Being a single father was nowhere easy. Ask Jiwon and he’ll tell you the things he has to go through. He’s pretty sure he doesn’t get enough sleep now because he has to wake up in the middle of the night or early in the mornings to deal with his daughter’s needs. He loves his child, don’t get him wrong, but sometimes he just wants some sleep too. He knows why his daughter cries in the nights. He knew the child wanted her mother, but he knew that was impossible now. The child only had her dad now. Or that she was just hungry or needed a diaper change. It ranged from all those reasons for her crying.
He just managed to get the child to sleep and placed her in her crib, carefully not to wake her up an hour or two ago. He also had fallen asleep besides the crib just in case she were to stir again, not wanting to be in his room and then coming back into his daughter’s room. That hour or two of sleep was all he got though because the moment her cries were heard, he instantly woke up and picked her up from the crib and held her against his chest. He gently bounces her around and hummed some lullabies to her to calm her, but nothing seemed to be working. He even tried giving the child her bottle to drink from, but she wasn’t hungry. He was growing desperate and her cries still weren’t dying down. Plus, he’s sure that people were going to wake up hearing the child’s cries. He gets startled when he hears knocking from the door and the doorbell ringing. Still holding his daughter in his arms, he opens the door and sees a person standing there and he already knows he is in trouble. “I’m really sorry!” he instantly apologizes. “I’ve been trying to calm her and nothing seems to be working. I’m really sorry!”
What had possessed Seonwoo to major in, of all things, Philsophy and Japanese? Considering Japan’s close proximity to South Korea and the number of immigrants and the ease of travel between the two countries, Seonwoo could find reasonable and feesible excuses for studying Japanese -- but Philosophy? He’s out of his mind. He must be out of his mind. He must have been out of his mind when he signed up for this. He’s, he’s--
The cry of a child pierces the thin walls of his bedroom, and Seonwoo flinches, pen jolting across the paper. He glances down at the notebook he’d been writing in, studying the line carving through his mess of notes on supposed miracles of religion in early cultures, then pushes himself away from the desk with a low groan. “Wonsik!” Seonwoo’s voice carries through their small apartment, audible even over the child’s cries. Without waiting for a response, Seonwoo heads for the door. “I’ll be back, don’t lock me out!” He takes his keys with him, just in case.
Seonwoo follows the cries to an apartment just down the hall from the one he and Wonsik shares. He eyes the door with something like inherent distaste -- he just wants to go back to his room, turn up some music, write the rest of his notes and beast out the paper, he just wants to be done -- before grudgingly knocking upon it. Minutes later finds Seonwoo face to face with the cause of the noise -- and a seemingly frazzled parent.
And Seonwoo’s anger seems to ebb away just like that, easing out on a tide of what feels a little bit like pity. The male at the door looks tired, like he’s been yanked out of a sound sleep, and like he hadn’t had nearly enough of it. As a struggling college student, Seonwoo would know that look anywhere. He sighs at the apologies, shifting to drag a hand through his hair as he swallows back the acid-coated words he’d intended to say. “Look, man,” Seonwoo grouses, expression set in a frown as he grapples with the pity he feels. “I’m trying to work on a paper. Is there anything--” The child is still crying. And the male looks so...desperate. And Seonwoo is so weak. “Look, can I try something? My brother cried a lot, too. Maybe I can make her stop.”
