learned to roll over, he would struggle to flip his body as soon as he was laid down, so something was needed to hold his attention while his diaper was being changed.
Leo knelt quietly beside Liu, his eyes fixed on the baby.
“Did he poop? Parang, did you poop?”
“No. He peed.”
“Aww, that’s no fun.”
Seeing Leo’s disappointment, Liu burst out laughing.
“Leo, you really like poop talk, don’t you?”
“It’s funny.”
Liu couldn’t understand what part of it was funny, but he was well aware that children all over the world were enthusiastic about that kind of talk.
Placing the new diaper under the baby’s bottom first, Liu took off the old one, making eye contact with the baby and smiling gently.
“Will this cute Parang also like talking about poop when he’s as big as Leo?”
“Of course!”
Leo answered proudly, as if it were some glorious rite of passage. At that, Liu couldn’t help but laugh again.
After removing the heavy diaper and before putting on the new one, Liu fanned the baby for a moment. This was to prevent diaper rash.
“Can I do that, too? Can I do it?”
“You want to try?”
“Will Parang be okay if I do it?”
Leo seemed worried he might hurt the baby, but he also looked like he wanted to try.
“This is something you can do, Leo. Want to try?”
“Yeah!”
Gripping the handle with his small hand, Leo fanned very carefully.
“Kun, when can Parang talk?”
“Well, he can only babble for now. We’ll have to wait a little longer.”
“I want him to grow up fast so we can play together.”
“You’ll take good care of him, won’t you, Leo?”
“Of course! I’ll show him all the fun places to play and all the dangerous places not to play!”
“You sound so reliable. Parang is so lucky to have a big brother like Leo.”
“Yeah, I’m the big brother. So I have to protect Parang.”
Liu stroked Leo’s soft hair and looked at him lovingly.
“I’ll give Parang my cake, and my toys, everything!”
It was amazing that such a small child could think of others like that. The child’s sincere words, thrown out without any calculation of personal gain, moved Liu.
Liu placed a gentle kiss on Leo’s hair.
“Parang is the luckiest boy in Bali.”
“Because of me?”
“Yes, because of you.”
The child looked up at Liu, met his eyes, and smiled brightly without any hesitation.
When the fanning was done, Liu carefully put the new diaper on the baby. He checked that the waist wasn’t too loose and made sure to spread out the leg cuffs to prevent leaks. He thought to himself that he was now quite skilled at this procedure.
“My mom and dad said that you taking care of the baby is il-hee-il-bi.”
“Il-hee-il-bi?”
Liu’s eyes widened as he repeated Leo’s words.
“Yeah, getting better every day.”
“Ah…”
Still young and mixing multiple languages, Leo sometimes made cute mistakes that made adults happy.
“Anyway, that means I’ve gotten better at taking care of Parang, right?”
“Yeah!”
“Then the word your mom and dad probably used was il-chi-wol-jang, don’t you think?”
“That’s it! That’s the one!”
Il-chi-wol-jang, il-chi-wol-jang… After repeating the word a few times, Leo tilted his head and looked up at Liu.
“Then what’s il-hee-il-bi?”
“Hmm, it’s a bit of a difficult word… Il-hee-il-bi is the feeling of being happy but also sad. It’s also when happy things and sad things happen one after another. It might be a little hard for you to understand, Leo.”
“I know what it is.”
“You do?”
“When I eat cake, I’m happy because it’s delicious, but I’m also sad because it’s disappearing bit by bit.”
“That’s right. That’s exactly what il-hee-il-bi is. You’re so smart, Leo.”
When Liu stroked his head with a surprised expression, Leo grinned proudly.
When it was time to put on his pants after the diaper change, the baby started to fuss again. His patience had apparently run out. Liu sped up his hands while soothing the baby.
“Our Parang was so bored. It’s all done now, all done… Done!”
After pulling on the pants, Liu lifted him up, and the baby giggled, kicking his legs. His mood seemed to have completely recovered after the diaper change. Liu adjusted his hold to make the baby comfortable and stood up.
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