Pregnancy
Pregnancy
It was strange.
The A-ra I knew wasn't someone who particularly liked sour things.
But lately, she constantly had something like a tangerine or a chunk of pineapple in her mouth whenever she got the chance.
If there was no fruit around, she'd crunch on incredibly sour candies from her pocket, something like Ice Shot.
How could someone's taste change so drastically all of a sudden?
"Noona, here's an orange."
"Thanks. You know, lately, fresh and tangy things taste so good?"
The sight of her stabbing a whole orange with a large fork and putting it in her mouth was, frankly, shocking.
Not a tangerine or a kumquat—an entire orange, all at once.
And was "fresh and tangy" really the right word for that?
That wasn't fresh and tangy. It was sour.
"When was your last period?"
"Hmm... now that you mention it, I haven't had one recently. Usually, when I'm working hard, my cycle gets a little off."
True—when A-ra had her comeback, her cycle was a bit irregular, and I had been worried.
She said it happened often and didn't go to the hospital, but was her body feeling like it was a similar situation now?
No, even if that were the case with her cycle,
a sudden change in taste meant something was going on.
"A coincidence like this wouldn't happen twice."
"Is that so? My husband is worried, huh?"
"Worried?"
What did she think I was worried about?
If she were sick and that had changed her sense of taste, then yes, I would be worried.
But right now, with so many signs overlapping, I was turning over a different possibility in my head—not illness.
"Aren't you worried noona might be sick?"
"Ah, so that's what you meant."
If she had asked whether I was worried that a baby had already come, I would have given her a good scolding.
What could we possibly be lacking, to worry about a pregnancy?
"Let's go to the OB-GYN together tomorrow."
"Hmm... noona has the day off tomorrow, but I wanted to go on a date with you, Seong-hwan?"
She hugged my arm tightly and said that spending time with me on the weekend was her top priority.
I understood that. I knew it was a perfectly natural sentiment.
But my motto was to go to the hospital immediately—or take someone there—if symptoms of illness appeared.
It was the most important principle I had learned while living with a body that was a complete mess.
"We can go on a date after the hospital, can't we? Let's just stop by together while we're already out."
In the encyclopedia of my life, the sentence let your wife go to the OB-GYN alone did not exist.
Other things aside, at the very least, I didn't want to send her to the OB-GYN alone, and I didn't want to let her go alone.
Why was that?
Was it because, when pregnant, everything was sensitive and everything required care?
"If that's how it is... can we stop by the fishing café after we're done?"
"We can go wherever noona wants."
"Okay! Then I'll do as Seong-hwan says."
And with that, A-ra leaned her head against my shoulder.
It was a silent request, asking me to stroke her hair.
This life—stroking Lil' One's bottom with my left hand while stroking A-ra's hair with my right.
Meanwhile, Pipsqueak jumped up wanting to be stroked too and was rubbing her head against my stomach.
"Okay, okay... Mommy will stroke our Pipsqueak."
"......Noona, not there."
"Oh my, oh my, mommy accidentally stroked daddy's precious area."
She chuckled, and then her laughter gradually grew louder.
Seeing A-ra start laughing out loud without restraint, I got up from my seat with a pouty face.
I wasn't really upset.
This was just a strategy to fool Lil' One.
"Lil' One! Let's go wash up with daddy."
"Kkiiiiing...!?"
Reacting to the single word wash, she struggled desperately to escape somehow,
but she couldn't get away from me.
***
The general affairs desk of the general hospital was overflowing with ringing bells.
Even though it was a hospital I visited often, it always felt new, and that was probably because the general affairs desk was decorated differently every time.
I didn't know what kind of person created it with what kind of sense, but their taste was truly terrible.
The worst taste—the kind that made even healthy people feel like they'd catch a disease.
Anyway, what was A-ra doing in the bathroom that she was taking so long?
It seemed like they'd call us soon.
I yawned widely and stretched, and then I saw a cute woman wearing sunglasses and a mask running over from a distance.
I warned her not to run, just in case, but seeing her run made me think it was truly hard work looking after a tomboyish wife.
"Noona! I told you not to run!"
"Oh, right. Hehe, sorry."
A-ra apologized to me with a bright smile.
I gently stroked A-ra's belly and playfully scolded the person inside for misbehaving.
"You shouldn't be sorry to me. You should apologize to the baby that might be in your belly."
"Sorry, baby. Mommy loves running."
As we exchanged that skit-like conversation, the couples sitting around us chuckled.
The couple who had looked a little anxious just moments ago smiled, and that made my heart feel a bit warmer.
Because there were many reasons to come to the OB-GYN.
