Children Talk
Children Talk
It was a weekend, and he was earlier out to handle matters of his mysterious new and potential business partner, Alejandro Hernandez. He only returned to the Yeongs' estate in the afternoon and found his woman chuckling over what it looked like… a photo album.
"I'm looking at your childhood photos," she said before showing him a picture of himself when he was fourteen years old. "You look so cute even when you are frowning."
She then flipped to other photos and said, "You aren't smiling, not one of your photos had a smile on your face! But you still look so cute!"
His eyes narrowed at being called… CUTE. He said, "I was never cute… I may be excessively handsome… but I was never cute."
Yanmei burst out laughing and only settled after taking heavy breaths. She said, "You are so cute. It's just unfortunate that there aren't any baby photos of you - Oooh, maybe Andy has a photo of you - "
"No! She doesn't!" He insisted, but Yanmei was quick to message Andrea on WhatsApp.
Unfortunately for Anton, Andrea came back to Yanmei within just minutes, sending her a picture of him when he was eight years old. She squealed in excitement the second she saw the photo. "Oh, well... not a baby pic but this will do! Yeong, you are too cute! You shouldn't have grown your hair and beard."
Anton realized that within just a few days of often hearing from Andrea about the twins, Yanmei had a strange liking towards… children and babies.
She would see babies and kids everywhere, even as they drive to the streets. She easily found them, like she could see through other vehicles and buildings. Yanmei was throwing compliments left and right over the adorable children of others.
As of recently, Yanmei started watching… family-oriented movies.
At the office, Anton noticed how she screamed with delight, hearing one of her staff getting pregnant.
Putting it all together, Anton concluded, 'Now, my woman is trying to figure out how our future offsprings would look like.'
It was obvious to Anton that Yanmei was now thinking of having a child with him, but in as much as he wanted to make his woman happy. He was still in the deciding process.
He did not react to her laughter. Instead, he went to the bathroom and took a shower. "I need to clean up."
It was only at night when Anton noticed Yanmei's silence. She rarely spoke during dinner, nor had she given him any attention. After chatting with Yeong Soon, and packing their things for their flight to Beijing, she rested herself to bed while Anton was still at Jae-won's study, dealing with last-minute work.
It was like deja vu for him. He knew she was disappointed with him walking out on her delight over his picture.
When he was done with his work, Anton went straight to his room and got under the blanket. He first pulled Yanmei closer to him. She was turning to the other side of the bed, opposite to where he lay.
"Goodnight," he said, but there was no answer.
He pinched her cheek and said, "Are you mad at me?"
Yanmei's eyes partly opened, and she said, "Why would I be mad?"
He pecked on her neck and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ignore your joy of looking at my photos."
"It's forgotten," she said.
He embraced her even tighter and started pecking on her cheeks. He said, "I don't like it when you give me the cold treatment, not even for an hour. Just scold me - get mad at me, but don't ignore me."
When she did not answer, he said, "I - I have a picture of my mother, holding me up… when I was a year old."
Yanmei was silent for seconds, but her eyes were already wide open. Eventually, she decided not to get angry anymore and turned to him. She pretended it was a boring offer and said, "I wasn't interested anymore but since you mentioned it… let me see."
Anton first pecked on her lips and said, "If you show me your baby pics, I'll show you mine."
She let out a disgusting expression before negotiating, "Promise me you won't break up with me if you see my baby picture. Pfft!"
While she laughed at her words, Anton frowned and asked, "Why?"
Without answering, she sat up and said, "You first. Show me your picture first."
Anton let out a heavy sigh and got up from the bed. He went to the closet and took out a box. Inside were photos of his first family, the ones that he managed to save before they were taken by the British government and put up for adoption.
As soon as Yanmei opened the box, her eyes twinkled in excitement. Inside were photos of his parents, of Andrea and himself. The pictures were old and well preserved, sealed individually with an acetate plastic.
"Your father? He is so handsome!" Complimented Yanmei.
Anton nodded and said, "Mother wasn't so bad either."
"Yeah, she is cute, like Li Wen!" Yanmei said.
She then frowned and said, "How come you never showed me these?"
"I - I did not want to bring up the past anymore. In fact, we rarely took photos. Whenever we had pictures taken, my mother would keep them in a safe, like it was a sin to have them. Pictures were proof of our relationship, one that would put us in danger."
"I see... How long were they married before having - "
"I don't believe they were married." Anton cut off Yanmei. "We've always carried mother's last name."
"You - you weren't sure?" She asked.
"There were a lot of things we weren't sure of. We were too young to understand. We did not even have proper documents before the adoption... On the contrary, we had too many documents... This much I knew." He then grabbed the picture he was referring to and said, "Here. Feast on this."
Her mouth fell open at the sight of the young Anton. She pursed her lips before saying, "I love it. The picture of you is small, but I could tell you were so cute. You were smiling here!"
Anton squinted and said, "I was a year old. I had no control over my mouth."
"At least… if we have kids, I would know what they would look like," she commented.
'I knew it,' said Anton silently.
Yanmei sensed his uneasiness to the topic that she said, "If you don't want kids, that's fine, Yeong. We can adopt."
"I don't know… If I'll be a good father," he said after what it felt like a minute.
"Funny how you doubt yourself in that aspect when you are confident about everything else," she said while putting back the photos inside the box.
"I'm not imposing." She scoffed before saying, "I'm not even your wife."
Anton was about to speak up but held it together, thinking it was not yet time. He said, "There is no other woman for me. Just remember that. I only…" He cleared his throat and said, "I only love you."
"Yeong, what do I do with you? You are so hard to get sometimes. I thought we agreed to tell each other's concern," she reminded him.
Anton took the box and put it back to the closet. After returning to bed, he leaned against the headboard and gestured for her to rest on his shoulders. He said, "I want to be with you, but I'm not yet that convinced I am ready to be a father. I am especially worried, I might end up like me, one who used to hate his father."
"Then I suppose, you just need to think of it this way… you never thought you would be in a relationship with me or anyone for that matter, so." She flushed before adding, "So, who knows, you'll actually be a great dad."
"Besides, you just need to remember the outstanding traits of uncle Jae-won than your biological father," she said while hugging him from the side.
Still, she did not want to push him. She said, "It's fine, Yeong. Let's not rush things. I understand you."
"Your turn to show me your picture," he said, wanting to shift to another topic.
Yanmei frowned and said, "Are you sure?"
"Show me the picture, Yanmei," he ordered.
Yanmei pouted her lips and reached for her phone. She scanned through the social media account of her cousin, Xia Ping, and found the prank that he posted before leaving for Korea. It was a picture of her when she was two years old.
"Here," she said, showing him the photo.
Anton covered his mouth with his hand. He looked back and forth from Yanmei to the phone. He said, "Maybe… It's best we don't have children - "
"Do you want me to give you a cold treatment again? I was a chubby baby, so what? I am fine now!" She cut him off after seeing his reaction, smacking her hand on his arm at the same time.
"Okay, I genuinely hope then that our youngsters will look like me," he teased.
She then bit her lip and started to peck on his neck, putting her hand inside his shirt while she was at it. She said, "Oh, so do you - want to have children now? Are you changing your mind?"
Anton nearly choked and said, "Let's go to sleep." He buried her into his chest and added, "Goodnight. I love you."
"You are trying to trick me," she complained.
"No, you were trying to trick me," he answered back. "Tonight, I won't fall for it."
"Fine... There is always... tomorrow," said Yanmei before closing her eyes. Yanmei figured she will be patient with Anton, but if it takes any longer, she had already begun to consider... being on top.