You couldn't know the details of what kind of story each person carried.
No, maybe they hadn't come to the OB-GYN at all.
Right next to the obstetrics department was the pediatric surgery department.
Was I having more idle thoughts lately?
I was thinking about all kinds of random things.
"Guardian of patient Song A-ra."
"Yes."
Just then, the nurse sitting at the front desk called, so I took A-ra's hand and stepped forward.
The nurse, who saw hundreds of couples a day, confirmed the date of birth and name,
asked us to measure blood pressure with the sphygmomanometer, and then sat back down and returned to her work.
A-ra's blood pressure was 100/60.
As expected—a very healthy and perfectly normal blood pressure.
"Seong-hwan-ah, there doesn't seem to be anyone else waiting to measure anyway, so you try it too."
"Is that okay?"
"It says anyone can measure it, doesn't it? Go ahead."
Come to think of it, while I was very attentive to A-ra's health,
A-ra was just as interested in my health.
Just as I took care of others but not my own health—we were both the same that way.
Was this what being a married couple meant?
"Hmm, Seong-hwan-ah. You had low blood pressure, right?"
"Yes. It's a bit low again today."
Again today, my blood pressure was 89/60.
It was very close to the readings I got with the automatic cuff blood pressure monitor at home.
Should I really eat more salt?
Since a habit of eating salty food caused high blood pressure, wasn't eating more salt the answer to escaping low blood pressure?
"I like that my husband has a slightly foolish side too."
"I'm not a fool."
I played a video from the channel of Doctor Seonsaengnim, who I followed on Qtube—one that said the best medicine for low blood pressure was salt and water—and showed it to A-ra.
Though it was a short wait for the appointment, it was enough time to watch a fifteen-minute short video.
What did A-ra say after watching the video...?
She was making a face as if some common sense she'd known had slightly shifted.
"I thought that whole Green Frog Theory was just a joke..."
"Green Frog?"
"It's the theory that everything is solved if you do the opposite..."
Was it a theory similar to reactance?
The psychological reactance where people with anti-authoritarian personalities do the opposite of what they're told.
Well, it wasn't really important right now.
While we waited, we kept having trivial—yet laughter-inducing—conversations.
*
"Did you happen to use a pregnancy test kit before coming in?"
"Oh, right."
We only realized just then that we had skipped the very first thing you're supposed to do when suspecting pregnancy and had come straight to the hospital.
A-ra was lying down with her top slightly lifted.
And the female Doctor Seonsaengnim beside her was rubbing a device that looked like a barcode scanner—attached to the monitor—over A-ra's belly.
Was that it?
Was it an ultrasound?
"I'm sorry. We just came by on the off-chance, so we didn't even think of it."
"Haha, it's actually uncommon for young couples to do that. Couples who are a bit older sometimes come to the hospital first."
Probably, the young couples Doctor Seonsaengnim was referring to
didn't mean married couples who had registered their marriage like A-ra and me.
Middle school or high school couples... or college couples...
She probably meant those kinds of cases.
"Patient, you can pull your clothes down now."
At Doctor Seonsaengnim's word, A-ra hopped up and started fixing her disheveled top and bottom.
She held onto both of my shoulders and straightened her shoes perfectly, too.
Then, following Doctor Seonsaengnim's guidance, we moved to the next room, and I sat A-ra down in a chair.
Since there was only one chair, I just stood.
"As you can see from the ultrasound image..."
I swallowed hard for a moment.
It was because the image shown as the ultrasound was a black-and-white photo I didn't even know how to read.
I had often seen scenes like this in dramas.
I had never imagined I would be in this situation myself.
"The patient—no, the expectant mother—is indeed pregnant. Congratulations."
"Oh... is it really a pregnancy?"
I had expected it a little, but now that the OB-GYN Doctor Seonsaengnim had imprinted the fact as real in my brain,
the feeling that came over me was completely different.
I looked at A-ra, and she was smiling happily while stroking her belly over and over.
It was an expression of pure joy at having a baby.
The emotion I was feeling at that moment was also pure joy.
But, mixed in slightly, was a different feeling.
...Right.
That feeling was pride.
Pride toward A-ra, who was carrying my child in her womb.
"Seo... Seong-hwan-ah?"
"Noona, thank you."
"Tha... thank me? Noona is the one who's thankful! I was able to have a child thanks to you, Seong-hwan... Seong-hwan-ah? Are you crying?"
Right.
That was probably true.
In this world, when someone became pregnant, it was generally the man who received praise, not the woman.
But I was different.
I knew that at least I was different.
That in the blessing of a child coming to a married couple, the one who should receive congratulations
was the woman, not the man.